 
The Euclidian:  
When Worlds Collide

Jay Cannon

The Euclidian: When Worlds Collide

(Illustrated & uncut)

Copyright © 2010, 2011 Jay Cannon (JC)

Published by Jay Cannon at Smashwords

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever or stored in a database retrieval system without written permission except in those cases of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

For more information contact the author at EuclidianBook@gmail.com.

First edition: December 2011

Cover illustration by Igor Kieryluk

Book illustrations by Corne Illustrators

Book design and formatting by Cheryl Perez

For Renée who pushes me to believe in my dreams.

### PROLOGUE

Morgan was a teenage loner. He spent most of his free time wandering the streets of DC playing with his tennis racket, hitting balls against a wall or at targets. One day while playing in an alley he was thrust between an alien hunter and his alien prey. He ended up saving an alien kid not unlike himself and now he is the last hope for the planet Earth.

### CHAPTER 1

CAPTAIN SHISAL

Two individuals in deep discussion walked down a long, wide, dimly lit corridor, followed by a shadowy figure. Light tubes stretched across the ceiling and down the walls, providing some light in the otherwise dark expanse. The sound of their boots striking heavily against the metal floor echoed down the vastness of the corridor. One of the individuals was Captain Shisal, the skipper of the space vessel Andrea in which they were traveling. The other was Commander Lippon, the chief interrogator. Locked metal doors lined the corridor. Each door led to a cell for the enormous resource extraction ship's interrogation area. The cells were full of captives from other planets. Some were spies. Some had been captured in hopes of recruiting them as spies. Others had been captured during mining operations on distant planets, thought to hold valuable information that the captain wanted to extract.

Figure 1. Captain Shisal and Commander Lippon followed by shadowy figure

On rare occasions a crewmember, probably guilty of some mutinous activity, could be found imprisoned in a cell. Crewmembers didn't last a long time on this level. It was well known how to interrogate Euclidians, the race of people that ran the ship. Once a crewmember had spilled the beans about intent, plans, and accomplices, he was typically tossed into space in full view of other crewmembers. The captain felt that type of punishment acted as a deterrent to others that might be considering mutinous acts. To maintain discipline and discourage insurrection, the captain sometimes bestowed a more ruthless form of punishment against crewmembers.

The many security measures on the ship made mutiny extremely difficult, but not impossible. One successful method was to take out the captain and form an alliance with the XO. The ship's sensors mitigated the captain's risk of assassination but they were fallible. Captain Shisal had survived an attempt on an earlier mission, and learned a valuable lesson about decreasing his level of vulnerability. Hence the shadowy figure that followed him as he toured the ship. That person had a sole purpose on the ship: keep the captain alive.

The conversation continued as they walked by an interrogation room where an Earthling was being questioned. The interrogator was trying to get the captive to provide a map of where the nuclear material under his command was stored. The sound of a power drill broke through the voices.

"I don't want to waste any more time torturing you," said the interrogator to his prisoner. "I'm going to drill a hole in your head," he said, pulling the drill's trigger so the man could clearly hear the sound, "and then I'm going to place these Bellini bugs over the hole so they can enter your skull and eat away at your brain. The section of your brain that I will be drilling into is the one that controls your ability to withhold information. Little by little you will feel your self-control slip away until you will be conversing with me as freely as if you were talking to a trusted friend."

The workers in the interrogation area were ruthless beings. Not because they were necessarily evil, they just hadn't evolved with a compassion gene. When a grizzly bear attacks a human and mauls it to death, it doesn't do it because the bear holds a grudge against the human or derives pleasure from the attack. It's just what they do. The Perjorans were a race of emotionless beings, much like sharks or jellyfish. They tortured other beings to get answers requested by their superiors. They might kill their captives on occasion, but not with malice or enjoyment. They were just doing their job.

"Unfortunately," the interrogator continued, "once I have the information I need I won't be able to retrieve the bugs from your brain. Not to worry though, we will dispose of your body in space long before the little invaders eat away at any parts of your brain that might lead to an excruciating death."

The interrogator pulled at the drill's trigger a few more times to drive the point home and then placed the drill bit against the human's head. The human screamed and begged for mercy. "If I tell you what you want to know," pleaded the prisoner, "will my life be spared?"

"I promise that we won't kill you," replied the interrogator. "We will give you a comfortable and safe place to live out your life. Now tell me what I want to know and STOP WASTING MY TIME!"

The prisoner confessed everything he knew about where the nuclear material was hidden. A message was sent to an agent back on Earth and the human was placed in a holding cell while his information was verified. Later he was sold to a private collector of alien species and spent the rest of his life on display like a zoo animal.

Captain Shisal was happy to hear that this particular prisoner had decided to talk. Knowing the whereabouts of the nuclear material would be important to the success of the ship's next mission. Captain Shisal did not like going into a mission with too many unknowns. He also didn't like surprises like the one he had gotten from a cell he visited earlier. An Alpha had been captured on the last planet they visited. How did he get there, the captain wondered, and what was his purpose? And what was he to do about it? Technically, according to the truce, he was not supposed to hold any Alphas hostage. Interrogating one could cause him to lose his ship or even land him in prison. He figured he would quietly put a psych on the Alpha and see what he could figure out surreptitiously before letting him go at the next port. No reason to waste electrons using the Andrea's transporter.

Blue tubes in the corridor marked the entrances to cells holding those waiting to be interrogated. Red tubes marked the doors of rooms where prisoners were actively being interrogated. Captain Shisal and Commander Lippon were headed to a particular cell with a red tube.

The ship was normally silent. Ventilation systems, engines, and equipment were normally pretty quiet. Here, however, screaming, begging, and whimpering could be heard coming from the cells over the sound of the uniformed figures' heavy boots. The smell of fear was in the air and not just from those being interrogated. The captain was irritated about the lack of progress in interrogating a certain prisoner and he wanted his irritation to be known. "Have you tried everything?" the captain demanded. "Pain, drowning, manure, killing a family member, the animal cage?"

"Yes, Captain, we've tried all that and more," replied Commander Lippon, nervous about disappointing him. The captain was not very forgiving. He had survived two wars and a mutiny, basically unscathed, and after all that did not suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The captain was not prone to mental scarring. That was something he inflicted upon other people, like interrogation officers who didn't get him the information he needed.

"Bring in the psychic. I want to know how that weapon works by this time tomorrow or you'll be the next one that we test new interrogation techniques on."

"Aye, aye, Captain," replied Commander Lippon. He bowed and hurriedly left the captain's side.

Captain Shisal continued his tour of the interrogation area. He had just completed a mission and was on his way back home to turn in his bounty. He needed to know the worth of everything to be certain of maximizing his earnings from the haul. Understanding how all the captured systems worked helped him understand how much he could charge. The new weapon they had discovered was a good example. Sometimes he had to torture people to find out what he needed to know.

Captain Shisal commanded one of the many ships that were used to mine distant planets for their resources, which were then sold on the open market. Most of the spoils from the mining operations were purchased by the government, which either added them to their military arsenal or distributed them to the citizenry to help continue their dissemination throughout their galaxy. The Euclidians had learned from the Alpha attack that they needed to deploy their military capabilities beyond their home planet to avoid being trapped there. The government had funded the research and development for the original ships used in the early mining missions. In return, it had first right of refusal for all goods that were returned. Once they had their pick, businesses, wealthy individuals, and other planets could purchase the goods returned from mining missions.

Captain Shisal had been lucky on his latest mission. He had discovered a remarkable weapon just developed by the inhabitants of the newly conquered planet. The weapon could somehow break down the molecular bonds of a substance. By simply dialing-in an element's atomic definition and firing the weapon at an object, all traces of the element within the object were deconstructed, and the object destroyed.

Their military never had a chance to use it against the Euclidians; it was still in development. Their scientists destroyed the design and usage files before the Euclidians could acquire them. Unfortunately for the scientists, they had been captured and eventually the interrogators would get the information they needed. The Euclidians had mastered several means of interrogation, and no captive could keep his secrets from the Euclidians for long, except through death. But the Euclidians were careful to keep their captives alive until they were ready for them to die. Dead captives were of no use to Euclidians. They only represented lost knowledge, labor, or money. Killing them was not tolerated unless absolutely necessary. If a prisoner became unruly they had several means to non-fatally subdue them.

Shisal had been in the mining business for the twelve years since he left the military. It was not something he would have ever put on his list of desirable occupations while he was in school. It seemed too much like being part of a large business, which he had always resisted.

Chaell Shisal grew up in an upper middle class family in an exclusive region of the Peejay Province. His father was a retired army officer, become businessman, and his mother was a professor of astronomy at the university. He had loved his father's war stories and often dreamed of being in the military, leading the charge against an enemy. But the wars ended shortly after he joined the military, and his father felt that to remain would be a waste of his talents. Chaell's father ran a successful resort and pleasure business catering to wealthy Euclidians, founded with the help of his military and political contacts, and he wanted his son to help run it.

Chaell's mother thought he would enjoy being a college professor like her, based on his curiosity about technology in the science fiction movies that he enjoyed watching. She didn't know that it was the fighting and carnage he enjoyed more than the space exploration or scientific aspects of the movies. Chaell always saw himself as the commander of one of the space vessels, attacking a formidable enemy and winning. Sitting in a classroom and teaching students, or sitting in an office and measuring return on investment, was not his idea of excitement.

As soon as Chaell was old enough, he left home to join the military. Though it didn't deliver the action he had hoped for, it got him away from his parents and their constant nagging about following in their boring footsteps. After basic training, Chaell specialized in air combat. He took advanced training in hand-to-hand combat, weapons, and assassination techniques. He considered himself a peaceful person, but he longed to kill someone in the line of duty.

The first two years of his military life were drudgery. Chaell felt he might as well have joined his father's business. Then the Alpha attack came. He was a junior flight officer of a military aircraft but due to the loss of command and control, he had been grounded and unable to participate in the battle. The military lost so many aircraft during the attack that it was afraid to send any more out and besides, those currently in service were not designed to operate in space. The event had darkened Chaell. At the moment he had been waiting for all of his life, all he could do was sit back and listen to the reports of his comrades being slaughtered by the thousands.

Years later when a counterattack was launched, Shisal, now a squadron commander, was assigned to destroy any enemy vessel that attempted to escape to their outer planets. The plan was to do as much as they could to minimize the Alphas ability to ever attack the Euclidians again.

As commander, Shisal was expected to stay back and manage the logistics of his squadron's attack. But that was not his way. He not only led the attack, he destroyed more enemy vessels than anyone in his squadron, and against the orders of the air wing commander led an attack against a remote planet to which some Alphas had fled. Afterward, instead of a reprimand, he received a commendation and was promoted to air wing commander when the current commander suddenly retired.

Chaell had finally achieved his dream. This was why he had joined the military. He was not going to pass up an opportunity he'd waited for his entire life because of some silly rules of engagement. Luckily, his gamble paid off.

After the Alpha attack, life returned to normal for Commander Shisal. His air wing was assigned to patrol the solar system frontier, the duties split amongst his six squadrons. He found it painfully boring. Then, at the end of a long patrol he received a distress call from the Delta Quadrant. Several thousand Alpha ships had attacked the Delta home planet, landing a large force of ground troops and establishing a foothold on an isolated part of the planet. The Delta air defenses were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of ships that the Alphas had propelled into the battle. The Alphas lost a lot of ships, but didn't seem to care. Their main objective was to take out the Delta space defenses and the major military bases on the planet so they could land their ground troops, and they accomplished that mission early on.

The battle raged for a week before the Deltas sent a distress call to the Euclidians. The Euclidian high command spent a day reviewing options and finally decided to send in Commander Shisal's air wing to protect the space around the planet and set up new base stations. A mining vessel was sent to collect four of Commander Shisal's six squadrons and place them in orbit above the Delta home planet. Within a month the squadron had secured the area above the planet and placed in orbit four new space stations with tactical capabilities. As the Alpha space fleet and bases became ineffective, the fighting moved to the planet's surface.

Over the next six months, the Delta planet was overrun run by the superior Alpha military. A truce was signed to prevent the slaughter of billions of the Delta population. The Euclidian fleet was forced to pull back and remove their space stations, which were soon replaced by Alpha space stations.

Commander Shisal was annoyed at the truce. He had lost several of his men in the war and was not ready to accept defeat. Why, he demanded, should a truce between the Alphas and the Deltas apply to the Euclidians? Why couldn't he send his air wing into the Alpha Quadrant and wipe them all out of existence? "The greater good" was the only response he received.

Once Shisal's tour of duty was over, he left the military in disgust and joined the mining alliance as security officer on a resource extraction ship. He felt that, with their excursions into deep space, he would eventually run across some hostile species that was looking to start a fight. But he soon found out that the real danger came from greedy crewmembers that wanted to keep more of a ship's haul for themselves. After fending off those types of attacks for several years he became the executive officer (XO) of a resource extraction vessel. Three missions later he became captain of the Andrea, one of the newest resource extraction vessels. That had been five missions ago. Now he saw it as his destiny to eventually retire with mining wealth, and to join the ranks of the idle rich waiting to die. It was not something he wished for, but at his age it seemed all but unavoidable.

As much as he resisted it, he found his parents' dreams for him intertwined with his own destiny. As the captain of the ship he was running his own mining business, and he was responsible for teaching new crewmembers about the wonders of space. He sometimes laughed to himself about the cleverness of fate. But as he found out on his next mission, when he became the commander of a new army against an all too familiar foe, fate had a lot more in store for him.

### CHAPTER 2

THE EUCLIDIAN

The Euclidian were a homogeneous society of humanoid creatures that have moved beyond large-scale conflict among themselves. A central council with representatives from every major region governed the planet. After their mining operations started, the Euclidian citizens did not have many needs. They continued to have wants and desires, though, and many of those had been satisfied as citizens became part of the mining trade, which was extremely lucrative.

The space mining business, which had grown to be the most profitable enterprise on the planet, started gradually. Before conquering space, the Euclidian had to first learn to conquer the skies. According to Euclidian history, which dated back some 120,000 years, it took them 30,000 years after the first written word to invent the first aircraft. There were disputes over who had created the original glyphs that made up the early written languages. It was known that in prehistory, there had been two other humanoid civilizations on Euclidia, both extinguished during early tribal wars.

The Euclidians of the modern era were intelligent, tall, muscular beings who averaged just over 2.5 meters in height. They had rough brown skin much like the Central Bearded Dragon. They had flat noses with two nostrils. They had small pig-like ears. They didn't have much for hair, just strands here and there. The other two humanoid species were smaller, more agile creatures. Disputes over land and food had often led them to war, and while the modern Euclidians were outnumbered, their brain and brawn was more than a match for the smaller, less intelligent creatures. At the time the climactic wars began, the modern-day Euclidians had advanced to metal weapons and shields while the other humanoids were still using wooden and stone weapons. After an attack by one of the smaller humanoid tribes killed over 50,000 and destroyed many of their villages, the modern Euclidians were so enraged that they decided to exterminate each and every one of the other species.

Museums displayed the skeletal remains of the other humanoid species, but that was all that remained of them. The modern Euclidians continued to evolve, forging new kinds of metals, discovering new ways to use minerals, and inventing new technology. After 30,000 years they learned to fly. A hundred years later they were flying into space. And after 31,000 years, they had mastered intergalactic travel using a gravity-based technology. In their early history they had spread across their planet and brought home new discoveries from far off lands. Now, in the age of space, they brought home new discoveries from far off planets. They discovered many other planets as they spread across their galaxy, but they never considered attempting to populate a new planet. There was plenty of room on their planet and no one showed an interest in setting up a colony light-years from home.

After the Euclidians developed gravity-based space travel, getting around their solar system became routine. They simply used a negative gravity field to lift off from their planet, pointed the gravitational engine at a target planet, and away they went. Their ships reached speeds in excess of 50,000 kilometers per second, which would get them to any planet in their solar system within a day. The Euclidians soon learned, however, that they had to develop shield technology if they wanted their ships to survive a voyage at galactic speeds. Any small piece of material floating in space that a ship traveling at high speed encountered could easily rip through the hull and destroy the ship. Before they developed shield technology, they would send out a scout drone to fly ahead of the ship and report any objects that were detected. This technique mitigated the risk of hitting an object in space, but it was not foolproof, and they typically lost several drones on each trip.

After several failed attempts, the Euclidians finally developed a shield technology that kept their ships safe. The next challenge to overcome was teleportation. If they were going to bring back loads of minerals from other planets they had to find a simpler means to move material from the surface of a planet into the orbiting mother ship's holds.

When visiting foreign worlds, the Euclidians rarely ran across humanoid inhabitants. When they did, they were careful to share only technology that would make the inhabitants more productive. They kept all weapon and space technology to themselves, and were careful not to expose the inhabitants to any advanced technology that might place the Euclidians in a difficult negotiating position. At this stage of their societal development, the Euclidians sought friendly relationships with other civilizations. They only strip mined uninhabited planets and were careful not to disrupt a planet's composition to the point that it would be destabilized or left uninhabitable.

The minerals and goods that were retrieved from mining operations were used to improve the lives of all Euclidians. Their polluted air was even recycled with clean air from other planets. They were surprised to learn that some civilizations had created cheap clean sources of energy, but had not discovered space travel. Even the civilizations that had achieved space travel were primitive in their abilities compared to the Euclidians. None were to the point of being able to leave their solar systems in manned vehicles.

The Euclidians eventually established outposts on their three moons. These were used as expensive getaways for the extremely wealthy. The idea of creating a colony on a distant planet still did not interest the government or the average Euclidian. Nor was the idea of using distant outposts for military purposes of any interest to the Euclidians who thought it would be a waste of resources and manpower. But with the invention of long distance space travel, they eventually changed their view on colonization.

The Euclidian's discovery of technology for long distance space travel was purely accidental. There were many challenges to overcome, and plenty of mistakes during the early phases. An extensive trial and error period as they refined the technology did not prevent subsequent unforeseen events from occurring.

Gravity propulsion to provide high-speed travel for the mining vessels was developed through hundreds of years of research. The technology involved simulating gravity to propel a ship toward or away from any celestial body, and it did an amazing job of moving ships of any size quickly or slowly through space. Controlling the engines was a challenge. Taking off too fast, stopping too fast, going at too high a speed, or trying to operate more than one engine at a time tended to cause the ships to become unstable and disintegrate.

Once the kinks were worked out in the gravity drive, extraterrestrial mining became a growing concern. The Euclidians mined the planets and moons in their solar system as much as they dared and then went to nearby systems. The mining ships had to be large, to make the multi-year trips worthwhile, and they incorporated all the creature comforts needed to attract a crew beyond just the money. Artificial gravity permitted the crew to walk around easily. There was a gym, a library, a pool, and an entertainment room and bar where the crew could socialize with each other.

Crewmembers were free to fraternize as long as they did their jobs. The standard complement of 120 seemed a bit large considering the simple mission of the ship, and for the most part they didn't have much to do until the mining started. Then they were all busy ensuring that the mining progressed as efficiently as possible. Most of the crew were trained in several areas. Doctors were cooks, mechanics steered the ship, and everyone knew how to drive the mining vehicles. They also had to understand what to mine for because they didn't want to fill the ship's stores with useless rock.

Because of the length of missions and the dangers of space, there were not a lot of applicants to join mining crews. Most missions were to locations an average of three light years away. At 200,000 km/sec, the speed of the fastest ships, it took just under three years to reach their destinations, and made for a round-trip commitment of about five years. The high-speed got the crew there and back quickly, which is what they wanted because they hated the isolation of space travel. The increased speed was welcomed, but there remained a huge danger from the minute possibility of the ship running into something in space. An object only a centimeter across could rip through the ship, destroying it and killing the entire crew. To minimize this risk, the crew was housed in the center-rear of the ship. Critical systems were duplicated and dispersed throughout the ship.

The innovation that made high-speed travel truly practical was the force shield. This shield, once perfected, extended for two kilometers around the ship, and helped to destroy, block, deflect, and cushion objects that came into its path. The shield was the biggest energy drain on the ship. Once the ship got up to speed the gravitational engines were no longer used, relying instead on conventional synthetic fuel engines. These were used to adjust the direction of the ship and help get it in and out of orbit around planets.

An important discovery was made on one of the newer ships, on a long-range mining mission to a planetary system about two light years from the Euclidian system. The route had been planned to minimize the chance of running into an object in space. The crew, however, could not plan for a random object coming out of nowhere, and a couple of days into the flight a large meteor appeared in the path of the ship. When the meteor was detected, one operator initiated full reverse gravity, placing the focal point of the gravity drive on the meteor to slow down the ship, while another operator activated forward thrusters to move the ship out of the meteor's path.

Because of the size of the meteor, no one expected these tactics or the space shield to protect the ship from annihilation. Everyone watched in horror as the ship collided with the meteor, but nothing happened. The ship continued on its path. That was not all that had changed. The stars had vanished from the sky. The navigator shut down the engines and tried to figure out where they were. All the instruments seemed to have gone haywire. It was if they were somewhere else. The captain attempted to employ the gravitational drive but there was nothing out there to lock onto. The captain figured they were caught up in some kind of space cloud and spent several days using the thrusters to try to escape the grips of the dark environment they had entered. The crew became restless. Some thought that maybe they had died and this was their eternal fate.

The captain and the science officer examined everything that had transpired just before entering the endless void. They concluded that they must have opened a portal in space that placed them in a wormhole or another dimension. They weren't sure if it was the meteor or their use of the gravitational drive and plasma thrusters at the same time that had placed them in their predicament, but they decided to try to reverse what they had done before they entered the hell that they were in. The captain ordered the navigator to bring the forward gravitational engine to full power and focus on a spot in front of the ship while engaging the forward thrusters at the same point. The cloud around the ship began to dissipate. The stars gradually came into focus and eventually they were back in normal space.

The navigator took some readings and it appeared that they were several light years from where they intercepted the meteor. The captain was not sure what had happened, and focused his attention on how they might get back home. Using gravity propulsion, they would run out of energy before they made it back. The captain decided to turn around and try to recreate the exact same events that had brought the ship to where it was.

The captain performed a one-eighty and brought the ship to full speed using the gravitational drive. He then simultaneously engaged the forward negative gravitational drive and the forward plasma drive for the same amount of time as they had when they detected the meteor. Once again the stars disappeared. The captain then engaged the positive gravity drive along with the plasma drive and the stars reappeared. The navigator took some readings and it seemed that they were only about 80,000 km from where they first encountered the meteor. The captain assumed the discrepancy had to do with the movement of the galaxy and his inability to more accurately determine the exact path back. He decided to scrub the mission and head home to report what had transpired.

Back at home base, the captain recounted his story about being trapped for over a week in some hole in space. The operations officer was confused by the captain's story because the ship had not been away for more than a day. An investigation by the executive council determined that they had fallen upon an amazing discovery. They canceled all further mining missions and devoted the next few years to researching a way to duplicate what had happened to the resource extraction ship when it disappeared.

They learned that directing a negative gravitational beam at a point just in front of a ship and at the same time emitting a plasma pulse at the same spot would open a door into a higher-level dimension. Using a positive gravitational beam then opened a portal back into the lower-level dimension through which the ship eventually reached normal space and the transition ended.

When opening a portal, the intensity and duration of the plasma pulse determined how large the opening grew and how long it remained open. If the opening closed before the ship made it all the way through or if it was not large enough to accommodate the ship, the portions of the ship that didn't make it through the opening were sheared away and the ship destroyed. They lost several unmanned ships trying to perfect this new means of travel.

Once they determined how to move a ship in and out of a dimensional portal safely, they had to learn how long to keep the plasma engines engaged because this controlled how deeply the ship went into higher-dimensional space. Leaving the engines on too long moved the ship through several dimensional levels and made control over velocity nearly impossible. They found they could only leave the plasma engines on long enough to open a sufficiently large portal for the ship to go through. The ship could then travel through dimensional space in a predictable manner.

Once a ship entered dimensional space, light and sound from normal space were obscured as a factor of the gravitational velocity of the dimension they were in. Once the dimensional velocity went above 300 m/s2, sound from normal space could no longer be heard. Once the dimensional velocity went above 300,000 m/s2, light from normal space could no longer be seen. Much later, the Euclidians found they could use this ability to spy on planets before they conquered them.

Gravity did not impact objects in dimensional space, which had its benefits and drawbacks. The gravitational drives didn't work, but really weren't needed. Ships could go past and even through large bodies and not be affected by them. If a ship wanted to study a planet it had to adjust its speed to match the planet's orbital and rotational speed. Otherwise, the planet continued to move away from the ship.

This one discovery sparked an amazing amount of innovation: wide dispersion plasma drives; directional tracking beacons; unmanned navigational probes; computers that could calculate the proper dimensional depth, speed, and direction to track spatial bodies; and remote teleportation devices that could grab a body and convey it across multiple light years of space into an interrogation cell.

Through several studies, it was determined that the velocity of a ship within a dimensional level was equal to the ship's current velocity times the gravitational force used to open the dimensional portal. For example, if the force of the gravity drive was equal to 100 m/s2 at the time the portal was opened and a ship in the dimensional space was moving at 1 m/s2, it would cover 100 m/s2 in normal space.

The Euclidians used a gravitation constant of 1000 m/s2 to make calculations of travel velocity simpler. Euclidian ships in dimensional space traveled at a speed of 36 km/hour or 10 m/sec. Upon entering the first dimensional layer, a ship would travel at a relative speed of 10 km/sec. In the second dimensional layer the ship would travel at 10,000 km/sec. By the time the ship entered the third dimensional layer it was traveling 10,000,000 km/sec or 30 times the speed of light. At that speed an object that was one light year away could be reached in less than 12 days. But why wait 12 days when one could arrive in a fraction of the time? In the fourth dimensional layer the ship had a relative speed of 10,000,000,000 km/hour. At that speed, reaching an object a light year away took about 18 minutes.

Initially, unmanned research ships were used to study dimensional space. The gravity engines accelerated the ships to enter dimensional space at high speed in order to maximize the distance that they could travel, although that made it difficult to control the dimensional depth in which the ship traveled. A secondary dimension would open before the plasma engine could be shut down, causing the ships to go deeper into space than planned. Because the same speed was required to reverse the process, the ships were traveling so fast when they reentered normal space that instead of entering a standard orbit around a planet, they crashed into the planet or overshot it by thousands of kilometers.

Of all the problems that the Euclidians encountered while trying to perfect jumping through multiple dimensional portals and traveling light years away, the two biggest were calculating the destination properly and finding the way back home. The objective of a resource extraction ship entering dimensional space on a mission was to exit and arrive in normal space at the planned destination, able to easily place itself in orbit around the proper planet. Once mining was completed the ship had to be able to return to home space near its entry point without colliding with anything.

Probes scanned distant solar systems for planets worth mining. This monitoring was always done at a dimensional depth of 100 m/s2 to maximize the ability to see and hear while still being able to track the movement of a planet, without expending excessive amounts of energy.

Observers on the home planet could see what the probes saw via transmissions that were relayed through a series of beacons that the probes deployed as they traveled through the dimensional levels. The initial beacon was dropped when a probe entered dimensional space, programmed to track the movement of the probe's home base and find the most efficient path back. Since objects in dimensional space were not influenced by a spatial body's gravity, a planet would quickly move away from a beacon, causing the entry point to be thousands of kilometers away by the time a probe returned. Likewise, when a planet worth mining was found, a beacon was dropped to track the planet and make it easy for a resource extraction ship to enter the planet's orbit. If the probe didn't find anything, it retraced its path to retrieve the beacons before proceeding to its next destination.

In the Euclidian's Juban Galaxy, solar systems averaged about three light years' distance from one another, which could be traveled in just under an hour by going through four dimensional levels. To travel the full extent of the 200,000 light year-long galaxy required going through six dimensional layers, though the Euclidians' system was only 120,000 light years from the farthest point in the galaxy. They could travel anywhere in their galaxy in as little as two minutes, depending on how many dimensional jumps they wished to make.

The Euclidians eventually exhausted places to explore within their own galaxy that met their requirement to find advanced civilizations outside their territorial boundaries. They decided to start exploring nearby galaxies, meaning those that were 3 to 21 million light years away. This would take between one and seven hours using seven dimensional jumps. Searching whole galaxies for intelligent life with manned spacecraft was a daunting task, so they created an automated system of thousands of probes that traveled to different parts of a galaxy within the first dimensional layer. This compressed the space to be searched yet still permitted decent visibility and monitoring for communication signals that might be coming from a planet. Using this method they soon found what they were looking for.

### CHAPTER 3

THE DELTAS

The Deltas started off as an intellectual, ambitious, cultured tribal people. Their society evolved from hunter-gatherers to villages, cities, and nations. Like most people, they fought over resources, land, and religion. These wars were a catalyst for technological innovation, and the Deltas created unspeakably cruel weapons that killed people on a grand scale. This enormous loss of life wore on them and eventually took them to depths of despair that made them reflective, even introspective. The warring nations settled their differences diplomatically and formed a global alliance under a ruling council made up of members from each country.

The Deltas were a homogeneous humanoid species. They averaged two meters in height, and were slender and athletic. Weak, slothful, and gluttonous individuals were not tolerated because it was felt that they did nothing to help improve society. Citizens were expected either to work for anything that was provided to them or to do without.

The female Deltas were taller than the males, and also more aggressive, but they comprised a demure segment of society because for the most part they dedicated their lives to raising children.

Over several thousand years of the council's rule, the Deltas across the planet adopted a single currency and language. Trust between the countries permitted technical advances to flourish at an accelerating pace. They quickly moved from air flight to space flight to interstellar travel, using a mode of transportation that incorporated dark matter to travel at near the speed of light. They did not, however, learn how to perform long-distance space travel, so traveling to a planet four light years away still took them well over four years. The Deltas mostly felt that there was no real need to achieve higher speeds. None of the planets they had come across had advanced life forms: no humanoids whatsoever. They focused on expanding their empire and reaching beyond their planet, never expecting that an advanced species might come knocking on their door from some distant part of their galaxy.

When a Euclidian ship showed up in high geo-synchronous orbit above the capital city of Vashti, there was mass hysteria on the part of the Deltas. Their first reaction was to attack the 100 kilometer-long ship, but it seemed too large to risk an all-out assault. The Deltas surrounded the Euclidian ship with attack vessels and waited to see what would happen.

The Majorellen aboard the Euclidian ship contacted the Deltas over a public communications channel. He expressed their peaceful intentions and requested to speak with Minister Hastings to discuss an official visit. The operator couldn't believe her ears. How could these aliens know of Foreign Affairs Minister Hastings? He was used to dealing with foreign entities, but not aliens. The operator patched him through.

The Euclidian captain took over the communication link. He had learned just enough of the Delta dialect for short, focused conversation.

"Greetings, Minister Hastings. I am Captain Boqoo of the Euclidian ship Riemann requesting permission to land in a shuttle with our diplomatic entourage."

"Permission granted, Captain," replied the minister. "Two of my ships will escort your shuttle to a safe landing area."

"Great. I look forward to meeting you."

A hatch on the Euclidian ship opened and a small vessel departed. At least it was small compared to the resource extraction ship. It was still a hundred meters long and twenty meters high. The Euclidians had configured all of their ships to carry cargo, on the theory that to do otherwise was to waste a ship. The shuttle's holds were empty except for the gifts the Euclidians had brought along.

Having an alien species land on their planet was unprecedented. The Deltas were not sure how to respond to such a request from an unknown alien presence. The fact that the person initiating the communication spoke their language and yet looked nothing like them was extremely jarring. How did they know Minister Hastings? How did they wind up in orbit about their planet without being detected beforehand? What did these aliens really want? There were so many questions to be answered.

The minister of foreign affairs directed that the receiving area behind the council building be prepared as it normally would be to receive dignitaries from the various Delta nations. Silver carpets had already been laid on the ground in front of the grand entrance to the council building for the upcoming unification celebration. Once a year the Deltas celebrated the day the treaty was signed that combined the separate nations of the planet. At that time there hadn't been a war in hundreds of years, but the multiple languages, currencies, and customs of the various countries made it difficult to communicate, perform commerce, and align global calendars. Unification was intended to combine and synergize the disparate nations. The different customs continued to be celebrated, but now the celebrations were shared across all nations.

The timing of the Euclidian arrival was convenient, as all the governors were in town for the unification celebration and were interested in meeting these aliens. Still, out of caution, they didn't go to the receiving area just in case it turned out to be an ambush. Only the council chairperson and her staff were there to greet the Euclidians; she felt it was her duty to represent the Delta people on such an important occasion.

Figure2. Euclidian delegation meet Deltas

The Euclidians arrived in a delegation of ten people. Instead of stepping from the vessel they beamed over to the receiving area, their entrance petrifying the Deltas. The Euclidian ambassador greeted the Delta council chairperson with a traditional bow. She responded with the same bow. He presented her with a statue, made of pure rhodium, of the historic Delta figure Osceola who was credited with unifying the Delta nations. He also offered her a cubic ton of the Euclidians' most precious metal, athenium.

The Deltas were happy to receive the gifts, but weren't sure what to do with the athenium as they were not familiar with the material. The Majorellen, acting as interpreter, indicated that they would provide specifications on the metal as well as examples of how it could be used. The chairperson asked about weapons, and the Majorellen assured her that neither of their vessels had weapons and that none of the delegation carried weapons except for the two Ossie bodyguards who carried short spears to protect the delegation.

The chairperson expressed her humor at the thought of these two small men with swords protecting the delegation from attack. Without being specific, the Majorellen let her know that the Ossies had special powers that make them quite formidable.

### CHAPTER 4

THE ALPHAS

The Alphas were a warring people. They spent much of their time fighting each other. Men fought men, tribes fought tribes, and countries fought countries. Countries fought civil wars and created new countries. Something about the genetics of the Alphas made them irritable and itchy for a fight. Over time, necessity had pushed them to cooperate with each other. Tribes forged alliances just so they could fight against other tribes. While the tribes didn't trust each other, they understood the importance of alliances for overpowering their enemies. This idea manifested itself at higher levels when countries aligned themselves to take over neighboring planets and strip them of their wealth. The countries still disliked each other, but understood the concept of cooperation for the greater good.

The Alphas were an advanced civilization with a desire for military dominance that motivated innovation. They found many new and clever ways to inflict pain and destruction on their enemies, which were each other. This passion persisted when they started building exploratory spaceships. They equipped their ships with weapons so they could attack any other ships they might run across. Their preparations went to waste until they discovered a means of long distance space travel. They initially discovered a gravity-based propulsion mechanism, less efficient than the Euclidian or Alpha mechanisms, though it got them up to half the speed of light. This permitted them to visit planets within their solar system and nearby solar systems. To their dismay, they did not run across any life forms to terrorize. They did, however, set up listening posts wherever they visited, just in case. They left prisoners to man the posts as a punishment. Volunteers for such miserable, isolated assignments were hard to come by.

Eventually the Alphas discovered long-range space travel by means of wormholes. They perfected the ability to open a wormhole at high speed that would take them more or less instantaneously to a distant spot along their current trajectory. But not before they had lost a few vessels into far-off stars, due to miscalculating the effects of gravity or speed.

Once they were able to maintain control over their interstellar transport, they began to encounter more civilizations, though their method was still somewhat hit and miss. They had not discovered the Euclidians' means for long range monitoring of distant regions of space to avoid wasted trips. As they came across alien vehicles in space, the Alphas behaved like pirates, attacking and looting the ships. They stole the cargo and whatever technology they could, and left the remainder of the ship and crew drifting in space. They eventually identified and charted interstellar shipping lanes, and patrolled them with their warships. They met little resistance as they plundered, and finally grew bored with attacking ships.

The Alphas learned to use their technology to take over planets and raid them for their resources. The inhabitants were usually slaughtered. The Alphas had never considered mining these planets or taking slaves. Instead they set up military outposts across the areas of space that they claimed as their own, to look for other enemy ships to attack or cargo to steal, and to house reinforcements. This tactic protected them from planets that sought to retaliate against them for an earlier attack, which may have destroyed half of their population. One of the outposts noticed an armada of ships approaching the Alpha home planet. The Alphas set up an ambush to intercept the ships in deep space. Once the enemy ships were blown apart, the Alphas sent their own ships to kill the remaining inhabitants of the attacking planet. They even set off a device to destroy the atmosphere in case they had overlooked anyone in the genocide.

The Alphas were soon uncontested in their corner of the Juban Galaxy. The Euclidians, however, through their long-range scanners, discovered the Alphas, although they did not understand their violent tendencies. The Euclidians outfitted a space vessel with gifts, such as sweet fruit trees and precious metals, and set off on a diplomatic mission to engage the Alphas with an offer of alliance.

By now the Euclidians had formed strong relationships with beings from several nearby solar systems. Each place had its own special set of wonders including the people themselves, minerals, vegetation, and technology. These planet nations included the Deltas, the Perjorans, the Majorellens, and the Ossies. The Euclidians had formed strong alliances with each of these nations except the Ossies. Each species had abilities that set it apart from the rest. The Deltas had great technology. The Perjorans were great interrogators. The Majorellens were great at communicating with new species. The Ossies made excellent assassins.

The Deltas were the most advanced technologically. They had invented space travel at least 200 years before any of the other nations. They had outposts across their solar system and in neighboring ones as an early warning against possible threats. They had developed military space ships to protect themselves from an enemy that they felt would come someday. When the Euclidians had appeared in orbit above their planet they thought it was the enemy they had long dreaded.

The ship had appeared out of nowhere, without warning from any of their outposts. It was the largest ship they had ever seen, over 100 kilometers long. They did not know how they could possibly fight an adversary with so large a ship. Their fears were quickly allayed when a television broadcast came over their civilian airwaves. A Majorellen working for the Euclidians was speaking to the space dispatcher in a Delta dialect. The person was asking for a peaceful dialog with the planet's government.

The Euclidians wanted to avoid the diplomatic mistake of showing up unannounced as they had with the Deltas, so they arrived in Alpha space at a distance of 200,000 kilometers from their home planet and hailed the Alphas over a public channel using an Alpha dialect. A Majorellen had been studying the Alphas for several months prior and had learned their language. The Alphas were shocked to receive the communication and fearful of what this new species might have in store for them. They gave the Euclidians permission to enter orbit around their planet and to send down a delegation. The Alphas warned the Euclidians not to take any aggressive actions, although they were not sure what they could do in defense.

The military general in charge of Alpha space quickly used a secure channel to order all outposts to report anything they might know about the arrival of the Euclidian ship. In the meantime, he sent ten space fighters to escort the Euclidian ship. None of the outposts had anything to report except for one of the Alpha moons that reported that the ship just appeared out of nowhere from a spot in space, which did not appear to be a wormhole.

This perplexed the general. He commanded the lead escort ship to report details of the Euclidian ship.

"General," replied the flight captain, "the ship is enormous. It is about 80 kilometers wide and 120 kilometers long. I can't tell if it has weapons systems. I can't see any engines or hatches or a control center. They must exist, but the ship is so massive and so full of nooks and crannies that it's difficult to see where any of the ship's vulnerable systems might be.

"Focus, Captain!" shouted the general. "If you had to take it out, do you think that you could?"

"If our entire fleet attacked, we would have a difficult time taking it out. But even if we disabled it, we wouldn't want this ship crashing into our planet. It could cause a cataclysmic event."

"Fine, then just escort it in and warn me if it does something out of the ordinary."

"Yes, General."

The general was perplexed. He wasn't sure how to handle this sudden event. He decided to call in all ships within a day's distance away. He had the orbiting and land-based missiles realigned to point toward this possible threat. He then warned each of the planetary countries so they could join an attack if needed.

The five escort ships placed themselves around the Euclidian ship, unsure of how best to position themselves. They found that they lost radio contact with one another if they were on opposite sides of the ship. Then they found what looked like the operations center at the top of the ship near the front and decided to take up positions there.

***

Once in orbit, a hatch on the huge ship opened and a small vessel shot out. It landed at a military base near the host country's capital. The place was swarming with dignitaries, local residents, and the news services. The Euclidian ambassador noticed the grandstand outside the ship and decided to have himself and his entourage beamed directly next to the awaiting dignitaries.

There was a gasp from the crowd as the group appeared. The guards drew their weapons, unsure if this was an attack. The country's foreign ambassador composed himself, ordered the guards to put away their weapons and then greeted Ambassador Powell, who stood at the front of the assembled group.

"Greetings. I am Ambassador Plexus. On behalf of the planet Alpha and the country of Howard I extend a warm welcome to the Euclidian people."

"Greetings, Ambassador. I am Ambassador Powell. On behalf of the Euclidian people I extend my arm in friendship."

The two clasped arms and bowed in a traditional formal greeting.

"Ambassador Plexus, if you find it appropriate I would like to offer your country a few gifts as a token of our desire to open friendly relations with your people."

"Please do," replied Plexus.

"First I would like to present to you a statue of your war hero Lile Birk in pure rhodium."

As Ambassador Powell finished speaking a large statue of the Alpha hero appeared on the ground next to the receiving stand. A loud roar and applause came from the crowd in attendance.

"Next we would like to offer forty fruit trees stored within sealed containers so you may quarantine them as you see fit and later place them where you find most appropriate. Lastly, we offer one ton of our most precious metal. I brought along one of our engineers in case you need assistance in understanding its practical uses."

The engineer bowed to identify himself. The other items appeared next to the statue as the ambassador announced them. So far, the Euclidians had charmed the Alphas.

"Thank you for your kind gifts, Ambassador. They are greatly appreciated," responded Plexus. "Now, if you would kindly board our vehicle I will escort you to the palace, where you may prepare for a reception with our president and his cabinet. Do you have any bags aboard your ship that you would like to bring along?"

"Yes," said Powell. "Perhaps you could bring them in another vehicle? My assistant will stay behind to handle our luggage."

They all boarded the waiting vehicle. The Euclidian delegation consisted of Ambassador Powell, the Majorellen translator, the Ossie bodyguard, and the metallurgical engineer. Thirty minutes later they arrived at the presidential palace. Along the way the Howard Ambassador had privately discussed the situation with the defense minister. They considered imprisoning the Euclidians, but their ability to beam from place to place seemed to make that idea impractical; they were unaware that the Euclidians had to be in the vicinity of their ship for the teleportation mechanism to function.

Upon arrival at the palace, the Euclidians were shown their rooms, each connected to a central, but private, receiving room. The Ossie turned down his room, declaring that he would take the couch in Ambassador Powell's quarters.

"We hope that these accommodations are suitable for you and your delegation," stated Ambassador Plexus.

"I'm sure they'll be fine," replied Powell.

"The reception begins in four hours. I'll return at that time to escort you. In the meantime, if you want to see the palace grounds, the guard will assist you. The rest of the palace is off limits at this time. Please enjoy your stay."

The ambassador left to meet with the president and his cabinet, who saw the Euclidians as a threat that had to be dealt with. They planned to be as friendly as possible and learn all they could about their guests and their capabilities. The different species that made up the Euclidian delegation was of particular interest because the Alphas were not sure if they represented multiple planetary systems or a single planet.

Ambassador Plexus returned as promised and escorted the Euclidians to meet the president and his cabinet at an elaborate reception that included food, gifts, and spectacular performances. Ambassador Powell introduced the members of his delegation to their hosts. He explained that the several members came from different planetary systems, that the diversity of species added to the richness of each civilization, and that the success of their expeditions, including this one, relied on that diversity. The Alphas were intrigued by the descriptions of the people, especially the small Ossie that the ambassador boasted could defeat a squad of armed men just using his short spear.

Two days after the reception, the Euclidians went on an excursion where this statement was tested. Ambassador Plexus had invited the Euclidians to visit the Howard countryside. They traveled in a convoy of three armed vehicles with the Euclidians and Plexus in the middle vehicle. On the outskirts of the city, the convoy ran across an ambush set up by some would-be kidnappers from a rival country that had planned to make off with the Euclidians. The vehicles at the front and rear of the convoy were destroyed by blasts from the attackers' weapons, fired from behind a rock outcropping. A voice from behind the rocks ordered the occupants of the remaining vehicle to surrender themselves.

"I'll be right back," exclaimed the Ossie as he disappeared out of the vehicle on the side opposite the attack. He returned five minutes later, stating, "We can go now. I have extinguished the threat."

Figure 3. Ossie vanquishes attackers

Ambassador Plexus looked in amazement as the Ossie made his emotionless announcement. He decided that it was safer to return to the palace and have a security detail check on the area of the attack. The detail later reported that the attackers had been beheaded or killed with deep chest wounds.

This heightened the Alpha's desire to find out as much as they could about the Euclidians. They convinced the visitors to give them a tour of their landing vehicle as well as their orbiting spaceship. The Alphas even had themselves beamed aboard, though the process scared them. The Euclidians described a lot of their technology, but refused to give technical details until they had gotten to know the Alphas better. The Alphas did discover that there were no weapons on the ships, which they saw as a weakness to be exploited.

The Euclidians agreed to let the Alphas set up a consulate on their home planet and took a contingent of them when they left the Alpha system. The Alphas were given a building to use as their embassy and they quickly used it as a means to spy on the Euclidians. Soon afterward, the Alphas set up a base on an uninhabited planet near the Euclidian home planet. Two years later, while all but one of the resource extraction ships were out on a mission, the Alphas launched an attack with twenty armored space vessels equipped with new weapons that they felt could destroy the Euclidian ships and their land-based weapons.

The mining vessel had no weapons but its space debris shields held up against the attacking ships. The mining vessel was also able to use its transporter to rip apart a few of the Alpha ships when they came within its range on strafing runs.

The Euclidians attempted to send smaller ships from the surface to assist in the fight, but unequipped with space shields they were easily destroyed. Land-based weapons met the same fate when some of the Alpha ships broke off from attacking the resource extraction ship and fired on the launch pads, military bases, and missile launchers. After a couple of hours, the shields on the mining vessel started to fail. It was at risk of being destroyed and falling into the planet, which would be devastating for the Euclidians.

The mining vessel opened a hole in space and started to disappear through it. The Alpha ships followed, unaware of what might happen or where they might be going. The Alphas felt they were on the verge of destroying the ship and didn't want to miss the opportunity. Unbeknownst to the Alphas, the Euclidians had sent a distress signal to their Delta allies who were waiting on the other side of the space hole, ready to engage the Alphas. The Delta ships, unlike those of the Euclidians, were well equipped with weapons. All but two of the Alpha ships were quickly destroyed as they entered Delta space, and the two surviving Alpha ships returned home in defeat.

The Euclidians captured and executed the Alpha diplomatic corps. The Alpha president sent a message of apology to the Euclidian Council indicating that the attacks were by a rogue element and not sanctioned by the government. The communiqué included a recording of the crew of the escaped space vessels being captured and killed. This, however, did not sway the Euclidians, who refused to restore normal relations.

The attack pushed the Euclidians to develop warships so as to never again be at the mercy of beings such as the Alphas. They enlisted assistance from the Deltas and in return shared some of their advanced technology. The Euclidians colonized other planets to reduce the risk of their home planet being attacked. A hundred years after the battle, the Euclidians restored diplomatic relations with the Alphas, but refused to ever share technology with them or permit their warships within Euclidian space, which by that time was vast.

### CHAPTER 5

THE END OF INNOCENCE

The attack by the Alphas left the Euclidians bewildered, angry, and terrified. They had never experienced an attack from space before and, furthermore, they had extended the Alphas every courtesy. Why the Alphas would launch an unprovoked attack of that scale was beyond their comprehension. The Euclidians lost several million people. All of their space stations were destroyed, and many of their bases and spaceships.

The event caused a major political shift among the hawks and doves in the Euclidian government. The hawks now wanted to take a more aggressive approach to mining and expansion into space. They argued that taking an environmentally sensitive approach to mining planets, to ensure that ecosystems and inhabitants weren't greatly disturbed, was detrimental to Euclidian society. Valuable minerals were being left behind that could be used to improve the conditions of less fortunate Euclidians.

Years of industrial mining had left many of the Euclidian natural resources depleted. Those resources could be renewed with the water, soil, and atmosphere of other planets. And why not take the wildlife as well, including humanoid beings for subjugation, trade, or sale? The Euclidian position on space colonization also needed to be revisited. One of the reasons the Alphas could successfully attack was because they had established a base within the Euclidian solar system. That base was now destroyed, but the damage was already done.

The political hawks were not interested in attacking friendly planets with which they had developed relationships. But they insisted on expanding their presence on those planets and others to mitigate the threat of future attacks.

This type of radical thinking, requiring such a departure from the Euclidian's way of life over the past few centuries, would normally not have been given any serious consideration. But the Alpha's attack and the later unsanctioned counterattack garnered the hawks an overwhelming amount of public support. The planetary council had proposed punishing the renegade generals for their brutal act of revenge, but those thoughts were quickly squelched when the citizens spontaneously celebrated them.

Soon after the attack from the Alphas, there had been a debate about retaliation. The council voted against it because it was against their constitution, but also because the government was not confident that it had the military might to pull off such a mission. Suggestions were made that the Euclidians should partner with the Deltas, who were more capable militarily. However, a few months after the Euclidian attack, the Alphas attacked the Deltas. The Deltas were not as easy to attack because of their distributed defenses, but several ships got through to the Delta home planet and dropped a bomb on its largest moon, killing the ten million people who lived there. The Alpha ships also took out the Delta space stations before they were ultimately destroyed. In the aftermath, the Deltas did not have the stomach for a protracted war and declined to join forces with the Euclidians.

The Alphas attack on the Deltas hardened the Euclidian generals' determination for retaliation, and they made their plans. On the twentieth anniversary of the infamous Alpha attack, Day 311 of the Euclidian solar year, a group of generals led an unsanctioned incursion into Alpha space with four resource extraction ships. They positioned the ships in the orbital path of the Alpha home planet, and opened a large portal into dimensional space at level 311 to honor the day they were attacked. From that time on, level 311 in dimensional space would be reserved for disposing of trash, and the number itself associated with evil.

The portal was not quite large enough for the planet to pass through. When the planet encountered the portal, most of it disappeared into dimensional space. The remainder was sheared off and became rubble that drifted into the sun. The two moons, and all their inhabitants, were caught up in the gravitational pull of the sun. The generals broadcast the entire event back to the Euclidian planet, the traditional day of mourning quickly turned into a day of celebration. The ruling council condemned the act, but was powerless to discipline the participants due to their newfound popularity.

Figure 4. Euclidian forces destroy the Alpha planet

The hawks took advantage by taking over the council, and had the constitution changed to permit a more aggressive military stance. A new alliance was forged with the Deltas to exchange advanced technology for Delta weaponry. They gave the Deltas minerals to help them rebuild; the Deltas taught the Euclidians terraforming so they could make new planets habitable.

The new council authorized increased spending on military research and space colonization. They set up a cultural exchange with the Deltas that focused on military tactics – they saw the Deltas as an integral part of their interstellar and military expansion. Deltas were hired to teach at Euclidian military schools.

Mining operations were halted for the next ten years, which turned into thirty years, while the Euclidians focused on technology and innovation. They developed and deployed new weapons, attack vehicles, communications networks, and monitoring devices. The council instituted conscription, mandating that all Euclidian citizens serve four-year terms in the military, which included training in science and technology as well as military readiness. The council felt that this was an opportunity to change the direction of their civilization.

Each conscript had to spend a year at an outpost. The duty was typically pretty grueling, as many of the outposts were in remote, isolated, and uninhabited locations in the Juban Galaxy. Eventually these outposts extended into neighboring galaxies, if one could consider a distance of four light years to be "the neighborhood".

Each of the Euclidians' colonized planets had at least two listening posts to monitor the surrounding space for dangers. On planets with advanced civilizations, the Euclidians worked to build strong relationships, while remaining isolated in their encampments.

The outposts were not simple bases with one person armed with a pulsar rifle, telescope, and radio. There were typically ten combat-ready soldiers at each post, and two hardened anti-vehicle batteries that could take out vehicles on land, in the air, or in nearby space. Each outpost had two space attack vehicles, capable of making dimensional jumps, that were ready to launch at a moment's notice.

In orbit above the posts were three probes that continuously scanned for anything out of the ordinary. The probes had weapons that could take out land and space-based targets, and they could leave orbit as needed to chase down an enemy. They were programmed to partner with other land and space vehicles for coordinated attacks.

A set of dimensional beacons tracked each outpost location. The beacons were secretly placed at dimensional level 176, and enabled navigators of space vehicles to simply set their controls to go to an outpost entry or exit point to start or end a journey. Navigators could set a specific outpost as the destination and the ship's computer would take them there.

Messages from these outposts to headquarters were sent to an orbiting probe, which went into the local dimensional entry point and relayed the message through the network of hidden dimensional beacons on to headquarters. Messages could be sent across light years of space in a matter of minutes.

Each of these systems had a backup and failsafe mechanism based on redundant systems to keep the devices online, each device was replicated in case it suffered total failure or was destroyed. If for some reason a device failed to communicate with the next device in its communications chain, it attempted to reach the next one up the chain.

The outpost troops were often put through their paces to improve readiness. They practiced crowd control, land-based attacks, air-based attacks, and space-based attacks.

Because the Euclidians considered themselves the most technologically advanced civilization, it was hard for them to conceive of an attack from anyone. The Deltas were allies and the Alphas were emasculated, so they were not a threat. Still, they planned for an attack by some superior civilization that was yet to be discovered. Over and over they practiced various military formations, maneuvers, and overpowering attack strategies. One of their most important exercises was mobilizing troops from distant outposts and sending them into the thick of battle light years away to engage a formidable enemy in an effective manner.

This devotion to preparedness would be their saving grace in future battles. The Euclidian's preparatory discipline flowed into every process of the government. Employment, the economy, healthcare, and disaster recovery were all efficient programs that performed well. Corruption was kept to a minimum by a strict low tolerance program. A first offence by a government official resulted in five years in prison and loss of all property. A second offense resulted in public execution.

One specific invention gave the Euclidians a unique ability to perform reconnaissance on advanced civilizations, and to ensure that trusted relationships with other planets remained that way. It was extremely controversial, though, because the government could use it to spy on its own citizens. While the new council had become more ruthless, it had become so to protect the citizenry. Abuse of power against fellow Euclidians was not tolerated. The council believed that for their nation to survive it must inspire oneness, restraint, and trust among its people.

The reconnaissance probe was a modification of the dimensional beacon. The early beacons were designed to track a planet visually. It could also be used to hear sounds though they had to be amplified and phase shifted to be comprehensible. The technology was adapted to spy on individuals on other planets. This was a lot more complex than just tracking a planet. First, operators had to find individuals worth tracking, typically by monitoring broadcast transmissions to determine who was important. Then the probe had to find and track a person on a planet drifting through space.

Since objects in dimensional space were not impacted by gravity, the beacons could not use a planet's gravity to hold it in place. People often forget about the different physical forces that act on a planet. The planet's rotation, solar orbit, and galactic velocity all impact other bodies' movement through space. For example, Earth rotates at a surface rate of 1670 km/hour and orbits the sun at 107,279 km/hour, while the Milky Way Galaxy moves through space at 600 km/sec, and the movements are all in different directions. The probes could take advantage of dimensional velocity, which made it easier for them to track objects in space, but the technical challenges were still great.

Once the Euclidians learned to efficiently spy on distant planets using probes, they decided to take the technology one step further. What if they could capture a person or persons using a probe, and transport them directly to an interrogation cell? That would be a powerful ability. They could capture and recruit spies, remove enemy, collect trophies to sell, or simply gather specimens of animals or other objects for research.

This new system had to be capable of opening a hole in dimensional space without being detected, and multidimensionally transporting the subject without killing it. The process started by making a small hole in normal space in front of the subject to be transported. This had to be done with care due to the huge pressure difference between dimensional space, which was a vacuum, and the surface of a planet. The hole had to be large enough to accept the transporter beam for the duration of the transport, but small enough to not disrupt the area where the transport was taking place. The probe had to maintain position while opening the hole, so as not to run into the hole, which could irreparably damage the vessel.

Euclidian vessels were equipped with a sliding sub-skin that could fill holes that might occur in the hull. But if a dimensional hole passed through an entire vessel, cargo or vital systems could be lost.

Once an object or subject was captured with the transporter beam, it was stored momentarily in an onboard caching unit. The probe then opened a portal into dimensional level seven and transmitted the cached transporter signal to a cluster of communications probes that relayed signals between endpoints. This enabled transportation across and between galaxies in a matter of minutes. From the perspective of a transported being, the transfer was instantaneous. The captive might see a flash of light, then experience a slight tingling sensation, and just appear at a distant location with no sense of being on another planet, unless there was a significant difference in gravity between the originating and destination planets. Atmospheres on planets with sentient life tended to support each other's life forms, but when there was a problem with atmospheric makeup, living quarters were adapted to accommodate the captured guests. This technique was very helpful when cultivating spies because the Euclidians could fool the recruits into thinking they had never left their home planet.

When visiting planets with a hostile environment, the Euclidians wore nostril implants that converted the atmosphere. As long as they inhaled through their nostrils they were safe breathing the air. Foreign microbes were rarely a problem for the Euclidians or other advanced species, although more primitive species were susceptible to getting sick from contact with foreign microbes. The Euclidians eventually learned cleansing techniques to keep live cargo from succumbing to diseases and pestilence carried by them or other species.

The new extraction probes proved valuable during battles. Opening a dimensional portal in the middle of an enemy ship could wreak havoc on a ship's infrastructure and instrumentation. Anyone in the vicinity of the hole would be immediately killed by the vacuum of space. Bridge officers could be transported to holding cells if there was a desire to keep the ship intact.

Thirty years after suspending mining operations, the Euclidians ventured out into space again, this time with a greater set of goals. They would look for advanced civilizations, analyze the threats and opportunities, and take anything of use. They left behind probes to monitor any space vessels that might show up after their departure. Advanced civilizations tended to attract other advanced civilizations; that was the very reason the Euclidians were there in the first place.

Sometimes a foreign species would show up during a mining operation. This would activate the Grizzly maneuver to immediately evacuate the planet being mined. The Euclidian vessels disappeared into dimensional space, leaving behind dimensional probes and beacons to track the ships.

The Euclidians would not return to mine the planet until they had tracked the newcomers to their home planet and evaluated the species' capabilities. The species would then be neutralized militarily and mined out of existence. The Euclidians could not take a chance on attempting to befriend a people after they had been spotted strip-mining the planet of a possible ally.

The Euclidians occasionally found a planet of such esthetic splendor and little resource value that they left it intact. They would set up a base and use the planet as a vacation destination. Interaction with the indigenous population was kept to a minimum except to ensure they were not doing things that might make the planet less habitable. The Euclidians sometimes went as far as controlling population growth, to minimize the risk that the indigenes would prematurely deplete important resources.

It was rare that they shared technology with new species, and the dimensional transportation mechanism was their most closely guarded secret. Sharing that technology with outsiders was a crime resulting in a swift public execution followed by punishment of the perpetrator's family.

Though the remote bases had synthetic food production devices, base personnel preferred to eat fresh food. If the occupied planet did not produce enough food to sustain its people and share with the Euclidians, base personnel were authorized to share technology or advanced farming methods in return for a portion of the expanded harvest.

Aside from such insignificant displays of compassion, the Euclidians became more and more ruthless in their interactions with outsiders, and spent more time wiping out newly discovered civilizations than attempting to forge alliances.

### CHAPTER 6

THE CEREBRAN

Planet Cerebra was a large gaseous planet about the size of Uranus but without its rings. From space the planet looked like a swirling mass of gas incapable of supporting life. Underneath the 50,000 kilometers of cloud cover, however, lay a planet full of life. More than 80% of the vast surface was covered by a caustic mixture of ammonia, sulfur, and water teaming with exotic species. The few large lakes scattered across the planet were too toxic to support life, and most substances would be consumed by the extreme acidity of their waters.

Cerebran lifeforms evolved in an extreme environment that species on most other planets would view as hostile. The atmosphere was so thick with poisonous gases that it blocked out most of the sunlight. The atmosphere and surface liquids contained very little oxygen, or even water for that matter. But still there was life in abundance.

The species that derived from the mineral-rich waters on planet Cerebran were invertebrates that reproduced via mitosis. As the creatures evolved they reproduced via meiosis, by sharing genetic material through their cell walls. These creatures could have multiple offspring by combining their reproductive genetic material with their partner's until it was depleted.

Over time, thousands of species sprung up from the more complex multi-celled creatures that populated the Cerebran waters. Eventually one of these walked out of the acidic oceans to live on land. In the water, the Cerebran creatures absorbed nutrients from the water through their skin. On land, they got some of their nutrients from the thick atmosphere, but occasionally had to return to the water to obtain those nutrients that were missing from the atmosphere. Eventually the land creatures evolved to the point that they were able to get most of their nutrients from the atmosphere and supply missing elements from the abundant plant life and minerals in the soil and rocks.

The Cerebran humanoids were small creatures no more than 40 centimeters high. They had a soft skeletal frame that gave their bodies form. They didn't have ears, noses, or mouths, though they did have well-placed gristle and grooves on their faces to give them character. They had large solid-black eyes that permitted them to see around their world.

Since Cerebran creatures didn't have mouths, they didn't speak but communicated using mental telepathy. Early Cerebran organisms only had primitive thoughts that they could relay to each other. This ability was used to communicate danger, food discoveries, or a desire to mate. More advanced creatures had a superior mental vocabulary that expanded along with their reasoning ability, although the humanoids were the only beings on the planet capable of complex telepathic communication and mental abilities.

In due course the humanoids began to organize formal units, first tribes and later villages. They created tools from vegetation, stones, and eventually metal, with which they built shared dwellings. The idea of individual houses never quite caught on. Since Cerebrans didn't sleep, collect items, or form traditional family bonds, they didn't have much use for houses.

Due to the thick atmosphere, the surface was rather dark most of the time. Glowing minerals were used to illuminate gathering areas and paths. In darkness, the Cerebrans could recognize each other by their metaphysical signature or the aura that emanated from their bodies. Auras were also used to identify different types of life forms, and individuals who shared the same ancestry had similar auras. Even with their eyes closed, Cerebrans could recognize the creatures near them.

Somewhat unique to the Cerebran humanoids was their ability to communicate with lower life forms, even if only at a rudimentary level. An Earthling could speak or yell at a worm all she wanted, but the worm would just ignore her. Cerebrans, on the other hand, could inform worm-like creatures of the location of food or others of their kind. They could force a flock of flying creatures to veer one way or another. As a rule, though, the Cerebrans rarely engaged in those types of activities except for educational purposes or if there was danger to the animals.

The ability to communicate with animals led to the ability to understand an animal's state of being. Cerebrans could even improve an animal's health by focusing healing energy on it. If an animal was seriously injured it might take multiple Cerebrans to heal it. As they gave off healing energy, their energy was depleted and they weakened. The color of a Cerebran's skin changed with the individual's level of energy or health, a helpful trait when caring for each other.

Cerebran mental acuity did not give them the ability to communicate with inanimate objects, but they could affect an object's vibration. This caused some objects to give off sounds, which became the first form of generated music. Although the Cerebrans couldn't hear the music, they could feel it in ways that hearing beings could not. The vibration of an object, and the subsequent music that it made, depended on the particular Cerebran that created the vibration. Some Cerebrans were unable to make music, while others had advanced abilities like remote telepathy, telekinesis, healing, heat generation, and the ability to feel things at a distance.

Telekinesis permitted a person to make the air swirl or whistle or pop like a kid's cap gun. Liquids could be made to gurgle, swish, or splash. The direction of small streams could be changed.

The Cerebrans made roads, bridges, and fountains from a cement-like substance. For long distance travel they built simple carts with rubber wheels, propelled by telekinesis. They built boats to carry cargo between islands, although these weren't needed for passenger traffic. Cerebrans could propel themselves through liquid faster than a boat could carry them.

Because crystals made the most musical sounds, they were often used for celebrations and ceremonies. One particular type of crystal was thought to contain mystical powers because it glowed when stimulated by the right person. These were called shaman stones. Somehow the frequency of these stones could sync with a Cerebran's psychic energy, causing the stone to reflect energy back to the Cerebran, which would amplify the person's energy with amazing results.

With shaman stones, whatever the Cerebran was attempting telekinetically was intensified to a degree depending on the size and makeup of the stone and the ability of the individual. For example, a Cerebran that could slightly levitate a small rock could use a shaman stone to lift a boulder high into the air. The growth of plant life could be accelerated, communication with friends at great distances was possible, and some Cerebrans could even induce astral projection. This particular feat required sitting or lying down in a meditative state. The person concentrated on a place they would like to be and in an instant would be there. This talent was so rare that a Cerebran who could activate a shaman stone traditionally became a shaman, hence the name.

The Cerebrans spent most of their days in deep meditation looking for ways to expand their consciousness. While they could easily communicate with those in close proximity, communicating with those farther away was more difficult, but possible with the use of shaman stones. To do this, the shamans concentrated their power by gathering in a meditation circle with their stones. They eventually learned to communicate with other meditation circles across the planet.

Within a meditation circle, shamans could sense the presence of the thousands of creatures, great and small, all around them. They could hear the collective thoughts of the Cerebran humanoids across their islands. No thoughts were hidden from them.

It took a tremendous effort to block out all the voices around them and focus on a solitary creature – random thoughts distracted them from their focus. For that reason the Cerebrans didn't daydream. And because they didn't sleep, they spent their days communing with nature, looking for ways to improve their environment, and examining the breadths and depths of their planet.

Shelters on Cerebra were formed from the local vegetation and minerals. Each village had about 2000 inhabitants. At the center of each village was a large assembly hall for ceremonies and public gatherings. Together they celebrated births, deaths, shaman pronouncements, and each planetary New Year.

There were five hundred of these communities scattered across forty-seven islands, which accounted for the planet's nearly one million humanoid inhabitants. The villages were located to provide for maximum coverage of the planet surface. Each villager was assigned to a group of three others and the four together were responsible for a particular land area. These groups were typically but not necessarily a family unit. Each civil unit was responsible for sixteen square miles, for a total of four million square miles under their care. The units carried out all sorts of tasks such as cleanup of dead vegetation and animals, removal of rocks from paths and meetings areas, trimming of foliage, recording of changes to the environment, and healing of sick vegetation and animals.

Once every forty-seven days the village shamans gathered for a ceremony, with the entire village attending. They sat in their meditation circle surrounding a large shaman sphere, and used their shaman stones to mentally connect with the sphere. After connecting they announced themselves one by one by stating, "I am here." Once all were connected, the shamans expanded the glow from around the central sphere to engulf the assembly, at which point the assembly would mentally state, "We are here." Within the sphere's glow, everyone saw what the shamans saw. It was a wondrous experience for all involved.

The Cerebrans did not live long lives, only about thirty Earth years. But they lived full lives that focused on the improvement of their race. Never needing to stop to eat or sleep or rid their body of waste, they lived fuller lives than most humans on Earth who lived three times as long.

### CHAPTER 7

PICO

Pico was born on the seventh island of Cerebra to kind parents. His mother was an artist and his father was a mason. His father used explosive liquids to break boulders loose from mountains, then used a large saw to cut stone blocks from them. His mother chiseled designs into the stones.

Pico's parents were very successful at their craft, but did not accumulate wealth for their efforts. The Cerebrans had no money. They traded goods and services within a sophisticated barter system. Even intangible items or metaphysical services such as healing, astral projection, or a connection with a person on a distant part of the planet could be bartered.

Pico spent many days accompanying his parents as they worked. He helped them collect stones in a wagon, and often played with the stones. He could levitate them, juggle them, and sometimes make them vibrate and play music. He occasionally ran across one that he could make glow. His parents quickly learned that he had a special gift.

When Pico came of age his parents took him to where the shamans lived in an enclave at the center of the island. The shamans tested Pico's psychic abilities and were astonished. They spent the next hour explaining how the island shaman was chosen from among the village shamans, and the shamans' duties. They described their ceremonies, their communications with shamans from other islands, their healing, infrastructure construction, and planetary research.

Pico found the research process most interesting. The shamans combined their psychic energy to investigate the depths of the oceans, the richness of the planet's atmosphere, and the vastness of space around the planet. Cerebra had three moons, each larger than Earth's. It took a great deal of energy for the shamans to peer beyond their atmosphere, so investigating the moons took time. They spent only an hour every third day surveying the moons, and the rest of the time surveying the planet and communing with its inhabitants.

Pico had a thirst for knowledge of the world around him, and he jumped at the offer of an apprenticeship to become a shaman. He hoped he would be able to participate in their research work, not knowing that an apprenticeship meant starting at the beginning.

Pico spent many hours learning about different shaman stones, shaman powers, how shamans worked together, and the history of the planet. Once he had the foundation down, they started teaching him the basics of each shaman power. To solidify his understanding of this foundation and prepare him for public speaking, he was required to teach what he had learned to young Cerebrans in each village of the island. Initially, he hated it. He was shy by nature and hadn't wanted to become a shaman so he could teach people. On the contrary, he wanted to learn all he could. But after Pico had taught a couple of sessions, he noticed that the kids were leaving the sessions excited. He saw himself in those kids and eventually warmed up to the job, even looking forward to the next set of kids.

Pico spent seven days in each of the island's seventeen villages. Pico was sad when his tour was over, but happy to get back to the shamans enclave to learn more. His teaching tour had helped perfect his knowledge of shamanic basics, and now he wanted to practice the techniques he had taught to others.

Pico was assigned to a Shaman Nene to guide his training. She began by having him practice connecting with different shaman stones. She led him to a room that contained dozens of stones, each slightly different than the others. Some were easy to connect with, while others took a lot of effort. Shaman Nene admonished him when he tried to use the connection to exercise his powers: he was there to merely connect with the stones.

Part of the reason Pico was asked to perform the connection exercise was to select a shaman stone for his own. There were so many that Pico didn't know where to start. After connecting with each of the stones he didn't feel anything special for any of them. After a while he became bored and started levitating the stones up and down one at a time, then two at a time, then three at a time. What if I could levitate them all at once? he thought. That would show the shamans that I am worthy to be among them.

Pico concentrated on all of the stones jointly until he could feel them all in his mind. He then commanded them all to jump up. They wiggled, but nothing more than that. That annoyed Pico. He crouched toward the stones in a threatening pose, increased his concentration, and once again ordered the stones to rise up all together. The stones vibrated violently and then one solitary stone popped up, glowing a brilliant blue. Pico fell backward in surprise, his eyes wide with elation as he stared at the glowing orb. Pico released his concentration and plucked the stone from the air as it fell toward the ground.

Pico stood up holding the stone tightly in his hand. He looked at it as if he expected it to speak. He walked around the grounds staring at his newfound stone. As he walked, he levitated it just a few centimeters above the palm of his hand. He returned to Shaman Nene and let her know that he had selected a stone. She clapped her hands with excitement.

"Now," said Shaman Nene, "I want you to spend the rest of the week just practicing connecting with your stone and using that connection to amplify your powers. Keep it simple, Pico. I will show you how to use your powers properly later on."

Pico happily did as she requested. He spent time using his stone to talk to his parents, chat with his friends, and levitate multiple large objects. He was surprised at how well the stone amplified his natural abilities. He enjoyed being able to speak to his parents who he missed dearly. After his week was over, he was happy to see Shaman Nene to start his formal line of study. He sat in her place of solitude on a stone bench, surrounded by red curtains attached to the stone walls. Shaman Nene sat next to him in preparation for his next lesson.

"Before we begin, Pico, I want you to try to levitate this boulder," she said, indicating a large stone on the floor that was heavier than both of them put together.

Pico first tried without his stone, and then with his stone, with the same result. "I can't budge it," he said.

"I'm not surprised, Pico. It is pretty heavy. If you are ready, I will instruct you in the proper way to connect to your shaman stone."

Pico nodded.

"Okay, hold your stone in front of you. Feel it with your mind. As you increase your concentration on the stone you will feel it start to vibrate and glow. Now concentrate your thoughts at the stone, using the same rate of vibration. There! See how not only does the stone glow, but your connection to the stone glows as well. Now pull the power from the stone back into your mind. See how a new connection has formed from the stone to you?"

Pico nodded with astonishment.

"Now try again to lift the boulder."

Pico focused and this time he was surprised at how easily he lifted it off the ground. "Wow!" he exclaimed.

Figure 5. Pico lifts stone with Shaman Nene

"Now that you have learned to properly connect to your shaman stone and use it for levitation I must caution you to be careful about how much force you use with this new ability. Using the full force of the shaman stone before you have mastered it could harm you or those around you. It would be great if initially you didn't practice levitation on boulders, okay?"

"As you wish, Shaman Nene."

"Let's continue your lesson with a deeper look at telekinesis. Anything with mass can be manipulated with your mind. Objects, certainly, but also dust, water, and even air. To move something using telekinesis first feel it with your mind. Then think about where and how you want to move the object. More importantly, think about what should happen to the object once you have finished moving it around and released your connection with it. Let's start with the air in front of you. See if you can make it spin around."

Pico concentrated on the space between him and Shaman Nene and tried to make the air spin. He made it spin clockwise and then counter-clockwise. It wasn't much, but he was happy to see that he could do it. Shaman Nene then taught him to spin sand, water, and a few pebbles.

"Be sure to control where the objects land when you release them. If you forget this rule, the objects could shoot around the room or farther away and hurt someone. By concentrating on specific types of objects you can separate them from other objects. For example, separating sand from stone or red stones from a pile of many-colored stones."

The rest of the week she taught Pico how to use his telekinesis with and without his shaman stone. Then she sent him off to practice on his own for a week, encouraging him to push beyond what he thought were his limits.

When Pico returned Shaman Nene chose telepathy as the next lesson. The Cerebrans normally communicated by telepathy, but that only worked when the two people conversing were in close proximity. Using his stone, Pico could contact his parents because he knew them, and he could also contact friends, but not people he didn't know. Shaman Nene taught him three ways to contact people at a distance that he did not know, using telepathy and his shaman stone.

"Firstly, Pico, if you can see the person, try to feel their vibration the way you do with your stone. It doesn't matter how far away they are. The stone will help you connect with the person. Once you feel his or her vibration you can just start communicating. See the shaman way out there by the rocks?" Shaman Nene pointed to a shaman about a kilometer away.

Pico nodded.

"He's our island shaman. See if you can get him to wave to us."

Pico concentrated on the shaman's vibration. Once he felt it he said, "Greetings, shaman."

"Greetings, Pico," the shaman replied.

"Will you please wave at me and Shaman Nene?"

Pico saw him lift his arm and wave at them.

"Very good, Pico," said Shaman Nene. "The second way to connect with someone is to listen for a specific phrase that the person is thinking at the time you want to connect. This way is harder because multiple people can be thinking the same phrase, or the person you want to contact may not be thinking the phrase when you want to connect. Now, each island has an island shaman like the one who waved at us. Each is thinking the phrase 'Island x shaman' where x is the number of the island. I want you to try to connect with the island-one shaman. Just relax your mind and use your shaman stone to listen for the phrase, then feel the shaman's vibration and connect."

Pico connected with his shaman stone and tried to focus on the thought phrase. After several minutes he had not made a connection to the shaman. Noticing his frustration, Shaman Nene decided to introduce him to the third method.

"Pico, let's try another method. I'll connect to the island-one shaman, and when that happens, his vibration will be noticeable by you when you connect to me."

Shaman Nene connected to the island-one shaman and then asked Pico if he could feel the new vibration.

"Yes, I can feel it."

"Connect with that vibration and listen for the phrase the shaman is repeating."

"I can hear it now."

"Great! Now I want you to try to connect directly to the island-two shaman by listening for his phrase."

Pico relaxed his mind and listened for the phrase, remembering his experience with the island-one shaman. "I hear it!"

"Now try to feel her vibration."

"Got it."

"Say you are completing a task for Shaman Nene."

"She said to say hello. She misses playing Gong Long with you."

Shaman Nene smiled. "Tell her I said hello."

"That was great. What's next?"

"Amazing job, Pico. Now go to your place of solitude and don't return until you have connected with the island shamans from the other forty-five islands."

Shaman Nene may have made it sound like a punishment, but Pico was excited by the challenge. It took him a couple of days, but he accomplished the task with delight.

Pico's next lesson was on healing.

"Pico, healing is about giving energy to good cells and taking energy from bad cells, remembering that all things eventually die and healing can't stop that."

Cerebrans rarely died from disease or injury, though there were the occasional mountain climbing accidents or falls into the acid sea that could hurt or kill them. Everything else could usually be healed if the person wasn't alone and a shaman could be found in time. Healing oneself typically took too much energy to be effective. The cells in all life on Cerebra only split a certain number of times before they just died off. Cerebrans generated new cells only until they became full grown.

"Pico, with your unaided abilities you can feel when someone is hurt and apply energy to the area in pain. With your shaman stone you can see the cells that are hurt. Communicate with them as you would a person. Give them the energy they need and take away energy from invading cells. Come with me into the field around the enclave so we can practice on the plants and insects that we find there."

Shaman Nene and Pico spent a couple of days practicing healing on damaged plants and injured insects. On the third day they came upon an injured animal with a broken leg and decided to heal it.

"Pico, first we need to make the animal unconscious so it doesn't suffer. Consciousness comes from the brain's ability to carry on higher thought in the center of the bran, by passing signals via synapses. When a blow to the head or exhaustion or lack of nutrients disrupts this ability, consciousness can slip away. We are going to induce unconsciousness by blocking the animal's critical synapses' ability to communicate."

Shaman Nene pulled out her shaman stone. "I'm going to perform the healing on this animal and I want you to connect with my mind so you can see what I see."

Shaman Nene placed the animal in an unconscious state and worked on healing its leg. She repaired the bone, stopped the bleeding, and healed most of the area around the wound.

"Were you able to follow what I did, Pico?"

"Yes, Shaman Nene. That was fascinating."

"We'll spend another couple of days wandering the fields out here and hopefully you will get an opportunity to perform a major healing."

Two days later, Shaman Nene and Pico ended their trip and returned to his place of solitude.

"Pico, that was a very productive trip. The next thing I want to teach you is astral projection. That is the ability of your mind to leave your body and travel. Communicating with people is an example of your mind reaching out beyond the confines of your body."

Pico looked at her in puzzlement. "Why have I never heard of that?"

"Only shamans and specially gifted people can do that. Now let me teach you how to do it. First you place yourself in an unconscious state the way I did that animal before healing it. Then try to travel somewhere. Your body will try to move but won't be able to, and your spirit will break free from its physical containment and float free."

Pico was still confused. "I don't understand what you are saying."

"That's okay. Let me show you. Take out your shaman stone and connect with my mind so you can see what I am doing."

Shaman Nene pulled out her shaman stone and lay down on a stone bed. "Lay next to me, Pico. I don't want you to become disoriented and hurt yourself falling down. Watch as I start to shut down the synapses in my upper brain, being careful not to disrupt the central lobe. I should now look unconscious, but I can still communicate with you."

"Yes, your body looks unconscious."

"Now I'm going to attempt to visit our island shaman who is about two kilometers from us and let's see what happens."

"Oh my," Pico exclaimed. "We're flying!"

"Sort of, Pico. My mind is floating toward the island shaman and you can sense that since our minds are connected."

Shaman Nene reached the island-seven shaman. "Greetings, Island-Seven Shaman."

"Greetings, Shaman Nene. Practicing your astral projection?"

"Yes, and I have my student Pico with me."

"Greetings, Pico."

Pico gasped with shock, which broke his connection with Shaman Nene. Moments later she woke up next to him. "Startled you, huh?"

"How was he able to see us?"

He couldn't see us, but he could sense us the way you sense when someone is trying to contact you. This is going to be a difficult lesson to learn, but an important one. I want you to spend the next few weeks practicing this. You will probably make yourself unconscious a few times, scare yourself many times, and drain your energy, but don't let that discourage you. Once you get the hang of it, try not to go too far. There are limits to how far you can go and how long you can be gone."

"What are the limits?"

"I don't know, Pico. It's different for everyone. Unfortunately, going beyond your limit can lead to your death."

"That's a bit scary."

"Don't worry. Just don't float beyond the boundaries of the island and you should be safe."

Pico lay down to practice his next ability, exhilarated and frightened. His first few dozen attempts did not go well. But two weeks later he appeared before Shaman Nene out of body and greeted her. Her eyes sparkled and she returned the greeting.

"Pico, come to me tomorrow and I'll start you on your final lesson."

Pico responded with "okay" and fluttered off.

The next day Shaman Nene appeared before Pico as he sat on a stone bench, pleased as punch with his progress.

"Pico," she said, "you have done well for yourself. I'm surprised that someone so young has learned so fast. The combination of your advanced abilities and your shaman stone makes you one of the most talented students I have ever met. But you still have a ways to go to perfect your talents, so don't get too cocky."

"I won't, Shaman Nene. I'm just eager to learn."

"Great! This last lesson combines your levitation and astral projection capabilities. In effect, you will learn to fly. It's difficult because the idea of levitating objects by leveraging one's own body feels natural. When lifting yourself, against what do you leverage? It's dangerous because if you lose control or run out of energy while too high above the ground you could fall and die. Let me show you how it's done."

Shaman Nene pulled out her shaman stone, connected with it, and floated a few centimeters above the ground.

"Wow, that's pretty cool. Why don't I ever see anyone flying?"

"For the most part it's just not necessary. It's also safer to just use our other abilities for the things that flying gives us."

"I see. Still, I would love to do it."

"Before you start flying, practice levitating yourself just a bit above the ground and slowly lowering yourself back down. You must have confidence in this ability before going any higher."

"As you wish, Shaman Nene."

"The best way to approach self-levitation is to try to push yourself away from the ground instead of trying to lift yourself."

"Got it! Thanks so much for your guidance, Shaman Nene."

"My pleasure, Pico. Now go practice and be safe."

Pico walked toward his place of solitude, but he never reached it and never got to practice that last lesson.

### CHAPTER 8

HELD CAPTIVE

Pico lay in his bed and waited until all around him were asleep before touring the ship using astral projection. Pico quickly saw that the ship was enormous. He took a little time to get his bearings before breezing through the holding areas on the deck where he was held captive. The holding areas were full of life forms from other worlds, including the strangest creatures he had ever seen. Some flew through the air, some floated in a liquid, and some were able to sense his presence. As he floated through one of the containment areas, a blue glowing creature started to dance around him. He played with it for a while and then moved on. Some of the areas contained sentient beings. These areas were similar to his, with several levels of floors. Cots by the hundreds covered the floors. Along the walls were replenishment and waste disposal facilities. There were weapons in the ceiling, as in his cell, but they appeared to be a different style. He saw a couple of beings engaged in a loud debate. When they began to fight, one of the weapons emitted a stream similar to a lightning bolt, unlike the energy wave that was used in his containment area, and the two beings were immediately subdued.

The air in Pico's cell was stale and pungent with the scent of all manner of bodily fluids. Pico had to avoid ingesting anything with his senses, to keep them from going into overload. Some of his fellow captives were reluctant to use the waste disposal stations. From depression or indifference, many lay around without making much movement at all, even when food was served.

Twice a day, multiple troughs were filled with all types of food. Some of the captives rushed at the chance to eat fresh food, while some took their time, and others could not be enticed to indulge themselves. The lethargic and depressed lay where there were in their putrid excretions. Some died, and a crewmember would come in and take the remains away. On occasion there was resistance by fellow captives, which was soon quelled by a blast from the weapons in the ceiling.

The containment area was quite large, perhaps 100 meters on each side and seven meters high. It was lit by tubes in the shape of long hotdogs that ran across the ceiling and down the walls. Once during every sleep period, giant nozzles at the bottom of one wall sprayed a cleansing liquid from side to side across the floor. The liquid flowed to drains in the center of the room, carrying with it anything found on the floor, mostly spilled food and bodily excretions.

Pico had almost died when he first arrived on the ship. He was on his way back from his shaman training when a group of frantic villagers came up. They said that shamans from across the planet were reporting that the atmosphere was disappearing, and people were starting to die. He went with them to the assembly hall on Tor Hill where everyone was meeting to discuss the crisis.

There was an assembly hall in every community, a large stone building in the middle of town used for ceremonies and cultural events. It had huge windows all around and a circular auditorium with long curved pews on the ground floor and several balconies to accommodate thousands of people. At the back of the auditorium was a large round stage with a door at the back for performers and presenters. To the sides of the stage there was box seating for shamans and village elders. Pico had hoped to sit there one day. Now it looked as if that day might never come.

"My people," announced the island shaman, "we are in the midst of a great calamity. Reports are coming in from all over the planet that vehicles have landed and are taking away our minerals. Vehicles in orbit are taking away our atmosphere. The loss of our atmosphere will mean the loss of all life on our planet."

The shamans crafted a plan to destroy the orbiting ship and the mining machines that were stripping their planet of its natural resources. Some of the shamans would use their stones to move the mining vehicles into the acid sea, which hopefully would disintegrate them. Others would focus on sending the orbiting ship into the sun.

The shamans sat in a circle in the assembly hall, holding their stones. They connected with the large stone in the center of their circle, and with the shaman circles that had similarly formed across the other forty-six islands. They all focused on the giant ship above them, each touching the ship with their minds. They waited for the island shaman to strike a ceremonial gong in the assembly hall. Five strikes would signal execution of the plan, and at the fifth strike the shamans would push the vessel into the sun.

On the ship, Captain Shisal monitored the mining operation to ensure everything went smoothly. Minerals were being harvested from all over the planet, separated and graded, and placed in the ship's vast holds, each with a volume of a cubic kilometer. The type and purity of the elements in each hold was cataloged and the information sent back to headquarters to be registered in the global marketplace.

During such operations, the Euclidian mining ships typically also collected a number of choice animal specimens to sell to collectors. Some species, even humanoids, might be harvested in their entirety for use as beasts of burden or servants. The humanoids on Cerebran were too small for manual labor purposes, the complex atmosphere they breathed made them too expensive to harvest and maintain. The ship would take a few and let the rest die as their atmosphere was depleted.

The atmosphere was mined similarly to the minerals: the ship pulled it into giant distribution chambers that separated the different types of gases and compressed them for storage. Later they would be sold at high prices to highly-advanced planets that had destroyed their own atmospheres by over-industrialization. When one's planet was facing extinction, no price was really too exorbitant.

The island one shaman was informed that the shamans were ready and he gave the signal: Gong, gong, gong, gong, gong. Around the planet, shamans focused on one collective thought, to push the alien ship into the sun.

On the ship, there was a jolt and a sudden acceleration. The ship was pulled from orbit and sped toward the sun. "What the hell is happening?" shouted Captain Shisal.

"We are somehow being pushed into the sun," replied the navigator.

"Execute the Hoosenberg maneuver, now!" ordered the captain.

"Negative gravity topside, positive gravity below being deployed."

The ship came to rest then slowly moved back toward Cerebran.

"Weapons officer, report!" said Shisal.

"I've found the source, Captain, and have aimed our weapons," replied the weapons officer.

"Fire! Navigator, prepare to compensate for the change in thrust once we have neutralized the attack."

The ship's crew were not weekend scavenger hunters or spelunkers. They were warriors who understood that stripping a planet of its minerals and killing or enslaving its inhabitants might be met with overwhelming military or psychic force. They scouted each planet and nearby systems months in advance of an operation, and sometimes faced superior forces. But their ability to kidnap people at remote distances and their coercive techniques for gathering logistical information made them basically invincible. They had acquired new weaponry and the cooperation of species with tremendous capabilities. Their training and discipline would keep them ahead of those that desired to thwart their efforts.

Seconds later, each of the assembly halls and all the people within were pulverized by blasts from the ship's weapons. The ship moved back into orbit and resumed its mining operations.

Captain Shisal was in a really foul mood. "Someone explain to me how this happened," he commanded. "And get me the Species Analysis Officer, now."

The Species Analysis Officer and her assistant met with Shisal on the bridge. "Well, Captain, there are people on the planet who take on the role of shaman," said the officer. "With the assistance of synaptic crystals they can move simple objects. A group of shamans can combine this generally innocuous ability to impact something as large and far away as our ship."

"Is your assistant aware of the research we've done on this planet?"

"Yes, Captain"

"Security, throw this fool" – Shisal indicated the Species Analysis Officer – "into the Zaron flea room and pump the audio ship-wide through the intercom. If this type of attack happens again," he said to the assistant, "I promise I will not be as lenient with you."

Captain Shisal spoke to the crew over the intercom. "Now here this. The Species Analysis Officer failed to thoroughly examine a species on this planet, which resulted in a nearly fatal attack moments ago. As a punishment she will be placed in the Zaron flea room to be slowly and painfully consumed. All are asked to maintain silence so as to absorb this lesson without distraction. The safety of us all depends on everyone doing their jobs with dedication and thoroughness. That is all."

Seconds later, buzzing could be heard across the ship followed by loud, blood curdling screams that lasted about three minutes and suddenly ceased. Instances of disciplinary action were infrequent, but consequential. Crewmembers understood the risk and reward of service aboard their ship. One tour on this ship could make the most junior person wealthy enough to enjoy a modest retirement. Multiple tours could make a person wealthy enough to have a great place to retire and an abundance of servants. These moments of public discipline merely encouraged the crew to focus on their jobs that much harder.

Pico had left the assembly hall and gone out to the edge of the village to try to get a look at the mining machines. He wanted to see how the shamans destroyed those vehicles because he might have to do something similar someday. The machines were massive black metal vehicles on huge wheels, each bigger than the assembly hall. He watched as one excavated a hole in the ground and then rolled into it, scooping up material as it went. After a while it returned to the surface and ejected a large stream of material into a pile. The vehicle emitted a slight glow and then bounced up as its load was emptied. It then rolled back into the hole and repeated the process.

The Euclidian mining vehicles were efficient. A laser mounted on the roof pulverized the ground while spinning scoops grabbed the material and threw it inside the vehicle. A system of belts and analyzers separated the sought-after material from the refuse. The vehicle returned to the surface when it was full, disposed of the refuse, and transported the remaining material to the orbiting ship.

As Pico watched, the machines suddenly stopped what they were doing and one by one started floating into the air and off toward the nearby acid sea. First one vehicle and then another fell into the sea and disappeared with a loud hiss and a gurgle. The sea was a swirl of red, orange, and brown liquid and emitted caustic fumes. Anything unfortunate enough to fall in was quickly dissolved.

Pico heard an explosion behind him, and immediately after the procession of floating vehicles ceased. Those that had not been destroyed in the sea returned to where they were taken from and recommenced their mining.

Pico turned to see smoke rising from Tor Hill. As the smoke lifted he could see that the hill had been reduced to rubble, and the assembly hall destroyed. Ships appeared from the sky and attacked the villagers. Pico was afraid that the invaders would kill him and everyone else on the planet. He decided that he had to save himself somehow. He examined one of the mining vehicles and noticed a maintenance panel that he thought he might be able to open and hide inside. He ran to the vehicle, but the panel was much too high for him to reach. The vehicle was about to return to its hole, and Pico was afraid that it would zoom off and leave him exposed to the attacking ships. He pulled out his shaman stone and focused on the panel's two latches. The first one opened and then the second one. Now all he had to do was levitate inside, but he had not mastered the skill. Pico focused and launched himself toward the panel opening but missed it by a few inches. He slammed into the side of the vehicle, fell and rolled beneath it, dropping his sphere in the process. Pico, dazed, watched as one of the massive wheels rolled toward him. He reached for his stone and used telekinesis to pull it into his hand. With one last effort he levitated into the open panel and slammed the door behind him as the vehicle raced back into the tunnel it had dug for itself.

### CHAPTER 9

MORGAN

Across the universe, on a planet far from Pico's, a boy near his age played in an alley. He had an old tennis ball and used an even older racquet to hit the ball against the brick wall of one of the buildings in the alley. Morgan dreamed of playing professional tennis. He was occasionally beaten handily at a local tennis club when he was lucky enough to sneak in. During tennis season he would hang out at the Radio Shack on K Street to watch the matches. He liked rooting for the underdog. He related to being the person with the odds against him. Morgan was five foot six inches tall, slender and athletic. He played basketball and softball with the neighborhood kids, but tennis was his passion. Unfortunately there were no tennis courts in his neighborhood, and his foster parents didn't belong to a country club. Even if they had they probably wouldn't have permitted him to go. At home, he was subjugated to performing chores, and that's why he spent as much time as possible away from the house.

Morgan's foster family weren't particularly fond of him. His foster mother had a special disdain for him. The fact that he came from a single-parent household in the projects made her feel that he was a hoodlum unworthy of her love. The only reason that she housed him was because of the extra money she earned from the city. She tolerated interacting with Morgan only long enough to tell him to do his chores. As a matter of fact, he did everyone's chores. He sometimes got smacked for not washing the car well enough or forgetting to bring clothes home from the cleaners.

Morgan's foster family lived in a three-bedroom house in the heart of DC. While it was a comfortable house, he rarely got to enjoy it. He mostly kept to himself, hiding out in the alley, practicing tennis and dreaming of playing at Wimbledon and leaving his dreary life behind. Backhand, forehand, backhand, forehand, backhand, forehand. Always the same drill. Then he would arrange bottles and cans from the dumpsters and use them as targets to improve his aim. But it wasn't like playing against a real person, which he got to experience only on rare occasions.

While banging away at the targets, Morgan often imagined he was a superhero battling criminals with his racquet of power. He would strike down the mightiest villain with his power balls. In reality he was happy that his racquet could hit balls at all. He had fished it out of a dumpster near the DC Tennis Club. He found old balls in the same area. It was amazing what some of the club members considered junk. He sometimes stood at the fence and watched people play real tennis. He imagined himself valiantly defeating them in a tournament.

Morgan's real life wasn't as grand. He was born to an unwed teenage mother. He never met his father, about whom his mother spoke fondly. She dropped out of high school soon after he was born. Her parents disowned her and she had to work two jobs to make ends meet. Still they were happy together. She loved her son and worked hard to give him the best things in life. He went to private school where he was allowed to cultivate his imagination. He dreamed big and imagined he could do anything. He drank in science like it was Kool-Aid. Morgan and his mother had a great life together. They stayed in a one-bedroom apartment in a nice building in a poor part of DC. Though the neighborhood was somewhat dangerous, their building was safe.

Morgan's mother often read to him, played board games with him, and walked with him to the nearby park. She made sure that he could swim and play the games that kids typically played. One day, while teaching Morgan to shoot pool, she fell to the floor and started to convulse. An ambulance took her to the emergency room of a nearby hospital where tests revealed that she had a small tumor in her brain. The tumor was probably operable, but Morgan's mother didn't have adequate health insurance even to cover the cost of proper tests, let alone an operation to remove the tumor.

"Mom, what did the doctor say?" asked Morgan.

"She said I just need to rest. I'll quit one of my jobs for a while until I'm feeling better."

She was soon released from the hospital, but she never got better. She called her parents to ask for help, but they refused to take her call. Over time her condition worsened and she eventually fell into a coma and lay in a hospital bed awaiting the inevitable.

Morgan was picked up by Child Protective Services early on during his mother's sickness and placed into foster care where he prayed every night for his mother to get well and save him from his life of misery. He went to see her most every day. He sat by her bed and spoke to her lifeless body that used be so full of energy. She shared a room with another comatose woman who was much larger than his slender mother. Reportedly, this woman had driven into a parked car while reaching for a Big Mac she dropped just out of reach below the steering wheel.

Morgan sometimes brought a book and read to the woman who so often had read to him. Though she never responded, Morgan believed that she could hear him. He would rub her hands and tickle her feet and whisper in her ear with no response. He so much wanted her to come back to him. "Momma," he pleaded, "please wake up and take me home. Don't leave me with those mean people. You won't have to do anything, just come back to me, please!"

Living with his foster parents was a real change. He had to go to a public school that wasn't quite the bastion of learning his private school had been. His foster parents never read to him or played board games and rarely took him anywhere.

His foster father was a congressional aide. His foster mother worked part-time at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. She often took her own three kids on outings, telling Morgan he had too many chores to do to join them. His chores included the dishes, clothes, floors, windows, dusting, yard work, and anything else she could think of. Upon returning home she always badgered him about not having everything done. His three foster brothers had little to do with him.

Morgan slept in a tiny corner of the family's basement. It was lightly furnished, damp, and poorly lit. He had a small dresser next to his bed for some of his clothes, and the rest he hung on the clothesline that ran across the basement ceiling. Each day after school he would visit his mother, do his homework, and start on his chores. If he was lucky he could sneak out for a little while and practice tennis in his favorite alley. At night he read comic books or adventure novels with a small book light his mother had bought him.

The last thing he did before going to bed was pray. Mostly he prayed that his mother would get well, but also to be placed in a nicer foster home. Morgan wondered why God sometimes let a wonderful person like his mother get sick so young. He and his mother had gone to church almost every Sunday, and at night she prayed with him. She was always nice to people – sometimes too nice, he thought. And what did he have to show for it? He was without his mother, and slept in the basement of a house run by the foster mother from hell. That night he just cried.

### CHAPTER 10

CULTIVATING OPERATIVES

Pico was happy to be inside the maintenance panel hatch though he was being jostled back and forth as the vehicle went about its mining efforts. At least he was safe from the attacks going on outside. The vehicle continued mining for the next several hours and then, after sending a final load up to the ship, it fell silent.

Pico was wondering what would happen next when an electric charge ran through his body and he passed out momentarily. When he came to, something had changed. He sensed that he wasn't on Cerebran anymore.

"What's that beeping in the vehicle storage bay?" yelled the operations supervisor. He stood in a room full of display screens with readouts, indicator lights, alarms, and communications windows. This control center managed the internal operations of the ship and monitored all the electrical, plumbing, and climate control systems, as well as the storage bays and exterior doors. It was one of many different control centers, and each one had a backup: one missed signal could mean death to the crew or loss of valuable cargo. The captain often tested the operations department to ensure they were on the ball. Missing an alarm could cost you your salary, your job, or your life. One of the drills they ran was the Trojan Horse, to simulate someone trying to sneak onboard by hiding in a vehicle or using a transport device. This time it wasn't a drill.

"Sir, there's an intrusion alarm in vehicle bay 117 that occurred after vehicle XY26 arrived from the planet," said an operator.

"Security!" the operations supervisor shouted.

"Yes," said a voice from the command console.

"We have a suspected Trojan Horse in vehicle bay 117."

"Transport it to security bay five. Security bay five team, prepare for receipt of suspected Trojan Horse. Examine it for possible hostiles. This is not a drill."

They could have just sent the vehicle into space, but preferred not to lose a valuable piece of equipment. The security team surrounded the vehicle as it arrived. They opened the cargo doors and found the vehicle to be empty.

"What's the scanner say?" asked a guard.

"A life form is present," responded an operator.

"Team, stay alert. I'll run a manual scan to see what we can find." The guard scanned the vehicle. "I'm picking up something behind this maintenance panel. I'm going to open it. Prepare for anything that might try to escape." The guard flung the door open and found Pico shivering in a corner. "Kill it!"

"Don't shoot," said Pico to them telepathically.

"What the... How are you able to communicate with us?"

"I'm able to scan minds and learn languages that way," Pico responded.

The guard contacted the bridge. "Captain, I have a situation here. We found a stowaway on one of the mining vehicles."

"So why didn't you just throw it into space? Why bother me with this?" said the captain angrily.

"It's able to pick up languages by scanning minds. We could use that talent during interrogations."

"Smart thinking. Throw him in a holding bay for now and tell the interrogators about his capabilities."

"Aye, Captain," said the security officer, feeling proud of herself. She addressed her detail. "Grab the creature and rerun the scan on the vehicle."

"It's clear, sir," responded the operator.

"Okay, return the vehicle and place the creature in holding bay 147. Send an image with the stats to the interrogation team. Let's make sure the rest of the vehicles are clean."

That began Pico's captivity on the ship. He was thrown into a holding bay and heard the large metal door slam shut behind him.

He scanned the room and saw lots of different creatures. They were all humanoids of some sort. Each had a cot just wide enough for one individual. The room had eating, cleansing, sanitary, and exercise areas.

Pico took one of the small empty cots by a wall away from the others. He lay there and dreamt of his home that he would probably never see again.

***

"So what do you think of your beautiful planet now that we have removed your rich atmosphere, the minerals from the ground, and your exotic wildlife?" said the captain to one of the Cerebran elders the Euclidians had captured.

"What you've done is abominable," he replied. "You've destroyed our planet and most of its inhabitants. There was no need for this genocide!"

"You're right about that. Even though you are tiny I might have found someone willing to pay a good price for you, maybe to clean sewer lines or chimneys or as a pet for an eccentric on some gaseous planet. But you pissed me off with that surprise attack. Trust me, someone here paid for that and now you will. I have a nice trick I want to show you. Navigator, have you calculated the planet's final trajectory?"

"Aye, Captain."

"Give me a view of the planet on the view screen," Shisal ordered. "What do you think, gentlemen?"

"That's not right," exclaimed an elder. "Why are the moons clumped behind our planet?"

"Due to the fact that we removed the atmosphere from your planet and mined so much of it away, its orbit is decaying at an increasing rate toward your sun. Your moons are following behind, into oblivion. It will take about a week before your planet and its moons are consumed by the sun. Don't worry, you will be alive until the end. I wouldn't want you to miss the extinction of your planet and its civilization. I had a large cave set up for the five of you, full of your atmosphere and with refrigerant to keep you alive as long as possible so you can experience the destruction of your planet first-hand. I'd like to stay and watch, but you're already boring me. This is payback for trying to push us into the sun." Shisal gave orders. "Send them off and let's get home so we can dump our cargo and get ready for our next mission."

The captain let out a sardonic laugh as he pulled out a live Plexus creature, his favorite snack. He smashed it with his fist and placed the dazed squeaking creature into his mouth, ending the culinary moment with a belch.

***

Pico was restless. He was out of his environment and in a room full of strangers, to say the least about them. There were about two hundred cots of different sizes in the room, and about forty different species represented. Many were like Pico, the only one of their species in the room, and maybe the only one left anywhere. Pico had heard that there were cells housing thousands of the same species. He could only imagine that they were being sold as slaves. From the guards that threw him in there he could tell that most of the captives in his cell were going to zoos and museums.

Pico discretely used his shaman stone to assimilate the languages of his fellow captives. One by one he learned their gruesome tales, though they were all very similar. The Euclidians had spied on their planets to learn about their resources and weaknesses. A ship then moved in to take down their defenses, many of their people were taken captive, the planet's resources were harvested, and sometimes the Euclidians had destroyed the planet to prevent others from taking advantage of it. The Euclidians were often fulfilling requests for specimens by researchers, zoos, and rich collectors, or for military interrogation and exploitation for any special powers they seemed to exhibit. Now that Pico's life had been spared he could assist with the types of interrogation that had led to his cellmates' captivity.

Pico tried to sleep and forget about his predicament, but he found himself suffocating. This was a new feeling for him. He wasn't getting the nutrients he needed from the environment in the cell. He stood up and grabbed his chest. The pain was creeping over him. He could feel himself passing out.

Pico's normally light blue skin was turning green. He leaned against the wall to keep from falling over and felt a bit of relief. He released the wall and started to feel dizzy again. He put his hand back against the wall and again his dizziness eased. He used his hands to try to pull nutrients from the wall and it seemed to work. He placed his other hand on the wall and concentrated on pulling nutrients into his body. He began to feel normal again.

His skin was now dark blue so he knew he was still missing something. He went to the nutrition troughs and placed a hand in each one until he felt himself being revived. His skin color eventually turned back to its normal light blue. This was going to take some getting used to. Unfortunately he couldn't use his feet to soak up nutrients as he walked around. That inborn protection mechanism, which was great for walking around on his planet, would not be helpful in his current captive state.

Pico went back to the wall and noticed that his handprints had been etched into the metal. He figured his captures wouldn't be happy if he destroyed their wall – he had to be more inconspicuous about his feeding practices. He took a container of liquid from one of the troughs and lay under his cot, up against the wall.

Healthy again for the time being, Pico used his shaman stone to mentally travel through the walls and investigate the ship. He could see, hear, and smell things as if he were physically there. Outside the nearest wall was a long hallway stretching in both directions. The hall was dimly lit by light-tubes, and dotted with what looked like communications devices, sensors, and several types of nozzles.

Pico heard a quiet buzzing sound and turned his attention to see a small vehicle coming towards him. It had a couple of spinning antennae and tiny arms extending from its body. The arms were reaching out as if trying to find something.

He floated down the hall to an intersection with an even longer hall that extended as far as he could see. In this hall the white tube lights were interspersed by an occasional blue light. Pico went to the nearest blue light and saw a door underneath it. He looked into the door and saw a containment cell much like his. He checked several other doors and found the same thing.

Pico floated upward to see if he could find a control center of some sorts and find a way off of the ship. He floated through several levels but found only more containment cells and storage areas.

After rising twenty levels, Pico came to a corridor with light-tubes of colors he had not seen on other floors. He traveled down the corridor and stopped at a door under a green light. Peering through the door he saw what appeared to be crew quarters inhabited by a group of Euclidians. The area just beyond the door seemed to be a lounge. The room was brightly lit and scattered with assorted chairs.

A crewmember was chatting over a video communications device with what appeared to be a loved one. On a nearby couch was a couple apparently being romantic: one sat on the other's lap. The one on top shuddered for a while then collapsed onto the other. The genders of the Euclidians were more distinct from each other than those of the Cerebrans. There was really no visible way to distinguish a male Cerebran from a female, but carrying a newborn was strong evidence that a person was female.

In an adjoining, darker room, Pico found four crewmembers playing some sort of three-dimensional battle game that moved animated soldiers across a make-believe landscape. They appeared to be able to feel what was happening to the animated soldiers. When one of them got shot a player would jerk back in his chair.

Pico discovered what appeared to be sleeping areas, a dining room, and a bathing facility. The crewmembers obviously lived a lot better than Pico and the others confined in his cell.

Pico wasn't getting any information that would help him depart the ship so he drifted back to the corridor to see what else he could find. There were various colored lights along the corridor. Most were some shade of blue. Upon entering the rooms that were identified by the blue-colored lights, all he noticed were more crew quarters or facilities that supported the crew. One housed an enormous kitchen where all sorts of food was being prepared, none of it like what was served in his cell.

Through another door was a large gymnasium where crewmembers exercised on different types of equipment, or sparred with each other, or merely stretched. An adjoining room was used for target practice with an astounding range of weapons. Pico became afraid just watching them being fired.

Other rooms contained medical facilities, a library, and a relaxation center that looked quite enticing. He could sense that the people there were experiencing some sort of fake reality. It was obvious that this level was just for managing the needs of the crew so he drifted up again and found himself in the middle of a conversation that he found quite interesting.

"We still have 52 hours before we make it back home. I've already scheduled the special replenishments that we'll need to mine the next planets we will be visiting," said an officer to a holographic image of the captain.

"Retrieve our operative from the planet that we've been monitoring, and review our attack strategy one more time. I don't want any more unexpected trips into a sun," sneered the captain.

"Aye, Captain. I'll have the transport team contact her right away."

This is my opportunity, thought Pico. He had to find the transport room to see if he could use it somehow to get off the ship.

"Transport room, this is Logistics."

Pico focused on the impending response, hoping to detect where in the ship it was coming from.

"Transport here," came a voice from a speaker in the control panel.

Pico winced. Not enough time. He would need a longer response to detect the person at the other end of the conversation.

"I need you to get a fix on our operative in system XAB1123."

"Roger that."

Still not enough time!

"We need you to bring her in, as well as the others she's working with."

"Will do."

Pico was exasperated by the short replies.

"We'll bring them up separately over the next couple of hours as we locate them."

Bingo! Pico let his mind target the sound patterns from the conversation and flowed to their origin. Before long, his projected self was next to the transport officer.

"Ping the operative and let her know that she is needed," said the transport officer to one of the operators. "Then locate the others that are working with her."

Pico looked around and saw several people in the room looking into monitors. They appeared to be windows into faraway places, as the images were obviously not of places on the ship. Some images were inside buildings, and others out of doors. Some were during the day and others at night. The operators seemed to be monitoring different species, but after the officer gave the order to locate the individuals they recalibrated their devices and the subsequent images appeared to be different locations on the same planet.

"I've contacted our operative and she indicated that she is available for transport right away," replied the transport operator.

"Bring her up," replied the officer. "Place her in the reception area we've designed for her planet's environment. Tell Cobalt he's needed to debrief her."

"Engaging now, sir. Cobalt, you are needed in reception XAB1123. Your operative will be there for final briefing."

"Cobalt here. I'm on my way."

His voice didn't sound like the others. The tone was different, and there was something else that Pico couldn't quite make out.

"She's coming in now," said a different operator.

Pico looked at the operator's screen and could see the image of a room. It was completely different from the other rooms he'd seen on the ship. The furniture was smaller and of a completely different design. He could see a window that seemed to have a view of a mountain and a sun in the sky. That seemed odd since he was sure that it was a room near where they were. There were no tube lights in that room or anything obviously made of metal. The lights were round and glowed brightly. The walls were a pastel color and the floor was covered with some sort of cloth. On the wall was a picture of a being in a uniform; it was a species that he had not seen on the ship.

Pico saw a spark appear in the center of the room and it quickly took the form of a creature from the inside out, as if it were an anatomy lesson. The materialization process completed and in the middle of the room stood a slender humanoid with long thin strands of material emanating from her head. She had light delicate skin much like Pico's but beige in color. Her eyes were brown with black centers and white around the outside.

Pico found her quite pleasant to look at. She stood there for a moment as if composing herself, then looked around, spotted a desk, and walked over and sat behind it. Soon afterward a door opened and a person walked in who was covered from head to toe. The person was the same height as the woman and also slender, but Pico could not tell anything more about the newcomer.

"Ni hao, Li Xiao," greeted the person.

"Ni hao, Commander," replied the woman. "Good to see you again."

This woman was from the planet Earth, located in the solar system that was the ship's next destination once it was replenished at home. She had been recruited to provide intelligence on the planet. The Euclidians used several techniques to recruit spies from places they were planning to attack. They weren't opposed to helping a collaborator as long as it got them the intelligence they needed. Gathering intelligence without collaborators took too much effort. To recruit Li Xiao they had used greed and revenge as motivation.

The Euclidian intelligence team would scan a planet looking for its power center. They would then look for someone who was susceptible to manipulation, using an empath as part of the process. While empaths couldn't directly communicate with beings at a distance, they could sense a person's intentions, emotional state, and general character.

After a quick scan of the Earth, the United Nations building seemed like the best place to find an operative. They slowly scanned each person and ran across Li Xiao as she was begrudgingly translating emails with assistance of the Bing Translator. It was laborious, menial work for someone who used to be a diplomatic translator for the Secretary General, as well as his lover.

Li Xiao normally had contact with diplomats from several countries. Her mastery of several languages and Top Secret clearance gave her unfettered access to files and documents. She attended many state dinners where she had social access to diplomats, which made her even more valuable to the Euclidians. A few drinks and a warm smile was all it took to get even the most disciplined diplomat to let his guard down.

One day the Secretary General had decided to upgrade to a younger model, a woman named Consuela, who treated Li Xiao with disdain. The new woman took Li Xiao's job and became her new boss. Consuela had fun sending her to pick up coffee, sandwiches, and even her dry cleaning. She took every opportunity to let Li Xiao know that she was no longer top dog in the office.

Li Xiao complained to the Secretary General and he had her moved to email translation. He threatened to fire her if she said another word about the matter. It was bad enough that her decrease in pay forced her to give up her Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park. If she lost her job she would have to go back to China in disgrace.

The Euclidian intelligence team decided that she would be a perfect recruit. One night while she slept she was transported into a room on a spaceship that was designed to look like a hotel room. The transportation startled her awake, and she looked around see what looked to be a normal hotel room. A picture of Mao Zedong hung on a wall. Next to the picture was a large window with a view of Mount Huashan in the distance. The room was beautifully decorated with Chinese art from the Ming dynasty. A menu for the Huashan hotel was sitting on a desk near the window.

As she was examining the room, the door opened and a man entered, covered from head to toe, including gloves on his hands and a thick stocking over his face. He spoke to her in Mandarin, her native tongue.

"Xiao Xiang Hao, Li Xiao."

"Who are you, where am I, and what do you want?"

"Forgive me if I frightened you Ms. Li. I assure you that you are in no danger. I am Zhao Zhang from the People's Republic of China. I would like to offer you an opportunity to get your job back, have revenge on your ex-lover and his tart, and even make enough money on the side to keep you quite comfortable. If you are not interested I will have you sent back unharmed and you will never hear from us again."

"I'm interested, but what would I have to do?"

"The Chinese government is concerned about military threats against us. We would like to learn as much as possible about these threats and how to defend ourselves. You would be performing a great service to your country."

"Why me?"

"Your access to people, your ability to speak multiple languages, and your great ambition make you highly qualified to help keep our country safe. So, are you interested or would you like to get back to your translation?"

"You mentioned that I would make enough extra money to keep me comfortable. How comfortable are we talking about?"

"See the Prada bag lying next to you?"

"That's the one I've been looking at in the Neiman Marcus store!"

"Inside you will find two hundred thousand American dollars. It's yours to keep, along with the bag. Each time we meet I'll give you an additional bag with more money from any country you like."

"So far I'm extremely interested. Can you get that slut a job at the UN cleaning toilets?"

"No problem."

"And I get my job back?"

"A better job."

"Deal!"

"Understand that if you accept this relationship with us it's until death do we part."

"I can live with that."

Mr. Tsang waved his hand and said, "We'll be in touch."

At that, Ms. Li was back in her own bed, clutching her new Prada bag full of money.

The next day the UN Secretary General received a phone call. The voice at the other end instructed, "Ms. Li will be appointed as special attaché and Consuela will be assigned to cleaning toilets on the cafeteria level. If Consuela refuses, the secret documents under her mattress will be turned over to her government and she will probably spend a long time in prison, if she is lucky. If that makes you uncomfortable, view the DVD in your pocket covering your recent trip to Thailand. I don't think your constituents would be happy to see you 'bathing' with those young boys. Are we clear?"

"They were just attendants. There was nothing dirty about what we were doing."

"So your answer is no?"

"I'll take care of it tomorrow."

"Good. You won't hear from us again."

Li Xiao began her new job at the UN, as did Consuela. Ms. Li spent the next few weeks developing contacts that could provide the information that the commander needed. At times she used the commander's influence to persuade some of these contacts to see things her way.

***

Aboard the Euclidian ship, the commander spoke to Ms. Li. "We have brought all our collaborators here for final interviews and then you can return to enjoying your life. Your much wealthier life. We want to make sure that we have all the details correct from your reports and that no new developments have arisen. As a parting gift, here is a Jimmy Choo bag with twenty million Euros. I'm going to bring in each of your contacts, one at a time. Let us know if you have any concerns about your conversations with them."

Pico followed Ms. Li into the interrogation room. The room was connected to an observation room that was surrounded by silk curtains, presumably to hide the ship's metal walls. There were seats for people to observe what was going on in the interrogation room. A few moments later the German UN ambassador was shown into the room.

"Guten Tag, Ambassador," said Ms. Li.

"Let's dispense with the formalities and get on with it."

Pico was feeling weak. He returned to his body and found his hands had gone through the wall and that his container of fluid was missing. He was surprised that he had somehow eaten his way through the wall, and knew that ability would soon come in handy. He placed his hands on a new spot on the wall to regain his strength by soaking up some nutrients, and to see if he could make another hole. Once he was back to full strength he went to get more of the fluid but the trough was empty.

Pico looked around the room and saw that one of the creatures had a large container of it. He scurried over and pointed first at his empty container and then at the creature's full one. The creature looked down at Pico, made a grunting noise, and swatted him away. Pico ran to hide under a nearby cot. He thought for a minute and then grabbed his shaman stone. Focusing his telekinetic energy, he flung the creature's pillow at a larger creature laying next to it. The first creature smiled and tried to wave off the other without causing trouble, but it turned an ugly shade of yellow and swung a large fist into the offending creature's chest, slamming him onto the floor. The creature leapt from the floor and attached himself to the other creature's head just in time for an overhead weapon to stun them both into unconsciousness.

Pico seized the moment to grab a scoop of the liquid. Before scurrying off he turned to the creature and said, "Sorry!"

### CHAPTER 11

LONG ROAD HOME

"Sorry my ass!" shouted Morgan's foster mother. Morgan stood in front of her car with her three sons – the twins Don and Lon, and Ron the oldest son. She sometimes called Morgan "MorGON" to rhyme with her sons' names, which Morgan detested. "MorGON, if you can't finish your chores, don't expect to ride around with us."

"Why don't they ever have to do chores?" Morgan whined, pointing at her sons.

"They've already proven they can be disciplined and follow orders. Now it's your turn to prove that you can. So turn around, do like MJ, and Beat It!"

Morgan pouted and turned back toward the house. Don kicked him in the butt, knocking him to the ground. "Yeah, get to it, punk." The brothers all laughed as they walked to the car. Morgan grabbed his racket from next to the stairs and fired a ball into the back of Don's head. Don spun around and started after Morgan but he fired another volley that delivered a ball squarely on Don's crotch, dropping him onto the grass face first. Don moaned loudly as his mother looked back.

"Get off the ground, stop acting like a baby, and get in the car before I come over and kick you in the balls my damn self. I can't wait for you kids to grow up and get out of my house so I can get my life back."

Morgan ran into the house as the boys and their mother got into the car and drove off. He paused to look at his image in the mirror by the door, and ran his finger across the scar that was left after his foster mother, Cheryl, hit him in the face with a hot iron. He didn't believe she had meant it, but he was scarred just the same. Cheryl caught so much hell from everyone about it that he had a month off from chores and could do whatever he wanted. She even took him to an amusement park and let him spend the whole day riding every ride. It had been just the two of them and he actually started to like her, but before long Cheryl reverted to her old evil self.

To avoid his foster family's wrath, Morgan rushed to finish his chores before they returned. He washed and dried the dirty dishes. He laundered, ironed, and folded all the clean clothes, arranged them in the laundry basket, and placed a bow on top. He made Don's bed and cleaned up his room, and left a note that simply read "Sorry!" Just as he hit the bottom step to his basement hideaway he heard his foster family returning. He grabbed his tennis racket and balls and climbed out the basement window to practice in his favorite alley until Don cooled down. When he was playing at Wimbledon they would be sorry.

During lunch the next day at school, Ron passed Morgan with a tray of food. "Salut, frère," said Morgan. Ron just waved him off.

"Who is that?" Ron's friend asked.

"That's Morgan, my foster brother. He lives in our basement. He speaks Spanish and Italian and now he's studying French. He says he wants to master the Latin languages. That's why he's wearing the headphones."

"Is he planning on being a diplomat or something?"

"No, he wants to be an international businessman like that guy in that movie, The Thomas Crown Affair. He plans to get his MBA and live in Europe when he's not on the tennis circuit."

"So he's going to be a tennis star too? Why not football or baseball?"

"He says in team sports you have to depend on other people and people are mostly undependable. He wants to know that he is winning or losing based on the strength of his own talents. Most of the time I just think he's loopy. Other times I think he's going to become somebody great. He's one of the few kids in high school that enjoys going to class."

Morgan closed the door to the house after arriving home from school. Cheryl was there to meet him.

"Hi, Morgan, how was school?"

"It was okay. Science, math, and history are boring. They just teach stuff I learned already in my other school. No one picked me again to play basketball in gym class. In French class I learned that Lyon is the second largest city in France and used to be a Roman colony."

"Whatever, smarty pants. Go do your homework and then start on your chores. There are a couple of baskets of clothes downstairs by the washer. Vacuum upstairs once you get a load started."

"I finished my homework in study hall so I'll just start on the clothes now."

"So much the better. Next week you won't have to worry about all that. We're taking a week off to visit my parents in Michigan. My father has the sugar and had his feet cut off. My mother is beside herself with grief and insisted I come up and visit them before he dies. We'll probably see some other relatives and friends of mine on the way."

"Do you think he's going to die soon?" asked Morgan with a worried look on his face. He was thinking of his mother's fate.

"No, Morgan," she said with a sardonic tone. "Evil don't die. It just festers until it infects everything around it and lives on in everyone it touches. I know. I've had my own struggles trying to rid myself of it."

On the following Saturday the SUV was packed and ready to go. Ron was the oldest and would be riding shotgun. He would also get to drive for part of the trip since he had his license, but only in the daytime. Don and Lon complained as usual, not wanting to be stuck in a car for hours on end to meet some old people they didn't know. But Cheryl quickly ended their complaints.

"If you think I'm going to leave you alone in this house for a week while your father is at work, you've got another thing coming," she shouted, hands on hips and shaking her head. "Stop your whining and get your bags in the car. Don't forget your laptop and DVDs. We won't be stopping until we pull over for gas in Columbus. I suggest you use the bathroom now. I got food in the car so all you need to do is SHUT UP AND GET IN!"

"What if I have to pee an hour from now?" Lon whined.

"Then you have to use a pop bottle, the window, or your pants," she replied with a serious look.

They all piled into the SUV. Morgan was forced to sit in the far back, surrounded by the luggage, so Don and Lon could place the laptop between them and watch movies. Morgan was also responsible for passing out food and taking care of the trash.

They reached Columbus in seven hours and took a thirty-minute break to gas up, stretch their legs, use the bathroom, dump the trash, and get more food. Lon and Don threw a football around, Ron texted his girlfriend, and Cheryl called her mother to let her know how the trip was going. Morgan practiced his French: "Regardez les arbres avec leurs feuilles. Regardez le fleur avec ses petales. Regardez la pelouse, ouch!"

"Regardez la football hitting you in the head," laughed Lon.

"Lon, knock it off before I come over there and smack you," yelled Cheryl. "All of you get back in the car. Next stop is your aunt and uncle's house in Detroit. Remember to call him Uncle Boyce and her A'Ella for Aunt Ella."

"Why do you call her A'Ella?" asked Ron.

"When we were kids we had a hard time saying Aunt Ella. It mostly came out A'Ella, so now that's what everyone calls her, even if she's not their aunt. Weird how those things work out."

"Do they have any kids?" asked Lon.

"They have four kids. Joe left home already, but still lives in Detroit. Joyce and Janis and Louis still live at the house. Louis is the cool one."

"Maybe we could hang out and hit some spots," exclaimed Ron.

"You can hang out with Louis all you want. But the only spots you better be hitting are the mall and the movie theatre. I do not want you drinking and going to bars underage. You can drive until we get to the outskirts of Detroit, then I'll take over. I need me some rest."

Ron took the wheel and four hours later they pulled into Detroit. Cheryl took the wheel and drove them to their cousins' house on the north side, off of Seven Mile Road.

"Wow, our cousins live by Seven Mile Road. I didn't know that really existed. Do they live near Eminem?" asked Don.

"Since he lived on Eight Mile, they live about a mile from where he used to live before he blew up," responded Cheryl. "Let's go inside and say hello to everyone."

As they piled out of the car, stretching and yawning, Uncle Boyce and A'Ella came out the side door to greet them, followed by Louis.

"Hey, niece," said Boyce, giving her a hug.

"Hey, uncle, let me introduce you to the kids. This is Ron, the oldest. He's seventeen and graduates next year. These are my twins. Get over here, you two. This is Don and Lon, fifteen and going to the tenth grade. The one climbing out of the back is Morgan, my foster child. He don't talk much, but he's plenty smart and works hard. Y'all say hi to your aunt and uncle."

"Hi," they said in unison with shy smiles. A'Ella gave them each a hug, stopping to give Morgan some extra attention.

"Just because you weren't born into the family, I don't want you to feel like an outsider, okay?"

"Okay," replied Morgan.

"Why don't you put your stuff inside and come to the store with me?"

"Okay!" said Morgan, excited to see someone showing interest in him.

"Louis, what's up?" said Ron. He gave Louis a social handshake and warm hug. "I heard you were the coolest person in the family. Can you show me around Detroit?"

"Sure, cuz. Why don't you grab something to eat and we can hit the streets."

"Louis, no drinking, drugs, or fast women," said Cheryl, shaking her finger with eyebrows raised.

"You mean like we used to, Salt Shaker?" replied Louis.

"Don't be bringing up my old nicknames. Just because we used to do it, doesn't mean I want him doing it. Have him back by midnight, alive and sober. We're leaving early tomorrow and I don't want to be dealing with his hangover. All of you grab your stuff and take it into the house. A'Ella will let you know where you're sleeping."

"Niece," said A'Ella, "you can take Joe's room." The twins can have Janis' room. She's going to stay at a friend's house tonight. Ron can sleep on the living room couch and Morgan can take the couch in the basement."

"Not again," bemoaned Morgan. "Why do I always have to sleep in the basement?"

"Don't even worry about it," said A'Ella. "It's the coolest place in the house. You'll have your own TV, and there's a pool table and a couple hundred CDs and DVDs. Janis works at Virgin and brings stuff home all the time.

"Really?"

"You better believe it."

They all went into the house to put their things away. Later they met at the dinner table in the formal dining room where Joyce and Janis were setting the table.

"Are you our cousins, too?" asked Ron.

"Yes, I'm Joyce and this is Janis."

"You two sure are fine."

"Hey, we're your cousins, not some hoes in the street. Sit down and fix your plate before I shove a chair up your ass," said Joyce, visibly annoyed.

"Sorry," said Ron.

Janis smiled. "Don't mind her. She's always angry about something. I like being called pretty. Of course, since you're my cousin, I'd still like to smack you on the back of the head with a frying pan and bury you in the backyard."

The two sisters high-fived each other and headed into the kitchen, cackling. The rest of the family sat down at the table to eat. The Watts family had grown up in Mississippi where they learned southern cooking, and for dinner they had a traditional meal of friend chicken, black-eyed peas, collard greens with pork knuckles, and corn bread. They all held hands as A'Ella said grace, and dug into the food.

After the meal, A'Ella grabbed Morgan and they headed to the garage. A'Ella turned on the light in the three-car garage to expose her husband's Buick Enclave, Joyce's Ford Taurus, and A'Ella's blue Porsche. When she told Morgan to get in the passenger seat of the Porsche, Morgan's eyes lit up. The garage door opened and A'Ella popped onto the street and entered the highway, quickly reaching eighty miles per hour. Morgan was surprised, scared, and excited all at the same time. A'Ella was wearing designer clothes, high-heeled shoes, and nice jewelry. When she pulled a cigarette from her Hermes purse, he noticed a wad of cash inside.

"You don't worry about getting mugged?"

"Not me," she said confidently, blowing smoke out of the sunroof. "I carry a knife with me all the time and I'm not afraid to cut up a fool. You better believe that!"

"Now I see where your daughters get their toughness."

"In this town you have to be tough or they will chew you up and spit you out. If someone comes after you, you let them know you are willing to fight to the death and they'll back up off of you. Enough of that crazy talk. I hear you are learning French. Let me hear some of it."

"Yes. I mean, oui, madame. Je suis content de faire votre connaissance."

"Tres bien, mon petit. You keep studying, boy. It will come in handy when you go to Paris. And trust me, you will make it there someday. I love Paris. The clothes, the perfume, the food, the shows, tous ca! Another thing. Promise me that you will never get on food stamps or unemployment. Handouts are for people who are not willing to make a valiant effort to get a job. Any job. You stay in school as long as you can. The more you know, the better chance you will have in life. This is where we get off. There's a great Whole Foods store here where I love to buy groceries."

Back at the house, Louis was starting up his BMW 325 with Ron riding shotgun.

"Man, this is cool!" said Ron. "I've never been in a BMW before."

"Well, you're going to be in one all night tonight," replied Louis. "And we are going to have some fun."

"Sweet!"

"I'll make a quick loop downtown so you can see the Renaissance Center and the other sites. I'll describe the sites as we drive by. Then I'll swing by to pick up some friends and we'll go clubbing."

"Okay. Don't you have to be twenty-one to get into a club?"

"Yea, or pay an extra five dollars. Don't even worry about it. Tonight you don't have to fret about your age. Just focus on having some fun, cousin."

Cheryl decided to stay at the house with her cousin Joyce and catch up on old times while the twins were in the basement, playing Halo on the Xbox.

"Remember dancing all night at the Argyle Club?" said Cheryl. "I used to love the music and the fly guys, Carl, Dennis, Dillard, Little Ben, who was really Big Ben, if you know what I mean." She laughed out loud.

"Cheryl, you need to quit. I used to love the live music. The Twenty Grand was my joint. Dirty Helen's wasn't bad either. Live music and comedy," said Joyce, enjoying the walk down memory lane.

"Remember when Elvis Presley played at Olympia Stadium? We charged five dollars for people to park in front of our house."

"I remember annual pot day when smoking a joint was a five dollar fine. What happened to those days? It used to be sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. Now it's AIDS, crack, and gangster rap."

"That's why I got married and put that dating crap behind me. It was just too risky. Sometimes marriage and kids makes me want to pull my hair out, but I wouldn't give that up for the world. Whatever happened to that Robert St. John guy you were dating?"

"We had a whirlwind romance, got married, and six months later I moved back here away from that crazy fucker, wondering what the hell I was thinking. I just can't have a man telling me what I can and cannot do with my life."

"I get that, girlfriend. But I need the security. I don't make enough to live alone and there's no way I could live with that crazy ole man of mine. I haven't been back since he hit me with his cane and I pushed him into the glass coffee table, giving him thirty-two stitches up his arm. I was grown. He had no right to do that to me. And then mom made me apologize to that fool. I'm still mad about that one."

"That's why I made a pitcher of margaritas," said Joyce, raising the pitcher with a smile. "Let me fill up your glass."

"That's why you're my favorite cousin. Here's to you, cuz." Cheryl raised her glass to Joyce.

"So, tomorrow you're going to see that crazy man on his so-called death bed?"

"Yeah, but I'm going to stop through State and checkout our girl Professor Aurles. Then we're going to swing through Kalamazoo to catch our girl Rhonda doing her thing at Monaco Bay. Rhonda's been jamming on the keyboard for over twenty years and is still going strong."

"We used to go see her when she was playing in Lansing. Kalamazoo is just too far away for me."

"I don't blame you. That is a long drive. But I haven't seen her in years and I just miss listening to her play."

"Well, give her and Aurles a hug for me."

"I will. And with that, I'm going to hit the sack. I need to be on the road right after breakfast. See you in the morning, Joyce."

***

"I'll be right back, Ron. I just need to get my girl Karen and we can hit a club." Louis got out of the car and strolled up to a small brick house in the Highland Park section of Detroit. Moments later he returned with two women on his arms. They were both slender, about five foot seven inches, and wearing high heels and black dresses that came midway up their thighs. Louis opened the car's passenger door to introduce the ladies to Ron.

"Ron, this is my lady Karen and her friend Jacks."

"Hello, ladies," replied Ron with a bashful smile.

"Hi, Ron," they said in unison.

"Ron, could you sit in the back and keep Jacks company? I want to have Karen next to me."

"You bet," said Ron. He jumped into the back seat next to Jacks, who had taken the center spot.

"Let's get this straight, young blood," Jacks said to Ron. "I'll be your date tonight. I may even let you get a bit flirtatious, but don't get it twisted. I'm not your woman and the poonani is off limits. Got it?"

"Got it! Hell, just being next to you is beyond my wildest dreams."

"Now that's the way to flirt, kid."

"So why do they call you Jacks, anyway?"

"When I was in junior high I spent every free moment playing jacks. I was so good and obsessed with the game that people called me Jacks. If you notice, I have a gold one around my neck."

"Okay, you two," yelled Louis, breaking in from the front seat, "don't fall in love back there. We'll be at the club in a few minutes. Hide your jewelry until we get inside. We don't want to get jacked in the parking lot."

Louis pulled up to the City Club and parked in the back of the building. They all piled out of his BMW and headed for the front door. They all paid the $10 entry fee and walked in, where Ron was detained by the bouncer.

"You got an ID, buddy?"

"Chester, what are you doing?" protested Jacks. "Do you think I would be hanging out with some kid?"

"Jacks, I'm just doing my job."

"And you're doing a great job. Now let my man go so we can get our drink on."

"Sorry, man. You just look so young. Go on."

"No problem. I get that all the time," replied Ron, feeling relieved.

***

The next morning, Cheryl ignored the call for breakfast. Her head was pounding in a way she hadn't experienced in years. She had enjoyed reliving the past with Joyce, but next time she was going to resist reliving the inebriated part of her past. She lay in bed another hour, nursing her headache and thinking about the fun time she had spent reminiscing with her cousin. Eventually a knock at the door stirred her from her daydreams.

"Cheryl, you alive in there?" asked Joyce. "If you don't get up soon you're going to miss your chance at that early start you wanted."

"Okay, I'm on my way," she responded reluctantly. She dragged herself to the door and cracked it open to see Joyce holding her head.

"Damn, girl," said Joyce with a chuckle, "you look like I feel. The shower's free if you want it."

"You can laugh, 'cause I know that once I leave, you are jumping right back in the bed," Cheryl retorted. "I'll take that shower. Tell the kids to be ready in thirty minutes. A bacon-toast sandwich to go would be great."

"Don't worry. I'll take care of both of those items for you," said Joyce as she walked off.

A half-hour later, Cheryl joined her kids at the car. She hugged her aunt, uncle, and cousins and accepted a bacon sandwich and coffee mug from Joyce.

"Ron, put my bags in the back then take the wheel. Your mother doesn't feel like driving this morning."

Ron answered sluggishly. "Mom, I sort of got a hangover. Can I drive later?"

"What are you doing with a hangover? Louis! I'm going to kick your butt." She turned to see Louis disappearing behind the screen door into the house.

"Cheryl, you better get a move on," interjected Joyce. "You'll be all day trying to catch Louis. Give everyone a hug for me on your journey across Michigan."

"Will do, cousin. Ron, start the car. You should know better than to drink all night when you have things you need to do in the morning. And don't look at me like that. I'm grown!"

Two hours later the family arrived in East Lansing and drove to the Arby's on Grand River across from Michigan State. Cheryl wanted to relive her times as an undergrad when she stayed in Mary Mayo Hall. She loved those Arby's roast beef sandwiches. Her sons weren't as excited, but found something to enjoy. After lunch, Cheryl called her old friend Aurles and asked her to meet them at Michigan State's dairy store where the ice cream was made from milk from cows on the university's farm.

The kids bought ice cream cones and went outside to enjoy the view of campus. Cheryl got a small bowl of chocolate ice cream and sat on a bench with Aurles to catch up on recent events.

"So you're some big time professor here at State." Cheryl grinned with pride over Aurles' recent promotion to dean.

"I wouldn't call myself big time, but it is nice to have tenure at a big time university. Being here, I get a chance to see some of our old classmates. Evette comes through every summer. Glover and Mike Smith used to visit before they retired. I go to see Rhonda play in Kalamazoo on occasion. I really want to get to DC before I get too old to do the monument tour."

"You are a long ways from being too old to walk around. Of course, some of us aren't doing as well, judging from your update about the reunion."

"Yeah, I went to the Heights High School reunion last year and it was sad how many of us had passed or are incarcerated. Several of the ones that are still around I could barely recognize because of all the weight they had gained. Those high school cool guys that used to dismiss our erudite behavior are still trying to be cool even though they are unemployed. Being broke is not cool," Aurles said with a laugh.

"You are so right about that. Those people made my life hell. I hated high school, but I loved college. I could finally get away from those crazy high school kids and that mean ole man of mine, and live my own life. When I finally got my teaching job at Howard I thought I'd made it to heaven. When my twins came along my husband convinced me to become a stay at home mom. It might have been great for the kids, but it made me a little bitter."

"You should be proud of the job you've done with the kids. They are simply amazing. There is no doubt that they will all go to college. You even had it in your heart to bring a foster kid into your home."

"I believe it had more to do with my pocketbook than my heart. I got tired of asking my husband for money. My father was always harassing my mother about how she spent the money he gave her. I never wanted to become that person. Morgan helps me avoid that dilemma. The downside is it brought my father out in me. I've just been terrible to that boy. I feel bad about it sometimes, but most of the time my behavior feeds my bitterness."

"There is no way you can compare yourself to your father. Your father is just evil. He would always call me 'that fetchy-tailed gal', like I wasn't worthy of hanging out with you."

"Well, he doesn't like much of anybody, even me. My mother asked me to come and see him because he is supposedly dying. He's got diabetes and won't stop drinking. I'm doing everything I can to delay stepping into that house again. That's why I'm going to see Rhonda before heading over there."

"I don't blame you. Seeing Rhonda is a lot more fun than seeing your father. It's still pretty early for Rhonda. She is probably going to be asleep for a while. Why don't you take your kids by the intramural building and let them play some sports for a while? I can get them passes. In the meantime, you could give a talk to my history class on the DC monuments."

"That would be very cool. I would love to be in front of students again. Of course, if I let Morgan know he can play tennis with some college students I may not be able to drag him away when it's time to go."

***

The family left East Lansing around 4:30 and arrived at Rhonda's house in Portage, just outside Kalamazoo, around 6:00. Cheryl rang the doorbell and was greeted by a huge hug from Rhonda.

"Everyone, I want you to meet one of my best friends growing up. Not only did we go to school together but we went to church, went skating, and partied every weekend together, too. Rhonda and her sister used to play the piano in our church on Sundays. I used to go by her house all the time and was amazed by all the gadgets her father had around their house. He used a little box that he held in his hand to open his garage door. You kids take that for granted, but to me it was pure magic. Okay, I'm babbling. Please give Rhonda a hug."

Cheryl named them off as they gave her a hug, starting with Ron. "That is Ron, my oldest. Against my wishes that knucklehead went clubbing with my cousin Louis in Detroit last night. Maybe you can show him what a real night club act is like."

"I'll do what I can. They probably ain't into pianos and pop music."

"Don't be so modest. You can make the keyboard sing AND dance. You're the damn headliner at the club. I've been there. People love you. Before I forget, those are my twins Don and Lon. And the last one is Morgan, my foster son."

Rhonda gave each one of them a hug and showed them into the house. "Have a seat, everyone. I'm going to get some clothes on and treat you to food at the coolest bar in Kalamazoo. My first set starts at eight. You can hear me sing and still make it to the Heights before sundown."

"Don't remind me of that place. I'm trying to keep happy thoughts in my head as long as I possibly can."

Rhonda got dressed in a slinky red dress with sequins. She coordinated it with long red gloves and high-heeled shoes. On her head she wore a stylish feathered hat with a veil. Stepping into the living room where everyone was waiting, she announced, "I'm ready to go. Who wants to ride with me?"

All of the boys raised their hands except Morgan. "What's wrong with you?" she asked. "Don't you like my outfit?"

"I think you're b-b-beautiful," stammered Morgan, "but no one ever picks me."

"Well, I'm picking you. Let's go!"

She grabbed the astonished Morgan, plopped him into her El Dorado and headed toward Monaco Bay with an Anita Baker CD playing "Giving You the Best That I Got".

Once they arrived at Monaco Bay, they all ordered hamburgers and fries. As promised, Rhonda started her show at 8:00. They were all surprised to hear the clientele join in singing with Rhonda on some of the songs. When she sang "Don't Stop Believing", she let Ron sit next to her on the piano bench to sing along with one of his favorite songs. After going out last night, the line about "South Detroit" resonated with him. He reminisced about Jacks actually letting him kiss her goodbye. That had made his hangover well worthwhile.

Rhonda finished her set and walked Cheryl and the family out to their SUV to start the last leg of their journey. They hugged Rhonda, thanked her for the music, and set off up Highway 131. In Grand Rapids, Cheryl gassed up the SUV and then headed west on I-96 to Muskegon Heights.

Cheryl's family grew up on the eastside of Muskegon Heights in the projects, which were cinderblock townhomes. Hovey was the main street that went through the projects and her parents lived in the middle. The word "townhome" often conjures up the idea of luxury living, but there were no fireplaces, granite countertops, or stainless steel appliances in these townhomes. These were built for low-income families and those on welfare.

Cheryl's father had worked at Campbell's foundry until it closed. Then he worked construction until there were cutbacks. He ended his working life with the city parks department. At one time he had owned one of the newer homes in the Woodcliff housing development, but after losing his high-paying foundry job he was unable to make the mortgage payments. That's when they moved to the projects. That fall down the social ladder had hurt Cheryl's father's pride immensely. He began to drink and took out his pain on his family, and his anger drove his kids away.

Cheryl pulled up to her old home and knocked on the door. Her mother answered and gave her a hug. She recognized everyone but Morgan. She paused and gave him a look.

"You must be Morgan. Come give me a hug, boy. I hope you don't mind me being your grandmother for a while. Your grandfather can't wait to see all of you."

"I'm sure he'll be as pleased as punch to see me," said Cheryl, her lips dripping with sarcasm. "You kids have a seat in the living room while I have a talk with my mother in the kitchen."

"Cheryl, I don't want you coming to my house with this negativity. You and your father need to end your differences. He won't be around much longer. I don't want his life to end with you two hating each other. Your brother let the hate eat him up to the point that he doesn't come around anymore."

"It wasn't the hate. It was father's meanness that drove him away."

"Stop it! When was the last time you saw your brother, anyway?"

"I haven't heard from him in years. He dropped me a line about five years ago from Denver and I haven't heard from him since. I just wish I had the courage to disappear. I feel bad for abandoning him. Once I left, there was no one to protect him from father. You always took his side against us."

"Enough, Cheryl! Let's leave the past in the past. The man is dying and I want him to see his grandkids before he passes on. Can we have just one day of family togetherness?"

"Sure, mother. Kids, let's go see your grandfather. He's not feeling well, so try not to act up. Morgan why don't you wait down here. We shouldn't be long."

They climbed the stairs to Cheryl's father's room. He lay in a bed near the window so he could watch the people in the neighborhood walk up and down the sidewalk. He was covered in a quilted blanket his grandmother made. He had an IV in his arm to keep him hydrated and medicated. He rubbed at the tape holding the needle when his grandsons crowded into the room.

"Hi, grandpa," said Ron.

"Hey, you guys," he responded with a smile. He was so excited to see them that he actually sat up in bed. "Come over here and let me see if you have learned to shake hands like a man."

Ron shook his hand and said, "Hello, grandpa."

"Look me in the eye and show some confidence. Squeeze my hand like you mean it. That's better. Come here you twins and shake my hand." Lon and Don complied, doing a better job at shaking his hand.

Cheryl finally spoke up. "Hello, father."

"What do you want," he said with a sneer.

"Father, let's try to be civil in front of the kids."

"Why don't you hand me my cane and I'll show them how a kid should be disciplined."

Cheryl gritted her teeth and glared at her father.

Cheryl's mother leaned over to her husband and whispered in his ear, "This hate needs to end. Be the role model you say you want to be to your grandsons. I don't want to see you die a bitter old fool. Now be a good father and hug your daughter." She backed away from the bed.

Teary eyed, Cheryl's father reached his arms out to his daughter. "Come here, baby." Cheryl walked forward, wary of his intentions, but when she reached him she embraced him. He squeezed her hard and they both cried in each other's arms.

"Come on, you three," whispered Cheryl's mother to her grandsons. "Let's give them a chance to catch up." Her mother led the boys out of the room and downstairs to get some food. Moments later the sound of laughter could be heard from upstairs. Cheryl's mother put her hand to her chest in an attempt restrain her joy.

Two days later, the family headed south from Muskegon Heights to Holland. They took a break there and Cheryl showed her sons the tulips and windmills and bought them wooden shoes. They went to a local restaurant and had lunch, which included Gouda cheese and stroopwafles. Afterward, they headed south again to Chicago and visited Grant Park. In the evening they had barbecue at Khan's with some distant cousins. The next morning they got up early, jumped on I-65 and headed back to DC.

### CHAPTER 12

HITCHING A RIDE

The Euclidian ship where Pico was captive received its orders from the mining headquarters in the city of Occum, which was the center of government and where the Euclidian civilization had been founded more than 100,000 years earlier. That early civilization spread across the planet and later to its moons and then other planets in the Neuron solar system. About 20,000 years ago, the Euclidians discovered interstellar travel and started colonizing or stripping distant planets. They acquired a wealth of minerals and the talents and technologies of new species. They used their acquisitions to extend their reach and solidify their power. The Euclidian system now consisted of over a hundred planets scattered around the universe.

The dimensional transportation device was one such technology that had changed the course of Euclidian history. It permitted the opening of portals through space. One could instantly see, hear, and feel what was happening on a distant planet. This technology was powerful and extremely dangerous. If a portal was opened in the middle of a star it could instantly destroy a large part of a planet. To avoid this risk, two things were done. First, a device was used to scout the area around where they planned to open a portal. The planet's tracking coordinates were then sent to the displacement device. Second, an unmanned ship was used for the initial opening of the portal.

Once a connection was considered to be safe, empaths used the device for reconnaissance. When appropriate planets were found and local contacts selected, the information was passed to resource extraction ships. Only planets with advanced civilizations were selected because they offered three valuable opportunities: minerals, slaves, and technology. The ships remained deployed until their stores were full or they had something extraordinary to deliver to headquarters.

***

Pico repositioned himself underneath his cot and placed his hand on a blank spot on the wall to absorb nutrients. He used his shaman sphere to leave his body and go back to the reception room where Ms. Li was questioning a different person. Once Ms. Li was finished she provided a report to the commander. An empath was in the room to ensure that Ms. Li provided a complete and accurate account of the discussions.

Pico decided to follow the next person out to see where she went. She entered the transport room, stepped onto one of the pads, and dematerialized. This, thought Pico, is my way out.

Pico returned to his body and thought over a plan. While he was thinking, he placed both hands on the wall and focused on absorbing nutrients. Before long he had a hole large enough to get through. He placed his hands in the container next to him and finished off the liquid, grabbed his blanket, and went through the hole, but before going through he used his shaman stone to change his skin color to black to make him harder to see. He filled the hole with the blanket and converted it to the color and texture of the wall. Pico determined that the only way to get to the transport room safely would be to hitch a ride with one of the crewmembers. Pico used the shaman stone to float to the ceiling and waited for a crewmember to come by. He kept the stone hidden inside him to prevent its glow from being seen. Soon after, two crewmembers walked directly below Pico. As they passed underneath, Pico floated down and hid amongst the tools in one of the crewmembers' tool belt. With his flexible bones he could flatten himself out to minimize the risk of detection.

The two men continued down the corridor oblivious of their stowaway. They turned a corner and entered an elevator. Pico slipped between the cracks of the door as they entered the elevator and hid between the doors. Pico manipulated the shaman stone so it would pass through the cracks. He remained attached to the elevator doors and waited for the floor that held the transport room. After what seemed to be an eternity, a female crewmember left the elevator on the floor he was looking for and Pico hitched a ride around the collar of her jacket, doing the best he could to go undetected by sensors and passersby. Upon reaching the observation room, Pico slipped off and slid under the door to the room.

Outside of Pico's cell, many floors below the observation room, a roaming sensor passed by. It was not fooled by the blanket in the hole and sent an alarm announcing the breach. The operations room scanned the confinement area and found that only Pico was missing. A silent alarm went out to find him, and an alert was sent to other confinement areas that held Cerebrans, warning about the possible risk of them breaching the walls.

The observation room was occupied by the empath observing Ms. Li's interview. Pico crept behind the curtains around to the door into the reception area. Ms. Li was finishing up and showing a woman to the door to the transport area. As she turned to return to her desk, Pico stepped into the room and attached himself to the back of the woman just as she put on her coat.

The empath noticed a presence in the room as it moved into the reception area and notified the transport operations officer, but it was too late. The woman stepped onto a transport pad and dematerialized just as the transport officer finished his conversation with the empath. Pico had made it off the ship and onto a distant planet.

### CHAPTER 13

MORGAN SAVES PICO

"Security, we detected a stowaway that transported down with the last visitor that met with Ms. Li."

"It was the Crebran. He escaped from his cell a short time ago. We'll send a guard to retrieve him. Make sure to provide him with the right clothing for the destination."

In DC, the US ambassador to the UN materialized in her apartment. She decided to go out and take a walk in a nearby park to clear her head. She hated doing what she was doing, but she couldn't let her family suffer for what she thought was mediocre information. A nation would have to have an extensive spy network or tremendous firepower to take out all of the US weapons. She exited the elevator and walked into the warm evening air with Pico in tow.

At that moment a Euclidian guard appeared in the ambassador's apartment, wearing black tights and a grey hoodie. She had a thick scarf around her neck and a pair of black Dolce & Gabbana shades covered her eyes. She scanned the apartment and found that it was empty. She went out onto the apartment balcony just in time to see the ambassador going down the street and around the corner. She leapt from the balcony to the ground and chased after her.

The guard grabbed the ambassador by the collar and dragged her into an alley. Pico slipped off and hid behind some bags of refuse in the alley. The guard silently and aggressively searched the ambassador's body for Pico, going through her purse then the pockets and lining of her coat. In frustration, the guard angrily shoved the ambassador against the wall where Pico was hiding forcing him out into the open. The guard spotted Pico and pulled out a weapon to kill him, but the weapon was knocked from her hand by a tennis ball. She looked to see where the ball came from just in time to get her sunglasses knocked from her face. She turned to retrieve her weapon but Morgan launched another volley and knocked the weapon into the street. The guard ran into the street and in front of a passing police car.

Figure 6. Morgan saves Pico from assassin

The car screeched to a stop and two policemen jumped out. The guard grabbed her gun and took off running down the sidewalk toward the ambassador's apartment building. One of the policemen fired a shot at the guard but missed his target. They chased the guard and followed her into the building in time to see her enter the elevator. As the elevator door closed behind her, the ambassador stumbled into the lobby. "My apartment is on the third floor!" she said.

"Thanks," said the policemen in unison and they headed up the stairs.

They got to the third floor just as the elevator arrived and stood in front of the doors with guns drawn. A flash of light slipped through the seams of the doors, then the doors opened and the elevator was empty.

"I'll go down to the second floor," said one of the officers. "Call for backup."

Pico found his surroundings overwhelming. There were so many unfamiliar sights, sounds, structures, and vehicles. Pico wanted to remain hidden in the alley, but he was getting weak and needed replenishment. He placed his hands on the wall behind him and gagged. This was not the same material that the walls on the ship were made from. He tried several other walls with the same result. Now he was starting to panic. He had to get nourishment soon or he would die. The creature that saved the ambassador was standing nearby, looking out of the alley at the police car.

Morgan decided that he didn't want to try to explain to his foster mother why he was in the alley in the first place, let alone why he had attacked a stranger there, so he headed toward the other end of the alley and home.

Pico pulled out his shaman stone and used it to scan the creature's brain for the syntax, semantics, and vocabulary of its language. He then called out to it. "Help me. I'm suffocating."

What the hell was that? thought Morgan.

"Please help me. I'm dying. I'm over here."

Morgan walked back to the center of the alley. "Over where?" he shouted

"Over here. Keep walking. I'm right here"

"Where are you? I can't see you."

"Look down."

Morgan looked down to see a tiny green creature waving at him. Morgan screamed and fell backward onto his butt. "What the hell are you? And how are you talking? You don't even have a mouth. Is this some sort of ventriloquist trick?"

"No. Please help me. I'm dying."

Morgan regained his composure, but was still shocked by what he saw. A creature with no real mouth or nose or ears, but it was somehow communicating with him. "What is it you want from me?" asked Morgan.

"I need to find a wall of really hard material, or I will die."

"What about the wall behind you?"

"It's the wrong type of material. It's not dense enough."

"Maybe you're looking for something metallic. Let's try the dumpster over there."

"I'm too weak to move. Can you lift me?"

"Sure, but you're not going to give me a disease or eat my brain or something, are you?"

"I don't even have a mouth, remember?"

"Oh yeah. So without a mouth or nose how do you eat or breathe?"

"I ingest all the nourishment I need through my skin. If I need a large dose of something I use my hands. The atmosphere on my planet has all the nutrients I need. Your planet's atmosphere doesn't have the minerals I require. I have to get sustenance by other means. I just don't know which objects on your planet have the right minerals. "

Morgan lifted Pico and took him to the dumpster. "This is made of metal. Is it hard enough?"

"Can you move me closer? I have to be able to touch it."

Morgan held Pico close enough to the dumpster that Pico could touch it. The Cerebran gagged. "No, that's not it. I don't think I'm going to make it."

Morgan looked at his hands and noticed that they were covered with flakes of green paint from the dumpster. "Maybe it's the paint. Let's try the inside of the dumpster. It's not covered with paint." Morgan lowered Pico inside of the dumpster and heard him sigh with relief.

"This is what I need. Thank you for saving my life. I'll be done in another minute."

"So where are you from?"

"A planet a long way from here. I couldn't even tell you where."

"How did you get here?"

"I hitched a ride with one of your people from a ship that took me captive before destroying my planet. At least that is what I heard from the elders of my kind that were on the ship with me before they were sent back to my planet to die."

"Are you saying that a human was on the same ship as you and teleported to this city and that you hitched a ride with the human?"

"Yes, that's right. I'm done now. You can pull me out."

"Now you're dark blue."

"I know. I need to absorb some kind of fluid that gives me other nutrients."

"Do you know what the fluid is called?"

"No, it may not even exist on your planet. On my planet I get my nourishment from the atmosphere. When I was taken onto the ship I had to search through some feeding troughs for the proper sustenance."

"Okay, let's go to the store and see if we can find what you need."

Morgan placed Pico inside his jacket and took him to a nearby Safeway. They went down the aisles and tried out different liquids: nail polish remover, vanilla extract, alcohol, detergent, bleach, mouthwash, and several other things. Pico was getting sick from ingesting so many different fluids, and Morgan began to get flustered.

"Let's try some stuff that I would drink. Here's some milk."

"Oh no, that's animal fluid. You don't eat animals, do you?"

"Well, sort of."

"Are you going to eat me?"

"Of course not. Here, try the orange juice." He poured a little on Pico's hands and Pico lit up, which made Morgan relax a bit. "Is that it? Is that what you needed?"

"Yes, that's what I needed."

"Okay, I'll buy a carton of orange juice for you. That and the nails we got from the dumpster should keep you alive for a while, right?"

"Yes!"

Morgan paid for the juice and walked toward home.

"So tell me, why are you still blue? It's a light blue now, but blue all the same."

"This is my normal color. I feel just fine."

"So what's your name?"

"Pico."

"Hi, Pico. I'm Morgan." He offered a finger to Pico's little hand.

"Pico, I better get home. My foster parents will be angry if I stay out too late. Are you okay staying at my place for now?"

"Yes, I don't have anywhere else to stay and there is a lot I don't understand about your planet. I take it you don't get many visits by extraterrestrials."

"Never. Most people don't even believe there is life on other planets. For us, space travel beyond our moon is impossible. So why don't you tell me about yourself, starting with where you came from and how you got here?"

"I'm not sure how to tell you where I'm from. I only know that our planet was in a solar system with seven planets, or six once our planet has been destroyed by the sun."

"So it's like a Superman thing, where your people had to flee a dying planet?"

"No, not quite," said Pico, rubbing a nail between his hands. "Our planet was attacked by space marauders. We fought back and they destroyed our planet. I hid in one of their mining vehicles and when it returned to the ship they discovered me and put me in a cell. I used a shaman crystal to hitch a ride with a creature from this city. The aliens used some sort of teleportation device to transport us here from their ship."

"Are you saying that those creatures that captured you and destroyed your planet are here in DC?"

"Not exactly. It was a human that is working with them. I'm not sure why. They were asking her about the weapons on this planet. They often investigate planets before attacking them. A planet, and its solar system, have to have a special set of resources before they will invade it, from I gleaned from my captives."

"Are you saying that our planet is going to be attacked by aliens?"

"Not exactly. They don't always invade the planets that they investigate."

"Really?"

"It's actually a low percentage of them. It takes a lot of resources for them to invade a system. They have to ensure that the investment is worth the effort."

"So I shouldn't worry about them attacking our planet?"

"No, but there's nothing you could do anyway."

"What do you mean, there's nothing we can do?"

"I know what we can do," said Don, coming off the porch. "Let's start by kicking your balls into your nostrils. What's that you're talking to in your jacket?" Don pulled open Morgan's jacket and saw Pico who was now totally motionless. "What the hell? Not only are you playing with dolls, but you're having conversations with them?"

Don suddenly fell asleep on Morgan's chest.

"Don! Don, are you okay?" Morgan lowered Don to the lawn. "Pico, did you do this? Is he okay?"

"I just put him to sleep. I thought he was going to hurt you."

"How did you do that? I mean, if you've got that kind of power why didn't you just take over the spaceship?"

"There were way too many of them and they could have easily killed me."

Morgan went into the house and tried to head for the basement, but Cheryl was watching and she grabbed Pico from Morgan's jacket pocket.

"What the hell is this?" she shouted.

"Don't put her to sleep!" screamed Morgan.

"What is this, a voodoo doll? It sure looks strange. When did you start playing with these things?"

"Well, I..."

"Just shut up and get to bed. You can have it back tomorrow after you've finished your chores." She locked Pico in the china cabinet and walked off with the key. "And don't take that juice down to the basement. Put it in the fridge where it belongs." She walked off to her room.

Morgan looked back at Pico, who lay motionless behind the glass cabinet door. Morgan descended the stairs to his bed and was getting into bed when Pico came hopping down the stairs.

"How did you get out of the cabinet?"

"I used my shaman stone to unlock the cabinet."

"What is a shaman stone? Is that how you communicate with me?"

"The shaman stone is a special crystal on my planet that our shamans use to amplify their mental powers. We communicate with each other using telepathy."

"So you can hear what I'm thinking?"

"Yes, but you have too much noise in your head for me to understand what you are really trying to say unless you speak out loud. You mostly just have random thoughts that don't have much meaning."

"Fine! So you're saying you don't think about your planet, or friends, or parents? You don't dream of what your life could be like?"

"Yes, all of those things, but not all at once and not while I'm in the middle of doing something else. I think that's why humans have to sleep."

"You mean you don't sleep?"

"No, never."

"Forgive me for being nosey, but you don't have any genitals or a place to poop. So how do you, you know?"

"I expel waste through my skin, the same way I eat."

"So why don't I see anything oozing through your pores or stuff floating in the air around you?"

"Because you're not paying attention. Hold on. I'll hold it for a while and let out a lot all at once so you can see it more clearly."

"So how does your species procreate without genitals?"

"We use our hands. We press them together to pass our genes to the female. After a couple of months she creates an opening in her body and a child comes out."

"That doesn't sound like much fun. For humans, sex is a physical experience that is very enjoyable. At least that's what I hear."

"It is for us as well. Give me your hand and let me show you."

"No! I don't want to get pregnant. Especially not by a man."

"You won't get pregnant. It's just like shaking hands, but more intense."

Morgan hesitantly placed his hand against Pico's small hand and suddenly felt Pico's emotions flowing into him. He could feel Pico's fear, and his friendship toward him. Pico felt all of the worries Morgan had inside. He couldn't understand how someone so young could be so sad. Then Morgan felt a euphoria sweep over him and he smiled.

"Wow, is that what sex is like on your planet?"

"Yes, sort of. Now pay attention. I want to show you how I expel waste."

A fine green mist appeared around Pico. Morgan took a whiff.

"Smells like rusty metal."

"That's basically how I expel waste in concentrated form. Speaking of which, do you have any more nails?"

"Sure, there should be some in the garage." Morgan disappeared through a door and came back with a handful of nails, which he gave to Pico.

"Thanks. You really are kind to take care of me."

"You're my friend now. That's what friends do."

"Really? We're friends?"

"Sure, why not? I'll go up and get a glass of orange juice for you. Just wait here and I'll be right back."

Morgan climbed the stairs and returned quickly with a large glass of orange juice that he placed on the floor near his bed. Pico sat down next to the bed and placed his right hand in the juice while holding the nails in his left hand.

"I'll see you in the morning, Pico. Try to get some rest, even if you don't need sleep."

Morgan slept and dreamt of flying through space. Over the next two weeks Morgan kept Pico in the basement, taking him out on occasion to walk around the neighborhood, but they didn't go back to the alley for fear that the assassin would show up again. They talked about each other's planets, their families, and their lives growing up. They became very close.

After a particularly long day of chores, Morgan flopped down exhausted on his bed. "Pico," he said, "I am just pooped and I still have a lot of stuff left to do. But I've just got to go to sleep now."

"You know the only reason you have to sleep so much is because your synapses get overloaded with the transmission of signals in your brain caused by your constant random thoughts. It's like trying to move chocolate from one bowl to the next with a scoop. Eventually the scoop gets covered in so much chocolate that it's hard to transfer a significant amount between bowls. Your brain basically has to shut down to clear away the static charges on the synapses. That's how you become unconscious."

"How do you know all that?"

"My people can sense things inside the body, sort of see what's going on as it happens. If you want, I can use my shaman stone to see if I can help focus your thoughts so you don't have to sleep so much. It will also help you focus on tasks so you can finish them faster."

"I could certainly use that. I'm way behind on my chores. As long as it's not going to hurt or be permanent, I'm willing to try it."

"You should be fine. I scanned your brain in the alley to learn your language. It's not that complex, though it is larger than mine and has more distinct parts. Just relax and focus on my eyes. Minimize any random thoughts as much as possible. First I'm going to shut down the areas of the brain that you use to daydream. Now I'm going to discharge your synapses."

"Whoa. My mind went blank for a second there. I feel really alert, like I could run a marathon."

"Did you notice that you are communicating with me without using your mouth?"

"That is cool. My brain feels weird, like I can't sense things around me. It's like I'm looking down a quiet tunnel."

"So let's do some chores and see how much better you do with your modified brain."

"Okay, let's start with the laundry. There are clothes in the washer that need to go in the dryer and clothes in that basket that need to go into the washer." Morgan took care of the clothes while Pico watched and then they went upstairs.

"Now we need to put away the dishes in the dishwasher and load the dirty ones into it."

"I can put away the dishes if you tell me where they go."

"Sure. Glasses go here, plates and bowls here, silverware here, and pots and pans down there. I'll go around the house and look for more dirty dishes. Be careful that no one catches you. That wouldn't be good."

Pico used his shaman stone to put away the dishes using telekinesis. He floated on top of the counter to get a better view inside the cabinets. Morgan looked on in amazement. "Wow, that is cool! I wish I could do that," he said.

"No reason you can't," replied Pico. He finished emptying the dishwasher and started placing the dirty dishes from the sink into the dishwasher.

Morgan returned with more dishes and helped Pico organize the dishwasher.

"Glasses go on the top and dishes on the bottom. You can get more in if you put the bowls on their side."

"Got it. Thanks."

"Okay let's start the dishwasher and see what's next on the list. We can kick off the oven cleaner, mop the floor, and dust the furniture in the other rooms."

They split up the tasks and finished them in no time. Afterward, they headed to the basement to swap out clothes between the washer and dryer and fold the clothes from the dryer. Some of the clothes had to be ironed. After ironing, they headed outside to clean the windows.

"Here is some Windex and some paper towels, Pico. Why don't you clean the upper windows and I'll get these." Pico levitated to the top of the house to clean the upper windows while Morgan cleaned the lower windows using a ladder. When they finished the windows all around the house, Morgan decided he wanted to clean the skylights and gutters.

"Pico, I'm going to get the ladder so I can get up on the roof."

"That won't be necessary. I can lift you up to the roof."

Pico floated up to the roof and then levitated the apprehensive Morgan up next to him.

"Now that's cool. Can you lift anything you want?"

"No, only things that are not too heavy. I can levitate about three hundred pounds. To levitate something I increase its negative gravity. I then increase the attraction between me and the object I am levitating. The larger or heavier the object, the more concentration it takes. But there are limits to what my mass can move."

"Interesting. Now let's work on the roof. Can you levitate the debris from the gutters into a pile in the driveway while I use clean the skylights?"

### CHAPTER 14

MORGAN LEARNS TO FOCUS

Early the next day, Morgan's foster mother was awakened by a knock at the bedroom door. She yelled at the door, "Why are you kids bugging me so early on a Saturday? What do you want?"

"Breakfast!"

"What?"

"Breakfast."

"Breakfast? Fix your own damn breakfast and let us sleep."

"No, I have breakfast for you," shouted Morgan through the door.

"Damn it. It's really too early for me to be beating the butt of some smart-alecky kid."

Cheryl got out of bed, threw on a robe, and swung the door open to see Morgan standing there with two plates of food on a tray with orange juice, coffee, and a small vase with a rose.

"Have you lost your damn mind? What is this?"

"I thought you and dad might want breakfast in bed."

"Really? Shouldn't you be finishing your chores? Is this your way of getting out of work?"

"No, I finished my chores."

"Uh huh. So where are my clothes?"

"I put them in your closet."

She walked to the closet, talking all the while. "What are you doing, sneaking around in my bedroom at night? Just let me see what you did."

She looked in the closet and saw that not only were her clothes put away, but that the closet was completely cleaned and organized.

"Did you do this?"

"Yes, and I cleaned your bathroom as well."

"My goodness," said Morgan's foster dad. "Maybe I should have married you."

"Shut up, Charlie. Morgan, why are you all up in here when the house is a mess? I bet the kitchen is still as nasty as ever."

"No, I washed and put away the dishes, mopped the floor, cleaned the stove, polished the furniture, and dusted the house."

Don burst into the bedroom. "Mom, did you fix my Xbox controller?"

"No," said Morgan, "I super-glued it last night."

"Don't think that saves you from the butt whooping you got coming."

"So you didn't like the magazine I put under your pillow?"

"What magazine?" asked Don. He walked back to his bedroom and checked under his pillow. "Oh my goodness, you are so my best friend now."

"Let me see," said Ron. He grabbed Don's shoulder to see him holding the latest edition of Penthouse. "Damn! I wish he had hit me in the balls."

"What are they talking about in there?" Cheryl asked Morgan.

"I went out to the newsstand this morning and got that superhero magazine he likes."

"You had time to do that with all the other stuff you did? What else did you do, Superman?"

"I washed the windows and skylights, cleaned the gutters, weeded the flower beds, swept the driveway and sidewalks, and washed the cars."

She ran to the window with her mouth open, first noticing how clean it was and then checking the work he had done outside. "My head is spinning. I need to sit down."

"You need to get back in bed and eat this amazing breakfast he cooked for us before it gets cold," said Charlie.

She plopped down on the bed in a daze. "Honey, slap me. I swear I am stuck in a bizarre dream."

He smacks her and she screamed. "Have you lost your damn mind?"

"No, woman, you've lost yours. Why don't you say something nice to Morgan and let him enjoy the rest of his Saturday?"

Morgan said, "Now that everyone is awake I thought I would vacuum the house and mow the lawn."

"No," said Cheryl, "you've done enough for one day, or night, however you want to look at it. If you do one more thing my head is going to explode. I don't know how you stayed up all night doing all this work and are able to stand in front of me all perky like that. I'm tired just thinking about the work you did. Are you on some kind of crazy drugs?"

"No ma'am, I just had a lot of energy and felt bad about letting you down by being behind on my chores."

"Okay, now you are trying to make me sound like an abusive mother. You've done an amazing job. Now get out of this house and go have some fun before I kill you."

Morgan walked out to the sound of his foster mother still carrying on about his feats of the night before. He found himself smiling, almost giggling, which was something he didn't do often. He was thinking that today would be a good day to take on Biffle at the sports club. He grabbed his backpack with his tennis racquet and balls and headed out with Pico safely tucked away in his jacket.

Morgan liked to watch the pros play at the sports club, to pick up techniques that he could practice in the alley. Because neither he nor his foster parents were members, he was not allowed to play there. On rare occasions, though, a teenager named Biffle would spy him looking through the fence and sign him in to use him as a practice dummy. As Morgan faced Biffle across the net, his mind would race a thousand miles an hour. Am I standing in the right spot? Maybe a little to the left. No, right. Damn it, there goes the ball. Watch him this time. What's he doing? The ball's going up. Where's he going to hit it? Move this time. Damn it, there it goes. Oh, I suck at this!

Even when Morgan was serving, and he had a great serve, he could not get past Biffle's return. Morgan hadn't gone by the club all summer. He just couldn't take the humiliation of being beaten 6-0 and then cast aside like yesterday's trash. So he stayed in his alley and practiced like a madman to deliver pinpoint serves against the wall and at objects. When Pico showed up he had to switch alleys, but he maintained his solitary regimen. The one thing he couldn't practice alone, though, was someone returning the ball. Morgan would whack the ball hard against the wall and catch it coming back to simulate the serve, but it wasn't the same.

Morgan arrived at the sports club around 9:00. He took his usual spot along the fence where there was a hole in the green netting that surrounded the six tennis courts. Several people were already out playing, but no Biffle. Today he wanted Biffle more than ever. He'd been practicing hard and he still had the focus that Pico had given him. Whatever Pico had done not only gave him focus, but confidence. He believed he could beat Biffle. Still, he wanted to improve himself further.

Morgan looked across the courts and spotted a person with an impressive serve and he examined every angle of her movement. Each twist and turn, each angle of each motion, every nuance to her serves. Backhand, forehand, rushing the net, and setting up to return a serve. Again and again he attempted to pinpoint where her serves would land. He watched her through an entire set and by the end could predict where the ball would go almost each time. He became so intent that it seemed like watching a movie in slow motion. He tried to see how early he could predict the ball's trajectory and was amazed at how the most minute details of how she set up a serve determined in general where the ball was going, and by the time the racquet connected he knew. He really knew where the ball would land. It was like an epiphany. It was like Archimedes learning about water displacement or Newton about gravity.

Morgan went by the club almost every day for a week to study different players and try to master the way they played. After a while he could pick anyone and quickly determine where the person would serve the ball.

"Hey, Morgan!" said Pico. "You come here a lot and really concentrate watching people play tennis. What are you looking to accomplish?"

"I want to beat this loudmouth kid who is always beating the crap out of me in tennis."

"You think I could get some juice? I've got plenty of nails for now."

"Sorry. I completely forgot about you. You're color is getting a little dark. I thought you were getting a tan," Morgan said with a smile.

"That's humor, isn't it? I don't get it. Why do you make jokes when someone is sick?"

"I guess your species doesn't have a sense of humor."

"Not really. Certainly not like that. How about the juice?"

"I think it is really cool that I can communicate with you without talking. Now people won't think I'm talking to a doll. Hey, do you think that you could communicate with my mother? She's really sick."

"What's wrong with her?"

"She has a growth in her head that is taking over her brain. She's in a coma now and the doctors expect her to die soon. I usually go to see her every day, but it's tough to see her waste away like she is. I figured that after I got you some juice we could go by and see her. As a matter of fact, they sell juice at the hospital cafeteria."

### CHAPTER 15

MORGAN GOT GAME

Morgan walked into the hospital with Pico in his inside jacket pocket. Today Morgan was lucky. His mother's neurologist, Dr. Turner, was in the room with his mother. Morgan stood Pico up in a chair with his hand in the bottle of juice. Pico stood there expressionless, like a statue.

"Hello, Dr. Turner."

"Morgan," she replied, "you know you can call me Denise."

"Sorry. I just don't want to say anything that might give me bad karma."

"This isn't about karma, Morgan. Your mother has advanced cancer and it appears to be genetics, not karma. Is that a doll? Why do you have its hand in your drink? And it has a handful of nails?" Denise laughed.

"He's not a doll, he's an action figure. The orange juice gives him super powers and the nails are his weapons."

"Sure, Morgan. Whatever you say. I guess he's drinking with his hand because it doesn't have a mouth, is that right? It doesn't have much of a superhero physique. As a matter of fact, it doesn't seem to have much for features at all. How do you even know it's a male 'action figure'?"

"Because he told me. We communicate telepathically."

"Okay, Morgan. Let me know if you need someone to talk to. I'm concerned that you may be getting a little lost in your fantasy world."

Pico was puzzled by the conversation. Morgan was telling this person about him after he had said they should keep his existence a secret. Yet the doctor was ignoring him, thinking that he was crazy. He wondered if humans always talked to each other in such a confusing manner.

"Denise, I promise I'm okay. I want to know if my mother is going to be okay. Is there any way that her cancer might go away? I know you can't operate or use radiation, but is it possible that it might go away somehow?"

"In general, cancer cells are regular human cells that have mutated and then don't die like normal cells naturally do when replaced by new cells."

"So if it were possible to somehow kill off the cancer cells, she might be healed?"

"Yes, but that's a big if. It's possible that your mother has suffered some brain damage due to the displacement of normal cells by the cancerous ones."

"Thanks, Denise. I'll just sit and talk to her for a while."

"Okay, Morgan. I hope to see you tomorrow." Dr. Turner left them alone in the hospital room.

"Hi, mom, it's Morgan. I brought my friend Pico to see if he can talk to you. Just try to say hello to him. I miss you, momma. Please don't die."

"She said hello," remarked Pico.

"You can communicate with her?"

"Not really. It's like she's in a dream state and your voice is part of her dreams. I'm just a voice in the midst of all the activity in her head."

"Can you see or feel her cancer cells?"

"I'll get my shaman stone and see what I can find." Pico pulled the stone from a cavity in his body, and held it in his hand until he could feel its vibration. He focused and sent out energy to it until it glowed blue. He then pulled the magnified energy back from the stone and directed it at Morgan's mother. Morgan looked on in amazement as Pico worked his magic. Pico could feel the growth in her head and focused on killing the cancer cells. This was a laborious task, as he had to destroy the millions of cells one at a time while being careful not to damage any of the normal cells. After an hour, Pico started to turn green and fell forward onto the bed.

"Pico! Are you okay?"

"I'm out of nails. I've been killing the cancer cells and it has drained my energy faster than normal."

Morgan grabbed Pico and the juice, ran out of the room, and tracked down Dr. Turner. "Do you know where I can find some nails here in the hospital?"

"There should be some in the maintenance office in the basement. Here, give this to Cleo. He should be able to help you."

"I need a prescription for nails?"

"You don't think they are just going to hand out nails to anyone who walks in the door, do you? Why is your doll green now? Is it like a mood ring?"

"He's not a doll. He's an action figure superhero that turns green when his powers get weak."

"Sorry. What's his super power, anyway?"

"He can move things with his mind."

"That's a good one. Maybe you could bring him by my house so he can help me move my couch to a better place in the living room," she said with a smile, and watched Morgan race down the hall.

He found the maintenance office and asked its occupant, "Are you Cleo?"

"Yeah, that's me."

Morgan handed him the note. "Dr. Turner said I could get some nails from you."

"That's her handwriting, all right. So tell me, how big do the nails need to be and how many do you want?"

"Ten large ones will be fine."

Cleo handed him some large nails. "How are these?"

"Thanks, those will do just fine." Morgan turned and placed the nails in his pocket next to Pico. He stepped into the hall and splashed a little juice on Pico's head.

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Yes, thanks for getting me the nails."

Morgan walked out of the hospital and into the afternoon sun, happy to have Pico back to normal. "Pico, I don't want you to hurt yourself trying to help me. I don't want to lose you too."

"I'm fine. That level of intense concentration takes a lot out of me, but I'm okay. I'm just not used to spending so much time using the shaman stone."

"You know, you are the only friend I have."

"Same here," said Pico, placing his hand on Morgan's chest. Morgan could feel the warmth of Pico's emotions as they flowed into his body through his shirt.

That afternoon Morgan decided to challenge the limits of his new ability by trying to learn Mandarin in one night. He went to the library and checked out every Mandarin language DVD on the shelves, took them home, and after finishing his chores watched them all on Don's laptop. Not only did Morgan learn to speak Mandarin, but he also learned how to write the more than 10,000 characters. He spent the remainder of the night practicing, filling several pads of paper with his attempts to perfect each character.

The next morning, Morgan once again cooked breakfast for his foster parents, and drew large Mandarin characters on their white napkins. When Cheryl opened the bedroom door he bowed and greeted her, saying, "zǎo shàng hǎo māma."

"What's that supposed to mean, smart aleck?" she replied.

"It means 'good morning, mother.'"

"And these symbols on my nice napkins?"

"'Great mother and great father.'"

She looked at Morgan in utter bewilderment. "I can only guess that you have once again completed all your chores and then some."

Morgan smiled and nodded.

"Just go away and play," she said. "Do whatever it is you do when you leave. But stay out of trouble, and if I find out you've been doing speed or meth or some other crazy drug, I'm going to knock you out."

"No way. I would never do drugs."

"Whatever." She slammed the door in his smiling face.

Morgan went to the basement, grabbed his backpack and tennis stuff, placed Pico in his jacket pocket, and headed out the door.

"Pico, let's go to the tennis club and see if Biffle shows up. I want to see if my tennis game has improved at all or if I'm just deluding myself."

When they got to the sports center they found Biffle warming up on the court. He spied Morgan and gave him a wicked smile. "Hey, Morgan. I thought you left town after that last beating I gave you. Did you learn how to dance?"

He was referring to an insult he had thrown at Morgan the last time they played, after clobbering Morgan 6-0: "Get me another monkey. This one can't dance."

"Sign me in and I'll show you who the monkey is."

"Whatever you say, rookie. Come on around and I'll sign you in."

Morgan met Biffle at the front desk.

"Pico," he thought at his friend, "is that thing you did to me still working?"

"Yes, your brain is still in its modified state."

"I just wanted to be sure."

Morgan checked in and the two adversaries walked onto the court.

"You want to warm up, moron?"

"It's 'Morgan', and I've been warming up every day since you beat me. Now it's time to play."

"As I recall, you didn't score a point the last time we played, and now you're going to beat me? What a joke. Especially with that old racquet. Let's get this over with before my friends show up."

This time would be different. Morgan could feel it. The noise and indecision were gone from his head. He was focused and feeling no fear.

"Would you like to serve?" said Biffle, offering him a ball.

"No, I want to watch you eat a few first."

"I must say, you have plenty of heart. I'm going to feel a little sad kicking your butt again, but I'll get over it," said Biffle with a chuckle.

Biffle's father came out from the clubhouse. "Biffle, what did I tell you about bringing strays in off the street to our private club? You have to learn to stay within your class."

"I'm just using him to warm up, dad. One set and I'll throw him out."

"Look at how he's dressed, and that rickety racquet. I don't know how you could even classify him as a warm-up partner. And he brought a doll with him!"

"It's an action figure," mumbled Morgan under his breath.

"Let's get this over with so I can send you back to the projects."

"I live in a house," Morgan muttered.

Though he had lived in the projects when they first met, that didn't matter now. Morgan focused acutely on the first serve. He viewed Biffle as if he were in slow motion. There were no distracting noises in his head and no uncertainty about where to stand. He saw Biffle plant his feet and position his body. He watched the ball go into the air, and Biffle's racquet move toward the ball. This time there was no guessing. He knew where the ball was going to go and moved to meet it. Biffle would not get an ace on him this time. He connected with the ball and sent it to the far corner before Biffle could react. Biffle was dumbfounded. His father decided he should stay and watch a while.

"How you like me now?" shouted Morgan. "Fifteen love. Can you feel the love?"

"Lucky shot," said Biffle, preparing for the next serve.

Maybe it was luck, but Morgan's success continued serve after serve, game after game, until it was 6-0 and the set was over. Biffle had not won one point.

"You warmed up yet, Biffle? Did you enjoy those dance lessons? Who's the monkey now?"

Biffle was speechless and ashamed. His friends had shown up and his father was still there to watch his defeat. Morgan felt good about himself for the first time in a long time. He put on his jacket and grabbed Pico who had stood motionless the whole time, watching everything as he soaked his hand in a cup of juice and clutched his bundle of nails.

"Hey, kid," said Biffle's father, "looks like you are just what Biffle needs. If you'll practice with him at least twice a week, I'll add you to our membership so you can play anytime you want. Plus, I'll get you a real racquet and a set of clothes. What do you say?"

"Dad, I was just having an off day. Don't make me play with him."

"Losing 6-0 is not an off day. Until you can beat him consistently, I want you to play him at least twice a week. Let me know if that is too much of a burden. I can always get rid of your car and revoke access to the boat so you'll have fewer distractions to worry about."

"That won't be necessary, dad. I'd be happy to practice with Morgan."

"I thought so. Morgan, is that your name? I'm Robert Frost." He extended his hand to Morgan.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Frost," said Morgan, shaking his hand. "Looks like we got a deal."

"Come into the clubhouse and let's get you signed up."

They walked inside to the membership office. "Howard, could you add Morgan to my membership?"

"Certainly, sir."

"And when you two are done, could you take him out to the shop? Let him pick out whatever he wants and put it on my bill."

"I would be happy to take care of that for you, Mr. Frost."

"Morgan, you should be good to go from here. I apologize for my earlier remarks. You taught me a valuable lesson today."

"About books and covers?"

"Yes, books and covers. And why don't you get something to eat while you're here? I'm sure you're hungry after that workout. Great game, by the way. You're an impressive player."

Morgan beamed. "Thanks, Mr. Frost."

Morgan got his membership card, some clothes, a nice racquet, and a fabulous lunch with some orange juice for Pico who stood in the chair next to him with his hand in the glass. Afterward, they went to the hospital and Pico gave his mother another treatment, taking care not to become exhausted. By the time they got home, Morgan was actually looking forward to his chores.

Don, Ron, and Lon were on their way out somewhere. They gave Morgan high-fives as they passed. "You da man, MorGON," rhymed Don.

Morgan smiled. He didn't mind the butchering of his name. As a matter of fact, he quite enjoyed it. He was sure Don's change in attitude had to do with the magazine Pico had helped Morgan abscond with that morning. He had paid for it by leaving a large tip for the comic book he bought.

Morgan put away his new stuff, grabbed his Zune, and headed out to mow the lawn, with Pico at his side. What a great day it had turned out to be.

### CHAPTER 16

VALIDATING LOGISTICS

Two weeks after Pico escaped, Captain Shisal docked the Andrea at headquarters. Its cargo was unloaded and its stores replenished for the next mission.

Shisal gave the crew a week of shore leave, and once the final storage unit had been cleared he headed to Peejay Province to visit his family. He had a strong bond with his father who was still quite youthful. They hiked, played sports, and did some hunting. He enjoyed the visits but knew that one day they would end, and this just wasn't the place where he wanted to retire. He wanted his own large parcel of land where he could do his own thing with a special woman. Conquering her would be the hardest mission of his career.

Captain Shisal returned to the ship a day before everyone else was due to arrive. He was ready to get back into space and finish his last mission. He looked into his cabin to ensure the upgrade to his bed and shower in his cabin had been completed then toured the ship on an air scooter to check things out.

Eight hours later he returned to his cabin to go over the payment records for the goods he had brought back from Cerebran. It appeared that the docking tax had risen another one percent and that the price for some minerals had dropped considerably, but the increase in prices for combustible gases and oxygen more than made up for any losses. All in all he was happy with his revenue for this haul, and he was sure the crew would be satisfied as well. He had the virtual butler bring him his dinner and after eating jumped into his upgraded bed for the only long sleep he would get until his next return.

Captain Shisal woke up from a long restful sleep and still had a couple of hours before everyone was due to check in. He grabbed a quick shower, ate some food, and headed for the bridge, where he checked the captain's chair and all its systems. By the time he finished all of the bridge officers had joined him. Although it wasn't a military or government ship, everyone wore a uniform that indicated their rank. On the bridge were the XO, who ran things when the captain was away, and communications, navigation, weapons, defense, and logistics officers. These officers were not necessarily in charge of their areas, but they ensured that the captain's orders for their area were carried out.

The weapons officer ensured that the right weapons were used at the right moment. The defense officer operated the shields, chaff, jammers, and other defensive weapons. The navigator executed defensive and offensive maneuvers based on signals from the other two. During battle, the three stood next to each other to increase their effectiveness. They would jabber away, pushing buttons, pulling levers, twisting knobs, and yelling commands at crewmembers possibly kilometers away on the ship. The whole time, the communications officer would be listening for a possible surrender message, or messages from friendly ships engaged in the same battle.

The bridge officers validated their systems and reported their status to the captain. Captain Shisal then called the department heads into his ready room, adjacent to the bridge, to go over last minute details about their mission.

"We cast off within the hour. Make sure your departments are ready."

"What about the stowaway that we lost last time out?" asked the security officer.

"We've been monitoring the situation and it appears that it has had no impact on our preparations there. Unless anyone else has concerns, let's do this. We have another solar system to conquer. Navigator, shove off and get us to our next destination."

"Aye aye, sir."

The ship moved away from the space station high above the Euclidian planet and disappeared through an opening in space. To the crew it looked like a fuzzy area in the middle of a bright blanket of stars, and then everything became fuzzy.

The captain retired to his quarters, leaving the XO in charge of the bridge. He wanted to review the logistics, go over the special requests from buyers, and check the state of the holds where minerals would be stored during shipment. There would be no life forms transported this time, so he didn't have to worry about that security headache. It seemed that no matter how well they designed their security, there was always an escape. They were always encountering a new species with some strange talent that caught them off guard, such as that little creature that could eat through metal and somehow conceal himself on people without being noticed. He would hate to underestimate a creature and have it be the downfall of a mission.

A couple of hours later the XO reported, "Captain, we've arrived at the seventh planet of the solar system, beyond detection range of Earth, the inhabited third planet. We will commence mining it and then the next two once Mikael gives the signal"

"How long before you can finish mining these planets?"

"We can finish the first one in a couple of weeks. The other two will take a couple of months, if we harvest them in unison. We should be able to offload the cargo and be back before Earth travels from the behind the sun and its inhabitants notice the other planets are missing. We don't want them poisoning their planet with radiation like the Waldorf team had to deal with."

"Sounds like you have everything worked out. To be safe, let's push the gaseous planets' moons out of orbit before we start. We're not going to mine them, and it will give us a chance to practice using the gravity engines to move large objects. We can use their planets as leverage. Let's leave the moons around the fifth planet for later. I don't want to risk the crew being harmed by the planet's radiation. Work with the science officer to determine when each moon appears on the far side of its planet so we can easily shove it away from the gravitational pull of their sun."

"Aye aye, sir," replied the XO.

The captain next met with the logistics officer to go over the details of the mining deployment. His office had several large screens on the wall, one showing an image of the local solar system. There were numbers by each planet indicating the order in which they would be mined. A zero indicated that the planet would be skipped. There was a 1 next to Uranus and 2s next to Saturn and Jupiter since they would be mined simultaneously. Another screen showed Uranus and its moons. The planets' moons were too small to bother with and so were labeled with zeroes. Shisal noticed that one of the moons had disappeared, indicating that the XO had started pushing them into space. A third screen showed the mineral content of Uranus, and listed the containment areas where the different minerals would be stored after mining.

The logistics officer greeted the captain. "It's a pleasure to have you visit my office. How may I assist you?"

"I want to go over the logistics again. What's the plan for clearing this solar system?"

"As you can see from the solar chart, this system has nine planets. The first one is a tiny ice planet and designated with a zero because we won't be mining it. We will mine the seventh planet from their sun, which will take about two weeks. Next we will mine the sixth and fifth planets simultaneously. They will take out the first planet from their sun when their orbits decay. That will take eight weeks to complete. We will return to base for two weeks to dump the cargo and retrofit the holds before returning. We will then mine the third planet of minerals as well as life forms. We will take that cargo back to headquarters to avoid spoilage and then return to mine the second, fourth, and eighth planets. The inhabited planet is now on the far side of their sun and won't be able to detect the missing planets for thirteen weeks, giving us plenty of time to complete our mining, offload, and return."

"That sounds good. What about the planet we are preparing to mine now?"

"Here is a description," stated the logistics officer, pointing to a screen. "Dimensions, total mass, surface temperature, orbital speed, and speed of revolution. Along the right are the mineral inventory, and the volume required to store minerals and each gas once compressed. Here are the principal mineral deposits. Collectively, all the minerals that we plan to harvest should only occupy ten percent of our cargo space. We should have plenty of space left over to store the minerals we'll mine from the other two planets."

"Great work, Commander. Let's move to the next planet."

"That one is much larger, and has rings and several moons. Its minerals will take up an additional thirty percent of our storage space. The rings don't have anything of interest to us, but could be a danger once they become unstable after the mass of the planet is diminished beyond its ability to hold them in place. This planet's moons are too small to harvest. The planet after that is the largest in the system. You can see by the radiation readings that getting too close would cause a danger to crewmembers. We will only mine that one with our unmanned vehicles or Nomids as needed. Its moons are also small and certainly not worth the trouble of harvesting."

"I want us to hold off on mining the next two planets," said Shisal, "until Mikael gives the word that their orbits have brought them close enough to collide with each other once we have mined their atmospheres, so that they fall into the sun together. Are you sure that the other planets will be clear of their decaying orbital paths?"

"Aye, Captain. I went over the numbers several times with Mikael. We will only lose the one small planet, which is of little consequence."

"We have to complete the entire operation in ten weeks. That will give us three weeks to return home, complete the offload, reconfigure, and return before the inhabited planet notices anything is awry. After we mine the inhabited planet we'll mine two more planets and be done with this system. We can take the booty home for payment and finally retire."

"Yes, I agree, Captain. Our timing should be just fine. And also that it will be a good time to retire. After this mission I will be able to acquire one hundred servants to work the estate I bought with the money from our previous missions. I got a place on a planet in the Kindle system that is like something one would read about in a fairy tale."

"Enough with the idle chatter," interjected the captain. "Is headquarters aware of our reconfiguration and timing needs?"

"Aye, Captain. And I will send them a reminder once we have a more accurate estimate of when we will complete this part of the mission."

"Good. I don't want any delays jeopardizing our mission. Who's working on our timing for the gas planets? I don't want to miss out on valuable cargo by exiting too soon or stay too long and lose one of our ships in the gravitational well of their sun."

"The navigator and mining officer have been working on that and have a plan in place."

"Get them in here."

"Aye, Captain."

When the navigator and mining officer arrived, Shisal asked, "Are you confident that we can safely mine the gas planets and get out safely without being discovered?"

"Aye, Captain," replied the navigator.

"Aye, Captain," replied the mining officer. "We can't commence operations on the second and third planets for a couple of weeks, but this will closely align with the completion of mining on the first planet. I'm working with Mikael on exact timing."

"Okay. Don't screw this up. There is too much riding on this for me. Dismissed!"

The two officers left the logistics office. "Captain, should I hail Mikael?" requested the logistics officer.

"No, he's never wrong. Plus, he's a bit sensitive about repeated questioning. That'll be all, Commander."

"Aye aye, sir."

### CHAPTER 17

ZAI JIAN LI XIAO

"Ms. Li," asked Commander Cobalt, "what was the result of your interrogations?"

"All is well and going according to plan. You have the location of all nuclear weapons and fissile material, including the material secretly held by terrorist groups across the planet. There are no artificial satellites with offensive or defensive capabilities."

"Excellent, Ms. Li. We can now feel comfortable that China is safe from attack. We will round up the weapons and material that is not well protected or is in, shall we say, less than reputable hands. Thank you very much for your service to your country. We shouldn't need you again, but if we do you can be sure of additional payment. I wish you a safe journey home."

"Thanks, but I'm not interested in going home just yet. I'd like to get a tour of your ship. I'm sure I can be of additional service to you now, and I'd like to get one of your gadgets before I leave."

"Why do you call this a ship, and what gadgets are you talking about?"

"This is obviously an alien vessel, which means you must have some innocuous advanced technology you could let me walk away with. Do you really think I would fall for your story about China developing a transportation mechanism in secret and not using it for military advantage? I'm privy to China's technological research, and what you have is far beyond anything I have ever seen."

"Now that you have figured out who we are, it would be simpler to just kill you."

"Maybe so, but you would lose out on some additional information that could keep your ship safe."

"So we'll torture you then kill you. There are no secrets that we can't eventually extract from your mind."

"I have no desire to withhold secrets from you. I am volunteering the information and I am humbly requesting consideration in exchange for going above and beyond what has been requested of me." Ms. Li kowtowed before the person posing as Zhao Zhang.

"Okay, you have piqued my curiosity, Ms. Li. Tell me what you know and I'll see if it is worth your life or extra consideration," Cobalt said in a hissing voice.

"Before we get started, can I at least see your face? If I'm dead anyway, what does it matter? We could both disrobe a bit and get to know each other better."

"You are clever, aren't you? I guess we could get a little more comfortable. After you."

Ms. Li took off her business suit to reveal a low-cut, lacy black silk bra and matching thong panties with a small red dragon embroidered on the front. She turned her back to Cobalt and removed her garter belt and stockings then leaned over and ever so slowly removed her Manolo Blahniks one shoe at a time, giving her host a full view of her assets. She slowly turned to face Cobalt with a look of confident sexuality and stated, "Your turn."

"Okay, but I warn you, I'm not of this world." He removed his hat, coat, and gloves, and then the scarf covering his royal blue face. Cobalt was a Majorellen from the planet Majorelle. He had humanoid features and blue reptilian-like skin. He had a small nose and mouth, and slits for eyes. His ears were small cones, and his head was covered with dark blue hair. A pleasant smile exposed rows of sharp teeth.

"I'm surprised that you're not quivering with fear," he said.

"On the contrary, I'm intrigued by your looks. If I was a chicken shit I wouldn't be here in the first place."

"Before we get more intimate, tell me what gave us away."

"Well, as I mentioned, the teleporter certainly made me suspicious. Then the view of Mount Huashan from the window seemed odd. The Huashan Hotel is in the city of Huayin, which is north of the mountain. The window shows a southern view. I know this because my parents used to take me to the park near there. In addition, I took an air sample the last time I was here and found that the elements in the sample weren't quite right."

"Okay, those are environmental things we need to adjust. Now tell me what's important for me to know."

"I'm under the impression that you plan to move Earth's nuclear weapons to this ship. Some of these weapons are set to go off with changes in altitude, temperature, or GPS location. That could make a pretty nasty hole in your ship and destroy your cargo. You can avoid the risk by keeping the storage area at a temperature between ten and twenty degrees Celsius. Any lower might damage the device and cause leakage. You can then deactivate the detonation mechanisms, or send the weapons out into space. So, do you find that information valuable?"

"Yes, I think that is sufficient to keep you alive a little longer. I'll make sure the cargo officer is aware of these developments."

"So how about that tour?"

"That's not really part of our arrangement."

"Neither was my info."

"Fair enough. Maybe I could make an exception this time."

"And afterward maybe we can see what else we might be able to exchange. You'll find I can be very accommodating."

"Ditto. Why don't you get dressed and I'll give you that tour."

Cobalt took Ms. Li's hand and gave her a wry smile. "I can't show you much, but I think what I can show will blow your mind. Did I say that right?"

"Your English is perfect. However, it's yet to be seen if you can deliver on your boast."

"Right this way, Ms. Li."

"Commander, please call me Xiao."

"Then you must call me Cobalt!"

Cobalt led Xiao through the observation room and out into the corridor. Unlike the lower levels, this one was brightly lit and full of activity. The walls were not dark metal, but white and backlit. There was constant traffic from crewmembers, at least those who were not on lock down. Xiao's jaw literally dropped. She grabbed Cobalt's arm and held him close as if she was afraid of being blown away by it all. Cobalt was startled by her warm grasp and her human scent filled his nostrils, stirring something inside of him that he didn't think was possible.

"A bit overwhelming, isn't it? I know how you feel. I remember when the Euclidians first showed up on our doorstep. It was frightening and fascinating at the same time. The Euclidians are the large ones in uniform. They run the ship."

"They're scary looking."

"You don't know the half of it. We were lucky that they encountered us just as they were beginning to venture out beyond their own solar system. My people have a gift for complex languages, and we also had short-range transport devices that were of interest to them. We exchanged technologies and set up a cultural and material exchange between our worlds. They later created a colony on a nearby planet and helped us join the space age. That was two hundred years ago. Now they use their power to strip worlds of their raw materials, people, and technology. For the most part the planets are left intact, but any remaining people literally have to rebuild their civilizations from scratch."

"So is that what will happen to Earth?"

"For the most part, but you will have six of your months or so to enjoy your newfound wealth."

"If that comes to pass, is it possible for me to hitch a ride with you?"

"We may be able to work something out. Now let me tell you more about the beings that occupy this ship. The ones with the large heads are empaths. We use them during interrogations and recruiting. The small ones make up the maintenance crew. They can attach themselves to walls and get into ducts and other small places. They are also happy to take on tasks that other species look down on."

"How do you get rid of all the waste on the ship?"

"It's dehydrated and compacted and then we use an air cannon to propel the compressed capsule toward the nearest star. All care is taken to avoid any other objects in space. An encapsulated beacon warns any ships in its path to avoid it."

"Pretty thoughtful."

"You never know. The life you save might be your own."

"What's that crazy thing floating around over there with all the antennae-looking appendages?"

"That thing is a roving anomaly monitor. It roams the ship looking for anything that might be out of place. It could be structural, electrical, radiation, or security related. I'm not sure what all it does. Whenever it detects something out of place it calls an operations center and a team is assigned to address the problem."

The rover made an abrupt turn and a beeline for Xiao. Cobalt held out his universal connection device (UCD), waved it in front of the monitor, and pressed a button. The unit turned and moved on.

"Wow, that was scary. Did that thing think I was an anomaly?"

"You are, in a way. You don't have a universal connection device. It is used to identify who you are and your role on the ship. I use it for communications on and off the ship, access to pertinent areas, scheduling, system activation, and most importantly to collect payment for services rendered. It's used off the ship as well, on any planet or installation in the Euclidian system. It's basically an extension of myself."

"Would I be able to use it?"

"No, not at all. It's tied to my physiological makeup. You couldn't even coerce me into using it against my will."

"Why not?"

"The device would detect that and shut down."

"What are those creatures with translucent skin?"

"They're Nomids. They can survive in the most hostile environments. Hot, cold, wet, dry, radiation, and almost any atmosphere including none. We use them as scouts and retrievers in hostile situations where we are unable to deploy artificial devices."

"Fascinating. How do you keep up with it all?"

"My universal connection device can give me general information about any species that I point it at. I can even communicate with someone without knowing the being's language. Watch. I'll greet the creature coming toward us."

Cobalt pointed the device at the creature and tapped out commands. The creature looked at his device and then bowed to Cobalt. Cobalt bowed in return.

"That's pretty cool. How did the device know who to send the message to?"

"Each person in range is displayed on the screen and I select the one I want to communicate with. I can then select a message to send and it is translated upon receipt if possible. Pressing here increases the size of the device so I can create larger messages or view images on a larger screen."

"Wow, how does it do that?"

"It uses free atoms to replicate the molecular makeup of the screen and border. The control module detects the larger size and makes use of the additional real estate transparently. Come on. Let me show you around the ship."

Xiao looks down the hall, which extended farther than she could see.

"This ship is enormous."

"Yes, it's quite the engineering marvel. It was built entirely in space. It's about ninety kilometers wide, one hundred fifty kilometers long, and fifty kilometers deep. It is covered with nooks and crannies to the extent that it is difficult to determine were weapon systems, engines or hatches existed. It's mostly made up of cargo bays. I would have taken a transport, but I thought you might want to see more of the ship."

"Don't worry. I don't mind at all. This is an amazing adventure."

"Here we are at the crew's lounge."

"We've passed by so many doorways, how do you know that this is the right door?"

"Firstly, the color of the light above the door tells me it's an entertainment area. Secondly, my universal connection device provides details about the area, what services it provides, how large it is, how many people are inside, and who they are."

"What if you want privacy?"

"Then you leave the ship. The ship is too important for individual rights to endanger its safety. You can block your location from general viewing, but the ship's systems and those with a higher clearance always have access to your whereabouts while you are on the ship."

"And when I am off the ship?"

"If you are not performing ship's business then you can block access from anyone. It's a sophisticated set of controls that work from the owner's desires. When the owner dies, the device basically self-destructs."

They walked through the doorway and entered a large lounge full of people seated and reclined, or even lying down. They were drinking, eating, reading, chatting, and playing games. There were tables of different sizes with matching chairs. They took a seat at an empty table against the wall.

"Can I order you a drink?"

"I'd like to, but I'm afraid to drink anything on this ship. It might make me sick or kill me."

"Don't worry. The order-receiving device will examine your physiology and provide a drink that is not only appropriate for it, but suits your taste as well."

"How can it know what suits me?"

"You pick the color, texture, temperature, and size of the drink, and the feeling you want it to give you. It can make most of your Earth drinks."

"Really? How about a Harvey Wallbanger in a tall glass?"

"Sounds sexy. I'll have a Lardexian Mind Bender."

Cobalt orders the drinks via his UCD and almost immediately they materialized on the table in front of them.

Xiao took a sip. "This is tasty. It could use a bit more vodka though."

Cobalt spoke into his device then turned to Xiao. "Try it again."

"What?"

"Try it again."

"Okay." Xiao took another sip. "Wow, how did you do that?"

"I just let the system know what you wanted and it augmented your drink with a little more vodka."

"Your drink looks interesting. Tell me about it."

"It's made with a juice that changes color based on its temperature. Go ahead and grab the glass."

Xiao held the glass in her hand and watched as the colors undulated under her fingertips.

"It's also quite exhilarating, both to the taste and after it's digested. I can order you one if you like."

"Sure, I'd love to try it."

Cobalt whispered to his UCD and moments later a fresh glass of the drink appeared on the table in front of Xiao. She took a sip and her mouth and eyes opened wide. She slapped her knee and let out a guffaw.

"Holy cow, this drink certainly lives up to its name. My mouth is a-buzz."

"I'm glad you like it."

"Like it? I love it!"

"Great. Now let me show you something else you might like. The tabletop is a display screen. We can view any of the planets in the Euclidian system and any that Euclidian ships have surveyed. Even Earth."

Xiao could not wait to browse through the images of civilizations, starting with Cobalt's. His planet was mostly water, with a few islands here and there. Majorellen cities had no cars, no pollution, and no visible police presence. They seemed to have electricity, but Xiao saw no sign of wires.

"Do you have a family back on your planet?"

"Not really. I didn't grow up in a family."

"What about a wife or girlfriend?"

"We don't have such attachments. We prefer to experience life unencumbered."

"So would you like to experience me?"

"I most certainly would."

"Well, let's finish up here and take me back to your place so we can get this party started!"

"As you wish. Grab your drink and let's go." Cobalt stood up and led her toward the corner of the room as he tapped away on his UCD. A doorway appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and they walked through into an elevator-like room. The door closed behind them.

"Hold on, Xiao."

Xiao grabbed a nearby handle and the room whisked them away horizontally at high speed. The transport stopped and then they dropped several floors before stopping. The doors opened and they stepped into a corridor.

"This is where I live," said Cobalt as he led Xiao off the transport. The corridor was elegantly decorated in the style of Cobalt's home planet, and lit from recessed fixtures instead of the standard colored tubes. The floor was covered with a woven fabric containing designs from Cobalt's island people. It felt plush underfoot. The color was mostly beige with red, blue, and green patterns, and it sparkled in places as if covered with glitter. The walls were covered by layers of sheer cloths, interspersed with mirrors and artwork.

"Is this a private area?" asked Xiao. "The corridor seems shorter and the decorations remind me of images from your planet."

"Yes, it's reserved for people from Majorelle."

A being similar to but shorter than Cobalt walked up and offered him a drink from a tray. They exchanged words in a language Xiao did not understand. It was like they were shushing each other. Cobalt took the glass from the tray. Another one appeared and he handed it to Xiao.

"I hope you will like this. I believe you will find it even more exhilarating than the Lardexian Mind Bender."

Xiao drank some of the elixir, closed her eyes, and suddenly gasped for air. Then she formed a broad smile across her face that Cobalt enjoyed immensely.

"What is this drink?" asked Xiao with an intensity in her voice.

"It's called a sjutti sju. It's a common drink from the northern region of my home planet."

Cobalt touched the door to his stateroom and it immediately opened. Xiao walked in seductively and Cobalt couldn't help but notice her curves. He found himself wondering what the next few moments would bring. She turned to catch his eyes on her and smiled. Cobalt smiled back and entered after her and the door closed behind them.

They were standing in a reception area furnished with a couch, a couple of comfortable chairs opposite, and a low table between. The walls were decorated with art from Cobalt's home, mostly landscapes and space scenes. Indirect lighting came from the corners of the ceiling.

Cobalt issued a command and music started to play. The wall to Xiao's right came to life and a scene from Cobalt's home world appeared.

"What's on the screen?" asked Xiao.

"That's a live view of a performance hall in the city where I live. I can pan or zoom to get any perspective I wish."

"What else do you have here?"

"Well, this screen can be used to view any image in our databanks, including some of Earth. I can communicate with anyone anywhere that has an advanced communication device. I can access computer networks, interrogation rooms, or any of the public areas on the ship."

"Fascinating!"

"To your left is my desk, where I do most of my work when I'm not engaged in interviews."

"So your work with me is just one of many engagements that you have on planets your ship is investigating?"

"Yes, I'm working on four other projects involving agents such as yourself. Because Majorellens pick up languages quite quickly, we're used as espionage liaisons for the new worlds that we visit. I can speak seventy-two languages and I'm learning three more."

"All for intelligence gathering as a prelude to invasion?"

"No, not at all. We feel that whenever we come across an advanced civilization that is spread across several star systems, it is more strategic to form an alliance than to use resources fighting a war across multiple systems. In general, the Euclidians are not warlike. Their gathering of resources from planets is not much different from what your people did during your European colonial period. While they may capture the inhabitants of planets for sale, it is not their usual intent to have them killed."

"Somehow, equating European colonialism with the extraction of minerals from a planet and seizing its people seems a bit out of whack."

"Really? Tell that to the Native Americans."

"You have a point. What's through that doorway?"

"That's where I sleep and get ready for the day." Cobalt walked through the door into a smaller room. There was a closet and set of drawers on the wall opposite the door. To the right was a twin-size bed.

Cobalt pointed. "This door leads to what you would call a bathroom. And here is my bed."

"Have you used the bed for other purposes?"

"Not as of yet. There are very few females of my species on the ship and they are all paired with others. Interspecies relations aren't really popular."

"So I can be the first to share it with you," purred Xiao as she unbuttoned her blouse.

Cobalt cocks his head to the side, not knowing what to think. He had assumed that her earlier sexy banter was Earthling hyperbole. But then Xiao's skirt was off and on the floor, exposing her black lace thong. Cobalt suddenly found it hard to breathe.

Xiao stepped to the edge of the bed in her black Manolo Blahnik stilettos. "Are you going to join me or is this just going to be a peep show?"

Cobalt was flustered, but he took off his jacket and hung it in the closet.

"So how are we supposed to make this work?" he stammered as he took off his shirt and exposed his blue-scaled chest.

"I'm not sure," responded Xiao. "I've never been with one of your species before. However, if you get the rest of your clothes off I bet I can figure it out?"

"Before I finish undressing, do you mind if I capture this moment with a picture? It's my first time you see."

"You mean you've never done it before? How exciting." Xiao licked her lips.

"You mean you don't mind?"

"Not at all. I'm honored to be the first to make love with you. That means you will always remember me and I will be a part of your stories forever. Go ahead and take a picture of me so you can have a memory of this moment."

Cobalt issued a command and a live image of Xiao appeared on a video screen on the wall. Xiao posed and Cobalt said, "Now!" The image froze on the screen.

"Are you happy with that?" she asked.

"Yes, very much so."

"Now let's take one together. I want one of you holding me." Cobalt stood close and gave her a warm embrace. He could feel the heat rising inside him again. He looked at her longingly and she returned his gaze. "This is it," Xiao whispered, and the image froze. "I love it. Print them both out so I can sign them."

Cobalt printed a copy of each image and handed Xiao a stylus. "Write wherever you like."

Xiao took the stylus and wrote her name in the lower right-hand corner of each image in English and Mandarin. She handed the photos to Cobalt.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"I like them a lot."

"Print another copy of the one of us together, and sign it for me."

He did as she requested.

"Now let's get naked and more intimate," said Xiao rubbing his chest. She found his skin cool to the touch. It fluttered beneath her hand. She rubbed his shoulders and he shuddered. "What's that?" she asked.

"It's a G-spot."

"Oh, I'm going to have fun with that later."

She undid his pants and dropped them to the floor, exposing a pair of glittery underpants.

"Those are nice," said Xiao with a grin. "Did you put them on especially for me?"

"Not exactly, but I'm happy you like them."

"From now on, when you wear them I want you to think of me and what I'm about to do to you." She reached between his legs and rubbed his crotch. "So tell me, is this for me?"

Cobalt only panted. Xiao slipped her hand in the back of his pants and rubbed his ass. Cobalt leaned forward and whimpered. He was in unknown territory, unsure how to respond or reciprocate. She slid his shorts down and pushed him onto the bed. His quivering lips did not stop her advances. She popped off her bra and slowly removed her panties, but left on her nylons and high-heeled shoes.

"I hope you don't mind if I leave my shoes on," Xiao exclaimed. "It helps me stay in the saddle." She stepped on his thigh with her right foot and kept her left foot on the floor. "Is that okay with you?" she said, leaning into him.

Figure 7. Xiao steps on Cobalt with her stilettos

"Yes, whatever you like." At that point she could have dug her heel into his thigh until he started bleeding and he would have been okay with it.

"Good. Then let's do it." Xiao climbed over Cobalt and straddled him with her thighs. She aligned her crotch with his and adjusted the position until she found an angle she was comfortable with. She slid back and forth, watching Cobalt enjoy every moment.

"Yes, that's it," he said in a strained voice.

"So how about I just do this until I'm ready for you and then I squeeze your G-spot so we can climax together?" With her right index finger she gently rubbed the spot on his shoulder that excited him earlier.

"Okay," he blurted.

"So no matter how much I stimulate you and how much you want to, you won't achieve an orgasm until I squeeze this spot?" She licked her finger then teasingly stroked the spot.

Cobalt just nodded his head, his lips quivering incessantly.

I don't understand why they didn't design Earth men this way, she thought. Sex would be so much more exciting. By the time women are getting to the point of arousal the typical man has had his moment of pleasure and is hugging his pillow. Having this huge man beneath me, quivering and under my control, is exhilarating. I can just take my time until I've had my fun and then watch him have his.

Xiao started riding him with reckless abandon, enjoying her power over him. She could feel herself reaching climax and placed her thumb on top of his spot, ready to squeeze hard. The anticipation of what might happen made her twinge with an excitement that she could no longer hold back. She threw her head back, gripped him tightly with her thighs, and squeezed his spot.

Cobalt let out such a scream that it shocked Xiao. He grabbed the edges of the mattress with his hands and started thrusting his crotch into hers. Cobalt's warmth washed over Xiao in waves, sending Xiao to a level of ecstasy that she had not experienced before. Moments later she collapsed on his chest.

Cobalt soon regained his composure and rolled onto his side, placing Xiao next to him. He stroked her hair and looked at her longingly. After a few minutes, he sat up on the edge of the bed and covered his face with his long hands. He was so overcome with emotion that he almost started to cry. He went into the other room and made a call to operations.

"Understood, Cobalt," came a reply. He returned to the bedroom where Xiao was sitting up, smiling at him.

"I can't express how wonderful that was, Cobalt. Is it possible we could do that again?"

"Unfortunately not. Though I enjoyed it immensely and will treasure this moment forever, the moment must end."

He pointed a small device at her. Xiao screamed, "Please, Cobalt, wang ba dan, don't do this to us!" He squeezed the trigger. A flash of light engulfed Xiao and then she was gone.

"Zai Jian, Li Xiao. I will miss you, beautiful Earthling," he said sadly, and let the device fall to his side.

### CHAPTER 18

URANUS BITES THE DUST

Mikael the Britan could feel gravity in a way that other species couldn't. He could even interact with it by changing the characteristics of his body to move around in his environment. This was not a telekinetic ability like the Cerebrans exhibited, and even amongst his own people Mikael was unique. He could change the physics of his body to interact with the gravitational forces around him. On a ship without artificial gravity, he did not have to worry about floating around in a weightless state. He simply adjusted his body and walked around as he normally would. Alternatively, no matter the force of gravity, he could float around unencumbered.

Mikael's gravitational ability also permitted him to sense the movement of objects around him by feeling their gravitational fields. All objects, no matter how small, have a gravitational field. The movement of an object distorts the gravitational fields of objects around it. For example, when the moon circles the Earth it distorts the Earth's gravitational field to cause tides in the ocean. Mikael could sense these distortions and thus determine an object's speed and direction.

As a teenager Mikael used his ability to map the celestial bodies in his solar system. His planet, Britan, had a persistent and pervasive cloud cover so the inhabitants couldn't see the space above the clouds. They hadn't even been aware that there was anything above the clouds. Initially, Mikael could only detect the moons circling his planet, without really understanding much about them. After spending some time focusing on a particular celestial body, Mikael could determine its size, mass, distance, speed, and orbital path. Each of those attributes affected the gravitational wave emanating from a body. After perfecting his talent, he could detect the remaining planets in his solar system.

When Mikael was older, visiting Euclidian travelers discovered his abilities and were eager that he join their crew. Mikael was excited to become a space traveler. More than anything he wanted to finally see the planets and moons in space around them.

Mikael joined the crew and was placed in a training program to perfect his talents. He was taken out into space where he could sense a diverse set of cosmic objects, each of a different size, velocity, density, and distance. He became a special navigator on a resource extraction ship and used his ability to find any invisible gravitational force that might damage the ship, or if a being or foreign ship using a cloaking mechanism was near them. He could determine when the mining of a planet should cease because the gravity was becoming unstable, causing the planet to break up or its orbit to decay to the point that it was about to succumb to the gravitational pull of its sun. If a resource extraction vessel still in orbit around such a planet came within the event horizon of a star, it would be unable to initiate a dimensional jump and be pulled into the star and destroyed. Mikael helped to avoid those types of tragedies.

While computers were sufficient to track the movements of planets through space, by taking into account the forces of gravity from neighboring bodies, determining in real time the impact of removing 90% of a planet's mass and its inevitable orbital decay into its sun required someone who could feel gravity. Once the plans for mining a planet were set in motion, Mikael predicted when it was time to abandon the mining and return to base with the cargo.

While Uranus was being harvested, the Andrea monitored Saturn and Jupiter to determine when they would be in the proper position for mining to begin. It took careful planning to ensure that the two planets would not collide with other planets during their orbital decay, and that their disappearance would not be seen from Earth. Saturn and Jupiter had to enter the sun at exactly the right location. Taking out Mercury along the way was an acceptable loss. The Euclidians wouldn't lose much in minerals and they felt they could make it back to the system and attack Earth before it was discovered that Mercury was missing.

Six days into the operation, the mining of Uranus was completed and it was time to send what was left of it into the far reaches of space. Beacons were placed on opposite sides of the planet to warn any ships that might cross its path. The Andrea lowered onto the planet surface and prepared to push it toward a black hole in the Milky Way galaxy to avoid the risk of it being viewed by Earth as it fell towards the sun.

"Navigator, do you have the coordinates locked in?" asked Captain Chaell Shisal.

"Aye, captain."

"Then you may proceed when ready."

"Full negative gravity in twenty seconds, using the next nearest planet for leverage. Engine room, prepare to ramp gravitational field on my mark."

"Engine room ready," announced the chief engineer over the communicator.

"Mark! Full power in ten seconds...five, four, three, two, one, full negative gravity!"

"Full negative gravity," replied the chief engineer.

"Once the planet is on the proper trajectory we will relinquish the gravitational push and pull away from the planet," continued the navigator. "Stand by, Engineering."

"Standing by."

"Ramp down in five, four, three, two, one, ramp down the gravitational push."

"Ramping down. Complete in ten seconds...five, four, three, two, one, we are at standard gravity."

"Lifting off and heading towards the sixth planet, captain."

"Maintain a distance of 100,000 kilometers once we arrive," said Shisal. "We have about seventeen hours before we can begin mining operations. Go ahead and deploy the mining vehicles on both planets and get everything prepped to commence once Mikael gives the word."

"Aye, captain."

"Mikael," called Shisal.

"Yes, captain," replied Mikael.

"Once we are in position I want you to take a shuttle and position yourself between the two planet. You will signal when it is time to start mining and continue to monitor the progress of the mining so that we maximize our haul before the planets fall into the sun. Remember that we mustn't be detected by the inhabited planet on the far side of the sun."

"I understand, captain. I know my job here. Remember that we will probably take out the planet closest to the sun and they will all enter the sun."

Shisal looked concerned. "Yes, but you said there was no risk to anything happening to their sun or the remaining planets when that happens."

"That's correct, captain, although the orbit of the small planet would normally place it in view of the inhabited planet just before our return. But its tiny-brained inhabitants will rationalize the planet's disappearance. You won't have to worry."

"Not worry? First you told me its disappearance would go unnoticed, and now you tell me it will be noticed, but no one will care."

"I said it would be of no consequence, captain, and it won't be. Why don't you let me do my job and I'll let you do yours?"

"Fine, Mikael, go do your job. XO, you have the bridge. Contact me when the mining starts. I'll be in my quarters. I don't want to be bothered before then unless it's urgent."

"Aye, captain. I have the bridge."

Shisal entered his quarters. There was a large receiving area just inside the door furnished with two couches, a couple of tables, and four chairs. One wall displayed two large viewing panels, which Shisal typically used to receive communications, oversee shipboard departments, and monitor mining operations. To the left was a dining area that also served as his work area.

Captain Shisal walked into the kitchen and grabbed a live Gordon creature from a cage on the counter. He stunned it with his fist then chomped on it with his enormous molars as it belted out a solitary screech. He washed it down with Tammarian grog, which made him tingle all over.

Shisal spoke to his personal computer. "Snookie."

"Yes, Chaell," the computer responded.

"Send Phoebe to my quarters."

"Contacting her now, sir. She's on her way. She will be appearing at your door within five seconds, sir."

Moments later a tone sounded at the captain's door.

"Enter," he yelled.

The door opened and Phoebe slinked in, almost melodically. She was a tall slender Delta with exotic features. A triangular head hosted large green cat-like eyes, luscious lips with whiskers beneath a triangular nose consisting of two slits separated by a black strip of flesh. Her eyelashes were so long they almost waved when she blinked. Her skin was a deep tan color, with a texture like a cashmere sweater, but it was a mistake to consider her warm and cuddly. She was far from it.

Though Phoebe was slender, Deltas were known for their strength. Her talon-like fingernails were formidable weapons. She had once shoved her hand into a crewmember's chest to thwart his attempt to take the captain's life during a mutiny on another ship. They had been inseparable ever since.

When Phoebe was not guarding the captain, she provided self-defense training for the ship's security force and others who were interested. She had learned her weapons and self-defense techniques during the war against the Alphas. The Alphas had won the war and as many as could fled the Delta planet as the Alphas started to occupy it.

"What can I do for you, Chaell?" Phoebe asked. She was his friend as well as his protector. She rubbed his hairless head with both hands, and could feel the tension in his scalp.

"Give me the treatment, Phoebe."

"Sure, Chaell. Let's get those clothes off then I'll start a shower for you." She led him into the bedroom and removed his clothing. She removed her outer clothing as well, to reveal sporty underwear. While they had a close relationship, they were not lovers.

They entered the shower and Phoebe scrubbed his body with a large brush, which helped him relax. The scrubbing created a huge lather on Shisal's skin. Its aromatic scent filled his nostrils, further relaxing him, and helping to relieve him of the stress of command.

After the shower, Shisal lay down on the bed. Phoebe lit a scented lamp, and then covered his body with oil. She started massaging him at his fingers, squeezing the tips and then the remainder of his fingers. She squeezed, kneaded, and massaged every inch of his body, looking for points of tension and releasing them.

"My goodness, you have strong hands, Phoebe," belted the captain after she removed a knot in one of his thigh muscles.

"That's why you have me do this."

"I let you do it because you are one of the few people I trust to let myself be so vulnerable around. Phoebe, you know I'm going to retire after this run. Why don't you come with me to the place I set up? You could have your own plot of land and build a castle on it if you like."

"I'd love to, Chaell, but not now. Maybe after the war with the Alphas is over. The money that I'll make from this run will buy a lot of weapons for my people."

"Phoebe, that war is over. They've completely taken over your planet. And now that they've signed a treaty with the Euclidians, there's no one left to dare assist you."

"Yes, but the resistance fights on, and I want to help them win our planet back."

"Fine. Just don't get yourself killed in that crazy war. I would miss you terribly."

"I'll be safe. But that's not what you are supposed to be thinking about. Clear your mind and relax so I don't have to start this massage therapy all over again."

The captain let out a groan as Phoebe dug into his calves. By the time she finished he was fast asleep. She sat in a chair next to his bedroom door and watched over him. She was fond of him and respected him, but she did not love him. Love was for another time, after the war was over and she could devote her life to something else. She saved his life once, but he had saved her life when they first met.

Captain Shisal was on leave in the city of Bumfuq in the Cairo system. Phoebe was guarding a diplomat when they were fired upon by assassins after leaving a club. She took out two of them but a third one killed the diplomat and got the drop on her. Just as he was about to shoot her, a blast from an unknown figure disintegrated him. When the dust cleared, there stood Shisal, all business-like. He turned and walked away without a word. With her client in pieces she decided to follow him, and became his personal bodyguard with a simple phrase, "I am yours until I am able to return the favor of saving my life."

Shisal needed a bodyguard and liked her looks, so he took her on. Her obligation was fulfilled when she saved his life during the mutiny, but she accepted his offer of a permanent paid position aboard his ship. And after that, he rarely left the ship without her.

### CHAPTER 19

HELPING MOM

Morgan spent the next eight weeks studying tennis players and continued to play with Biffle at least twice a week, though Biffle didn't warm up to him. He took Pico to see his mother most every day, but his mother didn't seem to get much better. He wasn't sure what to do.

That night Morgan lay in the fresh cut grass with Pico at his side. He looked up at the sky, captivated by the stars.

"Can you see your solar system's sun from here?" he asked.

"No, our solar system is in a galaxy far from the Milky Way," replied Pico.

"How are you able to travel so far, and without being really old? Or maybe you are?"

"While being held captive on the Euclidian ship I learned that the Euclidians have a device that uses a gravitational field to open doors into alternate dimensions. They pass through those in a manner that compresses time. Once the door is open they can adjust its location anyway they want. When they find the destination they can step through and even bring someone or something through with them."

"Wow, that is pretty amazing. Where do you think their ship is now?"

"It's hard to say. While hiding in their interrogation room I learned that they may be on their way here or to any of a number of other systems. Just because they were investigating Earth doesn't mean they will ever come. They gather data and people back on their home planet to decide if a planetary system is worth invading and which resource extraction team will take on the mission."

"If they came here, could you use your stone to pull them out of the sky?"

"That's not possible. Their ship is enormous. It's larger than this city."

"Geez. It would take a lot of metal to build something that large."

"Yes, they obtain the metal by mining planets like yours."

"Could you sneak onto the ship and blow up the reactor or something?"

"Sneaking onto the ship might be possible, but getting around it isn't easy. I was extremely lucky to get off the first time and I don't wish to return!"

"What if I were on the ship with you? I could create a diversion while you blew something up."

"You would be detected right away and placed in a cell with aliens."

"Like in Star Wars? That would be interesting to experience once in my life."

"Not really. It's smelly, noisy, and a feeling of despair permeates the soul of everyone there."

"So how were you able to escape the cell?"

"I basically ate through it undetected."

"That sounds pretty disgusting."

"Not really. I got nutrients from the metal and that caused it to deteriorate."

"You give me the impression that there isn't an easy way to destroy them. I'll do my chores and you can stay in the basement and think up some sort of plan in case we ever have to face them."

The next morning Morgan tried out a new setup for Pico. He purchased a quiver and filled it with nails and lemons, after cutting slits in the fruit for Pico's hands to pass through. They had found that lemons worked better than orange juice to reinvigorate Pico, and were not as messy. Morgan positioned the quiver across his chest so he could keep an eye on Pico. Pico could easily climb up and hang on to the side of the quiver so he could look out as he traveled with Morgan. Pico thought it was amusing that he could be in the midst of humans and no one knew he was an alien. They just thought he was a doll or an action figure.

Morgan put on his tennis outfit, his quiver with Pico inside, and his jacket and grabbed his tennis bag full of new gear. Today he was proud of what he had achieved and he thanked Pico for his part in that success. With his bag over his shoulder he prepared to head out.

"Pico, I hope you don't see this as a criticism, but after constantly being awake for eight weeks without being sleepy, I'm getting a little creeped out. I miss lying on my bed and dreaming. With my brain like this, it's hard even to daydream. I seem to be able to only have one thought at a time, which can block out other thoughts or people around me. So if you don't mind, could you change me back?"

"Of course, Morgan. Don't be surprised though if you feel somewhat the same. Now that your brain is used to this new state it will be easier to self-induce the effects. For example, it should be easier for you to communicate with me telepathically without me having to use my shaman stone."

Morgan sat on his bed. "Okay, I'm ready."

Pico pulled out his stone and reconfigured Morgan's brain back to normal.

Morgan's foster mother shouted down from the top of the stairs. "We're headed to Six Flags. Do you want to join us?" Cheryl had a developed a new fondness for Morgan after he began to use his new abilities to clean up the house and tidy her closet.

"I already asked him and he said no," Don interjected.

"No thanks, mom. I want to go practice tennis."

"My goodness. He called me mom," said Cheryl, her eyes tearing up.

"You don't get watery eyed when I call you mom," stated Lon.

"How about I give you a black eye if you don't shut up," replied his mother.

Morgan walked out the door as they were pulling out of the driveway and Ron shouted at Morgan from the car window. "You go, Arthur Ashe."

Morgan smiled, thinking he had somehow been transported to a dimension where people actually liked him. He was happy to have this new relationship with his foster family, but still wanted his mother back. Before going to the sports club he dropped by the General Hospital of DC to see his mother. She was in a bed by the window, across from the other comatose patient who shared the room, whose bed was by the door. Morgan dragged one of the cushioned wooden chairs next to the bed. He pulled Pico out of the quiver and placed a fresh lemon over his left hand. He slid two of the large nails in his quiver into the lemon securely next to Pico's hand.

"Once the nails are gone I want you to stop. Okay, Pico?"

"Okay, Morgan," said Pico through their telepathic bond. Though Morgan had his brain set back to normal, Pico could still hear Morgan's thoughts when they were directed at him.

Pico pulled his shaman stone from his side and concentrated. The ball glowed blue and Pico was back to killing Morgan's mother's cancer cells. He focused intently, starting at the center of the large tumor. After a time, the nails were gone.

"Are you okay, Pico?" Morgan asked.

"Yes, I stopped in plenty of time to not exhaust myself. Your mother said hello."

"You can talk to her now?" exclaimed Morgan.

"Sort of. She seems to have stronger concentration today. I still couldn't have a real conversation with her. I said hello to her and she asked who I was. I said I was a friend of yours and she said to say hello."

"That was it?" Morgan longed for more.

"Yes, she just drifted into another part of a dream after that."

Dr. Turner entered the room. "Hi, Morgan," she said.

"Hi, Denise," replied Morgan.

"I see you've brought back your superhero friend. You have him in the bed now. What's he doing?"

"He's using his superpowers to destroy my mother's tumor."

"Funny you should say that. Her white blood cell count has gone down, which is a good sign. It's too soon to get excited though. If the trend continues I'll have another CAT scan done on her."

"Dr. Turner, there's a call for you," said a nurse from the hallway.

"Okay, I'll be right there. You two be good. I hope to see you tomorrow." Denise walked out to the nurse's station to pick up the phone.

"This is Dr. Turner."

"Hi, doc. When's the last time you saw your brother?" said a raspy voice on the phone.

"Who is this?" questioned Dr. Turner.

"The name's Louie. Let's just say that I'm a business associate of your brother."

"Is he in trouble?"

"That's putting it mildly. He's into me for about five grand."

"What's that mean?"

"Let me explain it to you," said Louie. "Your junkie brother was trying to get some product off of one of my neighborhood distributors with no money. My employee goes to shoo him away and your brother grabs his bag and disappeared down an alley. We feel there was about three grand worth of product in the bag."

"So where's the five thousand figure come from?" asked Dr. Turner with obvious annoyance in her voice.

"Let's just say it's to cover the mental anguish from having to deal with the whole incident. Plus, it was a nice bag. You being a lady and all, you know how much a bag can set you back."

"I'm sure your dealers are not using Gucci bags to carry their drugs around in."

"Let's be clear. My employees are distributors and they sell organic nutrients to the populace."

"Whatever. Where's my brother?"

"He's sitting here on the floor next to me, awaiting sentencing. He'll probably be executed in the morning for his transgressions. However, five thousand dollars could garner him a commuted sentence."

"I get it. I can have the money in a couple of hours. Where should I meet you?"

"Meet us at Joey's Diner on Eighteenth. Come around four o'clock. The diner's closed then, but the door will be unlocked. And if you think this is a joke, just remember the guy they brought into emergency last night with his face shot off."

"Yeah, I heard about it."

"That was Bookhead. Something unlucky befell him due to his inability to understand the code of ethics under which we work down here. I would hate to see Jerome be so unlucky."

"Don't worry, I'll be there," said Dr. Turner, exasperated by this new bit of mess her brother had gotten her into.

"I'm looking forward to it," Louie said and hung up the phone.

Dr. Turner looked up to see the elevator doors closing on a perplexed looking Morgan

### CHAPTER 20

ATTACKED BY A ZOMBIE

Denise was deep in her phone conversation with Louie when Morgan had walked by. Her brother Jerome was a gifted pathologist with a Harvard medical degree. After graduating with honors he started his residency at the Mayo Clinic in the emergency ward. He wanted to learn as much as possible about helping distressed patients so he could be in a position to be most helpful to those in the greatest need, and the Mayo Clinic was the best place to hone his craft.

Denise looked up to Jerome. He was the reason she became a doctor. Now she found herself spending way too much time bailing him out of jail or other entanglements.

"She's in trouble," said Pico to Morgan through their bond.

"What do you mean?"

"The man on the phone told her to pay him five thousand dollars or he would kill her brother. Her brother stole something from the man."

"We have to help her. He's liable to kill both of them once he gets the money." Morgan raised his head to see Denise looking back at him as the elevator doors closed.

Morgan sat on a bench outside the hospital.

"Pico, are you recovering okay?" he asked.

"Yes. I'm feeling good as new again."

Morgan placed a fresh lemon over his hands and gave him another set of nails.

"We need to figure out a way to help Denise. Tell me everything you heard."

Pico recounted everything he gleaned from Denise's thoughts, excluding the flashback memories, grocery list, and why she kept putting off spending more time with James.

"I have an idea," said Morgan. "Are you able to animate someone who is dead?"

"Somewhat," replied Pico, not fully understanding the question.

"Come on. Let's head to the morgue."

***

"Margie," Dr. Turner said to a nurse, "I need to drop by the bank and run some errands. I hope to be back by five."

"Okay, Dr. Turner. See you then."

Denise withdrew $5000 from her bank and headed over to Joey's Diner. She arrived in front of the diner just after 4:00. She raised the SUV's window, stepped out of the vehicle, and locked the door behind her. On the diner's door was a "Closed" sign, but she tried the latch and the door swung open. The smell of grease from burgers, fries, and dogs hit her nostrils like a shotgun blast from a dumpster. The whir of ceiling fans could be heard over a jukebox playing sixties tunes. Marvin Gaye was singing "I Heard it Through the Grapevine". The dust on the edges of the fan blades showed that cleaning was not the main focus of the proprietor.

The diner was filled with booths with red vinyl bench seats. Barstools with the same red vinyl covering lined the counter. On the last stool sat Louie. Louie was a somewhat pudgy second-generation Italian American who stood about 5'9". He wore blue jeans, a grey polo shirt, and a black blazer. On the floor behind him sat Jerome, looking frazzled, his face a bit bruised. To each side stood one of Louie's lieutenants. Louie stood up as Dr. Turner approached.

"You're a little late, young lady," said Louie with a smirk.

"So I guess you're not interested in the money?" replied Dr. Turner.

"I didn't say that. Speaking of which, let me see those dead presidents."

"Not so fast, Louie. I want to make sure Jerome is okay. That was the deal."

As the drama unfolded inside the diner, Morgan climbed out of the back of Denise's SUV with Pico. Pico quickly shut down the car alarm as it sounded. Morgan went to the edge of the diner and peaked into the window. He watched as Denise squared off with the man across from her.

"Jerome, go talk to your sister," Louie ordered.

Jerome pulled himself to his feet and staggered toward his sister.

"Let's do it now," said Morgan to Pico through their connection.

Jerome hugged his sister, "I'm okay, baby girl."

"Did they treat you okay?"

"Sure. Just slapped me around a little bit. I could use a fix though."

"You can finish the family reunion later, you two. Right now I want my money," said Louie.

At that moment someone entered the door of the diner. As he slowly shuffled toward the counter it could be seen that his clothes were covered in blood and his face was disfigured from what appeared to have been a shotgun blast.

"Hey buddy, we're closed," shouted Louie, not noticing the man's disheveled condition.

The figure kept walking toward Louie. Jerome and Denise moved aside to let the figure pass, horrified at the sight of his face.

"That's not possible," shrieked Denise.

"What the hell?" shouted Louie. "You're supposed to be dead, Bookhead! Get the fuck out of here."

Bookhead continued to advance. Louie turned to his lieutenants who were standing at the back of the diner in shock. "Plug him, you two! What are you waiting for?"

They reached for their guns. One fired a shot into Bookhead's chest. Bookhead raised an arm in their direction and they flew up to the ceiling, banged their heads, and fell to the floor unconscious. Louie lunged for Bookhead but was quickly flipped in the air and pinned on the table of a nearby booth. Bookhead leaned over him and as he did, one of his eyeballs fell out of its socket to swing over Louie's face.

Figure 8. Bookhead confronts Louie

"Your reign of terror is over, Louie," he heard Bookhead say. "You leave town and you leave town tonight. If you stick around or if anything happens to these people, I'll find you and I'll make you wish you had my pretty face."

"Okay, anything you say. Just don't hurt me."

Denise and Jerome looked on in amazement. They didn't hear a word coming from Bookhead.

But Bookhead continued to speak to Louie. "Now let the couple know they can go, and you get the fuck out of here."

"Sure," said Louie. He slid past Bookhead and stood up, then turned to Denise and Jerome. "You two can go. Just get out of here."

"What about the money?" Dr. Turner asked.

"Keep it. Just go away." Louie ran past the counter and into the back room and out the back door, leaving his two lieutenants knocked out on the floor.

Denise hugged her brother. "Looks like we got lucky this time, Jerome. I'd even go as far as to say blessed."

"You got that right, little sis."

Bookhead fell to the floor and lay motionless.

"Let's get out of here, Jerome, before something else strange happens."

She turned to go and noticed a familiar looking head turning away at the window. By the time she reached the door, the figure was turning the corner at the end of the block.

Gosh, that looked a lot like Morgan, she thought. She helped Jerome lay down in the back seat of the SUV.

"I'm going to the hospital to get you looked after. What's that smell?"

"It could be me. I haven't had a shower in a few days."

"No, this smells more like someone died in my car. Let me check the hatch real quick."

Denise went to the back of the SUV and raised the hatch door. The odor hit her nose and it was obvious that this was the origin of the smell. She made a quick survey of the area and noticed what appeared to be a blood splotch on the carpet. She wiped it with a tissue, which she folded and placed into her purse. She also noticed a nail in the hatch area. Being meticulous about cleanliness, Denise was certain that someone else had placed the nail there. She picked up the nail and looked at it and thought of Pico and the nails he was always holding.

"Hey sis, are you coming?" yelled Jerome from the back seat.

"Yeah, I'm coming. I'm just trying to figure out why my hatch has such an awful smell."

She climbed into the SUV and started it up.

### CHAPTER 21

UAN

Phoebe pulled out her UCD and pushed the alarm to wake Shisal. The captain stirred in his bed. She didn't dare approach him to wake him up. That could cost a person an arm or a life.

"Wake up, Chaell. It's been six hours. You can't sleep your life away," coaxed Phoebe.

"I'm up. Have breakfast with me and escort me to the bridge. I'll just have something sent in. What about you?"

"Sure, I'll have something."

Shisal pressed a few buttons on his UCD and breakfast appeared on his dining room table. They sat and ate in silence.

"I'm ready," said Shisal. "Just walk me to the bridge, will ya?"

"You know your paranoia is going to kill you before your crew does. The ship's weapons systems are programmed to protect you, you know."

"Maybe some smartass learned how to get around the security and reprogram the weapons systems."

"Tampering with those systems can cause instant death. Who would risk that?"

"A greedy bastard, that's who."

They reached the bridge and its doors opened.

"Captain on the bridge," everyone shouted as they jumped to attention.

"You have the bridge," said the XO.

"I have the bridge," responded the captain. He turned to Phoebe and gave her a nod. She turned and disappeared down the corridor.

"What's our status, XO," asked the captain.

"The mining of the next two planets has commenced. We expect orbital decay to begin in about fifteen days. After that, we will have about forty-two days to continue mining before we risk being caught in the sun's gravitational well. We will pass by one of the two planets left on this side of the sun during the operation. Mikael is in the mining command ship, monitoring operations, and will inform the mining officer when we will need to remove the mining vessels from the planets."

"What about risk to our ship?"

"We are sufficiently far away to avoid any risk, but close enough to minimize material transfer time."

"Good work, XO. You may take your leave."

"Aye, captain."

***

Forty-eight days later, Captain Shisal was on the bridge, going over reports of the interviews from the spies that were recruited on Earth. Something about the UN ambassador jogged his memory.

"Security," he yelled, startling the occupants of the bridge.

The security officer's image appeared on a screen in the communication panel. "Yes, captain."

"Whatever happened to that creature that escaped to the inhabited planet?"

"We sent a security guard after it, but he was discovered and came back before it could be recaptured or killed."

"So what's the plan to retrieve it?"

"It's a very small creature, sir, and is unlikely to survive in that hostile environment."

"It seemed to survive just fine on this ship," replied the captain angrily.

"This ship isn't that hostile," the security officer responded, unaware of the impact of his reply.

"Really?" Shisal pushed a few buttons on his console and the security officer materialized on the bridge. The captain grabbed him by the chest, dragged him to the floor, and started pounding on his head with his fist. "Does this seem hostile to you?"

The captain sat down in his chair, pushed some controls, and an energy beam disintegrated the security officer except for his feet, which were still lodged in his boots. The captain shouted into his console, "Security? Who's in charge down there?"

"You just killed him, sir," said a voice from the security office.

"Is that so? Well, now you're in charge. Come up here, get these damn feet off the bridge, and then get me that alien."

The captain was remembering a time when he was a crewmember on a run years ago. The captain had sent a spy to reconnoiter a planet. The spy was discovered and the planet's inhabitants learned of the impending invasion. Though they were no match for the invasion force, they poisoned the planet with some sort of chemical, making it unminable. The company lost months of work and a huge investment. The captain lost his commission and retired with less than what he needed to live comfortably. He was currently working a salvage dump on his home planet. Captain Shisal wasn't going to let that happen to him.

The captain's thoughts were interrupted when the new security officer materialized before him.

"Take these feet and place them at your station. If you drop the ball on this little project it'll be your feet that someone else will be carrying around. Use Uan for this project. He'll get the job done. I need this taken care of cleanly, quickly, and discreetly."

"Aye, captain."

Aboard the Andrea, Uan trained fighters and on rare occasions got to practice his skills on prisoners, sometimes to the point of killing them. Most prisoners were sold for profit and thus were too valuable to kill. At times, though, there was a prisoner who was just troublesome. That's when Uan got an opportunity to work out his frustrations.

Uan was a being from the Ossuary System. The Ossie race lived a tribal existence. They had elements of high intelligence but had never evolved an advanced civilization. When off-world settlers attempted to provide technology, the Ossies resisted violently. They killed the settlers, took their weapons, and destroyed every building and piece of technology.

Ossies could cloak themselves, using some sort of mental energy field, for as long as fifteen minutes before suffering brain fatigue. One could stand right in front of one of a cloaked Ossie and even touch it without registering its presence. Ossies could also distort the light reflecting from their bodies to make them look like grey blurs to any monitoring devices. Because of the randomness of the distortion, in combat it was difficult to target the beings.

Many combat forces had lost troops by trying to fire on Ossies that had infiltrated their camp or vessel. They would sneak aboard a spaceship via a shuttle or other mechanism and take the ship out, killing themselves along with the crew. Suicide had no negative connotation for the Ossies, nor did they waste any effort thinking about what harm might come to them while taking out an enemy. They picked a target and went after it without any concern for their own safety. There was no pre-kill conversation, bargaining, or negotiation with a target. They enjoyed the kill. That was their passion, and their weakness.

The Ossies had no natural predators, and they were smart enough not to have hunted the other animals, their main source of food, into extinction. Ossies weren't farmers, gatherers, or herders. They were hunters, full stop.

The Euclidians considered Ossuary to have military importance because of its location in its galaxy. It could be used as an outpost to warn of possible attacks on their own solar system, so it was crucial to work out an agreement with them. Eventually they found something to offer the Ossies that aligned with their own interests: being assassins. They were given the opportunity to serve as elite law enforcement units on newly settled planets. The Ossies agreed to the arrangement and even permitted small settlements to be built on their planet. In return they were permitted to kill violent criminals with impunity. Their favorite duty was going into enemy camps and killing all its inhabitants with their weapon of choice, the short spear. They competed against each other to see who could get the most kills in the shortest amount of time. Not for trophies. Just to prove they could do it. This competition sometimes caused them to take too many chances and get themselves killed.

Just knowing that an Ossie was in a bar prevented fights from occurring. The rule was, if a client drew blood, the Ossie could draw theirs. Killing was only allowed in self-defense or in retaliation for someone else being killed.

The new security officer sent for Uan to be briefed on his new mission. Uan showed up about ten minutes later, eager for his assignment.

"What nastiness do you have for me?" said Uan with his gravelly voice. He stood about five foot six inches tall and weighed 110 pounds. He was very slender and didn't have what would be considered a muscular physique. However, he could easily toss a 300-pound man across a room or jump from the ground into a third-story window.

Uan's skin could best be described as tiger-like. It was sort of orange in color, like a bad tan, with black stripes. One stripe crossed his eyes, which were slits that could look 90 degrees to either side of his face. Ossies could thus stay motionless in the bush and observe approaching prey animals. They had acute vision and Uan could read the date on a dime 100 feet away.

Like all Ossies, Uan's weapon of choice was the short spear. It could be cloaked while holding it next to one's cloaked body, but was visible once extended. He also used a low-profile photon burst cannon, which he used as a sniper rifle for distant targets. He could adjust the setting on the gun to simply stun or to disintegrate a person entirely. With his acute vision, the rifle made Uan a formidable sniper without the need of a targeting scope. Uan only used his photon cannon when demanded by the requirements of a job. His preference, though, was to kill his prey with his bare hands, which could easily rip through flesh.

On top of his head Uan had what looked like a small shark's fin. It was black and fuzzy and could be easily mistaken for hair. But it had the toughness of a rhino horn and he could use it to batter through most simple structures.

The security officer showed Uan an image of Pico after he was captured. "This mission is not that dangerous, but it's very important. This little creature here escaped from the ship and is now on this system's third planet. We need you to quietly kill him and dispose of the body. If he has warned others on the planet about us, you must take them out as well. Discretion is the important thing. We don't want you starting a war. The inhabitants must not become aware of the alien presence on their planet."

"You are sending me to kill one puny being?" said Uan with annoyance. "It's not worth my time or talent. Why don't you just kill him with one of your gadgets?"

"Firstly, the captain specifically asked for you. Secondly, we don't know where he is."

"So what do you expect me to do? Do you want me to just sit around waiting for someone to call and tell me where he is?"

"Uan, old friend," interrupted the captain, "I've given you a lot of great assignments, haven't I? Remember the chief of the Grudë clan from Malësial? You had to kill twenty of them barehanded to get out of the palace. When we transported you aboard you were covered in blood and had a shit-eating grin on your face."

Uan smiled. "Yes, I remember that assignment well."

"Well, this one is more important. It could impact our pay. If you want, you can kill a few bad guys while you're down there, but be discreet. It can't look like an alien attack. No thrusting your arm through someone's chest."

"I got it, captain. I will be gentle. When do I go?"

"The security officer will set you up with someone in operations to prep for the mission and then send you down. You will need to be able to communicate with people once you get there, and be able to get around without arousing suspicion. Operations will get you clothes, money, and accessories to help you blend in with the inhabitants. I'm sure you won't have any trouble."

"I should be fine as long as I can get back to killing something."

"That's the spirit. Once this mission is over you will have the money to travel wherever you like and spend the rest of your days just killing things."

"I look forward to that day, captain."

The security officer quickly assigned an operations person to teach Uan how to speak English with a Scottish accent, which gave him a partial excuse for his American English being less than perfect. They did not take the time to teach him contractions, but explained the concept. He was taught customs, how to eat, how to drive, building architecture, and getting around the DC neighborhoods where they believed Pico to be. The crime-ridden areas of DC were pointed out, in case Uan wanted to get involved in the crime scene.

Uan enjoyed the education because he knew it would help him blend in and be successful at his mission. He wasn't a process person by any means, but he liked being good at his craft. It was his goal to be a first-class assassin.

After two weeks of indoctrination Uan was ready to be sent to Earth. He wore jeans, Nikes, a t-shirt, a hoodie, and wraparound sunglasses, all black, with his spear and cannon in a pouch under the hoodie. He reported to the transportation office.

"As long as you keep the hoodie and glasses on, you should be fine. There are several changes of underwear in your pack," said the operations officer. "We'll send you updates as often as we can about our plans, plus any information we garner that might lead you to the alien. His last known coordinates are in your UCD. If you happen to kill him right away, just sit tight until we start the invasion in case we need someone on the ground to monitor things."

"Sure," replied Uan. "I'd be happy to hang around a little longer. Better than being stuck on the ship. If it's okay with you, I might go over to Afghanistan and do some sightseeing."

"As long as you finish the job first. I don't want my feet to become someone's desk ornament."

"Do not worry. I will get the alien. Just tell me where he is and I will do the rest."

### CHAPTER 22

UAN MAKES HIMSELF AT HOME

Denise took her brother to the hospital and checked him in to the drug rehabilitation program there. She stayed with him as he was examined by the admitting physician.

"Well, Dr. Mason," she said, "what's the prognosis?"

"It doesn't look good, Dr. Turner," replied Dr. Mason. "Your brother has been a heavy heroin user for quite a while. I'm sure his organs have suffered some damage. He's past the point where we can reduce his addiction enough for him to lead a normal life. He will probably be taking some sort of drugs the remainder of his life, which probably won't be long. I'll have to take some x-rays and get his blood work done before I can give you any specifics. For now, let's get some fluids into his body and get him fed. I'll put him on a regimen of methadone to help reduce the effects of his withdrawal. Come back in the morning and we can talk some more."

"Thanks for looking after Jerome for me, Dr. Mason."

"No problem. You've certainly helped me out plenty of times."

"Okay, I'll drop by in the morning after I've finished my rounds. Goodbye."

"Goodbye," said Dr. Mason.

Denise headed back upstairs to finish her rounds that had been interrupted by the phone call from Louie. She entered the elevator she made a call to James.

"James, Denise here. You can't imagine the day I've had. Can you give me the treatment tonight?"

"Of course, Denise. I'm always happy to see you," replied James over the phone.

"I apologize for..."

"Stop right there, Denise. I don't want to hear apologies. I just want to know what time I can expect you."

Denise sighed. "I'll shoot for being there by nine-thirty. I'll let you know if that changes."

"Great. I'll see you then. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

***

The operations person aboard the Andrea set the transporter coordinates so Uan would arrive in the DC alley where Pico was last seen. Fortunately, Morgan had stopped going there to practice tennis after he found Pico. Now that he was playing at the sports club, he didn't need to play in alleys.

Uan gives the operator the nod and the transfer was executed. After arriving, Uan circled the block, hoping to get lucky and run into Pico or to find a place to stay. He decided he was in the wrong part of town for the activities in which he wanted to engage.

Uan headed down US1 to the Carter-Langston neighborhood. He went up to an apartment building that his briefing info had indicated was a veritable den of iniquity. He stood on the sidewalk to monitor the activity around the building before deciding his next move.

"What you looking for, fool?" yelled a man walking toward Uan. He was a 6' 3", 275 pound black man that didn't look interested in conversation. He was dressed in black denim pants and a black t-shirt with large white letters that read "Give me a reason!" He wore an open black leather jacket and a Bullets baseball cap with the tag still on it. Uan ignored him, not even sure what he was yelling about.

"You hear me talking to you?" the man said.

"Are you speaking to me?" Uan responded in his gravelly voice with a Scottish accent.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you. What the fuck you think? You're obviously not from around here."

"No, I am not and I do not understand what you are trying to say to me." Uan's language lessons hadn't included colloquialisms.

The man took a menacing stance. "How about I beat your ass? Would you understand that? I want you to stop clocking us and get the hell out of here."

"I get the impression that you are threatening me with violence. If so, I need you to do more than just talk before I can dispose of you."

The man looked shocked. "What? You can't weigh more than a hundred pounds soaking wet. And if you think that goofy camouflage paint scares me you have lost your damn mind. As a matter of fact, you have just given me a reason to beat the crap out of you." He picked up Uan and threw him against the building like a rag doll.

"That is what I was looking for," exclaimed Uan. With a single move he popped off the sidewalk and stood straight up. "I am truly going to enjoy this planet."

"What is that supposed to mean, you little jumping bean?"

"Let me show you." Uan lunged for the man, grabbed him at his chest and belt and lifted him off the ground. With a spin Uan threw him over the parked cars at the curb and into the street where he was run over and crushed by a passing vehicle.

Uan walked up to the building to find out who lived there. The doorway was blocked by another large man.

"Who is the boss here?" asked Uan.

"Bo Sam," said the man, "and he's not seeing visitors right now."

Uan knocked him out with a punch to the face and stepped over him into the building. He went to the top floor of the five-story building, figuring that's where the boss would live. At the end of the hallway, two guards stood outside a metal double door.

"Is this Bo Sam's place?" asked Uan.

"Yes. Who are you?" asked one of the guards.

"I am Uan. I am here to evict Mr. Bo Sam."

The guards went for their guns. Uan understood their movements and attacked them. He stabbed one in the chest, did a spin, and stabbed the other one in the chest before either could get his gun out. They both fell to the floor dead. He tried the knob and found the door was locked. He lowered his hood and went at the door with his cranial fin. The door popped open with a loud crack.

Uan stood in a plush foyer with a white marble floor. Above him was a large crystal chandelier. To the left and right were little alcoves in the walls, each containing an illuminated statue of a woman. From a hallway directly in front of Uan came three men with guns drawn. Uan stepped to the side and out of sight before they could get a shot off, and cloaked himself.

Uan sliced through the neck of the first person as he stepped into the foyer. As he fell to the ground, Uan crushed the skull of the second man with the butt end of his spear. The third man saw a floating spear take out his colleagues and fired wildly. Uan stabbed him in the chest with his spear, pushing him into the next room and not stopping until his spear entered the wall on the far side of the room. He quickly removed the spear and sliced through the throat of a fourth man who stood nearby with his gun drawn, unsure where to shoot.

Uan uncloaked. To his left sat Bo Sam on a white leather couch, with a beautiful woman to each side. Bo Sam stared in astonishment.

"That was a neat trick. Are you some sort of pissed off sports fan or an assassin from some rival gang?" asked Bo Sam.

"No, I am not either one of those. I am looking for a place to stay and I like this one."

"You might like my place, but I have something you won't like."

Bo Sam reached under his white coat, and Uan hurled his spear into the man's chest. The women leapt from the couch and ran from the room. Uan let them leave. Someone entered the room behind him.

"What's all the noise? Oh my god." A wiry, six-foot tall man dropped the drink he was carrying on a tray. "Look, I'm just a servant. I'd be happy to help you get rid of the bodies. I can also tell you where the safe is."

Uan pulled his spear from Bo Sam's chest and moved toward the babbling man, wondering if he could be of service. A phone rang and the man answered it.

"Mother, this is not a good time for me. There's some crazy sports fan about to kill me. No, I don't think he'll let me bring you any milk and eggs first." The man dropped his phone as Uan lunges at him.

"I'm Calvin," said the man, holding out his hand toward Uan.

Uan sneered. "Tell me why people keep calling me a sports fan and maybe I will let you live."

"Your face paint or tattoo," replied Calvin nervously. "It makes you look like a sports team fan."

"Why not goth or punk?"

"They tend to just wear black or white makeup."

"So what do you suggest that we do with these bodies?"

"There's a freight elevator that goes to underground parking. We can put them in Bo Sam's Escalade and leave it in an abandoned building a few blocks from here. The police will just think it was a rival gang that killed them."

"I like that plan. Can we do it now?"

"Of course. I'll get some bags to cover them when we transport them to the garage."

"Fine. Hurry back, and do not tell anyone about me or I will have to eliminate you."

"How do I know you won't just kill me anyway?"

"Because you are still alive. I only kill for protection or as part of a mission. You are not planning to attack me, are you?"

"No way. That's not even on my mind."

"Then you are safe. Where do you live?"

"I have a little place downstairs."

"I prefer that you live up here with me. I want you close by. There should be enough room."

"That's nice of you."

"I am not being nice. I am being practical. Having you close by makes it easier for me to communicate with you."

"Okay, I'll get the bags and be right back."

Calvin walked out and Uan surveyed the penthouse, which took up the entire floor. He started in the living room, which was decorated in all white. The white bear-skin rug and the white pile carpet beneath it were now soaked in blood.

The next room was a formal dining room with a large china cabinet in ostrich wood. A long ebony table was surrounded by twelve ebony chairs. The floor was bamboo. Three crystal chandeliers hung in a row over the table.

The next room had a ten-foot pool table and sixty-inch LED television mounted on the wall above a fireplace. There were two rows of four Barcaloungers each on a raised floor beyond the pool table. Built-in speakers lined the walls and ceiling.

Continuing down the hallway from the family room was a guest bathroom followed by a laundry room and linen closet. Across from the family room a set of beads covered a doorway to a huge kitchen containing two Sub Zero refrigerators, a six-burner Wolf stove and two Miele dishwashers. Leather-covered stools surrounded an island counter with double sink and cutting area. There was loads of cabinet space, a wine cabinet for 300 bottles, and a pantry.

The remainder of the penthouse consisted of two smaller bedrooms with their own bathroom, and Bo Sam's master suite, which had dual walk-in closets, a bathroom with a sunken tub, and a lounge area with a fifty-two inch LED television mounted on the wall.

By the time Uan made it back around to the living room, Calvin had returned with plastic bags. They placed the bodies in the bags and took them down to the garage. After loading them in the Escalade, Calvin slammed the hatch door shut and turned to Uan.

"That's it. How about I drop off the bodies and meet you back here?"

"I would prefer to go with you. I just arrived here and would like to learn my way around."

"That's fine. Should I get someone to clean up the blood in the apartment?"

"Will it be okay to let others in?"

"Yes, you can trust these guys. I can pay them with money from Bo Sam's safe."

"Then do it."

They boarded the Escalade and headed off to the abandoned building to dispose of the bodies.

### CHAPTER 23

JEROME GETS TREATMENT

"Jerome, are you feeling comfortable?" said Denise to her brother in his room at the hospital's rehab center.

"Yes, little sis. Thanks again for saving me from Louie. I was certain he was going to kill me. The methadone has helped a lot, but I'm still feeling withdrawal symptoms. I can't stand having the shakes."

"I'll see what I can do when I meet with Dr. Mason."

"You know these places don't do anything for me," Jerome complained. "It's two months of hell, I'm out for a week, and then I'm back on the drugs. Nothing seems to be able to kill this urge inside me."

"Jerome, I can't have you back on the street again. Next time you might run into someone who is not as forgiving as Louie."

After graduating from med school, Jerome had done a stint with Doctors Without Borders in Western Africa. The whole reason he wanted to become a doctor was to bring medicine to those who couldn't afford it. He wasn't interested in getting wealthy by being a doctor to athletes or other prosperous people. He felt that would be selling out. Wealthy people always had access to good medical treatment. He had seen too many in his neighborhood growing up who suffered due to lack of insurance or sufficient funds to seek treatment. His cousin had died of a simple sore that got infected because she couldn't get treatment. Not only was being a doctor his calling, it was his passion.

Soon after arriving in Dakar, Senegal, Jerome started seeing patients. After a month he was sent to remote villages in Senegal and a year later to the Republic of Congo where civil war was causing thousands of wounded soldiers and civilians to go untreated. He worked sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, and the workload began to take a physical as well as emotional toll. The number of young casualties and rape victims was overwhelming. Jerome started taking amphetamines to stay alert and later methadone to handle the emotional stress. Finally, after working two days straight, he collapsed in the middle of an operation. He woke up a week later at a hospital in Djambala. Doctors Without Borders sent Jerome back to the United States. He was no good to them in his present condition.

Jerome was saddened by the dismissal, but understood why he was being sent home. He decided to take the opportunity to recuperate before taking up a residency at a DC hospital, but became increasingly restless. His memories of Africa were eating away at his soul, and he needed a little something to help him forget. Alcohol didn't provide the intensity he wanted. Crack was cheap and plentiful. He felt he could safely use it just a few times to relax himself. A year later his sister pulled him out of a crack house. The teenaged girl that he had once inspired now had to extricate him from a drug den. Jerome went into rehab, came out clean, and returned to his residency. Six months later he was fired for stealing drugs. Denise didn't find out about his dismissal until she got a call from the emergency room of the hospital. Jerome had been found passed out on a park bench, overdosed on heroin. This distressed Denise to no end. She had to get used to it though, because that was their relationship for the next few years. She would get him rehabilitated, he would be fine for a while, and then she would get another disturbing phone call.

### CHAPTER 24

MORGAN AND BIFFLE BOND

Morgan set Pico down on a bench so he could watch Morgan hit a few balls. Morgan stood in front of the ball machine for the first time in his life. It felt wonderful to have a machine serve him balls instead of waiting for a ball to bounce back from a wall. He enjoyed being able to practice his forehand and backhand on a real court without having to hope that someone would invite him to play.

A voice came from beyond the fence surrounding the courts. "Is a machine the only competition you can find worthy of your greatness?" Through the gate stepped Biffle.

"Hey, Biffle."

"So, are you going to show me some of your moves?" asked Biffle with a smile.

Morgan was puzzled. "I thought you were mad at me?"

"I was, but then I thought about it. I really want to be a great tennis player. And who better to help me become one than you? Plus I need a doubles partner since Frederick went off to college. You interested?"

"Sure, as long as this isn't one of your goofy jokes."

"Not at all. I want to win nationals this year. With you as my partner I can't lose. I admit, in the beginning I didn't care much for you and I really didn't think you had much talent. I guess the teasing influenced you to improve your game to the point that you are now pretty amazing. I've had a hard time adjusting to all of this. Plus my dad has been riding me about winning nationals this year. I really want you as my partner if you can forgive me for being such a jerk..."

Morgan cut Biffle off. "Okay, I'm in. I'd like to be a great tennis player myself someday. It's all I dream about. You can go to college and be whatever you want. I'd be lucky to go at all. If I can't play tennis I might have nothing."

"There's always an alternative. Don't ever believe that there is only one path to success. So tell me, how did you anticipate my moves so well?"

"Two things. First I clear my mind of everything except the tennis match. I don't think about winning or losing or what people watching are thinking. I just focus on the match. Second, I watch how my opponent moves before hitting the ball. That is a great indicator of where the ball will be hit. That is how the Williams sisters got so good. They can anticipate an opponent's intent in regard to where they want to place the ball. I've spent hours here, looking through the fence at people serving and watching where the ball lands. That's what I want you to do today. Just watch different people serve and watch where the ball lands. After a while, try to guess where the ball will land. Watch one person for a set and then find someone different to watch."

"Whatever you say, coach. I'll get right on it. Why don't we grab a smoothie once we are done with this?"

"Fine with me."

### CHAPTER 25

INITIAL MINING OPERATIONS CONCLUDE

Mining the atmosphere from a planet was much easier than trying to recover solid minerals. After just four weeks into the operation, Jupiter started to fall from orbit and accelerate toward the sun. Three days later Saturn fell from its orbit and started its race toward the sun, with Jupiter quickly gaining. Their moons had long since been pushed away into deep space so they would not affect the mining or be viewed from Earth. When Saturn's rings eventually dispersed, its fragments were too small to be of any consequence.

The Andrea, from where Captain Shisal ran the operations, and the monitoring ship from where Mikael gave orders to the mining officers, were well out of range of the debris.

Seventeen days after falling from orbit, what was left of Jupiter intercepted the remains of Saturn. They pulled toward each other and began to orbit each other, as Mikael had predicted. Mikael had worked closely with the mining officers to ensure that they mined the planets at the proper rates for their paths to intersect in such a way as to set up a common orbit.

The most critical part of the mission for Mikael had finally arrived. He had to watch the planets' speed and distance from the sun to determine the right moment for the mining vessels to cease their operations and return to the Andrea. The vessels were extracting millions of tons of material daily, and Captain Shisal wanted to load as much as possible.

The heat of the sun was becoming an issue for the mining ships. Jupiter and Saturn's imminent collision with Mercury was an even bigger issue. But the overriding danger to the mining vessels involved escaping the sun's gravity and making it back to the Andrea. They were hurtling toward the sun at high speed, and were too far away to be beamed aboard or captured in a tractor beam. The strength of the sun's gravity made a jump into dimensional space too risky to attempt. They had to rely on their gravitational engines to deflect them away from the sun enough to avoid its gravity well and yet not crush the ships. The cargo itself was not at risk of being lost because the last of it would be transported to the Andrea before the mining vessels lifted off the wrecked planets.

Mikael knew that the moment would come for him to give the liftoff order sometime during the next two hours, but he could not be more precise. It all depended on how fast the mining progressed and the impact that the reduced mass had on the acceleration of the planets toward the sun. He stood at the bridge of the monitoring ship, following the two planets as they hurtled through space. At their current distance, the sun was no longer appeared as a ball but as a giant wall of fire. Shields darkened the view enough for Mikael to see what was happening and protect his ship from the heat.

The commander of the vessel was the only person Mikael allowed on the bridge with him. Everyone else was ordered to other parts of the ship and all non-essential equipment was turned off. Mikael wanted nothing to distract him from feeling the gravitational forces around him.

"Get ready!" Mikael suddenly shouted. A few moments passed then Mikael turned to the commander and ordered, "Now! Get them off now!"

The commander sent a signal to the mining vessels and they all lifted off at once, using Mikael's coordinates to avoid the sun and get back safely to the Andrea. Except for one that suffered an engine malfunction, all the vessels made it back.

Captain Shisal decided to subtract the cost of the vessel from the mining officer's share of proceeds from the mission. Considering Shisal's other options, the officer was happy to accept that settlement.

"Navigator," said Shisal.

"Yes, captain."

"Get us home."

"Aye aye, captain."

"Logistics," said Shisal.

"Yes, captain."

"Have you let home base know we are coming? I want a quick turnaround so we can start our invasion as planned."

"Yes, captain, they have been informed. We should be serviced as soon as we arrive, and depart again on schedule."

"Security," said Shisal.

"Security here, captain."

"Give me an update on the escapee."

"We have not yet located him, though we did run across some unusual activity suggesting the alien's involvement and have relayed the data to Uan. Our sources tell us there have been no events that point to the discovery of his presence or our plans to visit the planet."

"I'm not totally comfortable with your status report. Stay on top of this. I don't want any last minute surprises."

"Aye aye, captain. This is our top priority."

The captain continued with his departmental updates as the ship headed into dimensional space for its return home.

### CHAPTER 26

CONFRONTING LOUIE

Uan and Calvin arrived at the abandoned building. They dumped the bodies out of the bags and left them in the Escalade. They abandoned the vehicle and disposed of the bags in a dumpster in the alley behind the building.

Uan spent the next week working with Calvin to get to know DC and American culture. He found that Americans wasted a lot of time on what they called entertainment and not enough time improving their lives. Calvin drove Uan around the city, from neighborhood to neighborhood, looking for signs of Pico and the mysterious human that was helping him.

Late at night, Uan walked through the back alleys of DC looking for trouble. Eventually, he hoped, someone would try to mug him. If he were lucky there would be three of them, and he would use his fighting skills to quickly pummel them into a bloody mess. He never used his weapons or killed anyone on these outings. He was simply whetting his appetite for violence. Calvin accompanied him on his late-night jaunts through the underbelly of DC, and Uan hoped that one night he would join in the fighting, but Calvin had no stomach for any of it.

During one of their drives through the neighborhoods, Uan received a call on his UCD.

"Uan here."

"Uan, there is some strange news about a corpse being animated and attacking someone in a restaurant in the DC area," said a voice from his device. "Images from the restaurant's camera show a youth resembling the one that assisted the escapee, and possibly the escapee. When you find them, kill them both. Be sure you have identified the whereabouts of both before killing either one."

"I know how to do my job," said Uan. "Just tell me where the restaurant is."

"The coordinates have been downloaded to your UCD. Keep us posted."

"As always," replied Uan and the connection ended.

Uan showed Calvin an image of Joey's Diner. "Do you know this place?

"Yeah, that's Louie's joint. He runs the action in that part of town. The diner is just a front for his other activities."

"I need to go there and find someone."

"Sure. Let's get a cab." They hopped into a cab and were at Joey's Diner within five minutes. The police were there when they arrived so they had the cabbie drop them off down the street and out of view.

"That'll be seven dollars," said the cabbie.

"Here's ten. Keep the change," replied Calvin.

"Thanks. Go Bengals!"

"Whatever," replied Calvin.

"What did he mean by 'go Bengals'?" asked Uan.

"Your face paint or tattoo makes you look like a Cincinnati Bengals football fan. Don't worry about it."

"I do not understand what you mean."

"Based on your accent I take it you're from Scotland. You must have fans there that dress up and paint their faces in support of a sports club."

"This is the way that I look. We'll just have to figure out some way to make me stand out less. For now, I need you to find out what happened in that diner."

"Okay, I'll go check it out and be right back."

Fifteen minutes later Calvin returned.

"It appears that some dead guy went off on Louie because Louie was trying to shake down the sister of some junkie. Louie lets the two go and takes off."

"I am not sure what you are trying to tell me, but it sounds like the Louie person can help us?"

"Yeah, but how can a dead guy attack someone?"

"The person I am looking for has the ability to move things with his mind. It was probably him that caused all of that."

"What kind of crap is that?"

"The kind of crap that gets you noticed and then gets you killed once I find the little creature. Where can I find Louie?"

"He's supposed to be holed up in one of his drug dens over on Fourth Street."

"Okay, I want to go pay him a visit."

"It's not going to be as easy getting to Louie as it was getting to Bo Sam."

"I am not worried about it being difficult to get him. I will get us in. You just show me where he is."

Calvin and Uan walked the few blocks to the building where Louie was holed up. They stood across the street and scouted it out before making their move. This was an older working-class neighborhood. Kids were on the street with their bikes. An old lady pulled a basket of groceries behind her. A young mother carried a baby that was fussing with her necklace. A young kid approached Uan, who had his hood pulled over his head and wore shades to cover his eyes.

"Do you go to Woodrow Wilson High, mister?" asked the kid. "You better leave before the Dunbar guys see you."

"I am not a high school student and I am not worried about students beating me up."

"You should," the kid continued, "they're bigger than you and will beat you up."

"Marvin, stop bothering that man and get over here," the kid's mother yelled.

"Mom, he smells like cookies."

"I'm sure that's just his cologne. Now come on so I can get you home."

"You know, if you just put on some orange-colored makeup to cover the dark areas, you would look like you just had a bad tan," Calvin said seriously.

Uan gestured across the street. "We should be focusing on our target, not me wearing makeup."

The building where Louie was supposed to be hiding out was a three-story brown-brick apartment building with bars over the first story windows. Standing around the entrance were several men wearing black leather coats. They were obviously guards and probably carrying weapons. Another guard watched from the top of the fire escape on the side of the building. Yet another walked the perimeter of the roof.

Calvin said, "So I guess we'll wait here until Louie comes out then grab him before he gets into his car, or maybe even better follow his car to some place with fewer guards?"

"No, we are going to go in, find Louie, and see what he knows," replied Uan.

"I assume you are going in alone since you are some sort of stealth ninja. They would see me right away and I'm not so good at that fighting stuff."

"I will not be able to recognize Louie and they may use slang I do not understand. I do not want to kill anyone over a misunderstanding."

"Right. I know how sensitive you are about killing someone unnecessarily," Calvin chimed sarcastically. "So how do we sneak past the guards?"

"You cross the street over there, out of view behind one of the trees. I will sneak over and take out the guards on the stairs and the roof. Then I will create a distraction to draw everyone's attention to the other side of the building. When that happens I want you to come over and climb the fire escape."

"How am I supposed to get on the fire escape when there is no ladder reaching the ground?"

"You cannot jump that high?"

"No. Do I look like an Olympic athlete?"

"Fine. I will help you get onto the fire escape. Do you know what might make a good distraction?"

"There's a transformer on the telephone pole on the corner. If you can take that out it should cause an explosion that will definitely get their attention. You should probably use a gun with a silencer or otherwise they'll just send everyone up to the roof to kill you."

"I will think of something. You take your place. I will see you at the bottom of the fire escape once the diversion takes place."

Calvin nodded and walked down the sidewalk until he could cross the street away from the scrutiny of the guards. He looked back to see what Uan was doing but he had vanished. How does he do that? he thought.

Uan was in stealth mode and headed toward the fire escape. He leaped to the third-floor landing. The guard flinched as something next to him made a sound, and he peered across the landing looking for what might have caused the sound. A moment later he was face down with his neck broken.

Uan leaped to the roof and saw two guards there across from each other. He stood next to one and waited until the other looked over the side of the building. He quickly snapped the neck of the guard standing next to him and ran for the other guard. The man heard a noise behind him and looked around to see the other lying flat. He reached for his radio as Uan threw his spear, which penetrated his chest and pinned him to the roof.

Uan retrieved his spear and wiped the blood from it with the fallen guard's coat. He peered over the edge of the roof and spotted the transformer. He pulled out his pulse rifle and fired a quick burst. The transformer exploded like a ball of fireworks.

"What the hell is going on out there?" shouted Louie into his radio.

"We're checking it now, boss," said one of the exterior guards. "I'll get back to you in a second."

Calvin headed to the bottom of the fire escape like Uan had asked. Uan jumped from the roof and landed next to him uncloaked. He grabbed Calvin and covered his mouth then leaped to the second-floor landing of the fire escape. Calvin squirmed with eyes wide open in surprise, and Uan released him.

"How the hell did you do that?" Calvin quietly exclaimed.

"I exercise a lot," replied Uan. "We can go inside and look for Louie now."

"I would guess that he's on the third floor near the back of the building, away from the stairs and fire escape to be safe."

"Okay, I will go into the door on the third floor," said Uan. "I will look for a heavily guarded door and enter that room to find Louie. You should follow me in."

"Got it. If fighting breaks out, expect me to disappear down the fire escape and meet you back home."

Uan just looked at him with disdain and headed up the fire escape and through the third-floor entry, cloaking himself as he stepped inside. Calvin was disturbed by the dead body on the landing but stepped by him and into the building.

"What the..." Calvin looked in disbelief at the spectacle in front of him. A guard fought an invisible assailant then fell to the ground, apparently with his neck broken.

Before Calvin's eyes, Uan appeared out of nowhere. "Oh my god," Calvin stammered. "Are you some sort of ghost?"

Uan again clamped a hand over Calvin's mouth, and dragged him outside.

"I do not have time for your theatrics and I may need you inside so I have to do this." Uan was obviously annoyed.

"Do what?" mumbled Calvin through Uan's fingers.

Uan pulled Calvin close and bit him on the neck, just enough to pierce his skin. He held Calvin's mouth shut so he wouldn't scream.

"It should take a few seconds for the enzymes to take effect," said Uan.

Calvin struggled to speak. "What enzymes? What effect?"

"Just relax and wait a minute." Uan cloaked and released his grip on Calvin. "Can you see me now?"

"Of course I can see you. How did you disappear earlier?"

"It is an ancient ninja mind trick."

"That was some amazing trick. Why did you bite me?"

"You were getting a little wound up and I thought that would calm you down."

"You thought biting me would calm me down?" said Calvin. "You Scottish people have an odd way of calming each other down. I guess if I was laughing hysterically you would stab me in the chest?"

"I have certainly considered it."

"How about just giving me a firm 'Calm down' instead of all the painful stuff?"

"Okay, I will consider that. Can we take care of business now?"

"Sure."

Uan reentered the building and walked past the guard on the floor to where the corridor intersected with the main hallway. He looked in both directions. To the left, a guard stood at the far end near a stairway. To the right, three guards stood before a double door. Uan figured that Louie must be behind that door. He turned to Calvin.

"You wait here. I am going to take care of the guard on the left and then ram the door at the other end of the hallway and take out those guards. You come around when you hear the door smash open."

"And if I see you get shot as soon as you enter the hallway, I'll be at the apartment waiting on you."

Uan gave Calvin a puzzled look and walked into the hallway, toward the solitary guard. He found a janitorial closet and slipped inside, leaving the door cracked open. The guard eventually saw the door ajar and went to investigate, speaking into his radio.

"Hey guys, did you see anyone open this closet door here?"

"Chuck, you're seeing things. No one's been in this hall but you," responded one of guards at the double door.

Chuck approached the door with his hand on his piece. He opened the door and looked in. A strange smell hit his nose, but he didn't see anything unusual.

Uan grabbed Chuck by his collar with his left hand and pulled him into the closet. With his right hand he shoved his spear into the man's chest, and gently laid Chuck's quivering body onto the floor. Uan wiped his spear on Chuck's pants and put it away under his hoodie. He exited the closet, pulled the hood from his head, and launched himself up the hallway toward the double doors at the far end.

One of the guards sensed something was wrong. He didn't understand why Chuck was still in the closet. Why was the door ajar if there was no one in the hallway? Why did it sound like someone was running toward them?

Calvin saw Uan fly by with his head down and wondered why no one was shooting at him.

The suspicious guard pulled out his gun. "Do you guys hear that?" he said.

Calvin peeked around the corner just in time to see Uan shove his head into one of the bulky guards and ram him through the doorway, knocking him out. Uan spun around and sliced through the necks of the other two guards outside the door and another one inside the apartment.

Uan motioned for Calvin to join him and entered the living room area of an apartment. Just inside were guards to each side, with their guns drawn. Uan stood between them, made himself visible, and growled. He then cloaked again and stepped back as the men fired at each other and fell dead from each other's bullets.

Calvin stood in the doorway in amazement, not understanding what had just happened. Uan surveyed the room to determine his next move.

In the apartment's master suite, Louie was looking at images from the security cameras in the living room.

"What the hell is this?" he shouted at the guards in the room. "Are the cameras on the fritz or something? It looks like there's some sort of cloud walking around in there." He picked up his radio. "Send some guards up here now! I'm under attack here!"

Uan looked through the doorway to his left and saw that the dining room and kitchen were unoccupied. To his right was a hallway. The first door in the hallway was open; it led to a bathroom. Beyond were two more doors. Uan went to the first door deciding to take a more subtle approach to finding Louie.

"Calvin, come here. I'm going to knock on the door. Hopefully they will respond verbally and not just start shooting. I want you to let them know that I just want to speak to Louie."

In the master suite, Louie said, "Who is that guy out there and who is he talking to? Wait! He's coming this way." There was a knock at the door.

"What do you want?" yelled Louie.

Calvin replied, "We just want to ask Louie a few questions and we'll be on our way."

"We? I'm looking at my security cameras and I don't see a we out there. If you only want to talk, why did you kill my men?"

Calvin shrugged his shoulders. "That was just to get your attention. If we wanted you dead we would just come in and kill you. We want to know about the people who were in the diner with you."

"I don't know how that dead guy was walking around. That was Bookhead. He was killed a couple of days ago."

"Not him. There was a junkie in there, and his sister. Who were they?"

"His name was Jerome. He owed me some money. I don't know his sister's name."

"What's Jerome's last name?"

"How would I know his last name? We weren't friends or anything. Wait, his sister is Dr. Turner. He asked for Dr. Turner on the phone. She works at some hospital."

"What about the kid in the window?"

"I didn't see no kid. Now go away. I answered your questions," demanded Louie, flustered at the questioning.

"Could you just take a look at his picture? If you don't recognize him we're gone."

"Sure. I'll open the door. Just no funny stuff. I got guns in here."

Uan handed Calvin his communicator, which displayed the image of Morgan. He whispered, "Let me go in first. Come in behind me and show him the picture."

The door opened and Uan stepped in, unseen by the man at the door. Calvin entered and a man sitting on the bed waved him over.

"Show me the picture," the man said.

"You're not Louie. Where's Louie?"

The closet door burst open and there was Louie, pointing an automatic rifle at Calvin. Invisible, Uan snatched the rifle from Louie and threw him across the room onto the bed, over the head of the person impersonating Louie.

"What the hell was that?" shrieked Louie. "First a dead guy comes after me, now I'm being attacked by a ghost."

"What are you talking about? You can't see Uan standing there?" asked Calvin in surprise.

"Uan? What Uan? I don't see any Uan standing anywhere," replied a panicked Louie.

"Me either," replied the others, wide-eyed and not sure if they should go for their guns.

"They cannot see me. Just show them the picture," said Uan.

"Where did that voice come from?" shouted Louie.

Just then four of Louie's goons rushed into the room with guns drawn. Calvin raised his hands and shouted, "Don't shoot."

Before they could act, Uan pulled out his pulse rifle and fired a stun burst. They all fell to the floor unconscious, including the guard originally standing by the door.

Calvin was shocked by what had happened, but decided to show the picture to Louie so he could get back to the safety of his apartment.

Figure 9. Calvin shows picture to Louie while Uan looks on cloaked with pulse rifle

"Louie, do you know who this kid is?"

"No, I don't recall ever seeing him."

"How about you?" Calvin asked the other man on the bed.

"Me neither," the man responded.

Uan walked to the window near the bed. "Calvin," he said, "there's more guards coming. Let's get out of here." Uan opened the window and pushed out the screen.

"I'm not jumping out a three-story..."

Uan grabbed Calvin and dove out the window as several of Louie's men came into the room with guns in hand. One of them ran to the window, but Uan and Calvin were nowhere to be seen.

### CHAPTER 27

PICO IS FOUND OUT

Morgan could tell that the daily visits to the hospital were finally beginning to help his mother. He set Pico in the bed next to her as usual. Pico pulled out his shaman stone and connected with the comatose woman.

"Morgan, the tumor in your mother's head is pretty small now. I think that she will be well soon."

"Thanks for the update, Pico. I sure hope so. I really miss her. I have to admit, though, that life has become much more tolerable since you came along. I'm having a good time with my foster family, I'm a member of a tennis club, my mother is getting better, and I have a best friend for the first time in a long time."

"Who is your best friend?" asked Pico through their bond.

"Why, you are." Morgan gave Pico a big hug. "I'm going to go ask Cleo for some more nails for you. I'll be right back."

"I'll be right here," replied Pico mentally. He was feeling especially joyous about his relationship with Morgan.

Morgan closed the curtains around his mother's bed and left the room, leaving Pico to bask in the blue glow of his shaman stone. Dr. Turner walked by and happened to see Morgan disappearing behind the elevator doors. She looked in the room and thought it was odd that the curtains were closed with Morgan gone. She went in and pulled back the curtains to see Pico sitting motionless in the bed next to Morgan's mother. Pico had heard her coming and put away his stone before she could see it.

"Hi there, Pico," said Dr. Turner, leaning toward him. Pico remained perfectly still. "I can't believe that Morgan would leave you here all alone. Are you just keeping his mother company or are you doing more than that?"

Dr. Turner put her hand to Pico's chest. "You certainly seem a lot warmer than a normal action figure. Your skin seems to have the texture of real skin. You don't have a nose or a mouth though. No fingernails or genitals either. I must be losing my mind. I could have sworn I saw some sort of light coming from behind the curtains." She looked closely. "What about your eyes, though?"

Dr. Turner pulled out her ophthalmoscope and looked into Pico's left eye. "Oh my god," she screamed, jumping back. "What kind of doll are you?"

Morgan rushed into the room with a small bag of nails, alarmed at the scream. "Denise, what are you doing to Pico?"

"This is not an action figure. He's some sort of voodoo doll, or strange animal species, or something else." Denise was visibly shaken by what she had seen.

"He's just an action figure," insisted Morgan.

"Then why does his eye have fluid in it? And there's structure to it, similar to human eyes, but different."

"He's just a toy and you're imagining things." Morgan picked up Pico and placed him in the quiver.

"Where did you buy this toy, Morgan? I'd love to get one for my niece back in Michigan."

Morgan's eyes welled up. "I thought you were my friend."

"I am your friend, Morgan, but I swear I saw you at Joey's Diner yesterday when that corpse from the morgue attacked a guy. How could a dead person possibly do that? And when I got back to my car there was a strange smell coming from the trunk. I found this nail there. The same kind that you carry around for Pico. There was also a spot of blood in the trunk that matched the blood from the corpse. Can you explain that?"

"No, I can't. I can only say that you can't blame me for those things."

"If your friend, or action figure, whatever you want to call it, is healing your mother, I thought he might be able to take a look at my brother who's addicted to heroin."

"I don't want any trouble. I just want my mother to get better."

Denise spoke with an air of wonder. "She is getting better. Her white blood cell count is nearly normal now. I'm going to run another CAT scan to see how the tumor is doing. I'm betting it's almost gone,"

"Thanks. I'd better go. See you tomorrow," said Morgan. He turned away and walked out of the room.

"Morgan, why don't you tell her about me?" asked Pico through their bond. "I'm sure you can trust her."

"She'll tell everybody and you'll be taken away by the government and experimented on, like the alien in ET. I'd never see you again, and my life would be miserable. I couldn't bear that."

"I trusted you and you didn't turn me in. She might be able to help us. I'm not that sure about what I'm doing to try to save your mother."

"I'll think about it," said Morgan as he walked out of the hospital and headed for another session of tennis with Biffle.

### CHAPTER 28

CALVIN LEARNS TO FIGHT

Calvin and Uan stepped out of a cab in front of their apartment building.

"So, are you going to tell me what's going on? Why couldn't anyone see you back there? How did you throw Louie around like he was a rag doll? How can you jump out of a third-story window carrying me over your shoulder as if it were nothing?"

Before Uan could answer, a group of men descended on them from where they had been waiting in front of the building.

"Calvin, we just heard that Bo Sam is dead," said Bobby, a large guy who led the group. "They found his body and some others in his vehicle down the street. Police said it was a gang-related killing. That puts me in charge and his spot is mine."

"I run things here," interrupted Calvin. "You can continue to do what you do and I'll just take half the normal cut."

"Who the fuck are you, little man, and why should we give you a damn thing?"

Uan grabbed Bobby at the chest and flung him against a tree ten feet away. His crumpled body fell to the ground. Another man pulled a gun and Uan immediately cut off his hand and pushed his spear through his chest in what appeared to be one continuous move. He pulled out the spear and wiped it on the fallen man's pants while watching the others to see if they would make a move. He replaced the spear underneath his hoodie and addressed the remaining thugs.

"Do I need to kill the rest of you or do we have an agreement?"

"We're cool," replied Little Randy, seeing this as an opportunity for him to move up the ranks.

Uan growled, "You can have the rest of the building, but stay off the top floor. If I get any trouble out of any of you I will kill all of you, a little at a time."

Little Randy was happy to hear that he had the run of things and a bigger cut of the take. "I guess we know who put that pile of dead bodies in Bo Sam's SUV. So, what should we call you?"

"The name is Uan and I would appreciate it if you did not call me at all. Just slip my money into the mail slot in my door or I will slip my spear into your chest. Is that understood?"

Little Randy agreed and Uan turned to enter the building with Calvin in tow. Uan didn't care about the money. He just felt it was easier for people to believe he was a new hoodlum in town instead of asking questions about who he really was. Calvin kept quiet until they were safely inside their apartment.

"You see what I'm talking about? How did you throw that big guy over your head that far? And all the other stuff?"

"Okay, I will tell you everything, but if you talk I will kill you and everyone you tell."

"I thought we already had that understanding."

"Fine. Have a seat and I will go over everything with you."

Calvin sat down on the couch next to Uan.

"I come from a planet far from your galaxy. I work as an assassin on the Andrea, a resource extraction vessel. A prisoner on the vessel escaped to this planet and I am here to retrieve him. He is with the boy in the image on my device. Let me show you."

Uan pulled out his device and widened the display with the image of Morgan so that Pico, riding in the quiver, could be seen more clearly.

"How did you make it grow like that?" exclaimed Calvin.

"It is technology you would not understand. To continue, my race of people can use our minds to make us invisible to other beings. When I bit you I injected enzymes in your system that blocks the effects of my mental stimulus. And because I come from a much larger planet than yours, I am relatively stronger here."

"So those markings on your skin are just what you look like?"

"Yes, and I have a ridge on my head that I can use as a weapon."

"I thought it was just a faux mohawk hairstyle like some young guys wear."

"Any other questions? If not, I need you to find the Dr. Turner that Louie mentioned."

"Sure. Let me ask around. I'll find out which hospital had Bookhead in the morgue and that will probably be where she works."

"Okay, go do that and hurry back. I will eat, wash up, and rest."

"I should be back in about an hour," said Calvin as he walked out the door. "I'll get you some makeup while I'm out."

Uan found some raw steak in the refrigerator and ate it with delight, washing it down with a carton of juice. He placed his clothes in the washer and headed to the bathroom to relieve himself on the toilet. He thought it was funny that humans hid in a room to defecate. Afterward, he took a steaming hot bath. He enjoyed immersing himself in the water. It reminded him of the steam pools of his home. He soaked until the water was cold, then placed his clothes in the dryer and lay on the couch to rest.

Uan dozed and daydreamed of his homeland. He remembered killing one of the forest animals and taking it to a women of his tribe. He was fond of her. He had taken her a few times in the past and she eventually bore his son. If he had stayed home he would probably be teaching his child to fight and hunt.

Just as Uan was getting up, Calvin walked in the door and was startled to see Uan naked on the couch. He looked very human, down to his genitalia, though he had neither nipples nor scrotum.

"Hey, Uan, I got the information you needed."

"What happened to your face?"

"I had a run-in with a couple of guys and they worked me over. They want to move in on Bo Sam's turf and were pumping me for information."

"Are they dead?"

"No, they were bigger than me and there were two of them."

"Then you should have died trying to kill them."

"I don't want to die."

"Everyone dies. That is one eventuality you cannot escape. They made you die early."

"How so? I'm right here."

"Yes, but you are not living the life you want to live because of them. The life you wanted before they came along is gone, dead."

"What life is that?"

"A life without fear. A life where you did not acquiesce to their whims."

"So I should have died trying to kill you?"

"That is different. We came to an understanding. I offered you an experience you would not ordinarily have in exchange for your guidance on this planet. And now I am going to show you how to get your life back."

"How so?"

"Let me get some clothes on and I will show you." Uan dressed in his clothes from the dryer and returned to the living room.

"Stand up," he said. "Observe. I take my spear and place it beneath the back of my sweater, with the handle in my pants pocket. I reach back, pull the spear around, and jab it into the chest of the person in front me. Now you try it. Go slowly at first to get the move down."

Calvin took the spear from Uan and clumsily attempted the move a few times. Uan showed him how to smooth out his movements and eventually Calvin was able to perform the move quite well.

"Now do that move a hundred times."

"You're joking, right?"

"I do not make jokes. I do not laugh. It is a waste of emotions. I only want to kill or prepare to kill."

Calvin relented. "Okay, I'll do it."

"Count off," commanded Uan. "Focus on precision, not speed."

Calvin started to count: "One, two, three...one hundred. Man, that was tiring."

Uan took the spear from Calvin. "Now rest while I show you another move. After you stab one opponent in front of you, another one will probably come at you. If he is coming from your left, step to the right while pulling out the spear, spin to the right, and slice through his neck. If he is coming from your right, turn to your right as you step back, and pull the spear back with your right arm, then lunge forward and push the spear through his chest."

"Okay, let me try those moves," said Calvin. He took the spear and went through the motions.

"Good form. Now do it a hundred times, visualizing the attacker coming from your left. Then do it another hundred times, visualizing the attacker on your right."

"You're kidding, right? Never mind. I'm sure you don't kid, either. One two three...one hundred. One two three...one hundred."

"Very good. Now rest for fifteen minutes then go down and kill those two men."

"I can't just kill them on the street like that."

"Then coax them into an alley and kill them there."

"Even if I could get them into an alley, I would just freeze up with fear."

"You do not think about fear. You do not think about failure. You do not think about anything but execution. You push everything out of your mind until you get your opponents in position and you execute. It is just like pulling the trigger of a gun or shooting a basketball. Now go out there and get your life back from those two that took it."

Calvin stood up and shook off his fear. While he believed that Uan had a rather dispassionate view of people's weaknesses, he felt there was some truth to the statement about those bullies taking his life. Calvin hid Uan's spear under his jacket and walked out to remove the two bastards that had caused him mental scars.

Uan was surprised at the weakness of most humans. While Calvin might only be a victim of his DNA, Uan could not trust him if he could be cowed so easily into doing something against his will. Someone could eventually force Calvin to betray him. He would have to keep an eye on Calvin and take him out if he continued to show signs of weakness.

Calvin found the two men who had attacked him in the same place, down the street observing Bo Sam's place.

"Look fellas, I don't want trouble. I have some of the money you wanted, and jewelry. Let's step away from prying eyes so I can show you what I have."

Calvin walked into a nearby alley with the two men close behind.

"So show us something that will keep us from beating the crap out of you again," said one with a smirk.

Calvin reached into his back pocket. "Here you go," he said. He pulled Uan's spear from under his jacket and held it over the man in front of him. He wanted to stab the man the way Uan had showed him, but found himself frozen in place. He didn't know if it was from fear or morals or distraction by the fear in the man's face. The other man wasn't frozen or afraid. He reached into his pants waist for his gun but as he pointed it at Calvin, his head suddenly swung to the right with a snapping sound. Then Uan came into view as he snapped the neck of the other man.

"Just could not do it, could you, Calvin? All that training went to waste. I guess it is just not in you."

Calvin hugged Uan. "Thanks for saving me."

Uan shoved Calvin to the ground. "Why are you thanking me? Helping each other is what we are supposed to do. And do not ever hug me. That is for women or attacking someone. Next time I will assume you are attacking me and slit your throat."

"Sorry," replied Calvin. "I just wanted to show my gratitude."

"If you want to show your gratitude, help me find that escaped alien."

"According to a nurse at the hospital, the doctor won't be back until tomorrow morning. Until then, let me get something to help you cover your markings. I can buy you a drink later if you like."

"Fine, just try not get beat up this time. And give me back my spear before you go."

"Sure," said Calvin, handing the spear to Uan. "See you soon."

### CHAPTER 29

UAN TAKES A DRINK

Calvin arrived at the apartment about a half an hour later with a bag of cosmetics.

"Uan, it would be great if you could take off your hoodie, shirt, and glasses, and sit in this chair." He pointed to a chair at the dining room table.

Uan complied and sat down in the chair. Calvin emptied the cosmetics onto the table and got a bowl to mix them together to get the right shade. He then placed a foundation on Uan, beginning at his neck.

"Where did you learn to do this?" asked Uan.

"My mother used to work in a beauty parlor. I helped her put makeup on clients after they got their hair done."

"That does not sound like something a man should be doing."

"On Earth, men do lots of things that might be considered woman's work. It doesn't make them any less manly. If I didn't have that experience, I wouldn't be able to help you now."

"Maybe you have a point."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you smell like musky coriander?"

"No what's that?"

"It's a spice that is used on food. I can't say it's bad, it's just different."

Calvin continued working on Uan, covering his neck then moving to his face. He was doing a good job masking Uan's skin coloration. When he got to the side of his face where a black band continued across Uan's eyes, he jumped back, startled. He could see Uan's eye looking at him.

"How are you doing that with your eyes?"

"I do not have eyeballs. I have a collection of visual cells that can move across the length of the black band. They give me just over a hundred and eighty degrees of vision."

"I guess I shouldn't put any makeup on them. I'll work around. Keep your glasses on, and if anyone asks, just say it's a fancy tattoo."

Calvin finished the rest of Uan's face. He dyed the surface of his head black to simulate hair, and placed a goatee around Uan's lips to mask their black color.

"I think that should do it," Calvin said at last. "You almost look human."

Uan looked in a mirror and was not totally pleased. "I do not like what you have done to my face, but I guess it will help me blend in better among your people."

"Great, let's go get a drink and see how your new look does in public. I know a real nice bar down the street with pool tables. Maybe we can shoot a game or two."

"Sure, we can do that."

Uan and Calvin left the apartment and walked to the Laughing Lizard, a rustic bar down the street. They sat in the back by the pool tables. Uan watched the people playing and decided to give it a try. His amazing eyesight made him a natural. It took a few games to get the technique down, but after that he was winning games and taking money. Eventually Calvin pulled him from the tables.

"We should probably take it easy," said Calvin. "We're starting to attract attention, and it's not like we need the money."

"Good point. Let me try some of that booze you keep telling me about."

Calvin signaled to the waitress. "Sheryl, how about a couple of gin shots of Hendricks and two Samuel Adams. Make those Hendricks shots while you're at it. No reason why we can't celebrate your wins tonight."

"Drinking booze is how one celebrates here?" asked Uan.

"Yes, that's one way to celebrate. People also go out to fancy dinners or a show, maybe even go on a vacation somewhere."

The waitress soon returned with their drinks.

"The way you drink these is by downing the shot and following it with a swig of beer. First we clink the glasses, as part of a tradition when you start a session of drinking together." Calvin lifted his glass towards Uan. "Cheers." Uan clinked Calvin's glass and the two downed their shots then sipped their beer.

"I like the gin a lot," said Uan, admiring the shot glass. "It was very smooth. The beer tastes like animal urine. Wow, what is wrong with my head?"

"You know, I forgot to ask if this stuff might harm you, being that you are not from around here and all."

"I do not think it will harm me. My head feels a little strange, is all." Uan spoke to a nearby bar patron. "Is that fish on your plate? You are obviously holding that for your wife. A real man would not eat fish."

"Just mind your own business, fella, and let us eat," the man replied

"Uan, what are you doing?" asked Calvin, concerned about the direction Uan's teasing might take. "We don't want to cause a scene here."

"Do not worry, Calvin. I am just trying to understand your culture better. Your friend is eating fish as well," Uan said, continuing his banter with the patron. "You two must be dating. This planet is such a funny place."

"You have the nerve to harass us, with all that makeup you're wearing? You look like someone swallowed a bottle of foundation and shit it on your face."

"And your lips look like you've been kissing gorillas all day," the other one chimed in. The crowd around them laughed at the insults.

"Are you insulting me?" inquired Uan.

"You're too stupid to know when someone's making fun of you. Maybe you should stay at home and continue breast feeding from your mother until you learn how to handle your liquor."

"Look, you two," said Calvin, "my friend is just visiting from Scotland and his English is not that good."

"Calvin, my English is just fine. I know I have a problem with contractions, but other than that I understand them just fine. Maybe this blootert boaby does not understand that I could rip his arm off, shove it up his ass, and beat up his boyfriend with the hand that is dangling out of it."

"Okay, I've had enough of your crap, you puny excuse for a man," said the first patron. He came at Uan.

Calvin jumped between them. "Look, he's just had too much to drink. Why don't I pay for your food, we can call it even, and enjoy the rest of our evening?"

"I have a better idea. Why don't we rip off your friend's head and go bowling with it?"

"Enough!" shouted Uan. "Now you die!" He stood up to go after the man and fell flat on his face.

The two men began to kick the crap out of Uan. Calvin grabbed a pool cue from a rack on the wall and whacked them across the head, sending them to the floor. He lifted Uan off the floor and tried to drag him out of the bar, but was blocked by a large man in a cowboy hat.

"You think you're going to beat on my cousins with a pool cue and just walk out of here, boy?"

Calvin dropped Uan and put his hand on the man's chest. "I don't want any more trouble. I just want to get my drunken friend home."

"You should have thought of that before you wailed on my cousins."

Unnoticed by the crowd in the bar, Uan cloaked himself. He reached up and grabbed the breast of a woman sitting next to the cowboy, causing her to shriek.

"Jimmy, that man just grabbed my breast!" said the woman to the biker sitting at the table with her.

"Hey, buddy, what's your problem, grabbing my wife's tit like that?" said the biker to the cowboy.

"Shut the fuck up, biker boy," said the cowboy. "I never touched her. Hell, I thought it was your twin brother. You're both wearing those stupid biker leather vests, dumb scarves on your heads, and your man boobs are bigger than hers."

Jimmy rose from his seat. "Boy, you just called up a shit storm and it's about to rain down knuckle sandwiches across your face." His wife pulled out a small knife and stabbed the cowboy in the thigh as her husband tackled him to the ground. In the confusion, Calvin was able to grab Uan and drag him out of the bar. He hailed a cab and got Uan home safe and sound.

### CHAPTER 30

MORGAN PARTIES WITH BIFFLE

Morgan arrived at the sports club in a state of confusion. He wanted to help Denise and her brother, and letting her know about Pico might even help him treat his mother. Pico wasn't a doctor or even very familiar with human physiology. Maybe he was killing too many cells and causing his mother more harm in the long run. Maybe he was causing other problems by killing the tumor that way. He didn't want to lose his mother. But what if she was meant to die anyway and then he lost Pico by letting Denise know who he really was? Fear, fame, and fortune could be strong motivators for someone who captured Pico.

Biffle sat down next to him on a bench by the tennis courts. "What are you dreaming about?"

"Nothing," said Morgan wearily. "I'm just worried about my mother."

"Do you want me to ask my dad if he can find some sort of specialist to look at her?"

"Naw, she has a good doctor. It's just that people usually don't survive brain cancer and I hate to see her in a coma and not be able to talk to her."

"Come on," Biffle urged, "let's play some tennis. It will take your mind off everything."

"Okay. You're probably right. Kicking your ass always makes me feel better," Morgan said with a laugh.

"Not today, buddy. I've been practicing. You've done a lot for my game, mentally and athletically. I can't believe I was such a jerk to you."

"You can be nice to me all you want. I'm still going to kick your ass."

They both laughed.

Since Pico converted his brain back to normal, Morgan wasn't as good as he had been that first time he beat Biffle, but he still played a mean game of tennis. He continued to learn a lot by studying players' form and the effect of their movements on ball placement.

Morgan took time out before each match to clear his mind. He sat Pico down on a bench so he could watch him play. While he was there he closed his eyes and took three deep breaths. He then said quietly to himself, "There is no win, there is no lose, there is no pride or shame or second-guessing. There are no spectators. There is only the game. Focus on the game."

"Come on, already," shouted Biffle. "Enough with the meditation. Let's play."

"You're always in a hurry to get beat." Morgan pulled out his racquet and headed onto the court. "Let's do this."

The two athletes played an incredible first set, though Morgan won it decisively, six to three.

"What am I doing wrong?" asked Biffle.

"You have a great game but you get flustered, which distracts you."

"I tried clearing my mind the way you said, but I always get emotional about missing a shot and it just eats away at me."

"Come on. I'll teach you my chant. Just kneel here by the bench."

Morgan connected with Pico through their bond and asked him to take away Biffle's distractions the way Pico had done for him. Morgan repeated his chant out loud while Biffle kneeled next to him and tried to clear his mind.

"Wow, I feel a little strange. More focused," said Biffle once Morgan had finished.

"Okay, let's play while you still have your focus."

The two played again and Biffle played the best set of his life. He beat Morgan six, four. They sat on the bench next to Pico to rest. Morgan asked Pico through their bond to return Biffle back to normal.

"That was an impressive win, Biffle. I hope you know that it was more about your focus than your talent."

"Yeah, I have to agree. It was unreal. It was like the whole world disappeared and nothing existed but me, you, and the ball. It was great. Playing with you brings out my greatness."

"Let's see how great you are in the last set."

"I'm amped. Let's do it."

The boys went back to the court and played the most strenuous set of their lives. There were several ties during the set, but neither suffered a service break. This forced a tiebreaker that Morgan eventually won.

"Woo hoo!" shouted Biffle, collapsing to the court. "What a match! That was definitely the best match of my life. I am so glad my dad made me practice tennis with you." Morgan walked over and offered him a hand up.

"I'm the one that is learning from you, Biffle, and not just about tennis."

"What are you doing this afternoon?"

"Just homework and chores."

"I thought we could go for a ride in my new Tesla. It's environmentally friendly and very fast. We could ride out to Kent Island. You ever been there?"

"I've never even heard of it."

"It's an island on Chesapeake Bay. Annie's is a restaurant in the marina there with great seafood."

"I rarely get outside of DC. I'd love to go."

"There's a pool party at my house we can drop by afterward. My dad would love to see you again."

"I don't know. I don't have any extra clothes with me."

"The shop is full of clothes. Just get what you need and put it on our account."

"I wouldn't feel good about that."

"After the amazing tennis match that we just played, we deserve to celebrate."

"Okay, I'll pick out something, take a shower, and we can go."

"Yes! That's what I like to hear," said Biffle, enthusiastically pumping his fist into the air.

An hour later they were on Highway 50 headed toward Annapolis. The convertible top was down and Morgan held his hands above the windshield, feeling the wind flowing through his fingers. Pico, partially hidden by Morgan's jacket, had his hands in the air as well. Morgan was in heaven: first time in a sports car, first time outside of DC on his own, and the first time in a long time that he felt accepted about being who he was. He never imagined that Biffle of all people would be looking up to him. What a wonderful world it had become. Just a few weeks ago he had reached the depths of despair. Now he was on top of the world.

They zipped past Annapolis in the hot sports car and onto the bridge that separated Kent Island from the mainland. A few minutes later they were pulling into the parking lot at Annie's. They went inside and took a seat by the window with a view of the water. Morgan ordered lobster bisque and the shrimp basket. Biffle ordered clam chowder and the crab cakes. They finished their meals quite quickly.

"Was that great or what?" exclaimed Biffle.

"Definitely great," replied Morgan.

"I know my father has given you a few things in exchange for tennis lessons, but I want to show my personal appreciation. Thanks for making me a better tennis player even though I used to treat you like crap."

"Don't worry about it. I completely forgot about that stuff."

"Good. Let's go party."

Biffle and Morgan jumped into the car and headed back to DC. Before long they were pulling into Biffle's driveway. Morgan was a little worried about going in. This wasn't exactly his crowd. He remembered how Biffle's friends used to make fun of him. He didn't want to damage his newfound friendship.

"Are you sure your parents are okay with me being here?"

"Of course they are. I told you my father wants to see you."

"What about your friends?"

"You're my friend, Morgan. As a matter of fact, you've been a better friend to me than those other guys have, even after the way I treated you. If they don't like you being here, they can leave and never come back."

Morgan left Pico in the car to keep him out of sight and he and Biffle walked through the front door of Biffle's massive house. They stepped into a large open foyer with a winding staircase up to the second floor, and were greeted by Randolph, the family butler.

"Good evening, Biffle," said Randolph. "Your family and friends are out by the pool."

"Thanks, Randolph," replied Biffle.

Morgan and Biffle walked through the house, past the formal living room with its sunken floor and large brick fireplace, the dining room furnished with an oak table that could easily seat sixteen people, the media room with its 100-inch LCD television and twenty reclining seats, and the family room with its ping pong table, Xbox Kinect system, and 60-inch LED television.

From the family room, French doors led outside to an Olympic-size pool with a large hot tub at one end. Several of Biffle's friends were in the water playing pool volleyball. Biffle's father stood by a large Viking grill, cooking cube steaks and hot links for everyone.

"Morgan," yelled Biffle's father, "come over here and let me talk to you for a minute."

"Yes, sir," Morgan responded, and jogged over to him.

"Biffle's been saying good things about you and how you've helped improve his game. I don't want you to think your effort has gone unnoticed."

"Not at all, sir. You and Biffle take good care of me. Biffle just took me out to dinner."

"Great. Did he tell you about the doubles tournament coming up?"

"Yes, and he asked me to be his partner."

"I hope you said yes. Don't worry about the entrance fee. I'll take care of that. And if you need spending money, I'm sure I can find something for you to do around the office."

"Thanks, but my foster parents give me an allowance," Morgan lied. He felt he had already taken enough from their family.

"Fine. But you let me know if you change your mind about a job. Here, grab a hamburger or hot dog before you go. There are condiments on the table over there along with coleslaw, potato salad, and enough chips to stuff a pig."

"Okay, I guess I could squeeze in a hot dog," said Morgan, holding up a paper plate he grabbed off the table. He added ketchup, mustard, and relish to his hot dog and placed some chips on the side of his plate. He pulled a root beer from the cooler and sat down by the pool next to Biffle to watch the volleyball game. I am truly in heaven, he thought.

### CHAPTER 31

DENISE TAKES A BREAK

The elevator doors opened and Denise stepped into the familiar corridor of the high-rise condominium building, thoughts of Jerome still on her mind. She was afraid that he was so far gone that she couldn't save him. She approached the door to the familiar condominium and with a deep breath pushed Jerome from her head. She made two firm knocks. James opened the door and greeted her with a smile and kiss to her cheek.

The smell of lilacs hit her nose as she crossed the threshold of James' two-bedroom condo overlooking Benjamin Banneker Park. The lights in the condo had been dimmed, the way Denise liked them, but she could still see the forlorn look on her face as she passed the hallway mirror. Throughout the condo James had lit candles with the lilac scent she enjoyed so much. A recording of Sade singing "Is It a Crime" played in the background. As she walked through the living room she paused to take in the view of boats on the Potomac. She had grown up near the water and always had a fondness for it. James handed her a flute of Veuve Clicquot that she quickly sipped for the effervescent rush. She sighed quietly. James handed her a small plate with a serving of cheesecake lined with sliced strawberries and drizzled with Irish Cream. Denise smiled warmly and headed to the master bath.

The large bathroom had a sunken tub with jets that surrounded the bottom. Lilac-scented candles filled the room. Denise disrobed and stepped into the hot water peppered with Epson salt. Denise ate the cheesecake and strawberries and sipped the champagne, letting Sade's sensuous vocals send her into oblivion.

Thirty minutes later she was lying on a towel in James' bed, getting a full body massage. James started with the fingers of her left hand, kneading the muscles of her left arm on his way up to her shoulder. He switched to the right hand and then to the toes of her left foot. James massaged each leg, taking extra time on her tense thighs. Denise experienced both pain and pleasure from the pressure of James' fingertips. He transitioned from massage to love making, which Denise considered the perfect ending to an evening.

She woke up early the next morning in James' arms.

"Good morning, doctor," said James.

"Good morning, James," Denise replied, stretching with a big yawn. "Thanks for last night. I really needed the pampering."

"You never mentioned what had you all tense."

"It was such a strange day yesterday. You are not going to believe this, but I'm going to tell you anyway. Some hoodlum grabbed Jerome and threatened to kill him if I didn't pay him the money Jerome owed him for a drug debt. I picked up the money for the debt and went to Joey's Diner to drop it off. A dead guy walked in during the exchange and started throwing people around using telekinesis. Lastly, one of my patients seems to be being cured of cancer by a strange doll that emits some sort of blue light. What do you think about that?"

"Wow, that sounds like a Twilight Zone episode. Are you sure you don't need some time off?"

"I'm fine. Right now I need to take care of Jerome, again. I'm afraid he may not recover from his addiction this time. Thanks again for taking care of me last night."

"It's always a pleasure to see you, Denise. I just hope you won't wait so long before seeing me again."

"You're right. I shouldn't work so hard. And of course now I have to leave for work. But I promise we will spend time together this weekend."

Denise kissed James passionately, took a shower, and left for work.

### CHAPTER 32

THE SEARCH FOR DR. TURNER

Denise was at the hospital making her rounds by 7:30. At 9:00 she took Morgan's mother in for a CAT scan. She got her back to the room at 10:00 and found Morgan waiting on them.

"Is my mom okay?"

"She's better than okay. Her brain tumor seems to be all but gone, which is miraculous considering she is not getting any treatment, at least none that I'm aware of."

Morgan gave her a blank look, unwilling to volunteer any information.

"She's still not out of the woods though," continued Denise. "There are a couple of smaller tumors that have formed in other parts of her brain. I could help Pico find them if you'd let me work with him."

At that, Pico stretched out his arms toward Denise. Denise gasped and put her hand over her mouth. Pico cocked his head to the side and studied Denise.

"Pico, I can't believe you did that," said Morgan, stunned at his careless behavior.

"You're alive," blurted Denise.

"Pico is an alien that escaped from a slave ship that was studying our planet," interjected Morgan. "He can move things with his mind with the help of his shaman stone. He used it to destroy the tumor."

"Pico, can you talk?" asked Denise.

"He uses telepathy to communicate with me. You could hear him, but you have to clear your mind for it to work."

Denise looked at Pico, took a deep breath, and tried to clear her mind.

"Hello, Denise," said Pico with his mind.

Denise gasped and smiled. "Oh my goodness. I knew there was something special about you."

"I want to help your brother," said Pico.

Denise curled her lips inward. Her eyes watered. "I would like that. First we need to take care of Morgan's mother." Denise placed the CAT scan images up on a viewing screen and explained to Pico how to find and attack the tumors. Pico pulled his stone from his side and went to work on Morgan's mother. Denise watched in amazement. Pico kept her updated as he navigated the patient's brain. An hour later, exhausted, Pico halted his effort.

"That was amazing to watch. I wish I could see what you see," said Denise with wonder in her voice.

"Next time I will show you what I see," said Pico telepathically.

"I would love that."

"We'll see you tomorrow, Denise," said Morgan. "Please keep this a secret. I would hate to lose Pico."

"Don't worry, Morgan. I promise that it will be our secret."

Morgan placed Pico into his quiver with a fresh lemon and nails. Pico waved to Denise as they left, and Denise smiled and waved back. Morgan stepped into the elevator, descended to the first floor, exited, and turned to leave the hospital.

"Morgan, go to the shop, now! Hurry!" said Pico excitedly.

"What are you talking about?"

"Please, just go now!"

Morgan made a beeline for the hospital shop.

"Go to the back, by the drinks!"

"Do you need some special fluids or something?"

"No! There was an alien coming toward us, dressed as a human. He is wearing a black hood over his head. He's an assassin from the ship, sent to kill us."

"Us?"

"Yes us, because you're helping me. He's with a black human."

"How do you know he's an alien?"

"I felt his unique brainwaves when we exited the elevator. I gleaned his thoughts and he is very focused. And currently his focus is on finding and killing me and anyone helping me."

Morgan saw the two reflected in the glass of the cooler as they passed by outside the shop. He walked to the front of the store and watched them go to the information desk. He then took off in the other direction to leave the hospital.

"Excuse me," Calvin said to the lady behind the information desk. "I'm looking for Doctor Turner."

"Which one?" replied the information booth attendant. "We have five that work here."

"Are any of them female?" asked Calvin.

"We have two female Doctor Turners. Do you have a first name?"

"No, but she has a brother named Jerome and she's black."

"That doesn't help me, sir."

"Tell me the first name of the doctor and I'll see if it's familiar."

"Sharon?"

"Yes, that's it," Calvin said, pretending he knew her.

"You'll find her on the fifth floor in pediatrics."

"Thank you."

Calvin turned toward the elevator with Uan close behind.

"How do you know this is the right one?" asked Uan.

"I don't. But there are only two. So we check the name the lady gave us. If it's not her we know it's the other one."

"Sounds practical."

They arrived on the fifth floor and headed to the nurses station.

"Excuse me," said Calvin. "Is Doctor Turner around?"

"Yes, she's right over there, next to that patient."

Calvin looked to his left and saw an older white lady talking to an overweight gentleman on crutches.

"No, that can't be her. My Doctor Turner is black," replied Calvin.

"You must mean Doctor Denise Turner. She's in oncology. You should be able to find her on floor six, seven, or eight."

"Which floor is most likely?"

"All of them, sir. Have a nice day," replied the nurse with a smirk.

At the sixth-floor nurses station Calvin was told that Dr. Turner was on the eighth floor. At the eighth-floor nurses station, Calvin learned that Doctor Turner had left for Howard University to participate in a research trial and would return the following morning.

"Do you know where at the university I can find her?" asked Calvin.

"No, and I'm certain she wouldn't want to be disturbed there," replied the nurse.

"Can you page her for me?"

"Only if it's an emergency. You can leave a message though."

"No, that's okay. Do you think I can get her home address?"

"Certainly not!"

Uan shoved Calvin to the side. "I can make you talk!" he growled.

"He's just kidding, ma'am. He's not from around here," said Calvin. "We'll just check back in the morning." Calvin stepped in front of Uan and guided him back to the elevator. "I thought you wanted to be inconspicuous. She has an alarm under her desk. Within minutes there would have been security guards everywhere. Whether you killed them or ran off, they would have guards on the doctor by the time we found her, making things harder for us."

"Okay, but I am growing impatient. It has been several weeks and I have not captured my target. Tomorrow is a long time to wait. We should go to a bar tonight. I need to kill someone."

"Fine, but I think we should at least wait until it gets dark."

"I can wait if we must," replied Uan angrily. They departed the hospital, jumped into their SUV, and headed home.

### CHAPTER 33

MERCURY DISAPPEARS

At the Kitt Peak National Observatory, two scientists noticed something out of the ordinary in the night sky.

"Roger, shouldn't Mercury have shown up by now from around the sun?" asked Paul.

"Sure, but give it another hour. There are always slight variations in positioning and visibility can sometimes be obscured by the sun's corona."

"I understand that. But it should have appeared yesterday."

"Are you serious? How is that possible? Any anomalous sun activity recorded?"

"There was a large solar flare a couple of days ago. Nothing truly extraordinary. It could have been caused by a planet falling into the sun. I think we are getting ahead of ourselves though. Let's make some calls and see what the other stations are observing."

"Good idea. I'll call the observatories in Hawaii, Spain, and Chile and see what they know."

An hour later, Roger and Paul reconvened to go over their findings.

"This is a really significant event," said Roger. "Every station has reached the same conclusion with no understanding of what could have happened. All known comets, meteors, and asteroids have been accounted for. Nothing new has been spotted in the skies lately. Mercury has just vanished. Venus, Mars, and Neptune are still in orbit. The others can't be seen as of yet."

"I noticed something after performing another evaluation," said Paul. "The sun seems to have developed a slight variation in its wobble."

"To what do you attribute that? If Mercury were lost into the sun, that wouldn't be enough to cause a noticeable shift in the sun's wobble distance or frequency," exclaimed Roger.

Roger removed his glasses and tapped them against his thigh. "You're right. It would take the disappearance of a larger planet for that to happen."

"You don't mean..."

"Yes. A planet such as Jupiter or Saturn would have to disappear from orbit for that to happen. It could be that one of them fell from orbit and took Mercury out on its way into the sun. Though if that had happened, the solar flare would have been a lot larger. I would have expected an event of galactic proportions if something that large had hit the sun."

"That's just nonsense. Any number of things could have caused Mercury to disappear and simultaneously caused the shift in the sun's wobble. If we start broadcasting these wild speculations, it will cause a global panic."

"The tabloids are already reporting on the disappearance of Mercury. The observatories have all agreed not to make any formal announcements or respond to speculation until we're able to gather more information."

"I have to tell you, Paul, this one has me baffled and worried, but I'm not ready to go off the deep end just yet."

### CHAPTER 34

PHOEBE RELIEVES SOME STRESS

XO!" shouted Captain Shisal into his communicator. "Give me an update on in-port operations."

"Captain, the cargo has been delivered to the broker, the crew has been paid, and the reconfiguration is almost complete. We lost about twenty percent of our crew to resignations and I have replaced them. The new crewmembers have been assigned to their departments and are scheduled for training tomorrow."

"Fine. I'll relieve you in a few hours and you can come down for shore leave. After this trip, she's all yours, XO. You're fully qualified and I'll have more than enough money to support a comfortable retirement."

"I'm looking forward to taking command, captain," the XO replied, ending the communication. But sooner than you think, he mused.

Captain Shisal and Phoebe were in a bar, enjoying a drink and contemplating life after the next mission.

"Phoebe, why don't you bring your family and others of your planet to colonize my personal planet? There's a lot of open space for all of you there. You're never going to assimilate into Euclidian culture, especially with all the Alphas living here. Too many people side with them because of the way they throw their money around. It's only a matter of time before there are enough of them to take up seats in Parliament."

"Chaell, stop. I'm not going to think about settling down until I have freed my planet from the grip of those imperialist swine. They launched an unprovoked attack against us based on a fabricated incident. You know it was in retaliation for us helping Euclidia fight them off. Fifty years go by and now people seem to have amnesia. If you weren't getting Alphas resources and technology, Euclidia would not have stood by and just let them attack us. And even if I wanted to return home, all the decent males were killed in the war or imprisoned as spies, while Euclidia turns a blind eye to it all. Do you expect me to live like a spinster there, or mate with an Alpha? I would rather be eaten by Zaron fleas."

"Are you including me in your calculations at all?"

"Not really, Chaell. But what are you getting at? A Euclidian and a Delta settling down together? How would that look? We could never have kids together."

"I don't give a damn what anyone thinks. And why are kids that important? I didn't think we were the kid-raising type. But we could always adopt a couple of the orphans left from your war."

"No, I'm not really thinking about raising kids either. But I thought we were warriors. It seems like you're going soft on me."

"I'm not going soft. I just want to enjoy life a bit. I want to enjoy life with you."

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into. Being with me would not be like any woman you've been with before."

"I know that. You're pretty intense. I've been with lots of women and to be honest I'm tired of chasing galactic poontang. I want to settle down with someone I trust. Someone who is tough and sexy. Someone who can take me to a level of ecstasy that I can't get from anyone else."

"That ecstasy could easily turn into an incurable addiction."

"I'm already addicted. But I'll survive if you would rather not take me up on my offer. Just give it a thought."

"Why don't you come with me and help me take my planet back? I've almost raised enough money to build the army I need. There are many people back home waiting to join the resistance. I just need a strong leader to teach them discipline and help us win. You do that for me and I promise I will be yours for as long as you like."

"Phoebe, that's quite a tempting offer. It's just too risky. I could get killed or you could get killed or I could piss off the government here and lose my land and money. They might even throw me in jail. Anyway, we have a peace treaty with the Alphas. I'm supposed to be upholding the peace, not breaking it."

Shisal settled the bill and stood up. "I'm off to see my brother. I'll meet you back at the ship in a couple of hours."

"Fine. I need to pick up some things and relieve a little stress. Ping me when you're ready to transfer up and I'll join you in the transmission."

Phoebe left the bar and headed to a nearby convenience store to purchase some Delta goods that were not provided on the Andrea. In particular she liked the skin cream and starburst fruit. With a couple of bottles of aquamarine glimmer nail polish, she would be ready to go.

Her shopping done, Phoebe had one more thing to do before returning to the ship. She had passed by a poster earlier that advertised open fights at the Tarrant Coliseum. She needed a good fight to help her unwind and keep her fighting skills honed. The advertised event was a day-long series of open fights. Fighters participated to practice their moves, learn from others who were better than they, and of course to make some money. The seats in the coliseum were always full of people enjoying the spectacle put on by the fighters. Many of them enjoyed betting on fighters, which was a challenge because most of the fighters were unknown. Many came from other planets so it was often difficult to assess a fighter's abilities. A guide to species could be purchased that provided basic information, but not about a specific fighter's abilities.

The matches were held in a circular arena surrounded by a four-meter high concrete wall. Doors in the wall admitted people and equipment. Near one door was a large box filled with different types of weapons. The arena floor was covered in dirt. A black circle, one hundred meters across, marked off the fighting area.

The matches typically were not to the death, but accidents happened. In case of a death, the winning fighter was not paid. The winnings went instead to the dead fighter's next of kin. Matches could be between two or more combatants. An opponent was deemed to be subdued if he or she left the confines of the fighting area or was unable to respond for three seconds. Weapons of wood or rope were allowed as long as they did not have sharp edges. Phoebe signed up for a match and waited for her turn to enter the arena.

"Ladies, gentlemen, hermaphrodites," said the announcer, "we have a unique challenge before you at this time. A Delta fighter wishes to wage one thousand crowns against four thousand that she can vanquish four fighters single handed. What makes the challenge more extraordinary is that she will do it blindfolded."

The crowd exploded with excitement. Deltas were known for their extra sensory perception about their surroundings. However, fighting four opponents blindfolded would be quite a feat to see. Time was allotted for bets to be placed. Betting odds changed based on the number of people betting on a particular fighter and how well favored a fighter was.

"The Delta has imposed a condition, that one of her challengers must be an Alpha. Is there an Alpha in the coliseum willing to accept this challenge to fight a Delta along with three other combatants?"

There was a hush in the crowd. Alphas for the most part were personae non grata in most Euclidian cities, even though they were allies. Many people frowned on their colonization of the Delta system and mistrusted them for good reason. Alphas moved about the planet discreetly and for the most part kept to themselves. They had superior weaponry, but had no chance fighting one on one against a Delta without their weapons. However, against a blindfolded opponent, with three others fighting on the same side, how could one resist?

Three challengers quickly jumped into the arena ahead of others who complained about being inappropriately cut off. After a long pause an Alpha stood up and accepted the challenge. He was five foot ten inches tall and muscular. Alphas were humanoid creatures with beige skin covered with brown spots that made them look almost reptilian. Their faces had soft features with small noses and lips, and large eyes with no eyelashes or eyebrows. Their ears were crescent openings on the sides of the head, bordered by a slight ridge. The challenger's head had a thin covering of bronze hair.

Once the challengers were all in the arena, another flurry of betting occurred. The betting window finally closed and the referee entered the arena with the combatants.

"Ladies, gentlemen, and hermaphrodites," announced the referee through a handheld microphone, "we have Phoebe the Delta, blindfolded and armed with a two-meter long wooden staff. She is challenged by Ahmed, Arik, and Amit, all local Euclidian fighters. They are joined by Jonas from the Alpha system." A hiss rolled across the crowd. "Quiet, please. Let's show a little civility. We shouldn't behave like Alphas." A roar of laughter erupted from the crowd. Jonas scoffed with displeasure and decided he would take out his anger on the foolish Delta.

The referee continued. "Each challenger is equipped with similar weapons except Amit, who has chosen a two-meter rope with a forty centimeter club at the end. The fight will continue until Phoebe or the other fighters are vanquished. Fighters, take your places. The fight will commence once everyone is in place and the bell sounds."

Phoebe stood in the center of the arena, wearing military boots, leather shorts with a matching top, and leather wristbands on each arm. She held her staff in both hands diagonally across her body. Her four opponents positioned themselves around her, about five meters away as instructed by the referee.

Figure 10. Phoebe face challengers in arena (show all 5)

Phoebe slowly turned in place, using her radar-like ability to survey her surroundings. Her special ability would give her an edge, but she would have to rely on her fighting skills to survive. She had been involved in many hand-to-hand fights during the war and later as a bodyguard. Fighting blindfolded was a game she had played with her brothers. She had never done it in a serious contest, but today she needed an extra challenge to relieve her a little of her inner pain. Even if she lost, the fight would be worthwhile.

Phoebe identified each fighter and his weapon, mentally noting how she would proceed once the fight began. The bell rang.

Phoebe pivoted to the left and lunged forward, shoving her staff into Arik's chest and sending him to the ground. She jumped over his falling body and spun the other end of the shaft into Arik's skull, taking him out of the fight. Once called out, a fighter couldn't return to the fight. Two workers dragged Arik from the arena as the fight continued.

Phoebe ducked as the club from Amit's rope flew past her head. She flipped backward and clamped her calves around Amit's neck. Continuing her spin, she threw him across the arena where he fell shaken in the dust. She landed on the floor and spun to the right to avoid crushing blows from Ahmed's and Jonas' staffs. She tripped Ahmed as she rolled, forcing him to the ground and quickly taking him out with a strike to the head. Ahmed was dragged from the arena.

Amit swung his club at Phoebe's chest and she knocked it away with her staff then blocked a swing from Jonas' staff. Amit's rope wrapped around Phoebe's ankle and he pulled her down. Jonas attacked with his staff, repeatedly swinging at her, but failed to land a blow of any consequence. Amit came from behind Jonas and shoved him on top of Phoebe to distract her. He stepped on her staff and gave her a kick to the face. Jonas kicked away her staff and slammed her in the gut with his staff. Her head jerked up and Amit came down on it with his body. This time he felt he had her. He flipped to pin her, but Phoebe flipped over him, grabbed the club around her ankle and gave him a quick whack across the head. He shook it off but she landed a harder blow and he was out.

Phoebe shifted to the side to miss a feeble swing of Jonas' staff. She unwrapped the rope from her ankle and rolled across the ground, picking up her shaft along the way. Amit was dragged away and the only person left to face Phoebe was Jonas the Alpha.

But Jonas, seeing how quickly his companions had been vanquished, made a dash for the edge of the fighting area. Phoebe would have none of that. She ran after him and with a spinning motion threw her staff at his legs as the crowd jeered. Jonas stumbled to the ground. He struggled to stand and attempted to run the few remaining meters to the edge of the arena, but Phoebe was already on him with her staff. She spun it across his shoulder, turning him toward her, and planted one end into his solar plexus, knocking the wind from him as he fell backward onto the ground.

Jonas flailed his arms and shouted "no" to indicate that he was done. Phoebe ignored his pleas and leapt into the air with her staff high above her head, poised to crush the Alpha's skull. A blast from a stun gun shoved her to the side.

Phoebe shook it off and went back for Jonas. The referee quickly stepped in front of her, cutting her off from Jonas. "This is supposed to be a friendly match," he stated, "not a fight to the death. Don't fight your wars in our arena, Delta. Now take your winnings and leave."

She considered fighting past him, but decided against it. Phoebe removed her mask and raised her staff in the air as the crowd exploded with applause and cheers. The referee shook his head in disgust and worked to prepare the ring for the next fight. Phoebe picked up her winnings then received a ping from Chaell Shisal, not a moment too soon.

"Phoebe, are you ready? Let's head up."

"I'm with you, Chaell," she replied. "If I spend any more time on this planet I'm liable to cause an international incident." She pressed a button on her device to sync with Chaell's transporter signal and prepared for the transfer.

***

Captain Shisal stepped onto the bridge with Phoebe close behind.

The bridge officers stood and shouted, "Captain on the bridge!"

"I have the bridge," said the captain as Phoebe turned and disappeared from view. "Give me an update, XO."

"There is going to be at least a day's delay in departure, captain. The replenishment crew says they are out of material to reconfigure the storage tanks."

"How is that possible? They knew weeks ago what we needed. Get Central Control on the line."

Moments later a surly-faced female showed up on the forward viewing screen. "What can I do for you, Captain Shisal? I'm a busy person," she asked with a scowl.

"What happened to the material for my ship's reconfiguration?"

"It went to another ship with a higher priority that's leaving today on a special mission for Parliament."

"Why is that my problem? I'm on a tight schedule here. This delay is costing me money and could jeopardize the operation. Why don't you tell Parliament to wait a day and give me my materials!"

"Who do you think pays the bill here, Shisal? If it weren't for us, you wouldn't have a mission to go on. You wouldn't even have a commission. Now that I think about it, I heard that half your crew might have Salarian bowel gout. Maybe I should have your ship quarantined for a month while we validate that rumor and send another ship to finish off your expedition. Of course, by then no one will want to work with you because your ability to deliver will be suspect. Then there are the fines, payment for the inspection, judgments against the ship for failure to deliver, and I doubt you will be able to pay your crew while all this is happening. We might even place them on a watch list and they might never get jobs again. That would certainly place you in their good graces. Should I go on, Shisal?" At this point, spittle was dripping from her lips.

"Bertha, you completely misunderstand me," the captain said in a capitulating tone. "I'm always happy to help out Parliament in its time of need. I have no problem delaying my trip for a day or two to ensure that their mission goes off as scheduled. Please give my best to the Prime Minister."

"Certainly, Shisal. Your material should arrive within a week."

"I was told there would only be a couple of days delay. Why is it now a week?"

"Are you making demands on me, Shisal?" shouted Bertha as she pounded her fist on her desk.

"Not at all." Shisal held up his hands, trying to calm her fury. "I was just trying to get clarification."

"Good! Have a safe trip," Bertha said with a smirk.

"Thank you, Bertha," replied the captain as the screen went blank.

Shisal spoke into his control panel. "Mikael, respond."

"Yes, captain," came the response.

"It appears we may be departing up to a week late. What is our exposure in regard to the beings on the planet we are preparing to mine?"

"Well, captain, they are certain to notice that one of their giant planets is missing. The disappearance of the small planet next to their sun was probably rationalized away by their tiny brains. This new disappearance is likely to cause a panic. I can't predict how they will respond, but we should monitor their actions."

"That's what I was concerned about. That is all, Mikael. Security!"

"Yes, captain."

"What's the status of the capture of the escaped alien?"

"Uan says he's close and should have him taken care of soon," replied the security officer.

"Send over one of our attack ships and hide it in one of the planet's oceans. The ship's mission is to prevent the launch or triggering of any nuclear devices. Inform our spy network that we are available to assist with preventative measures as needed. And tell Uan to hurry the hell up."

"Aye aye, captain," responded the security officer.

"XO, go ahead and take your leave. Just be back before we depart."

"Aye aye, captain," responded the XO.

### CHAPTER 35

PICO FINDS THE KEYS

"Pico, why would they send an assassin to kill you? If you're that valuable, wouldn't they rather recapture you?" asked Morgan.

"I'm not sure," replied Pico telepathically. "I can only guess that they are worried about me disrupting any plans they may have for this planet."

"Can't you read his mind and tell?"

"No, I can't really read minds so much as sense what someone is currently thinking. The only thing that was on his mind was killing us."

"We should be safe for now. We need to warn Denise, though."

Morgan sat on a bench a few blocks from the hospital and tried to call Denise. The nurse outside his mother's room told him the same thing she had told Calvin. Since Morgan had no other way to reach her, he would have to wait and call again the next day.

"Pico, I'm going to keep my appointment with Biffle. I need to continue to practice with him if I'm going to be a good doubles partner. If the aliens knew where we live they would have already tracked us down. Can you find the alien or determine if he is coming to attack us?"

"No to both," replied Pico through their bond. "I can only determine if he is near us, but that could be too late. Beyond that, there isn't much I can do. I will stay alert and let you know if I detect anything."

"I wonder if we should try to warn the military?"

"If we went to your military they wouldn't believe us. Even if they did, there isn't much they could do. They would probably just take me into custody and start examining me."

"I don't want that to happen. Let's just try to lay low and stay out of trouble."

Morgan went to the sports club where he and Biffle played several sets of doubles against other players at the club. They won all but one of the sets, which they were unhappy about, but they were still developing their rhythm.

Morgan went straight home after tennis, being careful to stay away from major traffic areas. At home he found his foster mother in a tizzy. She was looking everywhere as if she'd lost something.

"Is everything okay, mom?" asked Morgan, only half interested.

"I lost my car keys, Morgan, and I'm supposed to take a cake to Sharon's party that started five minutes ago."

"Pico, can you help her find them?" Morgan asked telepathically.

"No, I can't read minds like that. If she focused on what she did earlier I might be able to search surrounding memories for clues. Right now her mind is full of panicked thoughts."

"Mom, sit down for a second and tell me when you last saw your keys."

"Have you lost your damn mind? How is sitting down and telling you something I don't know going to help me find my keys?"

"I heard it on Oprah." Morgan lied because he knew she would do anything that Oprah said was okay.

"Oh, tell me what she said." Cheryl sat on a couch in the living room.

"Okay, close your eyes and only think about what I ask you."

"I'm listening."

"When did you last have the keys?"

"I went to the store this morning to pick up the ingredients for the cake. Sharon likes black forest cake. She thinks she's German, but she can't even spell Germany," she said, laughing to herself.

"What happened to the keys?" asked Morgan, trying to keep her focused.

"Oh yeah. I brought the groceries into the house and put my keys in my purse like I always do. I finished the cake and couldn't find the little Porsche decoration I bought to put on top of the cake. She always wanted a Porsche and that is probably as close as she is going to get to owning one."

"And then?" Morgan asked impatiently.

"I figured that it must have fallen out in the car so I got the keys and went back out to the car and found it on the floor of the back seat. I came back into the house and I thought put the keys back in my purse but they aren't there."

Pico jumped in through the bond. "She was wearing something different."

"Were you wearing this nice dress at the time?"

"Yes, but I had an apron over it to keep clean. I checked the apron and they aren't there."

"The apron pocket has a hole in it," Pico added.

Morgan ran into the kitchen to get the apron.

"Where are you going?" Cheryl shouted.

"Don't move. I'll be right back."

Morgan reappeared, holding the apron with his fingers through the hole in the pocket. Cheryl noticed what Morgan was doing and it jogged her memory.

"I remember," she said. "The keys fell through the hole in the pocket, but I didn't see them on the floor anywhere. Maybe one of my crazy sons picked them up."

As she accessed those memories, Pico did his best to follow her thoughts with the aid of his shaman stone. He saw her place the keys in the apron pocket while in the kitchen. The keys fell to the floor and she placed them on the counter, but was worried that one of her sons might walk off with them, so she placed them in a cup on the windowsill where they wouldn't run across them.

"Check the cup on the windowsill," said Pico to Morgan.

"Hold on," shouted Morgan as he went back to the kitchen.

"Now what?" Cheryl asked.

Morgan returned with the cup and handed it to her. As soon as she saw the cup she remembered what she had done with the keys.

"How did you do that?" she asked in amazement.

"I just listened to you and put the pieces together."

"You know, Morgan, I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but I like it. If it wasn't for their father I might consider adopting you and making you my favorite son. Give me a hug."

Morgan squirmed under the intense embrace.

"When I get back from the party we are going to talk about an allowance for you with your Carnac the Magnificent routine."

"Yes!" whispered Morgan, jumping in the air and almost jostling Pico from the quiver. "I guess I really won't need that job."

"Don't get too excited. I'm not Oprah. Think minimum wage. Bye, and thanks for saving my butt on this one. I mean it." She walked out and closed the door behind her.

"Pico, let's tackle our chores and get some sleep. I want to get to the hospital early tomorrow."

### CHAPTER 36

THE XO PLOTS AN ASSASSINATION

The XO was at his favorite erotic bar on the planet Euclidia. He sat with one of his operatives, plotting Captain Shisal's demise.

"This expedition will be particularly profitable for us. The primary planet that we are targeting has minerals, technology, and a wealth of life forms. This is the trifecta of finds. You can search a million worlds and not run across the wealth of resources that we have found on this one planet. Not to mention what we have already collected from the other planets in that solar system. The major payout doesn't happen until we have finished with the entire campaign. The bulk of the proceeds will go to the captain, which will be me by the time this is over with."

"How do you plan to make that happen?" asked Malcolm, an Ossie that the XO had hired for his security detail. Like Uan, he was a deadly killer, but he wasn't about to take on a challenge with little chance of success.

"The ship has lots of security measures in place to protect the captain," said the XO. "With all the monitoring devices they have there, it would be dangerous even to have this conversation on the ship. The message has always been clear that privacy doesn't exist on company-owned vessels. Of course, there are protections for personal conversations, but I don't think any court would judge this conversation to be anything other than treasonous."

Malcolm said, "You could never get the captain killed on the ship without being found out. Everyone's UCD is connected to the central computer. The computer knows about everything that happens on the ship and more than likely could track the assassination back to the killer. And from the killer to you. Zaron fleas would be a delight compared to what will happen to you if you are discovered."

"Maybe so," replied the XO. "But what if it happened while he was touring a planet? The ship's sensors wouldn't pick that up. The captain likes to go to inhabited planets to pick out special prizes for himself. That will be his downfall."

"He always travels with his bodyguard. She is quite formidable. I don't trust people that don't sleep."

"That's your problem to solve. Find a way to kill him while he is on the planet, in a way that cannot be traced back to me. You have those stealth abilities. You should be able to come up with something."

"It is still not going to be easy," replied Malcolm.

"That's why I'll be paying you an enormous amount of money and getting you a post as deputy sheriff on one of our new outposts. You will be able to kill species of all kinds with impunity."

"I can only do that if I survive assassinating him."

"You'll survive and retire wealthy with lots of opportunity for killing," concluded the XO. "Enjoy the rest of your leave. I'm going to go do something bawdy for my last day or so here."

### CHAPTER 37

UAN FINDS MORGAN

The next morning Morgan called the hospital from an alley across the street, and asked for Denise.

"She's here making her rounds," said the nurse. "I saw her earlier with the guy that was looking for her yesterday."

"Thanks, I'll call back," Morgan said and hung up. "Pico, let's sneak up there. We have to warn Denise and make sure she's not in trouble. You don't think they would hurt her or my mom, do you?"

"I get the impression that they are trying to keep a low profile. I'm certain that they only want to kill us," Pico responded.

"Thanks, I guess. Just keep watch so we don't run into them."

"Will do."

***

"I'm sure that's Morgan," said Dr. Turner looking at the picture Calvin showed her.

"Really? Do you know Morgan's last name?"

"It's Stewart, like his mother."

Do you know where he lives?"

"No, I only see him here."

"How so?"

"You know his mother is a patient here, right?"

"No, I wasn't aware of that. Is it okay if we pay our respects?"

"Sure, she's right this way in Room 821. You know, Morgan comes to visit her almost every morning around nine. I'm sure if you wait a while you'll run into him."

They entered the room and Calvin said, "Okay, we'll sit here for a few minutes and see if he shows up. If not, we'll come by again later today. Thanks for your help."

"Sure, glad to be of assistance," said Dr. Turner. She walked out of the room.

Once the room was empty Uan removed what appeared to be a tiny allergy capsule from a pouch he carried. He removed the covering from an adhesive on the side of the device and stuck it to the side of Morgan's mother's bed, out of view.

"What's that?" asked Calvin.

"Let me show you," said Uan. He pulled out his UCD and showed Calvin the screen, which provided a view of the hospital room.

"Wow, that's pretty cool. What's the range of that thing?"

"It depends on the receiver. I should be able to get a decent signal from up to twenty miles away, depending on my altitude, before the curvature of the planet blocks the signal. It will ping me when someone new comes into view so I don't have to constantly monitor it."

"I need one of those for my lady's house. I'm sure she has guys over when I'm out."

"Why do you care?"

"I don't want someone else getting a taste of my pie," exclaimed Calvin.

"That is a bad analogy. You do not own her and you cannot tell if someone else tasted her. Anyway, there are many more women in this city than you can possibly experience in a lifetime."

"You don't understand. This one is special."

"You are right. I do not understand. We should leave and find an out of view spot nearby so we can respond quickly if they show up."

"There are benches in that little park across the street. That should work."

At that, the two left the hospital using the elevator. At the same instant, Morgan was coming up the back stairs to the eighth floor with Pico in his quiver. He looked through the doors at the top of the stairwell and saw Denise standing by the nurse's station. There was no sign of the assassin.

"Pico, can you send this penny over to her to get her attention?"

"Sure."

He rolled the penny along the floor so it wouldn't be noticed as something abnormal. When it reached Denise, Pico plopped it onto the pad that she was writing on, startling her. Once she noticed the penny Pico slid it off the pad and onto the floor back in their direction so Denise would notice them. She finally looked toward the stairwell where Morgan was standing behind a window in the door. Denise walked over and opened the door.

"Why are you standing way over here in the stairwell? You know, there were two men looking for you just a few minutes ago? They were in your mother's room for a little while."

"Where'd they go?"

"They went down the elevator."

"They weren't really men, Denise," said Morgan, trying to keep his voice down. "At least one of them is an alien assassin that's here to kill Pico and me."

"What on Earth for?" asked Denise.

"They're afraid that we might tell humans about their existence."

"One of them did look pretty strange, as if he was wearing too much makeup. He sort of smelled like cinnamon. He never said anything the whole time they were here. The other one said they would come back later."

"Pico, do you sense anything?" asked Morgan.

"No, sense of him anywhere," replied Pico.

"Pico can sense them when they're close by, but he says they're not," Morgan told Denise. "I guess we can go see my mom. I want to continue her treatments."

"Let's go," said Denise. She instructed a nurse, "If you see those two men that were here earlier, call security right away."

"I certainly will, Dr. Turner," replied the nurse.

They went to Denise's office where she placed the CAT scan images on a viewer.

"Okay, Pico, where did you leave off?" she asked.

"I destroyed the two clumps that you circled at the top left side of the image," said Pico to Denise telepathically.

"Great. There are seven other clumps, deeper inside her brain. I will have to perform another scan to pinpoint their location. We could work more efficiently if I could see what you are seeing."

"In your current state you have too many distractions to focus on a connection between us. I could remove those distractions the way I did for Morgan, but there are some side effects."

"Morgan, Pico said he could remove distractions from my head the way he did for you, but there would be some side effects. Can you tell me what he means by that?"

"It's the most amazing sensation. It's like your brain is super focused on whatever task you decide to accomplish. I can even communicate with Pico without talking. And I'm almost unbeatable in tennis."

"What about the side effects?" Denise insisted with a worried look on her face.

"Yes, there are a few, but they're not that bad. Basically, daydreaming goes away. Once you start a task, everything else fades to the background. It can be hard for people to get your attention or for you to see other things happening around you."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"There's one more thing which seems pretty cool, but turns out to be very uncool."

"What's that?" said Denise, her curiosity piqued.

"You don't ever get sleepy. It was sort of neat for a couple of days then it just felt weird, so I had Pico remove the effects. He never sleeps or dreams."

"Wow, that sounds interesting. Let's try it for this session then you can remove the effect. Okay, Pico?"

Pico nodded in agreement. "Denise, please have a seat," he said. "I'll make the changes to your brain and we can get started. We'll spend just thirty minutes on the procedure then I'll remove the effects. Ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready."

"Close your eyes and relax. I'll make the changes and then I can start sending the images to you."

"Okay, let me know when you're done."

Pico pulled out his shaman stone and adjusted Denise. "I'm finished. Now let's get started."

Morgan took Pico into his mother's room and set him on the bed next to his mother. Denise closed the curtain and sat in a chair next to the bed with her eyes closed. Pico pulls out his shaman stone and peered into her brain.

"Oh my goodness. I can see the images already. This is just fabulous. I can actually see inside a live brain. Okay, let's go towards the next clump in the series. It's five centimeters deeper in the brain, below the two clumps you already destroyed. Do you see it?"

"Yes," replied Pico through the bond. "It would go better if you communicate with me through your thoughts."

"I forgot about that. Can you hear me okay?" Denise said telepathically.

"Yes, I can hear you."

"Now that you have identified the clump, start by destroying the cells in the center and work your way to the outside. That's it. As you destroy the nucleus of the cancer cells, the normal cells will push in on them and eventually replace them. If you rupture the cell membranes it will aid in the absorption of the cells by the body."

"How is this?" asked Pico.

"Just fine. It looks like the lump is shrinking."

***

"My device just beeped," said Uan, pulling it from his pouch. "Let us see what we have." Uan saw Morgan standing next to Denise, placing Pico on his mother. Uan grabbed Calvin by the sleeve and pulled him over to look at his UCD. "Look! There they are!"

"Man, that is remarkable. You can even hear what they are saying. You've got to get me one of those things."

"This is not something one just buys in a store. It is assigned to you at birth or when you become a member of the Euclidian Alliance."

"Okay, I'm fine with that, whatever that means."

"I have to take care of those two. I will return shortly. Wait for me by the car."

Calvin called after him, "Shouldn't you turn invisible first?"

"I have," Uan yelled over his shoulder, wondering about Calvin's cognitive abilities.

How can I still see him? Calvin thought. Oh yeah, the enzymes. I hope they're not eating away at my brain.

Uan raced to the hospital to attack his prey. Finally he could complete his mission. He took the stairs to avoid any complications with the elevator in case it was crowded. He made it to the eighth floor and raced unseen past the nurse's station and into Morgan's mother's room.

"Morgan, he's here!" exclaimed Pico, jumping to his feet.

Denise saw in her head an image of Uan as he came through the door carrying his spear. Pico had forgotten to break the link with her. She jumped to her feet and pulled the curtain open, screaming, eye's wide open, but unable to detect Uan. Uan jumped over the other patient's bed and lunged at Morgan. Before he got to Morgan, Pico pulled the curtain from around the bed, wrapped it around Uan and threw him through the window. Uan landed on a car parked on the street. Passersby were shocked as an invisible image cut through the curtain and ran across the lawn to the hospital entrance.

Morgan picked up Pico and headed to the stairs at the back of the hospital.

"What should I do?" Denise shouted after them.

"Just stay where you are and don't worry. He's not after you."

### CHAPTER 38

THE CHASE SCENE

Pico used his powers to aid Morgan in flying down the back stairs to the first floor. Uan was already up the front stairs to the eighth floor. He raced past Denise in pursuit of Morgan and Pico. Denise couldn't see him, but she felt him go by and smelled his scent.

Uan ran to the back stairwell and descended a flight at a time, but when he got out to the sidewalk Morgan and Pico were gone. He looked frantically from left to right and saw a kid going around the corner at the far end of the block. Them!

He took off in hot pursuit. By the time he reached the corner they had vanished. Not possible! he thought. Uan noticed people going down some stairs in the sidewalk and decided to follow them. At the bottom of the stairs he saw that he was in the subway. He jumped over the turnstile and, picking one of the several stairways at random, headed for a platform.

"He followed us," said Pico. "See him over there on the platform?"

"I can't see him."

"He's using some sort of cloaking mechanism. I believe he has spotted us."

"Our train isn't going to make it in time."

"Oh no," warned Pico. "He's jumping over the tracks to our platform. Run toward the stairs!"

Morgan reached the stairs and Pico floated them up to another platform then launched them toward a departing train. Morgan grabbed the chains between two cars and held on for dear life. Uan growled angrily and jumped onto the tracks after them.

Pico telekinetically opened the subway car door and Morgan stepped inside. At the next station he jumped out and ran up the escalator to the street. Soon afterward, Uan emerged from the tunnel onto the station platform and ran toward the stairs, pushing commuters out of the way.

Morgan spied an approaching fire truck. He walked between the parked cars to get closer.

"Pico, can you get me beneath the bottom of that ladder?"

"Sure. Hold on."

Pico lifted him up and over and Morgan grabbed onto the ladder. To anyone watching it would have looked like he made an extraordinary jump. None of the firefighters noticed him hanging there, but Uan popped out of the subway in time to see them going down the street. He thought about throwing his spear and killing them both with one blow, then decided there would be too many witnesses. With his pulse rifle, however, he could stun Morgan so he would fall to the street where he be could easily captured.

Uan took out his rifle and fired just as the fire truck changed lanes, causing him to miss Morgan and instead hit a groom at his wedding, knocking him out. He fell against his bride, who fell against the bridesmaids. One of them grabbed onto the front of one of another's dress, ripping it and exposing her breasts.

Uan fired again just as the fire truck turned a corner and was lost to sight. The shot missed and went through a window of the hotel adjacent to the wedding party.

"Bobby, are you sure you don't need help with that ladder?"

"Don't worry, I got a good grip on it," replied Bobby.

Bobby lifted the ladder and was about to place it against the roof from where he was standing on a large balcony so he could hang a banner along its edge. When the blast from Uan's gun hit him, Bobby's face went blank and his colleague could only watch as the ladder went over the edge of the balcony, taking Bobby with it. His colleague lunged for him to keep him from going over, but grabbing the ladder he was also pulled over the edge. For a moment they floated in the air, high above the ground with the ladder beneath them, then fell into the hotel pool. An enormous splash exploded from the pool, knocking over a table full of food and drinks for the wedding, including the wedding cake. A cook standing near the table grilling food for the wedding was drenched along with all the steaks and chicken. The bride, watching it all unfold, started to cry.

Uan gave chase. By the time he got to the corner and looked down the street, the fire truck was crossing a bridge and its ladder was swinging off to the side.

"Let go now," said Pico.

Morgan let go of the ladder and they landed gently in an open top double-decker tour bus that was passing under the bridge. Uan ran down the street and jumped from the bridge to the median in the middle of the road below and ran after the bus. The bus stopped at a traffic light and Uan nearly caught up, but the light turned green and the bus took off again. Uan was tiring and was afraid the bus would get away. He aimed his rifle and blasted one of the back tires. The bus started to swerve.

Pico kept the bus under control until it neared a bridge where Morgan jumped off, and Pico gently landed them on a tour boat full of people. The tourists clapped and Morgan took a bow before rushing to the back of the boat to watch for Uan. He noticed a splash in the water and soon afterward, Uan emerged on the surface. He was too exhausted to remain cloaked but still had the strength to swim after the boat. The boat stopped in front of the Jefferson Monument to discuss its history then slowly moved on. Uan gained on them.

"Pico, look around for something to throw at him," said Morgan in a panic.

"Go to the front of the boat," requested Pico.

Morgan navigated through the crowd of tourists to the front of the boat.

"I hope you're not afraid of heights," said Pico.

"Why?"

"When we clear the next bridge I want you to jump into the air and grab the rope."

"What rope?"

"You'll see it."

Uan reached the boat and climbed aboard. A crewman yelled at him, but Uan ignored him and pushed his way to the bow. He came at Morgan and Pico.

"Pico, you better hurry up with your plan. He's coming."

"Get ready. Jump!"

Morgan jumped and, aided by Pico, easily grabbed the rope he found hanging there in midair.

"Hang on!" said Pico as he released his hold on the hot air balloon that he had pulled down from the sky, and they sailed up and away from the boat. Uan pulled out his rifle and took aim.

"Look! He has a gun!" someone yelled.

Before Uan could fire, a banner that had been hanging from the side of the bridge fell onto the boat and wrapped around him. It pulled him off the boat and he began to sink to the bottom of the Potomac River. Not again! Uan thought.

Pico helped Morgan into the basket of the balloon, to the surprise of the occupants. Morgan introduced himself and enjoyed the remainder of the balloon ride.

Uan sank about twelve feet before cutting himself out of the banner with his spear. He surfaced in an extremely foul mood, swam to shore, cloaked himself, and pulled himself onto a dock. The dock ran along a commercial area of fast food restaurants and little shops. Uan stood there for a moment, water dripping from his clothes. The makeup on his face ran down and stained the front of his hoodie while families with kids walked by, oblivious to his existence. Had they looked at the ground beneath him they would have seen the puddle forming at his feet.

A man eating a hamburger walked up next to Uan. After he finished eating, he threw the wrapper, along with his empty soda cup, into the water. He belched and farted and turned to walk away, but fate is a funny thing. It had sent an annoying person across the path of a homicidal alien in a foul mood and desperate to release some tension. Uan pulled out his spear and jabbed it into the man's thigh. The man buckled over in pain and Uan kicked him into the water, unnoticed by the few people on the dock.

The man tried to pull himself out of the water but Uan leaned over and sliced off his head. Waves from the wake of a passing boat pushed the headless body under the dock while the head sank to the bottom of the river.

Uan felt a bit of relief flow through his body, even as he looked in the distance to watch the balloon drift away until it was lost to sight behind the buildings. The little alien had won this time, but they would meet again soon and Uan would make him suffer for this humiliation.

Uan walked back to the hospital uncloaked, but covered his head with his wet hood to hide his face. His makeup had washed off and he had lost his sunglasses in the water. He eventually made it back to the SUV. Calvin peppered him with questions.

"Where have you been, man? Did you get the little alien? I'm guessing not. It looks like someone beat you up, drowned you, and then talked about your mama. Was the little guy that tough?"

"He has powers that I was not aware of," Uan replied with embarrassment.

"What? Did he turn into the Hulk or something? Did he have a mind control stare like Dracula? Or maybe he has one of those GI Joe Kung Fu grips," said Calvin, flexing his hand open and closed.

"Just take me home," Uan said with a snarl. "I am going to put my weapons away, put on some dry clothes, grab some more shades, and then I want you to take me to the toughest bar in this town."

"Okay. I know a great place over on Trini Ave where you can get your fight on. I can see you want to get some killing out of your system. Won't be much of a fight, though, even without your weapons."

"Do not worry. I will have a beer first to even the odds a bit."

"Now you're losing it. You'll just wind up passed out on the floor, getting your ass kicked again."

"It will only be one beer. Be ready to go in five minutes."

"What about your makeup?"

"Not tonight. Tonight I am going native Ossie."

### CHAPTER 39

DENISE LEARNS TO FOCUS

"Nurse McKenzie, let's get the next patient ready for surgery," requested Dr. Turner.

"Dr. Turner," the nurse replied, "there is no next patient. We've completed all the surgeries for the day. Anyway, the nurses that would be assisting you have all gone home."

"Already? What's up with that?"

"It's almost midnight."

"Really? I don't feel tired at all. Well, I'll go down to emergency and see if I can help out down there. I'll come back at seven and do my rounds."

"Don't you think you should get some sleep?"

"I'm just not sleepy right now. I can go on for a few more hours."

Dr. Turner went to ER and helped the doctors there get through the list of waiting patients. She took on the toughest cases and never lost her focus. For the first time the ER cleared all its patients with no complaints about a long wait. Dr. Turner felt a level of satisfaction that she had not felt in quite a while. It was only 6:00 a.m. so she went back to her office and caught up on paperwork.

### CHAPTER 40

UAN GETS DISCIPLINED

Uan woke up in a daze with a horrible hangover. He was disoriented and confused by his surroundings. He tried to get up but found that his hands and feet were bound to a bed.

"You're finally awake," said a female voice at the periphery of his vision. "I'm Betty, the woman that saved your ass last night."

"What?" replied Uan.

"You know. Whip me, beat me, call me Betty."

"I understand that your name is Betty. Why am I tied to this bed?"

"I thought I deserved a little remuneration for extracting you from that angry mob last night."

"Is that explanation supposed to make me feel relieved about being tied up like an animal?"

"Let's be clear. This is B and D, not a punishment. If you'll notice, I used padded Velcro straps so as not to hurt your delicate wrists and ankles."

"What is B and D?" asked Uan, annoyed and confused that someone would first restrain him and then worry about the bonds inflicting injury.

"I can tell you're not from around here, so I'll explain it to you. B and D is bondage and discipline," said Betty excitedly. "The bondage part is you being tied to the bed. The discipline part is you submitting to me and doing what I say."

"I am confused."

"I'm sure you are, honey. Let's begin with you thanking me for saving your life."

"I do not say thank you, and why do you keep saying that you saved my life?"

"You don't remember a thing, do you?"

"No," said Uan with disgust.

"Okay, I'll explain before we get to the second half of the show. I was in the bar when you and your friend arrived. I thought you were kind of cute so I clocked you as you strolled in with your cocky stride, shades, and facial tattoo. I'm a cop and I work there as a security guard when I'm off duty. See my nightstick?" Betty grabbed a nightstick from a nearby chair and whacked Uan on the thigh.

Uan just grunted, "What happened to my friend?"

"Your friend was really loyal to you. Too bad about what happened to him," Betty said, shaking her head.

"What happened?" Uan yelled.

"Don't be so impatient," Betty snapped. "This is how it went down. I was in the bar, making sure everyone behaved. You and your friend walked in and I decided to check you out. You just seemed a little too different to ignore. You both sat at the bar and ordered beers. A little after you sat down another guy started ribbing you about your, let's say, unique facial attributes. You started giving him attitude and eventually his friends joined in. You had finished just a little over half of your beer when you put one hand on your friend's shoulder, pointed to the guys that were teasing you and shouted, 'I'm going to kick some Earthling ass.' They came off their stools toward you and you came off yours and fell on your face. They started kicking you and your friend tried to break it up. A couple of them punched him in the face and he went down hard. I thought it was admirable that when you saw that, you leaped from the floor and threw a couple of them across the bar before going down again under a flurry of fists and boots."

"That's when I jumped in and broke it up. I wound up having to stun a couple of them before they backed down. I don't mind people letting off steam but they were going too far. I sent your friend home in a cab and brought you home with me."

Uan looked at Betty. She was a five-foot eight-inch tall brunette, and built like a wrestler. He could see how she would make a good cop. She was tough, fearless, and strong. Her uniform was draped over an armchair in the corner of the bedroom. She was wearing a leather bra with matching panties and a pair of fishnet stockings. A chest of drawers in the opposite corner of the bedroom was covered in candles, most of which were lighted. The only other light in the bedroom came from a dim bulb in a lamp on an end table next to the bed.

Uan lay on a queen size bed with his hands and feet bound to the bedposts with Velcro straps made of nylon with long tethers. A blue-striped sheet covered the bed and there were three pillows with royal blue silk pillowcases. One supported Uan's head.

"Now that you've heard how I saved your drunken ass, this is where you say thank you."

"As I said before, I do not say thank you," replied Uan defiantly. "However, because of your helpfulness, if you let me go now I promise not to kill you, Betty."

"My name is Betty, but you will address me as Dominatrix. When I slap you, you say thank you."

"Have you lost your mind? Let me go now or you will feel my wrath."

Betty stepped onto the bed, straddled Uan's waist, and slapped him hard across the face. Uan tensed his body and screamed, almost throwing Betty from the bed. She ignored his outburst and repeated, "When I slap you, you say thank you." Slap!

Figure 11. Betty on bed straddling Uan

Uan screamed again, to no avail. "When I slap you, you say thank you." Slap!

Uan screamed once again, more from anger than pain. Then, slap!

Uan acquiesced. "Thank you, damn it!"

"My title is Dominatrix, not damn it." She slapped him again.

"Thank you, Dominatrix!"

"Much better. I have to admit that got me worked up. What about you?"

Uan just looked at her in puzzlement. She looked at the sheet covering Uan's lower body. "Looks like tent city to me, and I want to feel the tip of your spear. I like the way you smell too. Do you taste as good as you smell?" Betty asked with a seductive smile. "Let's just get to the main course. When I slap you, you say take me!" Slap!

"Not again," replied Uan. "I am not mating with an Earth woman."

"That's not what your penis says. And you can call me what you want, but this session is going to end with your tent collapsing inside me. Now admit what your penis has already confessed." Slap!

Uan screamed in annoyance. Slap! It's not that the slaps were painful. They were humiliating. Slap!

Uan relented. "Take me, Dominatrix."

"Oh I will, baby. I will." Betty grabbed a condom from the drawer in the end table, pulled back the sheet and rolled it over Uan's odd looking but well-endowed manhood.

"Very nice piece of equipment you got there. Lucky me, I'm wearing my crotch-less panties which will make it easy to insert you without having to undress. I hate to expose myself to someone I just met."

Betty slid on top of Uan and began to ride him like a banshee stuck on a cattle prod. Uan was getting excited despite the humiliation he had experienced. His initial embarrassment was quickly consumed by the sexual emotions that washed over him. He found himself thrusting against Betty's every movement. Betty grabbed her nightstick and wet the end in her mouth.

"I'm ready to climax and I'm taking you with me," Betty panted. She used the nightstick on Uan, which made him sit up in the bed bug-eyed. Betty put her hands around his neck and pushed him back down. As she choked him as hard as she could, emotions welled up inside her. Betty shook her head from side to side and her long brunette hair waved in the air.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" she screamed.

Her excitement pulled Uan along and for the first time he was having an orgasm driven by someone else. He groaned loudly and collapsed on the bed, wallowing in his moment of weakness.

Betty collapsed on his chest. She looked up and tenderly kissed Uan on his lips. Uan was too exhausted to resist. She climbed off the bed, retrieved her nightstick, released his hands and feet, then walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

Uan was totally conflicted. On the one hand, he wanted to kill her for the depths of humiliation to which she had made him submit. On the other hand, he had found the salacious experience quite stimulating. Earthlings were definitely a complex species. Uan found his things at the foot of the bed. He dressed himself, grabbed his spear, and went for the bathroom door. He grabbed the doorknob and froze. He couldn't make himself to go in and execute her. Uan backed away from the door and quietly left Betty's apartment.

Uan was perplexed by what had just transpired. On his planet, the females were never the aggressors. The males battled for the privilege of mating with the females. The toughest male got the most sought-after female and the weakest got the least sought-after. He wanted to kill Betty, but killing a female on his planet was unheard of. They bore the children and maintained the villages while the men hunted and defended the village. It was the rare female who wanted to become a warrior.

Ossies didn't pair up in the manner of many species. They typically mated and moved on, though they often spent time with their male offspring, teaching them to become men. Ossie mating rituals consisted of the males competing against rivals for the attention of the females. Available females, typically fourteen or older, wore braided gold crowns made from vines and flowers to advertise their availability.

Uan was dispassionate when it came to humans. He considered them a weak species. He had no qualms about killing them – men or women – though he wished they put up more of a fight. Not only were humans genetically inferior when it came to toughness, they also let themselves succumb to their fears.

Uan respected that Betty had the courage to force him into submission and then release him without fear for her safety. To kill her would have been to betray a flaw of character and ego. And he couldn't deny that, somewhere in the far reaches of his mind, he had enjoyed the experience. She had come after him, she had not been afraid of him, and she had derived pleasure from mating with him.

Uan arrived at his apartment thirty minutes later. Calvin was there to greet him.

"Where've you been?" Calvin asked. "I was worried about you."

"Some crazy woman, who said she was with the police, had me tied up in her bed all night."

"That sounds like it could have been fun. Did you know that you bleed blue blood? On Earth that makes you royalty."

Uan ignored him, but Calvin continued anyway. "Those guys from last night were trying to beat it all out of you. You'd probably still be there if that lady cop hadn't saved you."

"She said you were hurt trying to protect me."

"Don't worry about it. I just got banged up a bit, is all. Nothing that a bit of time and rum can't cure. I was more worried about what might happen to you. But it appears that you survived just fine."

"You put yourself at risk to save me. Thanks." said Uan with a tone of reluctance in his voice.

"Excuse me. I didn't quite catch that," said Calvin, surprised to hear that word from Uan's lips.

"I said thanks. It is your custom, not mine."

"You shoved me to the ground for exercising that custom, as I recall."

"I shoved you for hugging me. And I did not understand the importance of your thank you custom until this morning. Now I do. How about I teach you some more combat moves? I would enjoy that more than this emotional conversation."

"I would like that. Does that mean we are friends?"

"No! We are brothers."

### CHAPTER 41

MORGAN MAKES IT HOME

Morgan walked through the door early the next morning as his foster mother was cooking breakfast. He looked completely worn out, and Pico was a dark shade of blue.

"Boy, where have you been?" She asked unhappily.

Morgan walked to the refrigerator to get a lemon for Pico. "I had to walk home from Virginia."

"Virginia? What were you doing there? And wash your hands before going into the refrigerator."

"I got stuck in a hot air balloon and that's where it landed."

"I'm not going to ask how that happened," said Cheryl in disbelief. "Why didn't you just call me or catch a cab?"

"I thought you would be mad at me and I didn't have money for a cab."

"You don't think I'm angry now? You could have paid for the cab when you got home. Hold on." She reached for her purse. "Here's fifty dollars. Next time call a cab. Better yet, stay out of hot air balloons, or whatever nonsense you were into." She chuckled. "How many pancakes do you want?"

"A hundred," replied Morgan.

"Well, you're going to get four to start with, once you wash your hands. Sit down at the table. I'll get you that stack of pancakes with a couple of eggs over medium and some bacon. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great. Just let me put Pico to bed first and I'll be right back," said Morgan as he ran for the basement.

Cheryl just shook her head, wondering if Morgan was going crazy.

Morgan placed Pico on his bed, cut open the lemon and placed Pico's hand in the hole, and gave him a fresh batch of nails. He leaned over Pico and kissed him on the forehead. "Thanks for saving my life, Pico. I know you don't sleep, but you deserve a rest. Just lay here and recuperate while I have breakfast and I'll be right back to rest with you."

Pico felt warm inside. He hadn't felt this happy since he was at home with his family.

Morgan went upstairs to eat. After breakfast, he took a shower and lay down next to Pico and went to sleep. Pico closed his eyes and enjoyed being there next to Morgan. But he kept his mind's eye open for any indication of the assassin.

Morgan didn't wake up until 3:00 that afternoon. He decided to stay at home, out of view of any possible assailants. He called the hospital to check on his mother, but Dr. Turner had left for the day. His mother had been moved from her room, which was in disarray after Uan was thrown through the window. The nurse told Morgan that Dr. Turner had run some tests on his mother, but she was unaware of the results.

Morgan replaced Pico's lemon and nails, and then fixed a late lunch for himself. His foster parents were at work, and his foster brothers had all left the house as well, so he was alone there with Pico. Morgan got dressed and decided to take the opportunity to clean up the house without distractions.

### CHAPTER 42

CALVIN BECOMES JAMES BOND

Captain Shisal was overseeing the final work to reconfigure the Andrea's storage areas. The workers were still twelve hours from completion, though he didn't dare complain. He was happy not to have inspectors quarantining his ship and inspecting it for who knows what. While waiting for the work to complete, Shisal had ordered having periodic maintenance and testing performed on all the ship's systems and equipment. All departments were performing readiness drills in preparation for departure.

The most important part of the drills was rehearsing the attack plan for the planet Earth. They had to quickly disarm and remove all nuclear weapons before they could be used. Major military forces had to be neutralized. While they weren't much of a threat to his forces, Shisal didn't want them destroying valuable resources or releasing some sort of biological or chemical agents into the air.

Large population centers would have their inhabitants transferred to holding areas on the ship. Then the minerals would need to be mined, starting with processed material such as grain stores, gold depots, and warehouses. These activities required meticulous coordination and timing. Captain Shisal did not want any mistakes on his last mission. Their delayed departure was already jeopardizing their element of surprise. The escaped alien was an additional unknown that made the captain uncomfortable.

"Communications!" he ordered.

"Aye, captain," replied the communications officer.

"Let the XO know he needs to report to the ship within eight hours."

"Aye aye, captain."

"All departments, report and prepare hourly reports until we are underway. Deploy the underway watch. Have them investigate any and all anomalies. Logistics, perform a crew count. I want everyone accounted for and all stowaways exterminated. By the numbers, everyone!" Shisal pounded his fist on the arm of his chair. "I want a flawless deployment."

"Captain Shisal, this is the interrogation office. One of our Earth spies brought in a captive that he says knows the whereabouts of nuclear material. He suggests that we interrogate the prisoner for the information."

"That's your job. Why are you bothering me?"

"He would like to get a finder's fee for the info."

"Give him ten thousand Shekels for the body and tell him he'll get an additional half million if we retrieve the material. If he asks for more, tell him to come up here and try to beat it out of me," the captain concluded with a laugh.

"As you wish, captain."

The interrogation officer relayed the message to the spy who was happy to accept the offer. The spy returned home and the interrogation officer focused his attention on the prisoner. He addressed the Tajik prisoner in his own language.

"We brought you here to tell us the location of the stolen nuclear material. If you tell us what we want to know, we won't harm you. If you resist we will torture you."

"I don't care," responded the prisoner. "I will never betray my people. We need that material to fund our revolution. I will take its location to my grave."

"Fine. You can share a cell with Uri."

The interrogation officer left the room and called down to the security office.

"Burkoff, throw a large fresh carcass into a small cell and have Uri sit in it with his shirt off. Put some blood on him and then come and get my prisoner."

Burkoff laughed questioningly. "The 'Uri's asleep' routine?"

"That's right. Please stream the video from the interior of the cell to my monitor. I always love to watch how prisoners react to Uri."

Burkoff prepared the cell and conveyed the prisoner to it.

"You'll be sharing a cell with Uri. He just ate and he's sleeping, so you should be okay for a while. You'll have plenty of time to pray or whatever you need to do to prepare for the inevitable. Whatever you do, don't wake him up. You're his next meal and you want to delay that as long as possible."

"What do you mean?" said the wide-eyed prisoner.

"We're out of food for the behemoth, so we're feeding him prisoners. Here we are. Remember to be quiet." Burkoff shoved the prisoner into the cell and quietly closed the door.

The prisoner, shaking with fear, turned around to survey the three-meter by three-meter space, dimly lit by a solitary light on the ceiling. The air smelled putrid. On the floor in front of him were the bloody bones of some creature he couldn't identify. On a bunk to the right, Uri snored away. He was a massive, smelly creature covered in scales. The fingers of his enormous hands were tipped with pointed bloody fingernails. He had jaws that could easily snap the prisoner in two. He wanted to whimper but didn't dare.

The prisoner stepped past the pile of bones and hid below Uri's bunk. He lay there shaking and wondering how long he had left. Two hours passed and although he was tired beyond belief, he couldn't allow himself to fall asleep. At that moment Uri let out a bloodcurdling scream that shook the walls of the small cell. He grabbed one of the large bloody bones and flung it against the far wall. Shattered bone fragments rained down on the floor. Uri lumbered to the cell door, pounded on it and screamed at the top of his lungs.

The prisoner hides below Uri's bunk

The prisoner was so consumed with fear that he urinated on himself. The stream flowed from underneath the bunk into the center of the cell. Uri ceased his pounding and sniffed the air. He looked down, saw the stream of urine, and slid a finger through it and put it in his mouth. He made a sort of a grunting laugh then reached under the bed and pulled out the prisoner with one hand.

Uri held the prisoner in front of him and gave him a little smile that exposed two large rows of sharp teeth. Uri stuck out his tongue and licked the prisoner across his face and neck. The scent was more than the prisoner could stand and he vomited onto the floor. He mustered up some courage and punched Uri on his small round nose. Uri's smile left his face and he flung the prisoner violently against the cell door.

The prisoner pounded on the door, screaming, "I'll talk, I'll talk. Please don't let him eat me."

The door opened and a security guard pulled the prisoner from the cell. An hour later laughter could be heard coming from the security office.

"Play that again, Junie. I can't get enough of Uri tasting that guy's piss. Uri, what were you thinking?" said the security officer.

"What can I say? I love piss. Especially when I created it. I swear he soiled his pants."

"Yeah, you're right about that."

"Security, I got that info for you," reported an interrogator. "It's loaded in the Earth mission dossier."

"Thanks. I'll let the captain know," replied the security officer. "Captain, security here. We got the Earth prisoner to talk. The info is in the Earth mission dossier."

"Send the info to Uan. Tell him to retrieve the material and store it on our ship down there. Let the ship know to pick him up."

"Aye, captain," replied the security officer, signing off.

On Earth, Uan's UCD beeped, indicating a new message had arrived from dimensional space. Uan read it intently.

"Calvin," called Uan, walking out on the living room balcony.

"Yes, Uan."

"Come out here. We need to go to Tajikistan."

Calvin walked onto the balcony. "Tajikistan! Why do we need to go there? And how are we supposed to get there? I don't know if you can even fly there from the States."

"Hold on!"

"Arghh," Calvin screamed. The scenery around him had suddenly changed. "Where are we? And who are those...those...those things?"

"You are aboard one of our battle cruisers. Those three are crewmembers on this vessel. They are Euclidians, the people that I work for."

"They are huge and scary looking is what they are," said Calvin, trying to hide behind Uan.

The Euclidians belched out hearty laughs and started to chat with Uan in Euclidian. The ship took off and Calvin fell to the floor and slid to the back of the ship. Calvin got on his hands and knees and crawled into a seat and strapped himself in.

"Doesn't this ship have artificial gravity or something?" exclaimed Calvin.

"Artificial gravity merely keeps you from floating around," replied Uan. "It doesn't defy the laws of physics."

Uan said something to the crewmembers and they all laughed.

"I guess you people have never seen Star Trek," said Calvin under his breath. "So why are we going to Tajikistan?"

"We need to pick up some canisters. There should be four of them."

"Why do you need me?"

"I need you to negotiate with the leader of some freedom fighters who wants to swap the canisters for weapons. You will meet with him and get him to agree to the swap. When he goes for the canisters we will follow him and take them from him."

"How am I going to convince him that I have the weapons he needs?"

Uan turned and pointed toward the back of the ship. "We have all the weapons you need in the cargo bay." He handed his UCD to Calvin. "Here is an image of the man you will meet tonight at a tea room. Tell him you have a M1114 Humvee loaded with ten AT-13 anti-tank weapons. You can give him some of the 9K115-2 ATGMs. That will get his attention. Ask him for five million dollars. He won't have the money. Hopefully he will agree to trade the canisters for the weapons. I will take it from there."

"You make it sound so simple."

"If it was simple I would just do it myself."

The ship slowed and one of the Euclidians gave Uan a nod. "We are there, Calvin. The man you are looking for should be at the Orom Teahouse in Qal'ai Khumb."

"Do you have an address?"

"No. It is supposed to be on the west side of town. It is a small village and should not be hard to find."

"Great!"

The two were transported down into the night in a jeep just outside the village. They drove into the village and parked. While Uan waited outside, Calvin walked into the first place of business he could find and asked a person who spoke English about the Orom Teahouse. He returned the jeep, nodded to Uan, and minutes later they walked into the teahouse. Calvin carried a large briefcase. They took a table in a corner and ordered a pot of tea with biscuits.

After taking a few sips of tea, Calvin discreetly asked if the waiter could mention to a man at another table if he was interested in some exotic tea. The man came to the table and introduced himself as Sameer. Calvin introduced himself and Uan.

"So, da waiter say you have tea for me, yes?"

"Yes," replied Calvin. "Why don't you take this case to the privy and have a look at the tea in private."

Figure 13. Calvin and Uan are approached by Sameer

Sameer grabbed the briefcase and was surprised by its weight. He took it into the privy and soon returned with a look of wonder. "Do you have pot to hold these tea bags?" asked Sameer.

"Of course," replied Calvin.

"Let us walk and discuss your merchandise in private."

Calvin nodded and the three of them stepped into the night air. Sameer asked if he could see more and Calvin agreed. He covered Sameer's head with a sack and walked him to the jeep. They drove down the road a couple of miles and then were transported in the cargo bay of the spaceship.

In the cargo bay, a tent had been erected that contained a large armored vehicle filled with ten anti-tank weapons and one hundred missiles. Calvin took the sack from Sameer's head so he could see the vehicle and weapons. Sameer couldn't believe his eyes.

"This is what I want," Sameer said excitedly.

"For five million dollars it's yours," replied Calvin.

"That is far too much money."

"No problem. I'll take you back and find another buyer."

"Two million dollars?"

"Five million is cheap for what you are getting. I'm not giving away these weapons for peanuts. You obviously don't have the money, so let's not waste time."

"Wait! What about a canister of plutonium?"

Calvin twitched as he realized what was in the canisters. "Make it two canisters and we have a deal," said Calvin, pretending he knew their value.

Sameer pulled on his beard, sizing up Calvin and contemplating his offer. "It's deal," he finally stated.

They agreed to meet at the teahouse the next day to close the deal. Calvin placed the sack back on Sameer's head and put him in the jeep. The transporter conveyed them to a spot near the teahouse, where they dropped off Sameer then returned to the ship. A dimensional probe was used to track Sameer as he met with an associate to whom he passed a note about the deal. The probe followed the associate to a cave where the canisters were being held. Uan cloaked himself, transported down to the cave, and killed everyone there. He found a total of four canisters and transported them to the ship. The Euclidians gave Calvin a high five before transporting him and Uan back to their home in DC.

"Wow, that was pretty exciting," blurted Calvin. "I sort of feel like James Bond."

"You performed well, Calvin. You should get some rest while I send my report to headquarters."

Uan informed Captain Shisal that the canisters had been obtained and were safe aboard the ship.

"Great job, Uan. Now find that alien for me." Shisal signed off and opened a new channel. "Security!"

"Security here."

"Make sure the Earth spy gets his half-million Shekels."

"Aye aye, captain."

Back in Tajikistan, a duffle bag full of money appeared on the bed of a very happy man. He began singing, "If I were a rich man..."

### CHAPTER 43

SATURN GOES MISSING

"Roger, it's been confirmed," said Paul in a worried tone. "Saturn is missing. No space debris has been found. No other anomalies have been detected that might explain what happened. Venus, Mars, Neptune and Pluto are all accounted for. The others are still out of our view. It appears that every planet that was out of our view has been destroyed or somehow vanished. Amateur astronomers are starting to blog and tweet about Saturn. We need to make a formal announcement."

"So what do we announce?" said Roger. "We can't just say Saturn's gone and we don't know why. Even if that's the case, it would be irresponsible. We could explain away Mercury because of its size and proximity to the sun. Saturn is a different matter altogether. How could it vanish without a trace?"

Mark said, "We have to say something. Based on what we know, we can honestly say there is nothing to fear so far."

"Then that's what we'll do. I'll call the White House Chief of Staff and let him know."

Later that night the president appeared on a television broadcast to announce the catastrophic discovery. He did all he could to allay fears about the catastrophe, but with so much unknown it was hard to stop rumors and panic. Stores were quickly mobbed and depleted of emergency supplies. There was wild speculation about what was happening, including the possibility that Saturn had fallen into the sun, taking Mercury with it.

Most scientists dismissed that theory on the grounds that it would have caused a noticeable change to the sun's appearance. Little did they know that Saturn had been only a fraction of its original size when it entered the sun.

### CHAPTER 44

MORGAN AND PICO DECIDE TO FIGHT BACK

At Morgan's house the entire family watched the report. Like everyone else, they were afraid of what the news meant. Morgan's foster mother went to the store to purchase whatever she could from what was left on the shelves. Not knowing what to expect, she bought everything she thought the family might need: water, food, warm clothing, batteries, flashlights, camping equipment, weapons, and ammunition. Most people were calling in sick or taking unplanned vacations from work.

Some people thought that the planets were disappearing one by one and eventually it would be Earth's turn. Some speculated that it was the end of times and Armageddon was happening before their eyes. Churches were full of people praying, confessing, and getting baptized.

Other people were getting drunk or stoned, many for the first time. Others called family members they hadn't spoken with forever. People were texting, emailing, IMing, Tweeting, Skyping and spending inordinate amounts of time on Facebook. Couples who had put off getting married were flying to Vegas to perform their nuptials.

Morgan and Pico didn't have to speculate. They knew what was happening. The Euclidians were on their way. After the president's announcement, they went downstairs to discuss their options.

"Pico, did those space marauders you told me about cause the disappearance of those planets?"

"That is almost certain. They probably mined Saturn out of existence, that is to say, mined to the point where it lacked the mass to maintain its orbit. On its way into the sun it more than likely collided with Mercury."

"Their ship is large enough to swallow a whole planet?"

"Their ship is enormous."

"What can we do to stop them?"

"I'm not sure there is much we can do. Your planet doesn't have space weapons or military space vehicles. Your missiles can be easily destroyed before they reach their ship even if they make it that far into space. If you used nuclear weapons on the mining vehicles it might stop the mining, but it would also destroy life on Earth."

"What about sneaking onto their ship and sabotaging it?"

"I can't think of a way to get onto their ship. I got on by sneaking into one of their mining vessels before it was transported back to the mother ship. But they found me right away and threw me into a cell."

"But you escaped and got around their ship to make it here."

"Yes, but the ship has advanced security measures to keep anyone from becoming a threat to the ship itself. Even crewmembers would have a difficult time launching a successful attack. Remember, all I did was sneak off the ship, and I was lucky to do so. If I had tried to attack the ship I would have been killed right away. I'm certain I wouldn't even be able to repeat what I did before. From the little time I spent being handled by their security team I gleaned that they are good at learning from their mistakes and resolving flaws in their systems."

"We can't just sit here and do nothing."

"What if we told your government?"

"I'm afraid that if we convinced the government that an attack was coming, they would put all the supposed important people in a bunker then destroy the planet with nukes to keep the aliens from mining it."

"If we stand by and let the aliens mine Earth," said Pico through the bond, "we will probably be taken as slaves or put on display on some distant planet, but at least we will be alive. I don't think Earth will be safe for anyone who is left after the mining operation. Even if it doesn't fall from orbit there won't be enough resources left to sustain life. They will probably take most of the water."

"I say we fight!" said Morgan defiantly. "I say we sneak onto the ship and do what we can do disrupt their operations. We can bring some special forces with us. Maybe that assassin has weapons we could use to help us on the ship."

"I hid in an access panel, a small area that you couldn't fit into, let alone an attack force. And again, even if we found a way in, we would be helpless against their forces and technology. But I don't know what weapons the assassin has or if we could use them. I'll see what I can find out if we run across him again."

"We have to try something. Maybe you could get on the ship with a small bomb to disrupt their sensors, and then more could follow in another mining vehicle. Maybe you could kill the captain and his bridge officers. Maybe you could destroy their engines. I don't know what would work, but we have to try something. Before we go any further, I want you to adjust my brain so I can focus and stay awake and communicate more easily with you. Then we'll go over ideas together until we come up with something we can do. We should consider informing the government tomorrow about the upcoming attack, in a way that doesn't expose you to capture."

"Okay, but I should probably wait to adjust your brain until after we come up with an idea. The transformation improves focus, but stifles creativity."

"Got it. So let's start brainstorming in earnest. Maybe we can include Denise. I'll contact her tomorrow morning."

### CHAPTER 45

THE INVASION BEGINS

Uan recovered from his hangover and decided that he should hang out at the hospital in case Morgan was dumb enough to show up again. With his monitoring device he saw that Morgan's mother had been moved from the room. He needed to find her and move the device to wherever she was.

Calvin drove Uan to the hospital and parked along the street. Uan cloaked and walked into the hospital to retrieve his surveillance device and see what he could find out from there. When he arrived there were two men fixing the window. He carefully removed his device while no one was watching. Another maintenance person walked in and expressed surprise at the mess.

"What happened here?" he asked.

"Some guy jumped out the window yesterday," answered one of the window workers. "Supposedly he was trying to attack Dr. Turner or one of her patients. I guess he panicked and jumped to get away from security. I don't know how anyone could have survived a jump from this far up."

"That's what happened," said the second worker. "I was outside working on the electrical panel for the garage lighting when I heard the commotion. Something or someone landed on one of the cars by the curb and totally destroyed it. I heard it was a brand new Lexus. The owner was completely in tears. Anyway, the funny thing is that they never found the body or whatever hit the car. So what happened to the patients who were in here?"

"They're around the corner, under guard. The lady by the window got some broken glass on her, but no cuts or anything."

"Okay, guys, I got a thermostat to fix before our planet disappears. As if..." He laughed and walked away.

"See you, Mac."

Uan was surprised that the stories about yesterday's event had gotten so twisted. No one mentioned a funny looking little alien using extrasensory powers to throw an invisible creature through the window. Uan, having heard what he needed to hear, walked around the floor and found a room being guarded by a policeman. The door was closed. It would be too risky to attempt to sneak in by opening it or trying to follow behind someone else. Looking through the window in the door he could see that the room's exterior window shades were closed. He couldn't just stand in the hall waiting because his ability to cloak would eventually wear off. He placed the monitoring device under a chair in the hallway, its lens facing the guarded door. There would be a lot more alerts from the device due to people walking by, but he didn't see a better alternative.

Uan tested the device and headed back to the SUV where Calvin was listening to the radio as he waited.

"The woman was moved to another room with a guard. The boy and the doctor are not there. I do not expect them to show up today, but I want to keep watch just in case."

"While you were inside," Calvin responded, "I called the nurse's station and asked when Dr. Turner would be back. The nurse said seven o'clock tomorrow morning."

"I moved my surveillance device to a spot in the hallway where I can monitor the patient's door. We can return at six-thirty tomorrow morning. In the meantime let's just drive around and see what we can find. Can you search a database for him? I heard the alien call the boy Morgan when I entered the room yesterday."

"His mother's last name is Stewart. I'll use Bing and see what I can find out."

***

Later that night, at the Kitt Peak National Observatory southwest of Tucson, Arizona, where Roger and Paul had been analyzing reports for more than 24 hours, a new discovery was made.

"It's confirmed," said Paul, extremely disheartened. "Jupiter is missing as well! There are reports of moons from Jupiter or Saturn moving across the solar system, but they're unsubstantiated. At this point we have to assume that something is destroying the planets and is headed this way. It could be something that is consuming them or maybe they are being displaced or broken up."

"Pluto and Neptune are still there," said Roger. "So whatever caused the disappearances entered the solar system farther in than those two planets. Later tonight we should be able to see if Uranus is still there. It's more in line with the other planets so I expect it to be gone as well. If these disappearances are a natural phenomenon then there is nothing we can do except await our fate. Whatever it is may even destroy the sun before it reaches us. Alternatively, it could be an attack by an alien race, in which case we should consider trying to defend ourselves. But if an alien race can destroy or displace planets as large as Jupiter, I'm not sure what hope we have of defending ourselves."

***

"XO, good to see you join us," greeted Captain Shisal. "I hope you enjoyed your liberty."

"Yes, captain. It was most relaxing. I got in a couple of shows and even had time to get a massage and think about the future."

"Good. I need you to be alert. We will be departing shortly and there could be complications."

"So I've heard."

"All departments are ready to go. Once the replenishment crew has finished its work we can calculate the final coordinates for departure. I want you to take over the departmental reports and drills. I'm going to make sure those guys finish their work in a timely fashion and get off my ship. You have the bridge."

"Aye, captain, I have the bridge."

***

At 4:30 a.m., Paul and Roger conferred with other scientists at the Kitt Peak National Observatory about the fact that Uranus was gone as well. At this point it seemed evident that something was impacting all the planets in the solar system except Pluto and Neptune, and that whatever was happening would eventually reach Earth. With this final revelation, Paul and Roger were at a loss for words. How could one justify not panicking? They reported the news to the White House without explanation or advice.

At 7:00 a.m., Dr. Turner finished her paperwork and began her rounds. She first looked in on Morgan's mother, eager to see how she had progressed. She wondered if Pico's ability could be duplicated with technology. Pico's treatments had decreased the patient's cranial pressure, permitting her to start moving her arms and legs and to exhibit periods of near consciousness.

Dr. Turner passed the guard and entered the room. She removed a syringe from her pocket and drew blood from Mrs. Stewart's arm. She filled a vial and took it to the lab for analysis.

***

The door to the bridge opened. "Captain on the bridge!" everyone shouted as they jumped to attention.

"You have the bridge, captain," said the XO. He moved away from the captain's chair to let him take the seat.

"I have the bridge," replied Captain Shisal. "Navigator, set a course for the Terran System. Hide us behind Earth's moon, 400,000 kilometers out. As soon as we arrive, send out a scout ships to deactivate Earth's artificial satellites and direct a simultaneous EMP blast against the planet. After that, place us in orbit around the planet and begin the invasion according to plan. We will have a short window to avoid the possibility of a nuclear counterstrike. Don't mess this up! Navigator, when you are ready, initiate our transport to the Terran System."

"Aye aye, captain," responded the navigator. "Engaging now."

"All departments on standby," Shisal ordered. "Scout ship commander, is your ship manned and ready to launch?"

"Aye, captain."

"Invasion fleet commander, is your fleet ready to depart?"

"Aye, captain, the fleet is ready to launch."

Shisal opened a ship-wide channel. "Crew, this is your captain speaking. We are departing to complete our mission in the Terran System. This will be challenging. We need to stay focused until we have secured the planet for deployment of our mining vehicles. This mission has great earnings potential for many of you. Don't jeopardize that by succumbing to complacency. Stay on the ready until this mission is concluded. Communications, play our battle music."

"Aye, captain," The communications officer had the music already queued up and he pushed a control to pipe the music throughout the ship as it slipped into dimensional space and disappeared from sight.

### CHAPTER 46

MORGAN GETS CORNERED

Morgan woke up rubbing his eyes. He grabbed some clothes and headed upstairs for a quick bowl of cereal. Cheryl walked in as he was finishing.

"Morgan, is that all you're going to eat for breakfast? I can cook you some pancakes and bacon."

"I'm in a hurry, mom. I have to save the world."

"Of course you do, son. Bring those planets back while you're at it."

"I'll see what I can do. Gotta go now."

"That kid is too strange for words," she said to herself.

On his way back to the basement Morgan grabbed a couple of lemons and a handful of nails for Pico. He placed them in his quiver and slung it over his head. He placed a hunting knife in the quiver just in case he ran into Uan or another assassin.

"Pico, are you ready to go?"

"Yes, I am."

"Today is a big day. We should start with you adjusting my brain so I can stay alert and focus on our mission."

"Okay. Sit on the bed and be still." Pico pulled out his shaman stone. It glowed blue as he concentrated on giving Morgan the focus he needed. "Done!" Pico announced.

"Great. I'll call the hospital to check on my mother real quick and then we can execute our plan."

Morgan headed out the door with Pico safely hanging on the outside of the quiver, keeping a lookout for Uan the assassin. Morgan pulled out his mobile phone and gave the nurse's station a call to see if he could reach Dr. Turner.

Figure 14. Pico with Morgan hanging from quiver

"Eighth-floor nurse's station. May I help you?" answered a nurse.

"This is Morgan. Is Dr. Turner available?"

"Yes, Morgan," replied the nurse, "and she has some wonderful news for you. Hold on and let me go get her."

A few moments later Dr. Turner picked up the phone.

"Morgan, this is Denise. How are you?"

"I'm fine, Denise. I don't think I can come by today. I'm worried about that assassin coming back after me and Pico. It's a shame, too, because I wanted to talk to you about the planets that have gone missing. I just don't think it would be prudent to come by now."

"I can understand that, but you might want to make an exception once you hear the news. Plus, there is a guard outside your mother's room, so we should be safe. We haven't seen or heard a trace of either of those two men who were here before."

"What's the news?" asked Morgan anxiously.

"I took some of your mother's blood to the lab to check her white blood cell count and it is nearly normal."

"That's great," replied Morgan.

"But that's not the real news. When I returned to your mother's room to check her vital signs, she was awake. With the tumors gone, the pressure on her reticular activating system was relieved, bringing her out of the coma. She's still weak and groggy, but she is conscious and she asked for you."

"Are you serious?" asked Morgan, about to tear up.

"Yes, I'm very serious."

"Okay, I'll be right there," said Morgan, ending the call. "Pico, I need to make a quick detour to see my mother. Keep on the lookout for that assassin."

"Will do," Pico replied, although he was uncomfortable about Morgan's decision.

Morgan went down the street to the first busy intersection and flagged a cab. "Take me to General Hospital. Drop me off inside the visitor's garage and not out front, okay?"

"Okay," replied the cabby.

The cab driver dropped them off inside the hospital garage, and Morgan paid the fare along with a tip to cover the parking fee.

"Pico, do you sense anything?" asked Morgan.

"No. It's all clear," replied Pico through their bond.

Morgan took the stairs to the eighth floor and walked down the hallway to his mother's room. He opened the door and saw his mother, conscious and listening to Dr. Turner go over what had transpired the past few months, leaving out any mention of Pico or the assassin. Morgan closed the door behind and rushed to her side. He gave her a big hug.

"Momma, I missed you," cried Morgan. "I missed you so much."

"I know you did, Morgan," she replied in a weak voice. "I'm so happy to see your face again. I wish I didn't have to put you through this."

"I'll let you two get reacquainted," said Dr. Turner.

"Denise," Morgan whispered, "could you take Pico and have him look at your brother?"

"Of course, but are you sure you want to do that?"

"Yes, I should be okay. I just want to spend a little more time with my mother before we go. Pico and I will stay in contact through our bond. Okay, Pico?"

"Yes, Morgan," replied Pico, giving him a thumbs up. "I'll be fine."

"There are some lemons and nails in the quiver, which Pico needs for nourishment. He shouldn't need anything else."

"Don't worry," replied Denise. "I'll take good care of him. By the way, Pico, I've been meaning to ask you about that thing you did to me. I haven't been tired since. I'm sort of worried about the side effects, though," said Denise as she walked down the hall toward the elevator.

At about 6:30 a.m., Calvin and Uan arrived at the hospital and parked outside on the curb with a clear view of the entrance. Uan pulled out his UCD and checked to see if his surveillance device was still in place and working. He could still see the closed door to Morgan's mother's room. He placed the device on his lap and alternately watched it and monitored the area around the hospital. He activated the UCD's alert mechanism to signal him when anyone inside was detected, though most of the time it was just a nurse or patient walking by.

"Do you really think they will show up again?" Calvin asked. "After what happened the other day I would expect this to be the last place they would show their faces."

"For now, this is our best lead," responded Uan. "Eventually the boy will want to see his mother."

"What happened to the radio?" asked Calvin as he twisted on the knobs. He looked around and noticed that the cars on the street had stopped their occupants were getting out, looking puzzled.

Uan looked around in surprise and missed the UCD's alert announcing that Morgan had showed up and entered his mother's room. Being impervious to EMP burst, the UCD still received the alert. "The invasion must have started. I can't believe it is happening already. We have to get the alien right away."

"What invasion? Who is starting what invasion?"

Uan ignored him and checked his UCD to see what alerts he missed. He noticed that Morgan had entered the room and Denise later left with Pico, leaving Morgan inside, next to his mother's bed.

"They are back," snarled Uan. "This time they will not get away."

Uan cloaked, jumped out of the SUV, and headed to the hospital. On the eighth floor he found the guard banging on his flashlight, trying to get it to come on. Uan approached quietly and knocked him out with the handle of his spear. He dragged the guard's limp body to a nearby closet and returned to the room where he opened the door to see Morgan next to his mother.

Morgan looked at the open door. Though he could not see Uan, he sensed his presence. Uan uncloaked and addressed Morgan.

"This time you die, Earthling!"

### ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly I would like to thank my wife Renee for her support and patience as I wrote this book. My son Davon, who runs http://FamilyLobby.com, not only performed the first review of my book, but helped me find resources to complete my book and create a web presence to promote my book. A special thanks to Derek Canyon at http://derekjcanyon.blogspot.com/ who gave me a lot of guidance with how to publish and where to get additional assistance. I would like to thank Lisa Wu for assisting me with reviewing the Mandarin text.

Lastly, I would like to thank my family, friends and colleagues for their inspiration with the content of this book.

