"Chessmen of the Apocalypse" Part Three Late 2365 Galactic, early AD 1990 [Nomad of Norad] The ship fell silent in the dark, all except for Dr Depraved's yelling. After a moment he realised the ship was still, and stopped yelling. He put his BatPhone (tm) communicator back into his pocket, not that using it had helped, since the batteries were dead. A dim light came on in one part of the room, and the captives picked themselves up. All except for Redstar, who was dead. Certain of the other captives had sustained minor scrapes and bruises, and one of the pawns had acquired a sprained hand. The survivors stood a momentary vigel over the still form of Redstar, bowing their heads. Then they turned to deal with surviving. Amazingly, the door to the room had fallen open in the crash. Everything outside was total silence, and near darkness. Had the crew died? Or was the ship unmanned, automated? [Redstar] * * * * * * * "Sir, please come here. I am in need of your assistance. Something strange has happened." Redstar snapped out of his drowsy daze. "What is it, Jennifer?" Redstar poked his head into the flight deck area. Jennifer pointed toward the receiver. "Ku - C band transmission has been lost, sir. I am not receiving any trace of a signal, except for echoes from previous transmissions." "Theorize." Jennifer closed her eyes for one minute. "Processing..." Jennifer's eyes opened, and went back to their routine twitching. "It is 89 percent likely that the transmission was being affected by you. I need more information to elaborate. I am 99 percent sure that the transmission was from hostile target one. When it fell out of orbit and lost power, transmission ceased..." Cappy jumped up. "CRASHED? What of it now?" Jennifer looked up. "hostile target one fell out of orbit after a large power surge originating from the ship." Redstar looked puzzled. "Theorize." Jennifer blinked her eyes. "A surge of that power could be from a reactor failure, or some sort of weapon detonation. Actual source of power surge not known. More Information is needed for full analysis." Cappy looked worried. "What about the people aboard?" Jennifer looked at the entire control board quickly. "Organic life scan not possible until at least 2000 kilometres of designated target. Estimated time of arrival in eight minutes." Cappy pushed forward into the seat. "Redstar, we are going to have to go in. There's no other choice. Also, can I fly this baby now?" Redstar looked over to Jennifer. "Jennifer, you have perfomed your tasks excellently. We will do something special when we are home. We will take over navigation now." Jennifer gave a smile; she was programmed to show emotions, even though you could have the feeling that they were real. "It is nice to work with you sirs. Cancelling previous routine." Jennifer went to the back, and sat on the floor in the most feminine of ways. Cappy and Redstar manned the seats. "Redstar, I will put us into orbit around the planet the ship crashed on..." he ordered up the windshield map "... over here. The planet is not well known at all, and we have no information on the terrain." A grid map of a globe showed up on the windshield, rotating. "The ship is here, and that's where we will have to go. But first we will have to wait for the others." Cappy said a few numbers to the computer on board, and pointed to numerous maps, selecting orbital trajectory, et cetera. "I have programmed a high orbital pattern over the planet, passing around the planet's smallest moon. Computer, take us out of warp drive, and commence navigational program one." The ship rocked from the extreme deceleration, and seen in the front windows was a small, amber-looking sphere. An alarm went off. "Metal and carbon-based structures detected. Origin unknown. Possibly hostile." Cappy gave an ironic smirk. "This is where the fun begins, guys! Computer, put us into battle readiness, level two. Go to level ten if fired upon." "Compliance. Shields to minimum. Cannons one and two to ready." "Well, guys, you better get ready for action," Cappy said. Redstar checked his weapon, putting it into rifle mode, then back to pistol mode. He then put on his sunglasses, switching them on. The green phosphor message, 'no targets' appeared. "This will protect me. I got it at Southside Gun for only $17,000 dollars, not such a bad deal! Sunglasses are weeding out known friendlies, that's good. Okay, just give the word. Now I finally get to USE these things in some action!" Cappy kinda gave a grin. "I'll just be glad when those people are back at the Hex. Okay, orbit achieved. Can we get Jenn to watch the ship?" Redstar turned to the android on the floor. "Jennifer, keep the ship in its programmed trajectory when we are gone. Continue the upload to Einny." Jennifer looked up. "Yes, sir, I will be able to comply with the stated sequence." "Good, now let's hope the captors are as cooperative, right, Cappy?" "Yeah." The ship gave a slight retro burn, and it reached orbit. Soon afterward a flash of light was seen in the windows, and the ship was promptly identified as friendly. Cappy looked up. "Here they are. Pray for the best..." [Redstar] (Hey, anyone got an idea for more of this story??? What happens next?) [Nomad of Norad] "Greetings," said the pilot of the newly arrived ship. "My name is Perfect. I am here to help rescue the kidnapped Intrepid Group (tm) members." Soon, he was docked with the RED 417, and had come aboard with the others. They all sat around and brainstormed. "Hmmmmm..." said Xavier, "if the saucer came here, does that mean this planet is where the enemy base is?" "Einey," said Redster, "scan the planet, looking for signs of artificial structures other than the wrecked saucer." "Right away," said the image of the dog. After a moment, he said, "I've found a large structure. It is a base built inside what appears to be an ancient temple compound." "Hmph!" said Verilix, contemptably. "They took a sight that should have been left for the space archeologists and turned it into something bad! The nerve of them!" "Hmmmm..." said Alter Ego, "didn't Gary Wolfe say something like 'beware the idol'?" "Yes," said Cappy, "we'd better tread carefully, so to speak, when we go down there." "In the meantime," said Thx, "I say we should first go rescue our freinds from the wrecked saucer." Everyone agreed. * * * * * * * On the saucer, our friends had found the flight section of the saucer. What was left of it, that is. The crew were all dead. In the mean time, they had retrieved the rest of their gear from where it had been stored away near their cell. "I suppose we should look for supplies," said Joe Powell, "something to get across this desert to civilisation." "Yes," agreed Nomad. "Definately," said Shammy. "Wait a minute," said Nomad. "How do know it's a desert out there?" Joe Powell stood blankly a moment, as if caught off gaurd by the question. "Uh... I was speaking figuratively." Nomad stood looking at him a moment. Then he turned to the others and said, "Right, ok. Well, let's start looking." [Redstar] (Einny is a billion miles away; Jennifer 1 is with us, and she is a cybernetic android.) * * * * * * * * Back on the ship, everyone was preparing to storm the saucer. Cappy and Perfect manned their flight deck positions, and were running countless scans of the saucer, the surrounding terrain, and the airspace around the entire side of the planet. Cappy was downloading much of the information to Perfect's onboard computers. Everyone else was scrambling back and forth through the airlock, gathering the necessary items, and stowing what was not needed. "Perfect, this is Cappy, do you register that the region around the saucer is clear? It seems to be." Cappy put up the windshield display, showing the others the region. "Cappy, I am registering the same, but we will have to hurry. I have picked up a distress signal originating from the saucer, exact location unknown. It's on the UHF micro band. Here, I'll patch it in." Cappy looked distressed. "That means that they may not be alone down there..." "Or possibly it is an automatic signal, sir." Jennifer said. "But you are right; caution must be taken, as there is insufficient information to verify either theory. Should I take my preprogrammed flight position sir?" "Yeah, go ahead. I will fly it in, but you are going to have to pull it back into orbit quickly, and avoid detection. Go into a long orbit, and circle the planet and its moon. Prepare to commence." Half of the people returned to Perfect's ship, and the airlock shut and sealed. Alter Ego and Redstar belted into two pulldown seats in the open area to the back of the ship. Redstar continued to finetune his targeting sunglasses, setting infrared, ultraviolet, and organic sensors; they were not performing to his expectations. Alter Ego polished his very well kept semiautomatic shotgun, an antique, but still working as new. Cappy reviewed the plans for the raid; basically everyone was to storm in, and Jennifer was to fly both ships back to orbit; the flying of his ship by remote control by an android concerned Perfect, but he realized that he had no choice in the matter. "Cappy," said Redstar, "The whole time I have been aboard I have not seen a single weapon of yours. Do you have any?" Cappy laughed and pushed a button. "Yeah, right! I just store them kinda hidden because some of these weapons are illegal in some nations." A section of the ceiling lowered, and numerous weapons appeared. There was a rocket launcher, two mini uzis, and what seemed to be a smart missile launcher, something that has been outlawed in most of the world; you aimed at someone, and it locked on target; it rarely missed. Redstar and Alter were astounded. Soon afterwards the cabinet retracted. "Hold on, guys," said Cappy. "This is going to be rough. I always hate orbit drops, but we have no choice. Jennifer, keep an eye on those pressure guages, or we're all spacemeat!" The two ships separated, and both tumbled out of orbit, going into a nosedive to the planet's surface. They fell through the atmosphere in a plume of smoke, their fuselages glowing white hot. Everyone in both ships felt the extreme g-forces of the fall. Even the anti-g systems could not overtake the force of the drop. Soon afterwards the ships pulled back, falling broadside down. Six hundred feet from the surface, the ships pulled up, and cruised at full speed to the target. To aviod detection, the ships lowered to a flight altitude of ten feet, skimming the surface perfectly. "Well, this is it, guys," Perfect said on the comm. "Get ready." "The saucer is in sight! Get ready to jump ship! Jennifer, take over. Perfect, hand control to Jennifer." Cappy went to the weapons cabinet, and attached all the weapons to his flight suit. "A little armed there, aren't you, Cappy?" Redstar said, snapping his energy weapon into rifle/cannon mode. Soon the ships lay hovering over the saucer. Everyone quickly jumped out, and the two ships shot up into the sky in a flash of light. [Nomad of Norad] The group approached the saucer cautiously, using the cover of desert rocks. They came to surround what appeared to be a main airlock, and stood with their weapons trained on it. The door opened, and everyone ducked. Out stepped Nomad, Zaphod, Joe, Shammy, Spidey, Dr D, and the pawns. In that order. Cappy and the others came up with their weapons pointed, and then stared, astonished. "Uh... hi guys," said Nomad. "Nice welcome!" he joked. "What about the aliens?" said Cappy. "The crew are all dead," said Joe. "At least most of them," said Nomad. "Most of them?" said Cappy, glancing worriedly back at the airlock and taking a step or two back. "We found the remaining ones and locked them up with enough supplies to survive for days," said Zaphod. "Well," said Xavier, "let's get Joe and Shammy back to Earth at least." As if on cue, a SECOND Joe Powell stepped out of the airlock! "Boy am I glad to see YOU... guys..." began the new Joe Powell, stopping in his tracks upon catching sight of the other Joe. Nomad glanced back and forth between the two Joe's. "Oh good heavens!" [Captain R/C] Dreadful situation, this one was. Two kings, both identical, one real, one not-so-real. "What'll we do now?" asked Zaphod. Another person emerged from the saucer. "I suggest you kill them both." said a third Joe E. Powell. "I'm leaving........."said R/C,"I'm going home...I think I'm losing my mind... wheeeeeee....I don't think this is the correct molecular formula for de-caf coffe, anymore, Todo. Kansas, anyone?" "Oh dear." [Redstar] Redstar looked worried. "All three have the exact likliness of Joe; my visuals are identifying all three as Joe. But just in case, I'm locking on all three," Redstar whispered to Cappy. In his display two green lines, one vertical and the other horizontal, moved to intersect on each of the 'Joes'. The sunglasses beeped a high pitched tone in Redstar's earpiece, and displayed the trackings of each target, labeling each one 'JEP 1', 'JEP 2', etc. He turned on his rifle, and the earpiece reported, "Tazer charge full." The others stood around confused; Redstar was the only one to take precautions. He didn't trust many, since the destruction of Natasha 1, the predecessor to Jennifer, by a few of his competetors. Everyone looked at all three Joes, now starting to encircle the gang. "So what are we going to do now?" said Alter. Cappy looked quite disturbed, clutching his missile launcher. "So, got any good ideas NOW, Red?" Redstar just kept on concentrating on the targeting display in his highly customized Gargoyles. [Captain R/C] (Should that be Goggoils? Like Goggle and Gargoyal? Who cares!) (I know, I know, TLV 12. Keep it on the anony-sub.) [Redstar] (You know, Gargoyles; they're a brand of sunglasses. Schwartzenegger wears them in The Terminator; quite stylish, I must say.) [Doctor Depraved] (Now we're getting hot!) (Not an editor's post...just an author's post...) [Redstar] (I can't do this story alone! C'mon people, add to it! (I sound like I was the sub-op, but I know I am not.) [Nomad of Norad] "I say we stun them all," said Nomad, "and get going." "And what," said Cappy, "leave them here?" "No," said Redstar, "bring them with us, tied up in the ship until we can determine which is the real Joe." He stunned the three Joes in quick succession and then signalled the ships to return. Soon all were aboard the ships, with the Joes in seperate cells, and were headed towards the enemy base. [Redstar] (Who's got a ship big enough to hold them? At least I know Cappy's is like a sports model; Perfect's must be a winnebago, huh?) [Captain R/C] Mine is a 2 seater(like a jet fighter) 'cept Red made it have a lounge or something in the back. [Redstar] Cappy: I only added a small floor space in the back (like if you took the back seats out of a 4-door). And then put in small fridge on the wall or somethin'. I wasn't the one to mention the brigs. [Captain R/C] Mention the what? I can't figure out what a brig is. Bridge? [The Flip] Cappy: Brigs are prisons... [Redstar] Yeah, the prisons, or more accurately, the holding cells on ships. You've never heard this before? I'm surprised; I thought that everyone knew what it meant. oh, well... [The Flip] Red: I guess only us "adventurous" types would know what brigs would be like... ;-) [Doctor Depraved] Uhh...who exactly would you put in the brig? I mean, I don't picture a little 2-seater fighter exactly taking over any other ship and boarding it... [Redstar] Hey, you're talking of the Cappy - Jennifer 1 - Redstar team here! And with weapons from the game Task Force... and a computer setup that would impress the US army and NASA! I think we can do SOME damage - or at least mischief! Flip: Well said! [Captain R/C] Just wait until I get the cloaking device installed, or install the Q-32 Space Modulator [Nomad of Norad] [Title: Call the insomniac for homework help ] Nice RT! (Hey! What ever HAPPENED to ol' sleep, anyway?) So far we haven't actually described Perfect's ship. It COULD have the space for the three brigs, yah know. [Doctor Depraved] Question: What is a Q-32 Space Modulator? Something that makes tea? Or a zero-g excercise machine? [Captain R/C] It was the Warner Bros martians secret weapon. As I recall, it was a pill or something. (this is the same Martian that was in DUCK DODGERS and the 24th and a Half Century!!) [Sevarian] It was that little stick of dynamite that the short little alien with the Roman centurian helmet was going to blow up the earth with. Of course, Bugs stopped him. [Redstar] Looney Toons had some wierd inventions, but all were available through the Acme catalogue! Wait until you hear the capabilities of Einny and Jenn! (Maybe we should have an adventure of just the machinery of this story going out on an adventure on their own?) So, what about the adventure? And the three Joes? Oh, watch out, Redstar's mind was a little messed up; he is becoming szchitzophrenic; he thinks he's Joe Baxter from the game Task Force (if you know what that is.). But it's not serious, just don't get him mad. [Four messages waxing nostalgic about the old cartoons deleted] [Nomad of Norad] (Hmmmmm... interesting conversation, but let's move it to another sub please... pretty please....) (Oh, and I forgot about the RED 417, young Pla'anuk's ship. That craft is roughly twenty meters long, that is about 66 feet long. That's about the length of a typical house. (Heh! The ol' cliche of an alien spacecraft the size of a house! Teehee!). LOTSA space for a brig or three... tho the RED417 doesn't strike me as the type of craft to have such things aboard. Tho 'Nook could have created them with his Staff just now.) (Anyway, let;s get on with the story!) The ships, cloaked, slowed and came to hover near the enemy complex. All but Perfect, Nomad, and Jennifer1 crowded into and at the entrance to the flight section. Soon Jennifer1 and Perfect came from the other ships, through the docking ports, and joined the others. Then Nomad showed up and pressed through to the door. "Thank you SO much for bringing my powered armor," said Nomad. He was covered head to toe by a white superplastic shell looking something like a hard-cased spacesuit. "Well," said Pladgah, "when we heard you were probably alive we decided you might need it." "Ok everyone," said Verilox, "let's get going." Everyone headed for the ramp at the bottom of the ship. As they emerged from the still-cloaked ship, and then came to a momentary stop just outside the ramp, Nomad glanced back at the ramp as it closed and suddenly smiled mirthfully. This reminded him of something he'd seen before. "Everyone, remember where we parked!" he quipped. [More off-topic messages deleted] [Redstar] On board Perfect's ship, the three Joes sat in separate cells. Perfect was glad that he had modified those cargo sections to be pressurized and to have bars on the windows, just in case of live cargo, as he had now. Redstar stood guarding the cells (of which the doors were located in the floors, the cells below the main deck). Redstar was chuckling in the most hysterical of ways, banging the butt of his tazer on the cell doors in the floor. "C'mon, I took you Aryan bastards in San Francisco, now I'll take you here! And you mafia slime!..." "Get a hold of yourself, Redstar!" Alter said, grabbing him by his arm. "You have been acting wierd ever since we arrived at this planet." Cappy knew he saw this before. "Jennifer? Where would I have seen this before? I know I have." "I do not have enough information to answer." "Theorize." "Possibly affected by the outside?" "Yes, that's got to be it. But from what?" Jennifer closed her eyes, then she turned slowly to look at Redstar, him staring down the sight of his tazer. She then looked up at Cappy, capturing him in her deep brown eyes. "Has he been acting strangely since we lost the transmission?" Cappy turned to look at his friend. "But how?" he thought to himself. [More off-topic messages deleted] [Nomad of Norad] (Actually, they are on "the fourth planet of the Vunaar system," that'd make it Vunaar IV.) Meanwhile, all the other members reached the entrance of the enemy base, a large stone arch with a big statue of a three headed Mongra at the top. They cautiously peered through the arch, to the either side past it, above it... It was quiet. Frighteningly quiet. It was as if something was absorbing all sound. The Intrepid Group (tm) crept forward, spread out, and watched warily. Soon they found bodies, bodies of the furry aliens, bodies of black-clothed humans... Nomad checked the scanner built into his powered armor. "I get no life form readings at all." "I don't... get it..." said Pladgah. "Must have been the same ones that shot the saucer down," said Xavier. [Redstar] (I'm confused... who's on the ship, who's on the ground, and who's in Cappy's ship? How 'bout the two ships are docked? Makes it easier to keep track of. And what's this with the base? I'm REAL confused.) [Capt Atom] [Title: confused ? ] Redstar you are confused ? You are playing a game !! and you didn't invite me ! kindly elaborate (via email perhaps) Keith P.S. Whats a ...Neaser ??? [Redstar] (Neaser is one who goes to Nease. Actually, the game in the story is not a game; the CHARACTER Redstar was messed up by Ratsder 7 signals, and now he is going crazy (thinks he's Baxter from Task Force). I just want to get all the stuff straight, so I don't mess up the story.) [Five off-topic messages, about Nease High School and such, deleted] [Nomad of Norad] (The group aboard Perfect's ship is: Perfect, Jennifer, Cappy, Redstar, and the three Joe's. Perhaps the unnamed pawns left over from the game, and Shammrock might be there too.) (The REST of everyone is down in the base: Xavier, Thx, Alter Ego, Pla'anuk [the alien 9-year-old from the RED 417], Pladgah, Verilox [the last three being the Three Mages], Nomad, Zaphod, Spidey, and Dr Depraved.) (I have a piece of paper here by my computer. On it I keep track of all this stuff, and all the little details like the names of the ships, the planets, the current villains, the names of the widgits and gizmos.... You guys might try the same tactic, it helps!) "I don't even get any energy readings," said Nomad, "everything is apparently shut down arou.... Wait a minute... there's a very slight power reading over that way." He pointed over to a smaller temple-like building. "But no life readings?" said Zaphod. "None at all?" Nomad shook his head, then looked back towards the arch, and the cloaked ships. "Guess there's no more reason for the ships to remain cloaked." He activated the communicator built into his powered armor. "Nomad to... Nomad to... uh...." He turned and looked towards the others. "What's the name of Perfect's ship again?" "Redstar here," squawked the communicator, "what's up?" "Everyone appears to be dead down here," said Nomad, "looks rather like someone else beat us to them. I suppose there's no longer a reason to remain cloaked." Back on the ship, Redstar exchanged glances with Jennifer, she shrugged. "I'm going to shut the cloak down," said Redstar. "By the way, how do you do that?" The cloaks on the three ships were slave-linked together and controlled from the RED 417. Back down on the ground, Nomad looked over towards Pla'anuk. The boy happened to be the closest of the Three Mages. Nomad reached into his gadget-belt and pulled out his regular communicator, the Star Trek-ish one, and handed to to the lad. The kid flipped it open like he had seen Nomad do so many times. This was something he had rather wanted to do some time. "Pla'anuk here... Look, go up to the flight deck of my ship and I'll tell you what to do when you get there." "Ok," said Redstar. "Then I'll have Jennifer run a complete scan of the area and see if anything interesting turns up." * * * * * * * As Redstar got near the RED417's flightdeck, he felt disoriented slightly. This had happened a few times before, as of late. It was a slight feeling, though, but it was almost as if something else where trying to take him over. He shook his head vigerously as if to clear it, then continued on. * * * * * * * "It seems to be coming from inside the tomb," said Nomad. The group was standing inside the temple-like place. "Can you tell what it is?" said Verilox. "Looks like a power collector, and some large globe-like something the scans won't penetrate. I can't determine any more than that because... something about the materials of this building mucks up the scanning beams." He went to the sealed opening to the tomb and looked it over, trying to figure out how to open it. "Power collector?" said Alter Ego. "What's a power collector?" "Well," said Nomad, "planet's tend to create a large kind of interferance field in hyperspace. It is actually generated by their movement, apparently. Anyway, it conciderably shortens the range of cross-planet teleports." He started a systematic scan of the entrance, starting at one side and working up, over and to the other side. "Anyway, some clever fellow figured out that you could actually TAP this hyperspacial energy field." [Capt Atom] [Title: Seniors are best ] Now by the time a lady has reached senior she has proven sjhe has plenty of brains , juniors are nifty too . Graduate students are generally preoccupied and/or married . Why Am I spouting this jibberish ??? Keith [Nomad of Norad] (And why are you posting "this jibberish" on the Library? (Sorry, but you left yourself WIDE open for that one, and I couldn't resist!)) (Perfect? Are you reading this? Put on your thinking cap, we need a name for your ship, something that fits you. Doesn't have to be immediate, brainstorm on it a few weeks.) (And now back to my entry. I had to stop writing it halfway through, late this afternoon [then came back and found some grammatical and spelling mistakes... >Sigh<] and I'm just now getting back to it.) "Unlimited power, eh?" said Xavier. "Well," said Nomad, "more or less, I guess." He finished the scan, and looked annoyed. "How the TANJ do you get this door open!" "Maybe you push it through?" suggested Alter Ego. "No," said Nomad, "I'm guessing they have to go in at least occasionally. They'd have some automated way to open it." He stared at the great rectangular piece of stone, trying to figure the problem out. Then he tried scanning a little deaper than the walls. After a bit, he said "Aha! There's a small teleport machine in there, probably intended to move the door...." He looked around the room. "But how to activate it... that's the question." He started sweeping the place with the scanner, looking for anything that wasn't stone or mortar. After a short time, he said again, "Aha!" and pointed to a small niche in one wall, next to the entrance. He went to it and peared inside. He reached a hand in and punched something. The great stone vanished, and everyone started towards the hole created. "Wait," said Nomad, "there may be booby traps or such." He scanned again. "We could send one person in," suggested Xavier, "someone expendable, like Alter Ego." He grinned. "Verrrrry funny," said Alter Ego. "I don't detect any booby traps," said Nomad. He turned around and said, "But just to be on the safe side, well test it anyway." He motioned, "Alter Ego?" He grinned mischeviously. "Oh puh-leeese!" said Alter Ego. "Just kidding!" said Nomad, and stepped through into the tomb. As the rest of everyone joined him within, they came to gaze at a large mirror-shiney spheroid about the three meters across. Nomad was standing close to it. He placed his hand against it, feeling the surface. Then he scanned it at close range, and nodded as if some suspicion of his was confirmed. "It's a temporal stasis field." [The Flip] (Nomad: Call Perfect's ship the "Stupid".) [Redstar] (Maybe the name of ship should be in French...but I detest French. (He takes it, and always criticizes my Russian, sooo...) Well, I am not sure where this story's going to, but I'll just play with it. Oh, Redstar was affected by the signal, and now he's just messed up. But I think I like the idea better that he is now being affected from the outside, attempting to turn him crazy.) * * * * * * * * "Turn main power to 'activate', push the button with the decloaking pictogram; it's on the blue panel... Okay, type in on the keyboard these letters: maki, moll, hach, yetin." "Huh? Hey, Pla'anuuk, I do not know Varineese, which ones?" "The yellow squiggle on the top left, the one that looks like your greater- than sign in blue,..." Redstar followed the orders of the alien pilot, and eventually decloaked the three ships. The view out the windows began to wave as the cloaking energy was dissipated into space, and the surrounding energy around the ships was reduced to a very light shield, good only for protection from meteors and radiation. As soon as Redstar finished, he began to walk back, but something happened. He began to scream in pain, and hit the floor, heavily breathing. "Ahh, you can't get me! You just CAAAN'T! I'll get you first, you bastards!" Perfect called out his orders. "Cappy, Jennifer, get up to the RED 417 and help him! I'm sorry to mention, but you better go up armed." Jennifer looked over at Perfect, expressionless. "But I am unable to harm my creator. It is against my Prime Directives." [Nomad of Norad] * * * * * * * Meanwhile, in one of the larger temples, one that was being used for storage by the aliens, the eyes on a large stone statue glowed a bright red. * * * * * * * "So," said Thx to Nomad, "what do you think is in the stasis field?" "Well," said Nomad, "some of the aliens might have crawled in here during the attack and placed themselves in its protection." He was looking over the controls to the device. "If we disengage the thing, we'd all better have our weapons drawn." Pla'anuk walked into the chamber and stopped to stare at the stasis field. Everyone raised their weapons, and Nomad punched a big blue button on the control. The stasis field faded and vanished. There was but one man there: a human wearing robes and bearing a Staff of Markaj. Pla'anuk turned white. Verilox and Pladgah gasped. Nomad, Spidey, THX, and Dr D took a couple of quick steps back. It was Lykrual, the evil mage that had almost killed Pla'anuk! [Perfect] Now where am I in this??? [Redstar] Ah, Perfect DOES read this! Well, Perfect, we need a name of yuor ship. So far we've just been calling it "Perfect's ship." It's bigger than the rest (or is RED 417 bigger?). [Perfect] That is good. Just make one adjustement; The Perfect Ship. [Captain R/C] [Title: Eh? ] (what about my ship? Where did we leave that? Last I remember, Red, Jen1 and I were all in my 'lounge'?) (Nomad: Why can't you say "It was John, the evil magician that had almost killed Ed". Easier to spell) [Redstar] (Well, Cappy, your ship is docked up with the RED 417 and the Perfect Ship. Einny (my ship, don't have a name; think it was Redmobile) is in orbit around another planet in case we need him. He is always in contact with your ship, Cappy (remember link-up?).) [Redstar] * * * * * * * * Back on the ships, Cappy and Jennifer raced up the airlock and conecting tunnels to the bridge of the RED 417. They arrived to see Redstar screaming and pounding on the copilot's seat in a rage, kneeling. Suddenly Redstar saw the two figures coming up through the gangway leading to the bridge. Suddenly Redstar pulled out his tazer, and fired a blast of energy at the figures. "Holy $---, he just shot at us!" Cappy dove out of the way, and the blast hit a panel behind him, with it exploding in a brillence of whitish-blue sparks. "Jennifer, what do we do?" A second blast shot over to the left and shorted out the main power panel. The lights on the ship went dim, and an alarm went off. Immediately the red backups went on, with a message from the computer: "Mazhi dalligh zdorrr... Main power failure!" (The computer was bilingual.) Cappy looked distressed. "We've got to neutralize him! But how?" He decided that it was better to save the ship. So Cappy pulled out his rifle, and placed in a weak teflon-tipped missile. He aimed, and fired at Redstar's left leg -- hitting him perfectly. Immediately Redstar hit the floor screaming, blacking out. Then seconds later, he woke up to find Jennifer over him, looking kinda concerned. "What happened?" "Sir, you were neutralized with a Teflon missile by Cappy because you were at the moment a hostility to the ship. I am sorry to tell you this, but it was to save the entire ship." "Huh?" Redstar looked down at his blood-stained wound in his leg, and fell down in pain. "Well, I don't remember what happened, Jennifer, but I know you never lie. You are going to have to lock me up if I am hostile. I seem to black out of reality; I feel like I am possessed." "Okay, sir, Cappy and I will take you to a holding cell. Sorry to do it, sir." Cappy came in to carry Redstar off to the Perfect Ship - with a Teflon missile ready - just in case. In a holding cell on Perfect Ship, Redstar and Jennifer were locked in. Redstar was being tended to by Jennifer, and Cappy sat outside, with his rifle ready. "So what are we going to do about me?" Redstar asked. "All we can do is hold you here, unarmed, until we find what is causing this problem. We have guys on the surface trying to find out what is down there - maybe it has something to do with you." "Allright, but Jennifer cannot stay in here; I don't want the same thing to happen to her as the flight deck of the RED 417." "But sir..." "Now, Jennifer, it is for your own good. You have been good to me, and when we get back, I'll make it up to you." "Like a night on the town? That is a most interesting experience." "Yes, Jenn, now get outta here." Jenn looked into his eyes, and rubbed her hand along his face. "I'll be outside, sir, if you need anything." Perfect called from the flight deck. "Cappy, come here! Look outside!" Cappy turned to the windows. A stream of fire was moving across the sky. "Looks like a ship reentering. But who... or what... is it?" [Devastator] The alien ship appeared to be long and cigarshaped with fins at one end a name was emblazoned on the side in flames "The Annialator." A small elevator popped out from the side with a person aboard. It slowly reached the ground and the man stepped off of it holding a red plastic container. The man's hair was a light brown and his eyes a penatrating blue. "Hey there. Yeah, you in the window of the flying saucer. You got any spare GamaAmenoSulphide? Y'know G.A.S.?" he said. "See I'm tracking this guy called Lykrual and I ran outa G.A.S. I'm a bounty hunter, here's my electrocard" The man pulled a wierd looking piece of junk from his vest and threw it. Instead of falling, it hovered and began rising and unfolding before Cappy and Perfect's eyes until it showed in huge, flashing, tacky neon letters, "Devastator, Bountyhunter Extrordinare. Your Quicker Picker-Upper!" Cappy promptly said, "We have no gas but we too are after Lykrual. Care to join us? Oh, by the way, you have `Extraordinair' spelt wrong." "Oh darn! I thought I fixed that. Hmmm, I guess I'll go with you," Devastator replied. Cappy let Devastator into the RED 417. ****************************************************************************** [Nomad of Norad] * * * * * * * Back in the tomb-turned-waitthemout-area, Lykrual stood before the others. The Three Mages stood around him, not intenting to let him pass. "And so," said Verilox, "the best laid plans of mice and men..." "You really expect to stop me?" said Lykrual. "You seem to have been stopped withOUT our help," said Xavier. "Everything is falling apart for you." "I will not be stopped. I am a fourth level adept! I was one of the High Circle! You seriously think that ONE third level adept, an apprentice and a CHILD can stop me?" "And yet you were hiding out in a d*mn stasis field, like d*mn coward!" exploded Nomad. "And this third level mage, this apprentice and this CHILD have you surrounded and you haven't made a MOVE!" "Don't rile him, Nomad!" said Xavier, taking another step back. "We did defeat you once before," reminded Verilox. "And that was only myself and Pladgah then." [Redstar] * * * * * * * * Back on the ships hovering over the planet's surface, Perfect was trying to get the RED 417 back into some working order. He had his head stuck into a control panel close to the floor, trying to regain full radio capabilities. "Dammit! This board is shot. Now we can't pick up on the shortband C 23 wave!" He slammed the welding iron to the floor, and rested for a moment, still crouched halfway into the panel bay. Suddenly a panel started to light up, and a high pitched alarm went off. "Aldi Aldi, nimgh branh burrrh!" Perfect looked at it funny for a moment, looking at his translator, and it read, "Warning, Warning! Energy buildup!" Perfect looked outside, and saw a dim light from the planet; it brightened gradually. He then realized that there was the location where the landing party was located. He quickly grabbed the radio set, and transmitted on one of the few working frequencies. "Xavier, there is an energy buildup by you! What's happening?" But there was no reply, only static. [Nomad of Norad] Over and around the former tomb, a force dome glowed redly, growing brighter and brighter. Inside, no-one noticed. "You still haven't told us why you were in the stasis field," said Verilox. "Yeah," said Pladgah, "and what happened to everyone else?" At that point, a very garbled signal came in on the communicator built into Nomad's powered armor. Nomad switched on the transmitting part, "Hello? Please say again. You are barely coming in." ">Brrrzzzzzzkkkllll< energ... >Braaaaazzz<. Warni>Bzzzzzzzt<" came the responce. "Look!" said Xavier, pointing to the door behind them. There was a wall of transparent red. Most everyone ran to the door and gazed out. "What IS this!" said Nomad to Lykrual, who was still back at the stasis field generator. "I don't know!" said Lykrual. [Captain R/C] (I don't mean to interrupt, but, "The Dome glowed redly"?? For lack of a better adjective??) [Kang, formerly Capt Atom][Title: Mine is superior ] My gramar (and spelling ) are worse than anyones. not because i do not know how , its just that i refuse to conform to such an inadiquate and arbitrary system of Language :) [The Night Stalker] >[Quoted material from Kang's "grammar" message above deleted.] You obviously haven't seen Spiderman aka Banquo aka Terminator aka CryptKeeper.. [Prism] [Title: rm * ] So, is there a story going on here, or just some English lessons? Id' like to join in if it's still happening. [Mustang] [Re: Mine is superior ] >[Quoted material from Kang's "grammar" message above deleted] Anyone who can only spell a word one way has little imagination. [Prism] Well, I'm supposing that a new story should be started, so here goes: In the beginning there was but one thing. The almighty modem... Aww forget it. [Kang] [Title: spelling ] hmmmmm Modem, Moadem, Moedem,Modim..... Honest ...I have a dictionary ... Patience....vigilence........ [Prism] So one day these guys were walking down the street ignoring people who tried to post things here that weren't a story. When, to their great surprise a... [Nomad of Norad] (Aaawwwww COME on, the story isn't QUITE dead yet! We can at least try ONCE more to finish it!) Cappy, Perfect, and Devastator came bounding out of the ships and raced to the force dome. They stood facing the entrance within the dome, and saw the landing party step out of that same entrance and stand there within the dome. "Well well well..." said Lykrual as he caught sight of Devastator, "if it isn't the DREAD-ful John Covern Garrard!" "You can taunt all you want," said the young bounty hunter, "but remember you are INside the force dome!" "What do you suppose is generating this?" said Cappy. "I don't detect any hardware for it," said Nomad, consulting his armor's built-in scanner. "How are we going to get them OUT!" said Perfect. "Well," said Verilox, "you might find out what is projecting this thing and deal with it." "Yes," said Devastator, "but what do we LOOK for?" "Look for another high energy reading?" said Nomad. "No use," Jenifer1, joining them now. "The energy readings are too saturated around here. There's no discernible source for them. The readings fluctuate too much for us to get a fix on anything." "But it IS somewhere in these buildings, tho. Right?" said Cappy. "We should split up and look in all of them." "Yes," said Nomad, "but it could look like... ANYthing... how would you know it when you saw it?" "WAIT a minute!" said Alter Ego. "Gary Wolfe said 'beware the idol!'" Cappy, Perfect, and Devastatator exchanged glances. "But there are several idols around here!" said Dr D. "Which one!" "There's a big stone idol in the storage building!" said Lykrual. "Which building is that!" asked Perfect. "That one," said Lykrual, pointing. "Over there!" All four figures outside turned and ran towards the building. When they arrived there, and peered cautiously inside, all that could be seen was a mountain of boxes, crates, and assorted objects. From behind them came a faint red glow. "W-w-w-well," said Perfect, "who goes in first?"