It was a transmission only seen and heard in a very few places, a subspace broadcast that was only sent in desperation by the man who made it -- a man whose face appeared on the blurry video to be that of one in his late thirties, sandy-haired and handsome despite a rather haggard look obviously born of much recent hardship and turmoil. What could be seen of his clothing, a white coverall garment of a material resembling vinyl, was torn and shredded in several places. His grey eyes narrowed with intensity as he spoke the following:
“This is Agent Lewis Day of the United Earth Space Security Agency, broadcasting from the planet Carrollon concerning our investigation into the mysterious activity rumoured to be occurring here. I have not been able to make a transmission until now. My fellow agents, Twain and Alger, are dead; killed by contact with the poisonous plant-life that infests this planet. Also, at this moment I am being pursued by something far worse, something not native to this world and far more deadly than anything even this jungle hellhole could engender. It is an alien force that is behind the disturbances here. We managed to uncover an entire fleet of spaceships on this planet and our scan identified them as being Mynverkossian. I repeat: We have uncovered an entire fleet of Mynverkossian spaceships entrenched upon the planet Carrollon. They are preparing an invasion! From the intelligence our scans intercepted it appears they are planning to take the fleet to Earth, and may already have spies within the Solar System! It appears that they have invented some sort of secret weapon that they feel will assure their conquest! Repeat: The Mynverkossians are preparing an invasion of Earth! They have detected my presence here and are pursuing me. I will not be able to evade them much longer. Please… please tell my wife and our little girl that I love them both. I wish I could…”
The man’s voice trailed off and his stalwart expression fell somewhat at what he saw. He swallowed the fear down hard and recovered his voice.
“They’ve found me,” he continued. “The Mynverkossian Mutations have found me. Anyone who receives this, please warn Earth! Please inform the Agency and our government officials! It is vital that we are prepared against… !”
His voice was then drowned out by another; an harsh, distorted voice that intoned one horrendously dreadful word:
“ELIMINATE!”
There was a flash of energy, a crimson-red glare of death that surrounded Agent Lewis Day. He convulsed in agony before crumpling lifelessly to the ground.
With this, the transmission ended. …
My name is RUMANOS -- DOCTOR DANIEL RUMANOS, Extraterrestrial Espionage Agent and Intergalactic Man of Mystery. Even though I have the physical appearance of an human being, I am in fact several thousands of years old and do carry within my blood the vastly superior genes of the legendary Watchers of the Daemon-Star ALGOL -- the most intellectually-advanced race in all of the known galaxies, whose technology is so sophisticated it often appears to be “miraculous” to lesser beings.
Whilst most Algolites live in elitist seclusion from the rest of the Universe, I am an Operative for a secret organisation known as the KOSMIKOS or Cosmic Intervention Department, tasked with maintaining peace and order throughout the farthest reaches of Space and Time. “Plausible deniability”, and all that.
Currently assigned to Planet Earth, I protect its people from the hideous manipulations of the arch-villain known as Magister Don Wingus, as well as alien invasions, mad scientists, and indeed all manner of menace. I am the living icon of Algol upon this world. I am the sword of justice from the planet Daemonia.
I am -- THE DAEMON-STAR!!! …
In the luxury hotel suite was heard a strange moaning, gasping sound as an unusual object appeared there. The object resembled an old “Roman column” but was actually much, much more; for this object was none other than a DiTraS (pronounced “DYE-tress”) or Dimensional Transport Sphere, an amazingly-advanced Space and Time travel machine created of a technology only available to the Watchers of Algol.
From within the DiTraS (the interior of which exists in another dimension and is of immense size) I stood before the control panel, which was made to resemble the counter of an old-style diner or coffee shop. I was dressed in my usual finery, including a frilled poet shirt and a purple velvet dinner jacket.
I adjusted the controls, which appear as a series of multicoloured lights and shapes upon the counter, and a large video monitor screen appeared above me. The screen showed the outside of the DiTraS.
“Ah! So it is a Space hotel,” I said to myself, then reading the date displayed at the corner of the screen. “25 April, 3000 AD. Not a bad time. By now, the human race has made peace amongst itself and Earth is one great Free-World government. There are occasional disputes with some of the other species of the Solar System, but nothing of any major threat. According to the archives in the Daemonian Library, humans have by this time actually explored a sizeable portion of the Galaxy, utilising further modification of the ‘Space-Warp’ technology that was invented centuries before. Now, why has the Kosmikos sent me here?”
Indeed, my assignment for the Kosmikos or Cosmic Intervention Department had given very little information, being as it was just a psychic summons to enter the DiTraS (this interrupting a brief holiday that I was enjoying with a couple of beautiful young girls in Atlantic City, this in the days before I met my wonderful Millie Drake) with the order to properly deal with the situation that would then be revealed to me. The controls had been set remotely from Kosmikos HQ on Daemonia, and this is where it had taken me -- to an Outer Space hotel circling Earth far beyond the orbit of the Moon.
Deciding there was no time to waste, I exited the DiTraS through the porthole-type doorway that appeared before me. I found myself in the hotel bedroom and heard a yelp of surprise as someone entered the room from behind me.
When I turned around I saw whom it was: a pretty girl of perhaps twelve or thirteen years. She was petite and perfect, with lovely auburn hair and mist-grey eyes. Her skin was of the purest white, and her lips were like lusciously-ripe cherries. She was dressed in a thin, nearly-transparent cream-coloured nightgown that only went down to just below her hips, showing her gorgeously-slender legs. On her feet was a pair of fuzzy pink slippers.
“Who are you?” she enquired. “How’d you get in here?”
“Please do not be afraid, Miss,” I returned. “My name is Dr. Daniel Rumanos, and I am an operative for a certain agency that…”
“Oh, I understand!” she interrupted. “You’re from where my dad works. He’s been missing, and I did hope they would send someone. My mom went out a while ago to try and get a meeting with one of the agents. Did she send you here to talk to me?”
I decided it was best to let the wee lass think that to be the case.
“Hey, what’s that?” she queried, pointing to the DiTraS.
“Oh, that is my transport device,” I explained. “It is in disguise.”
“Of course,” she giggled, her smile highlighting the true beauty of her young and innocent face.
“So, you say your father is missing?” I asked her. “Well, I promise I shall do my best to find him, Miss… ?”
“Oh, I forget to tell you my name. To be sure, you know,” she answered blushingly. “I’m Alice. Alice Day.” …
At that same time, so many light-years away, a small Space-going shuttlecraft entered the thick atmosphere of the planet Carrollon. It was of a recent make and design, but from it all insignia and identification markings had been removed. The craft landed silently in the steaming-hot jungle that covers the planet.
An hatchway soon opened in the side of the shuttle, allowing its one occupant to emerge. It was a tall, very heavy-set man dressed in a colourless robe-like garment. He was bald-headed and full-featured, and the slightly orange hue of his skin showed that he had some Jupiterian ancestry despite his obvious Earth-origin.
The man waited impatiently whilst several other beings emerged from the cover of the jungle. They were about the size of an human torso, but that is where their resemblance to any sane creation ended. They hovered about a metre from the ground, and each of them was made up of a mass of quivering sallow tentacles intertwined with strands of metallic material. From deep within each of them, two ebon-black, narrow eyes glowered hatefully.
“We are the Mynver,” announced the first of them, its voice an harsh, grating, electronically-enhanced noise. “You are Hadd Mettar, President of United Earth?”
“Yes, I am,” answered the man, “and I have brought the shipment of the Liddellium element, as per our deal.”
“That is good,” returned the Mynverkossian Mutation. “The element will be used as planned, to energise our Time Destroyer, that we may use it in our invasion of Earth.”
“And you will keep your side of the bargain?” queried Hadd Mettar. “You will keep me in place as President? "
“Yes. The people of Earth will not be eliminated. They will be made slaves to the Mynver under your continued guidance. However, all humans elsewhere throughout the Galaxy will be eliminated.”
“That is fine,” stated the President. “I have always opposed having people spread out across Space. It makes them impossible to control.”
“A place has been prepared for you here,” continued the Mynver, its horrid voice gradually rising in volume and intensity. “You will be kept safe until we return you to Earth following our conquest. Our ships are ready, and the Time Destroyer will soon be armed with the Liddellium you have provided. It will be used to return the technology of your planet to a more primitive stage, so that there can be no possible resistance to us. Then we, the Mynver, shall prove to all that we are truly the supreme race of all the Universe!” …
I had taken Miss Alice Day aboard the DiTraS and, after a brief and simplified explanation of the inter-dimensional engineering of my ship, had set about attempting to find anything that could be evidence concerning the facts of her father’s disappearance. I set the computer for a search of all audio and video transmissions containing the words “Agent Lewis Day”, an attempt that soon resulted in the message that he had sent via subspace appearing in the results. I put the file on the main monitor screen and we began to watch it.
“That’s him!” exclaimed Alice. “That’s my dad!”
At first rather delighted to see evidence of her father being presumably safe, the girl grew less hopeful as she realised the distress with which he was suffering. She was trembling as her hand sought mine.
Whilst I listened to Agent Day’s account of what he had discovered, a feeling of dread entered my mind. Realising what it was inevitably leading to, I reached my free hand into the pocket of my jacket in which I keep the transonic turnscrew (an highly-advanced scientific instrument about the size of a writing pen). I quickly activated the transonic to stop the transmission before little Alice could see what I knew would be the fate of her father.
“What happened?” enquired the girl when the monitor screen went blank.
“I do not know, love,” I lied. “Perhaps his transmission equipment was damaged by the humidity of that planet.”
“Oh, I hope he’s all right!” cried Alice. “What was that he was talking about? A fleet of spaceships belonging to what?”
“The Mutations of Mynverkoss,” I explained. “They are a species whose planet was devastated by generations of nuclear war, resulting in them becoming creatures of pure hate; grotesque fascist mutants that seek to conquer the Universe itself by completely eliminating all other beings.”
“But… can they be stopped? And can we find my dad?”
“I promise to do all I can, love,” I assured the maiden. “I have fought the Mynver before. However, I must find out more of what exactly their plans may be. They would not suddenly invade Earth unless they had a definite strategy; some specific tactic or device that they believe will assure their success…”
I was then suddenly interrupted by the moaning, gasping sound of the DiTraS engines starting up.
“Spires of Daemonia!” I swore. “We are dematerialising! I did not set the controls, and they are not being remote commanded by the Kosmikos!”
“So what’s happening, Doctor?” enquired Alice.
“It appears that someone or something has attached itself to the ship’s Time/Space engine system,” I explained. “They must have been lurking near by when I left Earth, and followed me here. Now they have managed to reverse control and are dragging us through the Time Current! But to where?!”
I attempted adjusting the controls, but could not so easily manage to break the outside influence.
“In order to get free, I would have to reboot the entire system, which is much too dangerous when we are within the Current,” I continued. “Only Algolite technology could have such an influence, and the only individual I know who would be likely to so misuse our technology is… No, it could not be…!”
The sound of the DiTraS’s materialisation sequence then echoed through the control room.
“Have we landed?” asked the girl.
“It appears we have materialised, yes,” I answered. “Let me check the guidance banks to see if I can ascertain where we are. Ah! We have arrived on Edalpo, a desert planet orbiting an unnamed dwarf star some thousand or so light-years from Earth. Well, we are still in the 31st Century, anyway.”
The monitor screen showed the sand and rock-filled wasteland of this world, and its hot red sun burning in its eternally-rainless sky.
“What can we do, Doctor?” queried the lass. “Can we go out and see who it was?”
“I suppose we will have to,” I said. “It would be too dangerous for me to leave you alone in the DiTraS as long as there is the possibility of the ship leaving without me. So come along, Alice, but stay close to me. We do not know what dangers we will be facing!”
Alice and I exited the DiTraS, the girl holding my hand. I was impressed with her courage. I have so often found that the best in the human race is to be seen in its young people, especially the most innocent of them. It is often only experience and hardship that breeds cowardice and fear, despite what some philosophies would lead us to believe.
The air of Edalpo was dry and the temperature was not as hot as I had expected, most likely due to the rarefied atmosphere. There were only a few scrubby growths of bush-like plants to show than life existed at all on this barren world.
Then, stepping out from behind the concealment of a large boulder just a few metres distant was the figure of a man. He was dressed in a shiny-black suit that appeared to be of Victorian-era style. His face was of one of middle years, strong and distinguished despite being marked with the obvious effects of lifetimes of unspeakably profligate evil. His hair was long and dark, and his visage was decorated with a thin moustache and goatee. Most of all, his pale eyes shone with a wickedly hypnotic glow. It was a countenance of pure and unadulterated iniquity, forsooth that of one whom I had hoped and prayed to never have to deal with again.
“Hello, Rumanos, and your latest preteen plus-one,” he smirked, his voice dripping with authoritarian arrogance. “I hope you enjoyed the ride.”
It was Don Wingus!!
“You!” I exclaimed. “I should have known. So you did escape from the Warfox.”
(When I had last encountered the evil Don Wingus, in a century long before the one with which I was currently involved, he had disappeared after failing in his attempt to start World War III by firing off a rocket programmed to hit the White House -- this being a plot by which he had planned to take over Earth amongst the ensuing chaos, setting himself up as supreme ruler and unchallenged dictator.)
“Oh indeed I did,” answered Wingus with a wicked chuckle. “But I was there when that missile fired, there right below the blast of its searing-hot rocket fuel.”
“So, how did you survive?” I enquired. “Also, how did you follow me here to the 31st Century, and manage to latch onto my DiTraS engines for long enough to bring us all to this desert world?”
“With this,” he retorted, rolling up a sleeve of his suit just enough to reveal a golden bracelet-like object upon his wrist.
“Your old Time Bracelet?” I exclaimed. “Ah, I see! You managed to temporarily reactivate it by utilising the energy from the rocket blast!”
“Indeed I did, Rumanos,” he boasted, “and then I waited from within the Time Current to attach onto the first DiTraS engine that came along; which happened, of course, to be yours. When you materialised again, I stayed just outside of your reality while reprogramming your controls via the psychic link.”
“Doctor, who is this person?” asked Alice.
“Oh, forgive me for not introducing you,” I apologised. “Miss Alice Day, meet my old friend and most bitter enemy, the one who likes to be known as ‘Magister Don Wingus’ -- though he has been known and abhorred by many other names, including SATAN in some places.”
With this, the poor damsel trembled with a wave of fear and stepped closer to me.
“So, what are your plans now, Wingus, old chap?” I enquired of him. “Just to stand here forever and bore us all to death?”
“Not quite, Rumanos,” he returned. “You see, when I was attached to your ship’s control system I did something else as well. I contacted the Mynverkossian forces currently hidden on the planet Carrollon and informed them as to your location!”
At that same moment, as the evil Wingus made his revelation, there was a sound louder than thunder. I looked upwards and beheld what had caused it. It had been the sound of several disc-shaped Mynverkossian spaceships entering the atmosphere of Edalpo!
Do you recognise the supreme unadulterated terror of this situation? The hideous Mutations had been apprised of my presence and were here in force against me!
I had to act quickly, as the ships were descending and would be landing within moments. I took the transonic turnscrew from my pocket and pointed it to-wards Don Wingus. There was a flash as of an electric spark from the Time Bracelet on his wrist. It caught fire and he hastily moved to remove it before the flame could spread to his clothing.
Whilst Wingus was thus occupied, Alice and I ran back to the DiTraS. I quickly closed the entrance porthole behind us and engaged the engines. …
Outside, Don Wingus blanched as he heard the DiTraS engines start up and saw the ship fade away from view. He had not had a further chance to react to this when he heard another sound, that of the Mynver spaceships reversing their own engines. He glanced upwards just in time to view them disappearing from the skies of the desert planet.
“No! Nonononononono!!” shouted Don Wingus in desperation. “Rumanos has permanently disabled my Time Bracelet! I am marooned! Marooned here on this wretched wasteland of a world!” …
On board the DiTraS, I was standing at the controls.
“We have managed to enter the Time Current,” I announced to Alice. “We can only hope that Wingus’s activities have not done any serious damage to the systems.”
“Doctor, will you tell me something?” enquired the girl quietly.
“Of course, love,” I replied. “What did you want to know?”
“Those things, the aliens you call the Mutations. They… They killed my dad, didn’t they?”
“I’m afraid so, Alice,” I confessed. “I am so very sorry.”
With this, the poor wee lass burst into tears and ran into my arms.
“I think I know how you feel, love,” I said quietly as the little lady cried in my embrace. “I had a family once, a long time ago. They…”
I had hoped to give her some further words of consolation, just to let her know that I understood the pain that she was experiencing and that I would do all I could to be certain that her father had not died in vain, when something further occurred. The DiTraS suddenly lurched and shook severely. I had to grab a hold of the control console with one hand to keep the girl and myself from losing our footing.
“What on Daemonia is that?” I exclaimed. “It feels like we are being hit by firepower!”
I switched on the monitor screen and saw what it was. Behind us, racing through the eldritch clouds of the Current, were the Mynver spaceships; and they were firing a barrage of crimson-red energy bolts directly at us!
“Incredible!” I said. “They Mynver have developed the ability to enter the Time Current! By the Three Stars, this changes things!”
The interior of the DiTraS continued to shake and rattle, and I held tightly to the damsel to prevent her from being hurt.
“Doctor!” she shouted over the din. “What can you do?”
“The DiTraS was already weakened by the interference that Don Wingus perpetrated,” I returned. “The shields cannot take the pummelling. What is more, this is actually a scientific research vessel, not a warship, so we cannot fire back at them. There is only one way. I need to lock in the coordinates for Carrollon and let us crash-land there!”
I hastily made the necessary adjustments upon the control panel.
“I am also shutting down all unnecessary systems in order to reroute needed power to the temporal landing gear,” I continued. “It is going to be rough, Alice, so I need you to trust me with something.”
“Of course, Doctor!” rejoined the girl. “I trust you. What do you need me to do?”
"The Time/Space crash will be more than an human body can endure,” I explained to her. “I need to give you a dosage of Algolitish DNA. It will strengthen you long enough to survive the landing.”
“All right,” she agreed. “But how do we do that?”
“Well,” I said, “like this.”
I pulled the girl to me an kissed her fully and deeply on her luscious cherry-red lips, pressing myself hard against her firm young figure. She submitted without any show of resistance, putting her arms around my neck and accepting my embrace with an obvious show of pleasure.
As the DiTraS gave a final lurch and began to fall to-wards its inevitable collision with the surface of the planet known as Carrollon, Alice Day and I sank down to the floor in our continued embrace. We were going down!! …
It was dark and silent in the DiTraS. I reached over to the console and reactivated the lighting.
Alice was sleeping quietly on the floor next to me. There was a slight smile on her face. I touched her shoulder.
“Wakey wakey, Little Alice,” I teased.
The girl gave a muffled moan that sounded like the echo of a cry of ecstasy. She opened her beautiful eyes and licked her lips.
“Mmmmm,” she said. “That taste. It’s like…”
“Ambrosia,” I answered. “The nectar of the gods. That is where the myth comes from. It is the remnant of the Algolite DNA you received from me.”
“So we made it, Doctor?” she enquired as I helped her to her feet.
“Indeed we did,” I informed, checking the readings upon the control board. “We are on the planet Carrollon. The infusion I gave you should last long enough to protect you from any harmful effects of the poisonous plant life here, so it should be safe to explore, as far as that is concerned. With the Mynver now having inter-dimensional capabilities, it is still too dangerous to leave you alone in the DiTraS.”
Alice and I exited the DiTraS and found ourselves in the middle of the hot, steaming jungle for which Carrollon is famed. The bizarrely shaped, strangely-coloured plant life surrounded us on all sides of the clearing in which the DiTraS had materialised.
Before we could explore much, a man stepped out from the jungle. He was large and dressed in a ceremonial type of robe. He was bald-headed and his skin showed a somewhat orange hue.
“That’s President Mettar!” exclaimed Alice in surprise.
“The young person is correct,” announced the man. “I am indeed Hadd Mettar, President of United Earth. You would be Dr. Daniel Rumanos, I presume?”
“Indeed I am, sir,” I affirmed. “What exactly is the Earth President doing on the planet Carrollon, a world now known to be the headquarters of a alien invasion force poised to attack the very civilisation that you are sworn to serve and protect?”
“I have made an agreement with the Mynver that will assure my continued ability to do just that,” claimed Mettar. “They have promised to spare the lives of the human race so long as service is rendered to the Mynver as governmental overlords. I will continue on as President for life, with the powers of my office increased.”
“You are a traitor, sir!” I charged him. “You have sold out the planet, the human race, to a fascist alien power that sees them as nothing but an infection to be eliminated! Moreover, why have you done this? For political power! Nevertheless, it shall not be!”
“Now, do not attempt any show of heroics, Dr. Rumanos,” retorted Mettar. “The Mynver have developed a weapon that will assure their domination of Earth, and ultimately of the entire Universe. It is the Time Destroyer!”
“That is impossible,” I returned. “In order to power such a device would require… Oy vey! You sold them Liddellium as part of your deal, hmmm? That horrifyingly-dangerous element, only found on a very few of the asteroids that orbit between Mars and Jupiter. It is like a form of super-Uranium, a sextillion times more powerful than Plutonium!”
“Some stores of it have been secretly kept by the Earth government for decades, in case of war. As President, I was one of the very few who even knew of it.”
It was then that the very object of which we were speaking came into view. It was hovering far above us in the sky, an huge spherical weapon at least a full five kilometres in circumference. It was flanked on all sides by Mynverkossian spaceships.
“The Time Destroyer,” announced President Mettar. “The very thing that shall assure that my great and unmatched wisdom will continue to govern Earth!”
“You sold Earth to the things that killed my dad!” screamed Alice Day. “You are a traitor to us all!”
“I will have no insubordination from you, child,” sneered Mettar, “nor from any part of humanity. I am President Hadd Mettar, and this is how I deal with unruly subjects.”
As I stood in absolute horror, before I could react, Mettar pulled a disintegrator gun and fired upon little Alice Day. Her body simply vanished, blinked out of existence by the yellow energy blast of the weapon.
“Alice!” I cried. “No!!”
I charged upon Mettar before he could level his gun at me, giving him a Daemonian jujitsu blow that sent him hurtling out of the clearing into the jungle brush.
I looked around in anguish. It was so difficult to believe that Alice Day, that beautiful young girl with whom I had already shared a number of amazing adventures, was gone. I then caught a glimpse of several Mynverkossian Mutations approaching through the brush, and I quickly retreated into the DiTraS, closing and locking the porthole behind me. …
President Hadd Mettar had regained his footing and was fleeing through the jungle away from me. In his haste, he stumbled into a large, sickly-hued plant. His body was immediately covered with a viscous poison that spouted from the vegetable. At the same time, the approaching Mynver located him.
“Help me,” pleaded Mettar. “You must have some cure for this poison. I feel it eating away my body. It will only be moments. Please… help me!”
“Your services are no longer required,” announced the lead Mynver. “You are weak, as are all life forms other than us. You will be eliminated, as we will eliminate all the people of Earth. ELIMINATE!”
The Mynver then activated its crimson-red energy weaponry, engulfing what was left of Hadd Mettar, silencing the traitorous politician forever. …
On board the DiTraS I watched this scene on the monitor whilst adjusting the controls and entering the Current.
“There is one chance,” I said to myself. “One chance to stop the Mynver. If I can attach the psychic circuitry of the DiTraS to the Time Destroyer, I just may be able to… Ah! Yes!!”
I concentrated deeply, linking my mind through the DiTraS systems. I saw the interior of the Time Destroyer, the horrid device that could assure the fascist Mynver domination of all Time and Space. …
In the skies over the planet Carrollon, there was an explosion. It was an explosion of an intensity that could only be matched by the powers of divinity. It was the end of the Time Destroyer, and it took with it the entire Mynver fleet and all of their forces. In a time less than nothing, all traces of the fascist threat --forsooth, the threat that so menaced all of Creation -- were no more. It was, in truth, literally as if it had never existed. …
I wiped the perspiration from my face with a large canary-coloured handkerchief. I looked up at the DiTraS monitor screen and saw that the Mynver, and their horrible Time Destroyer, were gone forever.
“Gone forever,” I said. “Gone forever.”
None the less, there was something else much more on my mind; something else I had attempted when in psychic contact with the Time Destroyer device.
“If I managed to change events in recent history,” I continued. “If I did it just right, then maybe she is not gone forever! Just this once; just this once, by the Stellar Trinity, let it be!”
I programmed the monitor to access the security camera of one of my previous locations.
“I hope it has not been too long since I was there for me to access it and see. I know she probably will have no memory of me, but that is not what is important. I just must know if it worked. I must know if she is…”
It was then that the scene I had most hoped and prayed to behold came upon the view screen.
“It worked!” I shouted. “It worked! Recent events were changed, and she is alive! Alice is alive!!”
On the screen, I saw little Alice Day back in her hotel room. The door opened and a woman entered, a woman of about thirty. Her face and hair made her look like a more mature version of Alice.
“Mom!” exclaimed the girl. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re back!”
“So am I, Alice,” said the woman, “and look who I’ve brought with me!”
With this, Agent Lewis Day came out from the corridor where he had been playfully hiding.
“Dad!” shouted Alice in absolute delight as she ran into her father‘s embrace, “Oh, Dad, I’m so glad you’re all right!”
“I am, dear,” answered Lewis Day, “That last assignment turned out to be nothing, and now I have some really good news. We aren’t going to be apart as much anymore. As I’m sure you’ve heard, President Mettar sadly died when his private shuttle collided with an asteroid. The new President has made some changes to the Space Security Agency. As part of this, the Agency has reassigned me to a permanent executive position on Earth. We are going home!”
“Oh, Dad, that’s so great!” replied the girl.
“Now, we need to get our things packed and catch the next ship to Earth, Alice,” added Mrs. Day. “So hurry, all right?”
“I will. It’s just that I… I…”
“What is it, dear?” said her dad. “Your eyes make it look like your thoughts are of something so far away.”
“It’s nothing, I guess,” answered the lovely little lass. “It’s just like that just for a second I thought I had forgotten something… or someone. Someone… someone wonderful.” …
I shut off the monitor. I realised that the lives of this happy family were not mine to view. Nevertheless, I could not help thinking one thought as I programmed the DiTraS with the coordinates to take me back to Atlantic City.
“I shall miss you, Alice Day,” said I, wiping a tear from my eye. “I shall miss you.”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
