So she wanted to hear everything? Obviously she couldn't handle everything. What made her any different from the two guys they'd just spent the last five hours talking to? The people here had a strange way of interpreting the truth — a tendency to twist it to fit their own beliefs. If she didn't believe that they were visitors from outer space, how then was she going to believe everything he could tell her?
This had been a big mistake. Hunter had convinced himself of this by now. And it was all of his doing. Over the billions of miles traveled, never once had the thought occurred to him that the people here wouldn't know about Zazu-Zazu, the Freedom Brigade, the Home Planets, and the long, strange journey needed to reach this place — assuming this was the right place. But it was apparent soon after the Betaville cops showed up in the smoldering alfalfa field that they didn't have the slightest idea what he or Tomm or Zarex were talking about. The problem was, by that time, some very crazy-sounding stuff had spilled out of their big mouths, and once gone, it was impossible to get back. It was also very clear by the reaction of the cops that this planet wasn't aware of spaceflight or that anything or anyone existed beyond its own atmosphere. Not a good sign, considering what Hunter and company had come here to do.
They were cuffed, put into a squad car, and driven to the jail. It was at that point the three silently agreed Pater Tomm would do most of the talking from then on, at least until they could figure a way out of this mess. And the padre was good at spinning. Once they were brought to the interrogation room, he was able to avoid giving the cops any more information by simply repeating over and over the bare essentials of what they had so foolishly blurted out to them already. By never deviating from this speech, they'd hoped to eventually wear down the Betaville cops, to the point of disinterest. Or at least that was the plan.
But that was where they'd made their second mistake. The three of them had naively assumed that once they'd talked themselves blue to the police, they'd be allowed to go free. But that certainly didn't seem to be the case now. The Betaville authorities clearly thought they were crazy, and they were not about to let them run loose in the streets. Instead, they were going to be processed, poked, and questioned. Investigated. For days, months, even years.
There was no time for any of that.
So instead of answering the pretty girl's question, Hunter posed to her one of his own.
"Would it really be so unusual?" he asked her suddenly. "I mean, would you be that shocked if it turned out that we were telling you the truth?"
She almost laughed, at the same time pulling the top of her blouse together.
"You mean that you were somehow transported here, from outer space?"
All three men nodded.
"Have you ever heard of anything like this before?" Hunter asked her.
She paused a moment.
"Well, it's an interesting question coming from you," she said finally. "I mean, sure, I've read stories. Mostly in the tabloids. People visited by beings from outer space. Or being carried away in their ships. Or just disappearing and never coming back."
"And you just don't think any of that is possible?"
She rolled her eyes. "No one does," she said.
"But why not?" Hunter pressed her. "It's a big universe out there."
She looked out the nearby window. The stars were shining brightly beyond.
"Big? It sure is," she replied, pointing toward the night sky. "But it also looks very, very empty from down here."
"But that all depends on how you look at it," Hunter told her. "From our perspective maybe it looks very busy, very full."
She laughed again. "Yeah, that's rich, pal. But OK, even if someone was able to somehow get off this planet, which no one has ever even tried, the distance to get anywhere else is prohibitively great, isn't it?"
She checked her notes. "Of course, the guys downstairs said you claimed you can travel more than a light-year a second. Boy, that's fast."
"And again, you think that's impossible?"
She looked right back at him. "Yes sir, I do."
Hunter paused for a moment. This wasn't going anywhere, and they were running out of time. The Betaville cop would be back with her refreshments soon, and that would just make a difficult situation even worse.
So he worded his next question very carefully.
"Let's say we were able to convince you that we are telling you the truth… and that we came here from outer space because we had this overwhelming need to. Or at least 1 did. What would you do then?"
She laughed, then reached into her handbag and came out with her car keys.
"I would tell you to take my car and just drive right around the planet, baby — see this lonely little place that had drawn you over billions of miles — and then I'd write a book about you, and we'd all become millionaires."
Hunter was surprised by her answer.
"Really?" he asked her.
"Really," she replied.
Hunter thought about this for a moment then looked over at Zarex and Pater Tomm. That was good enough for them.
"Padre?" Hunter said to Tomm. "After you…"
The priest did a slight bow. "May I get something in my pocket?" he asked Lisa. "Not a weapon, I assure you."
"I'm a sucker for a good laugh," she said. "Be my guest."
Tomm reached into his pocket and withdrew an electron torch, the handy tool just about everyone in the Galaxy carried. He turned it on, then carved a square out of the air in front of him. The molecules instantly bonded into a pane of superglass, about two feet by two feet, glistening, yet pliable. Tomm grabbed the pane out of the air, and then began pushing it in from its corners, quickly forming a perfect, if overly large superglass diamond. Then he blew on it gently, causing the molecules to disperse and making it disappear.
They all looked at Lisa. She was staring back at them, mouth open, but skeptical around her eyes.
"A trick…" she managed to mumble. "A good one, but…"
Tomm looked at Hunter. More was needed. The pilot took a small white box from his pocket and activated the button on top. There was a sudden flash and then a burst of green smoke. When it dissipated, his flying machine was standing in the middle of the big room, its tail fin crushing some of the Christmas boxes.
Lisa dropped her glasses; they hit the table, then the floor, shattering into a thousand little pieces. Her jaw fell open. She turned pale. She tried to say something, but no words would come out. In fact, she had a hard time catching her breath. She managed to stand up, though, and stumble forward, approaching the spacecraft gingerly. She reached out and touched it, making sure that she wasn't in a dream.
Then she began shaking her head. "No… this… this can't be real… "
They took her at her word; they couldn't help it, that's the way they were. So Zarex snapped his fingers, there was another burst of green smoke, and suddenly the danker 33418 was standing before them, all ten feet of him. Metallic muscles, arm weapons, death-ray visor. The works.
Lisa looked up at him, and the robot made an unusual whirring sound.
That's when she fainted dead away.
She hit the floor with a bang, taking out one of the old rickety chairs with her. "Oh great!" Zarex moaned. 'Wow what do we do with her?"
Not a minute later, they were bounding down the stairs of the police station, trying to make the least amount of noise possible, but tripping and slamming into things in the dark, nevertheless.
They reached the bottom floor and found themselves in a pitch-black hallway. Above them, they could hear many footsteps running down the stairs, coming their way. Hunter began groping around the wall and somehow found the rear door to the building. He hit the bar and the door sprang free. It also set off the building's security alarm.