Upon arrival it was nearly dark. Several faculty and advanced students emerged to welcome him and unload the seeds. The department head paid the landspeeder driver and gave Jarodnyk directions to find Boltarh's brother, Baldan.

The Taloid wandered across the campus and into an isolated, sterile-looking white-walled building, clutching the medi-kit against his side. The halls were only dimly lit but Jarodnyk had no trouble finding his way to Baldan's office. Nobody was there at the time so he leaned against the wall. Baldan showed up soon enough with a young co-ed by his side. Both were carrying notepads and discussing the finer points of livestock breeding.

"Ahh, you must be Jarodnyk," said Baldan, at last looking ahead.

"Obviously," the Taloid replied.

"Marci, could you return during my next office hours? I must speak with this visiting scholar."

"Tomorrow, then. Good night, professor."

After Marci walked away, Baldan patted Jarodnyk on the back, "Welcome. Let's go to my lab to talk."

They went down a flight of stairs into the basement. The halls there were narrower, mazelike.

"I heard that you really are a scholar, not like the typical space scum who don't ask and don't tell."

"I was a scientist on my homeworld. I studied ecosystems, trying to piece together how the different species interacted to distribute, utilize, gather, and recycle materials, trying to understand the Lifemaker's plan to renew, propagate, and advance life."

"Then I'm sure you appreciate the gravity of the good deed you're doing to protect our form of life."

Jarodnyk nodded and his eyes glowed slightly brighter.

Baldan unlocked the lab and held the door open for the Taloid. The looks and scent-patterns were roughly similar to Boltarh's lab but not nearly as big or fancy. Like his brother's lab, two others were already working inside. Unlike those in Boltarh's lab, the others in Baldan's lab did not look like they spent most of their time there. One man was tall, well built, bald, dark-skinned, and goateed. The other was young, smooth-skinned, with black wavy hair, a neatly trimmed beard and artificial arms. They nodded at Baldan and Jarodnyk. Baldan gestured to an empty desk against the wall of the lab.

Jarodnyk set the medi-kit on the desk and opened the lock. Baldan pulled out the altered panels that held the tools and supplies, donned some rubber gloves, and lifted out the sample of the substance, inspecting the container for damage. It was intact, so he set it on the desk and took off the gloves. Then he removed the code-key Jarodnyk had translated back into Basic from Taloid. On top of the data pads containing the encrypted research notes was another data pad, used for the transfer of credits from account to account.

"A-ha," Baldan looked at Jarodnyk and smiled, "Job well done, red-eyes," he picked up the pad and entered his authorization codes, sending the Taloid 50,000 credits. He handed that data pad back and took the ones containing the research notes. Jarodnyk reassembled the medi-kit, placed his data pad inside, locked it up, strapped it on, and turned to shake Baldan's hand before leaving.

"You remember the way out?" Baldan asked as he held the silver hand.

"Of course," Jarodnyk said.

"Have a safe trip," Baldan added, and held out his arm toward the door.

Jarodnyk bowed and stepped away, feeling confident that he was actually going to do well in this galaxy. Maybe he had a future after all.

And then a bright flash. His knees buckled, the world spun, and the floor rose up to meet him.

"Jarodnyk, Jarodnyk, are you all right?"

"Baldan? What happened?"

The human backed off to a safe distance as Jarodnyk rose to his feet and inspected himself. He seemed to be intact, so he checked for the equipment on his belt, his lance, and his staff. Finally he slung the medi-kit over his shoulder and wobbled, still off-balance, resolutely toward the door. His keen hearing picked up a mumbled, "Crap. I don't think it worked."

Jarodnyk checked the lock on the kit. It hadn't been opened. That meant only one thing. They were after him. The robot cursed himself for underestimating these guys and prayed to the Lifemaker for strength. He had to get out of there...reach his ship...but where was it? Which way? He had come only a little while ago. Why was his brain so fogged?

He cleared his mind, beating the panic rising in him. He looked both ways down the hall. His memory was slowly reconstructing itself. Things started to look familiar to him. He couldn't quite run yet as his mind channeled extra resources to shaking off the haze, but he moved swiftly and with purpose.

"No, definitely not. He still knows," he caught another whisper and realized they were following him.

Without warning, a reflex honed by a million years of fight-or-flight survival took hold in Jarodnyk. He spun, leapt, and instantly took out the point man, the guy with the artificial arms, with a vicious heel-to-chin blow. He landed in a crouch, driving his fist into the other assistant's gut. His other hand flew up and locked on just below the man's jaw, popping loose a few joints in his neck. Raising himself, Jarodnyk gained the momentum to fling the man across a table laden with students' graded homework.

Baldan had stepped away and was fumbling with a palm-sized device. Jarodnyk grabbed his battlestaff and dispatched the device from Baldan's grasp. In the same fluid motion, he landed a blow to each side of Baldan's head with the staff, then swung it low to take out his ankles from behind and land the Human on his back. Closing in, Jarodnyk pulled back the sheath on one side of his staff and stepped on Baldan's chest with his right foot. Leaning over, he lowered the end of his staff to Baldan's reddened face, touching the corrosive tip to a few end-hairs of his eyebrow.

Baldan could hear the sickly sizzling and see the smoke rise. He could feel the chemical heat against his exposed skin. The professor gritted his teeth but moved no other muscle.

"If I press down on this I estimate it'll take a little over a minute to eat through your skin and skull into your braincase. You will feel every second of it and it will take considerably longer for you to die," explained Jarodnyk, "Now, will you tell me what you did to me and why you did it?"

"Why would you want to blank my memory?"

"It was for our protection. You could be captured. They could tap your mind and extract the information. If they don't think you know anything, they won't bother you, and they can't extract secrets you don't have. This is too important to risk security leaks. You're a mercenary and a smuggler. You're vulnerable from all directions, official and outlaw. Please, let me figure out how to erase what you know. You're a loose cannon."

Jarodnyk re-sheathed the tip of his battlestaff and returned it to its holster. He folded his arms but did not lift his foot off Baldan.

"Or maybe you're concerned because I'm not a member of your little group. If I see a whole race being wiped out by old age I'll have an idea where it came from. I can keep you honest and I can take care of myself. That's what you're worried about."

Baldan glared. His eyes carried the unmistakable look of being busted. "That and the fact that you could disclose what you know voluntarily. You could send your mercenary friends after us, and we'll be defenseless."

Jarodnyk at last put both feet on the floor.

"Power corrupts the inwardly weak. Temptations soak the ships with no rudders, but I am not one of them. As you said, this is too important. It shouldn't be left in the hands of one group. Knowing that I know will temper you. You have nothing to fear from me. I am a faithful servant of the Lifemaker and understand my responsibility to protect His creations."

Jarodnyk stepped on Baldan's device, crushing it. He checked his medi-kit one more time and started to leave.

Before walking through the door, he looked back one last time. Baldan had gotten up from the floor and and was brushing the dust off himself.

"You know what I find most distressing about the peoples of this galaxy?" Jarodnyk asked, not waiting for an answer, "You've developed all these devices and technologies, spanned the stars, and now you're beginning to unlock the secrets of life itself, but you have failed to master one of the most basic of lessons."

"And what might that be?" asked Baldan, checking on his assistant with the artificial arms.

Jarodnyk's voice drifted lightly but clearly on the air currents as he walked away.

"Trust."