“Do you know about their nasty habit of becoming allied to others and then turning on them?”

“We heard rumors of that.  We want to rescue the men.  But not if it means we allow Ultansians to destroy entire worlds in exchange for them.”

“I know ACE is big on hyperlight weapons.  Have any that you could trade for the men?”

“We are working on a hyperlight bomb that is more effective than a gravity manipulation bomb.  But it is still too dangerous to handle.  We could use it as a decoy and let them blow themselves up.  But if the speed of the hyperlight reaction is too high, it could start a hyperlight speed chain reaction that could destroy entire solar systems.”

“I know my hyperlight physics.  What else do you have?”

“Beam weapons.  But they’re usually pretty stable.  If we sabotage one that we give them, they will probably know it.  I just hope your friend finds something.”

“I have a lot of confidence in him.”

A few hours later, a trade was set up between ACE and the Ultransian Empire for the men.  When the men were with their wives, the item they were traded for was brought back to the Ultransian home world.  That was when something expected happened.  Some of the Ultransians opened up the casing of the device and started a chain reaction which destroyed the facilities.  They had been warned not to fool around with it for fear an explosion would happen.  But as most arrogant people do, they didn’t pay attention to the warning and thought they knew what they were doing.  But when the device was tweaked a bit to develop a higher destructive yield, energy and materials were sucked into the device’s capacitors and released in a repulsive burst that leveled the building and other structures within a three mile radius.  If the bomb had been larger than a basketball which was the size of the device, the entire city where the bomb was located might been destroyed. 

The people Drozin and Ramshief helped were eternally grateful to the two men.  The five men who had escaped the Ultransian Empire were put to work by ACE in the weapons research lab located in New Drantis.  It was isolated from the bulk of the city by a long tunnel and extensive field protection.  A ten megaton explosion could have taken place and the field dampers would have kept the force of the explosion from exceeding that of a seismic burp.

Drozin and Ramshief became more involved with ACE, first as a favor and finally as contractors for the super secret government agency.  Drozin was finally realizing that just because you reject a government offer and think the government won’t bother you any more doesn’t mean you’re free from government intrusion in your life.