Buck paused, studying the two of them. "You apologize?"

"This never should have happened," Karian replied. "A few of us tried protesting, but most of the leaders and scientists agreed with Anderin." He looked around the room. "This room is unmonitored, but it will look suspicious if we spend too long claiming you. Please, Captain Rogers, come along with us, and we will talk further at our quarters. We are trying to help you. Selin and I bought you to give you your freedom back."

"What about my companion?" Buck demanded.

"We hoped to buy both of you, but unfortunately, the prices were higher than we could pay. In another bid, we would have lost you. She went for even more; there were obviously two bidders who truly wanted her."

"Who bought her? Where is she?"

Selin spoke up for the first time. "We don't know. Only the total bid was displayed, not who made it. The computer identified the keypad used, but the others in the room didn't realize unless the winner revealed his own identity. Please, Captain Rogers, we need to get out of here. This is not a safe place to talk at length."

"I'm not leaving without her," Buck insisted. He wasn't going to abandon Wilma into slavery, even if he had lucked out himself in his buyers. Also, there was the pesky fact that he couldn't leave without her. The shuttle was crashed, he had no idea how to repair it, and he also wasn't sure how to contact that Searcher ship she had mentioned for help even if he found a communicator. Were there frequencies? Channels? Call signs? How could he get them while not including every Mangolian around?

"We will speak of this," Karian said. "Please, come on."

It was the reiterated please, without weapons, that finally did it. Buck moved, and they opened the door. The three of them entered the hall.

After a few more turns and twists in this maze-like complex, they walked straight into the leader who had visited Buck earlier. He gave a cold smile. "Well, Karian, Selin, I see that your scruples bow before the chance of the reward after all. I wish you well with him. Do be careful, though; he has already escaped once."

"We will be careful with him, Anderin," Karian replied. The leader walked on, and Buck shook his head.

"I do not like that man."

"Some of us agree with you. Not many, but some," Selin agreed. They came to a door and stepped out into the city, and Buck couldn't help looking around again. This place looked just as foreign as it had on his brief run through it yesterday. The buildings were too orderly, too symmetrical, and the dazzling whitewashed effect of everything was near blinding. Several androids were polishing buildings as they walked by.

Finally, they reached what was obviously an apartment building. Karian and Selin led the way to their own lodgings, and Buck spoke up as soon as the door closed behind them. "Now, what about Wilma? I'm going to break her out of here somehow, just as soon as you turn me loose."

Karian sighed. "I am sorry we couldn't buy both of you," he repeated. "It took all our savings just for you, and she was more than that. But we will do our best to help you locate her. Again, we apologize. It is unforgiveable to do what we have done to other beings. Our people are scared and desperate, but that's no excuse."

He sat down in a cluster of chairs, and Buck took another one. Selin had disappeared for a minute and then returned with a plate of mangolams and some water. "Have some refreshment," she offered.

Buck was tempted to turn her down in the urgency of the moment, but he was hungry, and he remembered the mangolams from yesterday. Talking while eating wasn't much slower than talking alone. He took a fruit. "You said you're scared and desperate. Why? What is going on?" He took a bite while waiting for the answer. The things were quite good, not champions in 20th-century taste terms, but they beat anything he could remember having in this century hollow.

"There is a virus racing out of control among our people," Karian answered. "We are medical scientists; everyone in that auction was. Nothing we have tried helps against it. Then a few of the others got the idea that the problem is our limited gene pool and that it has weakened us over centuries. We are a very small, isolated people, and population is strictly controlled."

The light was dawning for Buck. "So you want to try infusing some genes from a compatible species to increase your immune systems."

"Yes."

"You could ask for help. There are doctors and scientists around the galaxy - at least there should be in this century, I'd think. Surely they would help you. Any scientist loves a good challenge."

Karian nodded. "That was exactly my suggestion. However, Mangolia has spent decades telling other species that we are completely self sufficient, don't need contact, and only want to be left alone."

"This planet is too proud to admit you need help?" Buck couldn't believe it. "Everybody needs help sometimes. That's not a weakness; it's part of life."

"Again, we agree, Selin and I. Most of our people, unfortunately, do not."

"So they decided to set a trap for us and just take us without having to ask?"

"Yes. There are a few of us who objected. We tried to insist that other beings have rights, that this was wrong. But they wouldn't listen. Many of our people think that only people exactly like us have rights, that anyone different doesn't qualify."

Buck sighed. "I have to admit, humans have made that same mistake several times in history."

Selin had been looking thoughtful. "Captain Rogers, a minute ago, you said that you thought there must be doctors and scientists in this century. Aren't you sure of it? Haven't you met several while flying around with your spaceship?"

Buck looked from one to the other of them. Oh, well, things couldn't get much worse than they had been going on this planet so far, and these two did seem sincere. He liked them. "I was hurt back when you first took us hostage. I got hit on the head. And now I don't remember anything from this century, only the part of my life from 500 years ago."

There was pure sympathy and concern in both of their expressions. "Are you feeling all right, Captain? Apart from the memory? We know next to nothing about humans, but we are both medical scientists, as I said."

Selin had already moved over next to him while Karian was speaking. "Where were you hit?" she asked. Buck ran a hand over the knot on the back of his head, and she gently felt around it. "The skin isn't broken, but this was a hard knock. I am so sorry, Captain."

"I'm actually feeling better today - except for not remembering. Yesterday, I had a headache, but that's gone now."

"Hopefully your memory will return," Karian said. "We apologize again, Captain."

"That's another reason why I must find Wilma. She's the only one who knows how to contact our ship, how to fix our shuttle - I hope. She knows me. She told me about the Searcher, but I don't even remember that. All I have is what she had time to tell me. But even if I were perfectly fine, I will not leave her here with your people."

Karian was thinking. "We could try going back to central data and accessing the auction records to see if we can determine who bought her. Given the name, Selin and I would know where that scientist lives and also where he works. We will try to help you."

"Wait a minute," Buck said. "You already mentioned that you've spent all your savings on me, and that leader - you called him Anderin - was warning you about me when we met him. What's going to happen to you two when I escape and break Wilma out? He isn't going to believe it was an accident, not if you've protested doing this all along. You'll get in trouble."

Selin went over to her husband's side. Obviously, they had considered this thoroughly. "We will be arrested and imprisoned. But we will at least have a clear conscience. We cannot stand by and take part in what our people are doing."

"A clear conscience is worth a lot, but life and freedom are worth a lot, too." Buck thought it through. "Why don't you come with us?"

"Come with you?" Karian asked. It was clear from his tone that that possibility hadn't even occurred to them.

"Sure. You're scientists, you said. You can study your virus, humans, the galaxy, any of it. I'm sure there are all sorts of resources out there if I could only remember them. As long as you ask instead of just taking, most people will probably be glad to help you study things. And you'd probably be interesting to our scientists, too. It would be mutual."

"You would take us along after what we did to you?"

"You two haven't done anything to us. Your people did, but no individual is responsible for the sins of their whole society. Come on. It sounds like you'll be safer leaving with us than staying behind, but it also will be interesting for you." Whatever was up on that Searcher ship, he had no doubt it would be interesting to scientists. His own curiosity about that was only a short step behind his frustration that he couldn't remember. "Of course, you would be saying goodbye to the only world you've known."

Karian and Selin held a silent conference with their eyes. Finally, in unison, they nodded. "We thank you for your offer, Captain Rogers. We would be honored to leave with you. Our world has not suited us for quite a while."

Buck smiled and stood up. "Now, we need to figure out who bought Wilma and where she is. Remember, unless we can find her, none of us are going anywhere. I'm not much help to you at the moment."

The Mangolians stood. "Let us hurry, then." Karian walked over and opened a drawer, removing three weapons. He handed one to Buck, another to Selin. "It would attract less attention, Captain Rogers, if it appeared that we were simply moving you to another location, such as our lab."

Buck pocketed his weapon and obligingly stepped out in front of them toward the door, letting them cover him. "One more thing, though."

"What?" Selin asked.

"My friends call me Buck." He smiled at the two of them and then opened the door to the apartment.