The Face of Earth (17 page)

Tresar and Flavoi exchanged glances. If they told Haron where to find Agnar, Haron might go to Yalsa and start another war. If they lied, they might be destroyed. Bitowans could detect lies. Tresar decided to answer honestly, but not completely. “We saw Agnar on Bellos, at the Bellisimo Hotel. He had a woman with him, but she wasn’t Bitowan.”

The general looked at Tresar contemplatively. Then he nodded again. “The control of your ship will be returned to you.” Haron’s face disappeared as the viewscreen went blank, and then both the screen and the console lit up as full power was restored. Tresar and Flavoi found themselves staring at a field of stars, with no sign of the Bitowan ship.

Tresar shuddered and sat down in his chair. Flavoi let out a sigh of relief. Tresar rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Flavoi, if the Bitowans could do things like that, then how did we beat them in the wars?”

Flavoi shook his head and snorted. “The Bitowans are strange. War is a game of strategy to them, and using their advanced technology against a lesser foe isn’t sportsmanlike. So they only use what would be fair, and may the best side win. Our military didn’t understand that. We only won because the Bitowans respected our strategy. They could have crushed us at any time had they wanted to.” He sighed. “I respect the Bitowans’ sense of fair play. More than I respect our own military.” Flavoi restarted the engines and engaged the drive, resuming their course to Yalsa.

Tresar pondered that. With all his brilliance, he never understood people. Living alone for years hadn’t increased his understanding. He was getting quite an education out among the stars. He sat back in his seat and stared at the viewscreen as the stars streamed past.

CHAPTER 12

Agnar guided the ship over Yalsa, engaging its masking device to conceal it from the Yalsan defenses. This new ship of his was truly a wonder. The overdrive allowed him to reach a destination in half the time it took a normal drive, and the masking device concealed him from detection. He flew over the green landscape toward a towering mountain. As he approached, he scanned the side of the mountain for an opening he had previously hidden with a matching holographic projection. Finding it, he flew the ship into it.

The ship seemed about to crash into the mountainside, and then he was through and setting down in his docking bay. He shut down the engines, then stood up and stretched, feeling safe for the first time in months. He made his way to the living quarters, palming the plate at the room where he had left the prisoners. As the door opened, he saw the two women sitting on the bed with their heads close together, deep in conversation. They looked up as he entered and went silent. He gestured for them to follow him. They came without complaint, and he led them out of the ship and into the bay.

They followed him out of the bay and through a cave that narrowed into a tunnel that led to his house. At the end of the tunnel and next to a door he opened a panel and keyed in a complex, thirty-digit code. The door swung open, leading through a wall into his bedchamber. When it closed behind them, there was no evidence of a door on the wall at all. Agnar pointed to a plush couch. “Sit.”

The women sat, and Agnar went to the viewscreen on the other side of the room. “Megg,” he said. The screen lit up and after a few moments a beautiful young woman appeared. She grinned at the pirate.

“Agnar, you old moscul! Where have you been keeping yourself these days?”

Agnar grinned back. “I’ve been a guest of the Bitowans.”

Megg gasped in shock. “How in the universe did you get away? No one survives the Bitowans.”

Agnar looked over his shoulder at his captives. “Come here,” he commanded. Karina and Sharra came and stood beside him. Megg gasped again when she saw Sharra. Agnar began his introductions. “Megg, may I present Princess Sharra, eldest daughter of the Emperor of Bitowa, and Karina, an Earthling.” He turned to his prisoners. “Ladies, this is Megg, one of the oldest living Stelairians, who is responsible for my current state of longevity and is the most stunning woman I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.” He bowed to Megg and winked.

Megg giggled. “I swear, Agnar, you’re the most terrible flirt. How did you convince the Princess of Bitowa to accompany such a scoundrel as yourself?”

“The princess is my prisoner, as is the Earthling.”

Megg bit her bottom lip thoughtfully. “A surviving Earthling, hmmm? I thought that comet I directed into their planet killed them all.”

“Her survival is my fault. She was frozen in a cryogenic pod they built using the cryonic schematics I sold to some of them.”

Megg laughed. “How ironic that the result of your actions should give you the last living Earthling. You know she’s worth a lot as such.”

Agnar smiled evilly. “Is she, now? Hmmm.”

Karina had been barely listening to the conversation or even paying attention to the woman on the screen until Megg so casually mentioned the destruction of Earth. She couldn’t believe that anyone would destroy a planet without thought for its inhabitants. She glared at Megg. “You destroyed life on Earth?”

Megg didn’t even have the decency to be embarrassed. “Well, of course I did. We couldn’t allow the Earthlings to spread out into the galaxy.”

“We?” Karina grated.

“The Stelairians,” Megg clarified, “decided it was prudent to end our experiment on Earth. We created the Earthlings, and it was our duty to exterminate them if the experiment failed. Since the Earthlings’ DNA did not evolve as expected, it was necessary to terminate them.”

Karina felt faint. “I’m an experiment?” She stared in horror at Megg, belatedly recognizing her as one of the aliens from her UFO encounter. “You! You tried to abduct me back on Earth! Why?”

Megg looked at Karina intently, then laughed as she realized that this was the Earthling who Luvian had allowed to escape. She turned her attention back to Agnar, ignoring Karina’s question. “Watch out for this one, Agnar. She reacts violently when cornered.”

Agnar looked at Karina strangely before turning back to Megg. “Megg, it’s good to see you. I just wanted to let you know I’ve returned to Yalsa. If you would like to visit, you know where to find me.” He glanced at Karina’s white face. “I think I’ll make my guests comfortable now.”

Karina clenched her fists in anger and glared at Megg, barraging her with questions. “So because I’m an experiment, you don’t feel you have to answer my question? Do you think that your supposed superiority gives you the right to determine the fate of what you consider an inferior species? And if you’re so superior, then why did you have to end your experiment with genocide? How can the experiment of such a superior species end in such a spectacular failure, if indeed you are superior?” Karina’s tone became increasingly sarcastic with each sentence. Megg’s face tightened at Karina’s gall.

“I don’t have to justify myself to you, insect. But if you must know, your species learned technology too soon. Their manipulation of their DNA ruined their chances to evolve an immortal soul. Since our goal is to create intelligent species with immortal souls, having an intelligent species evolve only mortal souls or no souls at all falls far beneath the mark. Your species was too violent to allow to live, and so we had to exterminate all of you.” She eyed Karina venomously. “Well, almost all of you.”

Karina’s anger drained as she listened to Megg. She couldn’t deny that soulless humans were dangerous. After all, she had felt justified in killing one of them. But that didn’t justify the destruction of all life on Earth. She resumed the argument with a more subdued tone. “Did you ever consider the other species on Earth? Granted, they weren’t created in your lab, and they were evolving at a slower rate than humans, but while they weren’t yet what you consider to be intelligent life, they had the potential of becoming so. What right did you have to exterminate them, when you weren’t even involved in their creation?”

Megg opened her mouth to retort, but paused as a thought occurred to her. What if a lower species on Earth had the potential to possess immortal souls? They had evolved naturally, without outside help, long before Earthlings were ever introduced on the planet. Could it have been possible for them to have already evolved souls, even immortal ones? She hadn’t even thought to check. Another thought emerged on top of that one, and it made Megg recoil in horror. What if the introduction of Earthlings had obstructed the natural evolution of a native species that would have eventually become intelligent and have immortal souls? Their failed experiment could have destroyed exactly what they had been trying to achieve. She stared at Karina, dumbfounded.

Karina could see that her question bothered Megg. She sat back down on the couch and folded her arms, looking at Megg sadly. Megg was considered a member of an advanced species, but she seemed to make the same mistakes as simpler species. For all Megg’s years and wisdom, it seemed she was just as fallible as the species she created.

Agnar cleared his throat to try and break the tension. Megg turned her attention back to him. “I have to go. Good luck with your charges, Agnar.” She disconnected, and the viewscreen went blank, glowing with a soft white light.

Agnar switched off the viewscreen and turned to the women. “You are free to make yourselves at home, but you will not leave the house nor communicate with anyone beyond these premises,” he ordered. “Do you understand?”

Sharra and Karina muttered their assent, knowing full well they wouldn’t be able to disobey. Agnar pressed a lightpad and waited. A house servant appeared and bowed to Agnar. “Show Sharra to her room and make sure she has everything she needs to be comfortable.” The manservant bowed again and gestured for Sharra to follow him. She went without protest.

Agnar turned his attention to Karina. He softened as she looked up at him with blazing eyes. Although she was under the influence of the halaband, she was still trying to fight. Agnar admired her spirit. She wasn’t at all like the other Earthlings he had met.

Karina grew uncomfortable under Agnar’s scrutinizing gaze. Why did he stare at her like that? She looked away and around the room. It reminded her that she didn’t yet have one of her own. She looked back to Agnar. “And where’s my room?” she demanded.

Agnar had to clear his throat. Something seemed to have caught in it while he was staring at Karina. “I’ll show you to it.” He led her out into the hall and opened the door next to his room. “Here you are.”

Karina entered the simply decorated room. She looked through the wardrobe, discovering it stocked with tasteful clothes. When she turned, Agnar was still standing in the doorway, watching her. “What?” she snapped, exasperated with his attention.

Agnar waited a moment before answering. “Karina, you should be grateful to me for saving your life.”

Karina stared at him incredulously. “Grateful! You’ve abducted me!” she exclaimed. “Why should I be grateful to you for anything?”

“Because if you hadn’t been cryogenically frozen, you wouldn’t have survived the destruction of Earth. If I hadn’t sold those blueprints to that sad little group of men, you wouldn’t be here today.”

Karina narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s true, but we don’t know when that comet hit. I could have lived out my entire life before it ever struck the Earth.”

Agnar laughed outright. “What, in prison? You would have lived and died behind bars. Are you honestly telling me that you would have preferred that to this? Do you really miss the life you left behind?”

Karina gestured around the room and then to her throat. “Well, it seems I’m still a prisoner, even here and now. How is that so different?”

Agnar felt his heart tweak. He had no answer for her. If he took off the halaband, she’d leave, and somehow he couldn’t bear the thought of that. “Sharra is next door to you if you want some company,” was all he replied, and then he sighed, closed the door, and went to the kitchen in search of food.

Karina stared at the door for a moment, pondering. Agnar was a strange man. Shrugging it off, she went to the window and gazed out, watching the sun drop to the horizon. After it set, she lay down on the bed and tried to sleep, ignoring her conflicting thoughts of Agnar. She tossed and turned, and finally fell into a dreamless sleep.

When Karina awoke the next morning, she felt exhausted. She forced herself out of bed and took advantage of the adjoining shower room to bathe and change clothes. Then she went next door in search of Sharra. Sharra had also bathed and changed clothes. She had chosen an elaborate gown, and was sitting on a low bench in front of a mirror, brushing her hair. Karina sat down next to her. “So, what do we do now?”

Sharra stopped brushing her hair and smiled at Karina. “We look for food.”

The thought of a meal made Karina’s stomach grumble. Sharra snickered at her. They left the room and headed down a staircase in search of the kitchen. The house was quiet, and they didn’t encounter anyone. They eventually found the kitchen as well as Agnar, who was passed out with his head on one of the tables. He was snoring softly. Sharra picked up the container from which he had been drinking and delicately sniffed it. She grinned. “I will find some more of this to go along with our meal.” The women tiptoed around the kitchen, helping themselves to whatever food caught their fancy. After searching several cupboards, Sharra found the spirits she was looking for and they left the kitchen quietly. They followed a long hall to a large room with stuffed chairs and small tables. They set out their feast and ate hungrily.

Karina finished first, washing down her meal with the strong drink Sharra had found. She stood up and stretched, then wandered around the room looking at the many knickknacks. On one mantle she came across a thick green bottle decorated with fancy metal designs. Through the glass-like sides she could detect a dark liquid. She grasped the bottle and pulled out the stopper. A rich, heavy, sweetly sour aroma was released. It made her mouth water. She put the bottle to her mouth and took a swig. It was delicious. Her entire mouth tingled, and she could feel the syrupy drink travel down her esophagus. It was heavenly. She took the bottle to Sharra to share.