The Wishing Stone (3 page)

“This is from the stuff we wished for with the Wishing Stone?” Adam asked.

“Yes. The debt is due immediately and must be paid in full.”

“We didn't know that,” Adam said.

“It does not matter. I am the Collector. I am here to collect your debts. Now.”

“Ask if we can just give the stuff back,” Cindy suggested.

“Maybe not all of it,” Sally muttered.

“Can we pay off the debt by returning the goods?” Adam asked.

“There is a no-refund policy. Your debts are due immediately. Hand over the gratoms now.”

“But we don't have any gratoms,” Watch said. “We don't even know what they are.”

The Collector moved his fingers and the metallic scroll vanished. In its place was a small spherical-shaped object lined with numerous glowing buttons and flashing lights. It hummed as it sat in the Collector's hand, filling each of them with an ominous feeling.

“The debt must be paid immediately,” the Collector said in his robotic voice. “If you cannot pay, then you must work off the debt on a slave planet.”

Adam held up a hand. “Now wait a second. This isn't fair. This Wishing Stone was just sitting in the middle of nowhere. No instructions came with it. There wasn't even a warning label on the side. We can't be responsible for debts we had no idea we were piling up.”

“I am a Collector,” the hooded figure repeated. “I am here to collect your debts. I do not argue over how you accumulated these debts. And since you have made it clear that you have no gratoms to pay for these debts, you will now be transported to a slave planet where you will spend the rest of your lives working off these debts.” He fiddled with the controls on the sphere in his hands. “Stand ready to be transported to Amacron Thirty-seven.”

“Wait!” Adam pleaded. “We're not ready to be transported anywhere. We need to talk about this some more.”

“We should at least be allowed to talk to a lawyer,” Sally said, stepping forward and angrily pointing a finger at the Collector. “You show up
here, saying you're a Collector and we're supposed to pay you. How do we know you're not a fake? You haven't even shown us ID. You haven't even—” Sally was cut off in midsentence.

There was a flash of green light. It came from the sphere.

And Sally was gone. Just gone.

“Oh no,” Cindy cried.

There was another flash of green light.

Then Cindy was gone.

“Get out of the way, Adam!” Watch shouted.

Adam wasn't even given a chance to think. He dove to the side of the path. This time there was a burst of red light. Adam felt sure he was on his way to some forsaken slave world. But then the Collector collapsed on the path and the transporting sphere rolled lazily into the bushes. Out the corner of his eye Adam saw Watch lowering his laser pistol.

“I wish I was a faster draw,” Watch said.

Adam understood. They had lost the girls. Adam stood and brushed off his pants. Together they stepped to where the Collector had fallen. He lay facedown covered by his hood. Watch reached down to feel for a pulse at the guy's neck, then he jerked his hand back.

“I think I killed him,” he whispered. “But, I promise, the laser was set to stun.”

Adam shook his hand. “I don't think this guy was ever alive. You heard his voice. He's got to be a robot.”

Watch stood and nodded grimly. “You're probably right. Maybe the stun was enough to destroy his positronic brain.” He pointed to the sphere that had rolled into the bushes. “I wonder if we can figure how to use that.”

Adam stepped over and picked it up. Although it was small, there were at least twenty controls on the object. “It would take a genius to understand how to operate it.”

“I'm supposed to have a genius IQ,” Watch said. “Give it to me.”

Adam handed it over. “What is your IQ?”

“One hundred and sixty.”

“I'm impressed.”

“I try not to brag about it,” Watch said.

While Watch was examining the device, Adam studied the spots where Cindy and Sally had disappeared. There were no burn marks on the ground, nothing to show that they had been beamed away to another planet. Amacron 37—it
sounded awfully far from home to Adam. He was about to turn back to Watch when a flash of light in the grass nearby caught his eye.

Sally had dropped the Wishing Stone.

Adam brought it over to Watch. “It must have fallen from her hand during the transportation process,” Adam said.

“We might want to order up a few more laser pistols before the Collector's pals come looking for him,” Watch said.

“I think that would just bring his pals quicker.” Adam gestured to the fallen Collector, who had yet to move an inch. “I don't think we have all that much time. Have you been able to figure out how it works?”

“I know how to turn it on. I watched what the Collector did when he zapped Sally and Cindy. But that isn't the same as knowing how to operate it.”

“Maybe we don't have to know everything. The settings should be the same as when the Collector zapped the girls. If we zap ourselves, we should go to the same place.”

Watch was doubtful. “Maybe.”

“We have to give it a try.”

Watch hesitated. “Do we want to do that? I mean, that slave labor planet didn't sound like a vacation spot.”

“We have no choice. If we don't save the girls, who will?”

“If we can't save the girls, then who'll save us?”

Adam was astounded. “I can't believe you'd leave the girls to suffer lives of torment and misery.”

“I didn't say that was my first choice. I was just reviewing all our options.”

“What other options do we have?” Adam asked.

“We could go home and pretend none of this ever happened.” Watch stopped and scratched his head. “But I don't suppose we'd be able to live with that decision.” He gestured Adam closer. “Get right beside me. I'll try to zap us both at the same time. That might increase the odds that we go to the same place.”

Adam pressed up against Watch and stared at the mysterious sphere, which Watch held out at arm's length. “What if it beams us into deep space?” he asked.

“Then we'll have a hard time catching our breath.”

“Should we bring the Wishing Stone with us?”

“Yes,” Watch said, his finger on a purple button. “We might be wishing for a couple of space suits in the next ten seconds.”

“I knew you were going to say that,” Adam replied, stuffing the stone in his pocket.

Watch pushed the button and the Earth vanished.

A
macron 37 was desolate and miserable. A desert planet with two yellow moons and a purple sun, the wind blew thin and dry fifteen hours a day, which was the length of Amacron 37's day. Yet the air was not particularly hot—just unsatisfying. The world was obviously old and burnt out, with barely enough oxygen to support life. When Sally and Cindy first materialized on the planet, they wondered if they'd survive the night.

There had been no transition for them. One minute they were on the path with Adam and
Watch—and the Collector—and the next they were being herded toward a desolate barracks by a couple of robots with electric prods. When the prods touched the girls, they were given sharp jolts. They neither argued with the robots nor put up a fight, although Sally got shocked once just for stumbling in the sand. The voltage wasn't excessively high but it did hurt. But basically they were too confused to do much of anything except what they were told.

The inside of the barracks was dusty and dark. They were shown to a couple of hard mats and told to rest until their shift began. Apparently they had been transported at the end of the work day. The tiny purple sun was still in the sky, along with the two tired moons. Glancing around the dim barracks, they could see that not all the inhabitants were humanoid. There were a couple of huge bearlike creatures and one guy who was a cross between a spider and an overgrown butterfly. Yet they all seemed to be resting as no one stood to greet them.

One of the robots gestured with its electric stick. “You will be called to labor in five zomas,” it said.

“How long is a zoma in human hours?” Sally asked.

“Forty minutes,” the robot said and turned away with his companion, leaving them alone.

Sally and Cindy sat on their respective bunks. They had left home only minutes ago but already they had sand in their ears from the short walk outside. Both looked as miserable as they felt.

“I wonder where the guys are?” Sally said finally.

“Maybe they were transported to another planet,” Cindy said.

“The Collector implied that we were all going to Amacron Thirty-seven.” Sally paused. “Maybe they escaped somehow.”

“I doubt it. They were probably just transported to another part of this planet.”

Sally was thoughtful. “Watch had the laser pistol. Maybe he blew the Collector away.”

“Even if he did, I don't think that's going to help us.”

Sally sighed. “All that good stuff isn't any use here.”

Cindy agreed. “You'd think they'd have let us
bring it with us. It looks like we'll be paying for it for a long time.”

A soft voice spoke near them. “You only get what you wished for after you pay off your debts.”

They looked over at the neighboring bunk. A girl who appeared to be about their age, with a green face and white eyes, sat up and studied them. Her hair was long and black, so tightly curled that it would have been longer than she was tall if it were straightened out. She was beautiful, even with a green face, even by human standards. Plus her voice was a thing of music, gentle and melodious.

“Who are you?” Sally asked.

“My name is Hironee. What are your names?”

“I'm Sally and this is Cindy.” Sally paused. “Have you been here long?”

Hironee was grave. “Half my life. I assume you are from Earth?”

“Yeah,” Cindy said. “You've heard of the place?”

“I had a friend who was from there. His name was Charles. He taught me your language. Except for the local boss and the robots—who know every language in the galaxy—I am the only one on Amacron Thirty-seven who knows English.”

“But what happened to Charles?” Cindy asked.

Hironee spoke sadly. “He was here for five years and then one day he couldn't take it anymore and tried to escape.” Hironee lowered her head. “The robots caught him in the desert and burned him to a crisp.”

“Has anyone ever escaped from here?” Sally asked.

Hironee glanced up. “There are stories that a few have escaped, over the last ten thousand years. But no one has done it while I've been here. This particular camp is surrounded by an invisible force field. To get out into the deep desert, you have to disable the force field, which Charles did by making a bomb out of chemicals in the soil. But then there is nowhere to go in the desert. Either the elements kill you or the robots find you and cut you down with their lasers.”

“What planet are you from?” Cindy asked.

Hironee brightened. “My planet is named Zanath. It is very beautiful, littered with what you would call tropical islands. I was very happy there.” She added wistfully, “I miss it very much.”

“Were you brought here by a Collector?” Sally asked.

“Yes. I accidentally found a Wishing Stone and
made a few wishes before the Collector appeared and demanded I pay him five hundred and sixteen gratoms.”

“Exactly how long have you been here?” Sally asked.

“Four of your years.”

“How many gratoms have you worked off in that time?”

“Three gratoms,” Hironee said and laughed softly, a sad, low laugh. “It really doesn't matter what your debt is. You will never pay it off before you die. That's the way the Kasters set up the system.”

“That's what I suspected,” Sally said grimly.

“Who are the Kasters?” Cindy asked.

“They are the ones who construct the Wishing Stones. They seed them on planets all over the galaxy and use them to ensnare slave labor. The more advanced civilizations are aware of them and never use the stones. But the Kasters are always finding fresh slaves to work for them. They are shady businessmen, a greedy race of reptiles with a ruthless reputation for cheating and extortion. They also construct the robots who run this slave planet and many others like it.”

“Are there any Kasters here?” Sally asked.

“One. His name is Teeh, and he is horrible. He is the one I told you about who also speaks English. You'll meet him tomorrow—he goes out of his way to harass new slaves.” Hironee lowered her voice. “Don't ever anger him. He'll peel the skin off your body and eat it in front of you. I've seen him do it.”

“Why don't the more advanced civilizations in the galaxy stop the Kasters from taking slaves?” Cindy asked.

“The Kasters are a powerful and feared race. They take only slaves from those who have become indebted to them. This is what you would call a loophole in the galactic law. It allows them to operate just outside the law. Plus a lot of races still buy Kaster goods. There is always a market for them. Here on this planet you will make Kaster lamps for the rest of your lives.” Hironee shrugged. “They're pretty good lamps. They'll last longer than we will.”

“We will not remain here for the rest of our lives,” Sally said flatly. “We are going to escape. I don't care how long it takes, but we will not stay here and make lamps for a bunch of slimy reptiles.”

Hironee cautioned Sally to lower her voice. She
glanced around the barracks, her white eyes glittering in the dark.

“Be careful what you say. Teeh has spies everywhere. We can talk about such matters during the work shift when not so many ears are close. But I can tell you now it is better, in the long run, to accept your situation and try to live with it. There is no real chance of escape. Remember what happened to Charles.”