I don’t know to this day who he was, whether he was a general or the lowest guy on the totem pole in the Ashtapadan military, but the expression on his face was priceless. Here’s how we got to that expression.

     “Identify yourself. This is a private frequency,” said the officer, who for now had a really arrogant obnoxious expression.

      “It is the Princess and I require my father immediately. It is extremely urgent,” said the Princess, her face appearing on the screen for the benefit of the hapless guy who happened to be unlucky enough to be on duty when we called.

      “He’s very busy Your Highness. Perhaps I could get a message to him,” said the unsuspecting fool.

     “I’m not sure that’s going to suffice,” said the Princess, “You see I’m in a bit of a predicament that really can only be resolved by my father.”

     “Your Highness,” the still clueless oficer said, and when he said, 'Your Highness' it came out sounding more like 'your royal pain-in-my-butt.' “I can’t bother the King every time you have a problem. I’ll be happy to pass along your request at the earliest possible time. I'm sure he will respond as soon as he is able."

     "I see," said the Princess with more restraint than I could have imagined possible. "Well, might you let him know that I understand he's busy, but that the timer attached to the large bomb that is wrapped rather tightly around my waist has about five minutes left on it." As the Princess said this, the picture on the screen panned out to show her standing with Jack's arm around her waist looking like an extremely nasty explosive with a large LCD display in front counting down toward zero.

    "Oh," added the Princess thrusting her hand forward, "and this HTS happens to be the main Chatrang HTS taken directly from their command center." Like I said, the expression on the soldier's face was priceless.

    "What in the name of—?" he stammered appearing to randomly push buttons we couldn't see.

    "My father, now," the Princess said, and then she added, “I’m really scared.” I thought that was a little over the top, but it seemed to work.

    "Yes, of course, Your Highness. I'm contacting him now. Top priority, never used this code before. Be brave."

    "Oh, I’m trying," she said to the flustered soldier. She then turned and whispered to Jack, "Could you try not to squeeze me to death?"

    "Oh, sorry. Got wrapped up in all the fake emotion," Jack whispered back with a smile. The Princess rolled her eyes at Jack's pun, which when your eyes are as large as hers is a pretty dramatic gesture.

    Less than a minute later, the image of the by-now-barely-coherent Ashtapadan was replaced by the King, who wore an expression usually reserved for boyfriends who bring daughters home after curfew. I was not completely unfamiliar with the expression. I sensed rather than saw Tarrasch take a step backward out of view.

    "What is the meaning of this?" the King yelled. "Whoever you are, you will release my daughter immediately. Do you dare violate our diplomatic agreements? I can assure you any ambassadors of Chatrang currently on or near Chosroes will find their lives forfeit if you do not comply. How dare you threaten the life of a royal!"

    Tarrasch, whose temper had been steadily rising during the King's tirade, jumped in front of the Princess. "This is not the doing of any Chatrang. You want to lay blame, you will have to look closer to home."

    "Sir, if I could interrupt?" I said stepping into view.

    "What are you? What is the meaning of all this?" the King demanded.

    As the timer ticked down below three minutes, I said, "The person responsible is your son. He kidnapped my parents from Earth and somewhere in your palace they are locked in a cage with a Maggoricus. I don't want to harm your daughter or for that matter disrupt the Chatrang military," I said pointing to the HTS in the Princess' hand. "What I want are my parents back and to go home."

    "You dare accuse my son of petty crimes on some backwater planet. And now you have the gall to threaten my daughter," the King sputtered. "And most ridiculous of all is the idea that you could actually have the Chatrang HTS. You'd be dead before you went closer than 100 feet of that. Believe me, I have sent people to try."

    Tarrasch stepped forward. "I can assure you, the stone in your daughter's hand is on fact, a Chatrang HTS, and I would very much like it back rather than blown up because you won't listen to your daughter."

    The King obviously recognized Tarrasch, but before he could comment, I shouldered him out of the way and said, “You are running out of time. I want your assurance that we can return to Ashtapada without being attacked and that my friends and family can go free. Then I will release your daughter and return the HTS. Ninety seconds left."

    "You wouldn't dare. You'll be killed yourself."

    "I didn't think I'd be alive this long and my parents are dead if I fail. Don't doubt me," I threatened, hoping I sounded more confident than I felt.

    "Father, please," the Princess urged.

    "I will think on it," he said and cut the connection.

    "Hold on," I called out, but it was too late. He was gone. "What now?"

    "We wait," said the Princess. Jack started to loosen his grip on her. "Stop,” she said, “he could be back any moment and it will not look good if we are talking casually or I look too comfortable." So, we just stood there staring at the clock.

     At thirty seconds, the Princess whispered to Jack, "Just curious—what happens if that timer reaches zero?"

    At ten seconds, she whispered, "Really, what happens?"

    "You explode and we all die!" Jack yelled like a maniac. I looked at him like he'd lost his mind, then realized that the image of the King was back on the screen and that Jack had been speaking for his benefit.

    "Wait," said the King. "I agree to your terms." Jack stopped the countdown and unwound his arm from the Princess. She fell to the floor. Tarrasch rushed to her side, but she pushed him away smiling slightly away from the screen, so her father would continue to think she was recovering from almost certain death.

     "Are you alright?" the King asked, and for the first time his voice sounded sincere. I had a hunch as to what had changed in a minute and a half.

     "Yes, fine. Thank you, father. Your timing was perfect. There was at least two seconds to spare," she said sarcastically.

     "Now, don't take that tone with me," the King replied. "I see you on a Chatrang ship. Who knows where you are or what you've done. I had to check the Earthling's story. Sadly, it was accurate. What is wrong with your brother? I give him everything. He is free to do as he pleases and this is how he repays me?" Jack coughed loudly, poorly disguising the word, “brat.”

     I ignored him and the Princess, who looked like she had a few more choice words to share with her father, and asked, "My parents. Are they okay?"

     "They are alive," the King said. "Now fulfill your part of the bargain and release my daughter."

     "Oh, we will," I assured him, "but I'm sure you'll understand if we're not the most trusting group of people after what your son has done. Plus, I have assured the Chatrang Prince that we will return the HTS now that I no longer need it to save my parents. The Princess will deliver it back to the Chatrang on a ship supplied by them, while Tarrasch accompanies us to meet you and my parents. Once my friends and my family are safely back on Earth, I'm sure you can arrange a trade of family members and get back to fighting each other."

     The King gave me a long look and I thought he was going to protest and demand we return his daughter and the HTS to him, but instead he smiled slightly and said, "Where did my irresponsible son find you and how did you possibly survive the last few days?"

     "I have no idea, sir. I just want to go home," I said wearily.

"Hmm . . ., I think I am going to have to more closely monitor the actions of my son. I will start by having the full truth of this matter before you arrive. Take care, daughter. You will be home soon," he said and the screen went dark.

     "Checkmate," said Mr. Fisher and we all breathed sighs of relief.

    A short while later, word reached us that a second Chatrang ship was nearby and would pick up the Princess and the Chatrang HTS. Apparently the gesture of having it personally delivered by the Ashtapadan Princess had helped diminish the amount of trouble Tarrasch was in for having unwittingly aided in its disappearance. Still, he seemed okay with delaying his return to his homeworld for a while longer.

     "Whereas the Princess might wish for somewhat greater attention from her father, I have no desire to benefit from my father’s attention at the moment, " he said. I tried to imagine how much trouble I'd be in if my dad was the President of the United States and I accidently helped someone steal the codes for all the nuclear weapons. Not good.

     When the second Chatrang ship landed we all gathered outside to say our good-byes. Pion had come out of hiding to join his father and was pestering all of us to tell him what he'd missed. The Princess and Tarrach were talking with Soldat and they motioned for the rest of us to join them.

     "We want you to know that we have promised Soldat not to reveal the extent of the settlement here or that they possess additional HTS. We all have our secrets and his, and his son's, willingness to aid you deserves respect and thanks," the Princess said. "I do not want any additional suffering to result from my brother's actions. In fact, I can assure you that if we can find a way to bring supplies and food to this planet without jeopadizing your people, we will do so."

     Soldat nodded his head in appreciation and then smiled. "As it happens, I have a small gift for you both," he said, and he opened his hand to reveal two small HTS, at least I thought they were HTS even though I had not seen any that were any color other than black. These were the color of blue sky.

     "What are these?" Tarrasch asked.

     "I will not reveal where or how, but it is enough to know that the single-mindedness of your two worlds to exploit the time shifting properties of the HTS for military purposes has resulted in a stagnation of innovation and imagination. We have had much time to experiment and explore and try things for the sake only of trying with little concern for failure or the anger of a King. As a result, I am pleased to be able to give you this gift. You will find that if you each hold one of these stones, you will be able to share your thoughts with each other over great distances. These stones are connected and much like an HTS sends a message through time and space, these will send it through space in no time."

The Princess and Tarrasch looked at each other and I thought they were going to start making out right in front of everybody, but instead they grabbed Soldat in a bear hug. Pion just laughed and soon we all had joined in.

     "This is a gift beyond measure," said the Princess.

     "Thank you," said Tarrasch. Soldat nodded in return, clearly embarrassed by all the attention. We took the opportunity say our own good-byes.

     "Will you come back sometime?" Pion asked.

     "I don't think so," I said. "Earth is pretty far away."

     He turned to the Princess. "You could invite him," he said.

     The Princess smiled and put her hand on Pion's shoulder. "Let's make sure Tom and his friends get home safely before we start trying to get them in more trouble." Then she turned to me and said, "I had a feeling when we first met that my brother may have finally underestimated someone. I'm glad I was right."

     "Me too," I said.

     "Good bye, and if you happen to see my brother and he happens to be in really big trouble, well, tell him I said, hi, and he deserves it."

     "I promise," I said, and I really hoped I had the chance to keep that promise.