Ketty sucked at the air tank as they ran downstairs, bringing back a clarity she forgot was possible. As she emerged from the overpowering mist of the planet Doha, she realized there was an urgency in the air. What had she been thinking? Why had she come here? There was only one reason.

"Boondock!" she blurted the words out loud. Then he was there, at the end of the hall, unharmed except Mon-catasto stood at his side. They all came up short, as the study door closed behind him.

"I'm leaving now," he said, revealing a blaster pointed at the back of Boondock's head.

"Dad, no," shouted Mikenzy, but he ignored her. It was funny she had known him all her life, but now realized she didn't know him at all. For the first time in her life, she wasn't in control. Not because of Doha's persuasive influence, or her mundane and pathetic life. She could see it in her father's eyes. He had made a decision and he was willing to suffer the consequences no matter what. "No daddy," she whimpered softly and began to cry, "no."

"It's over Greer," he said, taking a step forward. "I know you double crossed me, but it's too late now. I'm taking the little one with me."

"No," rasped Ketty through clenched teeth. Her blaster was pointed at Mikenzy's head. "I know you can't be touched, but are you so desperate as to sacrifice your own blood?"

The chuckle came from some dark place deep within the chest of the man standing before her. It was an odd sound here in the stillness of the hallway that grew into an uncontrolled laugh.

"You really are a stupid, naive little girl, aren't you Ketty? In fact you remind me of your pathetic father in so many ways. But what you don't understand is the same defective blood flowing through your veins is flowing through Mikenzy's." He paused to admire the look of shock that finally registered in her eyes. "That's right little princess, she is your first cousin, one of the few living relatives you have left. Would you really destroy your own blood line?" He laughed again at the pathetic sadness that hung on her face. "Your dad never mentioned he had a sister, did he? No, I thought not. Her name is Priscilla, she's my wife." He let her suffer a few more seconds before twisting the knife in even further. "There are so many things he left you in the dark about, didn't he? It's too bad he didn't trust you more, but none of that matters now."

Ketty was speechless. She could see the resemblance now, the way Mikenzy's cheeks curled into the smallest of dimples when she smiled. And her eyes, it was so obvious now, almost like looking in a mirror. She lowered her blaster.

"Come on Boondock," said Mikenzy's father as he leveled his own gun at Ketty's unprotected head. "You don't want me to hurt your Mistress, do you?"

Inside his complex robot mind, a hundred thousand calculations per second raced through intricate cybernetic pathways, comparing and contrasting with his base programming and the Three Laws which resided there. He could drive his elbow into Mon-catasto's groin, crippling him in a most permanent way, but that was a first law conflict, don't injure a human. If he shifted to second law principles, and obeyed Mon-catasto, Ketty would be sad and that bordered on injuring her, at least in his own mind. There was also a third law conflict that he most likely would be injured or die if he went with the evil Uncle in law, which meant Ketty would be hurt and he couldn't let that happen. He began to gyrate. There was no way out, and his mind was ready to shut down.

Ketty saw the confusion there and said, "Calm down little man, I have a solution." Then something else grabbed her attention, a familiar tingling inside, friendly and confident.

Rayleen! She was using the necklace to communicate telepathically.

"Hold on a few more seconds," said Rayleen.

"Just go with Uncle Catasto, Boondock. It will be fine, right Uncle?" Ketty stared straight through him. Then the unmistakable scream of fusion motors under heavy braking as Rayleen rammed Kestral into the mansion in an uncontrolled impact. The sound of breaking glass and concrete was deafening but the ship continued down through the basement and embedded itself deep in the ground, destroying the front of the house. Half a second later the concussive wave shot down the hall and knocked them to the ground. Dust and debris swirled around Ketty while the ground literally swelled in a seismic wave that tossed them like rag dolls, but somehow her Uncle maintained his grip on Boondock.

Don't forget to vote!

Please feel free to comment!