Lae took Mindeham by the hand, and dragged him into a relatively empty alleyway, her cousin following a little bewilderedly behind.

"Spill it," Lae demanded.

"So when your parents put us in prison," Mindeham said a little heatedly, "Elvenheim broke out of the cell because she wanted to send an email, and I got lost when following her."

"Why didn't you just stay in the cell?"

"I was going to, but then I thought, what if she gets into trouble? So I tried to follow, but I think I went the wrong way."

"Your business partner is a criminal?" Lae's cousin whispered.

"So I came across this guy in a cell, and he wanted me to send an email to his lawyers, and so I did."

There was a pause while Lae waited for further information, but none was forthcoming.

"Why did you send an email for the guy?" Lae asked.

"In my day, the right of attorney was a very important concept," Mindeham said.

"Wait, you're the God's Messenger?" Lae's cousin asked, awed.

"What's God's Messenger when they're at home, Jarad?" Lae asked.

"So the Glorious Leader--"

"Who is the Glorious Leader?"

"What? Oh, you know, Prime Ministrator Leonard."

"Wasn't he arrested for fraud?" Lae asked, trying to give both her cousin Jarad and Mindeham the side eye at once, and giving herself a headache.

"It was a trumped up charge," Jarad explained.

"And how does Mi--Manuel fit into this?"

"Oh, he couldn't contact his lawyer, so God's Messenger did it for him," Jarad said, his explanation falling flat.

"And what have the gods got to do with this?" Lae asked.

"Glorious Leader prayed for deliverance, and was delivered!" Jarad said, triumphantly.

"Look," Lae said. "Jarad, wake up. You remember Leonard, he was okay I guess for a Ministrator, but he isn't glorious. And people pray to the gods all the time. It was just a coincidence, that's all."

"People pray to the gods all the time, it's true," Jarad said. "But basically never to Mindeham, and as soon as Leonard did, his prayers were answered!"

Lae said nothing, but Mindeham felt roasted by her stare.

"So now Mindeham's the god flavour of the month?" Lae asked.

"He's our patron," Jarad said proudly. "I prayed just the other day for a raise at work, and someone in the office heard me and said in the meeting that I should get one!"

Lae argued a little longer with her cousin, but it was soon obvious that he was a devout convert, and wouldn't listen to reason. Eventually she turned around.

"Well, I think the best thing to do is to get as far from--god damn yourself!"

Mindeham had disappeared.

*

"It isn't my fault," Mindeham muttered to himself, moving away from the crowd. "I was perfectly happy sitting in the cell, but no, Elvenheim just had to go and send an email..."

He walked down an alleyway, and almost tripped over a young woman sitting and praying in the middle of the street.

"Sorry!" she said, scrambling up.

"Sorry!" Mindeham said, leaping out the way. They stared at each other for a moment, then the woman brushed down her skirt, and moved out of the way. Mindeham passed her.

"Er," she said, at the last minute. "Um, you don't happen to know Glorious Leader, do you?"

"Do I look like I know the Glorious Leader?" Mindeham asked.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"No--well, I don't know. Sorry. I was just praying, and I thought for a second--silly, I know..."

"Who were you praying to?" Mindeham asked suspiciously.

"Er... Elvenheim," the woman admitted, eyes down. "I know I should be praying to--"

"Just because of one coincidence, doesn't mean you should pray to just the one god," Mindeham said. "I mean, I'm not from here, but it doesn't seem like the type of thing you guys like to do traditionally."

"Everyone says that their prayers are being answered, though," the woman said. "Have yours?"

"I'm not religious," Mindeham said. "And I don't know your Glorious Leader, but I have spoken to him once."

"So you could introduce us?"

"I don't think he'd recognise me," Mindeham said. "It was a while ago, and we only spoke briefly."

"Please try," the woman said, eyes pleading at him.

"Oh," Mindeham began, trying to figure out a good excuse, and it was only then, when he glanced down from her face, that he realised that she had a gun pointed at him.

"I guess I'd better," he said glumly.

"Thank you," the woman said. She gestured with the gun, and Mindeham was led back down the corridor.

*

Lae looked everywhere for Mindeham. She checked the surrounding streets, the hotel that they had used, even their ship, but he wasn't anywhere. She checked in with the police, with customs, and with the World Embassy, since she figured Mindeham was still a citizen of the humans race's original planet.

"I shall pray for him to turn up," Jarad said piously.

"You do that," Lae said bitterly. "You know what, I give up. What's the worst that could happen? He's already sent my station into chaos. I don't care anymore. I'm going to see my parents."

Jarad owed Lae's parents for a screen he broke a month ago, and didn't want to see them before he got the full funds together, so Lae went to her parents' house alone. It was just as she remembered it growing up, which felt strange, as Lae didn't feel the same at all. She knocked on the door, and it was opened cautiously by her mother.

"Oh, it's you," her mother said, letting her in. "What have you done with your hair?"

"And hello to you too," Lae said, taking off her wig. She hesitated, then held her arms out for a hug. Her mother walked into her embrace, and her father did too, when he came in from the lounge to see what was going on.

"They say you're a criminal," her mother said, after getting her a cup of tea.

"It's not my fault," Lae said. "The company's dodgy ship glitched, and sent me out of human space."

"Are you sure you put the coordinates in right?" her father asked.

"Yes, Dad, I definitely did," Lae said. "And despite that, I was sent into unknown space, was kidnapped by aliens--"

"They didn't hurt you dear?" her mother asked.

"They--no, it was fine, Mum," Lae lied. "And we escaped, with the help of some other aliens, and I've now got another job as a sales representative."

"Are you sure sales is where you want to be?" her father asked, looking at her anxiously.

"It's good," Lae assured him. "I get to travel just as much, but in much better conditions."

"Do they pay for your food?"

"And board at whatever station or world we visit," Lae said. "They don't expect you to sleep in the ship if you don't want to."

"Sounds lovely dear," her mother said, both her parents relaxing.

"But how are things here? Things are very weird on the streets, and Jarad has joined some kind of cult?"

Fifteen minutes later, Lae hurried out of there, panicked. Mindeham was in danger. And whenever Mindeham was in danger, chaos followed.

"I won't let him," Lae vowed through gritted teeth. "I won't let him mess with my station any further..."

*

The Glorious Leader usually could be found in his Fortress of Guiding Light (or rather, the Northern Hotel in the centre of town), but he was out in the streets at festival time, in his own float waving to the crowds as he passed by.

"Try to get his attention," the woman hissed at Mindeham's back. Mindeham waved halfheartedly. Unfortunately, the Glorious Leader spotted him.

"Angel!" Leonard exclaimed, hopping off the float and making his way through his adoring fans to Mindeham. "This is the holy messenger who plucked me from my prison cell!"

"Er," Mindeham said, as some of the more ardent worshippers around him started trying to touch his face.

"Best to come onto the float," Leonard said, ignoring the hands on his own face. "Who is your follower?"

"Oh, my guide," Mindeham said miserably. "She's leading me around the station."

"You aren't native here?" Leonard asked, as Mindeham and the woman climbed onto the float.

"No, I'm actually from World originally."

"How interesting," Leonard said cheerfully. Mindeham looked around. The woman seemed content to just be on the float for now, and wasn't paying much attention to Mindeham.

"She's got a gun," Mindeham whispered to Leonard.

"Oh, good, just as well," Leonard said. Mindeham didn't know if Leonard had heard him right, but didn't want to repeat himself in case the woman heard.

Eventually the parade ended, and the float ended up at the front of the Northern Hotel. People dressed in green uniforms came out to greet them, and Leonard hopped down, gesturing to the others to follow.

"These are my friends," he said to the green-clad people. They bowed once, but didn't say anything. Leonard followed them into the shiny gold foyer, and headed towards the lifts.

"We're on the top floor, it has a good view of the plaza," Leonard said cheerfully. One of the green-clad people--servants, perhaps? used a key from somewhere within their robes to unlock the top floors of the lift, and stepped outside it as the doors closed.

"Hang on, we can still get down without the key, can't we?" Mindeham asked, alarmed.

"One way or another," Leonard said, a grin still on his face. Mindeham was beginning to think it looked a little forced. "But--oh, where is your guide?"

Mindeham spun around. The woman who had had him at gunpoint was gone.