Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN







The last spindle had been tied off. The tension on each was precise. He stood back to admire the little tree. He picked up the boy who was playing with the tiny snake they had found along the way. He turned to face her. He said something to her but she only saw his lips move. She felt herself shake her head back and forth. He said it again: "I don’t want you to go to Earth. It’s too dangerous"

"I’ve got to go. It may be our last chance!" The words poured from her mouth before she even knew what she was saying. "If the Earth Doctrine is enacted the Catalog of Earth will never be complete. So little is known about the deepest part of the Indian Ocean...

"The ship is untested... It’s never been subjected to the pressure at such depths. It’s not safe and you know it... I don’t want to lose you..."

She suddenly had nothing to say to him. He was right. The risk was great and the reward meaningless but to the few passionate scientists engaged in writing the catalog. She felt alone for the first time since she started visiting this jungle place with him. Even the boy seemed distant, almost as if he was unaware of her presence. Slowly, little by little they began drifting away from her. She felt strangely disconnected from the garden where she once felt at peace. She was surrounded by a cold void that began to press in on her. She reached out to them but they turned away as if she wasn’t there. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out...

"Julia? Are you all right?"

She leapt from the bed in a hail of pillows and blankets. She stood against the wall gasping desperately. She looked around the room like a frightened child. Only the glow of the streetlight four stories below casting it’s long, thin shadow on the ceiling penetrated the utter blackness. It was only when she caught a glimpse of his face on the computer screen through the open door did she begin to calm down.

"Julia," Soll said from the other room, "is everything okay in there?"

At first she said nothing, the dream still lingering in her mind. Or was she still dreaming? Nothing seemed real anymore. She slid back into bed and began to piece together the last two weeks of her life.

***

The Patriot landed at Edwards Air Force Base after waiting in orbit for an event they all knew was never going to happen. Their mission was a failure. The administration's, however, was a smashing success. The great mystery had simply been a retired military satellite turned rouge, or so they told a waiting world. The pentagon's spin machine produced a battered old satellite they showed proudly to the worldwide press. Spectacular footage was presented showing Major Jank gracefully deploying the SRS net, followed by another picture perfect landing. The media storm was complete.

Once the interrogations began, the crew was isolated from each other, brought together only once a day for the benefit of the media. With most of the media’s attention focused on her, she could scarcely follow what had happened to her crewmates. America didn’t seem to care much about them.

In the ‘little white room’ the questions kept coming. The same questions over and over… They were wearing her down with a relentless assault of subtle accusations and thinly veiled threats.

‘... What happened to the logs?’ ‘...Then what happened’ ‘...What did you do then?’ ‘...What was Captain Mcdonnel doing then?' She suspected them of using drugs to induce her cooperation. She used every ounce of will she possessed to resist them. When she refused to let them 'medicate' her any longer she wondered if they were lacing her food instead. What little she ate she forced herself to throw back up in the restroom. The sessions went on hour after tortuous hour, breaking up only when she could stay awake no longer. The very fact that she didn’t have her ‘Earth legs’ turned out to be a blessing. On the fourth day they gave her ‘talking points’. Any deviation from them was unacceptable.

When she was allowed to read the ‘official’ copy of her report she finally accepted the fact that they could do whatever they wanted. Not one word in the report was hers. Only a bureaucrat experienced in the skilled art of doublespeak could have penned something so irrelevant. But, it was their version of the truth, and who was going to stop them from telling it? They also made it clear that her celebrity status was meaningless to them. National security interests superseded her right to freedom of speech. Somehow she knew exactly what they meant. On the fifth day she was put on helicopter an escorted back to San Francisco under military guard.
The last person in the world she wanted to see was waiting for her when she arrived at the airport. A smiling Glenn Stratton hugged her on the airport tarmac. She fought the urge to push him away. She despised him and everything he was; she wanted so badly to tell him to his face. Never, she vowed, would he get to see the pain he caused in her heart. He didn't even deserve her scorn. He was a man just doing his job. His job was lying.

His presence made her more uncomfortable than she had been during the worst of the grilling. When finally she arrived home it was all she could do to get him to leave. He said he feared for her safety, insisting her apartment wasn’t secure. She promised him nothing would happen to her, the building was entirely safe. She then had to convince him that she didn’t want Andy or Lois there either; she just wanted to be alone.

For days on end her private line rang off the hook. Her screening device was all that stopped the cord from being ripped from the wall. Her mail came in one hundred-pound bags twice a day. Not surprisingly it took less than two minutes for the two e-mail accounts set up for her to replenish themselves each time they were purged. During the hours she spent at the computer she resisted the unyielding urge to put the disk in and talk to him again. She had so much to ask him. She had so much to learn. But she knew it was not safe for him. She was afraid they would find him and take him away from her. She never doubted for a minute that they could trap her connection and get in through some secret backdoor of her firewall. Ultimately she surrendered to her craving. Longing for his company she slipped the disk into the drive bay, but not before the data line had been yanked from the wall.

They talked for hours. The hours turned into days. She learned more about a man she had never met than any man she had ever known. Every revelation deepened her understanding of titanic concepts; opening up worlds of thought she never imagined even existed. His wisdom seemed to come naturally to her, as if it had been always within her but was somehow concealed behind the veil of a single, narrow reality. He, in turn, studied her. He sensed her fears and asked all the right questions. Her security was in question. He analyzed the building’s electrical, and communications systems in an attempt to probe for taps and bugs. Once found he set about disabling each in a manner that would not bring undue suspicion on her.

With every passing minute she felt closer to him. She giggled at the notion that she was falling in love with a computer program. At this Soll seemed a bit taken aback. He explained to her that it really was him. 'I am Sollalia, for I could be no body else'. Again she laughed. It wasn’t enough just to talk, she told him, how could she hug a computer screen? And how would a floppy disk stop the men who wore dark suits. Reluctantly, he had to agree.

"But there is a way to get a message directly to the real Soll," he explained. "A message that would have meaning only to him."

Her eyes lit up. She eagerly agreed to do it. "What are we waiting for?"

The interview scheduled for national television tomorrow night was the perfect venue. The NBC newsmagazine ‘One Hour’ was projected to have an audience of over a billion people worldwide; as for the breathless viewers on Orr, Soll predicted a galactic total of at least five billion.

The following night the interview went off without a hitch; time would tell if the message got through. That night, at long last, she fell asleep instantly. Utter exhaustion, however, was not enough to prevent the dream from coming back again. This time it was more real than ever. This time she nearly died. Shaken from bed by a deep sense of foreboding she knew she had to confront him. She grabbed her robe and walked hastily to the computer.

Soll was frowning. "You were having a bad dream," he said coolly. "I couldn’t wake you. Is everything all ri..."

"How did she die?" She demanded immediately.

"How did who die?"

"Your Teffiona. How did she die?"

He paused for a moment. In all the time they had spent together she never asked him about Teffiona’s death. "It was a tragic accident. It should’ve never happened. It was all my fault ¾ I should have stopped her from going..."

"Stopped her from going where?" Julia said with fury in her voice.
"From going to Earth..."

Julia began to cry. "I know how she died," she sobbed. "She was crushed to death at the bottom of the Indian Ocean..."

Soll gasped. "But how? I never told you that."

"I don’t know how I know it... It came to me in a dream. The same goddamn dream I’ve been having for weeks. Only, I never knew what any of it meant until I met you..."

"You’re having recurrent dreams about me?"

"Yes. They started long before I even knew you existed. My God this is eerie, Soll." She calmly wiped the tears from her face. Just the sound of his inquisitive voice began to put her at ease. "Nothing bad ever happened in them until tonight."

"What happened?"

"I died... She died..."

"Where was I?"

"You were standing by that tree with the boy. I tried calling out but you didn’t hear me."

He heard her. He wanted to run to her - rescue her, but he was powerless. Trapped inside a box, nothing more than a computer program tied to the chips on a printed circuit board, the twenty feet between them might as well have been twenty light-years. "You said I was standing by ‘that’ tree?"

"You were building something with it. There was some sort of rope system you used to spread out the branches. Only they weren't really branches as much as they were individual trunks..."

"Spindles."

"Yes. Spindles. You worked on it while the boy played. I think it was a treehouse for him because you were always explaining to him why you did this, and why you did that. I watched you. I loved being there. It was so peaceful and beautiful. You were always so happy... Until tonight. You were angry with me tonight, warning me not to go to Earth, telling me the ship wasn’t safe. But I wouldn’t listen, I rationalized everything, danger be damned. Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. I felt the walls crashing in on me. I was suffocating... Then I woke up gasping; I couldn’t catch my breath... What does any of it mean, Soll?"

For the first time, Sollalia was speechless. She had just described his last conversation with Teffiona. How could this young woman light years away from him be dreaming about what was in his own memory. He knew his obsession had evoked a powerful passion within his own heart, propelling him toward lunacy and threatening to drag everything he had accomplished into irrelevance. Was the pure force of his will spanning some trans-galactic pathway directly into her subconscious mind? Kinetic mind manipulation was something scientists on his own world had never accomplished over any real distances. It seemed implausible that he had somehow succeeded without even trying where brilliant men had failed after years of research.

She looked at him with an anxious smile, waiting for him to make sense out of everything. All he could do was to tell her the truth and hope she had the strength to face it. "I wish I had an answer," he began, "but there are many things about you I can’t begin to explain..."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I’d like to show you something, Julia... It may be upsetting... But you need to see this and know the truth..."

"The truth?" She giggled apprehensively. "Do you mean to tell me you’ve not been honest with me, mister?" Soll’s image disappeared and was replaced by a picture of her. Oddy, she didn’t recognize the picture at all. The clothes didn’t seem right; the hairstyle was all wrong. "I don’t remember that one being taken. Where in the world did you get that picture of me? Is it one of those cut and paste jobs from the Internet?"

"It’s not you," he said plainly. She crinkled her brow. "This is Teffiona."

Julia’s first word hung on the tip of her tongue. Soll said nothing, letting her digest what it meant. She went through a series of expressions until the revelation he was waiting for was written all over her face. "I see," she said tonelessly. "The jokes on me, huh?"

"This is no joke, Julia. This is Teffiona as she looked just before she left for Earth. This is the mother of my son."

She looked away when Soll’s image reappeared on the screen. She did not know how to feel. There was a moment she felt completely betrayed and yet another where she felt sorry for this man who had lost a mate he so obviously loved. Her rational mind was trying to take over, looking to make sense of it all and forcing her raging emotions to the side. For two years this man had been watching her, studying her, obsessing over her, paralyzed by her incredible resemblance to his beloved. Could it be that he transposed his love for his lost mate onto her to fill the void left in his heart? Was she merely a patch for his aching soul? Did he really care for her? Could he even distinguish between the two?

She stood up and walked to the door. She needed to clear her head and walk away from it. He followed her with eyes but said nothing. She opened the door and walked into the hallway. She reached down to pick up the morning paper. For an instant she thought she saw a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. She swung her head around but saw nothing. There was the distant sound of muffled footfalls that could just as easily be coming from the floor above. Probably just the paper carrier, she told herself.

As expected she found her picture in the top left corner of the paper. It was placed there as a teaser for the entertainment section. She began thumbing through the sections when something on the page one caught her eye. A name stuck out at her from the headline:

ASTRONAUT MAJOR DANIEL JANK
KILLED IN AUTO ACCIDENT
Cape Canaveral, FL
Air Force astronaut Major Daniel Jank was killed in a single car crash Thursday night. Jank, most notable for his participation in the recent space shuttle mission to retrieve a wayward military spy satellite that was at first thought to be an alien spacecraft, was traveling alone in his 1999 Chevrolet Corvette when the vehicle left the road and hit a tree.

He was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:38 PM EST.
According to military police at the Kennedy Space Center...

"Oh my God," Julia mumbled, "they killed him..."

"Major Jank?" Soll said matter of factly.

"Why, yes. You knew about it?"

"It was all over the Internet."

"I can’t believe it. Could they really be that brazen?" She threw the paper aside and went to the telephone. From her wallet she pulled out a business card with a phone number scribbled on the back. She hastily dialed the number as she looked at the clock on the wall. It was nearly 7:00 AM on the East Coast; it was a good bet that Travis Mcdonnel was already aware of the shocking news. The phone rang seven times before she was ready to give up. Just as she pulled the handset from her ear a female voice came on the line.

"Hello."

"Is Travis Mcdonnel there?" There was silence on the other end of the line. "Hello?"

"I’m afraid he can’t come to the phone right now." The woman said. Her voice was shaky, sounding as if she was forced to say it. "He’ll have to call you back... Can you leave a number?"

Julia gave her name number and hung up the phone. "That woman did not sound good," she said to herself. "I hope everything is all right..."

She continued to read the article hoping to find details that would solidify her suspicion before he called back. A minute later the phone rang.

"It's her," Soll said. "Carol Mcdonnel."

"This is Julia."

"Julia, this is Carol Mcdonnel, Travis’ wife." She sounded upset, like a woman who had been crying. "Sorry to have been so rude to you."

"Nonsense, you weren’t rude. Is everything all right, Mrs. Mcdonnel?"

"No. No, everything’s not all right." She began to cry. "Travis can’t come to the phone because he is not here. They’ve locked him up. They won’t even let me see him."

"What do you mean they’ve locked him up? Locked him up where?"

"Bethesda. They said he’s insane. It’s something about UFOs and alien spaceships. They said he’s completely delusional. They said he’s dangerous." She sniffled in an attempt to control herself. "But they won’t even let me see him."

What was happening? First Jank’s untimely death and now this. "Mrs. Mcdonnel, have you read the paper or seen the news this morning..."
"Do you mean have I heard about Major Jank?"

"Then you have heard?"

"No, but Travis told me they were going to kill him. Did they?"

She was stunned into silence by Carol Mcdonnel’s revelation. Thoughts of Jerry Baines and his father raced through her head. "He was killed in a car accident last night," she finally emitted. "But - how did your husband know it was going to happen? Is that the reason they took him in?"

"Yes!" She sobbed. "And they’re going to kill Travis too!"

"Why? Why would they want your husband dead?"

"Because, he knows the truth. Because he saw something up there, just like you did. People who know the truth don’t live long. You should be careful too." Her sobbing was becoming uncontrollable. "I’d better go. They’re probably bugging your phone." With a click the line went dead. Julia held the phone to her ear until she heard the dial tone return then she slowly placed it back in its cradle.

They couldn’t touch her, could they? She was not some faceless military astronaut they could just shove under the rug. She was a famous television star. Millions watched her show every week. How could they kill her without instant suspicion being directed their way? Deep in her heart she knew they could and would to protect the secret. They could do whatever they wanted. But this was all too perfect. Jank was dead, Mcdonnel locked up and she, a shut in, a recluse, was afraid to go outside her own apartment. Still, she was a liability, a voice they would be better off silencing altogether. Suddenly she felt very vulnerable. How simple it would be to make her death look like an accident. Easier yet, a psychotic fan could attack her. Her death would be used to perpetuate the shadow conspiracy they have continually primed to conceal the true conspiracy. In death she would become an instant martyr. A death the president would personally vow to avenge. How perfect it was all turning out to be.
She sat in silence for many minutes. She could feel Soll looking at her like a puppy waiting for permission to come. She sighed, whatever the true reason behind his attraction to her he was all she had now. Everyone else had betrayed her. She could no longer trust the one man more important to her than any other next to her own father. It made her heart ache inside her chest. Glenn Stratton was one of them, a conspirator, an enemy of the truth. His sweetness and light whenever she was around only made her despise him even more. Then there was Andy. Andy Gable, he was a man with a heart of gold, but his loyalties were tied firmly to Glenn’s wagon, not hers. Her other friends were all part of the show and worked for Glenn. Perhaps they were all being duped as well, but she could not expect any of them to believe such a bizarre story as she had to tell. In fact, she was for the first time in her life truly alone.

She turned toward Soll and smiled. He beamed. "Then you are going to talk to me again."

"Of course, silly."

"I know this must be overwhelming," he began, "but something has brought us together. I can’t explain it...."

"It’s all right, Soll, you don’t have to try to explain. You are here and I am so very glad to have you. But I’m afraid it won’t be enough. They’ll be coming after me. It may be tomorrow, it may be next week, even next year, but it’s the one thing I know for sure. They can’t afford to let me live, not after what I’ve seen."

Just then the phone rang. They both stared at it. She hesitated to pick it up. Instant paranoia began to set in. Who would be calling her private line at this hour?

"It's untraceable," Soll confessed. "Sorry."

She finally reached over to pick it up. She slowly put it to her ear as if it was too hot to touch. "Hello..."

"Julia," came a familiar voice on the other end of the line. "Is that you?"

"Jerry!" She exclaimed. It was Jerry Baines. His sweet old voice was music to her ears.

"How are you, sweetheart? I’ve been watching you on the news."

"I’m okay. How are you?"

"To be honest I’m a little concerned..."

"About what?"

"About you, honey. In fact I’m not sure we should even be using the phone right now."

"It’s okay, Jerry. I’ve had a friend sweep for bugs and traces." She flashed a quick smile toward Soll. "This line is clean."

"I hope you’re right. I’d feel better though, if we could talk in person. Can you meet me?"

"Now? Sure, I guess... " She looked at the clock on the wall, it was still hours before sunrise. "Where did you have in mind?"

"Listen to me carefully. I want you to get dressed and go to the 24-hour pharmacy at the end of your street now. It’s about a half a block..."

"I know where it is. Why do you want me to go there?"

"I’ll explain later… Now listen, near the back of the store there is a public fax machine. I want you go to the machine and wait for an incoming fax. Then do exactly what it says. Do you understand me?"

"Yes… What is this all about?"

"I’ll tell you everything when I see you. Now go."

"Wait!" She said but it was too late, the line was dead. He scared her with his deliberate elusiveness. What did he know? More importantly, did she even trust him?

She turned to the computer; "I’ve got to go."

"That was Jerry Baines of Baines International," Soll said to her with his eyebrows slightly raised.

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Gerald Baines is the only person on Earth trying harder than you to uncover the truth about the UFO’s and the government cover-up."

"How did you know that? And how did you know that was he on the phone? I never said his last name…"

"Baines is well known on Orr. He has the reputation of being an excellent researcher as well as a shrewd and tenacious businessman. He has ties with nearly every government and Fortune 500 company on the planet. He runs a good operation and leaves few tracks behind. Everything known about the man points to his legitimacy. He is exactly who he says he is."

"But how did you know that was him on the phone with me?" She asked him again.

"The two of you have been tied together. In fact, there were exactly three hundred forty-eight references to your collusion on the Internet last night."

Julia was struck by the implausibility of it. They met only once in a dark, crowded DC bar. They spoke another time by phone. How could they be tied together? Had the whole world gone mad?

"Strange thing about Baines, though…"

"And that is?" She asked coyly, unsure if she really wanted to hear the answer he was about to give.

"For some reason he has suspended all current activities and focused his company’s entire world-wide resources on one thing… A corporation called Delano Industries and particularly on the founder, Victor Delano."
She had heard that name before; Glenn had mentioned it from time to time. "That sounds like a crazy thing to do. What does Delano Industries do? What could possible be so interesting?"

"It's a holding company. They run businesses on nearly every continent. They have high-tech firms in the U.S. and Asia, manufacturing concerns in Russia, Europe, and South America, agricultural enterprises in the American midwest and numerous research labs around the world. They head quarter in Phoenix, Arizona with regional offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Minneapolis. Delano stock is considered to have most growth potential on the market. It’s known as a well run multi-national with profit and loss sheets substantially in the black. Citizen Delano is a champion of cleansing the polluted environment. Delano Industries develops toxic waste-removal compounds, which they give away to cities and countries around the world. On top of that his employees are some of the best and the brightest. They pay their vendors on time and they don’t cheat on their taxes." He paused and measured her confusion. "That’s what’s wrong."

"What do you mean? It sounds like the perfect corporation."

"Too perfect."

"What do you know?"

He smiled. "It’s not what I know… It’s what I don’t know that is bothering me."

"I don’t understand…"

"I’ve encountered cleverly disguised roadblocks at every turn. Just when I think I’ve broken into their system I get steered off course never to find my way back again. The encryption methods are like none other I’ve seen here. Their network is protected in a way that is so far beyond even the most carefully guarded networks that I am beginning to grow suspicious. Delano Industries is much more than meets the eye. Baines has sensed that as well. I am not done with them… I’ll let you know what I find out."

She got up to leave. "Watch the place for me, will ya?"

"I will if you promise me you’ll be careful."

"I will."

***

On the street outside her apartment the traffic was light. Still, she watched every car carefully as it passed by. She could see the sign for the pharmacy at the end of the block. It’s bright green and yellow logo flooded the whole area with a reassuring light. There was nobody on the sidewalk on either side of the street. She repeatedly turned back, looking for movement in the shadows. She was confident she was not being followed. She walked into the store and greeted the cashier who was too busy counting the cigarettes in the overhead bin to even acknowledge her.

"Where’s the fax machine? She asked. He pointed to the far corner of the store without missing a beat. "Thanks."

She found the fax machine next to the pay phone. Then as if by some kind of magic when she approached the machine it began spitting out a transmittal. She hastily pulled the paper from the rollers and read it:

YOU HAVE BEEN FOLLOWED. YOU ARE IN DANGER! YOU MUST PROCEED TO THE BACK DOOR AT ONCE. LOOK AT THE FLOOR. FOLLOW THE FELLOW MARKERS. THEY WILL LEAD YOU TO THE DOOR. THERE IS A BLACK CHEVROLET OUTSIDE WITH ITS LIGHTS ON. GET IN IT. JERRY BAINES

She looked at he floor in front of her. Small yellow dots marked a path to the back door. She did not hesitate. She ran as fast as she could. The dots ended at a door marked Emergency Exit Only - Alarm Will Sound. Her instincts told her that Baines would have seen to it that no alarm would sound. She crashed through the door without hesitation and found herself in the alley behind the store. There was a large sedan looming in the shadows with its lights on. It might have been black and it might have been a Chevrolet but she only saw blinding white light. Suddenly the headlights went out and the car sped toward her. Before she could react the car was upon her. She backed away as the rear door flew open.

"Get in," someone said form inside the car. "Mr. Baines is waiting."

"Where is he?" Julia asked defiantly. "Tell me… or I walk…"

The pharmacy door burst open behind her. The driver flashed the high beams momentarily blinding the intruder while the other man abruptly grabbed Julia by the arm and pulled her into the car. The car sped away in a flurry of smoke and gravel. The door swung shut violently, smashing into her feet as she fell across the seat. The man abruptly climbed over her to pull the door shut when suddenly there was a flash of something metal. As a disembodied arm reached inside the car the door slammed shut.

They careened out onto the street causing the car to lurch violently and crushing them up against the opposite door. The driver was barking instructions for his unseen accomplices into a two-way radio. Three blocks later they were dashing up the freeway ramp at perilous speeds.

Neither men said a word to her. They looked about suspiciously as the car entered the early morning traffic on the James Lick Freeway. She soon noticed that the car they were following was the same make, model and color as the one she was sitting in. She looked out the window to her right and saw another black sedan. She swung her head around and saw two more cars that were also a perfect match for the late model Chevrolet sedan. The driver then began maneuvering in what seemed a perfectly choreographed pattern. Each car took turns passing each other while lane hopping across the width of the freeway. As the armada of black sedans approached downtown they peeled away one by one onto different exit ramps.

She said nothing as they drove through downtown San Francisco. Only when a voice came on the radio giving them an all clear did both men finally seem to relax. The driver turned to greet her. "Ray and I are sorry to have been so blunt Ms. Rayhied. Mr. Baines was quite worried about your safety."

"Where is he?" She asked.

"We’ll take you to him now."

He drove them to the edge of downtown where the fresh paint and cement curbs of urban renewal had not yet reached. He stopped abruptly and yanked the car into the lot of an old Spanish style church. The lot was dark and empty but for one van idling in the far corner. They pulled up along side of it and waited until the side door slid open. The driver of the car popped the automatic locks and Julia let herself out. Inside the dimly lit van she saw the glint of a metal wheelchair. Jerry Baines sat alone smiling down at her.

"Come in, Julia. Sit with me."

She stepped in and slid the door shut behind her. The van had been thoroughly customized to accommodate him and his wheelchair in complete comfort. The cabin had been extended to allow one to stand erect inside. The van's walls were lined from ceiling to floor with an impressive array of electronic components. "Mr. Baines, I am so glad to see you again." She extended her hand and he accepted it with a firm, reassuring grip. "What happened back there? How did you know I was in trouble?"

"The truth is I’ve been watching you." On the tiny monitors over his right shoulder she could see three different views of her apartment building. He saw her looking at it and nodded. "The best surveillance equipment money can buy."

"I see," she said suspiciously. "The car I’ve been seeing outside on the street … One of yours?"

Baines smiled nobly. "As a matter of fact, it is. It was set up as a decoy, actually. We placed it there to see what kind of attention we would draw."

"And…"

"We attracted attention, all right. You’ve got Feds crawling all over that place. We showed them a few different looks to keep them from finding my equipment around the building and the neighborhood. We’ve been watching them watch you."

She shuddered. "What are they after? Are they going to kill me like they did Major Jank?"

"Maybe? They’ve got people living in the building, hell; they’re on the same floor as you. That much I know. Problem is, Julia, we haven’t been able to get a tap on their line or pickup their cell phone calls either. Right now I’m blind inside the building. We’ve had a system failure we can’t seem to correct. There is something strange going on in that place. Damdest jamming devices I've ever seen before. We can’t seem to tap into any line or intercept any frequencies going into or coming out of that building."

She smiled to herself. A crafty Sollalia had rendered their conventional wire tapping technologies perfectly useless. "Have you heard about my other crew mate?" She asked him, eager to change the subject.
"Bethesda… Those bastards."

"How did you know?"

"I have good friends in Washington."

"And Washington has friends out here," she quipped.

"Stratton?"

"Yes, for one. God only knows about the rest. I can’t afford to trust any of them now. If Glenn works for them there’s no telling who else does. Who knows how deep…"

Jerry Baines suddenly got a forlorn expression on his face stopping her in mid sentence. "I need to ask you something," he said quietly. "It's important…"

"What?"

"What do you know about Victor Delano or his company, Delano Industries?"

She bit her lower lip. How much should she reveal? Was the old man even aware that someone had been examining him and his company from the inside out? Then again, she mused silently; he knew exactly what Soll wanted him to know, nothing more, nothing less. "I’ve heard of him. He's an associate of Glenn's. I don’t know anything else, really."

"I’m afraid he’s had more to do with your life than you can imagine. He is the one who sponsored S.E.T.I.'s Universe from the very beginning. You could say he's the man who made you what you are today. Did you ever wonder how your little local cable TV show suddenly became the most slickly produced program on network television? Did you even ask yourself why they put you in the most prized time slot before they even saw the first episode? Somebody paid for that. That somebody was Mr. Delano. Our best estimate is that he’s poured fifty to eighty million into your show. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a wealthy man and can spend his money as he sees fit, but answer me this; would anyone drop $80 million on something they had never seen?"

"Does he have something to do with what’s happening to me now?"

"I don’t know. I don’t think so. There are no ties there, at least none that I can see anyway. To be perfectly honest we’ve had trouble investigating this guy. The security systems on their network defy conventional logic. I’ve had my best people on this for three months. Two weeks ago I turned the entire company loose on Delano and I still have nothing I can hang my hat on. Every public record of this man and his family is flawless. Even the widower’s infamous dalliances with the ladies have not provided me with a speck of tawdriness. I can’t see a scratch in this guy’s character. Nobody is that squeaky clean."

She sensed the same frustration in Soll only twenty-five minutes ago. "What about Stratton? He turned out to be a rat. Delano has dealt with him hasn’t he?"

"We explored that angle, of course. It seems Delano’s people met with Stratton only once two years ago. The checks have been coming ever since. I’m telling you, Julia, this man is too good to be true."

"Why the sudden interest in him?" She asked.

"Anything connected with your show is of interest to me, especially the people behind it."

"What if this Delano turns out to be just what he seems? I guess what I’m asking is, what do you hope to find?"

"I don’t know. Perhaps the truth…"

There was silence in the van for the first time. She noticed how old he looked. He had been fighting this fight for a very long time. The years showed on his face. Yet, the truth that had eluded him for half a century was now in his sights. The pace was quickening and despite his profound fatigue he was closer than ever, and he knew it. The only question remaining was; would he make it to see the end. While he had never let himself be shackled by his wheelchair or hindered in any way by the authorities meddling in his business, he was slowly becoming drained of his will to continue. Certainly it could be argued that clustering the resources of his entire operation on a single point of obsession was an act of a desperate man.

And what of her own desperation? Her world had gone mad. Everyone she held dear to her heart was an impostor. The people she thought she really knew turned out to be, in fact, traitors to the cause. Her only friends now were an old man on a personal crusade to rescue lost justice and a spaceman on a computer disk. Indeed, her world had gone berserk.
She sighed. "What do we do now? What can we do?"

"I’ve got a safe house up in Hillsborough. You can stay there..."

"Safe house?"

"We use it for clients who don’t really want the Feds to know they’re in the country. It’s a beautiful little place with a wonderful view. You’ll love it."

She smiled. It sounded nice. "Hillsborough, you say. It’s very kind of you to put me up for a couple of days." Baines merely shook his head back and forth. "What? What’s the matter?"

"I don’t think you understand, dear. You can’t go back. They’ll kill you."
She started to protest but couldn’t. She could only think of the computer disk that contained essence of the man that she had come to love. The stranger from the distant planet he called Orr was all she cared about anymore. She could not leave him there. No threat of danger was sufficient to stop her from going back for him. She had only to convince Jerry how important it was without telling him why. No doubt Baines would be expecting her to raise a fuss and would have made his plans accordingly. She would not disappoint. "Hold on. You don't understand… There are things I have to have. You can’t expect me to abandon my life just like that…" She snapped her fingers. "I need to go back, you have no idea…"

"I recommend against it," Baines interrupted. "I strongly urge you to let my people go in and get the things you need. There’s no reason to put your life in danger…" He stopped at the sight of her shaking her head vehemently. "I know it’s hard…"

"I’m going back," she decreed. She stood and put her hand on the door handle. "Either you’ll take me there or I’ll call a cab."

"That won’t be necessary, my dear, I knew you would insist. Now, you let Ray and Manuel take you back. I have good people there right now and they will let us know when we can go in safely. You’ll have to have patience and do exactly what they tell you. It’s for your own good."
"I understand," she said stoically. "Thank you, Jerry. Thank you for all you’re doing for me."

"No, actually it is I who should be thanking you," he said in all seriousness. "You alone have given me the will to carry on. They had all but beaten me down. That's how they do it, you know. They wear you down with an unrelenting wall of deceit and lies. They’ve keep me at bay for decades throwing me a paltry scrap now and then to keep me sufficiently demoralized. I’m an old man and I can’t take the pounding anymore. But when I saw you on TV I knew I wasn’t alone. We are kindred spirits, you and I. If I died tomorrow you would be there to carry on, to see that justice is served. I want you to have the advantage of all the knowledge I’ve accumulated. There is no time to waste; everything that is mine is now yours. You will carry the torch from here on out."

She laughed. "You’re putting a lot of faith in me. I don’t know if I can live up to it."

"You already have, kid, you already have."

***

They changed vehicles three times. Each switch left them with more of a wreck than the last. The third car was a plain looking, cream colored Camaro with a cracked windshield and a dent in the drivers door. Riding shotgun, Ray wore a head set and was barking commands to his unseen allies while Manuel drove. She sat alone in the cramped back seat. Ray reached over the seat and grabbed a gym bag off the floor. Without saying a word he opened it and showed its contents to Julia. There was a wig, sunglasses and a change of clothes in the bag. He dropped it on her lap and turned away. She dressed as quickly as she could while slouching below the seat back. Ray helped her adjust her wig and smiled approvingly. She was ready.

Peering over the top of the sunglasses she watched every car that went past. Which one carried her killer? Was it the guy in the pickup truck with the oversized tires? Was it the little old lady in the light blue Honda? May be it was man standing alone at the bus stop. The soulless bastard was probably waiting for her at the apartment with his rock steady finger resting gently on the trigger just waiting for the perfect shot. Her fear was intense yet she had it under control. It made her feel sharp and alert, more alive than at any time in her life.



Finally, Ray gave Manuel the thumbs up and they began driving the last mile. With the sun pinking up the eastern sky she could easily make out the silhouette of the ten-story building she called home. They hit all the green lights along Army Street as they approached 3rd. She studied Ray’s face; he seemed to become agitated with events going on beyond his earpiece. She felt the tension inside the car escalate. He shouted into the headset: "Would somebody tell me what the hell is going on!" His face turned red, his temples pulsated with every beat of his heart. She followed his eyes as they darted back and forth. He swung his head around abruptly. "I don’t like this, Manuel." She spun around in time to see a pair of headlights engulf the rear window. The car lurched forward. They had been rammed from behind. "God damnit, we’ve been made!" Again, with a crunch of metal ripping through the cabin, the car lurched forward. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, get us the hell out of here!"

The rear window exploded in a hail of glass as Manuel kicked accelerator down to the floor. Ray reached over the seat and pushed Julia’s head down as a second round of gunfire peppered the car. The tires squealed as the car careened violently out of control. They stopped with a crunch of metal and glass as the bullet riddled Camaro slammed into a parked car. She was shaken but unhurt. Ray had only a small gash on his forehead. Manuel had not been so lucky; his lifeless body was hunched over the steering wheel.

"Get out!" He shouted at her. He kicked the door open and pushed Manuel out onto the street. He stuck his hand out the door and fired two shots. "Run!" He screamed. Again, using the car as a shield, he reached over the roof of the car and squeezed off several more rounds.

She ran and never looked back. She ducked into the alley behind the building and fled as fast as her legs would take her. She turned into a small lot behind the building used by delivery trucks and maintenance men. She fumbled in her pocket for her pass-card as she hiked anxiously across the empty lot. The sound of gunfire slapped off the brick facade betraying the direction of its source. She did not stop to find out.

She reached the door and slid her card through the reader. The green light seemed to take forever. Finally, she heard the click as the magnetic lock released the door. Once inside she slammed the door shut with a resounding thud. She ripped off the wig and tossed the sunglasses on the floor. She was free, the freight elevator only fifteen feet away, the door wide open. She stopped, she was a mere five steps from refuge, yet she hesitated; something was compelling her to look back. She turned and looked out the window, gasped and looked away. Hoping it had all been an illusion she peered out the window again. She felt warm tears fill her eyes. Parked behind the dumpster was a van; a special kind of van. It was the kind of van used by people in wheelchairs. The smoke that poured out from under the hood danced lazily in the unwavering beam of the headlights. She felt a tear roll down her cheek as she looked for any hopeful sign. Shattered glass sparkled on the pavement like the telltale mark of a common vandal. Clearly, this was not the work of a neighborhood gangster; this van had been perforated from stem to stern. If Jerry Baines was in there he was most likely already dead.

She turned toward the elevator but couldn’t make herself take a step. She couldn’t leave him out there, dead or not. She burst through the door and ran to the van. The side door was slightly ajar. She cautiously slid the door open and looked inside. Baines was hunched over in his chair. She leapt inside and knelt down beside him. She lifted his head and looked into his eyes. He looked back at her, pleading for mercy. She quickly inspected his body and found he’d been hit by two bullets. One had ripped through the left side of his chest and the other was lodged in his left shoulder. He needed a doctor immediately or he would die. His driver was already dead; half his skull had been ripped open exposing an oozing, gelatinous gray matter. Feeling a sudden wave of nausea she turned away and took several long, deep breaths. When her head stopped spinning she hopped out of the van she opened the door as wide as it would go and fumbled with the controls that extended the wheelchair ramp. He tried assisting her but his collapsed lung prevented him from getting enough air to speak. She put her finger on his lips to stop him from further injuring himself. After pushing every button on the control stalk she finally got the ramp to start extending itself. She could hear the sound of sirens in the distance. They were coming this way.

When the ramp was fully extended she looked up at Baines. He was trying to point at something so she pushed his arm down hoping to calm him down. He only became more agitated. Finally she saw the look of fear in his eyes. He was looking at something behind her. She spun around and saw the face of a man she never thought she would see again.

"Mr. Brown!" she exclaimed. "Oh, I’m so glad to see you! You’ve got to help us. Jerry’s been shot, he needs a doctor."

"I see that," Mr. Brown said tonelessly. She smiled at him and reached out and touched his arm. He winced in pain. "Don’t touch the arm!" He scolded her harshly. "Move away, let me get a look." He impatiently pushed her aside and looked inside the van. Without a word he drew a handgun out of his coat and trained it on Baines.

"What are you doing?" She gasped.

"I’m putting the old man out of his misery."

"You can’t be serious!"

"Oh, but I am." She grabbed his arm. She heard him groan as he shook her off. She lunged at him again, this time she swinging at his arm with all her might. He counter punched and sent her flying to the ground. She got up and brushed the hair out of her eyes. She found Mr. Brown standing over her with the gun pressed up against her skull. "Such a foolish young girl… Too bad it had to come to this. If only the president wouldn’t have sent you up there. None of this would’ve been necessary."

"I thought you were my friend…"

"You are naïve," He snickered. "Sure, I like you, who doesn’t." The sirens grew louder. She sensed a heightened urgency in his tone ‘But that’s really beside the point now, isn’t it? Did you really think we could let you live?" He cocked the gun. "It’s time to say goodbye, Miss Rayhied."

She closed her eyes and waited. Death would be instantaneous, painless and certain. She heard a shot. She felt nothing. She opened her eyes in time to see Mr. Brown hit the ground beside her, his lifeless eyes staring skyward. The right side of his head was missing. She jumped to her feet and found Jerry Baines forcing a smile as a pall of smoke drifted from the barrel of the gun he had kept hidden under the plaid blanket that was forever draped over his useless legs.

The sirens were converging on the building from all directions. She had to get Baines inside to the safety of her apartment, as even the local police could not be trusted. She rolled Mr. Brown out of the way and quickly lowered Baines down on the wheelchair lift. She wheeled him across the lot as fast as she could, slammed her card inside the reader and got him inside the building as a swirl of lights pierced the darkness.

They reached the fourth floor but she did not open the door. Instead, she pushed the buttons for the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors. The deck of the elevator was a pool of blood and she knew that if she pushed the wheelchair down the hall to her door she would be creating a road map for her enemies. As the elevator stopped at each floor she pressed the hold button and pushed the wheelchair down the hall a short way and then quickly backtracked to the elevator. The service entrance to each floor was dimly lit and were rarely used by the tenants, she prayed they would not be seen. When they arrived back at the fourth floor she removed her shirt and carefully wiped the blood from the wheels. Moments later she was outside her back door in a bloodstained shirt shoving her pass-card into the slot.

Inside she flipped on the hall light and began inspecting his wounds. Baines was silent. He had lost a lot of blood. She feared it was too late. She checked for a pulse; it was weak but it was there. Time was short, she would have to call for an ambulance and take her chances or Baines would surely die. She pushed him into the living room and grabbed the cordless phone from the coffee table. The battery was dead. She tossed it carelessly on the couch and dashed toward the kitchen when she was stopped cold. Standing motionless in the kitchen doorway were two people. Silhouetted against the morning sun the ominous image chilled her to the bone. They had sent two assassins to finish the job.
She leapt toward Baines and pulled the gun out from under his blanket. She spun and pointed it at them. Still, they made no move toward her. With the barrel of the gun shaking uncontrollably she pointed it alternately at one and then the other. "What do you want?" She cried.
"Julia," said the larger of the two. "We mean you no harm…" The voice sounded familiar. It was a soothing voice, further confusing her. "May we turn on the light?"

The smaller of the two began moving toward a table lamp. She swung the gun back and forth between them. "I’m warning you, I’ll shoot!" When the light flashed on she was surprised to see a young woman smiling back at her. She had seen that face before. She turned toward the other intruder the gun hit the floor. It was Sollalia.

"Julia Rayhied, we are here to help…" Before he could even finish his greeting she ran to him and smothered him with all her might. He looked at Livv and shrugged his shoulders. When she finally released him he directed her toward Livv. "Julia, I’d like you to meet Livvevea… She is…"
"Your assistant. Yes, I know. I know all about Livv and Dakk and Teff and everyone else." She paused and looked at him again. "I just can’t believe you’re really here! It worked. Our message worked. I can’t wait to tell Soll… err I mean… you."

"You are in danger…"

Her eyes lit up. "Oh, my God! Jerry!" She rushed over to him. She checked for a pulse but couldn’t find one. "He’s been shot. He’ll die unless I get him to a doctor."

Livv walked over to him. "Maybe I can help."

She produced some sort of hand held device from inside her side bag that looked a little like a television remote control. She waved it over his torso and then read the viewscreen. "He’s alive, but very weak. The first thing we have to do is remove these foreign objects from his body. Then we’ll have to see what we can do about getting his blood pressure up." She held the device over the left side of Baines’ chest, and then over his left shoulder. "He heals very nicely, he’s a strong man." She pushed him back into the chair and set the instrument against his chest. It appeared to inject something directly into his heart. "That should make him feel better. This enzyme will stimulate the rapid production of red and white blood cells, that will bring his pressure up nicely." Julia watched in astonishment as the color returned to Jerry’s face. He began to sit upright in the chair; acting stunned and confused but hardly like a man who was just moments ago was a breath away from dying.

Like a child who had just witnessed a slick magic trick Julia stared at Livv with awe and fascination. "How did you do that?"

The Orrian shrugged. "It was nothing really, standard tissue repair routines…" She simply could not appreciate how incredible what she had just done must have looked to a primitive. "I was able to dissolve the foreign matter and precipitate a rapid tissue regeneration by accelerating nerve and connecting tissue growth while suppressing the production of scar tissue. The human body has a remarkable ability to heal itself, unfortunately it still needs to protect itself from invading bacteria. It does this by producing scar tissue: a useful adaptation in an infectious world. It can efficiently fill a hole left by an injury, but it also prohibits the desirable tissue from healing completely." She put her hand over Baines’ hand and looked into his eyes. "His eyes are already beginning to sparkle. I think this one will be all right." She stood and looked at Julia. "Could you tell me what is wrong with his legs? Why is it that he doesn’t use them?"

"He was in a accident… Terrible, terrible accident, it killed his whole family. He was only nine years old. He’s been paraplegic ever since."
"A spinal injury, I see," Livv said as she carefully inspected the wheelchair.

"He cannot walk?" Julia nodded. She knelt down beside him and asked: "Would you like to?" A single tear rolled down his cheek. "Yes, by all means…"

Tilting his body forward Livv pulled up his shirt and jacket. She carefully passed the device over the length of his spine. She sat him back in the chair and smiled. "Your spine has been repaired. You’ll feel tingling in your legs as the nerves are energized, however, your leg muscles have atrophied and you won’t have the strength to walk just yet. Though, I think you could stand up if you gave it a try."

"Go ahead, try it, Jerry," Julia urged. "You can do it…"

Baines pushed up on the arms of the wheel chair as hard as he could. His legs tingled and pulsed, screaming out their existence. They wobbled at first, but then held steady. Finally, with one mighty push of his arms he let go and found he was standing on his own two feet for the first time in six decades. "Julia," he said in a strong, proud voice, "look at me, I’m standing. I’m standing!"

"And you will walk again someday Jerry Baines," Livv proclaimed.

Julia helped ease him back into the chair. "My God, Jerry, you did it." She turned to Soll who had been watching quietly from the shadows. "You people have saved his life… He surely would have died… Thank you both…"
Soll smiled and shrugged it off. "There is still much danger here. You do realize we can’t stay here."

She nodded. "I know, I know. But can I go? We both know they will find me, no matter where I go."

"Not if you come with us. We can take you to a place beyond their puny reach. A place where you’ll be safe and can live your life in peace." He looked at her sad brown eyes and his heart began to melt. She was lovelier in person than he had ever imagined. Being in her presence made him feel complete, his heart felt warm inside his chest. He could not imagine how he would go on if she declined his invitation. "The choice is yours, but we haven’t much time."

"I knew the moment we sent the message that I would go with you." She smiled and grabbed his hand. "Here you are. You came for me, how could I say no now?" She hugged him, burying her head in his chest. "Take me with you…"

Livv looked sternly at Soll, who, had for the moment lost all sense of the situation, and pointed impatiently at the portacon on her wrist. Gell was calling them in. Danger was near.

Soll lifted his head and said gently: "It’s time to go. They are coming."

Julia pulled away. "Of course, you’re right…" She reluctantly released him. "What about Jerry? We can’t just leave him here."

"Damn it, Julia," Jerry protested. "I’ll be all right. Hand me my gun that you so carelessly left on the floor, and if you would, please take my phone out of the saddlebag." Julia dutifully complied. "All I need is my good friends Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson and this little old phone and I’ll be just fine. Now go on! All of you."

She started for the door but then stopped abruptly. She suddenly realized why she had come home in the first place. She dashed to the computer and sat down in front of the screen. "Soll, I have to go now…"

The screen flashed to life, as the image of Soll looked straight past her to the flesh and blood version of himself. "I know," said Soll the program…

"Good to see you again, Soll. You’re looking well. You’ve come to take her away from me, haven’t you? You know I'll be forever jealous of you."

"This I know to be true," Soll replied. "I must thank you for the brilliant message. It was exactly what I would have expected from you…"

"Great minds?" They all laughed for one brief happy moment then Julia summarily popped the disk out and handed it to Jerry Baines.

"This will answer all of your questions," she explained. "More than that, it will answer questions you never even thought to ask. You alone are the only one who can handle the truth you are about to learn… Use it wisely…" She pulled it away from his grasp. "I leave you with one word of caution: do not attempt to copy or alter it in any way. It will destroy itself and you’ll have nothing." Baines snapped it from her hand. She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. "I will miss you…" She could see Livv standing by the door silently urging her to hurry. "Goodbye, Jerry Baines."
"Take with you the good side of humanity, Miss Ambassador," Baines said, his voice quavering slightly, "leave the rest behind. You represent us all. You are the best we’ve ever had. Godspeed to you, young lady."

***

Using the elevators was out of the question, by now the police had called them down to stay. Livv led them to the service stairwell instead. Gell was providing them with a detailed floor plan of the building from the ship on the roof. Their escape route was being relayed to her portacon as they progressed.

They would use the narrow shafts that served as the backbone for the building's electrical and telephone systems. The high angle steps made it seem like they were climbing one gigantic ladder, each flight draining the legs a little more than the last. With only the ninth and ten floors above them it seemed as though they were going to make it to the roof unhindered. It was then Gell’s structural survey of the building revealed security cameras in the stairwell. He was too late. He couldn’t disable them in time.

They could hear voices in the stairwell several floors below them. From above, light pierced the shadowy darkness as the rooftop door whipped open with a loud bang. They were boxed in. On the landing between the ninth and tenth floor Soll stopped them. "Let them get closer," he whispered. He handed Julia some sort of thin, flimsy earphone type device. She watched curiously as Livv and Soll slipped a pair over their ears and then, crinkling her nose in bewilderment she did the same.
The men were getting closer. There was one from above and at least two from below. Soll held a small device in his hand that looked much like a key chain remote for somebody’s car alarm. Just as two heads popped up from the stairwell below Soll pressed the device between his fingers. The men collapsed and fell to the bottom of the stairwell below. The device emitted an imperceptible sonic blast that disabled the brain’s ability to process voluntary commands. They heard a thud as someone hit the deck above their heads. The ear covers they wore protected them; everything else within a hundred-foot radius was down. The effects would last for hours. Orrians routinely carried with them whenever going jungleside. It could disable large, dangerous animals without doing permanent damage. Thankfully, it worked on the most dangerous of all animals, an evil man with a gun.

Livv led them up the remaining flight. Stepping over the man at the top of the stairwell, she popped through the open door. The morning sun illuminated the cloudless sky and cast a pink hue on the rooftop structures. Nothing was moving. To the east a police helicopter hovered like a yo-yo on a string, its powerful spotlight searching the ground for fleeing suspects. She called Julia out and Soll quickly followed.

"Come with me," Soll called to her. She followed him across the flat roof.

He raced past the second elevator doghouse with Julia running as fast as she could just to keep up. As he approached the pleated sheet metal wall of the doghouse he didn’t seem to be slowing at all. She wanted to yell out as if he didn’t see it coming, but it was too late. He hit the wall in full stride. She cringed, covering her eyes with her hands. She peeked through her fingers to find that he had vanished. It was as if the wall had opened up and swallowed him. She stopped dead in her tracks. Convinced her eyes were playing tricks on her she took tiny steps and tentatively approached the wall. With one hand behind her back she reached out to touch it. Expecting to feel the touch of solid cold metal she was shocked to find it had no form at all and her hand simply disappeared into a void. She snapped it back in a panic. Rubbing it vigorously with her other hand she had to assure her bedazzled mind it was still there.

She heard Livv coming up from behind her.

"Come along now," the Orrian female prodded and then disappeared through the wall herself. Julia took a step back. She had seen so much magic already, what kind of sorcery was this? Suddenly a hand appeared from the wall and grabbed her arm. With a quick yank she was inside it with them. It was then that she saw the spacecraft for the first time. It was like nothing she had ever imagined. It wasn’t the least bit frightening at all. In fact it was stunningly beautiful. It was sheathed in a shiny glass-like covering that glowed and hummed as if it were alive. Its pulsating deep purple iridescence was a wonder to behold.

"Is it real?" She asked.

"The ship is quite real," Soll replied. "The rest of this is just a hologram disguised to look like one of the other structures on this roof."

She approached the ship cautiously. It seemed to respond to her presence. It hummed a modulated tone the closer she got to it. "What is it doing?" She asked Soll nervously.

"It’s learning about you. It has sensed that we do not fear you and it is making a profile that will allow you to board it."

"What would happen if it didn’t like me?" She asked playfully.

"You saw what I did to those men in the stairwell?"

"That?"

"Much worse," offered a voice from above. She looked up to see a young boy standing on the deck of the spaceship. He held out his hand to her. She looked at Soll who merely nodded. She grabbed the boy's hand and he hoisted her up onto the deck.

"Julia Rayhied," Soll began, "I like you to meet Gellseno."

"Come aboard," Gell offered. "We've been expecting you…"

They entered the ship together pausing briefly to allow the Earthling a chance to assimilate to the strange and alien surroundings. "My God," she uttered breathlessly. "What is this?" The elegance of the design was overwhelming. So different it was from the mammoth and unwieldy USS Patriot. "This is just so fantastic!"

Gell smiled. "Your pleasure is my pleasure." He guided her toward the helm.

Livv quickly secured the energy door behind them as Gell sat heavily in the pilot’s chair as it emerged magically from nowhere. "Why don't you come closer and I'll show you how we fly this thing." Julia sheepishly stepped forward. The propulsion system," Gell explained, "put simply, works on the principle of what you might call opposing magnetism, if you will. We literally use the Earth’s own magnetic field to push us off the surface, much in the way similar poles on two magnets repulse each other. By fine tuning the polarity, we can magnify the effect and change course and speed at will. Like this…" Gell set the craft in motion with a wave of his right hand. Below them, the floor suddenly became transparent and Julia watched the apartment building slip silently away beneath them.

From the east the police helicopter swung around to face them. Seconds later it was angling directly for them on an intercept course. Oddly, Julia sensed little regard in Gell’s demeanor. Soll seemed unconcerned as well. "Can’t they see us?" She asked emphatically as the helicopter's spotlight lit up sky around them.

"Yes and no," Gell said casually. "They are actually seeing themselves."

"How’s that?"

"We are projecting a holographic image of themselves back at them. It must be very confusing," Gell laughed. "I’d love to stay and play games with them, but it’s time for me to go home now…"

Soll took Julia’s hand. "Are you ready to leave this place?"

She smiled enthusiastically. "Oh, yes! There’s nothing left for me here. I don’t belong here anymore. I belong with you."

Soll wrapped his arms around her and nodded to Gell. With a wave of his hand the boy sent the Earth falling away at a remarkable rate of speed.

Seconds later the twinkling lights of the city she had once called home were but tiny specks dotting the California coastline. Reveling in her purity and innocence, Soll stroked her long black hair. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he would be returning to Orr an outlaw, a violator of the Law that would see him banished from the garden for life. He had given up everything for her and still his heart swelled, without a moment's hesitation she had given up her earthly life to go with him. Life without her was unimaginable now. There would be no regret for what he had done; just one glorious minute in her arms was worth ten lonely lifetimes in the lush jungle paradise known as Orr.