Sandoval looked frustrated, even for him. "It does nothing.", he said.  Ne'eg slowly glanced at Sandoval and said, "It only appears to do nothing.  Observe closely.  The wings are trembling slightly, and the body is expanding and contracting in a steady rhythm."  What Ne'eg was observing directly, Boone was tracking on the data monitors.  Boone said, "If I didn't know better, I'd swear that it was breathing."  "While the action mimics respiration,", Ne'eg said.  "There is no detectable change of the atmosphere within the container."  Sandoval sighed. "Might as well be nothing."

Lili was still staring at the spot on the floor occupied by the golden coin with the X on it.  The air began to crackle slightly.  There was a smell that reminded her of the time when she was up on the parachute training tower seconds before the lightning struck it. She thought, "That student would have gotten us both killed if I hadn't ordered him to jump. Had to yell at the top of my lungs just to be heard over the wind. After I got him cut free of his tangled rigging, he couldn't get up the nerve to jump and take his chances with a fall rather than trying to make friends with an approaching storm.  I had to yell right in his ear.  I think that he was more scared of me than the fall itself.  He only got a twisted ankle, and I got a broken..... Damn, Lili, there is your answer!"

It came out as three separate words.  As loudly, and deeply, as possible, she yelled, "HOLD!  YOUR!  FIRE!"  She saw at least three of the men raise the muzzle of their weapons slightly.  Even though she had not had to use it in quite a while, the command voice still worked.  She dropped to one knee.  She heard a slight sound behind her.  She knew what it was.  It was Jonathan Doors going for his gun.

Lili accomplished the following in one move.  She reached for her own weapon, kicked back with the leg that she was not kneeling on, flipped over onto her back, got the weapon in both hands, raised her head, and took aim at Doors.

Doors had watch Lili drop in front of him but did not react correctly.  He was able to get his gun out of the holster, but by the time he was ready to aim, he was already staring down the barrel of Lili's gun.  Lili realized that the move had worked.  She smiled a vicious, snarling smile.  "Call off the dogs, Jonathan.", she said.  Lili glanced over her head at the two rows of soldiers.  Seven of them were still aiming at the X point.  Of the other three, two had taken aim at Doors, but the man nearest her had his weapon aimed directly at her head.  Lili looked directly up into the face of Jonathan Doors.  "Call them off!", she repeated.  He raised the muzzle of his gun and spread his hands.  He glanced up in frustrated desperation, then shook his head in resignation.  "Hold your fire, men.", he said.  The soldiers slowly relaxed their aim, and all were now looking at Doors.

Doors looked down at Lili and said, "You hold your fire too."  Jonathan thought that even though his son was a grown man, a there were no immediate plans for more little Doors children, no man would willing be shot where Lili was aiming.

It could not have been timed better.  THUMP!  The black circle opened accompanied by a rushing breeze.  Anton Miraldi stepped through the circle.  THUMP!  The circle closed and all was as it was, except that Miraldi was standing in the midst of the group.  Only Jonathan Doors was looking in the right spot to be able to witness the appearance.

Miraldi hooked his thumbs under his belt buckle and looked around. Jokingly he said, "Oh, Joy.  It looks as if I have crashed the wrong party."  It must have been the sound of his voice.  The soldiers turned to face him and took aim at his chest.  There was a loud snap, followed by a buzzing hum.  Miraldi was now glowing a bright blue.  It was not Miraldi himself that was glowing, but the air around him.  It looked as though Miraldi was in contact with a high voltage electric line.

Through the electric blue haze that surrounded his body, Miraldi surveyed the scene.  Soldiers were on both sides of him with their guns raised.  Ahead of him, on the floor lay Captain Lili Marquette.  She still had her gun pointed in the direction of Jonathan Doors but had relaxed her arms so that the gun was aimed more at her own foot than anywhere else.  She was on her back with Doors standing near her feet.  She was looking up over the top of her head, well she would be if she were standing, and looking at Miraldi.  Jonathan Doors was standing with his mouth hanging open and his eyes as wide as saucers.

The scene was so comical that Miradli could not help but laugh.  The field around him grossly distorted the sound, making it come out lower, and louder. On the outside, it sounded like a series of short, harsh, growls.  Seeing the astonished Jonathan Doors, Miraldi thought to extend the hand of friendship.  He raised his right hand towards Doors and started to move forward.  The blue glow extended a bit forward of the outstretched hand, toward Doors.  Every motion that Miraldi made caused little sparks to appear at the edges of the field, accompanied by a pronounced crackling sound.  Some of these sparks jumped a tiny distance from the end of Miraldi's fingers in the direction of Doors.

This was all too much for one of the soldiers.  The man had been standing near Miraldi's left side.  Perceiving a threat to the leader of the resistance, and the person who signed the soldiers pay credits, he fired.  The weapon was set to issue an automatic three round burst.  All three rounds struck Miraldi.  All three rounds promptly bounced off of the electric shield he was wearing.  The three round struck the soldiers on the other side of Miraldi.  They were not wearing shields.  One man was killed outright, and two others were wounded.

Doors began to shout, his voice unusually tight and high pitched, as he walked towards Miraldi. "Hold your fire. Hold your fire! HOLD YOUR FY-YER!!", he cried.  Lili was still laying on the floor.  Doors did not even try to step around her.  Rather, he walked over her without stepping on her.  He stood in front of Miraldi, looking him up and down, with an expression that was reminiscent of a seven year old boy at Christmas.  Doors wanted to shake Miraldi's hand and actually reached for the grasp.  He had forgotten that he was still holding his own gun in his right hand.  Just before metal gun touched glowing hand, both men recognized the impending disaster, and dropped their hands to their sides.

Lili got up from the floor and walked up behind Doors.  She leaned up and whispered in his ear, "Send the troops away, Jonathan."  Doors stopped smiling from ear to ear and resumed his usual dour expression.  "Yes.", he said.  "Dismissed!"  The soldiers lowered their weapons, turned and walked out of the room.  Lili and Doors both put their guns in holster.  Miraldi grabbed his belt buckle and gave it a slight twist.  The glowing blue field disappeared.

"Anton!", Doors said excitedly.  "Anton Miraldi."  He put his right hand on Miraldi's shoulder.  "You old, dirty, rotten, no good, son of a gun.  You did it!  The portable defense shield.  You actually got that silly notion of yours to work!  And no heavy power packs.  How in the world did you pull this off?  You've got to tell me how this thing works!"

Miraldi put his right hand on the shoulder of Jonathan Doors and said, "Old friend, we have much to talk about."

[ Scene 06 | Table Of Contents | Scene 08 ]