"Act Your Age!" -- part two -- "Meeting People" **** Gary Wolfe on Wed, 06 Aug 1997 09:04:57 -0400 **** **** Subject: Re: Story -- a bit more **** T4D reaches somewhere (maybe an inside coat pocket, but it's hard to tell, as he decided, as usual, to wear an eclectic selection of multiple layers of clothing) and pulls out a rectangular box with smooth edges. His face lights up with colors, reflecting the light from a computer screen, as he fiddles with the controls. "Hey, that's pretty neat. Um. That way," points T4D, down the corridor, and to the right. "Are you going to tell us what's you've found, or leave us in suspense?" asked a somewhat frustrated Nomad. "Oh, right. Well, the majority of computer activity and life signs seems to be in that direction, indicating that it is the bridge area. There is also a lot of activity near the engine room, but something is really odd about that -- I recommend that we not go there." "What, is the ship going to blow up or something?" "Probably not that," assured T4D. "It will do something very strange, however, I'm sure." The group moved along a few corridors, a few admiring some features of the ship of the future. Noone was too sure about the styling of the smooth curved walls, which made it seem almost like walking in a squished tube. **** RifleFire@aol.com on Mon, 4 May 1998 16:16:09 EDT **** **** Subject: My story part. **** Here it is. Feel free to make any changes. I didn't go too far. I was tired when I did it so if it doesn't make sense, sorry. DavidD ====== "I think we should ... What the?" exclaimed Nomad as an energy blast nearly fried his time shield. "Defensive posture, everyone!" yelled T4D. Everyone pulled out a weapon of some sort and laid down on the floor. (It was hard to hide in the featureless corridor.) The bolts of energy kept shooting through the room. Fortunately, no one was hurt because the bolts were still shooting down the corridor at waist level. Abruptly, the firing stopped. After a few tense moments, a voice was heard. "Don't shoot," it said. Everyone stared down the corridor, and suddenly around a bend came a person. "You all can get to your feet now," the person said. Nomad looked, and said, "Do I know you?" "I don't think.... Nomad?? NOMAD!!!" the person said. Nomad said, "You look like someone I once knew." "Yes, Nomad, it is I. You knew me as Stasis." "Stasis! Yes, How on earth did you get here?" "I came in my personal cubeship. There was this distortion of space and I flew into its heart to see what I could do about it. The crew of the FAR STAR have been great to me. I even got a makeover! Watch my right shoulder." With everyone watching, he yanked off his shirt and all the women went, "woo what a hunk!" Suddenly, from his shoulder, a small array of equipment popped up through his tanned skin. Stasis said, "This is a sub- dermal photon array. This stuff used to be on the outside of that black BORG bodysuit that I used to wear. I am everything that I was but now I can pass as a normal person. I can do a lot more. "Ok," stated Stasis, "lets get you all to the bridge. DO NOT go to engineering. The gravimeteric forces in the engine is unstable right now. For some reason, this temporal rift is caused by the engines' singularity event driver. If we do not fix it, then the rift will keep widening and we all will go poof. Really, that's all I have been able to discover with the aid of the bridge crew." Stasis led the way to the end of the corridor. "Ok what now" said T4D. Several of the party nodded their heads since it appeared to be a dead end. "Its only there when the passengers need it," said Stasis. "Huh," said Nomad. Stasis placed his hand on the wall, and suddenly the wall morphed into two ornate doors. The doors slide aside diagonally. Inside, there was featureless room. Stasis stepped in and everyone else followed him. "Bridge!" he said. "Yall quit staring. After all, I have been here a month, so I should be able to work some of the tech here. OH yes, I just have to tell ya. I am sorry about that photon fire shot your way earlier. We seem to have some hi-tech intruders aboard as well as yourselves. I knew they were just ahead of me but when they turned that corner back there, well, I started firing since I knew it was a LONG passage. Yall didn't see them did you??" said Stasis. "Nope, but I nearly died back there," said Nomad. "I am truly sorry Nomad and everyone," sighed Stasis. Suddenly, the wall behind Traveler and Juggs morphed into a big hand and grabbed them. Nomad had his phaser still out and shot the wall. There was a scream and the wall hand had a huge schored mark on it. Then the wall hand withdrew into itself, taking Juggs and Traveler with it. Stasis said, "Damn! Must have been the female Xoonakrone intruder.... She has the ability to reshape/morph anything. I mean, the wall systems are NOT that inventive." T4D said, "Lets stop, and you tell us about these... hmm... outlaws before anything else suprises us." Stasis said, "Stop," and the "car" slowed to a stop. "We are still 12 decks away from the Bridge. You sure you want to stay stopped here?" queried Stasis. "Yes," said Nomad. "We have to know what's going on. Make it fast." "Ok," said Stasis, "one of them is a Drimfallo. You know they love to cause pain. I believe its name is PainLuver. Already told you about XeenPu'rectus. She is the Xoonakrone. And finally, there's their leader. He is from the black star system in the Nuerid Cluster. His name is hard to translate, but just call him `WalHemmerous.' He's from Nurossis. The planet of the shapeshifters. Everyone of these fiends are out to capture this ship. Since you didnt see them, they must have melted thru to another deck via Xeenpu'rectus's power. Thats about all I know folks. We best be going as the bridge is the one place that we can keep defended from those nuts. They have an Anti-trillitum field around the entire deck so that it will not morph." "Ok lets go," said Nomad. "Resume!" spoke Stasis to the wall. ======== Your turn Nomad. [Actually, it was Mark's turn, but... :-) --NoN] **** Mark C. Boehnke on Wed, 20 May 1998 13:37:30 **** **** Subject: the story part **** {this is my part i wrote it in a hurry so dont get your hopes up!} Meanwhile a tall curly-haired figure paced around his console room, pondering his latest problem. He and his TARDIS where entrapped in the temporal rift. His scanner had picked up a large and unclassified ship and a smaller pseudo-TARDIS. The comm panel picked up a faint distress signal so much so that the only word in the badly garbled message was FARSTAR Problems, but that was all he needed. He quickly set off for the giant ship. As he opened the door he was blasted clear across the console room and then abruptly suctioned out of the doors sending him into the pseudo-TARDIS policebox exterior. "Damned temporal distortion," he growled to himself, "we might as well check on the neighbors. I can't possibly reach the ship without some kind of temporal phasic correction device." Remembering that knocking was seldom heard, he decided to try and pick the lock. From inside the battered old exterior. Timothy, who was alarmed by the loud crash, opened the door. "Hey! what are you doing?!!" The man looked up. "Oh, just breaking in," he said. "You see, if I stay out here, I'll get crushed." Timothy asked, "Well, why didn't you knock? Besides, we're not supposed to let any one in." Putting down his sonic Swiss army knife, the man reached into his pocket. "Well, is there a grown up I can talk to then?" Tim shook his head. "No, just Nathan." Frustrated, the man said, "If you let me in, I'll give you this super hot red fire ball." Tim just laughed. "I can't take stuff from strangers." Using some twisted logic, he said, "Well I'm not stranger, I'm me." Tim thought for second. "OK, hand it over," he said. "Thank you, and as I promised, here is your candy," the man said, giving Timothy the candy from Hell. Walking in, the two met up with a rather irate Nathan. "Hey Timothy, T4D said not to let anyone in!" Timothy tried to defend his actions, "But he said..." Nathan interrupted, "Give me that!," taking the candy. Looking at the man, Nathan said, "Geez, why did you take anything from this weirdo?" He opened the wrapper and began to chew on the candy. "This will teach you Timothy, never take stuff from people you don't know." Suddenly, feeling his tongue burn and his eyes water, "AHHHHHHHHOT HOT HOT!" he yelped as he bolted out of the room. Laughing, the man said, "better you than me, my boy." Turning towards timothy, with a puzzled look on his face, "Now, just three questions Where am I, when am I, And who are you?" Timothy pulled the door lever. "I'm known as Timothy, and you're in The Fourth Doctor's TARDIS. Who are you?" he inquire. "Well, my name is Elowedreeion Amiga Spandrell, but you call me Elowe," he said with a broad grin on his face. "Now, I would like to have a talk with TD4." (ok on with the show!) **** out in the sandbox on Mon, 08 Jun 1998 15:52 EDT *** **** Subject: Story Thing *** Here's something. It's not a great something, but it's something. Great huge apologies to any previous characterization of Elowe, but uhm. I really couldn't think of anything else. Debbie --begin-- "Well, it's nice to meet you Elowe, but you can't talk to T4D." Elowe's grin quickly soured. "And why not?" "Well, because he's not here," Tim simply replied. "I know he's not here, but that doesn't mean I can't talk to him." "That's technically true." "Are you normally like this?" Elowe asked exasperatedly. "Why do you want to talk to him?" asked Nathan grumpily, coming into the room again. After dousing the excruciating fireball pain with a mixture of cheese doodles and Fruitopia, Nathan was in no mood to be compassionate to anybody. "Well, there's a distress signal in that FARSTAR ship or something and besides, I'm pregnant." "You're WHAT??" yelled the two younger people in the room. "You even know what being pregnant is?" shot back Elowe. He shifted his weight and proudly continued. "It's possible, and with all this temporal going-on, I just want to make sure the baby's all right, despite the time-shield, uh-oh." "Uh-oh what?" asked a wigged out Nathan, whose mood had changed from potential bastard to freaked out prepubescent, age-acceleration or no. "The time-shield. It's busted. Must've been the blast. Grr. Argh." "Is he that kind of doctor?" murmured Timothy, who was just starting to regain his ability to blink. "This man needs an enema!" declared Nathan. "WHAT??" yelped Elowe. "I'm sorry, I don't know where that came from." "You think it might work?" asked Timothy. Later, after fifteen minutes of panic, primal screaming, and the crash of adrenaline - in that precise order, Timothy was able to keep up with the conversation while Nathan tried to contact T4D. "Doctor?" "Nathan? Are you okay?" a distorted voice responded. "It's me, I'm okay, Tim's okay, but uhm, Elowe's not quite alright." "Elowe? Who's Elowe?" "This guy who kind of broke in -" "He broke in? How is that possible? I know I made security as tight as possible." the bewildered voice stammered. Then Nathan heard other voices and static through the communicator. "Hello? Doctor? You've got to listen to me. Elowe broke in, he went into labor -" "He went into labor? You mean he's pregnant? Is that even possible?" "I'm sorry, but SHUT UP! He went into labor, Timothy and I freaked out and screamed and the next thing you know the baby disappeared -" "Say what? Babies can't disappear. Men can't give birth. I'm sorry, Nathan, but we've - " Loud buzzing noises and crashes echoed through the communicator. " - we just got a little trouble here, when we're safe, I'll contact you. Just hold tight!" The comm went silent. Nathan reached for a chair and sat down. Timothy left Elowe's resting form and sat next to Nathan. "Did you tell him about Dia?" asked Timothy. "Is that her name? But no, I didn't get a chance," replied Nathan. "Did you tell him about Elowe?" "Only that he went into labor and that the baby disappeared," answered Nathan, shuddering at the mental images of the birth. Banishing them, he continued, "He'll contact us soon. It sounded like there was trouble." The two kids sat and stared at the twenty-year-old girl looking after Elowe. She noticed their stares and walked over to them. "So. Uhm. I think Dad'll be okay. I'm not sure," she said. Fidgeting her hands, she asked, "So. You got any Uno cards or TV here?" --end-- **** Suisei@aol.com on Mon, 15 Jun 1998 13:50:35 EDT **** **** Subject: My segment . . . **** Here, I hope it's acceptable-- I know it's early for me to submit this, but I just finished and I thought perhaps you'd like it early. I tried some of that retroactive continuity stuff at the request of Elowe, and I hope it worked ok . . . well, enough beating around the bush. And so it begins: Suddenly, the group heard a pounding noise coming from the room down the hall. A muffled voice drifted through the corridors, urgent but almost helpless in its tone. "What is that?" Nathan screamed. He and Timothy jumped up and ran toward the source of the noise. As they approached the source of the sound, they found they could understand the voice. "Let me out of here, you, you . . . indignant imbeciles!" Timothy looked at Nathan. "Doesn't that sound like Elowe?" The two stared at each other for a moment, then crashed through the door. "What do you think you were doing?" cried a very upset Elowe. "One moment, I was fine, and the next, I found myself locked in this room!" "Elowe?" asked Nathan, incredulously. "But . . . but-- but you're in there! You had a baby, you-- I thought it was you, how did you get in here?" he demanded, his voice becoming more and more frantic. "A b-b-baby?" stammered Elowe. Timothy, shocked and dumbfounded, said nothing. Just then, Elowe caught sight of Dia, walking towards them. "You . . . you look so familiar," he said. "But I've never seen you before." "Hey, dad," said Dia softly. Timothy found his tongue. "What?" he screamed. "Maybe we should talk to the other Elowe," said Nathan. The three walked back into the room where the first Elowe lay, resting. "Who are you, and who is this guy?" demanded Timothy. "Perhaps I can help you," said a soft voice from behind them. The three whirled around to see a small wisp of a girl standing in the doorway. She stood slightly under five feet tall, but held herself with the air of a princess. She wore layers of flowing robes, but even all that fabric couldn't give much substance to her frame. The outermost layer was white, fluttering in a wind that was almost nonexistent, and the layers beneath were cinched with a golden cord. Her bare feet were light on the floor, protruding just a touch from under her robes. Her hair shimmered a reddish golden brown under the lights, and the delicate gold circlet around her neck glinted as she turned towards them. Small oval glasses sat perched halfway down her nose, the frames matching her hair color, and her eyes behind them shone with an inner radiance. "Who are you?" demanded the first Elowe. "Dear sir, you should be asking the same thing about yourself," she replied gently. "No," said Timothy, "first you tell us who you are, and then you tell us who these two are." "I am," she began, and paused to take a deep breath, "M'b'to F'renite Mouy'n Qethea Eyadah, the Child of Healing and Light." Seeing their quizzical and slightly flushed faces, sensing that they were wondering how such a child could put herself above them, she added quickly, bowing slightly, "So I am called on my homeworld." "What?" they all cried in unison. "But you can call me Qethea." Timothy, Nathan, the two Elowes, and Dia breathed a sigh of relief. "But what are you doing here?" asked Dia. "I don't know. I was hoping you could help me figure that out." The second Elowe spoke. "Now tell us who we are!" "Perhaps you should sit down," she said as she guided them towards some chairs. "Who does she think she is, with all this `Child of Light and Healing' junk?" whispered Nathan to Timothy as they sat down. When they were all seated, she began. "The first Elowe you saw, the one who gave birth, is actually not the real Elowe." "That man is not my father?" Dia exploded. "No, he is your father, but he is not real to this world," she said. "He is from a different dimension, the equivalent of your father but from a different universe in space-time. You, having been born here, are really from this dimension, from here. This is your home now. In a matter of time, the first Elowe, the one who gave birth to you, will disappear back into his own world, and find his own way through things. But you, you will remain here, with us, because this is who you are." The second Elowe spoke. "Then who am I?" Qethea continued, "Because of the slight ripple in space-time, the other Elowe ended up here, and so did you, but you got trapped in that back room and he ended up here. You will stay when the ripple goes away, and the other Elowe will leave. Dia, now, being already twenty, will also remain as herself." Nathan stared at Qethea. "How do you know all this?" he asked. Qethea shrugged. "Some things I just know." She leaned closer, and as a half smile formed on her lips, she added, "Some things I'll never know." "How do you know what you'll know?" asked Timothy. "I don't know," Qethea said, still smiling. "Who are you, really?" asked Dia. "All I know is that I am now at your mercy," she said softly. "Do with me as your needs and your customs deem fit. I only hope for acceptance into your society someday." **** Greg.Goodwin@Chrysalis.org on Fri, 26 Jun 1998 17:47:11 -0500 **** **** Subject: My story segment further corrected... **** "Since you are at our mercy..." T4D said as he walked into the doorway, "... perhaps you wouldn't mind a few more questions." "Doctor!!" Timothy said with a great element of surprise, "You're back! Where is Traveler and Juggs?" "They are detained at the moment," T4D said with a certain amount of wit. "How can you joke like that?" Stasis said in a certain amount of disbelief to the seemingly cold comment about his comrades. "I have a hunch they're alright," T4D said with a smile. "How do you know?" Nomad asked standing next to Nathan. Nomad had assumed a defensive stance next to his adopted son Nathan, with a hand on his gun holster, while watching both Elowe and Qethea in distrust. "Oh don't worry my dear Nomad..." T4D said, looked at Qethea as if to pun on her earlier remark, "I know." * * * For a dungeon, the scene was not as bleak as most the Traveler has seen. As he surveyed the corridor around him, he saw hundreds of people, all held to the walls with arms outstretched. Juggs and Traveler had been gulped up as one of the ship's bulkheads had morphed into a large hand. They were passed through the wall itself like an animal being digested, and deposited along a corridor somewhere in the ship. As they were spit out from the wall, the wall itself formed cuffs that held them in place. "How unoriginal. They make a ship that can change the shape of its very walls, and the best they can think of the old captured in the dungeon routine." Traveler quipped to Juggs, who was on the wall next to him. "Well, did you get that signal off to the Doctor?" "Yes..." Juggs answered. She looked at Traveler to let him know that the telepathic message had been sent, thanks to the pseudo-PSI mind booster that she had bought from a galactic mail-order company. She realized that she dare not say more. Instead she kept her eyes closed, focused on T4D. "It's an interesting sight..." Traveler said to Juggs, knowing why she was not looking around, "there are people all along the walls. Must have been the original crew of the FAR STAR and everyone else that had wandered into the ship." "How far does the corridor seem to go?" Juggs asked, eyes still closed. "Roughly the length of a football field, and the corridor has turns and other corridors interlinking. Must be hundreds of people along these walls. Well, mostly people.. a few aliens thrown in along the way." "And one has really bad breath too!" a voice came from a little ways down the hall. A huge reptilian alien creature was stretched out on the wall next to him. "Stasis? Is that you?" Traveler asked in astonishment. "Yeh, but how do you know me? Have we ever met?" Stasis yelled back from down the hall. "Yeh, you were leading us to the bridge to fix the ship," Traveler reminded. "Not me. I've been here... " Stasis turned his head to his right arm right as a device popped out ... "four days, three hours, fifteen minutes. Don't worry, I'm working on getting us out of here." And with that, an eye piece appeared out of the side of Stasis' head, and covered over one eye. About that time, one of the FAR STAR crew yelled out, "Shut up! I'm trying to sleep here!" The crew member was stout and built, probably one of the engineering staff. "I tell you what.. you look like your a crew member of the FAR STAR..." Traveler said. "Yeh, what of it?" the miserable crew member said with a great deal of discomfort, since he was also hanging from the wall, arms outstretched. "You tell me where we are, and I'll let you sleep." "Engineering...." the man said, ".. now shuddup!" A couple of other people along the walls also mumbled their agreement on wanting sleep and voicing their discomfort. It was like hearing neighborhood dogs communicating in a domino effect down the hallways. As Traveler listened and looked, it appeared that the lights had been dimmed, like it was a time for all the prisoners to sleep. Into the darkness, he saw Cherokee and Bones. "Juggs... Cherokee and Bones.. they're here as well!" Juggs nearly opened her eyes, but caught herself, and simply asked, "How are they?" "They appear to be alive, just sleeping like the rest of the crew." Traveler mumbled to Juggs. "We should let the Doctor and Nomad know that we and another Stasis are here and doing well." Juggs took her cue and squinted her eyes as she concentrated. * * * In the foreground could be seen T4D, eyes closed with the rest of the people in the console room of the pseudo-TARDIS. "Traveler... Juggs.. Cherokee and Bones! Another Stasis.. all alright," T4D said to himself. Then looking behind him at Stasis, he said to himself, "Another Stasis? Ah yes.. does seem to fit." "What?" said Walt, "Are you talking to yourself again?" "Yes... I do have that habit here recently don't I?" T4D said in voice similar to Doctor Who actor, Tom Baker. If T4D enjoyed mimicking the Doctor Who tele programme, then he was greatly enjoying himself at this moment. "How about those questions." T4D began. "Stasis, you said there were three alien beings on this ship currently, correct? You said their names were Painluver, the leader named Walhemmerous, and Xeenpur... what was that name again?" "XeenPu'rectus," Stasis corrected. The first Elowe cringed. "XeenPu'rrectas! Can anyone ever get the female name right." "And good to meet you dear lady!" T4D looked at the first Elowe. "Excuse me?" "The old saying goes, you protest too loudly. Care to show us who you really are." The first Elowe's body melted like softened clay, and then changed into a more female body. Nomad instantly pulled his gun out of the holster, still protecting Nathan. "It was you!! " the second and true Elowe said, running up to the side of T4D, "She was the one that hired me to repair the pseudo-TARDIS when she was stranded in space." "What was damaged out of curiosity?" T4D asked, not only curiously, but fully inquisitive. "The Chronomatic stabilizer was out. Had to rebuild it," Elowe said. "You fixed that? And who are you again?" T4D asked in a amazed tone. "Elowedreeion Amiga Spandrell, but you can call me Elowe. Your 'Universil Mr.fixit' " Elowe said with a amount of pride and a large grin. "You know, I'm glad we've finally met, I've been meaning to ask you...." "So you fixed the Chronomatic stabilizer and then were knocked out, stored in the back room, and XeenPu'rrectas took your place, most impressive," T4D interrupted, obviously sidetracked. "But..." Elowe tried to finally ask his question, but unfortunately not only was T4D sidetracked, he was a derailed train on a roll. "So everything that Qethea said was untrue?" Dia asked confused. "No.. actually she was right about a good lot of many things. Qethea mentioned that Elowe was from a different time-space.. and since XeenPu'rrectas had the essence of Elowe, this is true. And by the way... maybe someday Elowe can tell you exactly HOW he got knocked out by XeenPu'rrectas." T4D said with a grin. Elowe was about to counter that comment, but decided to remain quiet, blushing slightly. "Yes, I have to admit, when Timothy called me telling me about some MAN having a baby, I knew that was too far fetched. Not only did I need to come back here for more equipment, but I had to see that for myself. So XeenPu'rrectas, do you work alone?" XeenPu'rrectas looked at T4D with a certain display of disgust. "If you are referring to that list of people Stasis mentioned, we all had one thing in common...." "And what was that?" Nomad asked curiously, still on the alert. "We were all 'passengers' so to speak. The FAR STAR was transporting us to a conference. A Coalition peace negotiation." "You mean war criminals!" Stasis added. "Yes," XeenPu'rrectas admitted, "We were representatives, but we were also the instigators of conflict. The people of our worlds figured if we were there, we would atone for the conflicts we caused. Representatives like myself, and Qethea..." "Qethea?!" Quite a few asked in shock. Nathan and Timothy looked on in innocent disbelief as Nomad now positioned himself so that both Qethea and XeenPu'rrectas were in gunsite. "Qethea Eyadah, 'Child of Healing and Light', wasn't always as she appears now.. but that was a long time ago." Walt, Nomad, and T4D could see that XeenPu'rrectas had a great deal of respect for Qethea. "All of us who have fallen and returned have great inspiration by her example." "So what happened to this ship? And have we met PainLover or Walhemmerous yet?" XeenPu'rrectas laughed out loud, and then looked at T4D is disbelief, "Please tell me you really don't know! Are you acting the fool, or do you stand back and let us reveal ourselves." And with that she quickly spun around and pointed in the direction of Stasis. As almost a knee-jerk reaction, the subdermal photon array appeared out of Stasis's shoulder, releasing a bolt of energy and milliseconds later hitting XeenPu'rrectas, throwing her across the room and landing on the baroque sofa. Elowe and Walt ran to the side of XeenPu'rrectas who was laying back on the couch, terribly scorched and smoldering. "WHY!?!?!" Elowe demanded of Stasis. "I'm sorry..." Stasis echoed as if in shock. "We have no time for that... Timothy and Nathan and Qethea, guard the console room, Stasis guard outside. Walhemmerous and PainLover are still at large!" T4D commanded. Stasis exited through the TARDIS doors. Nathan made sure to lock the doors. "Elowe, Walt, Nomad, Dia help me move XeenPu'rrectas to the sick bay - zero gravity room." And with that, the five of them pushed the sofa into the interior door- into the massive network of corridors of the pocket universe of the pseudoTARDIS. * * * Along the engineering corridor, hundreds of bodies hanging from the walls now slept in the dimmed light granted them. Before too long, the lights would turn back up, and a new day would begin. Then the silence was broken by singing. "Just look on the bright side of life..." And with that, Traveler, Juggs, Cherokee, and Bones began singing. With that, hundreds of voices mumbled, cursed, and complained. Luckily they were contained by the wall behind them or they would have ripped the Monty Python impersonators apart. Traveler, Juggs and company continued to sing and kick, just like the people hanging from the crosses like in "Life of Brian". Eventually, others enjoyed the song and joined in, finding it a welcome change from the normal drudgery. Stasis, had asked for a distraction, and his Intrepid friends were doing a great job. He felt the ship was the true enemy, and he had come to know his enemy. He knew when the ship backed up it's logs, and that was when the ship slept. It was then that he found it easiest to move about through the ship's computers via his cybernetics. "Ah, this should work..." Stasis mumbled to himself, smacking his lips, arms still outstretched against the wall like the hundreds of other captive around him. He was uncomfortable like everyone else, but he had a plan. "Emergency back up and repair files... good!" Stasis mumbled. "Shuddup!!!" A voice said a few bodies down along the same wall. Stasis ignored him. "Access : Clu, Station: Engineering, accept!" Roughly ten feet from Stasis's location, a yellow light emanated, and a holographic being found form. His outfit was black with yellow lines (if you'd like a mental image, watch TRON and see how the programs are outfitted). The yellow lines glowed with radiant energy that lit up the hallway around him. Flying around the glowing energy being was a white pulsating glowing being that hovered roughly around the yellow humanoid's shoulder. "Is this the location of the input, Bitt?" >>>Yes!!!<<< the little being answered in a metallic tone. Bitt had answered as best it could, since, like a computer bit, it could only answer "Yes" or "No", positive or negative. "Good! And you must be request: Stasis?" the yellow glowing humanoid energy being asked Stasis. "Yes, you must be Clu." "Bingo!! You win the grand prize of one free system check of the ship's computers!" Stasis, amongst all the singing, only looked at Clu. "You're a program! What are you doing with a sense of humor?" "It's acquired and given to me by my programmer who, needlesstosay, was a comedian in his spare time.. or at least that was his eventual goal." "Let me guess, he's still a programmer." Stasis asked sarcastically. "Last I checked. So are you going to continue hanging around, or are you going to tell me what to check?" Clu said with a grin. "If you'd help me with this wall... that would be a good start." Clu started to oblige, and then noticed the rest of the people were singing a Monty Python song, and started singing along, totally forgetting Stasis' last command. "Great! An easily sidetracked program!!!" Stasis said, in frustration, trying to free himself from the restraints, and as expected, with no luck. Then Stasis saw something he didn't want to see next... maintenance droids. They knew that Stasis had accessed the computer, and they were coming to eliminate the new virus element into the computer by eradicating Stasis. Then Stasis realized how the ship knew. In talking to Clu, Stasis had forgotten to remove his cyber-link before the ship's computers came back on line. "Oh cra... CLU!!!" Stasis yelled. Clu looked back at Stasis, "What!?!! I'm singing here!" "I need to get out of engineering and to the upper decks... but the above levels are flooded with gravometric energy. Do you know of a way to get past that?" Stasis asked, seeing the droids approach closer and closer, occasionally being kicked by the other singers as they sang. "The only way out of here.. is the way you came in... " Clu said with a big grin. And then gesturing at the wall, the program offered, "Allow me!" "No.. er.. I hate this...!!" and with those last words, Stasis and Clu disappeared as the wall swallowed them up and passed them through the wall to the upper decks. Everyone else continued singing, and getting great satisfaction kicking the droids around like a soccer ball. For a moment, most of the prisoners forgot how miserable they truly were. * * * In the TARDIS sickbay, T4D looked over the charred body of XeenPu'rrectas. Elowe continued to hold her hand. "Not sure if she will make it," Walt added. "Why?" Elowe asked no one in particular. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but either he was too trigger happy, or she knew too much," Nomad added into the conversation. "I'd say the latter," T4D confirmed. "We have two mysteries, one that is not so much a mystery, and the other that is." "What's that?" Nomad asked. "The first of all.. confirming that the Stasis we have outside the pseudo-TARDIS is not who he says he is, and what EXACTLY went wrong with the FAR STAR." "And two more mysteries, why Walhemmerous wants the FAR STAR? And where PainLover is" Walt added. "One thing is obvious.. we need to move to the TARDIS that XeenPu'rrectas landed in." T4D said with a grin, expecting the next reaction. "Obvious? What? And how?" Dia asked, somewhat confused. "Now, what needs to happen is XeenPu'rrectas steals this TARDIS, and then brings it back a few years later to land in the nearby corridor. Therefore, since we don't want Timothy or Nathan kidnapped, we simply need to move everything to the other TARDIS which happens to be this TARDIS's future variation. We'll use this transport disc..." T4D said, holding up a disc.." Elowe accidentally stepped on a disc just like this when he woke up, and that transported him to the future TARDIS to this disc. A cute little device that a decided to make after playing a Infocom game called STARCROSS. As long as you have two transport discs, you can teleport between them." "Oh..." Dia answered, sorry she asked. "Everyone will transport over to the other TARDIS, and I will accompany Stasis to see why he is so fixated on the bridge. I'll pretend I don't know who he is. I know he has to keep me alive long enough to use my knowledge of temporal fields," T4D added. "Not everyone will be transporting over... " Nomad hinted. "Besides, if you go alone, he'll get suspicious." T4D smiled, "True. And I think we'll take Qethea along to see where she fits in all this. Elowe, since you know the current state of the other TARDIS, I'll let you teleport over and join us later. Matter the fact, Qethea and I will join our so called 'Stasis', and Nomad, you help make sure Elowe joins us safely after we're down the hall. I don't want 'Stasis' or Walhemmerous to know that we have switched TARDIS's." A little later T4D, with Qethea close behind, emerged from the pseudo-TARDIS and closed the door behind him. Across the bay he could see the other future version of his TARDIS, the one that he would hopefully be leaving the FAR STAR in once this mystery was solved. He only cringed at the thought of how his TARDIS might have changed over the time it had been gone, but such were the perils of time travel. He just knew, by special signal from Nomad, that everyone had arrived safely. On that future TARDIS, Walt would continue to look after XeenPu'rrectas, and Dia would remain behind with Timothy and Nathan. So far so good. The next part was not certain. "Qethea.. Doctor!! About time. No sign of Walhemmerous... where is Elowe and Nomad? We'll need them to find the bridge." Stasis said. T4D looked at Stasis skeptically, but tried to control his distrust. "Ah.. yes.. they'll catch up in a few minutes. Go ahead and lead the way." Stasis started down the corridor. T4D looked at Qethea. T4D was not sure about Qethea, but definitely did not trust the charlatan before him who continued to act the part of Stasis. And so the lie continued, with the lie of pretending to believe the liar. Somewhere in the impending danger, T4D hoped this liar would lead to some element of truth to unwrap the intrigue.