"Not yet. I think their plan can work. I'll do my part."

When he began heading toward the complex once more, she followed as she questioned, "Your part?"

"I'm supplying the lasers and chemicals needed for their mission, when they get around to ordering them and informing me.

She stopped in her tracks. "You?"

He halted, too. "Yes, me, Jana. Some of them only I possess."

Was that, she wondered, why "Ryker" must be kept alive? "You will cooperate, won't you?"

He sent her a smile of encouragement and promise. "Of course, my frantic wife. I already have everything ready for pickup."

"When will they come for it?"

"In three of your Earth weeks."

"We will be back from our trip by then?"

"Yes, so relax. The rogue is being watched carefully this minute. Star Fleet is ready to move against it if anything changes. As soon as Varian handles his private life, he'll be on his way."

You mean handles Maal and the chemicals, she concluded, but said, "After his marriage to Canissia?"

"Yes."

Canissia and her father-Supreme Councilman Segall Garthon, one of the three most powerful men in the Maffei Alliance-guilty of pa.s.sing Alliance secrets to Ryker Triloni ... Varian would deal with that discovery when he completed his current a.s.signment. If she had guessed his motives right, much was at stake. She mustn't do anything to disrupt his crucial task. "How can marrying that b.i.t.c.h from h.e.l.l be more important than saving a whole planet of people, and possibly the Milky Way Galaxy? You did say shock waves could threaten here, so why wait to attack it? Why are they wasting valuable time?"

"From what I've gathered, they have the mission timed perfectly. They can't begin their a.s.sault until it reaches a certain point for safe destruction, between your fifth and sixth planets: Jupiter and Saturn."

"May I ask a favor of you?" She glued her gaze to his. "Can you use your contacts to get your hands on a list of the people on the Anais Colony?"

"I think so. Why do you want to know?"

"Varian promised to rescue my best friend, Andrea McKay. Can you find out if she's there? And if so, is there any way to..."

"To what, Jana? Bring her here to live with us?"

"Is that asking too much? We've been best friends since age twelve. I was going to her home when I was captured. She must be worried sick about what happened to me and, if she's there, she must be terrified. Perhaps it's selfish to think of only one person's survival when my entire world is in jeopardy, but I love her. She's like my sister. It would be wonderful to have her close to me. At least, can you arrange for me to visit with her?"

"I can only promise to try, Jana. Anais is off limits to everyone. It was established to safeguard endangered species: plants, animals, and such. No one is supposed to know the Earthlings are there. If your world is saved, they might be returned home. If not, over a period of time and after training, they'll be settled in Maffei. I'm not sure how I can do what you ask without giving away my knowledge and sources, and I can't risk that. But if there's a safe way I can learn anything about her, I will. Perhaps I can get your message to her and her reply back to you. But getting her off Anais won't be easy, if even possible. Then again, I love challenges."

On impulse, she hugged him tightly and thanked him through misty eyes and emotion-strained voice.

He returned the embrace and murmured in a husky tone, "If this is the kind of appreciation I'll receive, I'll do more than my best."

"I know I can depend on you to keep your word."

"I promise to try hard."

Just as you promised the same thing once before, Varian. Perhaps she's already there and you just refuse to expose yourself by telling me.

Inside the research laboratory, Jana watched him feed the leeches once more. "Why don't you let one of your trained androids do that?"

"Would you want others doing your experiments and research? I think not, Dr. Jana Triloni."

"You're right." When he squirted six cc's of a clear liquid into the dish of blood, she remarked, "Six-my lucky number. Do you have one?"

"I believe a man makes his own good or bad luck."

No slip-up in admitting eight is your lucky number: which is why you paid 8,888,888 katoogas for me through Draco's bid. Try something else, J. G., to trip him up. "What's that drug you're using?"

"Malophine."

"But that's what Tris gave me on the ship to treat my injury."

"Couldn't be. Malophine is an anticoagulate for the blood they're drinking. Dr. Zarcoff probably used Clinitroid on you. It would be his best choice in that instance. Clinitroid extirpates excess fluid and blood from an injury site to reduce swelling and bruising."

"You're right; now I remember. I did several projects with him during my stay on the ship and heard the names of so many unfamiliar chemicals that I forgot its name. I won't make that mistake again. Tris even let me insert a veinal cannula on a sick monkey he was treating."

"Since some of your inoculations didn't take, that was dangerous. You're lucky you stayed well."

"I thought you didn't believe in luck."

"But you do. Would you put this crucible in the sink over there?"

Jana took the container and obeyed. "Do you use a gammacounter?"

"I don't have much need for radioactive tracers and a counting unit."

"What's the half-life of the explosion you mentioned if Darkar is attacked?" she inquired, referring to the time required for half of the atoms in a certain amount of radioactive substance to disintegrate.

"Two thousand years by Earth's reckoning time. But we're safe no matter what happens. We would simply move to Androas."

His intelligence amazed her. Could Varian have learned such things in a short time span? "Do you have to milk the keelar again?" The snake's alien name, as well as other words, had no translation in English or Androasian and came out in Maffeian.

"Not today. It takes him three days to rebuild his supply. Keelars are one of the few species I hate to handle. One shot out of my hand not long ago and latched onto my side until my android Gar pried it loose. Emptied his whole load of venom into me and scarred me for a while."

She observed as he rubbed an area above his waist on his side. Had he noticed her reaction at the pool? "When did you get rid of it? I recall seeing it the day before we married."

"The morning of our marriage. Gar handled the latron beam for it; I programmed him for skill in that area. You're mighty observant, Dr. Triloni. Maybe I should have this one lasered off, too, one day."

She saw him stroke the right side of his jaw. "If there's no need to keep it and it's so simple to have it removed, you should. But it doesn't detract from your good looks."

He half turned and grinned at her. "Thanks."

"You're fortunate you have an antidote for keelar bites."

"If not, you wouldn't have a husband. Untreated, death occurs in two hours. Why don't you go across the hall to med lab and get changed for your tests and check-up? I'll be along shortly. There's a wrap in the closet."

Jana went into the medical laboratory. Once more she had the overwhelming feeling she had almost died in this room at Shara's hand. She walked to the wall where the curtain, holographic type pictures, and safe containing the journals and diaries had been. She examined it closely. There was no sign of recent changes. Still, that didn't mean it hadn't been done. Her gaze touched on a pot of exotic flowers in full bloom. She hurried to investigate. When she had come in here that awful day, they hadn't been anywhere near blooming. It looked like the same pot and plant, so how could it have budded and bloomed so quickly, unless she had been unconscious for a long time-more than a week? Perhaps that much of "Ryker's" story was true; she could have been kept drugged while all the repairs were made and Varian's appearance altered.

She quickly changed into the pale-blue shift to be ready when the man arrived. Upon reaching this planetoid, she had feared he would dissect and study her as an alien specimen. What was he going to do to her today? Did "Ryker" have the medical knowledge and skills to treat her?

"All ready to begin?"

Jana watched him come forward with trepidation. Who was he? She climbed upon the table and lay down. "I'm fine now, honestly."

"Let tests and blood samples determine that for us."

He positioned an apparatus at her side, then placed her arm in a tube which tightened sufficiently to hold it still. He pressed a b.u.t.ton and a humming sound came forth. She felt a light and painless p.r.i.c.k as blood was drawn. He carried the vial to a machine and placed it inside for testing.

"An automated pathologist and lab technician? How clever. In a few more years, your machines can probably run everything and man won't be needed."

"Machines are nothing without superior intelligence and imagination of their creators: humans. Now let's check your vital signs and functions."

Jana remained still, almost rigid, as he pa.s.sed the black box over her head and chest. He halted it over her heart as he stared into her eyes. His smoldering gaze melted into her apprehensive one. It drifted to her parted lips and he looked to her as if he were about to lean over and kiss her. His eyes roamed her face and hair with an expression that said he longed to caress and stroke them. Her suspense mounted.

"Looking at you makes my heart pound as fiercely and swiftly as yours is doing, Jana of Earth."

When she attempted to push the medical a.n.a.lyzer away from the telltale area, he halted her and grinned. "Don't do that," she pleaded.

"I'm not finished yet. Lie still or I'll get false readings."

"This isn't fair. I'm in a vulnerable position. I'm nervous. Your readouts won't be accurate."

He glanced at the digital numbers on the instrument and said, "Blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and chemical balances are fine. Your respiration and pulse are a little fast, but I hope that's because of me."

"Is it?" she parried, then changed the subject. "The flowers over there are beautiful."

"A distracting tactic?" He chuckled. "The new formula I created works far better than the old one. It brought them to maturation within a week. A product that speeds up blooming that much will be worth plenty of money to certain people."

Always an answer to discredit every clue she thought she gleaned! Or was it the truth? She mustn't allow him to manipulate her emotions and actions as he had done so many times before. "I'm sure it will. Congratulations. Tell me something while we await my test results; how did the alien virus cause sterility in Maffeian women?"

"By causing the ovums to shrivel and die inside the ovaries."

"But if the plague was fifty years ago and all Maffeian females were made sterile, how was Canissia born? Is she the child of a charl?"

"No, her mother was visiting family in another star system and wasn't affected. Once news of the virus spread, Segall orderd her to remain there for several years until the danger pa.s.sed. It didn't do her much good because she died giving birth to Ca.s.s the year after her return."

"So Canissia is one of the few true-blooded Maffeians her age. That explains part of her arrogance and conceit. What about female children? Did it strike them as well as women of childbearing age?"

"Yes. Any female alive fifty years ago was affected. No baby was conceived of a Maffeian female after that time. The vengeful scientist traveled to every planet in this star system and infected the food supplies. He hoped to go unexposed and to live to see the Maffeian race extinct."

"Why did he hate the Maffeians so much?"

"A Star Fleet ship going at a great speed had radar problems and didn't pick up the small shuttle his wife and daughter were in before crashing into it and killing everyone aboard. He went mad. He blamed all of them. They had taken his wife and child, so he, in his own misguided way, took theirs. When the insidious virus made itself known, it was too late."

"What happened to him?"

"Members of the Praetorian Elite Squad traced the trouble to him and killed him when he refused to surrender."

"What's the Elite Squad?"

"Spies and agents made up mostly of starship commanders, military specialists, and a few scientists," he explained. "It's a small and secret unit. They answer only to the Supreme Council. They're the only group that can go outside the law if necessary to accomplish their missions. Varian, Nigel, and Martella are squad members. That rank gives them a great deal of power, something that causes my half brother to feel larger than his size."

Surely Varian Saar would never tell her such secrets .. . "How do you know such-Of course, you have your ways of learning any and everything. What about my inoculations? When do you repeat them?"

"In few days when you're completely well again. It has to be before our trip. Otherwise, I couldn't let you go with me and take another risk."

So, that's how you're going to get out of taking me along! Something, a phony test or fever, will prevent the shots so I can't go and be seen. She glared into his back as he fetched the test results. "Any pathogenic microorganisms in sight?"

"No hungry bugs left. The antigens worked fine. I got them into your bloodstream just in time to stimulate T-lymphocytes to produce the right antibodies needed. The new antibodies have already destroyed the antigens and clung to the cells. You're immune now, at least to Rahgine's Fever."

Jana gaped at him with an open mouth.

"What's wrong? Did my words translate wrong? You're fine, Jana."

He had spit out that medical and accurate knowledge too fast for someone who wasn't a doctor! "You're just so smart that it amazes me."

"A simple process of conferring immunity isn't difficult."

"Do you work with endocrines or endoplasmic reticulum much?"

"Knowing and using the thyroid, adrenal, and pituitary gland hormones are necessary sometimes. So is the communication channel for things pa.s.sing between a cell nucleus and cell environment."

Again, she feared his correct answers came too quickly and easily. This attempt to expose him wasn't going as she planned! She panicked.

"Are you testing me, Dr. Triloni?"

"Testing you?" she echoed as she stalled for time to think of an excuse for trying to trick him into exposing a lack of medical and chemical knowledge. My G.o.d, you seem to know everything. How? "I'm interested in your research. Why should I test you?"

"Because you still have doubts about your recent hallucination?"

"If you think that, why not use truth serum on me to see if I'm lying? Varian threatened to do that one time when I refused to answer him."

"He wouldn't have dared use Thorin on your delicate system. It's too harsh and dangerous. You possess a strong will, Jana of Earth, so you would resist, probably to the point of cell and organ damage or death."

"I could use ... Thorin on you to see if you're being honest with me."

"It wouldn't work. I created Thorin, and I created its counteragent. I'm immune to it. So, thanks to me, are galactic leaders and rulers. Kadim Tirol, Segall, Draco, the planetary avatars and zartiffs, and a few others have been made immune to truth serum, too. Including my half brother."

Jana knew from past studies that avatars were planetary rulers and zartiffs were regional rulers of planets, just as the kadim was the high ruler of this galaxy. She also knew there were no words for correct English translations of those ranks. "Why would you share such powers with them?"

"There are men in certain positions who must not be vulnerable to truth serums of enemies. They are my allies, and some even my friends. Other scientists and researchers have developed their own formulas for truth drugs, but only I possess the immunizing agent. It works on the nervous system in the brain, through the interconnections of neurons--afferent, efferent, and interneurons-which give man his memory, thoughts, and emotions. Thorin attacks at the dendrites, the stems of the nerve-cell body through which impulses are conducted. It makes it impossible fora man or woman to lie without enduring agony, even well trained and loyal men. Rendelar prevents that reaction."

Jana stared at him once more. Panic flooded her. This man before her had to be ... Ryker Triloni. It was true: she had suffered from illness and fever-induced delusions. Varian had betrayed her, had given her to him as a truce token. Her heart pounded hard and heavy. Her senses were spinning wildly. She felt cold from head to foot, and shuddered. He-Prince Ryker Triloni-had spoken the truth from the beginning.

"You're getting chilled, Jana. You can get dressed. I'll wait for you in the other lab. You should return to the house and eat. You can read and rest this afternoon. I don't want you overtiring yourself. I've selected several books on plants, animals, and chemistry written in Maffeian since you know that language. You can study them at your leisure. Ine will begin teaching you Androasian in a few days. Then, I'll give you books in my language to study, and some of my research notes. I still have work to do."