"Time and Time Again" Part IV Late 1990 AD, Mid 2365 Galactic [Nomad Of Norad] [Title: Continuing the story... ] Nomad walked back to the room where the mind-experience machine was set up. He found Koala was at the controls with Captain Isti, making some adjustments. "Hello Koala," said Nomad, "what's going on?" "Well," said K-Bear, "we're down to the last few waiting to... experience the recording." Nomad noticed there were just four people in the seats, leaving one empty chair. One of the individuals, he noticed right off, was the boy Nathan. "However," continued Nomad's furry friend, "Nathan here would probably have nightmares if he experienced the part with the deadly duck... so I'm going to blank out that part for him. Just for him, mind you... it will go through for the rest." "Ah," said Nomad. He looked at the rest of the four seated. He recognised Kaos Kamikaze and Gabrielle A-leen, but did not recognize the remaining man. The stranger was dressed similar to Nathan. "Hello," said Nomad to the man, " and what is your name?" "I am James Mentira." "That's my Dad," said Nathan. "Oh," said Nomad. "Mentira, huh? That's a nice name." "Thank you," said James, "I picked it out especially for you." There was laughter. "Verrrry funny," said Nomad. "Hmmmm," said Black Night, standing to one side of the room. "How do you spell that name?" "M-E-N-T-I-R-A," said James. "That's interesting," thought Black Knight out loud, "you know what that means in Spanish?" "Not particularly," said James. "Ah, Nomad," said Sigmund walking into the room. "Could I have a word with you?" "Sure," said Nomad. He turned and started towards the door. Sigmund stopped, noticing what Koala was doing. "Hmmmm... K-Bear, I didn't know you knew how to operate this equipment." "Well, I've seen equipment like this before." "Can't imagine where," said Nomad, idly. "This stuff came straight from the 27th Century." "Ah," said Captain Isti, "but the station was sitting out there abandoned for years. And several ships had fled when it was under attack." "True," said Nomad. He and Sigmund continued towards the door. After they got out of the room and beyond earshot, Nomad asked "So, what's up?" Sigmund looked around. "Is there somewhere more private?" "This way," said Nomad, "we'll go further into the TARDIS. There are lots and lots of rooms." They turned two corridors and went into a smaller room at the end of a third corridor. "So," said Nomad, "what has you worried?" "All these people," said Sigmund, "we needed to maintain secrecy, keep a low profile... and all these people show up as if this were a resort. They've probably heard about it clear down to Rakionika!" "Well," said Nomad, "that bothered me too, but it wasn't my doing." "We really should run a security check on all these people, a background search." "I have Joshua working on that now." "Has he found anything odd?" "Nothing so far." Sigmund seemed a little more relieved, though not completely. * * * * * * * [Nomad Of Norad] [Title: More... ] Nomad walked into the skycar port and joined Cappy, Redstar and Jenn. "How goes it?" "Fine," said Redstar, making some adjustments within a small access-panel he had opened. "It's ready now." He put the circuit tester down and put the cover panel back in place. "So, you're ready to go on the mission to take out the aliens?" "Not take out, just investigate. I wouldn't want to DATE them, you know!" The others laughed. "Verrrry funny," said Nomad. "I hope that the aliens aren't expecting you," said Sigmund, joining them too. "I doubt it," said Cappy, "we were very discreet. No-one but us knows about this." "I hope so," said Sigmund. "Hmmm..." said Nomad, "if they ARE keeping tabs on us through one of the new guys... it might be good to give them some OTHER activities to watch. Maybe the aliens will pay more attention to the other goings on and be less likely to notice you guys." "Might work," said Sigmund. "Can I come along for the ride?" he indicated the Redmobile. "Nah," said Cappy, "you're going to be setting up your new kingdom. That makes you an important person, kinda. Don't want to risk you." "I suppose. Have fun." "We will," said Redstar. "But we won't be leaving immediately. We still need some supplies and equipment." "Hmmmmm," said Nomad, "and we need time for word to get out about the decoy mission." "What sort of mission?" said Devastator, standing in the door to the room. "Hello Devvy," said Sigmund. "I suppose it could be that search mission I was planning," said Nomad. "To Wizard's Castle and to Conference Tree?" asked Sigmund. "Yep," said Nomad. "You could accompany me." "Bring me along too," said Devastator. "Sure," said Nomad, "let's go get my powered armor, just in case." "Powered armor?" said Sigmund. "There isn't likely to be anything left at these places." "You never know," said Devastator. Nomad headed for the door. "What do we do in the meantime?" said Redstar. "There is a James Bond movie on TV at noon," suggested Jenn. "Yes!" said Cappy. "Speaking of James Bond..." said Nomad, "that reminds me. I've got some James Bondian devices warehoused." "Something by Nomad Industries?" said Devvy. "No," said Nomad, "something from when I used to import and export things. I'd forgotten about these devices." "Well," said Redstar, "bring them out. We could use them." "Joshua," said Nomad, "bring out the secret gizmos, beam them up here." A pile of boxes materialized in one corner. Redstar and Cappy went to them and looked them over. "Let's go," said Nomad to Devvy. "Let's drop a few 'slips of the tongue' while we're at it." He headed out of the room and Devvy followed. * * * * * * * "Great movie," said Cappy. "Yes," said Nomad. "Well, you three should probably leave just after we do." He motioned to Devvy. He, Nomad, and Sigmund climbed into Nomad's skycar. The barrelled-glass ceiling slid open and the skycar rose into the wild blue. The afternoon sun glinted off the craft's stubby little wings as the ceiling slid back closed. Redstar pulled the door to the Redmobile closed, and the Redmobile vanished. A moment later, Nathan came running in. He skidded to a stop when he saw the place was empty. He looked up and saw the ceiling finish closing. "Drat! I wanted to go with them!" * * * * * * * [Nomad Of Norad] [Title: And more... ] Cappy and Redstar approached the alien pocket-dimension, following the navigational homing-beacon. "It's pretty big!" said Cappy, looking at the vast blotch that appeared against the shimmering backdrop of negative hyperspace. "Looks large enough to contain a planet," said Redstar. "Shall we go in?" said Cappy. "Carefully," said Redstar. "Activate the cloaking device, Einny." The cloaking device was another of the little gizmos Nomad had had warehoused. "Cloak activated," said Einny. "Take us forward," said Redstar. After a moment, they suddenly emerged into a great dark enclosure. There was a miniature sun orbiting a rather Earthlike planet. As they drew closer to the planet, Einny said, "I detect several abandoned domains on one part of the planet. Looks like the missing kingdoms." "Take us to the edge of them and land us there," said Cappy. "Compliance." * * Once they landed on the planet, they went to check out the nearest of the kingdoms. "Mr Rodger's Neighborhood!" said Cappy. "My God! I thought only places from OUR Earth had vanished!" "They did a good job of hiding the fact," said Redstar. "It looked like the place had been blown to kingdom come." "There WAS an explosion," said Cappy, "I remember it in the news a year or so ago." They stood there a long moment. "Those aliens are devilishly clever," said Redstar. * * * * * * * Nomad, Sigmund and Devastator came out of Wizard's Castle. "It is amazing how run down this place is," said Nomad. "Well, it has been five or six years since it was last used," said Sigmund. "What the heck!" said Nomad, seeing Nathan walk out from behind the skycar. "What are YOU doing here?" "And how did you get here?" asked Devvy. "I used the teleport," said Nathan. Nomad shook his head. "I'm going to have to have a talk with Joshua." He flipped open his communicator, checking to be sure the scrambler was on. "Joshua, I've just bumped into a little friend over here." "And who might that be?" came Joshua's voice. "Come on," said Nomad, "you know who. Nathan." "No I didn't know. How did he get there? I was wondering where he had gotten to." "He says he teleported here." "Odd. It wasn't my doing, and I have full control of the teleport." Nomad's hair began to stand on end. "Well, there isn't any other way he could have done it." "Just a minute... just a minute... that's odd." Nomad exchanged an uneasy glance with Sigmund and with Devvy. "What's odd?" "I have just detected signs of tampering with the teleport controls. Someone bypassed my control link!" [Nomad Of Norad] [Title: Still more... ] There was a moment of confused silence. "Joshua, check to see if anyone else is gone." "Checking... negative. All are accounted for." "Is there anyone in the teleport room?" "Negative." "Someone could have done it, and then returned to the group," suggested Sigmund. "Nathan," said Nomad, "who was it? Who overrode the teleport security control?" "I did," said the lad. "Nathan, that isn't something most people can do. Especially not a six year old. Now, who?" "No-one." Devastator brought out a small oblong device, turned it on and pointed it at Nathan. It was a lie-detector. "Say that again?" "I did. I over... overrrodded the controls." The back end of Devvy's detector continued to glow blue. "He's telling the truth." Nomad stared at Devvy, then at the blue-glowing part of the detector, and finally at Nathan. "Where the blazes does a six-year-old learn to do something like that!" he exclaimed to no-one in particular. "I... don't know," said Nathan. "I... just know how to do it." "Who taught you?" "Nobody." Nomad turned and stared incredulously at Devvy's detector. It glowed blue. Joshua's voice came over the communicator. Nomad jumped, he had forgotten he was holding it. "The flying saucer has returned," said Joshua. "Raising force dome. You'd better stop transmitting, they may locate you by the signal." "Right. Out." Nomad flipped the communicator shut. "Well," said Sigmund. "Guess it's on to the Conference Tree we go." "Not quite yet," said Nomad. "I ought to go put on my powered armor. We don't know what little surprises our friends may have left for us there." "What if the flying saucer comes for us?" said Nathan. "Devvy," said Nomad, "you've got your own scanner, right?" "Yes," said Devvy, bringing it out. "If you detect the saucer coming, yell." "Right." Nomad went and got the big suitcase containing his powered armor, and headed for the castle. Nathan started to follow. Nomad stopped when he noticed this. "Uhm... where are you going?" "With you." "Uhh..." "I want to see the powered armor." "You can see it when I've got it on." "I want to watch you put it on, see what the parts look like." "Uhh... kid, I have to completely undress to put it on." Nathan stood there a moment. "So?" "Uhhhh..." Nomad stood there a moment himself, nervously. Then he remembered when he was Nathan's age. He'd be in the bathtub, and some other family member would come in to use the toilet, not bothered that little David was there in the room. "Oh, what the hey!" He turned and headed towards the castle again. [Nomad Of Norad] [Title: Yep, you guessed it! More! ] * * * * * * * Nomad set the suitcase down on the floor of Wizard's empty bedroom. Nathan looked at it, noticing for the first time that the suitcase had no seams. "How do you get it open?" asked Nathan. "Look," said Nomad, pointing at a big sticker on the side of the case. "Can you read this?" Nathan came forward and stooped down to look at it. "'Warning... ohb..ject dimm-in... die-minn-shinn..." "'Dimensionally,'" read Nomad. "'...comm... compressed. Do not tel... teleport.'" "And up here," said Nomad, pointing to an sticker on the top, next to a button under a little lid. "See, you simply press this button and stand back." He pressed the button. They stood well back. The case beeped four times, after a pause it beeped three times, then twice, then once. A force-field expanded out from the case, and suddenly the case seemed to explode out into a sort of cabinet. "Wow!" Nathan walked up and touched the cabinet, amazed. "Is it from one of those... pocket dim...dimen-chins everyone's been talking about?" "No, it is sort of squeezed. Sort of." He paused. "It sort of bends this little bit of space and compresses it down like a handkerchief." He started undressing. "Uhm..." He stepped behind the cabinet from Nathan, and resumed undressing. Nathan walked around the cabinet too, about the time Nomad was down to his underwear. "Why d'you have to undress completely to put on the armor?" "It's because... well... the soldiers that generally wear these things sometimes have to wear them for days at a time. And... well... when yah gotta go..." Nathan nodded. Nomad walked back around the cabinet, still in his underwear. Nathan followed. Nomad picked up the part of armor that would cover his... uh... lower anatomy. "See here?" he said, indicating the inside of it. "This absorbs all of the wastes." Nathan felt the inside of the thing. It felt to him like a kind of plastic, but soft like cotton. Nomad went with it back behind the cabinet, put the armor piece on top of the cabinet, and quickly slipped off his underwear. By the time he had picked up the armor piece again, Nathan had followed him there. Nomad looked at him, laughed, and turned around. He slipped the piece between his legs and fastened it at his waist. Then he returned to the front of the cabinet. After a short while he had about half of the armor in place. "Do they make powered armor for kids?" asked Nathan. "Uhhh... no. That wouldn't be practical, kids grow too fast." He started adding the chest armor. "Anyway, why would a kid NEED powered armor?" "Uhm... when faced by bullies?" Nomad cracked up. After a moment, he controlled himself. He saw Nathan's expression. "Sorry, I just suddenly had a vision of you throwing muscle-bound six-year-olds across the room." Nathan laughed, a delightful children's-laugh. [Nomad Of Norad] (I just KNOW THX is gonna make something of that last bit, IF he has half a chance! So, I'm not going to GIVE him the chance! We'll be past this scene before he can do anything with it.) "Hmmmm..." said Nomad. "Have you had any trouble with bullies, Nathan?" "Uh... no." He paused. "Yes.... No...." He looked perplexed, suddenly finding oddly contradictory memories. "Well, which is it?" Nathan just continued to look perplexed. Nomad shrugged, and put on the rest of the armor. When Nomad got to the helmet, Nathan commented "Why does it have that face cover?" "Ah, this helmet has a built-in scanner. The information is displayed on the face plate. It also protects me if someone goes for the eyes, plus the armor doubles as a spacesuit." He transferred some of his gadgets from his gadget belt to storage places on the front of his armor, and then put the belt along with his clothes into the cabinet. He pressed a button on top of the cabinet and it became the suitcase again, which he picked up. "Time to go!" * * * * * * * Cappy and Redstar stood in the remains of Province of the Silver Dragon. The place had become even more rundown since it had been snatched away and deposited here. "I'm glad Sigmund isn't here to see this," said Cappy. "He would cry." "Shouldn't we be doing more about finding out what the aliens are up to?" said Redstar. "We should be able to find out something somewhere in these kingdoms." "You mean like, material the people had in--" Redstar suddenly stopped and looked to one side, at the bushes. "Had in where?" said Cappy. "I think we've got company." Redstar switched on his personal force-field and got out his blaster. Cappy did it right afterwards. "Don't shoot!" A very short man in camouflage stepped into the open. "I'm on your side!" "It's one of the munchkins!" exclaimed Cappy. "Yes," said Redstar. "My name is... well... Agent Thirteen. What are your names?" "I am Captain R/C." "I am Redstar." "Since we got yanked away from Earth," said the little man, "we got away from the aliens and became... The Resistance!" "So," said Cappy, "you've been sabotaging the bad guys, eh?" Agent Thirteen nodded. "Annnd loving it!" he said in his best Maxwell Smart impression, which wasn't very good. "So," said Cappy, "what ARE the bad guys up to?" (I know you guys are gonna complain about bringing the munchkins back into this but.... Hey! They're handy! Just treat them like any OTHER resistance people... who just HAPPEN to be three-feet-tall and sometimes dress funny.) [THX-1138] [Title: Christ Nomad! ] Why don't you just post the whole damn story?! Jesus! Oh well. It's not like anyone else posts anyway. [Black Knight] [Title: THX... ] You are very annoying. [THX-1138] And you're a Neaser. What's your point? [Perfect] Hey!!! I'm a Neaser tooooo, and proud of it!!! (Ooops! I think I might have just gave away my identity to Black Knight) [Nomad Of Norad] "We are not entirely sure," said Agent Thirteen. "We DO know it has something to do with time travel." "Oh no!" said Redstar. "Not MORE time travel stuff!" "They have this biiiig machine that can reach into any point in space and time... but it's been under repair for years." "Oh?" said Cappy. "And what happened to make it that way?" he said in a knowing voice. "Actually," said the agent, "it wasn't our doing. The machine was completed soon after we arrived, but when they tried to use it, someone in normal space jammed it... blew it out. They've been trying to repair it ever since." Cappy and Redstar exchanged glances. "You don't suppose..." they both said. "Don't suppose what?" said Agent Thirteen. "Uh..." said Cappy. "There was an alien that built a big high-powered device in a cave, some kind of field-generator. It blew to smithereens, taking him with it. It was maybe four or five years ago." "That must have been it," said the agent, "the jamming cut out rather abruptly, so we hear." "Well," said Redstar, "can you help us? I suppose we can work together." "Yes," said the agent, "that's just what I was thinking." He looked around. "Where's your ship?" "Cloaked," said Cappy. He turned to Redstar. "Should we tell him where it is?" "It's near Mr Roger's Neighborhood," said Redstar. "Well," said the agent, "let's go to it, and I'll take you to our HQ." And away they went. [THX-1138] [Title: /<-rad, D00D! ] "Is Lady Elaine there?" asked K-Bear. "Of course silly!!!!!!" yelled Nomad, slobbering. "I've always thought she was a babe," replied K-Bear, licking his lips. "But Koala!!!! I thought I was the only one!!!!" "Well Nomad, there are some things only a lady can do. And Elaine just really gives me a stiffy." THX slapped K-Bear. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" [Nomad Of Norad] THX, all these characters are currently seperated from each other by a LAAARRRGGGE distance! PAY ATTENTION!!!! [THX-1138] "Oh, terribly sorry!" said THX, kneeling. "Please forgive, oh lord of online stories. I beg your forgiveness!" Someone yawned. "WHO WAS THAT?!?!??!?!!!?" yelled Nomad. [Black Knight] Perfect: Don't worry...I already know who you are... [Redstar] BK, Perfect: I know who both of you are, so give it a rest, will 'ya?!? Nomad: I'm still reading the stories, but I have had no inspiration on what to write yet... [Nomad Of Norad] >Nomad: I'm still reading the stories, but I have had no inspiration on what to >write yet... Care to brainstorm about it? [Redstar] >>Nomad: I'm still reading the stories, but I have had no inspiration on what t >>write yet... > >Care to brainstorm about it? > Actually, I am waiting for an opportunity to write a nice juicy scene involving the Redmobile, Jenn, and some good down home physics. Also I will have to wait for a time when I can be on the phone for two hours, want to, and in a weird enough mood to stay up until three in the morning... [Nomad Of Norad] You couldn't write it offline, and then upload it? (That's what I did with all but the last of the last group of story-postings above.) Speaking of the story... what do you think of it so far? I mean, do you find the last part interesting? Intriguing? Do you understand some of the goings on? (Not enough, necessarily, that you could write based on them yourself, but enough that they entertain you?) Have you caught on to some of the subplots I am building towards? (I have a stand-alone subplot with the kid, and another with Koala.) Hmmmm... we might should move this discussion to another sub board. Probably can't use YOURS since it is taken up by that loooong but interesting technical discussion. Let's pick a sub, any sub! :-) BTW: If anyone's interested, I've uploaded the very first Oz BBS story. This was the only COMPLETED one ever written on that BBS. It has a rather distant relation to the current story... (VERY distant!) but I'd recommend dloading it simply because, well, it's a SCREAM! [Redstar] Well, I just haven't known to write lately. Personally, I think that the last story was much better. I think that we had some good leads to this story, mainly the parts pertaining to the engine, the James-Bond style parts, and the Hotel California (too bad that was only used cleverly in a couple of posts, which I so humbly expanded on). It's moving too slow (mainly, the quantity of writing by the users). Keep as few subplots as we can; they lead to too much confusion. I, personally like writing the best stuff with a lot of technical ingenuity and the like. If you notince in the last story what I wrote... mainly pertains to the ships that were circling overhead, etc. And yes, no discussion on my board on this topic, as my board is for... well, read the intro for the Foyer. The technical discussion is inappropriate, but I think that if I stopped it the board would lie dormant. Maybe for these story discussions the dead Bookside Gaming hall could be used, if not at least temporarily. Just start posting on that sub - it hasn't seen action in months. [Nomad Of Norad] * * * * * * * Nomad brought the skycar down a few meters distance from the old Conference Tree. The area was completely overrun with underbrush and weeds, and the Tree was thickly covered with vines and moss. "Nice," said Siggy, "this place looks like it's not been visited in years." "Probably because it hasn't," said Nomad. He reached into a compartment on his armor and brought out some small elastic belts with little black boxes on them. "Here, put these on." "What are they?" asked Nathan. "Personal force-fields," said Nomad. He handed one to Nathan, then Siggy, and held one out to Devastator. "I've got one already," said Devvy. "Ah," said Nomad. "I should have guessed." He stuffed the last one back into the compartment. He then went and opened the doors. "Let's get on with it." All four of them came to stand outside the skycar. Nomad activated the suit's scanner and checked the area. Devastator did the same with his own hand-scanner. "Detect anything?" asked Sigmund. "No," said Devvy. "Uh... wait a minute." "Yes," said Nomad, "I see it too." "What is it?" said Nathan. "There's a man-sized pocket dimension over there." Devvy pointed. "With a man in partial stasis," added Nomad. Sigmund looked all around. "Do you detect anything else? Anything at all?" "No other power sources, or anything else of note," said Nomad. "Well," said Devvy, "should we get the fellow out?" "I suppose," said Sigmund. "How?" said Nomad. "I didn't bring any equipment related to pocket dimensions." "That's alright," said Siggy, "I did." "Oh?" said Nomad. "You just happen to have brought that, eh? Nice. Like a boyscout, always prepared!" Sigmund brought out a small box. "Remember this? I brought out the Katana and the Wakizashi with it." Nomad nodded. "Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that." [Nomad Of Norad] "I had them stored in a pocket dimension that was attached to this box." Sigmund walked towards where the place Devvy had indicated for the other pocket dimension. "I can also open up other pocket dimensions with this box." Directed by readings on the box, Sigmund came to stand before the location of the pocket dimension. He pressed some buttons, and suddenly a flickering silver column appeared before him. Dimly there could be seen an old man in a kamino within the stasis field. "That looks like..." began Nomad. "Shikia!" said Sigmund. "Well!" said Devvy. "By all means," said Nomad, "let's get him out!" He stepped up to the stasis field, started to reach for the controls at the base... and stopped. "Hmmmm... his dream had said '...you will be imprisoned here for eternity.' Looks like his dream was right... until now, that is." "Well," said Devastator, "the aliens are telepathic, or rather, telesenders. They can't read minds, but they can send thoughts. They probably caused the dream in order to scare the daylights out of him." "Yes," said Nomad, "that makes sense." He punched the button, and the stasis field blinked out. Shikia looked around him, and saw... "Shogun! Boy am I glad to see you!" "Hello Shikia, I'm going by the name Sigmund Fraud now." "Nice name. Really clever, I like it." Shikia looked at the four, saw that all but one was wearing a force-field and the remaining was wearing powered armor. "My, you fellows aren't taking any chances, are you." "Nope," said Nomad. "Tell me, what can we expect up there?" He pointed to the Tree above them. "Nothing," said Shikia. "The Xoonakrone took everything away when they left me behind." "Xoonakrone, eh?" said Sigmund. "Well," said Nomad, "I still think we should have a look around. They may have missed something... left some bit of paper behind, say." "Yes," said Shikia, "your right. Say, do you have another of those personal force-fields?" Nomad was already fumbling in a particular compartment on his armor. "I was just about to give it to you. Here." He handed him the force-field. They all five headed for the trunk of the tree, where there was an aging staircase. "Onward and upwards," said Nomad. [Nomad Of Norad] * * * * * * * Cappy, Redstar and Agent Thirteen stepped out of the Redmobile. They were (if you will pardon the expression) inside an underground hanger. "This way," said Agent Thirteen. He led them towards the main entrance to the hanger. "Lucky!" said another munchkin they met in the hall. "Hello Singbad," said Agent Thirteen. "'Lucky,' eh?" said Redstar. "Cute nickname." "Yes," said Singbad the Whaler. "It suits him, he's not called Agent Thirteen for nothing, you know!" "Ouch!" said Lucky. "Don't remind me." He paused, looked at the two visitors. To Singbad, again, he said, "Tell the Chairman that we have Redstar and Captain R/C here to help our cause. Captain R/C is the one that invented the new spacedrive." "Okay," said Singbad. He turned and left. "This way," said Lucky. "I'll take you to a waiting area." * * * * * * * Nomad's skycar came to rest again in Nomad's garage. The five climbed out of the skycar. Nomad had removed his powered armor and was back in regular garb again, he was carrying the armor in its suitcase. Jenn1 was there to meet them. She looked at Shikia. "Hello, who is this?" "My name is Shikia." "It is one of my people from the Province," said Sigmund. "Glad to meet you." To the rest of them, she said, "So, find anything?" "Unfortunately," said Nomad, "no." He shrugged indifferently. "So," said Koala, coming up to join them, "what do we do now?" "Conference time, I suppose," said Nomad. Out the door and down the stairs they went. "I completed that screening," said Joshua as they reached ground level. "And what did you find out?" said Nomad. "Anything?" "Just about everyone checked out clean," said the computer, "nothing suspicious in their backgrounds." "'Just about everyone...'?" said Nomad. "I was unable to find any backgr..." Suddenly Nathan cried out in great pain. Nomad jumped as if shot. He watched in horror as Nathan, clutching his side, crumpled to the floor. Within a second, Nomad had out the control and display sections of his scanner and snapped them together. "What's wrong with him!" exclaimed Sigmund. A red glow could be seen through the child's fingers, through the skin under his hand. Nomad frantically adjusted the scanner, and then the color drained from his face as he saw what was wrong. "NOOOO!!!!!!" screamed Nomad. He suddenly scooped Nathan up into his arms, dropping the scanner in the process, and ran like a wild man out of the room. The other five exchanged stunned glances and quickly followed him. [Nomad Of Norad] As they ran, a voice on the speakers could be heard throughout the house. "This is James Mentira speaking, or rather, my name actually is not James Mentira." The voice paused a moment, as if to weigh his next words. Nomad burst into his house's small medical center and shoved Nathan into the autodoc. "Joshua!" he yelled "Put him in full stasis!" As the other five came dashing into the room, a reflective field suddenly engulfed the inside of the 'doc. It was as if a convex mirror had suddenly materialized there. The voice continued. "I have intended from the beginning to destroy you all. But I had especially targeted one of you. I had left the tip that someone was going to destroy each of you by your weaknesses, but this was a smoke screen. The one I wanted to destroy most was Nomad of Norad, the leader of the group that brought about..."the voice paused for maximum effect, "the Llocaar disaster." "Oh my God!" said Devastator. "The what?" said Nomad, looking totally perplexed, the reference meant absolutely nothing to him! "Nomad," continued the voice, "the mode I selected for your death was calculated to be the most devastating to you... heh! If you will pardon the expression. I knew how much you adored kids, so I created Nathan. I cloned him, accelerated his aging to the current point, and then gave him a fabricated past, fabricated memories. "I embedded in his body a phase-energy bomb. It is very small, but it is powerful enough to destroy everything within five miles. Do not attempt to teleport it out of him, it will explode immediately if you try it. "I estimate you have... twenty-three seconds left. Goodbye, it has been fun." There came a loud click, as of someone turning off a microphone. "This is Joshua," came Joshua's amplified voice, "Nomad's household computer. Do not panic, I repeat, do not panic. Nathan has been placed in full temporal stasis. The phase-energy bomb will NOT explode... repeat, NOT explode in twenty-three seconds. Remain calm." Nomad took in a great breath, and let it out. This was clearly that something from completely out of left field that he had feared. "Joshua, what the hell are we going to do!" [Nomad Of Norad] "We will consider our options," said Joshua, "give ourselves time to figure things out." "Where is Mr. Mentira! Can we still get him?" said Nomad. "He left an hour ago. That message you heard was beamed from a distance. He left a device that relayed it to my speakers. I have removed it now." "But where IS he!" "I cannot trace him, the signal appears to have been relayed through a series of transmitters." "How are we going to disarm this thing!" "Well, first I need a detailed scan of the bomb. I will bring Nathan out of stasis just long enough to make the scan." Nomad took another big breath. "Ok, do it." The silver field vanished for one second. For that second, Nathan's screeches in pain could be heard. Nomad flinched hard. "Got it," said Joshua. On the big screen on one wall, the design of the bomb was displayed. "First off, we cannot teleport the device out of him." A small circuit on one tiny place on the side of the design was highlighted as he said this. "This circuit will activate if someone tries to dematerialize any portion of the bomb. We can't surgically remove the bomb." Another part of the bomb was highlighted. "This circuit will react if exposed to oxygen." For an hour or so, various solutions were thought up and then discarded. It began to look grimmer and grimmer. When they ran out of ideas, Nomad began to pace the entire length of the room, taking long fast strides. And he couldn't help but think about the so-called Llocaar disaster, of which he had supposedly been responsible, and yet now knew absolutely nothing about. More consequences of the time trip. How many other nasty surprises were in store for him? He paced even more vigorously. Kang aka Keith aka Mother_Box found him like this when he walked into the room. "Still no luck?" "No," said Nomad, still pacing like crazy. "We've gone over every conceivable way to removed the device from Nathan's body. None of them can be done." [Sigmund Fraud] "Hey, Wait a minute," said Siggy. "Nomad, check that circuit that reacts to oxygen again... I think that that is the key, it isn't reacting to the oxygen inherent in the body, which means...." "Which means," continued Jenn1, "that there is a tolerance level inherent in the circuit we can compute! Then we can flood the incision with some other gas, nitrogen, for instance. We can then remove the bomb, and keep it in an inert gas bubble, and get rid of it!" "Hmmmmmm," said Nomad, "It might work at that." [Nomad Of Norad] (AAAAAaaaaaaack! I had not FINISHED that last post of mine! I saved off the work-in-progress, getting to the point were we solve the problem, and went to check on the correct spelling for a particular user's name. Did you notice that one of the paragraphs looked funny? Anyway, I went to the Last-called function... and experience the Segmentation Violation Blues! Then I sat there in total frustration for more than an hour and a half, eating busy-signal.) (Still, I'm pleased to see that you guys are participating again....) [Of course, I have corrected the paragraph that "looked funny" for this file. BTW, segmentation violation is a Unix error message generated when Something Goes Wrong and takes the system down. --NoN] "Yes," said Joshua, "but we would have to contend with a great many other circuits designed to react to the device's removal. There is a trip-switch that will set off the device if it is pulled out, a circuit to detect vibrations from cutting through the ribs, a device to react to---" "Okay," said Sigmund, "we get the point." "I guess they saw the same episode of Star Trek we did," said Keith. "It's such a pity we can't simply teleport it out," said Nomad. "Hmmmmm..." said Keith. "Maybe we could still use the teleport." "We can't," said Nomad, "the bomb would be set off if we teleport it." "I didn't mean teleport the bomb, I mean teleport the kid." "It would still go off." "If we teleport JUST the kid?" Nomad stared at him for a moment, his face showing complete amazement. "Yes!" said Joshua. "That would work! Except we will have to set the autodoc on nullgrav or the bomb will fall and be set off. And we'll need exact timing---" "Just do it!" said Nomad. "Here goes," said Joshua. The stasis field faded to partial power, Nathan's screeching could be heard as a low pitched moan. The stasis field in the second autodoc simultaneously came on at the same level of stasis. Everyone grew quite tense, watching very closely. The teleport effect started, and was only somewhat slowed by the stasis fields. "Why the second stasis field?" asked Kaos Kamikaze. "If we teleport the child from an area of partial stasis to an area of non-stasis, the shock of it could kill him," explained Joshua. As the teleport process continued, the stasis fields were adjusted slower and slower. Then, as it was completed, the first stasis field was clamped to full stasis, and the other deactivated. Suddenly Nathan's screeching came back, full and hard. Nomad went to him quickly, and held him. "It's all right!" said Nomad. "It's over. We have removed the device!" "Now we have to get RID of the device," said Kang. "I can drop it into a pocket dimension," said Sigmund, "but we have to get it out of the stasis field first." "And if we do that," said Devastator, "we're dead." "There will be a three second delay from when any of the circuits kick in to when the device detonates," said Joshua. "It takes that long for the phase-energy reaction to take place." "It's going to take exact timing, though." Sigmund brought out the little black box, held it right next to the stasis field and punched some buttons. "Ready, tell me when." "On the count of one.... Three. Two. ONE!" The stasis field cut out. A bright glow filled the room, and then winked out. "I have detected a massive explosion in negative hyperspace," said Joshua. Everyone breathed a great sigh of relief. "Well, I'm glad THAT'S over," said Nomad. "We've got another problem to replace it!" said Joshua. "A saucer has just come out of negative hyperspace and is rushing this way. I am bringing up the force dome." A moment later, the lights suddenly dimmed. "Uh-oh," said Joshua, sounding like a record-player in a brown out. "Theyy aarrre ddrrraawwwwiinnnnngg offff...." He fell silent as the lights completely went out. Then there came the sound of several quick phase-bolts being fired. "WHAT'S HAPPENING!!" yelled Nathan, drowning out everyone else asking the same thing. "They must be drawing off all the hyperflux energy!" exclaimed Nomad. Before he could explain further, the whole house was transported away with them in it! Sent to the alien's great pocket-dimension! (Cliffhanger! Now we start Part III!!) [Sic!] [Actually, we start part V.]