"Time and Time Again" Part II Late 1990 AD, Mid 2365 Galactic [Sigmund Fraud (continued)] "It means," replied Nomad, "that we have a killer on the loose, and he's after us." [Captain R/C] "Another one?" asked Captain R/C. "He's right. What about the guy who shot down Cappy? Where is he?" asked Redstar. "It appears that whoever this person is, is after more than the engine. He also wants us all dead." Nomad was looking rather ill. Who could blame him. "It might be a fake note, you know, a diversion?" suggested Koala Bear. The group thought. Seemed like a plausible explanation, since the Hex had no real enemies. "It seems like a plausible explanation, since the Hex has no real enemies," said Red. Brilliant, said the narrator. "Then if all this is a diversion, to keep our minds from other things, where are the evil-doers now?" asked Koala. Nomad still looked ill. Cappy's face showed terror. "My house... one of the guys ran inside..." "Let's get the heck over there!!" shouted Redstar as he got pumped. "Who are we???" "...the intrepid group," said one member. "WHO ARE WE?? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!!" "....the intrepid group," squeaked another member. "Aww... Shiest!" said Red as he returned to his seat. He looked at Nomad. "Someone tip him over." Minutes later, the group exited with a "check please" and raced towards R/C's house. It was too late. It was gone. "HOLD THE STORY HERE!!" yelled Captain R/C, "What do you mean... 'Gone'?" Well, your house is gone. It's been destroyed. Now, shut up! I am the narrator, and I say what goes on. R/C squeaked in submission as he approached his... plot of land. [Redstar] "What do you mean gon... hhhhhHoly Shhhhhhhmoly!" Cody Lockett exited the Hex's VW microbus, and viewed the area where Cappy's house once stood. "There is no sign of it... well, the sidewalks are still there, but not a single timber is on the sight! It is like it was just picked up..." "...or disintegrated," Nomad interrupted. "But how?" Cappy looked up from his anguish. "That would require a huge source of power... no, not my engine!" "But I thought that..." Redstar stopped, came closer and whispered to Cappy, "...that the only engine you had was the one you gave me." "So I thought, Red. But doesn't it make sense? The lunatic who wants to wipe the Hex clean off the map could possibly do it now cleanly. Holy Dios, and it is MY invention..." Cappy slowly collapsed to the ground. "But maybe not... I don't even know how a fusion-type engine could be converted to a weapon..." "It is possible, sir," Jenn interrupted, "27 January of this year, in the Journal of Mass Energy Systems, Dr. Jonas La--" "...okay, we get the point, Jenn!" Redstar was beginning to get a little on edge; you would be too if your life was in danger. "Sorry, Jenn, but I am..." "...a little disturbed?" Jenn stated. "Yeah, you could put it that way." Redstar turned to face the Redmobile. "Einny, begin to scan this place fully." "What should I scan for, sir?" The voice of Einny was heard through Redstar's watch. Redstar looked around. "Anything that looks suspicious..." [Nomad Of Norad] While Einny scanned the area for "anything suspicious," Nomad looked more closely at the ground where the house had been, and saw the curious fact that, although the place had once been finely landscaped with little hills and ridges, it was now perfectly flat. It was, in fact, a perfect plane. Something seemed disturbingly familiar about this. "Guys," said Nomad. "You know, something seems disturbingly familiar about this." "We know," said Cappy, "the narrator already said as much." "Oh," said Sigmund Fraud, "but the narrator did not actually state WHY it was so disturbingly familiar. Go on, Nomad." Sigmund smiled towards Nomad, as if knowing also what it was Nomad was going to say. "Well..." said Nomad, thinking a moment. "About four years ago.... You remember the legendary Land of Oz and the great Province of the Silver Dragon, don't you?" Most everyone nodded, uh-huh-ed and yessed that. "And you know how these two kingdoms were suddenly... uh... no longer there one day?" There was sudden, complete, stunned silence. After a long moment, Redstar broke the silence. "That is not... something most people are aware of." "Yes," said Nomad, "it was felt that if the truth were known it might generate a blind panic among the common people." "Why is that?" asked a young peasant boy. How HE wound up in this particular Intrepid Group (tm) is hard to figure. "Well," said Nomad, smiling at the boy, "consider that while the Province of the Silver Dragon wasn't that large a kingdom---" "Oh, thanks alot!" joked Sigmund. Everyone laughed at this bit of comedy relief. Nomad turned towards Siggy. "I meant geographically." He turned to the small boy again. "As I was saying, the Province wasn't very large. Perhaps a few miles across at the most. However, the Land of Oz contained at least two whole cities!" "Now," he continued, "a careful study was made of the sights. It was determined the kingdoms had not simply been disintegrated. There were... shall we say... residual energy traces of the type left over by a teleport beam. A very POWERFUL teleport beam. It was obvious that the kingdoms had been picked up and carried off to God-only-knows where! Almost CERTAINLY by extra terrestrials! And ANY race or group powerful enough to remove whole kingdoms, lifting them away as if with a cookie cutter... ESPECIALLY considering how powerful a Mage that Wizard Pendleton was...!" He trailed off, as no more needed be said. (BTW, you can dload the first Oz story from TLVX. And I will post the never-completed sequel soon on the short-story sub.) (Oh, and just because I brought up a Mage in this story does NOT mean we necessarily will have Mages IN this story!) [Sigmund Fraud] "But," said Cody Lockett, "is there really a connection? I mean, those guys of the past went after full countries, whoever, or whatever is doing this is going after individuals." "He's got a point, Nomad," said Redstar smugly. "We aren't after any super races this time." "Wait a minute, Red," said Cappy. "Don't start going high and mighty on us, you're the one whose got Jenn scanning for 'Anything suspicious,' right? Well, we should have a report of three or four million things in a few minutes, couldn't you have been a little more specific?" Redstar wandered off muttering to himself. Suddenly Nomad looked at the ground and picked up a tattered note. [Nomad Of Norad] [Segment somewhat modified] "Fellows," said Nomad, "look at this note." He held it up in the air and then read aloud: "'It has been four years since Oz and the Province vanished and for the rest of my life, I will never forget the flying saucers that took them away. I hoped the saucers would never return, but feared the day they would. And now I have seen them return. They have taken this h....'" The abrupt end of the message was chilling, even more so than the message itself. For a long moment, Nomad stared at the bit of paper. Finally he looked up at the group. "It... ends with a scrawled line." He stood silent another moment. "It isn't signed. Does anyone recognize the handwriting?" He handed the message around. Nobody did. (BTW, I probably should have mentioned that there actually isn't very much material in that Oz story relivant to this story. I will mention the few elements of it within this story. Most of the relevant material is in the unfinished sequel, and incidentally, I have come up with a clever way to actually incorperate the story directly into THIS story!) (However, you still might like to dload the first Oz story... simply because it is a SCREAM!) (Oh, and Cappy, have you an idea of what is so special about this engine? I have some interesting ideas myself.) [Captain R/C] "Cappy," said Nomad, "it's you they want. Why?" R/c looked at him, at the ground and at Redstar. He took a deep breath. "The whole story?" "Please." "I built an engine. 'They' want it," he began. Nomad looked puzzled, and so did everyone else. "Everybody come to Red's house. I'll SHOW you," Cappy said as he turned and boarded Red's mobile. "Einny... Jenn..." Cappy said, as if greeting old friends you see everyday. Minutes later, the bulk of the Intrepid Group was massed in Red's garage. R/C was holding the small, 20 pound hunk of metal. It's oddity awed the group. "Now that's a small engine," said Koala. "So, 'They' are after a small engine?" "Nonono... It's size isn't what they are after. My minimal tests show it to be about four times as fast as the neutron engine. I made brief flights around the galaxy, just to test it out. My earlier designs show a much larger engine, but this thing gives off so much heat, a larger one would melt away almost instantly. I've already melted three connecting rods just with the small one!" "Can you stick it on the Redmobile to see what it does?" asked Koala. "Well, I guess, but it would entail drilling several chunks out of the hind quarters, and fusing some engine mounts to the chassis. It would be a lot of trouble. If I still had my ship, I'd show you, but there isn't too much left of it." Nomad looked at it peculiarly. "So that's the fastest engine around, right now?" "Yeah. It seems to be a breakthrough. It's my life's work, actually. I started designing it in high school. But, word got around, apparently, and some thugs tried to steal it. Good thing I have the plans memorized." "Umm, Cappy... did you leave the other plans in your house?" "Oh... geez... yeah I did. You think they have them now?" Cappy thought. "I guess it doesn't really matter. I never did finalize them. The real information is up here." He pointed to his head and smiled. [Nomad Of Norad] (I hope Cappy doesn't lynch me for doing this, but I had a really intriguing idea for a plot twist that is so interesting it DESERVES to see the light of day....) Nomad looked at the engine again, scanned it with his mini-scanner, and thought a moment. "You know, this doesn't look like something that could have been thrown together in just... well... less than six or eight years. I mean, here you are... what... eighteen? ...and you started designing this thing in high school?" Cappy remained silent a moment, closed his eyes in thought. His face gave an expression of some bowing to the inevitable, of a truth finally catching up with him. He took a large breath and gave a long sigh. "You are right," said Cappy, "I did not develop this over a mere five or six years. The fact is... I started developing it more than... twenty years ago." Several jaws dropped open. Cappy paused a moment, took another long breath, and continued. "I will have to go back to the beginning to explain this... and I mean further back than when I started designing... that." He pointed to the engine. "It began about... well, to the rest of you would be only about six years ago. I was about twelve or thirteen when I first arrived here. I was living with my family near Elsinore castle. One day I wandered out into the woods, and encountered... *something*. It was... well.. it was some sort of alien. I don't know if it was as surprised as I was to have been found, or what... or if it had in fact *intended* to find me. All I know is that I ran away from it as fast as I could. I ran all through that forest, trying to lose the alien, but it was always there, flying along behind me. Finally, i thought I had lost it... and I wanted to hide while I had the chance." He paused again, looked the group over for a moment, held his gaze on Nomad for an extra bit of time. "I spotted a largish box to one side. It looked like one of those British wardrobe cabinets, you know." Nomad's face suddenly turned very pale. "The door was slightly ajar, so I opened the cabinet and stepped inside and closed the door. The inside did not look very cabinet-like. Instead of wooden, it was gleaming white plastic or something similar. I was in a sort of chamber that seemed actually to be just a bit larger than what the cabinet should have contained. And there was opposite from the cabinet door what looked like sort of a double door built into the wall. It was sealed up. Then I discovered the door I had come in by was locked. It was.. in fact... sealed as firmly as a brick wall. I could hear voices, a pair of voices... though I couldn't quite make out what they were talking about. And they could be heard through those double doors. I placed an ear against those doors, and could barely make out the voices. I think I heard a comment about it being the wrong time period. Then I heard a sound like... well... a sort of cycling, oscillating wheezing sound. It lasted perhaps twenty seconds, and then was gone. The antechamber I was in became silent then." "A little while later, I happened to look up... and saw something that scared me senseless. That alien was IN there with me!!!" Everyone jumped. Nomad and T4D exchanged long, frightened glances. Cappy paused, seemed to falter a moment. A hint of tears came to his eyes. "It was in one corner of the ceiling, clinging there. I cowered against the wooded door, trying to scrunch as far away from that thing as I could. And then there came that sound again, or not quite the same sound. Then the sound ended, and the double doors started to open... and the wooden door suddenly popped open and dumped me backwards onto the ground outside. I pulled myself to my feet and I ran!" His tears came in gushers now. "I ran and I ran and I ran and I ran! I couldn't help myself." He paused another long moment, to regain his composure. "Finally, I came to my senses, and stopped and sat down to think. I realized I needed to find that box again. There had apparently been people in it, not aliens. Probably they had not had any knowledge we were there. I began to search for the box, but it was a lost cause. I had no idea where it was I had originally encountered it, and even if I did know, I didn't know where *I* was. None of the landscape looked familiar. Hours later, as it became dark, I realized the search was futile. I left the forest. "Then I found I could not find my house, in fact, I couldn't find any of the houses or buildings I recognised. The landscape was the same, the hills and the creeks and things, but the trees and plants were all different. I began to realize I was stranded somewhere in the past. "I found a sort of shack where this childless couple lived. Their names were Edna and James Cranium. I think they had changed their last name because James was an expert in sentient computers. He had washed out, though. Anyway, they took me in for the night. Ultimately, they adopted me. "I never found the strange box again, or the alien... I ultimately determined, though, that I had been transported some twenty years into the past. "I went through high school, and over the years the Craniums regained their financial stand and we moved into a real house. I went on to MorrowTech College of Science, and then wound up heading a Government project to develop a new kind of spacedrive. "It took years, but finally we were close to a breakthrough. Then things started to go wrong. Machinery started to break down, some of the scientists on the project started getting into freak accidents. It began to get alot worse the closer we came to finishing the spacedrive. Then a disastrous fire destroyed the lab. It was becoming obvious that SOMEone or SOMEthing did not want us to have this engine. It became too dangerous for us, we all feared for our safety. The project was abandoned, and several 'suicides' and 'accidents' of our own devising were arranged. "My own 'death' in a fiery skycar crash was orchestrated, and a brilliant idea for a new identity was devised. Or rather, it was sort of an old identity... old and new at the same time. One of the other projects had developed a sort of time-warp device." Cappy looked over at Koala Bear. "Koala, you should especially understand this, having experienced something like it yourself. They had this one-of-a-kind device that could regress a subject, make him younger. I understand they could not duplicate the machine after they made the first one, and oh they tried. And I hear that the device got destroyed later. Anyway, the device made me twelve years old again. Cappy paused for dramatic effect. "This was just about six years ago, they snuck me back out here and I simply waited for my earlier self to disappear into that strange box, then I popped out of my hiding place and stepped into my original self's shoes. "This time-warp device actually had the fortuitous effect that... well... I could remember what my other self had experienced exactly as if I had only just then experienced it, so when I returned nobody noticed the difference. Cappy looked around at the Intrepid Group before him, observing how they reacted to his just-finished story. "So," said Nomad, "what should we do?" (Cappy? Do you forgive me? Was the plot twist worth it?) [Captain R/C] (roll w/ it baby) [Sigmund Fraud] Im going to have to play with this for a while, my seg won't work now, Oh Well. [Nomad Of Norad] (>Great big sigh of relief< You accepted it. Good.) (Btw, in the above post I mentioned "the Government," for want of a better word... thinking I would later come up with something that would fit better with this universe. I couldn't think it up then, on such short notice, but I have it now. Pretend that everywhere it says "government" in the story, it actually says "League of Earth." I will define the League of Earth later on in the story, but think of it as a cross between the UN and the French Foreign Legion.) (And Siggy... what was your plot idea? The one that had to be scrapped? Maybe it can be adapted?) "We could wait for them to make the next move," suggested Sigmund. * * * Devastator sat in his conference room, waiting, staring at the screen of his notebook, idly doodling. He let the stylus slip from his fingers and roll across the notebook and onto the table top, and then he stabbed his finger at the off switch. It had been more than a day, where the HERSH was Captain Isti? The rendezvous was supposed to be *yesterday* and he wasn't... The intercom beeped. Devvy pressed a button. "Devastator." "Sir! We have detected a RODDENBERRY class starship headed this way at maximum warp!" 'Aha!' thought Devvy, 'Captain Isti is on his w... huh? Maximum warp?!??!' "We now detect two large vessels of unknown configuration following them! They are firing Omega torpedoes!" Devastator jumped up from his chair. "RED ALERT! BATTLE STATIONS!!" He turned and ran for the bridge. [Redstar] (Woah, getting rather complex. Watch out; don't make TOO many plots, but actually, I like what has been started! but may I make a request; could we try to use a few references to other stories as possible? If you have to, please redescribe some of the important stuff, so that this story may stand by itself. People who write sequels do this all the time so that you can pick up in the middle. Thanks.) (Just a question, what is the Intrepid Group (tm)?) (Just to set it clear, 'Redstar' in this story is in his early thirties. He has graduated from all grad school, and has his doctorates and all. I am assuming that the civilization in this story will likely graduate sooner from high school than us today, and that they will be far more advanced. (Picture six yer olds having Calculus and all..)) Redstar was listening to everyone converse, but he had most of his attention focused on the wondrous engine sitting on a levitating service- platform not more than ten feet away from him. "So, guys," he kinda interrupted, "should I install this into the Redmobile? To find a place will be a little hassle..." "Why not mount it into the luggage compartment?" Jenn interrupted with the nearly obvious solution. "Hmmm... yeah, but what about the thermodynamics?" "Cappy mentioned that the temperature increase was only six degrees Centigrade per meganewton in worst conditions." Redstar had an expression like he should have known that. "Okay... well, I have some spare erbium-niobium-titanium rods with additive Federal U77B83 out in the storage closet. And enough electrical equipment to wire up Las Vegas in the back... yeah, I'll allow it..." Redstar talked to Einny. "Can you give me about a gigabyte and a half for the matrices, Einny?" That would only give a skeleton control system, but it would just have to do for the time being. "Sorry, sir... memory full." Redstar looked puzzled, and a little insulted. "What do you mean???" "There are 6,575,998,224,009 'strange' things I discovered since ordered to record, so--" "Clear, Einny, clear! And no, I do not want a listing of every one. Why didn't you tell me?" "You didn't ask." Cappy chuckled. 'That's what you get from programming in assembly,' he thought. The entire group laughed. Redstar joined in seconds later. Everyone had to admit, it WAS funny. "Sooooooo...." Redstar interrupted, "should I install the engine??" [Redstar] Joe: You think that you could make this sub have 100 messages again? Or at least 75? I download the stories in chunks, and with 50 the entries erase a little too quickly. [THX-1138] The Intrepid Group (tm) goes far back, to a time before most of us... I can't remember the members of the group, but I think I was in it for a while...hey Nomad, tell him what the Intrepid Group (tm) was/is. *sigh* Where's Jocko when you need him. ;-) [Nomad Of Norad] (>Sigh< I had ass-u-me-d we would go with the space-battle for awhile, and return to the Intrepid Group later.... I guess space battles are harder to write then other things, so you shied away from it... >Sigh<) (Oh, and the Intrepid Group seems to be in use on a number of different BBSs' story boards... The Intrepid Group is simply the particular bunch of adventurers in a particular story. Whoever writes himself into the then current story is part of the then current Intrepid Group. At least, that's how I understand it. Cappy? What do you say?) (Uhmm... Ok, so you are assuming yourself to be in your thirties, Red? What happens when we ultimately get to make that BBS movie I've always been daydreaming about making? Use heavy makeup? >Deep sigh<) "Well," said Cappy, "we still have the problem of all the heat. However, one of the side projects we had been working on was a way to absorb all that heat energy out of the engine and use it to power something else... a weapon of some kind. I don't really know much about it, though. The team that was developing it never finished it, and of course I've lost track of them." "But do you know anything about the heat-absorption part of the device?" asked Redstar. "Come on Red," said Siggy, "if he did, don't you think he would have made use of it?" Redstar slumped in frustration. He might be the kid with the equivalent of an engineering grad-school education, but he was still a teen, and sometimes teens let impatience get in the way. "Actually," said Cappy, "I do know something about that part of it, but not enough to reconstruct it. I've tried." "It's such a pity," said Sigmund. "If only the design would come as easily as Redstar's education did!" Red playfully stuck out his tongue at Siggy, and everyone cracked up. "Actually," said Nomad, "RNA-memory implanting is not always the miracle teaching tool it is cracked up to be. It does have its drawbacks, sometimes." "Uh," said the kid at the back of the group. (What IS this kid DOING in the Group, ANYway? -Ed) "What is... Arinnee memory im-blanting?" "Memory RNA," said Redstar, "is part of how the human brain stores information. Unlike a computer, the human brain stores data chemically. Because of this, it is possible to extract a memory or series of memories from one person's brain and implant it in someone else's brain. They simply put the extracted memory RNA into a jar and inject that fluid into the recipient's bloodstream. Then it finds its way to his brain and the brain absorbs it and stores the memories away there as if they were its own." "Yah know," said Koala, "it might still be possible to figure out how to design a heat-absorber device if more people were to look at what you so far have developed. Maybe you simply missed something." "Unfortunately," said Cappy, "all the versions of the heat-absorber were back at my house, which is gone." "Speaking of that," said Cody Lockett, "is it really a good idea to linger here very long? I mean, they just MIGHT beam up this whole house soon! And US along with it!" "Not to worry," said Nomad, "I have Joshua scanning for a radius of about five-hundred kilometers. If that flying saucer shows up---" Nomad's communicator beeped. Suddenly there was dead silence. Nobody moved. It was like a garage full of mannequins. The communicator beeped again, and Nomad pulled it out and answered it. "Nomad here, J-Joshua? Is that...?" "Yes, it is I. And don't worry, the flying saucer isn't heading YOUR way. It just came over here and tried to beam up THIS house! Fortunately, I raised the force-dome in time." [Sigmund Fraud] "Nomad," Siggy said, "I think it's time you raised the force dome here. Joshua could be wrong about the saucer's destination, it does happen to the best of us." Nomad looked hurt. "In the mean time," continued Siggy, "It looks like we're about to get into a fight. So, if you'll excuse me, I need to change..." He wandered off to the side, pulled a small box from the thigh pocket of his cammies and pressed a few buttons. Suddenly there was a whoosh of wind, and a hole opened up in the air in front of him. Out dropped a largish duffel bag, and the hole closed with a sulfurous POP! "What's that?" asked Cappy. "Oh, just a few odds and ends," replied Siggy. "Before the Silver Dragon perished, I managed to retrieve one or two items of importance." He opened the duffel, removed two long objects covered in an oiled cloth. "If there is to be a bit of in-fighting, I thought these would come in handy." As he unwrapped the longer object everyone could see a well-crafted katana with an eerie glow about the scabbard. Siggy unwrapped the other object and it was a matching wakizashi. They harkened back to the days when Sigmund's name was The Shogun. "These weapons are the power and heart of the Province of the Silver Dragon. With them the Province always has hope of one day being re-born. They have many unusual properties, which I won't go into now, and should be of great help." [Nomad Of Norad and Sigmund Fraud (in post production)] "Excuse me," said Nomad, "in-fighting?" He glanced around at the rest of the group. "Are you saying you think some of us will start fighting amongst ourselves?" "Huh?" said Siggy, he looked at Nomad a moment. He seemed slightly confused, but then the confused look evaporated. "Oh.... No, not THAT kind of in-fighting." "Uhm..." said Nomad. "What did you mean, then? Is there another meaning to the words 'in-fighting' I'm not aware of?" "Well," said Sigmund, "the phrase also refers to close hand-to-hand combat in a confined space, such as hallways, caves, normal sized rooms or some such." "I see," said Nomad. [Sigmund Fraud (continued)] Siggy then ducked into a side room and emerged a few minutes later dressed in a black formal kimono, looking quite pleased with himself. "You know, I've wanted to put this outfit back on for four years, It's about time." Cody looked surprised at himself 'Of course!' as he slapped his head, "Why didn't I think of it before?" "Well, don't leave us in suspense," asked no-one in particular. Cody looked smug. "If the heat absorbers were in the house, they are still retrievable.... Even after a vaporization, trace elements exist in the residual matrix. All we have to do is scan the remains, isolate the pattern of the absorber, and reconstruct from there! It'll take a lot of sheer computing power to accomplish," he said, eyeing Cappy. "But we could do it!" [Nomad of Norad] (I imagine that Redstar is gonna CREAM me after that last post of mine! Well, it was just one or two lines and a paragraph. If all else fails, I could simply yank or rewrite the appropriate ones...) "Yes," said Nomad, "but if the house was beamed up instead of destroyed, there would be no traces there to scan. And Siggy, I don't have the equipment here to set up a force dome. I think we should all just get the Dell out of Hodge!" He ran for the door, and everyone followed. Cappy and Redstar scooped up the engine and they and Jenn piled into the pseudo-Delorian. [Nomad of Norad (in post production)] To pick up where we left off with Devastator, it involves going back to the moment where we dropped the scene. If you will remember, Devvy was running to the bridge... In the turbolift, he linked the intercom to the bridge. "It is the Starship ARKENSTONE," came the voice of the tech officer. "That's Captain Isti's ship, isn't it?" came the voice of the second in command. "What's he doing attacking us?" "Shields dropping to eighty percent," came the man at tactical. [Devastator] [Title: Meanwhile ] [(Modified for clarity)] Devastator reached the bridge. Several people sat at the multitude of consoles. "Emergency power to the shields. Launch short-range fighters, blow the heck outta that RODDENBERRY!" He watched them execute the commands. "Battle conditions, lieutenant? " "Sir, the ARKENSTONE is somehow increasing speed beyond maximum, she appears to be set to ram and puncture our hull. The other two ships are staying at maximum warp and are firing several weapons on us. We have attempted communication. The missiles have been taken care of." "Evasive maneuvers. Engage... The Device." Several crew members shuddered. The Device was the only name that the strange alien artifact had. It caused the ship to warp within a small area and caused several side effects. The huge modified Workon Seven Mothership began to blur at the edges, its massive planetoid-size bulk began to slide in several directions at the same time, then the effect stopped. "What's wrong Murfey?" "Sir, Device malfunction. Fire in engineering section twenty." 'So much for The Device,' thought Devvy. "Train missiles on all three ships. Status?" "Ten seconds until we are rammed, sir!" "Missiles locked and fired, sir. Fighters have taken out the ARKENSTONE's engines, when she reaches us she'll be back at maximum warp." * * On a small asteroid, in a small ship, a twisted, squidlike alien being looked up at the battle and grinned evilly, typing more commands into his computer to send to his remote controlled ships. >THE DEVICE MUST BE SALVAGED!< The telepathic message reverberated through his head. He typed yet more instructions. [Sigmund Fraud] (Nomad, it looks like you get your space battle after all, I'm looking forward to figuring out how we are going to get us all in to one group) "Don't look at me," said Siggy as he ran for the door. "I knew that the house had been beamed, it was Cody's idea." "Cappy to Devastator," said Cappy, speaking into a small communicator. "How's it going up there? We need assistance, it's time for us to move!" "Devastator to Captain R/C, sorry, we are in a bit of a bind here, It will be at least twenty minutes until we can effect rescue." Cappy grimaced, they all knew Devastator didn't talk like that, so he must be in trouble. "Well," said Redstar, "It looks like we are on our own for the moment. Any suggestions?" "Nomad, is there any offensive capability's to your pseudo-Tardis?" [Captain R/C] Nomad shrugged indifferently. "I wish there were," he replied. (simple problems require simple solutions.) [Redstar] (Nomad, why should I 'want to CREAM' you for that post? It wasn't bad at all. Though Redstar is in his thirties (how else could he live as he does (i.e., he has money to buy neato androids and gizmos)?). He is NOT a kid.) (Oh, I showed drawings of the Redmobile to some guy at school; he was trying to tell me why certain things were 'impossible'. Hey, last time I checked, wasn't this a story???) [Nomad of Norad] [Comments that Devvy misunderstood my space battle scene deleted. (For what it's worth: the ARKENSTONE was *supposed* to be being *chased* by the other ships!)] (And the part I was expecting to get "creamed" for was the part about making your education be via RNA-memory instead of the time-consuming rote-learning method, so it wouldn't have taken years for you to have gotten into the career you are in. You could have stepped in off the street, taken the RNA-memory implant, and been hired by ReellyKeen the following week.) (Yah know, if you suddenly had unlimited funds, would it really take you that long to build up all this stuff, like the house, the robots and all? Actually, if I won the Galactic Lottery this week and netted fifty-thousand megacreds, I could probably have a mansion and an android and a super-skycar on a plot of land by next week! Heh!) ([Not that I'm suggesting the lottery is how you got them, simply making a point.]) [More paranthetical stuff deleted] [Captain R/C] (I've explained how I got all my money, but I suddenly became a kid again ! ) [Redstar] (Sheesh...Nomad! Well, let's just say that I am my twenties, okay? Redstar was supposed to have designed and built Jenn himself, and that would have taken him a REALLY 'chanaga' long time!) [Sigmund Fraud] > (I've explained how I got all my money, but I suddenly became a kid again >! ) Maybe a nasty accident involving a time machine and the ghost of Ponce de lion? hehe [Sigmund Fraud] Redstar seemed troubled, he had been keeping to himself for a few hours. 'Hey Red,' yelled Siggy, 'Whats troubleing you?' 'Nomad keeps treating me as if I'm a child,' he replied' I'm 22 and as grown as the rest of you, I just don't understand it.' Nomad, overhearing the conversation, walked up. [Nomad Of Norad] (Devastator, and everyone else, FORGET what I said about the space battle! Keep it like it is!) (And let's forget about the ages of our characters!) Nomad walked up and snipped the strings from above Redstar, and turned accusingly towards Sigmund. "Would you STOP putting words in his mouth? I do NOT treat him like a child!" Then he took his copy of the printout of this story, and with a red felt-tip pen he marked the above message off for excision from the story. And then this paragraph as well. * * * * * * * On the bridge of Devastator's ship, shaking and trembling from the Omega-torpedo strikes and near misses, the communications officer suddenly turned from his station and yelled, "Sir! I've just received a garbled signal! It's from Captain Isti! I managed to make out that.... Devvy, he says his ship was captured by aliens and is under remote control!" "So he DIDN'T turn against us!" yelled Devvy. "Scan the subspace bands, look for a remote-control signal!" "Already on it!" yelled back the comms officer. The ship trembled as another shockwave hit. (Yah know, reluctant time-travel seems to be popping up alot in this story as back-story. I mean, first I had Cappy turn out to have been time warped, then I and K-Bear hashed out an idea for his BBS self's personal history that involved a similar unplanned time trip... and now Siggy suggests Red got time warped! Time-slips seem to be becoming the running gag in this story! Maybe we could have some fun with this?) [Sigmund Fraud] (Siggy's sub-plot mentioned earlier depended on a time-warp gag, sort of. And why not? If you are going to own a pseudo-tardis, then we can have some fun with paradox, and a few interesting plot twists. And my paragraph simply was a possible way to fix the age thing, get it over, and done. I am going to download the Story, and paste it together, then send it to you e-mail. Once you like it, we'll post it,corrected for continuity, and go on....This should get us on track. (And I like it better than leving these dead-end loops in the story line.)) [Captain R/C] What is this, a choose your own adventure? Who the schmuck is Captain Itsi, and why are theer space battles. This was originally a story about an engine, that something is going all out to get its hands on. If someone drew the plotline in a piece of paper, it would be a scribble. [Sigmund Fraud] [Title: Oh it isn't that bad ] For instance ------Distruction of other kingdoms Time warp1--<---Engine-----Death threats ------time warp2-------\ | Time warp3 (out here somewhere, Space Battle) see, not much scribble [Nomad Of Norad] (Well, I had intended something to have some important item aboard that other ship, something directly related to the disappearances of those kingdoms.) (But, the idea is to get the space battle over with.... >Sigh<) [Captain R/C] "simplicity is an art form" [Redstar] Guys, can't we just stick to ONE main plot, and only a small handful of subplots? Let's not have seventy plots at once, okay? The story is about CAppy's engine, and someone is trying to get it from him, obviously to do some naughty things to the Hex. Why not stay away from the time warp stuff and the space battles? Well, you can keep the space battle, just make it a small side story, huh? Jeez...it's getting all too complex. Stay on topic! [Sigmund Fraud] Ok, but the 'Killer' is to me part of the plot aganst the hex, the offender isn't strong enough to take the Hex out, so, he's going after individuals, it seemed to me to be a logical progresstion. Is there a problem? or an objection? I felt that the "Killer" would naturally try to thin our ranks so that in the clamactic conclusion, there would be only a handfull of opposition. [Captain R/C] But that's a DIFFERENT story. [Sigmund Fraud] > But that's a DIFFERENT story. > Is it? With the killer after the super-engine, (presumable because it represents enough power to take the hex out), and having to take out some of the individuals who are capable of stopping him, it seems to be a straight - forward plot line. [Redstar] >objection? I felt that the "Killer" would naturally try to thin our ranks so >that in the clamactic conclusion, there would be only a handfull of >opposition. > No problem, Nomad. I think that it is perfectly logical. I just did not get all the space battle stuff, and the time warp stuff is getting out of hand!! [Nomad Of Norad] * * * * * * * "Look," said Cappy, "aren't we a bit exposed out here? That flying saucer could catch us now and we'd be easy prey!" "You're right," said T4D. "And the hotel is too far away, let's forget about heading back there and go to... Nomad's house." "You can't be serious!" said Siggy. "That thing just LEFT there! It'll be between us and there!" "So we'll go there the roundabout way!" said Nomad. "And we'll split off and go separate routes." He pulled out his communicator, set it on scramble, and hailed the other skycars and small craft in the group. * * * * * * * On the SHADOW SPEAR, the crew were attempting to knock out the ARKENSTONE's shields so they could beam aboard, rescue Captain Isti and his group, and destroy the remote-control modules installed aboard. Devastator stared at the screen, watching the hulk of the RODDENBERRY class ship as her shields continued to hold up. "I still can't get a lock on those remote-control signals!" said the communications officer. "They keep changing the frequencies!" "Keep on it," said Devvy. "I HAVE determined the signals must be originating somewhere nearby, though," offered the man. [THX-1138] "Uhh...can someone direct me to a water closet?" asked THX. "I feel a growing need to vomit." [Nomad Of Norad] "Well, if it's nearby, can we find them and destroy their transmitter?" asked Devvy. "That would not be necessary," said the officer. "If we can get far enough away from the transmitter... there will be a delay in the ships' reactions." It took Devvy a moment to catch up with what the officer had said. "And how far away would that have to be?" "Not too far, five or ten lightyears. That signal isn't very strong." "Not very strong, eh?" The speed of the subspace signal depended on the power of the transmitter. "Ok, so we take the ship away from here. What's to guarantee the ships will follow us?" "Well," said the comm officer, "the fact that they *came* here to attack us in the first place means they want something from us, right?" "So they'll follow us to keep from losing it." He smiled like a man about to make a checkmate. "Come to 45 by 17 by 179. Go to 20C, take us out of here!" The SHADOW SPEAR leapt away at twenty times lightspeed, and the three ships followed. [Nomad Of Norad] After they had been travelling a few minutes, Devvy ordered a few course changes. Slowing to parallel the ARKENSTONE, he ordered the main phase-guns fired at the starboard side. Then he ordered the ship to pop up and over the ARKENSTONE to the port side, just as the phase-guns of the ARKENSTONE fired several barrages at the place they had just been. After a moment, the SHADOW SPEAR popped back around and fired again. After several moves like this, changing the directions they went, and the time they spent on portside, above, and below, and making a few bad choices and getting their shields blasted, they managed to weaken the ARKENSTONE's starboard shields. [Sigmund Fraud] Ok, I'll continue the story line, but first, tell me where everyone is. (temporal/physical placement) I seem to remember reading about us splitting up. ====== Devvy suddenly had an idea. "Wait a minute," he mumbled to himself, "we're still maneuvering more or less in two dimensions." He uttered a silent thanks to whoever it was that showed that old Star Trek movie. "Navigator, Z plus 45 degrees, X minus 90. Fire-control officer, as we pass behind the ARKENSTONE open fire, small dispersion. All weapons." The SHADOW SPEAR changed course abruptly, travelling up and behind the ARKENSTONE. The ARKENSTONE changed course to match, but turned to the left opening it's rear shields. The SHADOW SPEAR fired. A full barrage hit. Knocking out the ARKENSTONE's rear shields and doing obvious physical damage to the engines "Boarding parties, Transport Now!" Devvy yelled. And it was so. "Sensors show massive energy-weapons fire on board the ARKENSTONE," said the Science Officer. "The battle seems to be spreading across the ship." [Nomad Of Norad] [(Modified in post production)] Robot after attacking robot was blown apart as the men from the SHADOW SPEAR fought their way towards the bridge. Finally they found and destroyed the central control module for all the robots. Moxx, the leader of the group, turned and said, "Come on, we have to find the crew. They're locked away somewhere." (Siggy, let's just stick with the space-battle until we finish it. Then we go back to the Intrepid Group.) (Oh, and only Devastator is in this part of the story. There are no other BBS users involved in the space battle, unless a new user writes himself in.) [Captain R/C] (and you wonder why we can't put together a movie. There are more Extra-Teresstrials(in a BBS sort of way) than there are people on the Hex!) [Kaos Kamikaze] [Title: Are you one???? ] I've known you for a LONG time, and I think you qualify as one, Cappy..... [Nomad Of Norad] * * * * * * * Aboard the SHADOW SPEAR, Devvy waited, and dodged phase-beams. Finally the ARKENSTONE stopped firing and hailed them. "We have regained control of the ARKENSTONE," came Captain Isti's smiling face on the main viewscreen, "and are ready to take on the other two remote-controlled vessels." Cheering came from around the bridge of Devvy's ship. Devvy motioned them to silence and said, "Let's have at them!" It didn't take too long, maybe another fifteen minutes before the two craft self-destructed. Both SHADOW SPEAR and ARKENSTONE headed at best speed to Earth.