People ask me what was under his helmet, and I say 'he has no face'. I can still see those soulless things he has in place of eyes staring through me, window slits in a grey plane of torment.

I wasn't where I should have been at the time. I guess it was my fault. He was there waiting for me when I stopped at a trashy space port on the border. You know, the kind of place where you can refuel your ship with the booze and none of the women are the same species as you. He turned around and pulled his visor down.

I shouldn't have looked him in the face. I'd be able to forget it all by now, if I had just looked away.

"Been watching you, penguin boy." he growled, tapping his fingers mechanically on the bar, "Ain't meant be to be here, are ya?"

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!" I yelled, abandoning my drink and running like hell. But it was too late, because once you see it, it burns its image on your mind forever. The day you come face to face with Microsoft's paladin.