Chapter 5

Mertaan smiled coldly at them. "Where are your pictures and persuasive manners now, scum!" He kicked them cruelly to their feet and they staggered off into the darkness before Katal'halee's weapon, still pleading for mercy.

Mertaan appeared to forget about them. He turned to Mike. "Into your ship. Quick! There is not too much time."

"You're helping us to make our escape?"

"I have a reason. Hurry."

They went up the ramp and inside. Mertaan stopped just outside the hatch and Mike turned. The Baserite said, "I know not from whence you came, stranger, but I ask that you go back to your world, wherever it is. Tell your people of us and plead our cause. Tell of the generations of cruelty on this planet and bring help for the oppressed. This I ask of you."

"But this uprising--your attack--"

Mertaan shook his head. "It does not go well. We will fight to the death as my people have fought before but I fear the result. The Ptomenites are powerful."

"Thanks." Mike held out his hand.

The Baserite took it, a little clumsily and smiled a farewell to Nicko who was peering around Mike, interpreting. "Go with your gods," the Baserite said. Then he turned and hurried back to the carnage and the bloodshed....

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"Father is resting," Doree said. "I'm sure he'll be all right in a little while. The treatment he received was a shock."

"It would have shaken a far stronger man. He'll be all right when he gets back to Terra and they honor him for this discovery."

The ship rocketed smoothly through space. Doree slipped into Mike's arms. "He found what he wanted. So did I." Mike kissed her.

A while later she asked, "Do you think the Baserites won?"

Mike stared out through the port, his eyes sad. "Somehow I don't think so. We can only hope. But soon a few thousand ships will appear in their skies. Their doors will be opened to all the universe and tyranny will not survive."

"Then we'll go back," Doree said.

"Then we'll go back."

THE END

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