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  “Because we can control his implants.”

  “And if I could control yours or anyone’s communicator and I made a controlled explosion, and got away, there is nowhere for me to go on this planet, is there?”

  “No. At what you call sea level, you would be able to breathe the atmosphere. Up here, there’s a lack of oxygen, but at ground level, you’d be fine. But you would be noticed. You would be hunted down. It would be difficult for you to obtain food. You would become hungry. We can’t defeat you, yet, but we can physically contain you. You are not omnipotent.”

  Mike turned off his communicator. Kenton closed the rest of the distance between them. Part of the floor disappeared and reappeared with a plate of food the exact same consistency and color of what Mike had on the ship.

  Mike took it and ate. Between bites he asked, “Is this all you guys eat? You don’t have a variety?”

  “Prisoners don’t.”

  Mike waved his hand at the world outside his prison. “Am I the first person from Earth to see all this?”

  “According to all the records I’ve seen, yes.”

  “How did they know to send people after us?” Mike asked. “How did they know I’d been tampered with?”

  “I do not know the details of your case. Who knew what when is not my purview. The news that we had you in custody was sent across space the day you left Earth. The defense industry, as you would call it on your planet, wants to talk to you, examine you. One or two of them want your head on a platter so they can examine those implants.”

  “You’re not speaking about a metaphorical platter are you?”

  “Well, probably a germ free, medically approved platter, but one which definitely does not include anything below your neck.”

  “That doesn’t sound at all pleasant.”

  “It’s very illegal to do such a thing. Although there are always ways for things to get done. Experiments are done by the government and used for our own purposes. The defense industry often gets its way. I believe they may be extremely interested in duplicating and expanding what you and Joe were able to accomplish.”

  “We just followed Vov’s plans.”

  “Yes, but even Joe probably was not given all the information available on Vov who, besides being a master scientist and ghastly criminal, was totally insane, to put it in your terms.”

  “What would your terms be?”

  “Psychic adjustments were not possible to control that which needed to be artificially controlled.”

  Mike said, “A mad scientist who was also a raving loony.”

  “As I understand your use of those terms, yes.”

  “You seem to understand a lot of the references I’m making.”

  “We have been able to read Joe’s memories which includes everything he looked into on Earth. We know what he knows. As to Vov, he was actually far worse and far more dangerous than anyone was aware of, or at least, who else was aware of his ability is not clear to me. He was the top weapons scientist in the known sentient universe. He kept information back from our people. He had it with him when he escaped to Earth. We’d love to get it back. What he had may have been lost on Earth, or you may have hidden it. It wasn’t found on you. The location is not in Joe’s memory, or if it is, it’s locked by a device Vov created, and we can’t uncover it. Or it is locked in your head, which our probes have not been able to touch in the slightest.”

  The floor on the east side of the room began to dissolve. A new figure appeared. He was dressed in a dark purple tunic that reached to his ankles with sandals on his feet that looked like they were made out of Styrofoam. The man had gray hair, a ruddy complexion, and a small nose. His neck was wrinkled. As he stepped higher, the floor behind him rose with him. The new figure nodded to Kenton.

  “I am Bex,” he said. Bex spoke in his own language. Mike was pleased to know that he could understand him easily. Bex pointed a purple robed arm at Kenton. “You are to go, now.”

  “I was told not to leave him, that I had sole authority.”

  Bex said, “You are to be replaced.”

  “I have had strict orders. I am to be with the prisoner. I am his procedural specialist.”

  Bex said, “I will not be defied. The military wants this man for questioning.” He exuded confidence and command.

  “I was told there was to be a civilian trial.”

  “This man is dangerous. This man has power.”

  “By whose authority do you come here?” Kenton asked.

  The floor opened again. Eight men appeared. They did not introduce themselves. They wore red tunics, cinched at the waist. They had the height and heft to be heavyweight wrestlers on Earth. Mike had seen a number of these on the journey here. They wore no visible weapons, but Mike presumed they were guards. He thought of pulling out his communicator, but to do what? He wasn’t about to be able to escape back to Earth.

  No one on his home planet had a clue where he was, much less the ability to get from Earth to here. No cavalry would appear. Help was not on the way.

  Bex spoke to Kenton. “I am the highest ranking security specialist in this star system. How dare you defy me?”

  Kenton replied, “You know that a procedural specialist has a unique place. You should know that more than any other. Did you think I could be bullied? Are you used to bullying others? I know of your great reputation for twisting prisoners’ minds until they can barely feed themselves and take care of basic bodily functions. That will not happen here.”

  Bex stared at Kenton for several moments. Kenton ignored the glare and turned to Mike.

  Kenton said, “The gentlemen in red are guards from the civil court system. Bex is the highest ranking security officer on the planet. He represents all that is military. You are perceived, unfortunately but I think rightly, as a major threat.”

  Mike fought down the temptation to say, “Boo.”

  Bex looked irritated. The guards stood at attention and stared straight ahead.

  Kenton said, “Mike, I think you deserve to know a bit more about your situation. I was empowered to give you this information and would have done so if we hadn’t been interrupted. There are major battles going on between numerous factions about you. One of the most intense is between what you would call the civilian branch of our ruling council and the military. The only reason you aren’t being taken away is that the guards have very specific orders. Who can countermand what is unclear. There’s no question Bex can be here. There is a great deal of question about whether he can take you away from here.”

  Bex took out a communicator from a pocket on his belt. A second later a red flash erupted and encompassed them all.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  The guards and Kenton stumbled backwards. In less than a millisecond, Mike’s comforting blue responded to the red attack. Mike’s glow encompassed him. He took out his own communicator. Mike seldom thought of himself as a violent person, which is why what he’d done to Jack’s dad gnawed at him. He was still processing that and what he’d done on the ship to protect himself. At both times he’d known he hadn’t any other choice, but he had a conscience and a way of viewing himself. These were events he knew would stay with him forever.

  Right now, he was pissed. With all the strength of his will he concentrated on what Joe had taught him and what he’d practiced for months. His fingers flew over the surface of the communicator. The sky blue glow around him began to deepen to navy and then expand.

  The guards took out their communicators. Yellow glows appeared around them. Within seconds their glows began to shrink precipitously. Mike concentrated on Bex. The red emanations from Bex’s communicator pulsed outwards, but Mike’s blue glow contained them. Bex’s fingers were a blur as he tapped furiously on the face of his communicator. The red stream became a pencil thin laser aimed directly at Mike’s head. The blue glow deflected the red beam harmlessly. Then Mike’s blue glow expanded beyond the reaches of the walls. An intense blue flame shot out from Mike’s communicator
following the line of the red beam back to its source. Bex’s communicator shot out of his hand. The guards’ yellow glows winked out. The red beam died.

  Bex’s cool confidence had been replaced by looks of first consternation, then frustration, and finally horror. Mike let the blue glow build. The thought of blowing the place to smithereens flashed through his mind again.

  Kenton spoke, “Mike, please stop. You could murder these guards. There are thousands of innocent people close enough that they would be killed. These particular men here probably have companions and offspring. They are simply doing a job for which they get paid, not for which they are paid to die, and as we discussed earlier, in the end you will only harm yourself.”

  Mike let the blue glow reduce to an oval surrounding himself.

  Bex picked up his communicator from the floor. His voice trembled. His hands shook. “I came to find out how much of a threat he is. It is obvious that the power he commands is a very great danger. Vov was a criminal, and he harnessed powers unknown to us before.” He pointed at Mike. “Now he has them. As long as he exists, he is a threat.”

  “To whom?” Kenton asked. “Is he going to take over the government? How? He doesn’t even have a way to get food or supplies. We could deprive him of oxygen and ship him to a remote moon or any number of inhospitable planets in nearby solar systems. He’d never be able to get off those planets. You’re overreacting.”

  “Perhaps.” Bex held out his communicator.

  Mike could see that it looked like a tiny, congealed puddle of silver mush.

  Bex said, “He is a greater threat to all of us than any criminal our home worlds have ever produced.”

  “It’s not his fault,” Kenton said.

  “Torture and death will be too light a punishment for whoever is responsible if people are harmed.”

  Mike’s worry about his life and his fear for Joe’s safety increased exponentially.

  The floor opened again. More aliens appeared. All wore tunics but this time in many different colors.

  The one in mauve spoke, “I am Qan. I am the chief officer of this prison. I was not aware Bex was here. All interaction with you is to stop except with Kenton. As your procedural specialist, he needs to accomplish his assigned tasks.”

  “I got that part,” Mike said. “I get an attorney to defend my rights.”

  Qan said, “No. You must not misunderstand. You have no rights. It is we who have limitations. We will do with you what we wish. It’s just that what we wish to do with you isn’t clear yet. It would help your case a great deal if you would give that communicator to me.”

  “Case? There’s no case. You bastards kidnapped me according to your laws which I don’t recognize or am barely aware of. I’m here according to some intergalactic code that no one’s bothered to tell anyone on Earth about. ‘Rights?’ ‘Limitations?’ What I really need is a good reason not to activate my communicator and blow you and this entire mountain to hell and gone.”

  Qan said, “If you would wish a demonstration of our power, we can provide it. If you wish to see us demonstrate our ability to destroy you, we will do so. You have a very powerful weapon. We have an entire planet’s worth of military options to halt you, most of which you would be powerless to stop or even understand. You might kill a lot of people and destroy a good part of this planet before we could kill you. That thing you have and the implant you were given works even in your sleep. Threats to you even when you are unconscious don’t work.”

  “No,” Mike said. “That doesn’t work. If I’m conscious and a meteorite the size of a mountain is dropped on my head from ten miles up, how would my communicator even know it was coming?”

  Qan explained. “It’s a protection device enhanced by the skills of the greatest scientist in a millennium. We want that.”

  “Couldn’t you just starve me to death?” Mike asked.

  “The goal is not to kill you. In some ways our hands are tied, and we are as powerless as you are.”

  Mike said, “For a group of all powerful aliens, you leave a lot to be desired.”

  Mike caught Kenton’s brief smile. Neither Bex nor Qan seemed amused in the slightest.

  Qan spoke, “However, if you are going to keep making the threat to immolate yourself and a good portion of this planet, I am authorized to tell you to do so now and be done with it.”

  “You want me to kill all of you?” Mike asked.

  Qan said, “We aren’t bluffing. Are you?”

  Mike hesitated.

  While he and Qan spoke, Bex had ripped a communicator from a guard and begun tapping on it, to no apparent effect. The older man’s face was nearly as purple as his robe. Mike thought of the line from his favorite science fiction book, the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. He recalled Salvor Hardin’s words when the Mayor of Terminus was threatened by physical destruction, “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”

  Mike turned to Kenton, “If what is going to happen will happen no matter what we do, then what the hell are you for?”

  “I am to make sure the ‘what the hell is supposed to happen’ follows all of our rules and customs.”

  Qan pointed at Mike. “Tomorrow just after dawn, you will be taken before the High Council of government officials.”

  “Is this a trial?” Mike asked.

  Qan smiled, “I assure you that you are not on trial. What is happening to you tomorrow is more like what I understand in your country would be a sentencing hearing.”

  “‘Sentence first, trial after’ is what the Red Queen wanted in Alice in Wonderland.”

  “I’m not aware of the reference,” Kenton said.

  “I’ve always wanted to live a fairy tale,” Mike said. “Now I am in more ways than one, although I prefer the ones with a happy ending.”

  Qan said, “We are wasting time.”

  Bex said, “The security officers of the military will be here tomorrow as well.” He tossed away the borrowed communicator. He walked toward the east wall, and as he did so, the floor fell away. Qan and the others followed.

  When everyone else was gone, Kenton sat on the central plinth and turned to Mike. “There are many nuances to the rules and regulations under which you are being held. My suggestion to you is that you keep very quiet during the proceedings. No one wants to execute you.”

  “Bex does.”

  “Not legally.”

  “I’m not sure who is in how much control around here. How close did I come to having my brain fried?”

  “Frankly, I’m surprised you’re still alive. Bex would have access to the latest technology and weapons. Experimentation is strictly regulated if not banned altogether. The government, the military, and various powerful factions try to get away with whatever experimentation they can. I’ve never seen what Bex just tried. Of course, unless you’re in the military, we actually have very little reason to see or hold weapons. That little red beam display was something else. I think that was chemical zukoh or liquid zukoh. I’ve never heard of it being used in a hand held weapon. He must be very afraid. That little beam, my Earth friend, cost more than the gross national product of several planets. Frankly, I didn’t know it existed. Bex’s willingness to reveal it in my presence, much less to use it when he might have killed you, tells me more than anything else that you are in desperate straits. I knew you were a special prisoner. How dangerous you were perceived to be is only clear to me because of what just happened. The head of our star system’s security visiting a prisoner is unheard of. Qan being here to protect you is even more unheard of. All of this is very strange. I am out of my depth.”

  “Are you afraid for yourself? Bex didn’t sound too happy with you.”

  Kenton shrugged. “I’ve never been on a mission like this. I’m a teacher not a fighter.”

  “I’ve underestimated my own power,” Mike said.

  “Did you expect us to tell you exactly how much power you do have?”

  Mike paced the room for a few minutes, tried to
clear his mind. As he faced the vast unfamiliar landscape his mind whirled. He spoke without turning. “When will I see Joe?”

  Kenton said, “I don’t know.”

  Mike paced. His fear rose and ebbed. He glanced at Kenton a few times, but the alien waited in silence. Finally, he stopped in front of Kenton and asked, “What’s with all these robes and the different colors? Is this some kind of identification system? If I don’t know it, will I be at a loss?” Mike remembered there’d been a system of colored hankies among some of the more leather inclined factions of the gay community. Each different color hanky and on which side of your outfit, usually which back pocket, indicated sexual interest, both kind and role in the preference.

  “Well, one, no one cares what you understand and, two, there won’t be a quiz.”