The Inspector bolted into a sitting position, gasping. His naked body was dripping with water and he was unable to absorb the elements his body needed to function properly. He’d suffocate from water exposure.

He coughed and gasped again, before his mind cleared enough to focus on where he was. He struggled to rise to his feet, water pouring off his body as he got up. He stood in a clear tank that rose far above his head, even if he had solid ground on which to leap from, he wouldn’t be able to reach the lip of the tank.

You are alert, came Aff-Rua-Dayt’s voice in his head.

“Are you trying to kill me?” he shouted angrily toward the open end of the tank.

Your orifice was clear at all times and your body was held in stasis so you could not turn over and bring water into your air-filled organs, the voice whispered.

He bridled at the assumption. “You know nothing of my physiology! I have no circulatory system. My lungs serve only to regulate my body temperature. My body absorbs what it needs from the atmosphere through the skin. Covering my skin with water effectively smothers me!” He stopped, then continued quietly, as if to himself. “Oh, but, you knew. All along. This is torture.”

That is an ethical concept which we do not believe in, came the telepathic response.

“How convenient,” muttered the Inspector. “As much as I’m sure you have no ethical concepts about killing the last of a species.”

He winced as Aff-Rua-Dayt’s hateful mental energy grazed his mind. You are in no position to judge us. We know what you have done, one-called-Inspector. It is truly you who should be brought to justice, not the little beings you chase on these voyages of yours, in your self-righteous belief that you are stopping bad things from happening. Your mind is as small as the vermin you seek.

“You call me small-minded, yet it is you who enslave others to do your work, dangerous work at that. My people have never done that.”

You truly believe that. Ironic that such a lifeform could be so blind to everything his species has done for so long, the Ulimphian murmured. You know so little about your own species, yet you believe it is your duty to put others in their proper place? You do not deserve to survive.

Suddenly, the Inspector laughed. Half-heartedly. But, the Ulimphian did not expect that.

Why do you laugh?

“Ironic, you say,” he said loudly and clearly. “You don’t understand the meaning of the word. Or the concept.” He took a moment, turning around in the large, clear container. He could see only a vague whiteness beyond the confines of the tank. “You claim not to believe in torture, yet you employ tactics of so many species who try to force their enemies to give up information they want. You’ve gone through my mind, yet you keep me alive and force me to suffer.”

There was silence, both in the tank and in the psychic realm around him.

“Nothing to say, my dear Aff-Rua-Dayt?” he asked idly. “Perhaps because you know what I just realized. You need me because you couldn’t exert control over my mind the way you can with any other species. The first time you’ve gotten your hands – so to speak – on a Space Master. You tried all your usual techniques and you can’t control me.” He waited for any response. “Not talking, huh? No need. I have a good idea of what you’re thinking. There’s a part of my mind that you can’t get inside and that bothers you … that a species could possibly be beyond your control. Sorry, Ulimphians – I know you’re all listening – but this is one being that you can’t take over.”

Again, everything was quiet. He stood there, naked and damp, but slowly the air was drying his skin. He turned around in the tank a couple more times, and called out to the being above him. Then, he waited.

Minutes passed before a new voice sounded within his skull: One-called-Inspector, came a deep, masculine voice, we can learn things from you.

The Inspector waited a moment before responding. “Jay-Oos, I presume?”

I am, the voice responded simply, the tone uninflected.

“Then, you can release me from this torture room,” the Space Master said confidently, as if it were a foregone conclusion.

Or, I could fill the tank with water and end your life, Jay-Oos replied warningly.

The corner of the Inspector’s lips turned down. He had been too optimistic. “And lose all the knowledge I hold. You won’t do that.”

We are gods. We can do anything, including extracting knowledge from deceased bodies.

The Space Master was well aware of that, yet he was alive and they were talking with him. “So, why don’t you just get it over with, Jay-Oos? Kill me, take what you want?” he said challengingly.

Silence met his questions. The fact that this supposedly all-powerful being was considering negotiating with him probably meant that it had limitations, which meant it wasn’t all that powerful after all.

“Because you don’t want to kill me,” the Inspector supplied the answer. “It’s my reincarnative ability you want to understand, to control. Fine. Let me out and I’ll give you all the knowledge you need about it.”

The fact that such long-lived beings with access to time-travel technologies would want reincarnative abilities worried him, in that small part of his mind that they couldn’t access. He wouldn’t let these being know that. It was the only thing he had that could open the possibility that he could escape.

The Ulimphians did not respond to his statements, but the water disappeared before his eyes, as if a hologram was simply shut off. A space appeared in the side of the tank right in front of him. He didn’t stop to think it over, simply striding right through it.

In the dull glow, he found himself being dressed in the clothes he came in by two nymphs and led into the softly lit chamber that looked into the tank he had been held in. The chamber had a raised dais upon which a golden throne stood, backed by purple curtains between gold-and-ivory columns in a Doric style. Three Greek-style dining couches sat in a semi-circle in front of the dais.

After he sat down on the centre couch, his sight was overwhelmed with blue-white light. When the light had died away, he found a broad-chested, muscular man who must have stood at least four metres tall, seated on the throne. There was a dourness to the being’s continence that seemed quite out of place.

When his gaze fell upon the intruder, his face turned angry.

Why do you not fall before me? Jay-Oos demanded indignantly.

The Inspector looked up casually at the being in front of him. “You have kidnapped me and my Associate and you expect me to kneel before you like a … like a what? A supplicant? A slave?” He tsked. “You know that I wasn’t even respectful to the Commandant of the Space Master Academy. Why would I respect your selfish expectations?”

Jay-Oos fumed, the light emanating from his body turning a deep red and flooding the room. I could dissect you with a thought! his voice boomed in the Inspector’s mind.

The Space Master looked idly at his fingernails on his left hand. “Were you planning to do that, you would have already and we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he said calmly.

The glow in the room turned pinkish-purple and subsided somewhat. Jay-Oos apparently had calmed down, despite the way his captive was treating him. It took a few more moments before he decided what to do next.

You will explain your reincarnative abilities, he informed the Inspector.

The Space Master looked up from his hand at the towering figure of Jay-Oos. “On one condition. Release my Associate.”

The Ulimphian’s eyes blazed a deadly red. You are in no position to dictate demands!

“I think I am. In fact, you can’t access that part of my mind that controls reincarnation without my willingness. And, as you know, if I die, that knowledge disappears with my life.” He looked mildly interested in his antagonist. “So, what do you want to do?”

Jay-Oos stared down at him, but the fire fled from his eyes and the glow in the room slowly returned to its original whitishness.

In the mining chamber, a naked Wigglesworth sweated as he wielded the shovel, hauling more rock from the pile into another cart pushed by a different appendageless alien. Just after his latest shovelful clattered into the cart, nymphs appeared on either side of him. He took a deep breath and looked at one, then the other.

You are to come with us, a female voice said in his head, while one of the two deactivated the plasma chain. The other pulled the shovel from his hand and allowed it to collapse to the ground. Then, the two nymphs slipped under his arms and lifted him up, flying him at a fast clip through the maze of tunnels that made up the Ulimphian mine. In other circumstances, Wigglesworth would have been screaming at the breakneck speed that he was moving at; in this case, he was too out of it to know how he’d normally react.

Just after the decision was made, part of the side wall in the chamber irised open. Two glowing nymphs zipped into the chamber, bearing Reggie Wigglesworth, now wearing the Greek Gendarme uniform he had on when he was whisked across the universe. After depositing him on the couch next to the Inspector, they turned to leave.

Only, the Inspector had hold of one of the nymphs. She struggled, blazed red, but he held fast. And, as he continued to hold onto her, her glow dimmed. The Inspector had activated his body’s electrical systems and siphoned off the nymph’s internal energy.

Jay-Oos lept to his feet. How DARE you?! he thundered.

The Space Master looked up at him. “Oh, something else I didn’t tell you? My apologies, Jay-Oos.”

The Inspector raised his left arm, open palm toward the Ulimphian leader and released a bolt of pure-white energy. With his right hand, he drained more electrical energy from the nymph, who slumped to the couch that he sat on. The other nymph made a quick escape through the opening in the wall, as the Inspector struck Jay-Oos again.

The white lightning bolt crackled and sizzled across the Ulimphian’s body. He was trying to aim his own arm at his attacker, but could not move. The Kayaclaschian rose to his feet, digging his left hand into the pocket of his trench coat and pulling out a bronze-colored ring that was slightly larger than his hand. He slipped the ring onto his right hand and looked up challengingly at the Ulimphian leader.

“Normally,” the Inspector preambled, “this would be the point at which I would inform you of your rights as I place you under arrest.”

With a flick of his right wrist, a length of crackling energy lanced out from the ring to form a blade.

“But, under Intergalactic Police Code, Section Alpha-17, Subsection Lambda-2, Paragraph Chi, ‘Attacking a Time Officer With Deadly Force,’ I’m authorized to use whatever force I see fit to deal with you,” he explained. “Further, given the nature of your crimes against a multitude of species over the course of time, I may render judgement at this time.”

The Inspector swung the plasma blade around between himself and Jay-Oos a few times before pronouncing his decision: “Guilty, of multiple temporal violations. Guilty, of multiple spatial incursions. Guilty, of multiple abductions. Guilty, of long-standing enslavement of numerous species. Guilty, of wonton violence against other species. And, finally, guilty, of knowingly misusing advanced technology for misrepresenting your own species in relation to other, less-advanced species.”

He made a sound indicating his disgust. “Gods, my eye.”

The energy field that the Inspector had used to trap Jay-Oos in held steady. “The judgement, according to Intergalactic Police Code is … death.”

The Ulimphian’s eyes bugged out at the pronouncement. If he intended to argue, he gave no indication. He made no attempt to communicate psychically, but his flex his considerable muscles against his restraints as the Inspector moved in to carry out his sentence.

Using a fencer’s stance, the Space Master crept slowly and evenly toward Jay-Oos, then came to a stop less than a metre from him.

“Any final words before I finish this?” he asked his captive.

Red light blazed in the Ulimphian’s eyes. You may end this physical body, but this does not end my life. You may do what your code demands of you, but it does not mean death for me, his voice echoed inside the Space Master’s mind.

Slightly unnerved by that, the Inspector smiled unevenly for a moment before deciding that it was likely to be a tactic to dissuade him from going through with the execution.

“I’m merely following the letter of Intergalactic Law,” he said simply.

As you believe you are, came the response.

The Ulimphian stopped his struggle against his restraints and merely stared defiantly at the Inspector, as the Space Master finally lifted his plasma sword and lashed out with a sweeping arc that sliced through the chest of his captive. Jay-Oos grunted and grimaced as the lighted blade dug into his physical body. The reddish glow of his body began to seep out through the gaping wound. Injured and clearly suffering, the Ulimphian looked back into the Inspector’s eyes with a hatred built up over centuries. The previous defeat of his people at the Inspector’s hands filled his mind as his life force slowly oozed away.

The Space Master struck again and again, cutting into the Ulimphian’s abdomen and legs. The so-called god was bleeding energy all over his body. Though he might have enjoyed slashing this evildoer in retaliation for the attempted torture he had just suffered, the Inspector relented and swung his blade one more time, aiming directly between Jay-Oos’ shoulders and head. The Ulimphian’s head came cleanly off and fell to the floor of the chamber, bouncing unstably to one side before coming to a rest.

The being’s internal energy pulsed unevenly as his body twitched, stumbled and collapsed to the floor. His internal glow faded quickly and died out.

The deed complete, the Space Master deactivated the plasma sword, pocketed it and walked over to his Associate, who sat stiffly like a statue on the couch.

“Constable?” he asked gently, getting no response from the serene-faced policeman. “Constable?”

This time, the Inspector took hold of both of Wigglesworth’s shoulders and shook him. The man’s eyes remained unfocused. Then, a thought occurred to him. He stepped back over to the nymph and placed his right hand on her head, searching her dying mind for information. It took time, time he was afraid he didn’t have, but he found what he needed.

The Space Master placed his left hand on the side of Wigglesworth’s head and bridged his mind and the nymph’s. As the nymph’s glow faded to nothing, the young black man came to, looking confusedly at the man kneeling between him and a shadow of an Ulimphian nymph.

He focused his eyes. “Inspector?”

“Yes, Constable, ’tis I.”

“Oh, Inspector!” Wigglesworth gushed. “Where am I? What happened?”

The Kayaclaschian smiled lopsidedly. “Good to have you back, Constable.” He paused a beat before resuming. “I’ll explain when we get back to the BOOTH. Right now, we need to run. This place is about to come falling down around our ears.”

Wigglesworth shook his head, trying to get the cobwebs out of it. “It’s going to … what?”

“No time to explain, dear Constable,” the Inspector said, rising to his feet and spotting the opening in the wall, where it had irised to admit the nymphs that carried his Associate into the room.

As if he had predicted it, the chamber rocked sharply. Wigglesworth was on his unsteady feet as soon as the shaking stopped. He clambered through the opening in the wall behind his friend, trying to be quick but careful as the entire mine shook again.

They hurried back through the maze of tunnels, guided by the Inspector’s optic pocketknife. The Space Master and Wigglesworth spotted a number of dark bodies that had been nymphs as they headed back the direction from which the beings had brought the Constable. Apparently Jay-Oos’ death had meant their deaths. The Inspector didn’t spare a thought to their fate, concerned more with saving himself and his Associate.

Ceilings and walls cracked as the tremors continued. The Inspector lamented that the other beings who had enslaved would be left to die. When they reached the big chamber where the mining had been underway, he stopped. Another aftershock hit, threatening to knock him off the high ledge, but he remained steady, looking down. The aliens in the pit had been freed of their psychic captivity, but the plasma chains were still active.

Not thinking twice, he activated a magnet on his optic pocketknife, drawing a long chain to him and he slipped down to the debris-covered floor. He looked about at the alien lifeforms scattered across the vast chamber and decided there was only one way to free them all. He retrieved the pommel of his plasma saber and turned it on again. It took several slashes, but he quickly severed the restraints, which flickered out as soon as the sword bit through them.

“Hurry!” he called as soon as he’d cut the last captive free and indicated a doorway nearby.

The alien horde shuffled and galloped behind him. Given the short amount of time they probably had left, it was fortune for the Inspector that the first chamber they reached contained a transport mechanism, which opened multiple doorways to the various worlds from which the Ulimphians had kidnapped their slaves.

He took mere seconds to study the device and worked around on the console, as if playing a grand piano during a major concert. Soon enough, eight rectangles of pure-white light blazed to life. He frantically approached each one and looked through to determine which planet was which. With the flair of a conductor, he directed each species to the appropriate portal. As the humans were preparing to return to Earth, the Inspector asked for Aristatos Peratikos. The man, who was of medium height, raised his hand.

“Mr. Peratikos, if you’d accompany me, I’d like to take you home personally,” he declared. “I made a promise to your wife that I would bring her information on your whereabouts, but I think she would much more like to have me bring you back instead.”

Aristatos smiled broadly. “Yes, yes, I believe she would.”

A rest of the humans gathered around him, including Micheli Christatos, Sergei Papanicholas and Nichola Gregorios stepped through the final portal of light and the Inspector shut down the machine.

He directed Peratikos to grab onto the chain, which he too took hold of, then activated the magnet again. The chain zipped up, pulling them up to the ledge where Wigglesworth stood watching. The Constable helped the men onto the ledge.

“To the BOOTH!” the Space Master called out, as Wigglesworth led the way.

Another strong quake shook them as they reached the red telephone kiosk. The Inspector whistled the BOOTH’s unlock tune, which clicked open and instructed the men to climb in, despite the apparent lack of space. The BOOTH adjusted its interior dimensions as each man got in and Wigglesworth pulled the timeship’s door shut.

The Inspector deposited his bowler on the hook as he grasped the telephone handset, waited for the RNA tester to confirm his identity and turned on the screen. The BOOTH shook as another aftershock hit.

“Time for us to get moving,” Wigglesworth said urgently.

The Inspector finished inputting commands and tapped the screen on last time. “Arriba!”

The keening that indicated that the ship was powering up to slip into spacetime. The timeship slipped away from Ulimphos just as a large chunk of the ceiling crashed to the tunnel floor.