“I’ve just fixed the CCTV camera. It’s okay. Anything that goes on in here, I’ll see on the screen in the nurses’ station.”
“All the same,” Mimi said, wary, “I’d prefer not to be alone.”
The nurse shrugged and took a seat at the corner of the bed.
“I can’t talk with him in here,” muttered John. “We need to be alone.”
“I don’t want to be alone with you. I know what you’ll do. I don’t trust you.”
“This isn’t for his ears. It isn’t for anyone’s ears but yours. It’s private.” He gave the nurse a hard stare.
“You don’t need to talk though, do you, John?”
“Ah. So the psychic link isn’t completely broken.” John grinned, pleased that his power hadn’t been too weakened by the lack of immediate contact with Mimi.
“It seems to work over short distances,” she confirmed. “Even though I’ve had my phone switched off since you were arrested.”
“You had the perfect chance to throw me to the wolves. Why have you come here? I’m very grateful that you have, by the way. I find myself in the unpleasant position of needing help. Of needing your help.”
“What you said—about the downfall of humanity. And Luana has been acting very strangely too. Let’s just say my journalistic instincts won out over my sense of self-preservation. I can’t ever let a question go unanswered. And this is quite a question.”
“Yes,” John agreed, nodding sagely. “It’s the story of your career. As it happens, I have managed to tame a doctor here now. If she can persuade her senior colleague, I might not need your help getting out of here. But I still need you, Miranda, and if you try to get away from me, I will pursue you.”
“They’re not going to let you out already?” Mimi’s alarm made John smile.
“Need time to book your air tickets, do you? Don’t bother. You’re mine, Miranda, and that’s the end of it. Now you need to get me out of here.”
“Why should I? Explain all this. I’m sick of knowing a tiny fraction of the story. I know you come from somewhere else, but where? What are you doing here? Why is the ozone machine so important?”
John was quiet for a while, reflecting on his answer as he twisted his hands. The nurse’s eyes darted between the pair of them, clearly intrigued by this intense silence that could seem like its own form of communication.
“Luana’s my mother,” he said eventually.
Mimi started violently, almost pitching out of the chair. The nurse put out an arm to help her but she waved it away and subsided back into her seat, processing this information.
“We come from a world several galaxies distant. My mother is what you might call a tribal queen, primitive as it sounds. It’s actually much more sophisticated than that, but I won’t bore you with the details. Our tribe has risen to a position of prominence, from relative obscurity, thanks to my prowess at engineering. I made us rich, and from riches came power, and with power came opposition from other tribes, jealous of our ascendancy. As is the way of things.
“There was a trade war. My mother and I were taken prisoner. The plan was to execute my mother and keep me for my knowledge, working in slavery to enrich and empower our enemies. My tribe were not warriors—we had always relied on intelligence and civilised manners. This was our downfall, of course. Civilised manners. I’ve rather lost faith in them.”
He paused, for Mimi to shake her head and roll her eyes knowingly.
“When our enemies took us, I was in possession of a prototype invention—a kind of matter transference machine, hidden in a ring. I had made one for me and one for my mother. It had not been perfected, so I had to use coordinates that I knew would take me somewhere relatively safe, where we could blend in. As it happened, there was only one inhabited planet that fit the bill. We ended up here.”
Mimi’s face contorted. “But,” she blurted, forgetting the psychic link. The nurse frowned at her, and so did John.
“Sorry. This is a lot to take in. What you said about the downfall of humanity—you think you are being hunted?”
“Yes. I know it. The Rixxar do not give up. They will scour the universe to find us. I have had signals recently, indicating that they are not far away now. If I don’t close the gap in the ozone layer, they will find this planet and exact a terrible revenge. Believe me, they will lay waste to your world, even if my mother and I surrender immediately. They are terribly mean-spirited. You can’t imagine.”
“Why should I believe you?”
John took a breath and fixed his eyes directly on Mimi, all lightness forgotten, completely serious now.
“If you don’t, you will all die. I need to finish that machine. Help me, Mimi. Help us all.”
“You called me Mimi.”
“If that’s what it takes, I’ll call you whatever you like.”