Merko read Sanches' mind and knew he didn't believe he was among extraterrestrials. However, the young man was astonished with the appearance those unexpected guys at his door, with the way they had teleported and with all the technology before him. The vision of the commander in his alien form before he had fainted still disturbed him, even though he still thought it had been a dream or a nervous breakdown.

"This hombre tells me he is an E.T. He must be crazy! I think they have kidnapped me and will ask my mother for ransom. Poor mother! We're not rich, and hers and my father's salaries barely pay my university", the earthling worried.

"Take it easy, Earth boy!" the captain said in advance. "We are not kidnappers and we don't want your family's money either. I'll prove to you we're not from here, but keep calm, please. Do you remember when you were a child and your mom forced you to go to church? Priest Francisco's sermons lasted hours, and you used to be very mad because you had to go with her instead of being home watching TV shows. She also didn't understand that at school, when your friends started to talk about their favorite shows and you had nothing to say, it was a frustration for you..." The young man's eyes got wide with amazement. How could he know about all those things? "Do you need me to tell you more? How about if I talk about Lindy, that girl you had fallen for at school? Do you remember her dark curly hair?"

The earthling didn't say anything, but he couldn't stop thinking... Which meant the same for the captain.

"It seems he has read my mind! That's impossible! How can he know the priest's and my childhood crush's names? He must be a mutant that reads thoughts, like those guys from the movies, or maybe a government experiment..."

Annoyed with the boy's persisting disbelief, he placed two fingers on his bracelet. Done... He was an alien again, that figure all human beings were afraid of.

"This must be a dream. This isn't possible! It must be a hallucination. Did you give me anything to drink? Did you put anything in it?"

He stared at Merko's wrist.

"His bracelet! It's the same as Nick's!" Sanches exclaimed; his eyes wide. "So, his father stole it, and now you want to kidnap my friend to get it back?"

Sanches' confusion was palpable. Merko, however, frowned, utterly perplexed. "Bracelet? What bracelet?" he thought, completely lost. He was unaware of any device that could be connected to Nicholas or his father.

"Did Sivoc give Nicholas a bracelet?" The thought was fleeting. It didn't change anything. He needed to take the boy and leave this planet.

Attributing Sanches' words to delirium and confusion, Merko decided to remain calm. He took a deep breath and tried once again to reason with the boy. He needed Sanches to focus, to understand the gravity of the situation.

Only then could he glean any useful information about Nicholas' whereabouts, or at least, access the boy's thoughts and unravel the mystery surrounding him.

"Sanches, pay attention!" Merko said out loud. "Look at that transparent wall."

A wall rose at one side of the room where they were in, and the young man saw they were placed on a peak that was very similar to a mountain. He ran to the glass wall, looked down and realized they were over six thousand feet up.

He pondered about saying something, but nothing came out of his mouth. He believed himself delirious. The commander came by and put his left hand over his shoulder to calm him down. Sanches screamed in panic.

Right then, Crom also came up in his extraterrestrial form and made him even more scared.

"How is our visitor doing, Commander?"

"He's doing all right! Still a bit skeptical, though. But I'm sure that he will understand very soon that our eyes never deceive us and that, even if we try to run away from things we wish weren't real, we have to face the truth someday."

"From what I can see, he's not doing well at all. He's very frightened."

"If all of this is real, what do you expect of me?" Sanches said and moved away from those two creatures. "And why haven't you killed me? Please, don't do my parents any harm. Where are they? Are you invading my planet?" he blabbed.

"Don't worry, boy," Merko tried to calm him down. "Your family is well and we don't intend to invade your planet. To be honest, we wouldn't have brought you here if you hadn't seen my men teleporting. But, since you saw them, we had to bring you with us and now we need your help."

"But how can I help you? I don't think you need a student who speaks Spanish. I saw your men speaking my parent's language."

"I'm not going to go around and help some E.T.s invade Earth," the young man thought again, unaware that the captain could read his mind.

"Take it easy. It has nothing to do with that. I'm just looking for a friend of yours."

"Ok, don't tell me... It's about Nicholas again. That's what they asked me at home... And I've told them everything I know."

"Sure. But there's one piece of information missing: what's the name of the girl you both met and where is she from?"

"I won't tell you anything else."

"What the hell is going on with Nick? Why do these aliens want to put their hands on him so much? I think it has to do with the bracelet he wore."

The captain, invading Sanches' mind, captured a wave of resentment and frustration while evoking Nicholas' figure. He could vision the heated argument between the friends, how Sanches felt hurt for being the last one to know about the romance with Zara.

"Why are you so protective of your friend?" Merko questioned in a curious tone. "He went out with the girl both of you had a crush on, and he told you nothing about it! It seems like trust is not part of this friendship. Why would you worry about him? Don't worry, we don't intend to do anyone any harm. Zara, is that the girl's name?"

"It's... Yes, Zara." Sanches answered, hesitating, still surprised with Merko's ability to read his thoughts. "But how did you hear about that?"

"Someone told us at the University."

Still mad at Nicholas, the boy told him everything.

"Zara, the most beautiful chica of all, showed up at the university and Nicholas, shy as always, fell in love with her right away. They couldn't take their eyes off each other and I encouraged him to get close to her."

"I see... That makes me want to learn everything I can about your friend. Do you have any idea where he could be now?"

"I have no idea of what else to say. Oh God! Nick hasn't said a word about his date with the chica. I don't even know if we are such close friends anymore. But I'll tell this man everything I remember. I won't make anything up. If I do so, maybe they'll leave me alone and decide not to attack my family", Sanches thought.

"He was going out with the chica, but, even though I'm a close friend of his, I was the last one to have knowledge about it."

Merko and Crom looked at each other, and the captain raised an eyebrow being surprised with Sanches' reaction.

"Crom, let's go back to our terrestrial form. He's cooperating and telling us everything he knows, even things that we aren't interested in", the commander said telepathically.

They went back to their human forms to make him more comfortable.

"You look much better this way," the boy affirmed.

The captain smiled at Crom as he fingered through the grey tufted hair that hung on his forehead.

"Let's release him. I think he has already told us everything he knows about his friend. I'm almost sure Sivoc's team has hidden the spaceship somewhere on Earth. They must be mixed among human beings. We shall find the spaceship Science. Then, we hack their computer and find some clues of their whereabouts."

"Thank you, lad. You were of great value for us", Merko thanked him.

But the young man was filled with remorse. He regretted saying anything.

"I shouldn't have told them anything at all. Nick was always a nice guy, and he may be in danger. I wonder what these men want from him ¡Que Dios nos proteja!"

"Take the boy to the nursery and delete his memory up to the point when he saw our men at his house. He won't remember a single thing and he'll feel better. Then, teleport him back to his home." Captain Crom ordered telepathically.

Sanches observed other two men coming out of a door on the wall. Along with Crom, they escorted him to the infirmary. There was no way to fight back.

On their way, the earthling observed the hallways.

They were lit by a blue light that drew a central line on the floor and a continuous strip of lamps on both sides of the ceilings. Then, a door opened and he could see the medical room. There, he also saw a nurse wearing a mask and a white uniform, as well as a man with a silver uniform that made him look like a doctor. Before he could say anything, somebody came from behind him and shot him on the neck. He fell asleep.

A while later, he was in his garage, minutes before his mother found him fainted on the floor.

"¡Mi querido hijo! Estás aquí. ¡Por favor, despierta!"[6]

The young man opened his eyelids.

"What happened, mamá?" He asked, unaware of what had happened to him.

"I don't know, my dearest. I thought you knew what had happened and would be able to tell me. Are you well?"

"¡Si, mamá!"[7]

"Lo que importa es que tú estás bien, mi querido hijo."[8]

The boy had a headache and closed his eyes pressing onto them hoping the pain would cease. When he did that, though, he visualized an E.T. Afraid of what he had seen, he looked up to the sky in order to check if he would see anything.

"What the hell was that?" He wondered.

The image, in fact was nothing more than an after effect of what he had lived. Sanches believed he had had a bad dream and that image might have been the last thing he had lived in his nightmare.

In the quietness of his bedroom, he had many similar dreams during the following days.

***

Meanwhile, Merko planned his next step, talking to Crom in order to be successful in his mission.

"We must locate the Scientific spaceship, find the boy and take him with us to planet Life. We have to save Princess Isadora. Zara used her female gifts in the shape of a beautiful woman to seduce the young man and take him with her. As for Sivoc, I know him as well as all his team, and I'm sure they are all honorable people. I can't understand why they're hiding from me since we could work together. Maybe they want to take over the mission and gain prestige with the government. Two task forces were chosen in order to avoid failures in the mission. If one of them were caught by Earth's governments, the other would go on and nothing would be lost. That's why we were chosen to save the mission. Everyone knows I've never failed before and I won't miss the opportunity to save our next Queen's life now, no matter what it takes."

________________________________

[6] My dear son! You are here. Please wake up!

[7] Yes, mom!

[8] What matters is that you are well, my dear son.