Chapter 1

Fredrick Masley was jolted back into the land of the living, his chest heaving and his skin soaked with sweat. Being an intelligence agent for the United Federation of Profit-Seeking Planets, he instinctually scanned the surroundings, trying to assess the situation. Fredrick found himself suspended in the air in a column of blue light (probably a force field of some sort), naked, unable to move and totally defenseless and he instantly realized that he was fucked. Being an intelligence agent in enemy custody always led to bad, uncomfortable and potentially lethal things. Fredrick continued scanning the surroundings and subconsciously noted that everything, save for his little column of light, was pitch-black, something standard for most interrogations. Then, something stirred ahead of Fredrick. It was most definitely his would-be interrogator, which meant that the interrogation was about to commence, which made Fredrick nervous, to say the least. Suddenly, another column of blue light revealed the interrogator and Fredrick felt chills run down his spine.

The interrogator was humanoid, tall as a human and very thin, it was hairless and its skin was light grey in color. It had a very large head that had no nose, no ears, only a small slit for a mouth and two huge, black almond-shaped eyes, unblinking eyes that stared straight at Fredrick. Fredrick shivered. It was an Apexai, a Grey alien. Fredrick never liked Greys, they were weird, spooky and sometimes downright scary, especially when they were staring, something which Fredrick's Grey was currently doing. The Grey wasn't moving, it was just looking at Fredrick and Fredrick could not help but shiver again. Fredrick suppressed his fear and attempted to explain the Apexai fifteen feet in front of him. After a moment, Fredrick came up with several possible answers, none of which were pleasant. The most likely answer was that the Grey was an agent not from the USE, but from a foreign Apexai nation and this carried implications that Fredrick wasn't too comfortable with. The USE wanted deniability, handing its captive to a foreign power for 'extensive' interrogation, an interrogation that the USE would officially have no part of while, for all points and purposes, the interrogation would actually be conducted by the USE, therefore if, for some reason, the public knew what had transpired, the blame would not be pegged on the USE. The USE were bastards, but it wasn't as if they were the only ones doing it. Fredrick knew he was fucked, he resigned to his fate, but that didn't mean he was going to enjoy what would happen to him.

The Grey spoke without opening his mouth. "Hello Mr. Masley."

"Call me Fred," Fredrick replied, surprised that the Grey's voice was inside his head. "You're a telepath, I assume."

"That is correct Mr. Ma- Fred. And you can call me Benathil," the alien nodded his head. It was the first time the Grey moved.

"Okay," Fredrick answered.

"You already know why you are here, and you already know why I am here," the Grey was cutting the pleasantries short and was going right to the point.

"Yes Ben," Fredrick had a sick feeling in his gut.

"Very well. Fred, I am going to ask you only once, so please cooperate," the Grey seemed like a nice fellow, he was quite polite and sounded like an Englishman, even though his voice was quite neutral. "We know the Federation sent you to Daron, we know that your nation is using the Gamma-Sigma as a tool against rival nations. We also know that you have information pertaining to the location of a secret base of operations belonging to the Federation and the Gamma-Sigma. Would you please tell us what you know of this secret base? Please answer me; it's the polite thing to do."

"I'm not telling you anything, Grey-shit!" Fredrick spat in a sudden surge of defiance, the term 'Grey' was considered by Apexai as an offensive slur and Ben was apparently surprised, to Fredrick's pleasure.

The Grey slowly shook his head. "I'm sorry Fred, I really hoped that you would cooperate but now you force me to take a less-civil approach. I really regret that it had to end like this."

Something was descending in Fredrick's column of blue light. Fredrick looked up and saw a device that resembled a bulky chrome-painted helmet with wires sticking out from the sides and probably from the top as well. Anxiety hit Fredrick, he knew what this machine was, it was a mind-hacker, a sadistic device that would physically interface with the mind, linking it to a computer that could digitally manipulate the mind. The mind-hacker could also link the patient to a telepath, forming a stronger telepathic link than that of a connection without the hacker and making manual mind-manipulation (or mind-rape) easier. The force field that was holding Fredrick up in the air constricted him, forcing his head back down as the helmet landed on his head and secured itself on Fredrick. It was a perfect fit.