Alice felt rather useless. “I don’t understand,” she admitted. Glen smiled for her as he explained.

“They send a ship into the Carolinas. I assume you had no trouble tracking it.”

“Easy,” Bobbi said. “We know they have two dozen or so ships outside the atmosphere, but normally we can’t track them at all. They do not show up on any of our systems. We only know they are there because of the night shadow effect.”

“Night shadow?” Alice asked.

“Call it the eclipse effect. They show up by blocking the incoming light of the stars; like the old witch flying across the face of the full moon. Anyway, this time they want to be seen to get Bobbi and her crew to follow in force.”

“We figured it was a set-up, alerted Washington, and prepared to defend ourselves for all the good it did; but Boston figured out who they were after so we had to go.”

“You?” Alice looked at Glen. “But you don’t die.” She felt she understood that much whether she believed it or not.

“No, but as a baby I would not be much of a threat to them, especially for the first nine months.”

“I see. Of course.” Alice gulped. “You mean I could be your mother someday?”

Glen lowered his eyes as he looked at her. “Right now, I could be your father, and don’t worry, I have no intention of dying any time soon.”

“I see,” Alice repeated herself. “So, if this outfit, organization or whatever…” She waved her hands to indicate the building and everyone in it. “If they don’t follow the Vordan ship, you get killed, but if they do follow, they take away a big chunk of their defensive capabilities and their headquarters becomes vulnerable.”

“That sums it up,” Glen said, but before he could add a thought, there came a knock on the door. Lockhart came in. His wheelchair had plenty of self-propulsion options, but it looked like he preferred to have Boston push him around.

“Interrupting, I hope,” he said.

“Director. You have a whole line of people waiting outside.” Boston spoke overtop.

“Shut the door,” Bobbi insisted, and turned quickly to Glen. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I need to get Alice started on her job,” Glen said. He leaned forward, took a clean page from Bobbi’s legal pad, and used his pen to write the words, Kargill, Reichgo and Zalanid on the paper. He handed it to Alice. “There are other spellings, but what you want is to corral the legal freaks in this place and get them all working on digging up whatever they can find on the Reichgo-Kargill treaty, terms and conditions, clause after clause.”

“Treaties.” Alice said the word and shook her head softly.

“Think binding contract. We need something we can use legally against the Vordan.”

“Will I be arguing in some galactic court or something?” Alice sounded uncertain about that prospect.

Glen laughed. “No, but here is the quick scoop.” He sat back down in his chair and motioned the others in close, as if he was about to tell the secret of the universe. “The second Reichgo-Kargill war is about to break out and they will spend the next hundred years or so fighting each other to a standstill. So, for the second hundred years, they gather allies, well, the Reichgo mostly get help. The Kargill does not like anybody much. It just barely tolerates the Zalanid, and, well, anyway…anyway. The Vordan enter on the Reichgo side, and eventually are given faster than light technology, but that will not be for a hundred and fifty years or so. Even then, when the Reichgo and Kargill are wiped out, and I mean they exterminate each other, and the third hundred years finds everybody fighting everybody, we do not run into the Vordan until long after the peace. You see? That is what I don’t get. The Vordan are so far away, at sub-light speed, it would take a hundred years to get here, but a hundred years ago they did not have the technology. What are they doing here, now? How did they get here?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Alice said. “But the technology seems pretty advanced if you ask me.”

“Uh-huh.” Boston agreed and nodded her head. This time Lockhart and Bobbi both looked at Glen.

“Believe it or not, on their home world they are not that far ahead of us, technologically speaking. They are war-like, and have ambitions since some fifty, or maybe a hundred years ago, their probes confirmed that there are not only planets around some of their neighboring stars, but a semblance of intelligent life in two places. They poured their resources into developing the means to reach and subjugate those poor alien races, and maybe that war-like drive is the reason the Reichgo took them as allies. I know that was the case with the Orlan and the Bospori; but at this point, they have simply driven themselves into space and into war. They are not concerned about saving their planet, or greening it, or making nice with everybody. Do you know what they do with a rogue state? Boom-de boom, boom. Hang the fallout. Problem solved.”

“Bospori? You mean Martok?” Alice asked. Glen nodded while there came another knock on the door. A head poked in.

“One more minute,” Bobbi shouted and the door shut quickly. “So, Traveler. What will you be doing? Don’t think I forgot the question. I’m not that old, yet.”

Glen shifted in his seat. “Yes, well. I want to get Alice started and then I thought I might go interrogate your prisoner.”

Alice shook her head in a definite no. “I mean, I don’t mind the legal work, whatever, but I’m not leaving your side. Don’t think I am going to miss talking to an alien.” Glen looked hesitant so she added, “Every accused person needs a lawyer.”

“We will read him his rights.” Lockhart laughed, and with a look at Boston, they turned back to the door. Alice rose. Glen asked a question of his own.

“And what will you be doing?”

“Me?” Bobbi thought that was obvious. “I’ll be glued to this chair for at least the next twenty-four hours. I sometimes wonder if you did me a favor.” Glen suggested she accompany them, but only with his hands. She shook him off. She knew her duty. “Go on,” she said. “Let me know what you find out.” And they left.

Legal was on the third floor, and pretty badly damaged by the look of it. Most of the files against the outer walls were unscathed, and the important stuff got backed up in the mainframe in the third basement—the bomb shelter. Alice met some of the others but hardly took the time to get to know them before she swooped up a laptop, a steno pad and a pen, and followed Glen and Lockhart. Boston showed her how to tap into the internal network so she could work while she watched, but she was not going to miss this. The pen and paper were for writing down questions she planned to ask when she had the chance, and she already had a couple of doozies.

The prisoner sat in an isolation tank. The tank had a bed, a table with three chairs around it and a fourth chair pushed against the wall. It also had a toilet and sink behind a short partition, but that was it for decorations. One wall had a mirror behind an unbreakable plastic partition, which, of course, became see-through on their side of the glass. Currently, the Vordan sat at the table with his back to the mirror, and Alice expressed surprise saying that she did not realize they could sit since they appeared to her to walk rather stiffly.

“Probably not as stiff as it would walk now,” Glen said. He noted that the Vordan had been bandaged in several places. The doctors went in there to take tissue and blood samples, but otherwise he guessed no one else had ventured into the room. He was wrong.

“Mister Lockhart?” The man, Belden, asked without asking before he answered Glen’s question. Lockhart merely nodded and Belden opened-up. The woman in that room, Ms. Franklin, stayed busy typing, taping everything the Vordan did, and recording every noise it made, but she watched the exchange between Belden and Glen as well, having some questions of her own.

“Actually, two security officers and professor Singh went in to see if they could communicate with the creature.”

“Person,” Glen corrected. “Just because he isn’t human, that does not make him less of a person. And I bet he rushed the guards.”

“It—he tried to,” Belden said. He looked again at Lockhart as if to say he now had a different set of questions in mind.

“Yes, well don’t do that again without permission. Being taken prisoner is a great shame. He will try to get you to kill him as penance for his sin, and then you will have nothing. Just think of the Japanese in World War II. One opportunity and it is hari-kari.” Glen stepped up to the glass but got interrupted when the phone rang. Belden answered it. He listened for a minute and mumbled before he held out the phone to Lockhart.

“Land line’s back working I see,” Lockhart said, without showing any interest in touching the phone.

“It’s for the Traveler?” Belden did not know what to do except cover the phone. Boston pointed at Glen.

“Who is it?” Glen asked.

“It’s the director, sir.” Belden held out the phone.

Alice mumbled as she wrote a note on her notepad.

“Tell her I’m busy,” Glen turned back to observing the Vordan. Unfortunately, the Vordan did not seem to want to do anything other than sit there. When Glen turned around a second time, he saw everyone staring at him with open mouths, except Lockhart, who covered his laugh.

“Oh, okay.” Glen took the phone. “Bobbi? Yes, I am busy. I was thinking of water boarding. Huh? No, just kidding… What? I don’t know anything yet, you interrupted the process… Calm down, you will know as soon as anyone… Huh? So, sit on them. Tell him to tell them… Tell them that for the first time in history we are all in this together, and now is the time, like no other, to support and help each other, not accuse each other. We need to let the experts do their job if we expect this threat to be neutralized… I don’t care if they don’t believe him… Tell him to tell them anything you like. Look, by the way, tell him I will be up there sometime tomorrow. There is something I need to get out of his office… A secret compartment… No, I am not going to tell you, oh, wait, that would be Lincoln’s office… Yes, Abraham Lincoln. I had to hide it in a hurry… No, I’m not kidding. I suppose that would be the Lincoln bedroom now. Just tell him to try not to push any buttons between now and then… Yes, that time I was kidding.” He handed the phone back to Belden with one more word. “Sheesh!”

“So?” Alice had to know even if no one else did.

“So, the President called. A couple of governments are making noises like the strike on their territories was an American plot.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Ms. Franklin expressed what everyone felt. Glen looked back at the Vordan again with a final comment.

“There is a lot to be said for Boom-de boom, boom.”

“So, what now?” Alice asked.

“So, now I have to be someone else.”