and Aemilia spoke, despite the fact that their utterances sounded like gibberish to his mind, addled by the beautiful music. Yet he had the vague impression that they were much kinder to him than most other earthlings had been. And he had the worrisome sense that the music might never turn off and he might never be able to return to his home beyond this sun and moon and peculiar constellations.
So you can imagine his relief when the music stopped and he could think and feel and move once more.
Wyn and Aemilia had never seen anything move as fast as him.
Bullets and Tasers didn’t faze the Red Man at all as he leaped off the operating table and tried to hop into his spaceship.
Wyn afterward remarked that the Red Man looked as lost and confused as a wild silverback in a circus, and just as deadly.
In the end it was Aemilia who subdued the Red Man.
She took up her violin and began playing a moving performance of Bach’s Sarabande in D Minor .
The Red Man stopped almost instantly and stared at her in wonderment and awe. It seemed as though he had never heard anything so beautiful.
She approached him as she played.
He stood perfectly still, not budging an inch. He towered over her. His biceps were larger than her head.
The Kharetie did not design the Red Man to have any tear ducts. But he wished that they had: Listening to her play the violin filled his whole body with an urge to express his self in the most sublime way possible.
The Red Man fell to the ground in a kind of stupor, his eyes still open, still staring ahead of where he’d collapsed.
Aemilia played on, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
A replenishment of soldiers from Cellar-11 lifted the Red Man and strapped him back down to the operating table with leather belts and shoestrings and anything else they could find.
The power of Aemilia’s playing kept the Red Man in that strange state of waking sleep. She had moved on to Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3 . The piece had a slight pause in the change between the adagio and the fuga. She hadn’t thought about the consequences.
In that very brief musicless second, the Red Man gestured toward his egg-shaped spaceship, trying to teletouch the automatic pilot’s program, in the hope of returning the ship and Lowen back to Khariton.
But Aemilia was too quick for him. She started playing once again. The Red Man’s teletouch faltered right before he slumped back into senselessness. But his efforts accidently opened Lowen’s cell.
Lowen’s ghost escaped. He was really upset now, seething with that rare primeval urge on Khariton to break an egg.
Soldiers pushed the spaceship back into Cellar-6, power immediately restored in Cellar-7, and the music started back up too.
Bach’s music once again blared through the loud speakers. Aemilia ended her song. It kept the Red Man perfectly motionless.
But the music had no effect on Lowen’s ghost.
No earthling had ever before seen a violet ghost with red glowing eyes, so Wyn and Aemilia now gaped at Lowen in amazement.
Then the ghost hurled himself at the nearest living, breathing soul, which happened to be Aemilia, with the violin still at her chin, the bow still in her hand.
There was a second before Lowen shoved out her soul to make room for his own. She spent her last breath meeting eyes with Wyn and giving him a farewell smile. It was as if she knew what was about to happen to her.
Then she was gone.
Lowen was all that remained inside the shell of her once benevolent frame.
Lowen possessed Aemilia completely. He was so furious now that the heat of his anger burned through her. She decapitated thirteen soldiers before she made her escape.
The next day her face could be found on the FBI’s ten most wanted list.
The Government held Wyn in custody for questioning.
He convinced them to let him continue his scientific research on the Red Man. He hoped that the Red Man would help him find his wife and the ghost.
He worked night and day without
So you can imagine his relief when the music stopped and he could think and feel and move once more.
Wyn and Aemilia had never seen anything move as fast as him.
Bullets and Tasers didn’t faze the Red Man at all as he leaped off the operating table and tried to hop into his spaceship.
Wyn afterward remarked that the Red Man looked as lost and confused as a wild silverback in a circus, and just as deadly.
In the end it was Aemilia who subdued the Red Man.
She took up her violin and began playing a moving performance of Bach’s Sarabande in D Minor .
The Red Man stopped almost instantly and stared at her in wonderment and awe. It seemed as though he had never heard anything so beautiful.
She approached him as she played.
He stood perfectly still, not budging an inch. He towered over her. His biceps were larger than her head.
The Kharetie did not design the Red Man to have any tear ducts. But he wished that they had: Listening to her play the violin filled his whole body with an urge to express his self in the most sublime way possible.
The Red Man fell to the ground in a kind of stupor, his eyes still open, still staring ahead of where he’d collapsed.
Aemilia played on, as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
A replenishment of soldiers from Cellar-11 lifted the Red Man and strapped him back down to the operating table with leather belts and shoestrings and anything else they could find.
The power of Aemilia’s playing kept the Red Man in that strange state of waking sleep. She had moved on to Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3 . The piece had a slight pause in the change between the adagio and the fuga. She hadn’t thought about the consequences.
In that very brief musicless second, the Red Man gestured toward his egg-shaped spaceship, trying to teletouch the automatic pilot’s program, in the hope of returning the ship and Lowen back to Khariton.
But Aemilia was too quick for him. She started playing once again. The Red Man’s teletouch faltered right before he slumped back into senselessness. But his efforts accidently opened Lowen’s cell.
Lowen’s ghost escaped. He was really upset now, seething with that rare primeval urge on Khariton to break an egg.
Soldiers pushed the spaceship back into Cellar-6, power immediately restored in Cellar-7, and the music started back up too.
Bach’s music once again blared through the loud speakers. Aemilia ended her song. It kept the Red Man perfectly motionless.
But the music had no effect on Lowen’s ghost.
No earthling had ever before seen a violet ghost with red glowing eyes, so Wyn and Aemilia now gaped at Lowen in amazement.
Then the ghost hurled himself at the nearest living, breathing soul, which happened to be Aemilia, with the violin still at her chin, the bow still in her hand.
There was a second before Lowen shoved out her soul to make room for his own. She spent her last breath meeting eyes with Wyn and giving him a farewell smile. It was as if she knew what was about to happen to her.
Then she was gone.
Lowen was all that remained inside the shell of her once benevolent frame.
Lowen possessed Aemilia completely. He was so furious now that the heat of his anger burned through her. She decapitated thirteen soldiers before she made her escape.
The next day her face could be found on the FBI’s ten most wanted list.
The Government held Wyn in custody for questioning.
He convinced them to let him continue his scientific research on the Red Man. He hoped that the Red Man would help him find his wife and the ghost.
He worked night and day without
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