A/N: Sorry it took so long to update. Here is the story.

Kaleb and Luke left Luke’s vehicle, and were walking down towards the van when they saw the guards. There were four guards standing out side the van. Luke pointed it out. “They have guards, how are we going to get past?”

“I’ll take care of the guards, while you get Rachial out of the van.”

“Okay.” They both moved in on the guards. Kaleb went first, kneeling down so as not to be seen. Once he was about 10 feet away from the men, he signaled for Luke to approach. Luke made his way to the other side of the van. He signaled that he was in position. Kaleb looked around on the ground for something to throw. He picked up a small rock, and threw it towards the van. The rock struck the van windows, and the window cracked. Two of the guards examined the windows, while the other two started looking for whoever threw the rock. Kaleb ran towards the two men that were examining the broken windows. He pulled out his gun, and hit the first man over the head with the handle. The man collapsed onto the ground.

Kaleb turned to deal with his partner, but instead received a hefty punch to his right cheek. Unable to stabilize himself he fell to the ground. His attacker raised his gun and was about to fire when a large rock hit the man’s head. Kaleb rolled out of the way, so the falling rock wouldn’t land on him. He looked up: it was Luke who had thrown the rock. Kaleb jumped to his feet, and took a swing at the third guard, and missed. Luke was busy fighting the forth. He took another swing, but missing again. The man took a swing at him. He ducked to avoid the blow, and the man hit the van. The man recoiled in pain. Kaleb took this chance and made a side swipe with his gun. The gun impacted the man’s gut, and the man reeled in pain, and collapsed on the ground.

Kaleb turned to deal with the last man, but Luke had already knocked him out and was working on getting into the van. Kaleb picked up the large rock that had been thrown at the guard, and threw it at the already cracked window. The window shattered into thousands of tiny pieces. Kaleb reach in through the windows, and unlocked the doors. He heard Luke open the back doors.

Rachial, heard a loud thunk, and then saw a rock smash into the front window. The window cracked but didn’t shatter. Rachial looked out of the window, and could see that people were fighting, but couldn’t tell who it was. It could be the bounty hunter, and the guy from the school, or it could be another bounty hunter trying to take her so he could receive the bounty. She waited with anticipation as the fight continued. She didn’t know who was attacking the guards, so she got as read as she could. If she didn’t know who it was, she would try and run. She moved next to the back door getting ready to jump on whoever opened the door. The door opened slowly, and Rachial was just about to jump when she recognized the person opening the door. She would jump the person then try and run. She doubted if she would be able to escape, but she wasn’t just going to give up on what could be her last chance to escape.

“You said you would tell us how to use DreamPhase, but so far everything you told us was a lie. We haven’t been able to enter DreamPhase at all.”

“As I told you before, DreamPhase doesn’t work for everyone. Of the 20 people I tried it on, only 10 could use it, and of the 10 that could use it, only 7 of the people had any control over it. Even I have a very limited control over it.” The man pulled a watch sized band off his wrist, and handed it to Steve. “Are you sure there isn’t anything wrong with this? We followed the instructions on the computer. Did you alter the instructions at all?”

“I didn’t change anything. I told you why it won’t work. Try testing it one someone else. If it doesn’t work for you, it never will. There is nothing I can do to change that.”

“You better be right, or we are going to chase your girl friend down.”

Steve didn’t respond, he knew that any attempt to please the man would be futile.

Kaleb walked to the back of the van to find Luke untying Rachial’s wrists, and feet. “We need to get out of here before more bounty hunters come back.” The three started running back towards Luke’s Vehicle. Once they reached the vehicle they climbed, in and drove away.

“So, how did they capture you anyway?” asked Kaleb. “I let my guard down, and they caught me by surprise. I had just left the building at the university in search of Dr. Shaum when they jumped me.” “Since the bounty hunters were after you, and Dr. Shaum is involved in this somehow, I am guessing that maybe the bounty hunters captured him too?”

“I don’t think so. If Cromwell wanted him, they would capture him them selves.” said Kaleb.

“So you think that Cromwell Inc. is holding him some where?” asked Luke.

“Yes, and they are probably torturing him to get the location of DreamPhase.” answered Rachial.

“Wait a minute, what is DreamPhase?” asked Luke.

“DreamPhase is a computer that can be controller by you dreams. It is the computer I used to send to the Email back at the university.”

“I see, so that is why they are after you. It must be worth a lot of money. That is why they framed you?”

“They offered me a lot of money, but DreamPhase is very powerful, and a lot of evil could come from it, if the technology is used wrong. That is why I wouldn’t sell it to them. They tried to take it by force, but I stopped them, so they framed me for murder, and then planned to take it after I was locked away, but I was able to escape. I gave DreamPhase to Dr. Shaum for safe keeping, and then left to go retrieve the information I needed to clear my name. When I got back, Dr. Shaum was missing. That is why I think he might be in trouble.

“So how are you planning to clear your name?” Luke asked.

“I don’t know yet, I was thinking about going to one of the news centers, and trying to get them to broadcast it. After that I would go back to the court where I stood trial, and asked them for the case to be reopened with new evidence.”

“I already did the first step for you. I made a copy of that hard drive, and brought it in to one of the broadcasting companies earlier today. But I think you should wait to go to the court until we rescue Dr. Shaum, they might kill him if he doesn’t tell them what they want to know.” said Kaleb.

“Yeah, I agree, but how do we find him?” asked Rachial.

“Couldn’t you hack into Cromwell’s system like you did to the universities Email sever?” suggested Luke.

“Yes, I should be able to, but it will take a while. Their system is a lot more advanced then the universities.”

“What if you had a little help?” asked Kaleb.

“Then it should go faster. Why, do you know someone that is good at hacking?”

“I have done a little bit of it; I am just not very fast at it.”

“That should be enough. Let’s get started. We need to find a fast connection to the internet.”

“The university has one. You would have to hack the system to allow for higher bandwidth, because they have a bandwidth limit.” offered Luke.

The three were soon heading towards the university.

Finally entering Mr. Lotus’ office didn’t sound scary to him. Right now it acutely sounded good. The reason for the change was because this time when he walked into the marble office he would have good news to inform Mr. Lotus about. Maybe if Mr. Lotus was pleased he could ask for a different position. He lifted his hand and knocked on the office door. He heard a voice call out; “Come in.” he walked into the large room.

“Tell me some good news.” He cleared his voice, and then started his report.

“We were able to capture Dr. Shaum and his fiancé. We convinced the Doctor to tell us the location of DreamPhase schematics, for the life of his fiancé. We constructed one of the DreamPhase devices, and did some test on it, but none of them worked. We were able to get some more information from the doctor about the technology, and it wasn’t working because the device doesn’t always work for everyone, and that it takes lot of practice before they can do anything useful.”

“This is good news. I want you put all our resources on this. I want this thin marketable within the next two weeks. Oh, and I want one on my desk tomorrow with instructions on how to use it.”

“I will get a team working on it right away.”

“Good, you are dismissed.”

The assistant left the office his mood changed. The only good part was that he had not gotten Mr. Lotus mad. He left the office suit, and made his way back to the research center where he would give the scientists their new instructions. Hopefully they would be able to make it so anybody could use the technology, because if Mr. Lotus couldn’t use it, he would blame it on him, and his team.

Rachial, Kaleb, and Luke reached the campus, and got out of the vehicle. They split up, Rachial Heading towards the server room with Kaleb, as Luke set out to make a trap. They had decided that something would need to be done to prevent the police from capturing them when Rachial connected to the server. Rachial knew that the second she connected to Cromwell’s network, an alert would come up at the police station, and a car dispatched. Rachial had told Luke to find something that would slow the police down, so she and Kaleb could work.

Luke went in search of soap. He went to the kitchen area, and started looking around, but was soon found and told he didn’t belong there before he had accomplished his mission. Luke had another idea; he looked around for a bag of some type. He found an empty garbage bag next to one of the trash cans. He took the bag, and went to the nearest restroom. Inside the room he went over to the soap dispenser, and pulled the soap bags out. The bags started leaking as soon as he disconnected them from the dispenser. He dumped the soap into the garbage bag, and left. Now he needed some water.

Luke brought the soap over to the server room where Rachial and Kaleb were working. He set the bag against the wall and walked over to the server rack they were sitting next to. “How is it going?” he asked.

Kaleb looked up from the computer he was working on, but Rachial didn’t move at all she kept her eyes closed, just sitting there. “I am not sure, we reached Cromwell’s server, but still haven’t broken the password.” Kaleb sighed then looked back at the computer he had been working on. “How is your booby-trap coming?”

“I have the soap; I just need to get some water. Do you think that the soap will be enough?”

“Soap plus grass equals very slippery. If you try to run on it, you will fall. It should get the police off our trail long enough for us to get to the vehicle.”

“Okay, I will get it setup the rest of the way, what should I do after that?”

“If you could think of some way to get his gun away from him that would be nice.”

“I have an idea. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Luke left the room, and Kaleb went back to his work on the computer.

Luke returned to the computer room 10 minutes later. Hold a large piece of equipment.

“What is that?” asked Kaleb getting up from his sitting position, and stretching his arms. Luke set the device on the ground next to the door, “This is a electro-magnet. I was thinking if I set it next to the door, and wait to turn it on until the police come in, I would pull their guns right out of their hands.”

“Sounds like a good idea, but what about the servers in here? A magnet will wipe all the information off of there hard disks?”

“I thought of that, but I would rather destroy everything on these servers then get shot.”

“Me too, here I can help you set it up. Rachial is already beyond the point where I could help her.”

Kaleb ran a power cord over to the device, and Luke went to work aliening the device with the door. They were done setting it up a few minutes later, and stood back to look at their accomplishment. “Now what do we do?” asked Luke.

“We wait. There isn’t anything else that we can do.”

“Sounds like fun to me. I am going to go keep a lookout for any police.”

Luke opened the door, and left the building.

Rachial was surrounded by a blue tinted world once again, just this time the world was huge. There were endless columns of wall with paper attached to them. Rachial was running through the rows of papers, looking for anything that might give away the location of where they had taken Dr. Shaum. She had looked through most of the warehouse records, because she figured they were keeping him in one of the many warehouses they owned.

She wouldn’t have much time before the security system detected her. and she was running out of places left to check. She was looking over one of the walls when she noticed a file marked live webcam. That would be perfect. She tapped the paper, and could then see the inside of one of the ware houses. The building was full of crates, but there were no people to be seen. Rachial exited the webcams view, and went back over to the warehouses she had already checked. She looked for more webcam interfaces. She found them quickly since she was looking this time. Rachial quickly started checking all the video feeds on the warehouses.

Kaleb was sitting on the floor leaning against one of the server racks sleeping. He hadn’t slept in a while, and Luke was out watching for police, so he had nothing to worry about. He had been sleeping for a little while now, he wasn’t exactly sure how long, when he was awoken from his slumber. He was light sleeper, and sprang away when something taped his shoulder. He looked up to see Rachial standing over him. She spoke to him. “Time to go sleepyhead.”

Kaleb opened his mouth and replied as he stood “Right, Luke is waiting out side watching for the police.”

Hearing the door, they both turned to see Luke walk inside. “There is a police car out side. We need to go.”

“I just told him that.” said Rachial pointing at Kaleb.

“You two get the car, I am going to activate the electro-magnet when he comes in here.” said Luke picking up a remote that was lying on top of the electro-magnet.

“Okay, we’ll be right back.”

Luke watched them leave then hid behind one of the server racks. He had just hidden himself when the police officer walked into the building. Luke pressed the button on the remote, and the electro-magnet made a laud buzz. The officer was jerked to the side, as his firearm was pulled to magnet. Luke stood up, and ran out the door. Out side the door he saw the vehicle coming towards him. Behind him he could hear the officer unclipping his weapon. Luke popped the bag he had placed outside the back door earlier. The soap and water mixture spread out across the walkway and grass. Luke walked carefully across the soapy area, and then started running towards the vehicle. The officer came out the door a little bit behind him, and started to run after him. The officer slipped on the grass, and fell flat on his back. Luke kept running, and reached the vehicle just as the officer had picked himself up.

Walking into the room full of men in long white coats he looked at each of the men’s faces. “Please tell me you have good news that I can bring to Mr. Lotus.”

“Yes, we do. We were able to get DreamPhase to work on all of our test subjects, but the degree of usability varies. But the more our subjects use the device, the more control they get.”

“This is very good news, Mr. Lotus will be pleased. Keep working on it, the sooner we get it ready for distribution the better.” He turned and left the room. Mr. Lotus would be very pleased with this news. Now if only he could tell Mr. Lotus that he wouldn’t need to worry about the girl anymore. He had gotten yelled at the last time he had brought news about her. She was very good at evading.

Luke jumped into the vehicle and they drove off. “Did you find out where they are keeping Dr. Shaum?” asked Luke as he fastened his seat belt.

“Yes I did. He is being held in one of their warehouses. We are heading there now.”

“Good. Do you think the warehouse will be guarded?” asked Luke.

“When I looked at the security cameras I saw three guards inside the building. There are probably more outside, but it is nothing we can’t handle.”

“I would guess there are another five to ten guards outside. They will be armed with light weaponry. If we do it right, we might even be able to sneak past them.” said Kaleb.

“But if they catch us, we are going to need a fast escape, because they will call for reinforcements.”

“We should be able to do it; we will just need to be careful and quick.” They spent remainder of he ride planning their mission. Rachial pulled the stereo out of the dash board and began working on it. “What are you doing?” ask Luke as he watched her take the stereo apart. “I am going to try and modify the radio so it will interfere with other radios.” She opened the radio the rest of the way, exposing the insides. “And I am really not sure what I am doing.” She said as she looked over the radio’s circuit board.

They arrived outside of the warehouse a while later. Kaleb brought the vehicle to stop, and they climbed out. Kaleb popped the hook and pulled the battery out. He handed the battery to Rachial. Rachial took the battery and the radio she had modified, and put them behind a pile of ruble that was position a little ways away from the main door.

Rachial went right to the front door, where she waited. Kaleb went around to the back of the warehouse, and positioned himself next to one of the windows. Luke positioned himself off to the right of the front door. After they were in position, Rachial knocked on the door. Luke waited leaning back against the wall next to the door. He could hear the bolt on the door being pulled off to the side.

The door opened slowly and a man’s head piped out. “What are you doing here?” he asked when he saw Rachial standing outside the door. Rachial just smiled, as Luke hit him over the head. The man collapsed onto the ground. Luke peered around the corner. There were two more men walking towards the open door. The men were holding guns at the ready. Luke signaled to Rachial to let her know. They both turned and ran away from the door. They ran behind the pile of ruble where Rachial had put the radio before. Rachial hooked the radio up to the battery and then turned to watch. “Do you think it will work?” asked Luke.

“I don’t know, but we will see.”

The two men came out the door with their guns raised. The looked and saw their comrade lying on the ground. “Charlie?” the first man asked kneeling down to examine the man lying on the ground. “He is just unconscious.” He said turning to the other man. “Drag him inside, I’ll radio the other.” He said pulling a radio out of his pocket. He pressed the button and spoke into the radio, but he only received static as a reply.

“Well, it worked.” said Luke.

“Yeah, but we need to get the battery back in the car if we want to get out of here.”

The man put the radio back in his pocket and helped drag the unconscious man inside the building. “I’ll just have to tell him in person the radio is dead.”

“Okay, I’ll keep an eye on the door.” They closed the door.

Rachial turned to Luke “take the battery and put it back in the car. I am going to go see if I can help Kaleb.” Luke didn’t bother to argue even though he wanted to help with the guards. Instead he unhooked the battery from the radio and carried it off towards the car.

He watched as the two men went outside to check on disturbance. As soon as they left the warehouse he opened the window, and climbed inside. The inside of the warehouse was filled with crates of boxes. The boxes all had identical markings on the sides. The markings read Property of Cromwell Inc. At the far end of the warehouse there was a small enclosed area that appeared to be an office of sorts. Dr. Shaum was probably being held in there. Kaleb walked past the crates and had almost made it to the door when the two guards returned. He ducked behind the nearest crate, and waited till they would be able to see him, and then ran over to the closed off area. He opened the door slowly and looked inside. There was one guard in there, and at the moment he was busy saying something to the prisoner, who he assumed was Dr. Shaum.

Kaleb stepped into the room, and close the door as quietly as he could. The guard didn’t notice, but the mad inside the cell had. He said something to the guard, to grab his attention. Kaleb took this chance, and rushed the guard from behind taking him by surprise. The guard wasn’t able to put up much of a fight before Kaleb had rendered him unconscious. “Thanks for the distraction. I am guessing you are Dr. Shaum?” said Kaleb as he picked up the keys off of the guards limp body. “Yes I am. Are you here to help me, or capture me, and hold me for ransom?”

“I am here with Rachial. She heard you had been capture, and decided we had to rescue you.” explained Kaleb as he finished unlocking the door.

“We have to Find Katie, or they’ll just use her.” said Steve.

“First we need to get out of here. Rachial is waiting with a vehicle outside of the warehouse. There are two guards outside the door, and if they get alerted they will call for reinforcements.”

“I can distract them for you if you think you can deal with them, but I don’t know the first thing about fighting.”

“I was thinking the same thing. Okay, you go out the door, and when they see you turn around, and come back in here. They should follow you. I’ll be waiting in here for them.”
Steve nodded then opened the door, and stepped through it. A moment later he came back through, followed by the guards. Kaleb threw box at the first guard, and jumped on the second guard. The guard fell to the ground, but wasn’t out yet. The guard managed to punch Kaleb right in the gut. The blow sent Kaleb stumbling back, but her recovered quickly, and was already making his next move. Kaleb made a low kick at the guard’s legs. The man fell backwards and hit his head on the ground. The guard started to pick himself back up, but stopped and collapsed onto the floor. “Let’s get out of here.”

They both left the warehouse.

Their ride was waiting outside the door; they climbed in quickly and left. After they were in the car they left. “Rachial I am glad you are okay, and thank you for rescuing me.”

“Well I couldn’t just leave you there. It was my fault that they were after you. If I hadn’t giving you DreamPhase they would have left you alone.”
“Yea, but it doesn’t really matter now. I told them where to fin the blueprints for DreamPhase. I didn’t give them the any of the devises but they have the computer. He held up his arm, and there were three rubber bands hanging from his wrist. They told me if I didn’t they would kill my fiancée. “I didn’t tell them where DreamPhase was, but with the instructions they have already started making their own version.”

“It’s okay. We’ll get it back, but first we need to make sure Katie is safe.”
“How did you know her name was Katie? I never even told you I was engaged.”

“It is a long story, so let’s just say we’ve met. Do you know where she might be?”

“I have a few ideas. But I don’t know exactly where she is.”

“We’ll we better start looking, where is the first place we should check?”

“What do you mean he escaped?! He is a college professor not a military trained combatant, yet he beat three of my man, and escaped the cell we had him in.”

“The men I had assigned to guard him had not reported in for the predetermined update, so I took some men to go check it out. When I got there he was gone, and the guards were lying on the ground unconscious. I woke them up, and asked what happened, and they told me he had someone helping him.”

“That is still no excuse. You should have had more guards; you knew how important he was. What about his fiancée? We could use her to get him to come back.” The mercenary cringed as Mr. Lotus asked about her. He wouldn’t be happy to find out both of them were missing.

“I already thought of that, but when I ordered for her to be brought to me, I was told that she went missing shortly after her escaped.” The mercenary took a step back as Mr. Lotus’s fist slammed onto his desk.

“That is unacceptable. I want them found, and I don’t care how you do it. Mean while I have an idea that might slow them down.”

“I well start searching right away.” said the mercenary, and then turned to leave.

Kaleb was driving the hover car down one of skyways when his phone rang. “Hello… Sure, can you hang on a second? ” He turned to the passengers, and asked if one of them would take over for him. Luke volunteered and they switched positions. Kaleb took shotgun while Luke took the drivers seat. Rachial, Dr. Shaum, and Katie were sitting in the back. “Okay, go ahead.”

“This is Charles Johnson; you talked to me earlier about a story.”

“Yes, I know who you are.”

“Well, it is about your story. I brought it to my boss, and he told me to erase all the information, and not to speak of it again. It turns out that Cromwell Inc. just bought our company, and has put a hold order on all of our news articles.”

“That’s not good. Is there anyway you could still get the story out there?”

“That is what I why I was calling. I want to continue to pursue the story, but by law I can’t publish it through another company without your permission.”

“You have it. The sooner the news is out the better.”

“Okay, thank you. I will get it out as soon as I can.”

“Could you give me call and tell me when it is going to be aired?”

“Sure no problem.”

Kaleb closed his phone ending the call. He put the phone back in his pocket, and looked out at the building that were quickly moving out of view as the sped by.

“Who was that?” questioned Rachial from the back seat.

“That was the news reporter that was supposed to be publishing your story. He ran into a little snag. Cromwell bought out his company and told him not to publish anything. He was calling because he needed my permission before he could try publishing the story through another network.”

“So is it going to get published?”

“Yes, he would get the story out as fast as he could.”

“Good. I want this to be over.”

Rachial leaned back in her seat. It was almost over, soon her name would be cleared, and she could go on with her life. She planed on developing DreamPhase some more, and then possible marketing it. But before she could do that she would have to find a way to make it safe, so that people wouldn’t abuse the technology. She looked around the car. It felt good to be around friends. While most of them hadn’t been her friends long, she knew that they were the closest friends she had ever had. They had been so helpful. She knew there was no way for her to even begin to repay them for their help. Rachial wondered what they were planning on doing after this was over. She looked at each of them, trying to imagine what they would do.

Steve and Katie would get married. She could tell that they really did care about each other deeply. Steve would continue to teach, because he loved it so much. She wasn’t sure what Katie would do, but Rachial knew what ever it was, that it would coincide with what Steve was doing.

She looked at Luke. She really hadn’t known him long enough to know what he would do. She really didn’t know him very well at all, but he was here helping her. She hoped that she would get a chance to know him better. He was a nice guy.

Then her look fell on Kaleb. She didn’t know him very well either. At first he was the one who was after her, but now he was helping her. She wondered what he was planning on doing. He couldn’t go back to being a bounty hunter now that he broken one of his contracts. From what she had seen it didn’t seem like he wanted to go back to being a bounty hunter. She leaded forward in her seat so she could talk to him.

“So, what are you planning on doing after this?”

Kaleb turned in his seat to face Rachial. “I really don’t know. I know I can’t go back to being a bounty hunter. Whatever it is I want it to be something that involves helping people. It is something I should have been doing a long time ago. What about yourself, what are you going to do after your name is cleared?”

“I am planning on finishing DreamPhase. I need to install some safety features so that people can’t abuse it. After that, I want to market it, and then start working on something else.”

“Well it shouldn’t belong before it goes public. The Court will want to do a retrial. The problem still remains, how do we get you into the court without them throwing you in jail?”

Luke heard this and spoke up. “I have been thinking about that. Even if your story gets out there, if you turn yourself in they will still throw you in jail. It will take them a long time before they schedule a retrial. You can’t just turn yourself in.”

“I have been thinking about this for a long time, and that is the only way that it will work.” said Rachial.

“But what if they never schedule a retrial? Cromwell is very powerful, they might be able to stop any retrial.” asked Kaleb.

“I don’t know. I guess I would be in trouble.”

“What if you could get the entire planet to take your side, or at least a very large portion of it? Cromwell might be powerful, but if you have enough people the court won’t have any other choice.” asked Luke.

“That would make a difference, but where would I get that kind of support? Nobody knows who I am.”

Steve leaned forward and joined the conversation. “I know you didn’t get close to any of your classmates when you were in school, but you did help a lot of other students with their homework. They know who you are, and I had a lot of people asking me if you had really murdered somebody after the trial. I told every student that there was some kind of mistake. If you ask them they will stand up for you.”

“Still that would only be about 20-30 people, that wouldn’t be enough.”

Luke started taping the steering wheel. Kaleb looked over at him clearly annoyed. Kaleb was about to ask him to stop when Luke spoke. “I have an idea. I play an online RPG and I know a lot of people on there. I thought of a way to get them all on your side. They are against anything that could harm their gaming, and for anything that would improve it. If you tell them that you are planning on releasing a version of DreamPhase for gamers, they will want to make sure you don’t get thrown in prison. Do you think you could make a version that would work with their game? I don’t know very much about DreamPhase, but from what I have heard it would revolutionize the way games are played.”

Rachial leaned back in her seat thinking about it. She leaned forward again after a moment. “Yes, I could do that. I was going to do something like that anyway; I just wasn’t planning on selling it to the gaming industry.”

“Then we need to get to a computer, and circulate the news. If you get the news out before the news reported does, then when they hear your story they will listen.” said Kaleb

“I have an idea. How much money do you have?” asked Luke.

“Why, what are you thinking?” asked Steve.

An hour later all three of them were standing out side of a huge dome. They all began walking towards the giant bubble shaped building. “I still don’t understand why it cost 1000 bucks to get in. I thought it was just a gaming convention.” said Kaleb looking at Luke. “It is free to get in, but we are not just going in. we are setting up a booth.”

“Why do we need a booth, are we trying to sell something?” asked Katie.

“Kind of, we are going to show off DreamPhase. We are going to let people try out the technology. Everyone will want to try it out, and it will get the name out there. Then when people hear the news report then will want a retrial, because if there isn’t one they might now see the DreamPhase technology in any games for a long time.”

“How are we going to let people try it out? Isn’t their only one rubber band thing? What do you call that anyway?”

“We have four of them. I haven’t really though of a name for it yet.”

They reached the entrance to the building and their conversation stopped. One of the security men walked over to their group. “Is this the DreamPhase group that just called an hour ago?” Luke stepped forward.

“Yes it is. Did the registration go through?”

The security man reached into his pocket and pulled out a hand full of neck straps. “Yes it did. You can set your booth up in section C. Your name tags are waiting on the table over there.” The man indicated a table next to the entrance. “You will need to keep your tags on at all times.”

“Okay, thank you.” Luke turned to the group, “Let’s get the tags, and get the booth setup.”

About a half hour later Kaleb, Luke and Katie had finished setting up the booth. It had surprised Luke how professional they had been able to make the booth look, especially since they hadn’t been planning months in advance for the convention like many of the other companies that had their own booths setup. Rachial and Steve had been working on configuring DreamPhase, so that it would work for anyone who tried to use it. They were also setting up a virtual world for people to use when trying it out. Rachial had suggested using the program Steve had already written, so Steve was rewriting the program so people would only experience the part where they were in the air flying.

The dome was crowded, people were everywhere. He had already had about 10 people asking him about DreamPhase. He answered their questions, and told them they would have a demo setup in a little while. Kaleb walked up to him. “Hey, I was walking around, and I notice that all of the booths were handing something out, like a sample, but we don’t have anything. I was wondering if you could think of anything we could hand out.”

“No, I can’t think of anything, you could ask Katie. I am going to go check on Rachial and Steve; see how it is coming along.”

“Okay.”

Kaleb walked over to Katie. “Hey, I was walking around, and I noticed that most of the booths are handing something out. We don’t have anything so I was wondering if you had any ideas.” Katie looked around at all the people.

“We could get T-shirts, if you can find a place that prints them out. All we would need is a fancy font that says DreamPhase.”

“It sounds good to me. If you can design what goes on the shirt, I’ll go find a place that will print it out.”

Katie looked around for something to write on and found a sheet of paper. She drew it out a few times, before she found one that she liked. She handed the paper to Kaleb. “This one here.”

“Okay, I’ll be back in a little while.”

Luke stepped inside the curtained off area of their booth that the convention had been nice enough to provide. Rachial and Steve were sitting at a small table that was setup in the center of the small room. “Hey, how’s it going?” he said as he walked over to the table. They both looked up. “I just finished writing the virtual world program. I was just helping Rachial configure the last DreamPhase band.” Rachial stood up, and picked up the rest of the bands off the table. “I’m finished. We need to find something to attach them to our booth so people don’t run off with them.”

“I thought of that. I have some wires hooked up that you can attach them too. Oh, we’ll have to stop using your real name for now, and use the one on your tag, so the police don’t find you.”

The three of them walked out to find Katie talking to a group of gamers dress in storm trooper informs. When they stepped out of the room she turned to look at them then looked back at the group. “Our demo is ready, as soon as they finish setting it up, you will be able to experience the most revolutionary game play since 3d games came out.” The gamers started talking amongst their group about what it would be like. From what Rachial could hear, they thought it was going to be a flop, and were going to be in for a big surprise. They finished tying bands to the booth, and then started explaining to people how they worked. In no time a line of excited people was formed leading towards the booth.

Rachial Luke, and Steve showed the people how to use the bands, and Katie spoke to the crowd about the technology. As they continued to move the line along Rachial would have people ask her questions. She would answer them, and they would thank her, but when they did they wouldn’t use her real name. It felt weird to have people call her Nina when her name was Rachial. She wanted to correct the, but knew she couldn’t risk it. She wondered why Luke had chosen the name, but hadn’t had time to ask him. She would have to do it later.

An hour later Kaleb came back with pallet boxes were stacked on the pallet. Luke went to help him. They moved the pallet inside the curtain, and came out with some of the boxes. They put the boxes under the table, and Kaleb went back inside, and came out with a rolled up sheet of paper. He unrolled the paper, and attached it to the curtain. The sign said try our product, and get a free T-shirt. The length of the line increased after that.

They had been at the convention for 5 hours now, and they were all starting to get hungry. They had decided to shut down their booth for a while, and get something to eat. They all walked to food court, and started looking around. They decided that the pizza place looked the most appetizing. They had all ordered their food, and were waiting for it to arrive when Kaleb’s phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi, this is Charles; I was calling to let you know that the story is going to be aired in 2 hours on the evening news.”

“Okay, Thanks for calling.”

Kaleb ended the call and put his phone away. When he looked up, they were all looking at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Who were you talking to?” asked Steve.

“That was Charles Johnson the reporter that is putting out Rachial’s story. He was calling to tell me that her story will be aired in 2 hours.”

“That’s good news. We have 2 hours to eat, and then get every person in that dome to learn about DreamPhase.” said Katie.

“I have an idea, what if we had a drawing. Who ever wins would be sent a free DreamPhase band once you are done making them. How does that sound?” suggested Luke.

“I like it. People always get excited about free stuff. Who want’s to do the drawing? I can’t, it would draw to much attention to me.”

“I’ll do it. I have always wanted to do something like that, and it was kind of my idea.”

The waitress came to their table carrying the pizzas and placed them on the table. The group sat their in a moment, not sure what to do, none of them knowing the rest of the group very well. Finally Steve spoke. “Who would like say the blessing?” Both Luke and Rachial started to speak. “I will…” they both started. They looked at each other and blushed slightly. After a somewhat awkward pause Luke started again. “I will.” He then led them in a short prayer thanking God for the meal. After they had finished everyone started eating.

The meal lasted a while, and they talked about different things. There were moments of silence when someone had said something that put another person in a awkward spot, but for the most part it went well. The pizza was almost gone when they decided that they were done. When the waitress placed the bill on the table everyone reached for it, but Luke was the quickest, and paid for the meal.

They left the restaurant, and headed back towards the dome. Closer they got to the dome the busier it became. Out side the door, Rachial notice Luke pull his name tag out of his pocket, and place it around his neck. She hadn’t noticed he had taken it off. He must not like name tags. She walked over to him. “’Don’t like name tags?” she asked.

“If I could go without wearing one, and not be kicked out, I wouldn’t be wearing one at all.” They laughed.

“Well at least yours has your real name one it. Why did you pick Nina as fake name for me?”

“Well I knew I couldn’t use your real name, and I was on the phone so I didn’t have a lot of time to think. I have always liked the name, so it was the first thing that came to mind. Why don’t you like it?”

“I like me real name more, but I asked because I was curious that’s all.”

They both stepped up to the door, and were asked to display their name badges. They showed their tags to the security and were admitted into the dome. Inside they went to their booth. There was a line outside their booth. The line was longer then it had been before. It looked like the news about DreamPhase had spread around. They tied attached the bands back the wire, and started letting people try out the demo again. Luke started announcing the drawing. He made the people form a separate line to enter for the drawing.

People were crowding around the booth. Rachial looked around. It was one of the busiest booths. Steve was now busy in the middle on an interview with one of the major tech news sites. He was telling them a little about how it worked, and telling them when it was going to be released.

45 minutes had passed, and there was still a large line of people waiting to try out DreamPhase. The box that they had been using to put forms into for the drawing was over flowing so they had to put the names into a large garbage bag. Rachial had talked to Luke, and he said he would announce the winner in a couple minutes. She started telling people that they were closing the demo stations. People begged her to let them get a chance, and she really wanted to, but told them that she couldn’t because they had to leave.

“Hey, I was thinking. It would be better if we kept our booth going until the convention is over. People will get upset at us if they can’t try out DreamPhase just because we are leaving early. I know you were planning on turning yourself over to the police before the news broadcast, and you still can, but I think some of us should stay here, and keep the people happy.”

“You’re right. I didn’t even think about that. Would you be willing to do that, and then take care of the DreamPhase bands?”

“Sure. I will be at the trial too. They wouldn’t it right away anyways.”

“Thanks I really am appreciate it. Who should I ask to give me a ride?” asked Rachial.

“Well, don’t ask Katie. I finally get to spend some time with her. And I think the crowd like Luke the most, so you could ask Kaleb.”

Rachial nodded then turned to look for Kaleb.

Kaleb was standing next to one of the demo units explaining how it worked to the next user. She walked over to him. “Hey, I need to get going to do the…” she paused not sure how to say it when there were all these people around. “so I am on time for my meeting.” She supplied. Kaleb knew what she was talking about and stepped away from the display. There were instructions attached to the band, so he wasn’t needed. The only reason he was there, was so that it would get the people through the line faster.

“Okay, let’s get going then.”

They left the Dome and found their vehicle in parking ramp. As they were driving down the street they passed one of the police stations. “We just passed one of the stations, where are we going?” asked Rachial a little confused. Kaleb looked at her and smiled. “I am taking you to a station that had weaker security. Just in case. That way if the trial goes bad, I can break you out, and you can go to another planet like you did before.”

“ah.” She said. Showing she understood.

Kaleb parked the car at a police station about two miles further down the road. They both got out of the car, and Rachial started walking towards the front door. Kaleb followed her. Rachial stopped and turned to face him. “I think it would be better if I went in alone. They might throw you in jail to just for being with me.”

“Good idea. I’ll se you later.”

Kaleb turned and got back into the car, and Rachial opened the door, and walked into the police station.

Inside the police station it was very dead. There was only one person to be seen, and he was standing behind the desk looking extremely bored. She walked up to his desk.

“Hello is there something I can help you with?” he asked slowly looking up from his desk as hi took a sip from the coffee mug that had been sitting on the edge of his desk. He clearly didn’t recognize her or her would have jumped up, and raised his gun.

“Yes there is. Don’t be alarmed, I am not going to do anything. I am just here to turn myself in.” she said taking a seat in the chair on the other side of his desk.

“What do you mean turn your self in?”

“My name is Rachial Williams.” The man was shocked. And went to reach for his gun, but she didn’t even move.

“Oh.” He paused for a minute. “You were serious about not running?” she nodded.

The policeman stood up from his desk, and walked around to the side she was on. “I am going to have to put these on.” He said pulling out a pair of electro-cuffs.

“I know.” She held her hands out for him to put them on.

“Why are you doing this… turning yourself in?” he asked as he finished putting the cuffs on and moved around the desk again.

“I didn’t murder anyone, so I have no reason to run.” The man nodded, but didn’t really believe her. He picked up the head set on his desk and entered a number. Rachial could hear the phone ringing.

“What do you mean she left? Without saying goodbye or anything?” asked a frustrated Luke.

“Yes, she left. She didn’t have time to wait, and you were in the middle of the drawing so she couldn’t say anything to you. Don’t worry, we will see her again. If not at the trail, then afterwards when this is all over.” Steve told him trying to calm him down a little bit.

“Spit it out already. I might not like hearing bad news, but I really don’t like delays.” The man started to speak in a wavering voice.

“Sorry.” He tried to apologize, but form the look on Mr. Lotus’s face he stopped, and told him the news. “We were tracking Dr. Shaum and found him, but he was at a convention, and there were way too many people to try anything.”

“A convention, what would he be doing at a convention?”

“He was there promoting DreamPhase. He had demos setup at his booth, and there were lots of people in line trying them out. He also had some other guy running a drawing, and it looked like most of the people at the convention had entered the drawing.”

Mr. Lotus slammed his fist down onto his desk as hard as he could. The pen that had been lying under where his fist had hit was obliterated.

“That’s not all. We were able to find the girl, but she turned herself over to the police. Shortly after that a news channel aired a story about her, and how she was framed by us. We haven’t heard anything from the court yet, but I am sure it won’t be long until we are called to the court room.” At this point Mr. Lotus exploded; he swung his arm and knocked the rest of the stuff that had been on his desk onto the floor. “Get me Mr. Hakan now!”

The vehicle came to a stop and Steve, Katie, and Luke climbed out. The vehicle drove off and they walked up the steps of the court house. The whole area outside the court house was crowded with protesters. Most of them were gamers, and most of them had signs that read something along the lines of: Reopen the case, give Williams a fair trial. When Steve, Katie, and Luke stepped out of the car there was a loud cheer. Their plan had worked. But as the walked up the steps with the crowd cheering them, they all felt out of place. Rachial should have been with them to see the crowd.

The protestors had formed the day after the story was played on the news. Most of the protestors were gamers, but there were a lot of people that weren’t too. The police had come to clean them out, but they told the police they weren’t moving till the Judge called for a retrial. The group got to the top of the steps and opened the door to the court house.

Inside the building was packed. They all found their seats, and began to wait. They were 15 minutes early. A few minutes later Kaleb walked into the building and joined them. Finally Rachial was brought into the room, along with Mr. Lotus. After they were seated the Judge walked into the room and took his place behind the podium. The case was read out loud to everyone, then the Judge spoke.

“Miss Williams, I would like to say now that I am very impressed. I wasn’t going to reopen the case, but with the thousands of protesters out side of this building I didn’t have much choice.” The judge picked up his hammer and beat it on the podium “This court is in session.”

An hour and a half later after review the new evidence, the jury had reached a decision. Rachial was not guilty. They also went on to say that Cromwell Inc. was responsible for the murder, and that Mr. Lotus was directly responsible. The judge sentence Mr. Lotus with a double life sentence in prison. Just as the Judge was swing his hammer down, and about to say court dismissed, Kaleb stood up from his seat, and jumped over the small railing, and shoved Rachial onto the ground.

The security tackled Kaleb and pinned him to the floor. He didn’t struggle at all. The audience was in shock, and began to talk, and get loud. The judge started beating his hammer. “Order in the court. Order in the court!” the people quieted, and took their seats.

“Take his away.” said the judge to the security officers.

“Wait.” Rachial called out. The Judge slammed his hammer down again.

“What is the meaning of this out burst?” he asked looking at Rachial.

“He just saved my life. Look here on the ground.” Rachial pointed out burn mark on the floor. It was from a laser. The judge order one of the officers to look at it.

“She is right. It is a laser mark. It came of up there.” The officer pointed towards one of the windows towards the top of the room. “It came from outside and burned right through the window.

“Very well, Release him.”

The security officers let go of Kaleb, and undid the cuffs they had fastened on his wrists.

The judge spoke again. “We will have a police investigation on this, but this session is over. Court dismisses.” He slammed his hammer down one last time before standing to leave.

Rachial watched as they dragged Mr. Lotus out of the court room. He gave her a nasty look, and mouthed something at her, but she wasn’t paying close enough attention to him to understand what he had said. She just smiled at him, and this made him angrier. Rachial looked at the audience, and could see her friends there. She smiled, and started walking down the isle towards the exit. It was finally over. All this time, and she was finally free. She stepped out the door of the court room into the reception area, and waited for her friends. She was so happy. They talked about what had had happened. As they talked Luke’s phone rang. He stepped back so as not to interrupt them, and answered the phone.

He walked back over to them a minute later. “That was the gamer’s convention. They wanted to know if we were going to be back there today. They said that have had constant phone calls from gamers asking if we were going to be there. What do you think? You guys want to do it again today?”

“I’m game. I don’t have anything better to do.” said Kaleb.

“I should head back to the campus, but it isn’t really big deal. Right now I just want to spend some time with Katie, so if she wants to I will.”

“Of course, I had a lot of fun yesterday.” said Katie. They all turned to look at Rachial. She looked around at all of them.

“I was planning on releasing DreamPhase, at some point. I guess the more publicity it gets the better it will sell. Let’s go to the convention.” said Rachial.

The group walked out the door, and into a crowd of people and news reporters. A loud cheer came up from the crowd as they came out of the court house. Rachial was instantly surrounded by news reporters. They were all asking her questions. She didn’t want to answer them now. So she told them she would only talk about it with Charles Johnson. She figured it was the least she could do for him. She forced her way through the crowd, and they got into the vehicle and drove away.

The next few hours were spent instructing people how to use the DreamPhase bands, and answering questions. At one point during the day Charles Johnson had shown up and asked if he could do an interview. Rachial complied and did an interview for him. The convention continued until 10:00pm. The people were told to leave, and all the displays, and booths were taken down. They packed up there booth, and got ready to leave. All the t-shirts were gone, so they only had to carry out the empty boxes. The boxes were discarded, and they left the dome.

The area outside the dome was now empty unlike earlier when it was packed with people trying to get into the dome. Once outside they all stopped, and looked back and forth at each other. “I guess this it for now. I am going to take Katie to her moms, so I will see you all around some time.” said Steve. “Bye. I’ll keep in touch.” said Katie as the both walked away. Kaleb turned to Rachial “Well, I wanted to talk to you about something, but I need to go. I have a meeting with the government about a new job. I would like to say it was an honor knowing you. You have really changed my life, and I must thank you for that. I don’t know what it is that makes you so different, but some day I hope I can find out.”

“I should me thanking you. You saved my life a couple of times.” said Rachial.

“Then consider us even.” Kaleb smiled. “I need to go, I’ll see you around.”

“I look forward to it. I will tell you what makes me so different.” Kaleb walked away, towards the street, and called for a taxi.

“I guess this is goodbye then?” Luke asked Rachial. ‘I have to get back to school, and prey that I am able to convince my teachers not to flunk me for skipping so many classes.”

“Yeah, I need to go back to Ecstasy I have to finish up the rest of the time on my contract.” She told him.

“Do you think I will see you again?” asked Luke.

“Yes, I will be back here in a month, but I need to get back as soon as I can, but thank you so much for your help.”

“Don’t mention it. Well you are an awesome person and I’d like to get to know you better, so the next time you are around; give me a call, and maybe we could get coffer or lunch”

“I’d like that. I see you later.”

“Bye.” Rachial and Luke both walked away, neither one of them really wanting too, but knowing they had things to do. Luke turned back around. “Rachial.” she turned “do you want a ride over to your ship? It is cheaper then a taxi”

“Sure.” She said turning around to join him.

--

A/N,

Well, that’s it for now. I am thinking about doing a Epilogue., but I am not sure if I will.

I am going to keep going with the story, but if I post it, it will be posted as another story.

I hope you liked the story. I liked writing it. I am not sure if I liked how I did the ending. I wanted to leave it open for the next one, but I am not sure if I left it too open or not.

Because I plan to publish this story, I will only be keeping the end on here for a short while.