"That was abrupt," Vanessa observed.

"And short," Steve added.

"But there was already enough in it for news channels to chew on for a week."

"Nick just won over the astronaut corps, at least."

"And the President's probably thrilled to have the power to choose the candidates." Steven nodded. "He'll be able to trade a lot of favors for slots there."

"Just so long as it's not a bunch of old billionaires getting rejuvenated," Maggie said with a shudder. "Can you imagine an extra sixty years with those assholes running things?"

"Their kids would murder them to inherit," Brian predicted. "I read it in a sci-fi novel once."

"Which one? Something in the Honor Harrington series, or...?" Maggie asked.

"Ah..." Brian reddened a bit. Vanessa saw and pounced.

"Oh, is this one of your harem stories, Brian?"

Brian bristled. "Hey! It's an excellent space opera, I'll have you know, it just...happens to have some spicy chapters."

"Well—"

"Oh, shit, hang on."

Steve grabbed his phone, poked at it, and made a call. The others sat quietly, curious.

"Hi, Martin, it's Steve Horton. I'm going to need some extra security starting immediately. There's going to be a load of paparazzi on my doorstep any minute. Yes...for the foreseeable future...yes, that's acceptable. I'll transfer the amount tomorrow morning. Thanks, Martin. You're the best." He put down his phone and looked around the room. "You guys are welcome to crash here tonight."

"I didn't even think of that," Vanessa said. "Thanks, Steve. Just wish I'd known to pack."

"I grabbed my go-bag," Maggie admitted. "It's the Apocalypse Team, and things feel like they are getting a little apocalyptic."

"They're going to do in-depth profiling of Nick, aren't they? Like a Special Report type thing," Brian mused.

"Already saw a short one a little while ago," Steve mentioned.

"Did it mention us?"

"Not by name."

"They'll want to interview us later, though. And his sister," Maggie realized. "Oh, shit, I hope he warned her."

"We might need to grant an interview just to counteract whatever bullshit story his Dad spins up."

"I hope interviews are the worst that happens," Steve said grimly.

"What?"

"You mean kidnapping," Maggie realized. "To blackmail Nick into doing something." She thought that over. "Wouldn't that be really risky, though? I mean, who knows what that ship can do? Maybe they're tracking all of us with Z-ray vision or something right now."

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"Since when do people make smart decisions?" Steve asked rhetorically.

"Well...do we want to ask Nick if we can go up there?" Brian suggested.

"Not in the first batch, thanks. You remember what Nick said about being sick over and over. Let someone else have the two-day puking session while the doctor debugs the...well, the bugs."

"Fair. But I definitely want to see their ship at some point."

Steve looked like he was in serious thought. "Hey, everybody, can you give me your phones for a minute? I want to talk about something super embarrassing."

Maggie looked at his grim expression and pulled out her phone. "All right, but not for long, I don't want to miss a call from Nick."

"It won't be long." Steve got up and left the room, returning shortly with a box. The others handed him their phones and he put them in the box along with his own, then closed the lid.

"What's with...?" Brian began, but Steve held a finger to his lips.

"I don't want Nick to find out about all of my business dealings," he said quietly. In a normal tone, he added, "Hey, let me show you the billiards room. Shooting some pool helps clear my head." He kept his finger to his lips, and beckoned for the others to follow him, leaving the box behind.

Cloak and dagger. What does Steve know that we don't? Maggie wondered. They all trooped down to the basement, and Steve shut the door firmly. Then he threw a couple of switches that didn't seem to do anything. "Okay, now we can talk."

"What the hell, Steve?" Vanessa demanded.

Steve took a deep breath. "Guys, we have been dropped in some very deep waters. Nick's friends are aliens with a warship in orbit."

"Yeah, we got that part," Brian said.

"Well, have you considered that maybe Nick might decide to conquer Earth?"

There was stunned silence for a moment.

"The fuck, Steve?" Maggie demanded when she found her voice again. "Nick wouldn't do that!"

"He might not think he has a choice."

"Nick doesn't want that kind of responsibility!"

"Of course not, but do you see him putting it down?" The rest simply looked at him. "Think about it. First case, China or somebody kidnaps his sister, and threatens to kill her unless he bombs D.C."

"Nick wouldn't do that, not even to save his sister."

"I agree. But what if the demands were smaller? How much would Nick do to save his sister?" Steve shook his head. "Second case, what if Nick learns stuff about Earth that scares him?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean troop movements, for example. The ships' scanners—who knows what they can pick up? Hidden nukes where there aren't supposed to be any. Maybe Nick has to watch an atrocity live and decides to step in because he can."

I could see that, Maggie admitted.

"There are atrocities going on all over the world every day," Brian protested.

"But a lot of them can't be proven, and the ones that can are often far away. Just think about the awful crap we do see going on. Invasions, civilians getting bombed, poisons, slavery? We know they're out there. But we don't do anything about those because they're not in our face, and they aren't hitting our pocketbooks, and those of us who would do something don't have the power to."

"We do some!" Vanessa protested.

"Some, yeah. But all of it? No. Most of it? No. We do a tiny fraction of what we could. But Nick...what's he going to do when he can see atrocities at the push of a button? And he knows that he has the firepower to do something about it?"

"He won't do anything hasty," Maggie pointed out. "He's cautious. He doesn't trust himself enough to make that call, to choose life or death for people."

"He helped the Ooafans execute all the Goldaskian officers on the ship. That's got to change you."

"Yeah, but..." Brian paused. "He probably didn't have a choice. It was kill or be killed, it sounds like."

"And what if Nick thinks he doesn't have a choice now?" Steve shook his head. "We have got to start thinking about these things, hard."

"...because Nick's going to ask us for advice," Vanessa realized, horror showing on her face.

"Do you really think Nick will pull the trigger?" Maggie asked quietly.

"If he looks in a scanner or something and sees hundreds of children getting tortured? Yeah. I think he would. I think he will."

"Power corrupts..." Vanessa muttered.

"And with great power comes great responsibility," Brian countered.

"He's in so far over his head, and it's only going to get worse until he passes this off to someone else."

"And what happens when the ship leaves? Nick's going to have influence until the other ship leaves too, but what then?"

"They'll kill him," Brian realized.

Steve nodded. "It's going to break his heart, but I don't think Nick should ever set foot on Earth again."

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