“Can you open this door?” Adam asked.
“Yes. I just have to push the button beside the door and it will open.”
Again Adam and Watch stared at each other. “He might have said so at the beginning,” Adam said.
“Perhaps he’s afraid how ugly we’ll look,” Watch said.
“I know what you look like, of course. I will open the door.”
The door opened right then. Zhekeel91 could have been Ekweel2’s identical twin brother. He stared up at them with his big black almond-shaped eyes.
“You are tall.”
“We get taller, as time goes on,” Adam said. “Where is Ekweel2?”
“He did not say specifically but he must still be in space dock.”
“Do you know if he has our friends Sally and Cindy with him?” Watch asked.
“No. He did not mention them in his message. Are they female humans?”
“Yes.” Adam paused. “How did you guess that?”
“I have studied your culture. It is a required class in our schools.”
“I didn’t know we were so important,” Adam said. “Are you guys planning to invade our planet?”
Zhekeel91 seemed taken aback.
“We could not do that. It would not be possible.”
“Then how or why do you know so much about us?” Watch asked.
“Because you made us who we are. Of course.”
“Of course,” Adam muttered. He had no idea what the alien was talking about, nor did he really care. He just wanted to get home. He was starving for a real Earth dinner. “Can you take us to space dock?” he asked.
“That is what I wish to do. But we have to be careful. You are not easy to hide. I know a special way there that few take.”
“Can you get us a weapon?” Watch asked.
“What do you need a weapon for?”
“Protection,” Adam said. “We’ve already been shot by your people once today. We won’t shoot anybody unless we’re attacked. You have our word.”
“I cannot get you a weapon. I do not even know where they are stored.”
“Take us to the space dock then,” Adam said. “And thanks ahead of time for all your help.”
Watch glanced back in the direction of the captured Hyeet. “I hate to leave that hairy guy. I feel like he’s almost one of us.”
Adam nodded. “Maybe we can rescue him later. But right now we have to take care of ourselves.”
They hurried out of the cell and raced down a long hallway. Right away Adam could see they were going in a different direction from before. The hallways were all similar, but there were also differences. For example, for several hundred yards, they entered a glass hallway that looked out over a massive park area. The green area had to be a mile across. It was crowded with thousands of aliens. Some seemed to be playing games, others were just relaxing by small lakes.
Yet there was no sun in the sky. There was no real sky, actually, just a wide curving ceiling that glowed with gentle yellow light. Adam wondered if Watch might have been right. Maybe the aliens had polluted their planet so badly that they had to live in space, whether they wanted to or not.
Maybe that was why they kept coming to Earth.
To take it over. Adam didn’t care what Zhekeel91 said.
He was still worried about an invasion.
Adam was glad no one noticed them while they were in the glass hallway.
It would have been hard to outrun thousands.
Yet, before they reached the space dock, they did run into a guard. He appeared to be searching for them. He carried a ray gun and when he saw them he immediately aimed it at them. They received a strong and clear telepathic message at the same time.
“Stop where you are and put your hands over your heads.”
Where they were, fortunately, was two feet from a corner. Adam and Watch exchanged quick knowing glances. No way they were going back in that cage. They jumped for cover, behind the corner. There was a flash of green light but it bounced harmlessly off the wall behind them.
Zhekeel91 seemed taken by surprise. He remained frozen where they had been spotted by the guard. Watch started to run away, but Adam grabbed his arm and pulled him tight against the wall, right next to the corner.
“Let’s take the guard,” Adam whispered.
The alien security guard had obviously not grown up on spy movies. The guy came running around the corner without any thought that they might be waiting for him. Adam simply stuck out his foot. The guy tripped; he went down hard. In fact, he seemed to knock himself out when he hit the floor with his big fat head. Adam reached down and grabbed his weapon, which had bounced free. Zhekeel91 stared at them with a mixture of wonder and terror.
“You are an interesting species.”
“We have our good points,” Adam admitted. He showed Zhekeel91 the weapon. “How do I control the power on this thing?”
It was very simple. If he turned the little knob clockwise, the power became stronger. There were ten settings. One stood for light stun. Two was hard stun. Four and up could kill, Zhekeel91 warned. Adam left the weapon on two, where it had originally been set, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of increasing the power. They were taking a space ship to Earth, he vowed, one way or the other. Zhekeel91 was more worried than ever.
“Please do not hurt anyone.”
“We only want to go home,” Adam said.
Zhekeel91 led them on their way. Ten minutes later they reached the space dock. There was no transition. They were in a narrow hallway one second, then they were in the gigantic space harbor the next. Adam and Watch were stunned to see a crowd of aliens gathered around one saucer. The ship floated at the end of a narrow dock. The aliens were bunched up on the dock like sardines in a can. They had several portable instruments with them, and seemed to be measuring what was going on inside the ship. The vessel looked exactly like the craft they had taken from Earth to the alien station. But Adam quickly realized that this was the one that Sally, Cindy, and Ekweel2 flew.
Adam could dimly sense the buzzing thoughts of the crowd.
The aliens were worried.
And Adam planned to give them one more thing to worry about. He turned the power on his hand weapon up to ten and pointed it at the crowd. He had only been taught the rules of poker a few hours earlier but he had learned them well.
“This gun is set to kill!” he shouted. “Stand aside or I’ll fire!”
13
After Ek had broadcast his telepathic network message to search for the humans, he started the Zelithium 110-Hyperzoid-Quartz-Bostonian chain reaction. The building critical mass was definitely something the alien scientists could sense with their instruments—if the size of the crowd outside was any indication. Sally had already issued her demand for the release of Adam and Watch. She threatened to blow up the space station if they were not. But so far her friends hadn’t been handed over. Sally believed that the chain reaction would have to get closer to the critical point before the aliens would do what she wanted.
But it was getting there quick.
At what Ek called Level 84 Bostonian the reactor would blow.
They were now at Level 65.
Ek did not believe he could stop the reaction after Level 80.
“We’re lucky they haven’t tried to burn down the door,” Cindy muttered, watching the viewing ports along the wall.
Ek looked up from the control panel.
“They are afraid we will speed up the reaction if they try.”
Sally continued to pace. The tension was growing unbearable.
“We’re not leaving without them,” Sally muttered.
“I don’t get you,” Cindy said. “One minute you were ready to fly home without them. The next you’re ready to sacrifice millions of lives to get to them.”
“A girl has a right to change her mind,” Sally said.
“Are your people willing to sacrifice this station to prevent Adam and Watch from escaping?” Cindy asked
Ek, feeling desperate.
“I would have said no. My people cherish life. I do not understand why they are being so stubborn.” Ek glanced at his instruments. “We have jumped to Level 72.”
“So quickly?” Cindy asked, shocked.
“The reaction accelerates as it reaches critical mass.”
“How much time do we have?” Sally asked.
“To stop the reaction, maybe three of your minutes. To the explosion, five minutes.”
“We have to back down,” Cindy said.
“We’re not backing down!” Sally said. “A bluff doesn’t work unless you push it to the limit!”
“At the reservoir you were bluffing with rocks!” Cindy said. “That was not gambling. This is gambling. You’re risking our lives.”
“No guts, no glory,” Sally said. Yet she seemed uncertain. She paused in midstride, thoughtful. “Ek, you haven’t recently checked your computer map of where everyone is supposed to be. Try locating Adam and Watch now.”
“What are you thinking?” Cindy asked.
“Maybe the aliens don’t know where Adam and Watch are. So they can’t hand them over to us.”
“That’s impossible,” Cindy said.
“Not if they’ve escaped,” Sally said.
Once again Ek failed to locate Adam and Watch on his computer map. But it didn’t matter. Glancing again out the viewing ports right then, Cindy almost had a heart attack.
“There they are!” Cindy screamed. “It’s Adam and Watch!”
Sally pounded her fist in the air. “I knew the bluff would work!”
“No!” Cindy said quickly. “The aliens are not handing them over willingly. Adam has a gun. He’s pointing it at the crowd. They must have broken free.”
“Just as I suspected,” Sally said. She turned to Ek. “Open hailing frequencies.”
“What?”
“She wants to talk to the outside,” Cindy explained. “Is there a way?”
“Yes. Of course.” Ek pushed a button. “Speak and they will hear you.”
“How close are we now?” Sally asked Ek.
“Level 75. We have less than two minutes to stop the chain reaction.”
Sally cleared her throat and spoke loudly and formally. “Adam, Watch—this is Captain Sara Wilcox of the Starship UFO. I am pleased to see you’ve escaped, and I approve of your resorting to blatant force to fight your way to freedom. But I feel an obligation to inform you that my starship is going to explode in two minutes and that everything for a radius of one thousand miles will be completely destroyed. Over?”
Outside, near the dock, Adam and Watch looked at each other. “I think the power has gone to her brain,” Watch said.
“Is she bluffing?” Adam asked.
“I hope so,” Watch said. He gestured to the crowd of aliens that separated them from the ship. “I think she’s trying to scare these guys into letting all of us go.”
Zhekeel91 shifted uneasily beside them.
“She is scaring me. I would be happy to let you go.”
Adam sighed, the gun still in his hand. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t really fire this thing. I might hurt somebody.”
“Somebody has to back down,” Watch said darkly. “Or soon none of us will be feeling any pain.”
Inside the ship Ek informed Sally that they had jumped to Level 78.
“We have less than a minute.”
“Why don’t they let us go?” Sally demanded, getting exasperated. “Can’t they see that I’m serious? Do they want to die?”
“I do not understand them. I do not understand why they kidnapped you in the first place.”
“We must stop the chain reaction!” Cindy cried. “The bluff has failed!”
“We can’t stop!” Sally shouted back. “If we do we’ll never get out of here!”
“We have jumped to Level 79.”
“I would rather be alive here than dead!” Cindy yelled.
“How do you know they’d let us live?” Sally demanded.
“I say we stop it!” Cindy shouted. “And I have as much say as you! Ek, pull the plug!”
“Which plug am I supposed to pull?”
“Wait!” Sally cried.
“Wait for what?” Cindy screamed. “Death?”
“Do it then!” Sally shouted bitterly, turning away. “Surrender. That’s all you’re good for.”
Cindy bent over the control panel beside Ek. “Stop the reaction. Do it now.”
Ek’s four-fingered hands flew over the control panel. Then he sat perfectly still, waiting for some reaction to the chain reaction. He raised his big head to look at Cindy. His whole body seemed to twitch.
“It is too late.”
“What?” Cindy whispered.
“We have jumped to Level 81. Nothing can stop it from exploding.”
Cindy felt the life go out of her. She glanced over at Sally.
“Well, you got what you wanted,” Cindy said to her back. “We’re doomed.”
Sally seemed to freeze for a second, then suddenly she whirled on Ek. “Can we fly the ship out of space dock?” she asked. “If we tell them we can’t stop it, and they let us go, do we have time to get the ship clear of the station?”
Ek consulted his instruments.
“Yes. I can still maneuver the ship. If they let us go, we can move it out of the station before the explosion.”
“Talk to them,” Sally said. “Send a strong thought, whatever. Hurry!” Sally stepped to Cindy and put a hand on her shoulder. “You get off the ship. I’ll ride out with Ek. I got him in this mess. If he has to die, I’ll die with him.”
Cindy patted her hand. “Sally, you amaze me. You’re so brave.”
Ek jumped up quickly.
“They have opened the outside station doors for us. I have programmed the ship to fly into deep space. None of us has to stay here. None of us has to die.”
“Actually,” Sally admitted with a faint smile, “I was hoping he was going to say that.”
They released the six guards belowdecks, and the nine of them jumped outside onto the dock. They were hardly clear of the ship when it took off at high speed behind them. They caught a flash of it disappearing through the huge dark entrance, then it was gone. A minute went by while aliens and humans alike held their breaths. Sally and Cindy waited for a huge shock wave, but none came. All at once a wave of relief seemed to move through the gathering. Ek calmly informed them that the ship had exploded safely out of the way.
“But we didn’t feel anything?” Sally said. “Was it a huge explosion?”
“Yes. But the ship is fast. It took place far from here, and there is no shock wave in space. You would not feel anything unless we were being destroyed.”
Sally nodded wearily. “Well, it’s done then. We’re caught.”
The crowd parted so that the four humans could be together. Adam surrendered his gun. There seemed no point in keeping it after a nuclear bomb had failed to move the aliens to release them. The guys patted the girls on their backs.
“Thank you for coming for us,” Adam said.
“That was an awesome bluff,” Watch agreed. “I would have fallen for it.”
Sally shook her head. “Not you. You’re too cool a player.”
Watch glanced at Adam. “I’m not saying anything,” Adam said.
There was nothing to say. Alien guards grabbed hold of their arms. The crude message was clear. They were going to be taken to the cages. Ekweel2 and Zhekeel91 tried to protest, but they were pulled aside by government authorities. Adam wondered what their punishment would be. He felt almost as bad for them as he did for himself and his friends. And they had come so close to escaping. It made the final defeat that much more bitter.
Yet all was not lost.
All around the circular space port, on maybe fifty different levels, young aliens poured into view. There were dozens at first, then hundreds. Within a couple of minutes, as Adam and his friends stood spellbound, the number swelled to at l
east two thousand. None of the aliens was over two feet tall, but their combined telepathic message was clear, and very powerful.
“LET THE HUMANS GO! THEY HAVE DONE US NO HARM!”
Ek broke free of the authorities and hurried to their side.
His thoughts were excited.
“These are my friends on the network. They are not going to let this injustice continue. They are demanding your release.”
Adam laughed. “Even we dull humans are able to pick up that kind of mental message. The question is, will your authorities do what your kids say?”
“I think they will have to. In our culture, kids are allowed to vote.”
“Cool,” Sally said. “If that was true in our culture, I would be president.”
Another few minutes went by. The alien authorities huddled. The alien guards continued to hold on to the humans. But as time passed, more kids flooded the area. The huddled aliens seemed to grow even more uneasy. The young aliens’ mental voice was like a huge washing wave of reason that could not be ignored. Finally a tall alien dressed in a gold suit took Ekweel2 aside. They conferred for a minute or two, then Ekweel2 literally ran to their side. He took Adam’s and Sally’s hands and looked up at them with his big black eyes. Once again, he tried to smile. It was a good effort; this time there was real joy in the expression.
“They are letting you go. They have told me to take you home.”
14
Far out in space, almost to the hyperjump, Sally said that Cindy had said that Adam looked like Ekweel2. Adam was taken aback by the remark; he felt insulted.
“I don’t believe Cindy said any such thing,” Adam replied.
“She did,” Sally insisted. “Just ask her.”
Adam looked at Cindy. “Well?”
Cindy hesitated. “I said Ek reminded me of you. I didn’t say you looked alike.”
“How do I remind you of an alien?” Adam wanted to know.
Ek spoke from his place at the control panel.
“We are both cute.”
“That’s it, exactly,” Cindy said with a smile.
Adam had to laugh. “I suppose I’ve been called worse.”
“It makes me sick that he is flattered even by her insults,” Sally said to Watch.