Ann and Wendell looked at the beauty of the city lights.

"I'd much rather live at Freedom Fields than in the town somewhere," said Ann, "but it is nice to visit the town, especially at night. I wonder how other thirteen-year-old girls enjoy themselves on nights like this. They must have things to do, but I do not think that I could go back to my old hobbies alone, not after all this. Some day I will have to work out who I can trust with these secrets, some other girl who would know about Butler One, Wildstar and my adventures and gadgets, without telling anyone. Butler One's primary loyalties are programmed to me with a similar legacy routine, if I die, to the one that Jeradd left me. Oh well, I should go to bed."

“There aren’t any other eight-year-old tiny boys here,” said Wendell.

*          *          *          *

The next day, Friday, Ann said farewell to her school friends and went to Computer Contact inside Wildstar. She could have caught the train from Pymble Station, but it would cost her money which she did not have. It would have to be Butler One's usual method of transportation again, but that didn't matter. She entered the stairwell and attended her class. Butler One took Wildstar into outer space, and orbited the earth as usual, waiting for Ann O’Malley's signal. Wildstar could not be invited to merely land on the roof at eight, because Ann had to sneak out, using the Remote Control Trembler Device (R.C.T.D.) and then check for people on the roof.

The final lessons included the storing of newly created weaponry concepts as visual graphical entries on a special mixture of graphics and database management. The database management system could store pictures generated by the computer.

"So the computer mind stores pictures like a box of slides, instead of storing words like a dictionary," said Ann.

"That's right," said one of the teachers. Well, if you've got everything stored, you are all ready for tonight's little surprise."

“I’d be the littlest surprise of all, if they knew I’m hidden on Ann’s outfit,” thought Wendell.

Ann was pleased that she had again been able to show that she understood something, by saying it in her own different words, removing the jargon to prove that she understood what was really going on.

"Surprise?" she asked.

"Yes," said the teacher, and four men entered the room with guns.

"If this is a planned surprise, it must be happening on every level between and including levels two and six," thought Ann.

"Nothing comes completely free to those who use it," said the teacher, "and you're all going to find out that you will have to do a lot more to deserve this set of computer classes, than just being born with big brains. We have dismissed all of the staff on every level except two to six. You will all file out into the stairwell and walk up to the roof. There you will see some starcrafts coming in to land. We have altogether thirty-five students in our courses, roughly seven on each level.

"You will be divided into two groups, one of seventeen, the other of eighteen. Then you will file into the starcrafts. We have been promised diamonds, rubies and emeralds from an alien warrior, who intends to train you all even more, using the most intelligent brains in the universe to further his efforts to design and use many war weapons. He is an alien child living on another planet. His brain is well developed, and you will all be trained to work under his super-intelligent guidance; working on and designing war weaponery. He will eventually distribute it to two weak and oppressed planets in a distant star system, and become famous for starting and creating a legendary war. His ambition is childish, but he has promised us an abundance of diamonds, rubies and emeralds for recruiting and training you. He has gathered teenagers from all over the universe; or people of equivalent alien youthfulness.

"They will be trained and will work until they are all the equivalent of a twenty-year-old earthling. Then their minds will be developed to keep the long war going, and continue selling the weaponery to any other planets who wish to be involved in the war. That will be too far away to concern us. A year ago, we did not even know about or believe in all this, but now we are going to profit from it. You will all file out now."

Ann had turned on her secret communicator shortly after the man had started talking. Butler One would hear enough to see the need to follow them to the distant planet of the youthful war monger, that was if all of this was true.

'And having seen Butler One and Wildstar, I will believe anything is true," thought Ann.

*          *          *          *