"Cripes, Jahv was right." said Davy. "The place is too advanced for current technology on this planet!"
Pol smiled. "Observant, aren't you, boy?" He directed his comment at Jahv. "Of course the place was never meant to fool other Botarans. Just humans."
"And no one suspects you of being anything other than human." said Arion.
"Of course not." said Pol. "I am viewed as a brilliant genius, but something of a recluse. No real social life. So be it. After a day in this holographic disguise, my antennae start buzzing. And of course I am a sufficiently important individual within this business circle to warrant the finest security — that also knows enough to mind its own business and give me privacy from themselves even as they keep other people out."
"So why drag us here?" asked Jahv. "Why not just have us tossed out after our disguises failed?"
"Two reasons." said Pol. "I can sympathize with your plight. You're not as well off as I am. As children, you're less able to mingle with the people of this world and find a place for yourselves. I wanted to rescue you from possible further suspicion and capture by the wrong people."
"And saving the rep of your own park and making sure that none'a that 'suspicion' comes down on your head wouldn't have anything to do with it, right?" snapped Keith.
"I'd be lying if I said that wasn't something of a consideration." said Pol. "But from that basis, you're hardly the first — situation — I've had to deal with quietly around here. You're certainly the first involving people of my own race — or other offworlders. Keisner Park has a superb, almost flawless safety record."
"Almost." said Davy.
"There's always some idiot who thinks he can stand up on a roller coaster, or climb over a safety railing, or get out of a moving vehicle, and he's not going to get hurt." said Pol. "Such matters are tended to with the utmost of compassion — and the utmost of efficiency."
"You said two reasons." stated Jahv.
"I have no idea of what your existence is like on this world," said Pol. "But how would you like to stay here, with me? Work for me. Your own holographic disguises and your portable transmat units are quite impressive. And I could guarantee your safety."
"Does that include Morik and me?" asked Arion harshly.
"Of course. The Dorrian penchant for ornamentation would be a valuable asset to this park. And I've seen the architecture of your world. We could use design elements of that here."
"I'm not sure about this…" said Jahv. "These others are our friends. We don't even know you."
"I understand your hesitancy." replied Pol. "Look, why don't you all step into this other room?" Pol waved to a second doorway along a side wall of his office. "There's something to see in there that I believe will convince you to remain."
Jahv whipped out his backpack. "You don't mind if I run a sensor scan, do you?"
"Of course not." said Pol, smiling.
Jahv pulled out his scanner. "Reads as a large holographic grid. Like a holocron room. Should be safe enough."
"It could be interesting." said Keyro.
Pol walked over to the doorway, and opened it. "It's perfectly safe. Please, I think you'll be impressed."
The eight boys looked at each other. Arion and Keith clearly weren't convinced, but they all seemed to realize that there wasn't much alternative. If it would settle this entire issue and get them either out of this office and out of the park — or at least have the matter resolved — then so be it. They cautiously entered the massive room.
And Pol slammed the door behind them and sealed them in.
Keith let loose with the worst string of expletives he'd ever let fly with in his life. Arion was doing likewise in his own language, sounding like a really pissed-off hawk.
Pol's face appeared hovering above the youngsters in the darkened room. "Idiot children. I knew who you were the instant you set foot in the park. The entire place is lined with sensors to detect advanced technology. Nice landing in the men's room by the way. I suppose it could've been worse. You could've ended up in the ladies room."
Jahv cut loose with a burst of native language static that sounded no more polite than what Keith and Arion had said. "What do you mean to do with us!"
"I mean to use you to get myself off of this pathetic, backward mudball of a planet once and for all!" said Pol. "I know who you are, Jahv and Keyro. Runaways. That's a serious crime and you know it. And I have connections with one of our world's magistrates. He knows I'm here and has been prepared to keep that knowledge a secret."
"What!?" exploded Jahv. "A Botaran magistrate keeping secrets!? That's unheard of!"
"Not when it's in his best interests." said Pol. "True, I should be hauled off this world and arrested for passing along technology to a primitive culture myself, but that doesn't have the same — social relevance as dealing with a couple of well-publicized runaways. That, by the way, will be added to the charges against you. Those four humans have no business having transmat discs. Which, by the way, won't work in that shielded room, so spare yourselves the effort."
"How could you make a deal with a magistrate!?" yelled Jahv.
"When he's my brother, that's how." said Pol. "He wants to advance in his profession, and I want to return to mine and stop playing games here. Trying a couple of runaway tech-trading traitors should be just the thing for his career, and I will be the hero who after struggling to survive for years on a backwater planet was the one that found you and brought you in, along with the local natives you consorted with. That won't be too far from the truth."
"This has got to be a bluff!" snapped Arion. "How's this — " Arion made a rude noise in his throat "-expect to get the lot of us to your homeworld!?"
"I won't have to." said Pol. "My brother is stationed on a traveling trial ship. All I have to do is summon him to the proper location."
"Yeah, right." said Keyro. "Summon him to an off-limits world."
"Hardly." said Pol. "Summon him to where we'll be appearing."
The face of Pol faded, and the floor beneath the boys began to glow. "I don't believe this!"
said Jahv. "The entire floor is a transmat pad!"
"Pol!" screamed Keyro. "At least let our friends from this world go!"
But it was far too late for that.
REVIEW: Jahv had invented a portable transmat device that would allow the user to teleport anywhere on the planet. He, Keyro, Morik, and Arion, along with Niklas, Keith, Martin, and Davy, used the transmat discs to travel to Keisner Park, which had gained a reputation in a very short period of operation of being the most sophisticated, advanced theme-amusement park in the world. Holographic disguises kept the four aliens' true identities from being revealed, until the group decided to play in some nearby fountains, which disrupted the holographic disguises and kept the transmat discs from functioning. The group sought refuge in a nearby restroom until the discs could be dried enough for use. Unfortunately, Jahv had left his precious backpack out at the fountains, and Keith was caught by park security trying to retrieve it. The other youngsters were taken in shortly thereafter. They were taken to the office of the creator of Keisner Park, a man named Paul Keisner, who revealed himself to the youngsters to be of the same alien race as Jahv and Keyro, a Botaran tech-designer named Pol. Initially seeming to be friendly, he soon captured the eight children and locked them in a room that was actually one immense transmat device with interstellar range. Pol wanted to rejoin Botaran society, but realizing that he had spent a great deal of time on an «off-limits» world, needed a way back. Turning in the two runaways Jahv and Keyro and bringing them up on charges of treason by sharing their technology with the local «primitives» would be a good way to do that — especially if the Botaran Magistrate he delivered the youngsters to on board a traveling Botaran Judicial Vessel happened to be Pol's own older brother who was looking to advance his own career with a particularly spectacular case — such as two runaways who could also be charged with a particularly heinous crime by Botaran standards…
The eight boys were being led by large armed and armored Botaran guards through the corridors of a rather nondescript vessel. Keith had only stopped swearing a few seconds ago, Arion was still muttering under his breath, Martin was clinging to Niklas and Davy for all he was worth, Morik looked almost as petrified, and Jahv and Keyro looked all of betrayed, angry, and scared.
"Where the hell are we, anyway?" said Keith. Apparently the guards didn't have any argument with the boys conversing. Either that or they didn't understand what was being said.
"On board a Botaran Judicial Vessel." explained Jahv. "There's hundreds of ships like these. Justice is swift in my culture, and the Magistrates make all the decisions. They're generally the most honest and honorable people in our society. But I guess there's exceptions."
"Why vessel?" asked Morik.
"My people travel a lot, to many worlds." said Jahv. "If there's a legal problem, it's easier to send a ship to the problem than to bring the problem to the homeworld."
"But we were on Earth!" protested Niklas, his voice shaky. "Why would your people be that close to our world?"
"I'm not sure they were, and I'm not sure we are anymore." said Jahv. "That was a massive transmat platform, even bigger than the one Keyro and I used when we traveled to Earth when we first left home. If the underlying power grid was as immense, we could've been shot halfway across the galaxy."
"Why do you people even have ships if you can do that?" asked Davy, trying to keep his mind off of what was happening.
"The transmats take a LOT of power," said Jahv. "Ships are easier, and better, for large cargo transportation as well as general exploration. Pol probably blew out half the power grid of Keisner Park sending us here."