After a minute he drew a picture from one of the files and studied it. The Imperator gasped and murmured, "I had almost forgotten how he looked."
"Show the picture to Mr. Ostby, will you please?" the Brain said.
Ostby took the picture and the first glance sent a shock through his system that started as a weight in the pit of his stomach and flooded his body like fever. The picture that looked back at him was very nearly a replica of himself!
"Your father," the Brain interrupted his thoughts. "You not only have had a vast deception practiced upon you, but you have been fighting your own people!"
V
That night Ostby slept very little. In his thoughts two emotions fought for dominance. On the one side were the people of Earth—he still thought of it as his Earth. He had lived with them; they were his friends; their problems and joys had always been his—until now. The menace to them had been his to share, and to help eliminate. He had accepted this assignment knowing that, at best, he would never be able to return; at worst, that he would be killed. And he had taken it willingly.
Now he knew that he had been duped. He had been an alien among the people he loved. And they had sent him to fight his own kind!
His final decision came hard, but by morning he had made his choice.
He rose early but had to wait until well into the afternoon before the Imperator put in an appearance.