What could they do but arrest me?

Some messenger told a story that I had behaved strangely and sneaked out to meet a small rocket. I wondered bitterly whether this had been the messenger who called Tando away, I say “wonder” because they accuser never confronted me.

In a circular room among the guards chambers, they placed me in a chair and used a device much like the one Tando had used on the rocket on my arrival in this century. Something like binoculars were placed over my eyes.

The captain said “We are not going to ask you any questions at this time, we ask only that you remain still and continue to look into the lenses.”

“What is this thing going to do?” I asked impatiently.

“This is a new apparatus, something we only have put into use in Selenium. This will tell us of what you have been doing in the hours since you were seen last night.”

“How?”

“It will take the images of what you have seen from your own memory.”

At that moment I began to understand everything.

The machine, a very new and expensive development, showed only the visual memories. So, what would they see? They saw me, an outsider, someone already accused, flying a rocket to a strange mountain, being friendly with the enemy, walking freely in the dungeon of their stronghold, and murdering my own trusted guardian.

I explained as best I could, about the curtain of night and my lapses in consciousness, also about how for none of that could I move under my own power. But what would a story of that kind sound like to any policeman? A jailhouse story, a lame excuse.

Someone meant to frame me and frame me good!

Still, I tried again to make this robed official, I think he was a kind of lead detective, understand it all. “I know what you saw and I know just what it looks like, but I told you about how I couldn't move. You noticed that my head never turns at any stage of that memory.”

“It is an interesting point.” he said blandly. “However, that in itself is not much proof.”

“But the memory is incomplete, if I was a traitor like I'm supposed to be, a murderer, wouldn't I remember boarding the rocket, landing it, or speaking to anyone?”

The detective rose from his chair “I am afraid that the invention is new and cannot get memories of sound of speech as of yet. However, the courts have recognized this kind of evidence as admissible.”

“You said it was new,” I said desperately, “you mean it was only just invented. Do you have the inventor available? Perhaps he might be able to help with this.”

“One moment, please.” he crossed to the door. Guards sat all around, and my wrists were manacled. The manacles had a long chain and were padded, as Selenium is nothing if not civilized.

Hours later, the inventor, a bearded man with rounded ears and thick glasses, appeared. He was introduced as Heldo Xird, and he was only too happy to speak about the creation that was being used to convict me.

“Can you shed any light on the star field or the gaps in memory, doctor?” the detective asked.

“Ah!” he perked up. “That has less to do with the machine than this unusual specimen of man here. You see, I have read the mind oracle files on this Cylas Renford, and his purely human characteristics give him resistance against our modern hypnosis. It is not unreasonable to assume that he may also have certain powers for manipulating his own memory.”

I saw a handsome young assistant beside the professor, a place man with dark hair. I might have ignored him, but at this last thing the professor said he shook his head as if in disagreement. Yet he did not speak.

I couldn't hold my tongue longer. I said “If I could change my memory to suit the situation, why would I not simply erase this incriminating memory?”

Heldo Xird said “You are a clever one, I see. Ah, but you are still limited by your primitive state of evolution. I am afraid that your attempts at mental ruse have failed you.”

As far as this empire, this country I had adopted, was concerned, I was nothing but a traitor and a murderer.

Tsang and Xato were allowed to visit me at my cell. Of course they didn't believe the charges. Tsang even tried telling all the guards of the times I had saved them from harm when I might simply have gone my way.

Through the bars we embraced and they told me that they would do all they could for me.

Days passed and no news came.

My cell was comfortable enough. It wasn't cold, the outer wall sloped slightly, to follow the dome-like shape of the building. They fed me and the bed was just fine, considering.

They even let me have reading material when I asked for it.

The people of Selenium don't make books quite like we did in the 19th century, in fact, the material the use isn't truly a paper at all, although it can greatly resemble it. This means that they never get eaten up by bugs or mold.

Well, I had a stack of books on random subjects they'd brought me, and one I flipped through was especially old. It told of the travels of a kind of missionary. This man had visited a world, a seldom trod world in a neighboring system to this, called Ardon. On this planet stood a great black mountain, on a plane that issues streams of luminous gas, and the engraving of it looked mighty familiar! The planet also had once been home to a race that was very clever. They had all kinds of inventions, some that might as well have been magic. They had a kind of energy field that they could use to move through walls. Working examples of this invention had been discovered, and the field looked very much like a black cloud covered with stars.

“Guard!” I called out.

The guard did come, but he brought with him Xato and Tsang.

“Say,” I called out, “look at this book! I have some proof of my story!”

The guard came near to look at the book and I began to explain.

Xato chopped the man on the back of the neck with the edge of his hand, and his body crumpled to the floor.

“Xato!” I said. “I wasn't creating a diversion, I really did have proof in this book!”

Tsang opened the cell “Maybe you do, and we know that you're innocent.”

“So why break me out? I'll only look more guilty!”

Xato answered “Heldo Xird is some kind of traitor, I'm sure of it. He's pushing very hard for your conviction.”

“We've been talking,” Tsang said, “and we think Tando is alive someplace.”

“That's all the more reason to get me acquitted so we can find him.”

Xato hugged me “We don't have that kind of time. Xird is stirring up a mob. It will be out of the hands of justice. If we're going to save Tando then you have to go and get him now.”

“You're coming with me?” I asked.

“Of course.”

I did my best to fit into the guard's uniform. We lied our way back out of the prison area and went outside to a lower terrace.

The palace had sorts of trains that ran through crystalline tubes which snaked everywhere. We boarded one and made our way through the massive city toward the rocket port.

“We don't dare take our own ship,” I said, “they will be watching for that one.”

“You say you know here he is being held?” Tsang asked.

“Well, the place they took me was a planet called Ardon. Assuming they didn't trick me about that too, I'll bet Tando is there.”

A glass box on the controls, one full of glowing wires, lit up and an announcement came through: “Be on the lookout for escaped murderer Cylas Renford. Subject believed dangerous, and may be in league with the enemy.”

“That was sure fast!” Xato said. “I guess we need to hurry.”

The tubed snaked into a great rock suspended above a lake, this was a kind of intersection of ways. We stepped out of the train and into a large marble hall, which had stairs leading up towards the rocket port.

We started over in that direction, and several other trains arrived at once, at which point a crowd began to gather. From one nearby, a young man broke precociously away from his group and brushed past me. I lost my balance for a moment, and the guard's helmet fell off as I stumbled.

I bent to retrieve it when somebody screamed. They'd noticed my head of blonde hair.

“It's Cylas Renford!” they screamed.