text: [Themes: sci-fi, science fiction]
  
  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.
  
  > pull out your Gun and Kill Him Now
  Your heart pounds inside your tight ribcage in rapid irregularity. You look into John's eyes and smile.
  
  "By all means," you say in as composed a voice as you can muster.
  
  John returns your smile, takes the seat across from you, and looks at your plate. "Is that fish you're eating?"
  
  "It's Tilapia. I always ate this at home. Why don't you take off your jacket? If you're going to talk to me, you might as well make yourself comfortable."
  
  "Sandra, maybe you and I should go back to our room," suggests Esmeralda.
  
  "No," you say, giving her a sidelong glance. "That would be rude. The man wants to talk. Let's let him talk."
  
  John smiles again and takes off his hat, placing it before him on the table. "Sandra, there's a lot I need to tell you. What I was looking for...it turned out to be false. We were lied to. Our entire mission was for nothing."
  
  "You killed my parents."
  
  A hurt look crosses John's face. "No, I didn't. I would never have given orders like that."
  
  You inhale through your nostrils. "And the people at the Port Authority Building?"
  
  "I never gave orders for anyone to be killed. Believe me. Trust me."
  
  You slide your ray pistol out of your blazer pocket and point it in John's face.
  
  John shows no shock or surprise, only stares at you with sad, sad eyes. "Murder me if you want to. I realize now there's no immortality, only fools with foolish dreams."
  
  People in the dinning hall begin to notice your gun and start gasping and screaming. Many scurry from their tables and head for the exits.
  
  "Sandra," says Esmeralda, "put your gun away. Please. This goes against everything your parents believed in. You wont' be vindicating them; only dishonoring their memories."
  
  "It doesn't matter anymore, Tin Spider. I'm a broken man now."
  
  "Ma'am, put down the weapon!" yells a voice from across the room.
  
  You glance over and see a black-clad security gard with his own ray pistol trained on you.
  
  Where is there to go now? you wonder. You have no future at this point. You're probably a wanted fugitive who may have sparked an interplanetary war.
  
  Esmeralda's cold steel claw locks onto your wrist in a tight grip. "Sandra, you will be killed if you shot John. I'm sworn to protect your life, even if it means injuring you."
  
  "Let go, Esmeralda!" you say through gritted teeth. "You're hurting me."
  
  "Young lady, understand that I can apply enough pressure to severe your hand from your wrist. I will do just that if you don't drop the gun."
  
  "Ma'am," says the security guard, now five feet from your table and still pointing his gun at you, "I will fire on you if you attack this man."
  
  Esmeralda's grip is now like a tourniquet. Sharp, hot pain lances through your wrist. You hear a snapping sound and realize it's bone.
  
  You pull the trigger.
  
  Everything lights up like an exploding flash bulb and John's face ignites into a smoldering mask of flame. In spite of his resigned speech to you, he still screams out shrilly in unimaginable pain.
  
  You almost immediately tumble to the floor in a spray of blood as a bright beam of blue light flickers overhead. The wind is knocked out of your lungs as you roll from the table, blood spurting from your mangled wrist. Everything slows down. The red tablecloth has caught fire and its orange flames light the twitching severed hand on the floor in front of you. Black smoke billows across the floor and blocks your appendage from view. Your entire body is burning.
  
  Well, you think as you drift away, I've avenged you, Mom and Dad.
  
  Maybe we'll meet again, after all.
  
  The End