Alex shrugged. "It just happens. I think it, and I can just...I don't know...take away the power. Or, I can add to it." Again, he flexed his ability, and the EEG bioreader began to beep and quip, the readings fluctuating wildly. "Like breathing. You don't think every breath, but if you concentrate, you can hold it for a while."

"All right! All right, Alex! The machine will explode."

"Sorry, Doc."

He smiled. "No worries. You say you just think think it? Do you get tired when you do it?" it? Do you get tired when you do it?"

"No."

"Not even a bit?"

Alex shook his head.

"Dizzy, like when you hold your breath?" he asked.

"Nah-uh."

"I understand you have not slept in months. Do you feel tired at all?"

"Well, no."

The doctor raised an eyebrow.

Alex explained, "Not sleepy tired, but sometimes I feel a little slow."

"Slow?"

"Like when you haven't eaten in a while. Low energy or something."

"Interesting. Any other side effects you can think of?"

Alex shook his head, while the doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I wonder...but then, it is not my place to delve. They have facilities for this at the station; my colleagues will be eager to begin their studies of you."

Alex sat up as the doctor produced a syringe for taking blood. "Doc," he said hesitantly, and for a moment, the doctor a.s.sumed Alex was nervous about the needle.

"It will only feel like a small pin p.r.i.c.k for a moment," he a.s.sured Alex.

"I'm not afraid of the needle. I just wanted to know... What are they going to do to me?"

The doctor paused a moment, gave-Alex a quizzical look. Then his expression changed to one of amused a.s.surance. "Well, I haven't been told everything, you understand. But I can a.s.sure you that no harm will come to you. Our organization is powerful, but we are not frivolous. There are many things that we do that others might feel threatened, and want to stop us, but everything we do is for the betterment of humankind, ultimately."

"They didn't have to kidnap me-"

"But I'm afraid we did, Alex. You have a power, beyond the manipulation of electricity, which is of vital importance to the world. Your home country, and others, is ill equipped to deal with your potential. There would be disasters, possibly war. Even now, some countries are drawing lines, taking sides.

"We have the facilities to explore and observe, and want no part in Earth's wars; I a.s.sure you, no one will come to any harm, especially you. In this, you must trust me. It is for your own good that we have taken you. In the wrong hands, you could do great harm without wanting to. You don't want to hurt people, do you?"

"No."

"There, you see? Already I have proven that what we are doing is for the greater good."

Alex furrowed his brow, unable to understand the doctor's logic. "But this ship was going to ram the Orcus 1!" Orcus 1!"

"I a.s.sure you, Alex, we would not have done that. You see, none of us wishes for death. The captain would have turned at the last moment."

The doctor leaned forward, his face drawn in concern.

"No, Alex, all we wished to happen was the evacuation of the ship, so that there would be no confrontation. We had expected you to be ejected along with the rest of the crew, but, as it happens, you came out alone, before the others. That made our job easier, and we have avoided hostilities with the NASA ship."

"But..." Alex struggled with the dichotomy of the doctor's argument.

When the needle was injected in his arm, and blood taken, Alex barely registered the pain, his mind was awhirl.

"Done. Moreover, as I promised, it did no hurt so very much. You see I keep to my word. So you must trust me now."

Alex nodded solemnly.

"Well, Alex. You may go now, but my door is always open. If you are confused, or you have questions, you may approach me whenever you feel the need. All right?"

"Okay."

First Mate Chung entered the MER and shot a questioning glance at the doctor.

"All done, First Mate."

"The Captain wishes to receive a full report on your readings, Doctor."

The Doc c.o.c.ked his head to one side. "And he shall have access to all medical findings taken aboard this ship, as is his right; but you know under our contract that information about Alex is top secret. You and your Captain are not privy to our business."

"I don't like this skullduggery, Doctor! And neither does Captain Gruber. Frankly, the money does not seem all that much now, not enough by far for p.i.s.sing off the entire USA Inc."

"Ah, but the discretion lay with you. We would never reveal your partic.i.p.ation in this endeavor, for it would reflect badly upon us. And I'm sure you would keep your own counsel as well. A double indemnity clause, if you will. Now, I'm sure our young ward will be hungry now, and it is almost dinner time."

Alex followed the grumbling First Mate to the mess, and ate his meal in silence, not even bothering to identify the food he shoveled into his mouth.

Everyone was being more than nice and convivial to him, and this disturbed him in a rudimentary way. Not only did he expect to be handled with brutality and callousness, but also he had fully antic.i.p.ated being summarily locked away. Was the doctor telling the truth, in that this mysterious organization had kidnapped him because they saw no other way to keep him from using his powers against others? For the betterment of humankind?

And what about the powers that so concerned the doctor? Besides being able to freeze or bolster existing electrical pulses, something which Alex could find no great use for except being able to use computer without a thoughtlink patch, or fool EEG machines, the other ability he had was seeing beyond his range of vision. How could either possibly harm anybody?

As nice as everybody was, Alex was determined not to let them win his trust. They were kidnappers, right or wrong, and he did not like that.

He planned carefully what he was going to do.

Pirate Ship : Sol System :

Alex spent the next two weeks in a state of futility. The crew's apparent apathy toward him provided him with no opportunities to question them, or innocently overhear conversations-the ones in English-that could have given him a clue who these people really were and what their purpose was in kidnapping him. the next two weeks in a state of futility. The crew's apparent apathy toward him provided him with no opportunities to question them, or innocently overhear conversations-the ones in English-that could have given him a clue who these people really were and what their purpose was in kidnapping him.

The rules stated that he was not to enter the recreation room when the crew was off duty. Alex kept to his room, and only wandering the small area of the ship where he was allowed to be.

He was able to raid the ship's computer files, but besides technical jargon and schematics of the ship, and routine logs and reports, he found no information about the organization that had taken such an acute interest in him. If Alex had not known better, he would have sworn they knew about his ability to go into computer files from a distance, and had taken steps to erase any trace or record of themselves.

The only break in Alex's monotony was his daily physical examination with the Doc. He was a jovial man, and Alex enjoyed his company, although the Doc was the enemy. Alex quickly realized that the Doc was himself digging for information about Alex, dropping casual questions that seemed innocent enough.

How far away can you control an electronic device? What do you do all night while you are awake? Do you never get sleepy? What do you think about? Can you tell me if you have dreams? Not even waking dreams? Do you still feel fatigued? Any other symptoms?

Two thoughts occurred to Alex: first, this organization, while they knew more about him than anyone else on Earth knew, still had many gaps in their database.

For instance, they had information about his ability to manipulate electricity, and to cause computer files and programs to activate without physically touching the keyboard. For some reason, they thought this power to be singularly dangerous.

However, they had no idea about his ability to see beyond himself, to see outside the ship, and into the vast reaches of local s.p.a.ce. He decided to keep this a secret; how it was going to help him, he had no idea, but if he had something they did not know about, it meant that he retained a certain amount of power over them.

The second thing that Alex spent many a night pondering was the ambiguous nature of the enemy. The captain and crew, although they had actively kidnapped him, and broke several laws in doing so, beheld Alex with total disregard. He had expected them to be mean, callous, and to go out of their way to cause him grief. As long as he did not get underfoot, and obeyed the rules set out by the captain the first day of his capture, the crew completely ignored him. They didn't extend him any courtesies if they didn't have to; but neither did they seek to harm him. He was a pa.s.senger, little more.

Then there was the Doc, who genuinely seemed to like Alex, although he was Alex's captor, and obviously had an agenda he had not openly revealed to his patient.

It made thinking of them as the enemy that much more difficult; but to think of them of such, he was determined.

Perhaps it was easy to think they could fool a young boy; but Alex was no ordinary boy concerned with play. His parents had been a.s.siduous in ensuring Alex's education, and awareness of the world outside his family. There was always time for play, but after the lessons, although Alex often cheated and played first.

Now was not a time for play.

He decided he was not going to learn anything significant until they reached their destination, so every night when he was alone in his small room, laying back on the lumpy mattress with his eyes closed, he floated outside himself, outside the ship, to check their progress.

Alex wondered how they were going to circ.u.mvent the radar monitoring orbitals every country corporation used to control and check the flow of Earth-bound and s.p.a.ce-bound flights. Anything larger than a two-meter meteorite was logged and traced. Surely, Alex's kidnapping had been reported to all countries concerned with the Orcus project; and knowing the Earth Mesh grapevine, word would have leaked out. NASA would approach the United Earth Corporate and demand a strict traffic watch for any ship approaching Earth in the time window they calculated the kidnappers would return there.

It was a few days before final approach, as Alex learned from the Doc, so he would have to wait and see until then, as the Doc, when questioned, smiled and refused to reveal the captain's plan.

Two days before the ship would reach Earth, Alex, using his extrasensory sight to watch the Earth becoming larger and larger against the backdrop of the immense starfield of s.p.a.ce, was taken by a strange feeling. It was more of a certainty, an intuition.

Suddenly, he knew deep within himself-as a.s.suredly as he knew his own name-that the ship was on a course that would take them past the Earth.

He thought back and recalled that not once had anyone said that their destination was Earth. Even when he had a.s.sumed it was so, and mentioned it, the doctor had not corrected him.

In his field of extras.p.a.cial vision, he saw the moon appearing from behind the horizon of the Earth.

Luna Station.

An independent port, owned by all, but accountable to none.

The perfect hiding place.

Quantum Resources, Inc. : Toronto : Canada Corp.:

Calbert Loche knocked tentatively on the Director's office door. tentatively on the Director's office door.

When Michael looked up, Calbert raised his eyebrows, silently asking permission to enter. The Director nodded, waving his loyal a.s.sistant in, and leaned back into his leather chair, rubbing the glare of the DMR cas.e.m.e.nt from his eyes.

It had been a long morning. So far, there had been no developments in the hunt for Alex Manez, and no clues to the mysteries of Dis Pater Dis Pater or Element X. or Element X.

However, there had been a deluge of meshmail requests from various news agencies and mesh newsletter groups requesting information. As part of Quantum Resources public relations campaign, Michael had decided to offer full disclosure on any information the governments of Canada Corp. and USA, Inc. had de-cla.s.sified; as well as any "non-sensitive" information Quantum Resources itself developed, releasing this information after it had been confirmed.

The information pirates and leftist groups that monitored NASA (as if that agency were run by malevolent forces) attacked Quantum Resource's computers with a pa.s.sion that frankly shocked Michael. He thanked his lucky stars for Calbert Loche, who implemented his philosophy of clean computers. The research machines had no possible access to any mesh account, and no company secrets could be saved on any computer that had an Earth Mesh connection. Outside correspondence was done on separate computers-dumb terminals only.

Michael could imagine what would happen if any information on Element X was leaked. The mesh tabloids had had a field day on the subject of Dis Pater Dis Pater, that find being decla.s.sified by NASA within hours of discovery, but the farcical stories those rags generated had no end.

It never ceased to amaze him how some groups obtained their information, and how much of it they managed to acquire. Their accuracy was as alarming as their theories were ludicrous. They spread was enough misinformation to keep the ma.s.ses on the edge of doubt.

Since Michael had little function outside of administration matters until there were any developments, he took it upon himself to deal with the news agencies and mesh groups. If nothing else, it reminded him how important it was not to let himself be swayed by the tabloid stories and opinion columns.

As the one with the facts, he could check them against the accounts generated by sub-news groups. The tabloids fell short every time. Opinion columns sometimes had a few informed partic.i.p.ants, but most entries came from lonely, bored, or deranged people who had nothing better to do.

He looked up at his aide.

"Tough day?" Calbert inquired politely.

"Yeah. It never ends."

"Uphill battle?"

"Something like that." Michael nodded.

Calbert smiled. "-both ways?"

That elicited a chuckle from Michael. He saw Calbert was holding a duo-tang. "What have you got for me?"

Calbert lifted the duo-tang, glanced at the cover. "Preliminary Budget for the Fiscal Year 2092-Quantum Resources, Inc." He made a sour face. "It reads like award-winning fiction; only the writer can understand what the h.e.l.l it says."

They shared a small laugh.

Lifting his eyebrows, Calbert said, "No, I came by to tell you we've downloaded the preliminary investigation report from NASA on the Orcus 1 Orcus 1 incident." incident."

"Incident?"