text: Beneath the spacious dome at the center of New Melbourne it is lush, green, and warm. From the outside, the dome looks like some snow globe robbed of its snowflakes. From the inside, however, the sky radiates a bold blue and is lighted by a simulated sun that arcs its way across the heavens in mimicry of a spring day in Maine. The streets are paved, and they are lined with lush, green trees that raise their branches high into the air in the lesser gravity of Mercury. The buildings are all poured cement structures done in the mid-Twentieth Century Modernist style, which has been in vogue throughout the solar system these past twenty years.
  
  You inhale the air and it is crisp and smells of parklands and tamed nature.
  
  "Ah, Esse," you say, smiling, "I've so missed the feel and smell of real civilization. So sick of cramped metal quarters and space suits and air tanks and noisy atomic motors on rocket ships. I only wish the gravity was stronger. I think it's even less than what they have on Luna."
  
  "It is, my dear," says Esmeralda. She's been painted a Navy blue and wears an old space helmet Madam donated-- also painted blue.
  
  You have a wig of short, blond locks done up in a bobbed style on your head, as well as a pair of sunglasses like Andrea's. You had to fork over your last few dollars to pay for everything, and so in the back of your mind you're wondering how you and your robot will be able to get back to Venus when this is all over.
  
  "Hotel Hermes should be just another block from here," says Andrea. "I'll loan you some money so you can check into a room. But I'm going to check in first. Waite five minutes after the bellboy's shown me to my room, and then you can check in. If John should happen to see us, he shouldn't see us together. That'd be too suspicious."
  
  "Um, how will we find you then?"
  
  Andrea looks at her wristwatch. "Okay, I've readjusted my time to New Melbourne time...so lunch will be served in about two hours. Just go down to the dining room then." She looks up at you. "But don't come to my table. Just find yourselves someplace to sit and you two can keep your eyes peeled for John. I'll do the same. If I need to get you guys a message, I'll have one of the waiters bring it to your table."
  
  The lobby of the Hotel Hermes is tiled with faux marble and has Doric columns supporting a gold domed ceiling. At its center is a twenty foot tall brass statue of Hermes, the messenger of the Greek gods. He stands in a heroic pose, winged helmet on a handsome head staring heavenward, a caduceus staff entwined with two serpents in one hand and a scroll in the other. His feet (adorned with winged sandals) are posed in the stance of a runner.
  
  You and Esmeralda stand by the base of the god while Andrea crosses the lobby to the concierge desk at the far end and checks herself in. You look around the lobby and see various spacers and tourists sitting in armchairs or gathered in small clusters around the columns.
  
  Then you notice something you haven't seen in a long while-- a Martian. He stands over eight feet tall, is thin and gangly, has a bulging chest and a mushroom-shaped head. His huge, black, insect-like eyes stare from folds of wrinkly gray skin. He's decked out in shimmering gold and green robes and has a shiny red pendant hanging around his neck. He's engaged in conversation with a pretty young Asian woman in a blue satin tunic and black slacks.
  
  "Esse," you say, pointing, "look. It's a Martian!"
  
  "Dear, it's not polite to point. Yes, I can see it's a Martian. He's no concern to us, though."
  
  Just then the Martian looks in your direction, apparently alerted by your pointing. He says something else to the Asian woman and then the two of them walk up to where you and Esmeralda stand. His dear-like muzzle forms into a surprisingly warm smile and he says something in Martian to the Asian woman.
  
  She smiles too and says, "My employer would like to make your acquaintance. He is wondering why someone as young as you is here by yourself."
  
  "Oh," you say, shocked by this turn of events. "Well, I'm not really by myself." You gesture to Esmeralda. "As you see, I have my robot with me. I'm...uh, I'm visiting my father. My parents are divorced, you see."
  
  The Asian woman smiles again. "Hello, then. I am Yuja Lin. I'm personal assistant to Solon. That's not his Martian name, mind you. No human can pronounce that. Solon was the ancestor of Plato who learned from the Egyptian priests about Atlantis."
  
  "Oh, that's right! I remember the story. But you can speak Martian?"
  
  Yuja laughs good-naturedly. "No, I only understand it. I communicate with Solon using very basic English. The rest of the time I must rely on gestures and written notes. Like my people, the Chinese, Martians use an ideogrammatic writing system."
  
  "That makes sense."
  
  "He noticed that you seem to be in some great pain, though. That's why he wished to speak to you."
  
  You're shocked at her words. "I'm...I'm not in pain. Why would he think that?"
  
  "He can read humans very well. It's a skill he developed over the years. We will be having lunch in a few hours. Would you care to join us?"
  
  What should you do? Accept their invitation? This isn't why you are here and getting Solon and Yuja involved could complicate things. But they just seem so damned charming, and you suddenly feel an overriding need to talk about what's been going on with you.
  
  > just Stay on Task and Get a Room
  The room the bellboy guides you and Esmeralda to continues the hotel's Classical Greek aesthetic with cupids dotting the golden wallpaper, wine-colored divans instead of couches, and halved Doric columns in the corners. After a hot bath you're feeling a little better, although the thought of an inevitable confrontation with the man who masterminded your parents' murders fills you with a cold, sinking dread. You look at the sun dial clock on the wall, sit on your bed, and count away the minutes. With half an hour till lunch time, you stand up and look to Esmeralda.
  
  "I can't take it anymore," you say. "Let's just go down to the dinning room."
  
  "Very well, dear."
  
  You pull your blue Catholic school blazer out of your suitcase, put it on, and slide a ray pistol in one of its pockets. Then you lead the way out the front door and down to the dinning room.
  
  The dinning room consists of rows of columns, potted palm trees, alabaster statues of half-nude women, and fountains spouting tinkling jets of water. There are areas near the corners that look like they've been sectioned off with these decorations, but you choose a small round table in a wide open space so you can survey the diners. Not many people are here right now, but you are willing to bide your time.
  
  A blond waitress in a black cocktail dress comes to your table, places a menu before you, and says: "Hello, would you like to order something to drink to start things off?"
  
  You're surprised she's not wearing a toga but then remember the concierge and the bellboys are dressed in modern attire. "A green tea. Obviously, nothing for my robot."
  
  The waitress smiles politely. "Okay, I'll be back with that right away."
  
  Just as she steps away, you notice a group of well-dressed men sitting down at a rectangular table at the far end of the room. The man who seems to be their leader is a wearing a straw hat, but it's obvious that the his hair underneath is a strawberry blond.
  
  You look to Esmeralda from where she squats on her four legs across from you. "Esse, you can hear conversations from far way, right?"
  
  "Yes, Sandra. Would you like me to tell you what those men at that table are saying?"
  
  "Please."
  
  Esmeralda sits for about ten minutes before turning her head to you. "From what I gather, they seemed to be having trouble deciding what to order from the menu."
  
  "Nothing else?" you say as you sip your green tea.
  
  "Something about returning to Venus to get some kind of a job on the space lanes. Although..."
  
  "Yes?"
  
  "I should have told you this before. The man in the straw hat is John. I recognize his voice."
  
  "Yes, you should have told me that before. Why didn't you?"
  
  "Sandra, I wish you'd just walk away from this. Are you honestly expecting to have a violent confrontation here in this hotel?"
  
  You sigh heavily and look at the golden ceiling. "I-I just don't know, Esmeralda. It's like I'm losing my mind."
  
  The waitress returns with your plate of Tilapia fish, sets it front of you, then hands you a note. "There's a woman down the way who wanted me to give this to you."
  
  You reluctantly take the note from the waitress. "Oh, okay...Thanks."
  
  The waitress smiles. "Is there anything else I can get for you, dear?"
  
  "No. Thank you."
  
  She leaves and you open the folded note.
  
  "What does it say?" asks Esmeralda.
  
  "It's Andrea. She wants me to go up to the table with John and the other men and try to find out what rooms they're staying in. She told me not to talk directly to John because he might realize who I am."
  
  "What would you like to do?"
  
  You stare at the red tablecloth. "I want to go to bed. I want to sleep and not even worry about this."
  
  "That's not a bad idea."
  
  You look up at Esmeralda. "No, it's a terrible idea. My mother and father's corpses are in a kitchen freezer on Venus because of those men at that table. I have to kill every one of them." You sigh. "And then I think I'll have to deal with Andrea later. I wonder if I'll go to Hell when I die."
  
  Just then the man in the straw hat comes up to your table and smiles. "Hi, Sandra. Can I sit down and talk to you? I have something I need to confess."
  
  Your blood runs cold. You're hand goes into the pocket of you blazer and caresses the ray pistol.
  
  > hear John Out
  You're staring into the eyes of the man behind the murders of your mother and father. Cold sweat beads your skin and you feel both nervous and nauseous.
  
  "John?" you ask in a barely audible croak.
  
  The man gives a toothy grin and pulls off his straw hat, exposing his trademark hair. "One and only. John the Baptist of the space ways, returned from the wilderness to preach the gospel."
  
  "You...you have blood on your hands."
  
  John pulls out the chair across from you, sits, and places his hat before him. "I've never killed a single person in my life, Sandra."
  
  "How did you know it was me?"
  
  "An obviously Lantina girl and her four-legged robot. Did you think a bad disguise was going to fool me?"
  
  "You know Andrea's here, right?"
  
  John chuckles. "The short-haired brunet with the shades? She's an idiot if she thinks I wouldn't see through that get-up."
  
  "Why did your men kill my parents? I know about the archeological site. You all were trying to get a component or something?"
  
  "They were not under any orders to kill."
  
  "And the Port Authority Building? Esmeralda and I were inside it when that rocket ship crashed into it and your men came in dressed as security guards and started shooting people."
  
  "You need to know, Sandra, that I'm not the mastermind behind any of this. This was all Andrea's idea. She was so desperate to bring Janice, her dead sister, back. She always blamed your father for her sister's suicide. She was the one who ordered the expedition to Lozano's Island. She was the one with the security codes that let The Elizabeth Proctor into the island's immediate air space. She also got several men from the copper mine to join her, especially Jay Kelly. Do you think I hang out with miners? I'm a space jockey!"
  
  "Jay Kelly! That's where I remembered him from, Esse." You look to Esmeralda. "He was a foreman at the mine!"
  
  John jabs his temple with his index finger. "And who would know him, then?"
  
  You slowly pick up your tea, take a small sip. "What about Janice, though? They found her body in Andrea's apartment and assumed it was Andrea. Andrea said you'd taken it out of her 'shrine,' which was some kind of freezer to preserve the corpse."
  
  "That's hardly murder. I was angry with her and how far she'd taken things, especially with her ordering the attack on the Port Authority Building. I figured if I removed Janice's body from its state of preservation, Andrea might come to her senses and put all this behind her."
  
  "Why, then," asks Esmeralda, "are you on Mercury and in the city of New Melbourne?"
  
  John sighs. "We'd already come so far. It only seemed logical, now that we had all the pieces of the puzzle, to see things to their conclusion. I'd figured we'd be able to resurrect the dead. Not just Janice, but everybody."
  
  A smile creeps up on on his face.
  
  "Why are you smiling?" you ask.
  
  "I was wrong. We were all wrong. Me, Andrea, everybody involved. There is no key to immortality. We were duped. This was all some sort of elaborate deception. Certainly all the so-called alien artifacts that were uncovered. I did really spend time in a Leviathan ala Jonah and the whale. And it did slow down my aging process. All that's true. Everything else, though...a lie."
  
  You take another sip of your green tea. "A lie you say? By whom? Who's behind all this?"
  
  John shakes his head and puts his fingers to the bridge of his nose. "I can't say, Sandra. Someone with resources. Someone with access to the the copper mine on Venus."
  
  "You bastard!" yells a woman's voice.
  
  You look to the side and see Andrea marching toward your table, her hand reaching into her purse.
  
  John jumps up from his chair, reaches into his jacket pocket, and pulls out a ray pistol.
  
  Andrea immediately pulls her own ray pistol out, ducking down in case John fires his weapon. She fires.
  
  You're briefly blinded by a bright blue flash of light. John screams.
  
  "Get down!" says Esmeralda, latching onto the sleeve of your blazer and yanking you under the table.
  
  You blink your eyes till you can see clearly again. Before you are John's leather shoes. He's obviously still standing, in spite of Andrea's apparent hit. There's another flash of blue and you realize it must be John firing back.
  
  All around you are screams as the diners witness this impromptu ray gun battle.
  
  You turn to Esmeralda. "We need to get out of here!"
  
  > The Battle of Hotel Hermes
  You crawl from under the table in the opposite direction of where John is standing, hoping you can sprint out of harm's way. But then a sweaty hand clasps your ankle and pulls you back. An arm wraps around your collarbone and pulls you up to sitting position. You feel John's hot breath against the side of your face and see him out of the corner of your eye. He looks grim and determined. You glance down from his face and notice the shoulder of his jacket is blackened and smoking and dripping wet.
  
  John points his ray pistol to your temple. "We're going to get up now. Slowly."
  
  You look to Esmeralda and whisper: "Esse, help me!"
  
  Esmeralda regards you with warm pink eyes. "I will, my dear child. Just be patient."
  
  "Okay, Andrea," calls John from where he's crouched behind you, "I've got your little Mexican girl, Sandra, here. Me and her are walking out of the hotel and you and everyone else is going to stand back. All of you. Stand back!"
  
  John tugs at you with his embracing arm and forces you to stand up. You glance around and see concerned guests standing at their tables, staring at you and John. Two black-clad security guards are off to the side of the room, their own ray pistols out and ready. Andrea stands maybe five feet in front of you, her gun still drawn and a blank stare on her face.
  
  "Were are you taking me, John?" you ask.
  
  "Away from here," he replies. "Hopefully, to our ship. Boys!"
  
  You stare in the direction he's calling and see the men at his table slowly approach. They cautiously pull ray pistols out of their coat pockets as they near you and John.
  
  John smiles. "Don't be shy, boys. One of you needs to train his gun on that bitch, Andrea. Okay, ladies and gentlemen"-- he glances at Esmeralda-- "and of course also Tin Spider. Me and my little girl here and my boys are going to be on our merry little way. Nobody get stupid and follow us out. And nobody try shooting at us either!"
  
  "Damn you, John!" yells Andrea. "I swear I'll kill you!"
  
  "Andrea, my love, whether or not you care a lick for little Miss Acosta here, my men have got no problem frying you where you stand. So back off."
  
  Soon John's men encircle the two of you and John starts walking to the entrance to the dinning room.
  
  Your hand brushes the outside of your blazer pocket, feeling the bulk of your own pistol through the material, but you dare not reach in to retrieve the weapon.
  
  In a dead silence your party enters the hotel lobby. Soon you and the others are passing under the towering figure of Hermes, Messenger of the Gods. The god stares up at the ceiling, oblivious to your plight. Then his brassy eyes warm with a golden illumination.
  
  You gasp at what you see.
  
  "What is it?" asks John.
  
  "Uh...nothing."
  
  "Nothing?"
  
  The sculpted head of Hermes pulls down and regards your party with blazing eyes.
  
  John and his men look up at the light source, squinting their eyes as the radiance increases. Soon the light is completely blinding. You hear John cry out.
  
  "Jesus Christ!" he screams, trying to cover his eyes with his hands.
  
  Squinting yourself in the bright light, you realize your opportunity has come and pull your own pistol out of your blazer pocket and fire into John's leg.
  
  He yells as his pant leg catches fire.
  
  Quickly, you pull out from under his now-slackened arm and tumble across the floor, hoping you can get out his men's line of fire. Still blinking the purple out of your eyes, you manage to get behind a column.
  
  The men try scattering to find you. They begin firing the ray pistols in all directions. John hops up and down, his pants still on fire, and his leaps go higher and higher in Mercury's low gravity.
  
  Then Hermes' caduceus staff comes crashing down on him. The fire is finally out, but John is now a bloody mass of skin, cloth, and broken bones. Seeing what's become of their leader, the men start firing their ray guns at the brass statue. Hermes raises a sandaled foot and the men scatter to escape his godly wrath. The foot comes banging down into the floor, cracking the marble tiles with a spider web pattern.
  
  Still hiding behind your column, you point your gun at one of the men and fire.
  
  He bursts into flame, screaming shrilly, and then crumples to the floor.
  
  You glance up and notice Hermes is now looking at you. He raises his staff high above his head, getting ready to swat you like a mosquito. You jump away and rise up in an arc almost twenty feet above the floor. Then something massive knocks the wind out of you and you see the floor coming up to meet you.
  
  When everything is over, Esmeralda finds your flattened, bloody remains and is able to identify you to the hotel detective.
  
  "I warned her," she says in a low, quivering voice. "Oh, how I warned that poor, foolish girl."
  
  The End