Suddenly he heard something that sounded familiar. “A coincidence,” he thought to himself. They couldn’t have said “Zimbardo.” After several more exchanges, one of the figures pressed a series of buttons on the wall, next to a blank screen. It came alive with a dull silver glow. Bright green lines appeared in the configuration of a map or blueprint. Mark strove to see as well as to hear. Slender fingers pointed to one part of the screen or another as the conversation continued. Then he heard it again, this time clearly. “Zimbardo.” Mark lifted his head a little and turned so he could observe the screen better. “A plan of the surface control center,” he thought. He recognized the floor plan by its telltale great doors through which the prisoners had been marched. The scene changed as one of the figures pressed a button. A series of diagrams appeared, diagrams that indistinctly suggested a power plant to Mark. One of the tall figures began talking animatedly, pointing to various locations and repeating the word “Zimbardo” frequently. Suddenly Mark understood what was going on: the aliens were talking about shutting down the power plant! Mark strained to get a closer look at the diagram they were examining. “The aliens!” His mind raced. “They must be the builders of this base! Shutting down the power plant--why, they must want to stop Zimbardo! They’re on our side!” Then the other figure spoke up. He seemed to agree with the animated one, but his voice had a sorrowful tone to it. He pressed a few buttons on the screen and a picture of a warship appeared. As the alien pointed to the ship and talked, all the life seemed to drain out of his companion and he began looking hopeless and despondent. He turned the screen off. Mark didn’t understand--what was that ship? Why did it bring such hopelessness? As the panel went dark, Mark realized with a crushed heart that, for some reason, the aliens were not going to deactivate the power plant after all. He buried his face in his hands. Something was stopping them, something having to do with the spaceship that had appeared on the screen last. Mark looked up and saw that the figures had vanished! 10: Both Sides Move THE GREAT AIRLOCK on the pirates’ asteroid opened. From the depths of the abyss five ships came forth. Emerging from the stone tunnel, they moved into formation and then headed for the Asteroid Belt. Lurton Zimbardo’s lieutenant Crass held the authority over the small fleet. Each ship was sheathed with the radar bender, making it invisible to the normal means of detection used by Starlight Enterprise, Space Command, and other Earth-based entities.