I didn’t want Phil involved in this whole escapade, but there weren’t many people I trusted. I needed help. A gang of demons wanted me dead, and now I had Benny’s crew breathing down my neck.

The garage door was already open when I arrived at Phil’s house. He had a habit of forgetting to close it. He would probably forget his eye if it weren’t attached to his head. Since he’d been kidnapped, he talked more and more about the stars. I worried he would leave me—and then who would I have left?

I pulled into the driveway and closed the garage door behind me on my way inside. The house wasn’t the rancid pigsty I had grown used to over the years, and it knocked me for a loop to see it clean for the first time.

“Like what I’ve done with the place?” Phil said. “You haven’t been inside for a couple of weeks. I know you’ve been bugging me to get rid of this garbage for years, but—but I knew they would have a use.” He waved me onward.

“I don’t really—”

He held up his finger. “As you would say, that wasn’t a request, yes? I was just being polite.”

He was right. I would say that. “Lead the way.”

I followed Phil through the back of the house and into a small laundry room off the kitchen, where I had watched him learn to cook unsuccessfully when we were growing up. He turned the washer’s dial to “delicate” and the dryer to “heavy-duty.” The ground shook, and the washer-dryer combo dropped into the floor, revealing a small walkway underneath the house.

“I closed your garage,” I said.

“Ah yes. That’s nice. I should have… I’ve just been too dang excited to think about anything else. I’ve been dying to show you this—I’ve been dying to do anything, as it’s the natural condition of every sentient, mortal being. Death, that is.”

“Deep,” Candy said from behind me.

Phil suddenly realized that we weren’t alone, and his neck snaked around to get a look at Candy. “Who are you?” he asked, more curious than angry.

“This is Candy,” I replied. “She’s the reason we’re here.”

“Is she cool?” Phil asked.

“Absolutely not,” I said. “She betrayed me, and I think she might have betrayed one of my clients, too.”

“I didn’t betray you!” Candy shouted before thinking better of herself. “Okay, so I kind of did betray you the one time, but I don’t think that’s as much a betrayal as lying to you.”

“That’s the same thing!”

“No, it’s not!” Candy scoffed, offended. “They’re in the same ballpark, maybe, but they are not the same.”

“What’s the difference, then?” Excitement bounced on Phil’s voice. “This is a fascinating course of discussion.”

“Intent, I guess?”

“Didn’t you have something you wanted to show me?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation anywhere but with Candy.

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“Well, not with a betrayer,” Phil said. “I wanted to share it with my friend.”

“I’d like to see it,” Candy said. “And then maybe we can be friends.”

Phil’s eye narrowed. “Oh, honey…no. I’m sorry, but I’m not in the market for any new friends.” He sighed and fidgeted, but he couldn’t contain his excitement. “ARGH! Okay, I’m going to burst if I don’t show you.” He pointed his finger at Candy. “Don’t betray me, okay?”

“I won’t,” she said.

I chuckled. “I’m old enough to know that on a long enough time horizon, everyone will betray everything.”

“I haven’t.” Phil turned down the hallway. “Though you’re right, perhaps we only need a long enough time horizon. That is a depressing thought—don’t you betray me either, Ollie.”

“Okay,” I replied, following Phil down the stairwell. “I won’t.”

It had been years since I’d been in his basement. For the longest time, it was a repository for his various experiments. Now, however, it was clear that Phil had been busy. He had excavated triple the space and lined it with sleek, white plastic. In the center of the room was a generator, and next to it was a massive trash receptacle.

“As you may remember, since I crashed on this planet, I’ve been looking for a source of fuel abundant and formidable enough to power intergalactic travel, at least until the next service station on Alpha Centauri. Well, it took some decades, but I’ve finally done it.”

“Wow,” Candy said. “Is that a Ferrari engine dropped into the middle of that contraption?”

“Very good,” Phil said. “I’ve tried every engine from your primitive automobiles, and this was the only one that could approximate the power I needed for escape velocity.”

Candy rushed forward and slid her hand along the engine. “Does it still run on gas?”

“Well, no,” he said. “Gas is unstable. This is part nuclear, and part my own design, which will allow me to take a stable, neutral piece of matter, convert its potential energy to kinetic energy, and use it for propellant.”

I cocked my head and grinned. “And you chose trash, I assume.”

Phil nodded. “I’ve been feeding it for the past weeks, trying to make sure it was stable, but yes. It doesn’t have to be trash, of course. Considering what I had lying around, it was effective for testing.”

“Whoa,” Candy said. “So, this thing runs on nuclear power and trash?”

“Technically, the nuclear power is just a propellant to get me into the upper atmosphere. Once I have escaped the pull of Earth, I should be able to continue through the solar system with a minimum of energy, save for the life support.” He turned back to me with a sharp look. “At least your friend is excited about what I’ve done.”

“I’m sorry, buddy. It’s very nice. It’s just—well, it brings you one step closer to leaving.”

“Yes,” he replied. “But that won’t be until I can fix the chassis of the ship, which could take—”

“Can I help?” Candy asked. “Cars are kind of my thing, and there’s no way I could live with myself if I passed up the chance to work on a real-life, honest to god spaceship. I’m very good. Tell him, Oleander.”

“She’s very good until she betrays you.” I glared at her before turning back to Phil. “Now, I appreciate that you’re very excited, but I need your help.”

He sighed. “I know, but I thought for one moment you could be excited for my thing…for a change.”

“I’m sorry, the people trying to kill me—”

“Yes, I know,” Phil said, touching the engine one last time. “I miss when people weren’t trying to kill you.”

“Me too, buddy,” I replied. “There’s nothing I want more than for things to get back to normal.” I stepped closer to the engine and tried to look interested. “Did you hear they’re working on a new video console system in Japan? It should be out by the end of the year. I promise when it comes out, I’ll make some time to come hang out with you and play.”

“That’s if I’m still on the planet.”

I nodded. “Let’s not talk about that. It gives me a pang right in my stomach, the thought of losing you.”

“That’s nice.” He turned to Candy. “Now, what are we going to do with you?”

I spoke up before she could say anything. “She said she wasn’t helping the demon who betrayed me, but within an hour of introducing her to Benny, he was killed, and my attack was blundered like they knew we were coming and—”

“And I almost died!” Candy shouted.

“Yeah, it’s a good deception,” I grumbled. “People who almost die are almost never thought of as a suspect.”

“Because they usually aren’t responsible for almost dying!”

I got in her face. “Except when they are!”

“Ladies,” Phil said, stepping between us. “I think I have a solution.”