'No. Not my problem. Let the university worry about that. I was against this entire operation from the first. Now it is over and life will go on the way it was.'
'Including life on this despicable planet?'
'Of course. We are not going to let the do-gooders interfere with the sound administration of the law.'
'Admiral - I do admire you,' I said, standing and turning to the intent audience. 'Hear that, Iron John? You can go back to your old job at the bottom of the pond as soon as your bones heal. Svinjar, more killing and general swinery on your part. There will be the return of the rule of law and justice - on Admiral Benbow's terms.'
'Arrest this man,' Benbow ordered, and two armed guards entered and marched towards me.
'I'll go quietly,' I said. Turned and touched the alien artifact as I had been instructed to. 'But I'll go alone.'
It was so quiet you could heard a pin drop. But, of course, a pin could not drop.
Nothing could move, was moving. Would move for quite a while.
Except me, of course. Strolling over, cheerfully whistling 'Nothing's Too Bad for the Enemy,' relieving the Admiral of my hard-earned fee. Smiling benignly into his glaring, frozen face. Due to stay that way for quite awhile. I turned and waved at my statue-like audience.
'The best part was working with The Stainless Steel Rats. Thanks guys. Thanks as well to you, Captain Tremearne. In fact - not only thank you, but could you give me a little help?'
I walked over and touched his arm as I said this, enclosing him in the stasis-resistant field that enveloped me.
'Help you do what?' He looked around at the motionless scene, turned back to me. 'What's going on here?'
'What you see is what you get. No one is hurt, but no one is going to move for some time. Temporal stasis. When they come out of it they will never know that they have been in it.'
'This is what happened to Floyd?'
'Exactly.'
'Exactly what?'
'Time travelers. The alien artifact is not alien at all - but a human construct from the far future, sent back and lost in time. I promised the time travelers not to tell anybody. I'll make this single exception since I need your help.'
'Doing what?'
'Getting both of us out of here so we can start the job of cleaning up this putrid planet. Here is what we have to do. Admiral Benbow has just arrived, as you saw, which means there is an interstellar spacer up there now in orbit about this planet. You and I will grab some transportation and get up to it. Once there you will use your rank, guile and forceful manner to see that we get aboard and far away from Liokukae. Then, when we get back to civilization, we will generate plenty of publicity about the evils men do here on this planet. It will be a scandal and heads will roll.'
'Mine will be the first. Along with a court-martial, possible flaying and certainly life imprisonment.'
'It shouldn't be that bad. If we get the forces of light on our side, why then the forces of darkness won't be able to lay a finger on you.'
'It will take time…'
'Captain - that's the one thing we got plenty of! A good six months of it. That's how long this stasis will last. They won't know it, will not even realize a single second has passed. But, oh, will there be consternation among them when they discover how things have changed while they have been dozing! When I leave here the stasis will seal itself, impenetrable and impermeable. By the time it lifts the reform campaign will have succeeded and this prison planet will be nothing but a bad memory.'
'And I will be cashiered, out of a job, will have lost my pension - the works.'
'And many a human being will be alive and happy who would have been miserable or dead. Besides, the military is no place for a grown man. And with a million credits in the bank you can buy lawyers, live the good life, forget your past.'
'What million?'
'The bribe that I am going to pay into a numbered account for you to make all of this worth your while.'
He shook his fist. 'You are a crook, diGriz! Do you think that I would stoop to your criminal, crooked level?'
'No. But you might be the administrator of the Save Liokukae Fund which has been set up by an anonymous benefactor.'
He scowled, opened his mouth to protest. Stopped. Burst out laughing.
'Jim — you are something else again! What the hell - I'll do it. But on my terms, understand?'
'Understood. Just tell me where to mail the check.'
'All right. Now let's get you a uniform while I forge some shipping orders. I have the feeling that I am going to enjoy being a civilian.'
'You will, you will. Shall we go?'
We went. Marching in step in a most military manner. Marching into the future, into a better, brighter future.
The blues had been sung. A page turned, a chapter ended. Tremearne would do a good job of sorting out this repellent world. I would do equally well as I slipped away between the interstices of society.
In six months I would be far from here, my trail cold, my bank account filled, my life more interesting. Once rested and restored - it would indeed be time for The Stainless Steel Rat to ride again!
