The barrage of questions started as soon as he reached the podium set up near the gate. He’d heard them all before and had a set of ready answers memorized. Throw in a few humorous quips, pose for some pictures and the reporters were satisfied.

Then it was off to the convertible that would take him through the packed streets to the Capital Complex. All he had to do was sit there and occasionally wave. It was two hours of pure tedium. And yet that wasn’t the worst part. At the end of the parade, President Grandle would give an address to all of Earth’s people extolling them, Will, but mostly himself.

When he finished speaking, there would be a grand ceremony where he awarded Will a metal for Meritorious Service to Earth. It was essentially a glorified coin with an outline of Earth on it. Will had a drawer full of them at home. And then it was over.

As much as he reveled in wearing his silver uniform while out in space, he couldn’t wait to get out of it when on Earth. The last thing he wanted was to draw more attention to himself. So as soon as the ceremony was over, he headed over to the small basement office he’d been allowed to use and changed into civilian clothes.

It was now late in the day so the only people left in the building were custodians and security. Will had done this same thing so many times that he’d gotten to know most of them and always spend a few minutes chatting with whoever he came across. He liked being treated like a normal person and not some untouchable hero.

After changing, he grabbed his satchel and headed to the building garage where a government car was waiting to take him home. Will was away a lot so it didn’t make sense for him to have a car of his own. Plus owning and maintaining a car was expensive.

The dark blue sedan was waiting near the garage entrance, its engine idling. As he walked up to it, the driver got out and opened the back door for him. It wasn’t a driver he’d had before. The driver reached for the satchel in Will’s hand.

“That’s okay, I’ve got it.”

The driver merely nodded and closed the door once Will was inside. There’d been many different drivers over the years, but none of them ever spoke to him. Will has always found this disconcerting, but figured it was a requirement of the job. At least the car was comfortable so Will settled back and closed his eyes.

Will’s apartment was in an older part of the city not far from the spaceport. That was part of the reason he’d chosen the place. A reasonable rent also factored into his decision.

Forty five minutes later the sedan pulled up in front of a four story apartment building that had seen better days. The exterior paint was peeling, a few windows were roughly patched, and the stairs leading to the front door were cracked and missing some bricks.

The driver got out and opened the door for Will. He couldn’t be sure, but thought the driver gave him a funny look. Actually this wasn’t the first time this had happened. For some reason people expected him to live in some palatial mansion.

“It’s much nicer inside,” said Will as he picked up his satchel and headed to the door.

Stepping through the door, he made his way through the boxes cluttering the hallway and stopped at a door. He knocked and called out. “Mrs. Harrison, it’s Will.”

“Coming,” cried a shrill elderly voice.

It took a few minutes, but finally the door opened revealing a short woman with grey hair and thick glasses. She wore a faded blue housecoat which just covered her ample frame. She carried a shoe box filled with envelopes.

“Here’s your mail,” she chirped in a cheerful voice and handed him the box.

“Thanks.”

He turned to go, but she grabbed his arm.

“I’ll bet you’re hungry. My great niece is coming over to cook supper. Why don’t you join us? Barbara’s a great cook.”

Will smiled. Barbara was yet another of Mrs. Harrison’s younger female relatives she’d been trying to fix him up with. He’d met some them and they were very nice and good looking too. Yet, the last thing he needed in his life was a relationship.

‘I’m sorry, but I’m exhausted and just want to get some sleep. Maybe another time.”

A look of disappointment flashed over Mrs. Harrison’s face, but quickly passed. “All right then, it’s a date,” she said with a giggle before releasing his arm and closing the door.

Will headed for the stairs and began climbing the four flights up to his apartment. The building had an elevator, but it hadn’t worked since he’d lived there. Glancing down at the box of mail, he saw most of it was bills with a few marked past due. He sighed.

When he got to his door he put the box of mail down so he could unlock it. Modern buildings had biometric locks you could open with a touch, but the doors in his building still used keys. Slipping the key into the lock, he pulled on the doorknob and jiggled the key until it turned. He picked up his box of mail and stepped inside.

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“About time you got here,” said a woman’s voice.

Instinctively Will spun around and reached for his blaster, which wasn’t there.

Standing by his bedroom door was a tall woman wearing a loose fitting shirt and slacks. Her brown hair just touched her shoulders. Her face, although attractive, had a hardness to it that seemed to suggest her life hadn’t been easy. She softly clapped and shook her head.

“Impressive,” she said with some sarcasm. “If there had been an actual blaster, I’d likely be dead.”

“Who are you and why are you in my apartment?” growled Will who didn’t like being mocked.

The woman walked over to the couch and sat down. “I’m Debra and I’m here to meet the great Will Power.” She looked around. “Although to be honest, I didn’t expect you to live in such a dump.”

Will looked around the apartment. The furniture wasn’t in the best shape. He’d rented it furnished so there was no way of telling how old it was. There were a few water stains on the ceiling and the walls could use a fresh coat of paint. Plus, the carpet was worn through in places

“I wouldn’t call it a dump,” he answered, but his voice lacked conviction.

Debra sat up. “Saw you on TV getting a medal today. Could I see it?”

“Sure.” Will pulled the medal out of his pocket. It was a round metal disk with a picture of Earth engraved on one side and President Grande on the other. He handed it to her.

She held it in front of her and slowly turned it back and forth in the light, eyeing it carefully. “Yeah, it’s worth five, maybe ten credits tops.”

Even though he didn’t really care about the medal, Debra’s comment bothered him.

“It’s not how much it’s worth,” he said in a low voice, “but what it represents that matters.”

Debra just shook her head. “You’re a sap, Power. You actually do something worthwhile and you have to live like this while half the government does nothing and lives like kings.”

“You don’t understand …” he began.

“Oh, I do. Far better than you think.” She stood up and stared at him. “If you don’t stand up for yourself, no one else will. I learned that the hard way.”

The look on her face made Will pause. The hardness was gone. He sensed that she hadn’t come here just to meet him.

“Why are you really here?”

She smiled. “Very simple, profit.”

Will gave her a puzzled look.

Debra laughed and flopped back down on the couch. “Oh, you are dense. When you’re off trying to stop all these emperors and the like from attacking Earth, have you even noticed all the treasure they have?”

He shook his head.

“Well they have plenty so they certainly wouldn’t notice if some went missing.”

Will’s eyes grew wide. “You mean steal it?”

Debra put her head in her hands. “Of course I mean steal it.”

“I couldn’t do that.”

“But it’s okay to blow things up and kill people.”

“That’s different,” he retorted. “I’m doing that to keep Earth safe.”

Debra smiled triumphantly. “So, wouldn’t removing the means for them to rebuild also be protecting Earth?”

As Will tried to come up with an answer, a beeping sound came from his wrist. Swinging his arm up, he slid back his sleeve and pressed a button on what looked like an over-sized watch.

“Yes, President Grandle.”

Debra couldn’t help but shake her head at the way Will had sprung to attention even though the president couldn’t see him.

“Power,” crackled a deep male voice from the wrist device. “We’ve just learned that planet Ormecra has been developing a new phase weapon capable of destroying a fully shielded space frigate with a single blast. We need you to destroy it and insure they can’t rebuild it.”

Will was confused. “But, Ormecra is one of our closest allies.”

There was silence for a moment. “Alliances can change, Power and we can’t risk allowing any planet to gain an advantage over Earth. I’m sure even you can understand that.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. A car will pick you up in an hour and Miss Fulbright will meet you at the spaceport. All the information you need has already been loaded into your ship’s computers. Good luck.”

Lowering his arm, Will noticed Debra was seething.

“What’s wrong?”

“So we’re attacking allies now,” she snapped, “just because they might be a threat in the future.” She looked up at him. “Don’t you see how wrong that is?”

Will thought back to times he’d been to Ormecra. It’s a beautiful planet and its people friendly and peaceful. He’d fought with members of the Ormecran military during the Trelent War. Without their help Earth would have been defeated. Based on everything he knew, how could they possibly be a threat to Earth?

Will sat down on the arm of the couch. “I know you’re right, but …”

Debra stood up. “I have a car. I could drive you to the spaceport. You could be gone before anyone knows it.”

Will shook his head. “I can’t do that. President Grandle would be furious.”

Debra headed for the door. “That’s your choice. Just remember what I said about standing up for yourself.”

Will just stood there as she opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

“Wait up,” called Will, rushing after her.

They talked little on the drive as Will continued to try and figure out if he was doing the right thing. What the president was asking him to do was wrong and yet wasn’t it also wrong for him to disobey a direct order? He barely noticed the guards waving them through as they reached the spaceport. Debra parked the car by the gate which led to the spaceship.

She looked over at Will. “You ready?”

It was several minutes before he answered. “Yeah.”

“Good, then let’s go.”

There was no question that Debra was going with him. She was helping him disobey a presidential order which could lead to her arrest and imprisonment. He wouldn’t let that happen.

Once inside the gate they hurried to the gantry and boarded it. As it rose, Will scanned the area around them and his eyes came to rest on the Capital Complex in the distance. To him it had always represented the goodness of Earth, but something had changed. Rubbing his arm, he felt the communicator strapped to his wrist. He took it off and dropped it to the ground below.

In a few minutes were strapping themselves in. It felt odd to Will to be preparing to take off while not wearing his uniform. However, there was no time to change so civilian clothes would have to do.

Will quickly began flipping switches and as he flipped the last one announced, “Initiating ignition sequence,” and the ships engines sprung to life.

As the ship roared into the sky, the limousine carrying Gwen Fulbright entered the spaceport. Ordering it to stop, she jumped out of the car and stared up at Will's ship. She brought up her wrist to her mouth and pressed a button.

“Sir,” she reported. “We have a problem.