"Hold on," said Marcius, "I can see you understand. Yes, we were assigned to kill you or else to hand you over to the Ionians. But everything's changed now, and you're the last person in this universe whom I'd wish to harm."
The old man narrowed his eyes, not sure where he was going with this.
"I need to know where your girl saw the world that was recreated in the performance."
Iza raised his brows in surprise and quickly responded:
"I won't talk as long as your partner's still here. He must return to your capsule."
Marcius glanced at Karii. "Go", he said.
His friend was in shock. "What? You want to stay here by yourself? That's suicide!"
"I need you to leave right now! That's an order!" Marcius commanded.
Full of dread, Karii slowly started to go up the stairs. Iza called after him:
"No funny business, you hear? I have your partner and I can see everything!"
Marcius was left alone with the old man. He still had his magnetic beam tucked away in his belt, and Iza saw this.
"Take out your beam," he said, "Put it on the floor and roll it towards me."
Marcius slowly carried out his order. Iza caught the beam with his foot and picked it up. He looked at the screens, keeping track of Karii, making sure he's back at the capsule.
"Now we can start talking," he said calmly. "I suggest we go in order. First of alclass="underline" Tulona needs to know the attacker, and I have a report ready." He took a file out of his pocket and showed it to Marcius, who reached for it, but the old man held it just out of reach.
"First the money!" he said.
Marcius took all four cubes out of his bag and gave them to him.
"A generous payment, your general won't regret it. The information I'm giving you will change everything!"
With these worlds the old man handed Marcius the file and continued:
"Second of alclass="underline" as I understand, you have a personal question."
Marcius nodded and repeated himself:
"Where has your girl seen the world that was shown in the play?"
The old man paused, thinking, stepped from one foot to the other, his brow furled in concentration, and answered with a question of his own:
"In other words, you're asking me to provide you with more information, yes?"
"Yes!" Marcius exclaimed impatiently.
"In that case, you should know: Iza never gives anything out for free!"
Marcius nodded.
"Do you know what's the most valuable thing in the universe?"
"What?" he asked, taken aback.
"Information! And accurate information is twice as expensive! You want to know the truth about where my Lika saw this? Then you better pay up," said the old man with a cunning smile.
"I'm afraid I have nothing more to offer you," Marcius replied, disappointed.
"You have quite a nice ring sitting there on your finger," said Iza, squinting in a most unpleasant way.
Marcius winced. The ring was priceless to him, and parting with it wasn't an option. He found the ring in a secret drawer belonging to his father after his death, and before that the ring belonged to his grandfather, and his father before him. He'd seen it in ancient holographic photographs. The ring had been with the Lauons since time immemorial.
"This ring means too much to me!" he retorted.
"It's really up to you. If the ring is more valuable than the information, then leave, and if not, take it off and you will see everything with your own eyes."
Marcius was faced with an unpleasant decision. Parting with his father's ring meant losing the familial protection he felt upon himself while wearing it, and keeping it meant missing his chance to answer his most burning question. The price was enormous, but the immense power of curiosity drew him to the old man stronger than the gravity of even the largest of planets.
"I will never forgive myself if I leave right now without getting an answer," Marcius thought.
With pain in his heart, he ripped off the ring and with a quickly handed it over to the old man.
Having received what he wanted, Iza carefully examined the metal under a microscope that suddenly appeared before his eye, then shook the ring in the air as if checking its weight, then bit down on it, and finally hid it away in his pocket with a satisfied smile. After which, with an ever-signifying expression on his face, he started to talk:
"Several years ago I discovered a signal. Due to the nature of my profession I daily come across thousands of signals from different corners of the universe, and this one in particular did not seem to me at first to be any more exceptional than the rest. A weak, barely audible impulse cycling in a loop, requiring a thorough deciphering. It was no simple task, as I had never before encountered such a method of transmission. It was surprisingly primitive, yet genius at the same time. Yet still I was able to get something out of it!
With these words the old man climbed under his table and pulled a clear file out of a handmade box covered with children's drawings. It looked like a lit up glass cube.
"Lika likes it. She enjoys the pictures and the music. I put them on for her before bedtime," he said, suspending the cube in midair by one of its corners with a ray of light.
The girl smiled widely. She came up close to him, anticipating to see her favorite show yet another time.
A cloud started to from inside the cube. It thickened and grew, stretching like a fabric across all planes. The cube grew in size. Images started to flash across the sides, and were soon followed by music. Marcius had never heard a melody like this. The music was poignant, worrisome, reaching to the depth of his soul. The pictures raced by one after the other like a slide show.
Marcius looked into each one, overtaken with wonder. He was seeing his visions manifesting in real life. Exotic landscapes gave way to incomprehensible diagrams and numbers; an image of a humble woman with a baby in her lap; a portrait of another woman, lonesome and dressed in black, with a mysterious smile; a graphic depiction of a naked man inside a circle, with arms and legs stretched out in all directions; unheard of birds and animals, and again numbers and diagrams.
In one of the diagrams Marcius recognized human DNA, another resembled the structure of an unknown molecule. Then the images started to repeat, cycling through a second time. Captivated by the powerful music and the clarity of the images, he felt a tear slide down his cheek. Indescribable ecstasy took his breath away.
"Where did the signal come from?" he asked in a barely audible whisper.
The old man remained enigmatically silent.
"There are also people in that world, can't you see?" he asked, excited.
The old man nodded: "Apparently so."
"Have you tried to find them?"
Iza, surprised, asked in all seriousness:
"What for?"
Marcius didn't hear him, everything inside him was in turmoil.
"Where did the signal come from?" he kept on repeating, as if in a trance.
Iza was about to answer, but all of a sudden cut himself off and said reproachfully:
"We're surrounded by Ionians."
His monitors displayed the space around the ship. It was filled with Ionian robots. Marcius counted ten of them. He looked at the old man in alarm.
"Where did the signal come from?"
Iza smiled his cunning smile.
"If the robots get to me, you'll never know! Save me, and you'll receive your answer."
Marcius stood there, flabbergasted. Failing to give him up to the robots meant going against Indro's orders, but without him he had no idea how to find that world. He quickly weighed his pros and cons. If the old man manages to lead him to the world he so desperately seeks, Tulona would greatly benefit, which might absolve his disobedience of orders. Marcius decided:
"I'll get you out of here, trust me!"
Iza agreed.
"Give me the beam! Let me tie up your hands!"
The old man handed him his weapon.