The few lights that were still working in this seemingly-abandoned building were old and had clearly not been updated in the last half a century. The floor was dirty and had several small cracks in each of the tiles. The walls weren't in much better shape. This building was probably on a shortlist for demolition.
We came to a room where nine well-dressed men and more guards waited. The new guards wore a different outfit and likely had nothing to do with our escort. One of the well-dressed men frowned as he saw us. "Why are they not bound?"
One of our escorts from the vehicle shrugged and responded gruffly, "They came willingly."
The well-dressed man shook his head in irritation and lack of understanding. "Fine, bring them in."
As we walked between two posts, they started beeping. The man asked, "Didn't you check their pockets?"
Our escort shrugged dismissively. "That was not in the contract."
Another well-dressed man took a concerned step forward as he spoke with urgency, "Did you at least take their communication devices?"
The escort frowned in confusion. "No one said anything about communication devices. You said they were tourists, not that they worked on a spaceship."
"We messaged your pilot, and he said that you had taken care of it." The man was starting to get frantic.
The escort shook his head. "You said no electronics. We didn't even take our radios, so there was no way you could have contacted our pilot."
I allowed a faint smirk to touch my lips. 'Impersonating a pilot? Shame on you...'
"Guilty as charged." Starsong was always far too ready to admit when he was guilty, without sounding the least bit ashamed.
The worried man demanded, "Find those devices. Now! Before someone tracks them. Check for any other devices as well."
I narrowed my eyes in distaste of that idea. My communication device was my only defense at the moment. Starsong didn't like it either, but said, "They know that you have it, so they won't rest until they locate it. Let them take it."
Our Guides weren't hidden, so those were quickly confiscated. One of our escort was gingerly patting down my pockets and located my communication device in the pocket on my shirt. I spoke quietly, "You don't want to touch that."
All things considered, our escort had been decent, so it was only fair to warn him. The man hesitated, clearly taking my warning seriously after the earlier event in the shuttle. One of the well-dressed men was getting impatient and stormed over to reach into my pocket to speed up the process.
Starsong must have taken exception to the well-dressed man since I actually heard the sound of the security defenses triggering. It may have only sounded like a faint crack, but the effect it had on the man was much more noticeable. All of the color drained from his face as his knees gave out. He gasped for breath as if he had the wind knocked out of him.
I took a step back as several phasers were pointed in my direction. None of our escort were among that number. Apparently, they were fast learners. The first man came forward with his phaser as he demanded, "What did you do to him?!"
I responded calmly, "There are some rather strong security defenses on my communication device, and he triggered them. I did give a warning."
The man narrowed his eyes before pointing his phaser at Cynthia while addressing me, "Put it in that tray on the table."
My anger stirred as he threatened my friend, but I reluctantly took the five steps required to reach the table. I pulled my communication device out. "Is there any way for me to convince you to reconsider? Starsong tends to get upset if I do not carry this with me at all times."
The man's eyes widened slightly as I confirmed their suspicion about the AI having switched ships, but he didn't change his mind. "Put it on the tray."
I gently placed the device on the tray before stepping back and waiting. The man turned his attention to a rather pale Cynthia. "Put yours in there as well - and no funny business."
She shook with nerves as the phaser followed her during her short walk over to the tray. She pulled out her communication device and sent me a pained look as she held her device above the tray. I nodded reassuringly at her, and with a deep breath, she placed hers on the tray before backing up as well.
One of the men walked up to Cynthia and passed a scanner over her, from her head to her toes. It beeped near her wrist, and they pulled back her long sleeves to reveal her watch. They took her watch before scanning her again.
He came over and scanned me as well with the handheld precision scanner before declaring, "She's clean."
The original man frowned. "She didn't have an earpiece? That is odd. She clearly used one in the trading hall."
The man waved the scanner around my head and glanced at my ears. "I don't see anything, and the scanner isn't picking anything up. She must have taken it out since she was on ship-leave."
The original man shrugged as he dismissed his concern. "Fine. Put everything on the tray, and put it inside that blocker box. It will block the signals those things give off so they can't track it."
'Will that work?'
"That is a rather heavy-duty blocker. We will find out shortly."
The man with the scanner put the tray in the small safe-like blocker before closing the door and latching it. Starsong's voice was pleased, "The signal is much weaker, but I can still access the Guides and the communication devices."
It was a good thing to know, but I had a different concern. 'That is nice, but there are a lot of phasers in this room, and I no longer have any defenses...'
Starsong had always said that the communication device would protect me, and I had no problem accepting that, but now I had been stripped of the device and its protection...
"You shouldn't worry so much. There are additional shielding devices built into all of your shirts just in case someone forced you to forfeit your communication device. They are more limited than the advanced one in your communication device, but they are still a far cry from the current human technology."
His foresight and revelation brought a wave of relief. Slightly exasperated, I exclaimed, 'Why didn't you tell me earlier?! That would have kept me from worrying so much!'
"I am surprised you thought I would rely on a device that was so easily confiscated without having any backup plans. I do plan to upgrade the crew's communication devices though. Apparently, their devices also need to have some defensive and offensive capabilities..."
The man with the phaser spoke again, "Let's get them into the room. We are wasting valuable time."
Our escort lingered to help the unconscious man on the floor while the new guards directed us into the next room. I wasn't particularly pleased to see two lie detector machines on the table. They separated Cynthia and me to different ends of the rectangular table as the eight well-dressed men went to the other side so they could face us.
I wasn't sure where they had found such an old and weathered plastic chair, but I sat down on the hard thing anyway. The well-groomed men had padded chairs while the new guards stood behind us like silent and foreboding sentinels.
I made a bit of a face as one of the guards picked up the sensors for the lie detector machines, but I didn't fight him as he strapped them onto my hands. The machine showed the same graphs and lines that the last machine had.
'I don't suppose you can hack into this thing?'
"Unfortunately not. It is designed to work offline and does not have the hardware to allow me to connect remotely."
So much for that faint hope. Cynthia was also having the straps attached to both of her hands. She was even more nervous now, and the screen showed it. My readings were much more level, showing that I was calmer. This wasn't my first rodeo with a lie-detector. Cynthia had clearly never played some of those drinking games when she had been in university...
I looked around the shabby room. Out of all of the places I could have guessed this meeting may take place, this was definitely not on my list. I had assumed that they would have used one of the Enforcement stations, possibly a more informal place like a restaurant, or, if they were flexible, even accept an invitation to hold the meeting in one of the meeting rooms on the Starship. I would have never guessed it would be in a derelict of an abandoned building...
I just hoped that nothing else about this meeting was going to take me by surprise.