John Stressman drove his car along the long highway leading to his lover's residence in Henderson, just outside Las Vegas. He was happy to be making the trip this time without the kids--he loved his kids but they had no patience for the six-hour drive. Krys probably took them to see Steve or something like that. Who cares? he thought. It was nearing sundown as he passed by the state prison and the tiny town of Jean when a gray Nevada Highway Patrol car pulled up behind him.
The patrol car trailed John for a few miles, then turned on its lights. "Shit!" John exclaimed as he signaled to pull over. The trooper got on his loudspeaker. "Black Ford Escort with California plates--follow the vehicle ahead of you. Do not deviate from that vehicle's path!" the trooper said as he activated his lights. "Your cell phone is useless, so don't even try to use it!"
The patrol car's floodlights revealed to John a nondescript black Dodge Spirit with government license plates. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked as the sedan and the patrol car diverted him off of Interstate 15 to State Highway 161, a little-used highway leading north from Henderson....
They drove for several hours, until they reached Mercury, a large government installation masquerading as a small town. The sedan and the patrol car passed through a gate manned by MP's and arrived at a low, white building. The sedan stopped; John was prompted by the patrol car to park up against the rear bumper of the sedan. The patrol car parked up against John's bumper.
Out of the patrol car came not a uniformed state trooper, as John expected, but a man in a dark suit. Another, nearly identical man in an identical suit emerged from the sedan. "What's all this about?" John asked angrily.
"If you'll come with us, please," one of the suited men commanded.
"I'm not going anywhere until I know what's going on!"
"All in good time, Mr. Stressman. Come with us, please!"
"Not until you explain this!"
The suited man pulled a 9mm Beretta from a shoulder holster beneath his suit jacket. "We give the orders here. Now move!"
Meanwhile, back on the Virgo, Steve had the pleasure of meeting Johnny's detachment for the first time. Or so he thought....
"You mean you wrote all the crap we've been through for fun?" Private Zelansky asked. "All the people who have died and who have been crippled--that was just entertainment for you?"
Steve had deliberately asked Johnny to waive all military protocol for this exchange. He found himself backed into a corner. In another universe, people had suffered greatly due to his imaginations, and now Steve was confronted with that fact.
"Yes, explain this," van der Merwe demanded. "Vhat kind ov sick bastard does zhings like this?"
"I have a perfectly good explanation for all of this," Steve said. "Have any of you monitored the entertainment channels on Earth right now?" Nobody replied.
"The entertainment of this world is brutal--not just the physical violence, but also the immense cruelty and insensitivity of the stories. Even children's entertainment is extremely violent and unfeeling. In addition to the violence we stage for entertainment, my world is a very violent place. No less than thirty different wars are currently being waged right now, and street crime in many places takes on the nature of guerrilla warfare. My people have become lazy and unthinking," Steve explained. "They refuse to learn the lessons of history and forget the suffering that brought about their freedom to be indolent."
"Many of these role-playing games--and there are others, for other venues--serve mainly as outlets for the alter-egos of their creators, themselves attempting to escape a life of doldrum. I've always wanted to write, but not just to amuse myself or others. I want a lesson to be borne of all of this.
"My father was a veteran, as was his father and his father before him. I tried to serve for pride and honor, but could not--God has His will, and we must obey. So instead I took it upon myself to ensure that others appreciate the sacrifices made in order for them to enjoy their lives, and in that appreciation perhaps make positive changes.
"So I write of war, and of what it really costs--the suffering, the trauma, the wasted lives and potential. I do this because I don't want people to forget that what they're writing about has consequences. Maybe I've helped, maybe I haven't. I'd never expected in my wildest dreams that any of this would be real, even in another dimension. My apology could never be good enough for all that's happened, but it's all I can give." Steve finished his impromptu speech, exhausted.
"Pretty words, but do they mean anything?" one of the Marines asked.
"They do," the Betazoid Bren Maxon replied. "Steve was 100% sincere. There's no way he could have been lying about it."
For several moments everyone was silent.
"The man has a point," Corporal Nkrumah said. "Just try to take it easy on us from here on out, and I've got no hard feelings."
The group murmured. Nkrumah was one of the last of the original contingent from the Ilion who had come aboard the Virgo so long ago. He commanded respect.
"I'll keep that in mind," Steve said solemnly.
Just then Johnny and Barek entered the squad bay. "Attention! Officer on deck!" Barek announced as Johnny walked in.
"Marines, it looks like we have some business in the 21st century," Johnny said...
"All right, we're going to ask nicely. Where is your ex-wife?" the suited man, his jacket now removed, said menacingly.
"I don't know!" John protested. "I've told you all I know--it was just some stupid hobby of hers. I never cared about it and never paid attention!"
"Why were you in Nevada?"
"Why do you want to know? I want a lawyer!"
Another interrogator slugged John in the stomach. John had attempted to struggle earlier, but that had only ended with him laying on the ground in pain and eventually tied naked to a chair. John gagged as the fist of the interrogator slammed into his belly.
"What good do you think a lawyer would do you here?"
"Who are you, anyway?" John asked. The bare bulb in the small, enclosed interview room made it impossible for John to make out the faces of his tormentors.
"Who we are is unimportant. What you know is important. So I suggest you start talking!"
"I don't know anything about any of this stuff! It was just a stupid waste of time!"
"You know where your ex-wife is. You have to--you have to know where your children are, and your children are with her if they aren't with you. We'll find her soon enough," the interrogator said.
In another part of the Area 51 compound, a small vessel powered up and began its maiden voyage. The Seth II made a round trip from Earth to Mars in just under thirty minutes, undetected by the surveillance satellites of the United States, the Russian Republic, and the People's Republic of China but not undetected by the Virgo.
"Captain, a small warp vessel has just left Earth orbit," a Tactical crewman announced to Stephen Maruu.
"All hands, red alert!" Maruu ordered. "There should be no warp vessels in Earth's solar system other than us! What can you tell me about it?"
"Its specifications are identical to the Freedom-class, sir!"
Damn--the NSA has reverse-engineered the Seth! "Track the vessel; see if you can pinpoint its home base. Mr. Lataro, Colonel Chee, I need you in my ready room as soon as possible!" Maruu ordered.
Undetected even by the Virgo, another vessel was also tracking the counterfeit Seth. An Eriarti scout ship had detected the Virgo's use of the Mirror and followed the ship into the alternate universe. It wasn't long before the counterfeit Seth's base was located...
"Gentlemen, we have a problem," Maruu told Lataro and Chee as they entered the ready room. "It would appear that the NSA's research and development division is more advanced than we suspected," the captain said, displaying specifications for the impostor ship on the ready room's viewscreen.
"That ship's identical to the Seth!" Lataro exclaimed.
"Exactly. The NSA, perhaps aided by the Kullinari, were able to reverse-engineer the Seth and build an identical copy. Of course, this has dramatic Prime Directive implications. We will need to recover or destroy this vessel, and all records pertaining to it."
"Do we have any idea where this vessel is?" Johnny asked.
The captain tapped a viewscreen control; a map of Nevada replaced the Seth II's schematics. "We were able to pinpoint the launch site to this location," Maruu answered. "Our historical database identifies this location simply as Area 51, a top-secret aerospace development facility. Apparently Earth in this universe has one too."
"This facility is heavily fortified," Johnny remarked. "Hundreds of troops, armored vehicles, air support... no way we'd be able to manage an assault on this position. Even with our advanced weapons the sheer numbers would overwhelm us. And there's no guarantee that they haven't developed phasers along with warp drive."
"He's right," Lataro added. "If they have Federation-level weapons this could be a disaster. Even with 21st-century weapons it would be a bloodbath."
"Then we don't meet them head-on," Maruu replied. "I've anticipated all of this. Here's the plan...."
Five hours had passed. John Stressman was beginning to live up to his name.
"Look, I don't know how many times I have to tell you people this!" he said wearily. A sharp blow to the jaw had abated his use of profanity in this situation; his right cheek was turning dark purple as a result as the bruise spread. "I don't know anything about this damn game of theirs!"
"Okay," the interrogator said. "I believe him. Open a channel to the USS Virgo."
A large, somewhat primitive viewscreen flickered to life in the interrogation chamber. The bridge of the Virgo snapped into view.
"We know you're there, Virgo. We have a proposal!"
[What is your proposal?] Captain Stephen Maruu insisted.
"We have in our custody this gentleman, Mr. John Stressman, former husband of Krystina Stressman and, I might add, the father of her children. We have his life in our hands." With that, John's eyebrows shot up, and sweat began to pour off his brow.
"Turn over the RPG players to us, and John lives. You have twenty-four hours!"
[What assurance do we have that nothing will happen to the players?]
"You have my word, Captain. The players will be debriefed and returned to their homes."
Maruu looked pensive for a moment. [I will need to discuss the decision with them, of course.]
"Of course. But if I don't hear from you in 24 hours, Mr. Stressman dies." With that, the interrogator shut off the viewscreen.
"You had better hope that your ex-wife's 'stupid game' isn't as important to her as the life of her children's father."
"Captain, we've pinpointed the location of the transmission. They attempted to scramble the signal and route it through multiple relays, but it wasn't hard to do," a yeoman at the Communications station reported.
"Very good. Patch the coordinates to Transporter Room 3," Maruu ordered. "Gentlemen, you may beam down when ready."
John sat at the table in the interrogation room, battered and bruised and extremely dehydrated. Just inches away from him on the table was a glass of water. Had his hands been unbound he could have drank... and oh how desperately did he want that drink!
"You had better hope that your friends come to their senses," the interrogator said. "Once we hear from the Virgo you can have the water. Or when you decide to give us more information. But until then, no water for you!" he finished as he picked up the glass of water and poured it onto the floor just in front of John's face.
A knock at the door called the interrogator away from his torment of John. He opened the door...
...and was promptly met with a hand phaser pointed directly at his face. "You know what this is, and you know what it can do. Untie this man immediately!" Johnny ordered.
The interrogator did, indeed, know what a hand phaser was capable of. Immediately he began untying John.
Johnny tapped his combadge. "Chee to Lataro--have you located the data processing unit?"
[We had a little resistance, but we've managed to take the data processing unit. Steve's with me right now uploading the worm we designed.]
"Keep me posted. Let me know when you reach Hangar 18."
John stood up, a bit unsteady on his feet. Johnny noticed the interrogator going for a panic button. "It's no use; the guards in this part of the base have been incapacitated. You're on your own!" he said, grabbing the interrogator. One squad of Johnny's Marines had beamed down into the area near the interrogation room and systematically stunned not just the guards but everyone from janitors and clerks up to several high-ranking officers. Another squad was led by Lataro against the hangar where the Seth II was berthed.
[We've finished administering the tegrofine injections in this block,] Zelansky reported. Tegrofine was a drug, originally intended as an antidepressant, that induced varying degrees of amnesia in human subjects.
"Very good," Johnny said. "Now, say goodnight!"
Johnny stunned the interrogator and administered a hypospray of tegrofine to him, enough to cause him to forget everything of the past week.
Jonathan Lataro entered Hangar 18 and saw the Seth II waiting patiently for its next mission. "They did a good job on this one! Of course they didn't have duranium to work with, but it's amazing what they did with ordinary titanium and cermet composites!"
[Can we destroy it onsite?] Maruu asked.
"Not unless we want to fire a photon torpedo at the base, and I'm sure the residents of Las Vegas might have a little something to say about that," Lataro replied. "I'll have to pilot this thing out of here!"
[Proceed with extreme caution. We don't know if the 21st-century materials can handle the stress load of warp power for an extended flight. Use impulse engines only!]
"Acknowledged," Lataro said as he entered the cockpit. The controls were not exactly Federation-standard, but they were similar enough. Quickly he located the proper controls for the start-up sequence.
John's clothes, unfortunately, were nowhere to be found, although his car keys and wallet were found on the interrogator. "Uhh, John, could you at least cover yourself?" Johnny asked. Though a relatively easygoing individual, Johnny was nonetheless a little uncomfortable with John's utter lack of modesty.
John sheepishly picked up the interrogator's jacket and held it over himself. Johnny had briefly thought of stripping the interrogator but his clothes would come nowhere close to fitting John. "Johnny to Steve--meet me in the interrogation room."
[On my way!]
Moments later, Steve arrived. "Thanks for your help, Steve. Here's where we really need your help," Johnny said, passing Steve the keys and John's wallet. "None of us here can drive. Get John to the nearest large city, then contact us. We'll beam you up."
"What about me? What do I do?" John asked.
"Find some clothes," Johnny smirked as he stunned John.
Another five hours later, Steve and an unconscious John arrived in Reno. "Condrey to Virgo--one to beam up!" Steve said as he activated the communicator while stashed in a back alley. He never heard what happened to John after that, although he did leave behind a note....
As he materialized on the transporter pad, Steve was met by a visibly angry Johnny. "I thought I told you the nearest large city!"
"Well, sometimes a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do!" Steve said.
Johnny thought for a moment, then began laughing hysterically.
Lataro urged the Seth II into Earth orbit. The ship was, it turned out, only a superficial copy of the original Seth. While capable of the same theoretical warp limits, it was very unmaneuverable and had a much lower acceleration curve. It seemed like forever before the primitive ship made it to the Virgo. But all along the way, the Seth II was monitored by the Eriarti....
John woke up just before the Reno police discovered him asleep, naked, in his car. He found a note folded on the driver's seat:
John, you see what I'm capable of, and just who I've got on my side. You know I work for the government, but I don't think I told you exactly what branch of the government I work for. Don't screw with the court order, make your payments on time, and don't hassle Krystina. And if you *ever* lay a hand on either of the kids, today will seem like the best day of your life....
He just finished the note as a cop ordered him out of the car at gunpoint. Bail was set at $15,000....