Balance
by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

This too, did pass

“...still unable to locate any evidence of your second individual. It is our opinion that further investigations would be a waste of your funds. If you would prefer, we are ready to continue the search but with such a cold trail it is highly doubtful that we would be any more successful than we already have been. We await your decision.

                                                                                          Barns, Garza and Williams.

                                                                                          Private Investigators.

                                                                                          United States of America.”

Janet Barber, Mrs. Janet Barber, laid down the pages, letting them slip from perfectly manicured fingers to the single, rough hewn table currently occupying her home. It was hard, having to admit that nearly ten years of search had resulted in locating only one of the two people she so desperately wanted to see. Still it was the truth. Though they had finally located Melanie Archer, Armadillo had been impossible to find. He had said he was going to disappear, and with his growing ability to fly ,she knew he had finally found a way. Most probably he’d simply crossed the Texas coast late at night. He’d always been extremely good at hiding, when he thought about it first. When he really wanted to.

Janet stared out her dining room window, looking out at the beach only a few hundred meters away. How long had it been anyway? It was 2003 now, she’d last seen any of them in 1982. For them it would only have been twenty one years. In her case though, reality jumping had proved a disaster. In more ways than simply lost time. Nearly eighty years had past since she’d left, before her final return. Now another fourteen had gone, passed by since she’d finally relocated her birth reality. Ninety four years had passed for her since she’d last talked to any of her former friends. If she could still call them friends, after what she’d done. After the hate she’d earned from them. One hundred and thirteen years had passed since she’d taken her first breath, and she still looked nineteen.

Sherry had vanished of course. Gone to another place. Wether to advance herself, or escape the apparently insane woman she’d hoped to control Janet really didn’t know. Really didn’t care to know. Astrid and her daughter had apparently died in another reality. Her other children, other than one who wanted her dead, no longer existed. Had never existed. Could never have existed, but did. In her heart at least. Silently her hand squeezed the thick mug holding her coffee. “Because of me” she whispered. “Because, for all my power, I was nothing more than a lonely teenager. Completely unready for any kind of responsibility.”

Her mug suddenly collapsed, not so much shattered as collapsed in on itself. Hot coffee splattered across the room unheaded by Janet. After all, she’d taken impacts that would have reduced the average human to a fine red mist. Taken them, and returned the favor. “I’ll see Archer then” she told herself. “Then return, if there is a return.” Lifting her hand to sip her coffee she finally noticed what she’d done. Thick ceramic had been crushed together into a nearly unrecognizable mess, while her once spotless dress was covered with a dark stain. Shaking her head she leaned over the table, dropping her ruined mug into a waiting trash can. “I’ve really got to start watching myself” she grumbled. “Before someone trips over who I really am.”

She stood, wiping off the table with her skirt as though it were a cheap rag, not fine linen. When she was done there was a flicker, a hint of black and white moire patterns about her. When it faded her dress was like new, as though it had just come off a rack. Walking over to the cabinet she opened one of the doors, taking out another cheap mug. “I really wonder what would happen if anyone discovered that ‘the bitch’ had really returned” she asked herself, quietly pouring another cup of coffee. “Probably nuke the entire island. Just to make sure they got me. Because of what I was, and they’d probably be right.” She sipped her new drink, again studying the beach. Remembering her past.

Fourteen years ago, according to the calendar, she’d finally found her own reality. Almost a year and a half searching, studying libraries and telephone directories to find discrepancies. Twice almost deciding on the wrong reality, until she’d realized that left hander’s were dominate instead of right hander’s, remembered America had stars in its flag, not lightning bolts. Fourteen years ago she’d selected this reality, and to date nothing had proven her wrong. No matter how deeply she’d dug. There were, after all, only so many possibilities she could reach. Less than a hundred now, yet each was different. To be home. Where she had been born, where she had been changed. Where she belonged. No more reality jumping for her, no more getting near hopelessly lost. Never again. Not even if it cost her her life.

Having come home she’d had to leave Astrid’s grave behind. Left Astrid, the one woman she’d ever loved enough to die for. The one woman she’d failed worse than all of them. Left Astrid and her daughter, though what had become of the girl Janet never really knew. If Astrid had died, then her daughter would have too. No one would have been fool enough to kill one and leave the other. No one was that stupid. If she was still alive, that meant something. Though what Janet no longer cared to know.

Settling down on her chair she pushed aside the investigators letter, selecting a small stack of mail from the states. Demands for compensation, demands to return money her husband had stolen, stolen years before Janet had met him. She had honestly tried, once she’d discovered his dark secret. She’d empted the bank account, even the insurance he’d left behind. Sold almost everything in the house, and then the house, still she’d been unable to satisfy all those clamoring voices. For some reason she didn’t understand, those few she’d been unable to repay completely believed she was hiding money. How many private detectives had come, searching for money that wasn’t there. Even the US government had sent their FBI. She’d left them alone with her books, left them alone and walked the beach. When she’d returned they thanked her and left. There really hadn’t been any hidden money. Not a penny. Still the voices clamored, the letters came. At least she had no phone, no more late night calls. Late night begging, threats, filthy language.

Yet honor demanded she find a way to repay them, as she finally had her family clan in Japan. She couldn’t sing again, her voice was too well known. There were too few modeling jobs available, leaving her with even fewer choices for fast money. She’d taken to wandering the beaches at night, picking up tourists of both sexes. Giving them something to remember, for a price. That price had been her soul. Yet these six letters were the last. All others had been repaid in full. Tomorrow money orders would go out to them, then the letters would stop. Mainly, because she would be leaving for America herself in the morning. Leaving to close one of the last open ends in her life.

“I wonder if Melanie will remember me” she asked herself. “Probably not. Even if she does, I can’t hope she’ll trust me. Can’t possible hope that, though I did manage to clear up the problem I created for her. I created it after all.” She finished her coffee, setting her mug down carefully. Sleep. A little sleep, pack her few things, then walk to the bank. Once those letters went out she’d board a local ferry. One island at a time she’d make her way to America, legally, then find the once United Nations Captain. She’d finally settle with Melanie Archer.

Ten Days Later

Port of Entry, Florida

“Thank you Mrs. Barber” the American customs agent said as he handed his latest visitor her passport. “Enjoy your visit to America.” His eyes lingered on the small woman’s body as she picked up her tiny suitcase, smiled to him, then walked out. ‘If only she wasn’t married’ he was thinking. ‘Or I had a believable reason to search her.’

Mrs. Barber walked briskly, but not too quickly to the waiting lines of cabs. Accepting the first, she allowed the suntanned driver to take her case. “Greyhound station, if you please” she requested in her accented Spanish. He nodded, hurrying to his seat. Her accent marked her as Caribbean, her bearing as one who’d worked up the social ladder, with extreme difficulty. Unusual the driver thought. There really were few true redheads in the Caribbean. Perhaps she simply had an excellent hairdresser.

An hour and a half after setting foot on American soil Mrs. Barber was again in line. This time for a bus ticket. When it came her turn she was tired, sweaty, yet still able to maintain a smile on her face. “Destination” a very bored elderly man asked.

“Oklahoma” she answered. “El Reno Oklahoma, please.” It had taken years and more money than she wanted to remember for that destination. Earning it had been hard. Not so much in labor, but the way of it. Every penny she had was with her, every penny earned in ways that even now brought a foul taste to her mouth.

“One hundred, thirty dollars. One way. There’s five transfers. Cash or plastic?”

“Cash” Mrs. Barber answered. She opened her purse, taking out a small pile of bills. Once she’d paid for her ticket there were few enough bills remaining to return to her purse. Not that it mattered. She had no expectation of surviving long, not once she arrived at her final destination. A destination that wasn’t El Reno by a long shot.

“Take your ticket to that window” the ticket seller explained. “They’ll take your bag. Bus leaves in umm... Twenty-three minutes. Give or take. You transfer in Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Houston, Dallas and Oklahoma City. Trips one day, seventeen hours about. You’ll arrive around ten forty in tha morning. Have a nice trip mam.”

“Thank you.” She followed his directions, soon finding herself waiting alone again. Three, maybe four days to Alva. Then to locate one person. After that it would be all over. She ignored the wolves prowling around her, the flesh hunters seeking new bodies for their trade. She’d been there, it was how she’d earned her money. It was one career she was happy she’d never have again.

Later, on the bus, her mind wandered back as it often did lately. Twenty years ago she’d gotten what she earned. Now all but two of the truly important people remained. One she’d hurt the worst was where she was headed. Finding the other had proven impossible. He had simply vanished, as if the sea had swallowed him up that day. Her children gone, her loves dead or hiding from her. There really wasn’t any reason to remain now. Other than to settle accounts. And she was so tired of waking up.

As she’d been warned it was a long trip. One her seat was glad to see end. Stepping off her bus in El Reno she looked around. Nothing much, a small town. Much like she’d expected from her research. If she was right there would be two more bus lines, both private, to take before arriving in Alva. Walking through the door she started the final legs of her journey.

Alva, Oklahoma

True to her schedule, two days and two bus rides later, she was standing in Alva Oklahoma. A town of only about five thousand three hundred. Once the town had been found it had taken her investigator less than an hour to locate the address she needed. As she stood in the dry, late afternoon sun Mrs. Barber shivered. Not from the temperature, it was still well in the nineties even this late. But in reaction from what she was about to do. This could be her last day on earth, or tomorrow. She wasn’t certain. Turning right she headed down the block, following memorized instructions.

Even in so small a town it took her almost a three hours to find her destination. A worn down truck stop just outside of town. ‘Pats’ the blinking sign proclaimed. Thirty or forty years ago it had been a bright gleaming thing. Now rusty, often patched, it looked like something out of a B movie. This was where her investigator had led her. With luck the woman she wanted to see was still here. Walking slowly she entered the building, turning left this time to find a seat. A random choice, but by doing so quickly those few men sitting around would think she was a local. Maybe.

Settling into a worn red vinyl clad wooden bench she sat her small case beside her. It held the only possessions she’d kept after leaving her rented home. All the rest had remained behind. Memories she no longer wanted, a life she no longer desired to remember.

A menu was laid on the table before her by a dark skinned woman. “Hi, I’m Elva. What da you want to drink honey” the waitress asked.

Mrs. Barber looked up into old eyes, the woman was nearly fifty, her face showing a hard life, yet laugh lines told her it had been a good one. “Water please. No ice” she answered. Picking up her menu she studied strange sounding names of foods her now dead husband had told her about. During her trip she’d quickly learned what to stay away from. Though her mutated body easily tolerated even the worst foods, she still didn’t like greasy aftertastes. She had made her selection long before her waitress returned.

“Here you are” her waitress told her as she sat a large red plastic glass of water on the table. “Ready to order already? That was fast.”

Mrs Barber smiled softly. “I already know what I like. Chicken Fried stake. Mashed potatoes and corn please. Nothing else.”

“Gotcha” Elva said as she scribbled on a small pad of light green paper. “Take about twenty minutes. That okay?”

“That’s fine Elva. If I’d wanted cardboard fast food I would have eaten elsewhere. Your fare comes highly recommended.” ‘Very’ she thought as Elva vanished again. ‘Since the local fast food places routinely fail even the simplest health check. When they bother to make them.’ Her investigator had spent almost a month in Alva, he’d missed very little. At least she’d hoped he had. Meeting someone like Warpath, here, would cause difficulties she didn’t need. Though Warpath in his prime was no match for her now. Not after this many years of training. Of mutation.

When her food arrived she settled down to eating, ignoring the rude stares of the men around her. She was pretty by any standard. It was one of the few things that she’d found no way to rid herself of. Her red hair being another. Even so her poise, politeness, and her voice made her stand out in this part of the world like a flare in a cavern at midnight. She tried not to laugh as she heard Elva give more than one man a quick word, until the boring drills of their eyes slowly reduced to only one or two of the harder cases. When she’d finished Elva was already waiting.

“Anything else hon” she asked.

“I thought that Mrs. Grandell worked here” she answered. “Is she ill?”

“No, her night off. She’ll be in tomorrow. Less that grandson of her’s has problems in school again. Troublemaker he is, for all his mother an grandmom’s two of tha best. She know you?”

“From a long time ago. We didn’t part as friends. I’ve come to apologize. Or take her hate. Is there a place I can find a room for the night?”

“Black Fire Inn, across tha highway, about a hundred yards or so out of town. Nice people. Want me to call and let them know your coming?”

“If you would be so kind, yes. My names Barber. Mrs. Janet Barber.” She stood, accepting her bill even as she picked up her case. A bed, any bed, was preferable to sleeping in a bus seat one more time. As she paid her bill, adding a nice amount for Elva’s polite service she noticed a few faces missing. One or two of those would be trouble, if she let them. Looking past the register she spotted a second entry. Her waiting trouble makers would probably expect her to go out the front. No matter, thanking the young man at the register she walked out the side door.

Voices behind and a bit away from her warned her she’d been spotted leaving. With the sun down nearly two hours now they hadn’t yet found her in the darkness. Still too, she’d found the well lit destination Elva had spoken of. Easily in range. A word and she vanished just before her two visitors rounded the building, to find her gone.

To reappear a dozen or so yards from her destination. Janet turned, looking back at the diner. Two of the men who’d been watching her were now scrambling around several large parked trucks, hunting for a woman who’d easily outsmarted them. Turning her back on trouble, trouble she’d have walked into when she was younger, Mrs Barber walked slowly to the Inn’s front door, waiting outside a few minutes. She was timing it so she wouldn’t arrive too quickly, wouldn’t raise suspicions. As she entered a white haired woman looked up.

“Oh, you made it just fine” she said in greeting. “I’m Pat, Patricia. Used to own the diner, but got tired of all the trouble with two business’s after my husband passed on. So I sold it to Elva years ago. Oh, she sent Max out. She thought those two ruffians might bother you. Seem’s they didn’t. Your Mrs Barber?”

“Yes mam. Do you have a room available? Nothing fancy, just a bed please.”

“Oh their all plain, and they all have bed’s. Bath too, you look like you could use one. How long will you be staying?”

“I expect to be gone tomorrow. My business here is quite limited. Once its done I won’t need to remain. Just the night please.”

“Room five. First one up the stairs on your right. Changed the linens last year.” Pat laughed. “This morning really, have to keep young Betty busy. Betty Grandell. It’s her grandmother you’re here to see isn’t it.”

“If she will see me, yes. If not, then I will leave as I came. You make a very good detective Patricia.”

“Not really” the old woman admitted. “She’s spoken of you. Now and then. Your red hair, your eyes, height. Especially your voice. That smooth accent gives you away. Everything about you screams your that young girl she fell in love with in the Carribean. After all, how many women look nineteen when their nearly fifty?”

“Am I that transparent?”

“You are, you really are” Patricia admitted. “Besides, I’m one of her best friends. Was maid of honor at her wedding, held her up when her husband died of the cancer. She told me things she shouldn’t have. Over the years I mean.”

“We often do, to people we trust don’t we” Mrs. Barber admitted. “And yes. I’m the one she knew as Shali. I knew her as Captain Archer. That was, for me, over a hundred years ago. Will you be calling the police now? I promise you I won’t resist.”

“Go up to your room dear. Get cleaned up and get some sleep. I’ll call her, ask what she want’s done. You won’t cause any trouble? No, you avoided those two men. From what Melanie has told me, you could have beaten both of them easily.”

“I have changed since Melanie knew me Patricia. I used to send my problems to another world. One... One much like this, but there was an atomic war in the nineteen fifties there. Nothing larger than a rat lives there now. It’s a hard life, but one where they can’t hurt anyone again. Now. Now all I want to do is let Melanie settle with me. Then I’m going away from everyone. I’ve hurt too many people I love.”

“Suicides a bad choice hon. Maybe you should talk to someone.”

Mrs. Barber laughed. “I am too transparent. Goodnight Patricia. Sleep well.” She took the offered key and headed up to her room. Would the old woman call Melanie, the police, or the UN’s shock troops. That she’d find out soon enough, but a bath was inviting and she was just too tired to care anymore.

A knock on her door woke her. Sitting up in her bed Janet Barber, once known as Shali, among many other names, slowly rubbed the sleep from her eyes. It was well after nine, she should have been up long ago, but exhaustion still easily defeated even her. Slipping out of bed she brought an image of a business suit in her mind. Instantly her body was clothed in that style, the soft pajamas she’d been wearing having vanished. “A minute please” she called, turning to make up her bed. When she was done she walked over to the door, unlocking its simple little slide bolt. “Come in” she announced, stepping away from the door. For all she knew a UN sniper had her head in his sights right now. If the weapon was powerful enough, if he was good enough, lucky enough. There were still injuries even her abilities couldn’t heal.

Melanie Archer walked through the door, stopping to study Janet as she shut it behind her. “So, we both married did we? How did you find me” she said in greeting.

Arial waved to the rooms only chair, sitting carefully on her bed while Melanie made herself comfortable. “Jeans and a country shirt. I’d never expected you to like that fashion” she answered.

“Grows on you, when you live out here. Hard to find a job when your labeled a drug user.”

“My fault” Janet agreed. “And I tried very, very hard to correct it. My husbands dead. Shot years ago by the men hunting him. I found you the easy way. I hired a very good private investigator to find you. You hide well, it only took him three years to locate you. Then the trail was ice age cold by the time I set him on it.”

“You did correct it. Got a letter years ago. Full clearance, reinstatement. By then I was a mother a couple times over, with an ill husband. Too late. Thanks for trying. Now why are you here?”

Arial picked up her case, setting it on the bed before opening it. Reaching in she took out a small spray perfume bottle, carefully sitting it between them. “So you can have justice. Justice, not revenge or vengeance. Revenge is a waste of effort, and vengeance only harms you. What’s in that, when turned to the blue dot, will return you to normal. Forever. You’ll start aging normally again. By turning the spray head to the red dot it will also destroy all my powers, only for a few months. I’m afraid I am a bit tougher than I thought. Still long enough I should think, for you to obtain full justice. It won’t be anything but salt water to anyone else.”

Melanie closed her eyes as if in pain. “You haven’t changed have you. After so damn long your still self destructive. Won’t you ever grow up?”

Janet laughed. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes Melanie Archer, but loving you wasn’t one of them. Hurting you was. Let me explain. First, I’m a hundred and thirteen years old. Second I’m alone. Black Queen went to a different universe. Ariel was murdered, her daughter vanished. The other daughters I had either were made undone, as if they had never lived, or ran me out of their reality. Melanie, everyone’s gone. I can’t even find Armadillo. It took all I had just to find you. I’m tired, I’ve got no one, and no reason to live any longer. Athena, it took me years trying just to find my own reality again. There’s a price on my head in Freeland that has every dime store crook wanting to take a crack at me. Not as Shali. As Mrs. Janet Barber, wife of the infamous American ex-money investor Maxwell Barber. He left a lot of badly hurt people in the states. I did what I could, after his death, to repay people. I honestly didn’t know what he was, what he’d done, until I went through his papers. But by then most of the money was gone. If I’d been a normal woman, well I’d already be dead fifty times over by now. A few days ago I managed to return the last of what he stole. Now I’m here.”

“Just so I could destroy you? I don’t do that Arial, and you damn well know that.”

“I... I know. I just wanted you to have the choice. I hurt you so badly. You have to hate me terribly.”

It was Melanie’s turn to laugh. “Oh I did. I did an awful lot, and I cursed you every night. Then I found Robert and fell in love again. “ She stood, walking to the rooms one window, staring out. “It was a wonderful eleven years. Then he had liver cancer. It goes fast you know, and there still isn’t a cure. I tried to find you. By then I’d have freely become your slave for life. If only you could save him. I knew you could. But you weren’t in Freeland, or Japan. I wrote your sister you know. She believed you dead. Then Robert died and to be Gods honest truthful, if I hadn’t had the kids I’d have followed him. That drug you gave me only stops aging. We tried an extract from my blood, but its been to long, or it evolved, or something. It him helped a little, but he still died.” She turned around, putting her back to the window. “There’s an UN strike squad coming. They’ll be here in about half an hour.”

“I expected it. You’d have been a fool not to have called them. So now what?”

“Come with me. I want you to see my life now. I’m thinking about rejoining, now that the kids are all grown.” She looked at the little golden cylinder on Arial’s bed. “Yes, I would have used that on you once. Then I’d have beaten you near to death with my own hands, nursed you back to heath again just to... I don’t know. With you my feelings are still clouded. It’ll take some time to understand how I feel now. What you did, it changed my life, but it wasn’t done with hate in mind. Only love. After you visit my home you’d best run though. People in power at the UN have some seriously bad Karma regarding you.”

Arial picked up the cylinder, holding it out to Melanie. “You best take this. You never know. I might decide to try madness again.”

Melanie accepted the device, weighing it in her hand. “And I might decide to let nature take her course. Until then let me show you my home.”

Two hours later Janet Barber stepped out of an rambling old home. She’d said her goodbyes, now it was time to face the future. Melanie was the past, for now. One day she might be the future, but not until she made that decision. Stepping off the porch Janet started the long walk back to town, then changed her mind, turning back, walking out towards the open spaces East of town. Any UN force would be looking for her. They’d be waiting at both ends of the road, it’d be such a shame to disappoint them. Especially after they had come so far. But she wasn’t going to endanger innocent lives, not if someone happened to be trigger happy. No, she’d face her fate, no matter what it was. Besides, she’d left her case, and what little money she had with Melanie. It was an awful long walk back to Freeland after all.

Two miles past Melanie’s home she walked over a small rise, to find herself facing at least a hundred heavily armed men, and at least three UN hover-tanks. Very slowly she stepped off the road, settling down to wait on a concrete abutment. After all, they wanted her, so let them come to her. She pulled a small stalk of some kind of weed, examining it while she waited. Finally a single pair of footstep announced the approach of someone. Looking up she was unsurprised to discover it was a woman. After all, UNTIL did know her better than she knew herself.

“Arial Phenda?” the woman asked. “Also known as Shali? I’m here to negotiate your surrender.”

“And the Bitch, Zila, a few dozen other names. Most unrepeatable in civilized company. Janet Barber will do now, it’s my married name after all” she answered, letting the weed drop. “I am under arrest? If so, I will offer no resistance.”

“Yes Mam. I’m afraid you are” her ‘negotiator’ answered. “Do you have any weapons?”

“I am a weapon” Janet admitted, standing slowly. “Shall we go? I don’t want to inconvenience the public any more than I have to.”

“If you will follow me” the unnamed woman offered. “There is a special transport van waiting. I’m afraid we will have to bind you, your considered a Class Alpha danger.” She turned, walking back towards the waiting troops.

‘Strange’ Janet thought as she moved to follow. ‘She didn’t even tell me her name.’

Kansas

Four weeks later and she still didn’t know what would happen to her. Since her ‘capture’ she had never been alone. Not just several cameras, but human guards as well. Janet ignored her watchers. There was nothing useful she could do about them, and privacy was one thing she had long learned to live without. All she had learned so far was her guards had orders to shoot if she even looked like she was trying something odd. After having two sets of clothing vaporized off her body Janet accepted that the bright orange jumpsuit was all they were going to let her wear. It really was an awful color though.

A soft sound of padded feet coming down the stairs caught her attention, still she remained as she always did when awake. Sitting quietly on the edge of her hard bed looking at the wall across from her. Passwords and counter passwords were exchanged, codes that were changed each shift. So far she hadn’t noticed any repeats, still there were a limited number of possibilities. She had a bet with herself that within the next two weeks she’d hear a password she’d already heard used before. Abruptly she felt herself pressed hard against the wall. ‘Pressor field’ she decided as she let its not quite sufficient strength shove her backwards. Her cells lighting increased until even she had difficulty making out more than vague shapes. That her captors had figured out, after three weeks of tries.

Her cell slid open, allowing a single figure to enter. “Long time, no see” said a vaguely familiar voice. A female form entered Janet’s cell, waiting until the thick metal bars slid back into place before moving the cheap wooden chair sitting next to an even cheaper table into a usable position. Her cells only other furniture. “Why did you give yourself up? Its not like you.”

“Lights” Janet asked softly. “Or tell me your name.” Almost instantly the lights dropped down to normal, though the pressor field remained on. In front of Janet a uniformed woman carefully removed eye protecting goggles. “Snowaters” Janet said in greeting. “I thought you went home.”

“Earth is my home Shali, at least for now” the feline alien answered. “Why did you come back? You knew the UN would imprison you. Maybe even kill you. Its not like you.”

“Shali is dead” Janet corrected. “As is every other name I’ve ever used. It’s Janet Barber now, until some bounty hunter gets lucky and takes me out. And why did I come back? Its my home. I’m tired, I really wanted to die. I’m not certain now though.”

“You may not have a choice in the matter Janet” Snowaters admitted. “Half the council is salivating at the bit, wanting to see your dead body laid out on a silver platter. The other half just want to vaporize you and forget it. You really did screw up you know.”

Janet shrugged. “Why not both? And this field is irritating.”

“Then break it, its at full power. I’ve been watching you for weeks Janet. I know its not strong enough. Why do you act like it is?”

“Makes the guards happy” Janet admitted. “So, how am I going to die?”

“Your not. Your being offered a job, if you’ll take it.”

“And if I don’t? What then?”

“They pour concrete in these tunnels and forget you ever existed. I think you get the idea.”

Janet relaxed, a smile of amusement coming to her face. “It would be a challenge Snowy, I’ll admit that. But its one I’ll take before I go back to fighting again. Like I said, I’m really tired. I’m over a hundred you know.”

“Yes, Archer told us. It’s not fighting Janet, its space. Real space. We finally captured a spacecraft.