So, let's begin with a few words from the one and only Looooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrddd ROBIN!!! : --------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember me? I'm the one who sort of started the whole r.a.a.-fanfic business about a year ago with a Dirty Pair story called "Big Bang" (which I hope is still available on wpi.WPI.EDU, hint hint :-)). Well, I just couldn't keep out of this forever, so here's the prologue to yet another DP fan story, "The Game Eternal". Unlike the others I wrote, this is in prose, not script form. It's a little different; I hope you like it. I've tried to write a "serious" sci-fi/fantasy story while keeping the three elements DP fans like: action, humor, and major carnage. (Oh yeah: Kei & Yuri don't show up until Chapter One, so be patient.) ================================================================= The Dirty Pair in "T h e G a m e E t e r n a l" by Ryan Mathews ================================================================= ----------- P R O L O G U E ----------- "Now you see that Evil will always triumph over Good, because Good is dumb." - Dark Helmet - - - For a brief moment as she opened her eyes, Nora was certain she was coming out of cryogenic suspension. She had all the symptoms: weak muscles, ringing ears, something in her head that was trying to push her eyes out of her skull, a mouth that tasted like something had crawled in there and died. Funny, though, she didn't remember getting in the cryo-chamber. But what else could make her feel like this? she thought. She and the rest of the crew of the _Lewis and Clark_ had broken out the ship's stores of synthetic gin last night-cycle to celebrate the discovery of their first viable terraforming candidate in the last six attempts. After nearly five years in deep space, the monotony was getting to all four of them. The routine was quite familiar by now: First came a tentative warp-jump to the outer fringes of an unexplored system, then back in the cryos as the ship traveled at sublight to the nearest planet (couldn't risk warping into an unmapped gravity well), scan the planet, reject it, back in the cryos. When the last planet turned out to be viable for colonization, a celebration was not just called for, it was *demanded*. The party started out innocently enough. A few stories, a few songs. But the night went on, bottles were drained, and the last thing Nora remembered was doing some dance as part of a game that was a cross between Quarters and Strip Poker, while Paul and Graham hooted and clapped. thought Nora. But not Red. He didn't even drink. Never did. "Nora, you awake?" Red's voice brought Nora back just as she had managed to tune out the intercom bell and was drifting back to sleep. She brushed her long black hair out of her eyes, and took a breath. "I am now!" This wasn't fair. If it was one of the others she could get good and mad at him for waking her up and it would make her feel better. But she couldn't get mad at Red. He was just too... sweet. "What is it?" "Paul and Graham are doing a shuttle recon of the surface. Just thought you might like to have a look." "They've gone down *already*?" Their recuperative powers were certainly impressive. "They said they just couldn't wait any longer. You wanna take a look?" "Yeah, sure. I'll be up in a minute." Nora sat up and her head exploded. "Give or take a few years." On the bridge, Red sat in front of a bank of monitors, most of which were showing various views of the planet below, relayed from the shuttle. The short, curly hair which had given Red his nickname looked only slightly less perfect than usual. With his boyish face, he looked almost comically innocent. thought Nora as she approached. "How're they doing, Red?" she asked. "Just fine. You wanna talk to them?" Red had already stood up and offered his seat to Nora with a gesture. Nora sat down and spoke into the microphone. "Hey, dudes! What's it like down there?" There was no reply but a low buzzing noise. Nora turned up the volume. "You'll have to speak up, guys. I'm not receiving you very well." "HI NORA!!!!!!" screamed the speaker. "You ASSHOLES!" Nora screamed back, as the monster in her head tried to punch its way out through her forehead. "Told you she'd have a hangover, Paul. Pay up!" "Since I'm going to rip your throats out when you get back to the ship," said Nora. "Would you like to give me your report now?" "Oh, Nora, you should see this place," said Paul. "I mean, *really* see it!" "Yeah, not that wimpy 2-D image on your monitor," agreed Graham. "So I take it this one's a winner?" asked Nora. "Damn straight!" Graham replied. "Ask Red, we've been telling him for the past hour." Red spoke up, softly as always. "Paul thinks the UG could have this planet colonized in less than ten years." "Think?!" shouted Paul. "I know it! It's got a carbon dioxide atmosphere, and huge icecaps at the poles! All that's needed is to pump a little extra CO2 into the atmosphere to raise the temperature, and toss around some algae to get the oxygen cycle going. Our kids could grow up on this planet!" "You? Kids? That's a scary thought," said Nora. "Sorry, Nora, but you just can't pee on our parade today!" Graham exulted. "We're proud!" "Triumphant!" added Paul. "Excited!" Graham continued. "Driven!" Paul went on. "And in one HELL of a good mood!" finished Graham. "In fact, we feel like..." "Singing!" chorused the two. "Ohhh..." "We are brave explorers We sail the ocean black We sing to nights a-wasted With women on their backs A mug of ale, a bonnie lass Then back t'the inky sea To search out yonder planets for the olllld yoooo geeeee!" Paul and Graham broke into hysterical laughter as they finished their song, and Nora couldn't help but join them. "Y'know, guys," she said, wiping her eyes. "The part you're flying over now doesn't look all that exciting." The monitors showed a vast, dry, rocky area that reminded Nora of holos she had seen once, of the Grand Canyon of Earth. "Oh, this is just a barren patch. Every planet has these," Paul explained. "Besides, these rock formations should draw tourists. Must've been formed aeons ago, when there was still flowing water." Nora agreed that the formations were impressive. In her mind's eye, she could see tourists snapping photos of themselves in front of the giant rock columns, which would be given corny names like Sleeping Giant, Balancing Skull, and... Nora's chain of thought stopped as she noticed one particular formation. It was roughly arch-shaped, but the top was squared off in a way that did not look like the product of erosion. The shape seemed familiar, but she couldn't place it. As she watched, the shuttle seemed to pass it again. "Didn't you fly over that one already?" Nora asked. "Which one?" Paul asked back. "We can't see you point." "Don't be a smartass. I'm talking about that squarish arch." "Yeah, Paul," Graham agreed. "It does look familiar." "No, there's just a lot of them," said Paul. "See, here comes another." Sure enough, a third arch scrolled past the monitor. "Isn't that a little unusual?" asked Nora. "Now that you mention it..." Graham's voice trailed off, then exploded. "Holy SHIT!! Paul, do you think this could be evidence of... you know?" "An alien civilization?! God-DAMN! We'll be famous!" "Nora! Give us permission to take a closer look!" Graham was almost pleading. Nora laughed. "Have a ball, boys." Paul and Graham cheered as they banked their shuttle toward the nearest arch. "I don't think they should be doing that," said Red. His voice gave Nora a start. She'd nearly forgotten he was there. "Why not?" "I... don't know. Something..." It sounded like new-planet jitters to Nora, but just in case, she turned back to the com. "Guys, Red's getting some bad vibes, so, um, be careful, okay?" "Hey, no problemo!" Paul piped up. "'Careful' is my middle name!" "I thought it was 'Maurice'," said Graham. "Shut up," said Paul. "Wow. From this distance, it sure looks like the arch was carved, not eroded. What do you think, Nora?" Nora didn't know what to think. The picture was starting to get fuzzy. She told them. "A little closer and you'll be able to make it out," said Paul. "No. You have to tell them to come back," Red said. He was visibly nervous now, chewing on a knuckle. "What *is* it, Red?" Nora was getting annoyed. "They're in danger. We're all in danger. Something... something..." Nora turned back to the console once more. The picture had almost completely broken up. She was not the type to believe in anything supernatural, and yet she now found herself becoming afraid of Red's unknown thing from the planet. she thought. She spoke into the mike. "Guys? I'm losing visual. Can you boost your signal?" There was no reply. Behind her, Red crept closer, one knuckle still in his mouth. "Guys? I'm not receiving you." There was a blast of static from the speaker, and then Paul's voice came on, sounding exhausted. "uhh... Nora, sorry, I... got hit by fatigue, I think. Guess the adrenaline wore off." "What about Graham?" "Uh, him too. Listen, I'm gonna set this thing down, okay? I'll hit us both with stimulants. We'll be fine." "NO!!" Red shouted into the microphone, nearly startling Nora out of the chair. "Don't! You have to climb, get as far away from it as you can! YOU'RE WAKING IT UP!" Now Nora really *was* frightened. "Waking *what* up?! What's happening to them?" "It's feeding on them. They're waking it up." On the speakers, Paul groaned again. "Ohhh... man. Some party, huh, Nora? Hmmm... tired, gotta sleep..." "Paul!!" Nora shouted. "Get out of there! That's an order!" Paul giggled. "Graham's already in lala-land. Nighty-night..." "Break orbit," said Red. "What?!" Nora could not decide what was scarier, what was happening to Paul and Graham or what was happening to Red. "We're in danger. Break orbit." It was not a suggestion; it was a command. "Bullshit," said Nora, and turned back to the mike. "Paul? Do you read me? Paul!" Red calmly walked over to the pilot console and worked the controls. The ship lurched, and this time Nora *was* startled out of her chair. "Red, what the hell are you doing?!" Red ignored her. Nora picked herself up. "Red, you release those controls this INSTANT!!" Red continued to ignore her. Finding anger a welcome antidote for fear, she marched toward him, prepared to beat the living shit out of him. Paul's voice broke through the static once more. "Ohh... wow. They're all glowing... it's so... beautif--" The static was suddenly replaced by a high-pitched screech. Nora clapped her hands over her ears as the speaker blew off the wall and clattered across the floor. "Look," said Red, and pointed to the planet as seen through the front viewport. "Now do you believe me?" There was a glowing ring on the planet's surface, thousands of kilometers in diameter. A ring. Nora's mind suddenly clicked, and she remembered where she had seen those arches before. Stonehenge. It was a gigantic Stonehenge. The ring flashed and disappeared, to be replaced by a single glowing point that grew larger -- no, closer. "What is it, Red?" "Something very old." "Can we outrun it?" "I don't know," said Red, and threw the EMERGENCY THRUST switch. Nora held onto a support post for dear life as the _Lewis and Clark's_ fusion engines cut in. Behind them, the point of light effortlessly left the planet's atmosphere and gave chase. Nora tried without success to pull herself forward to the co-pilot's seat. Red seemed oblivious to her, concentrating on keeping the fusion engines firing. He began to override safety controls. In an aft-view monitor, the point of light was rapidly overtaking them. Finally, to Nora's utter astonishment, Red shut everything down. "It's no use," Red stood up. The point of light passed them and hovered in front of the main viewport. It was immense, and blue. Red smiled. "Very well, old friend. One more round. You and me. Crystal." The light-thing approached. The air on the bridge began to circulate rapidly, whipping Nora's hair. It was all she could do not to start blubbering like a baby. It wasn't so much the dying, as it was not knowing what it was that was killing her or why. She didn't want to die not knowing what the hell was happening. She wanted to go back to bed. Things had been so much more rational there. The light approached until it filled the viewport. Red stared straight into it, standing motionless. With an ear-splitting bang, every monitor on the ship exploded simultaneously, showering the two of them with glass. Red took no notice, even as a larger fragment drew a red line across his left cheek. Then he collapsed. Nora braced for an impact, but there was none. The entire bridge glowed in blue, brighter and brighter until the bridge was gone and only the blue remained. Nora closed her eyes, but to no effect. The blue enveloped her, it was inside her. It *was* her. Red opened his eyes. Nora was gone, as he had expected. "Crystal..." he muttered. He walked below decks to the cryo chambers, boots crunching on the broken glass that now carpeted the floor. He opened a cryo and got in it. "Crystal," he said again. He closed the lid and fell asleep for seventy-eight years. -- END PROLOGUE -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMING NEXT: The Lovely Angels make a discovery, and Kei hatches a get-rich-quick scheme... ------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you enjoyed the first part of "The Game Eternal," formerly "The Game," formerly "Krystalnacht," formerly "The Last of the Crystal Knights," formerly "Demon's Rules"..... Anyway, please email Larry with any comments you might have. This sucker will probably be novel-length by the time it's done I hope to pump out a chapter a week. Of course, favorable comments will help keep me on schedule. :-) BTW, if you like my stuff, and you like Larry's stuff, you might like the stuff we've done together. It's a manga, it's called "Vector One," and it's available... well, I guess from Larry. Write him. It's been running in a west coast newsletter, "From Side to S.I.D.E." Back issues of that are $5 apiece, if you can find them. ---------- Ryan Mathews (Stay tuned for Chapter One! - Larry) ======================================================================== = ___ = = "Ooooh, I feel so... WWWA Terran Office, Irvine / | = = ...conceptual!!" "I will solve any / | = = - Yuri, DPII:2 problem for you." / | = =____________________________ / | = = Larry Mann | /| / | /| / | /| / /______| = = |__/ |__/ |__/ |__/ |__/ |__/ /-------| = = WWWA: Creative Consultant |_/ |_/ |_/ |_/ |_/ |_/ /________/ = ======================================================================== Here is the first half of the Chapter 1 of "The Game Eternal". My apologies for taking so darn long to finish it. I put off writing anymore until I got my new computer. Hope you like it. (That's as witty as I can be at this time of the morning. :-) ) THE DIRTY PAIR in THE GAME ETERNAL by Ryan Mathews CHAPTER ONE Kei and Yuri had been fighting the dragon for hours now and were having the time of their lives. The huge, green- scaled beast was beginning to get quite frustrated at its astounding inability to kill the two girls, neither one of whom was much larger than one of its toes. By all rights, they both should have been squashed to paste by now; certainly the dragon had never had problems dealing with humans before. But the stupid things wouldn't stand still! Despite the fact that they stood on a ledge, rock to one side, four-hundred meter drop to the other, the humans danced and dodged, forcing the dragon to slowly follow them up the incline. Of course, the girls' weapons were a factor in the beast's frustration as well. Kei, looking resplendent in a armor bikini and fur boots, brandished a sword she'd picked up the previous day. If held with both hands, it could release powerful bolts of lightning. Yuri, for her part, was dressed in the traditional robes of her sorcerer's trade, and had been keeping the dragon off-balance with a bag of mystical dust. When thrown, the dust created winds that swirled about its head, snuffing out its flame before it could be blown. The dragon was a gift from their enemy, the dark sorcerer Mordak. Having sensed his foes were close to gaining the tools to destroy him, he had instilled one of the beasts from his private collection with an unquenchable hatred of the "Lovely Angels", as the girls called themselves. The dragon would fight until it either killed them or died itself. The Angels had realized almost immediately that they did not have enough power to kill the beast. Then Kei hit upon a brilliant idea. (Brilliant in Kei's opinion, not Yuri's. Most of Kei's "brilliant" ideas had landed them in worse trouble than they had been before.) The idea was this: if they could get the dragon to follow them up the side of the cliff, they just might be able to temporarily knock it unconscious and push it over the edge. Fortunately, the spell that had driven the dragon into such a rage had also made it stupid. If the dragon had possessed one-tenth of its natural intelligence, it would have used its wings and attacked from the air. As it was, the beast plodded slowly forward, trying to crush them underfoot or fry them with its breath. Kei stood in front of Yuri, dodging the occasional flame-burst and holding her mystic sword at the ready, in order to take advantage of even the slightest opening allowed by the dragon. Having been stung by several of the sword's electric bolts, the dragon was now wary of getting too close to the redhead. What the dragon didn't know was that the sword had only one charge left in it. "KEI!!" Kei turned around to find Yuri waving madly for her attention. The expression on her face reminded Kei of a first-grader trying to tell her teacher that she has to go to the bathroom. She was pointing behind her. "We're running out of room!!" Kei cursed loudly as she saw what Yuri was referring to. Kei had been certain this ledge ran all the way to the top of the cliff. She had been very wrong. About seven meters behind Yuri, the ledge abruptly ended in a drop just as sheer as the one to their right. Kei sheathed her sword, fumbled in a pouch attached to her armor and pulled out a small, clear vial filled with what appeared to be wine. "I'd been hoping to save you for Mordak," she said, "but it looks I need you now." She pulled the cork and quickly and sloppily downed the liquid. "Mm! Not bad!" She wiped her chin and threw the vial away. "Get ready, Yuri! It's showtime!" "Got it," Yuri replied. She put away the dust bag, closed her eyes and began concentrating. Sensing that the windstorm buffeting its head was about to end, the dragon drew its long neck into the air and took a huge breath. Its eyes gleamed as it prepared to finish the affair with one good blast. Kei screamed and doubled over as the potion took effect. A stabbing pain began in her chest and rapidly spread to her limbs. Something in her stomach began to expand. She raised her head and let out a tremendous belch. Smoke poured out of her mouth and nose, and the pain died. She got to her feet. "ALRIGHT, YOU SCALY SHITBAG!! LET'S PARTY!!" The dragon looked down and blew, releasing a river of orange-white flame at the redhead. Kei jumped at the last instant, launching herself 20 meters into the air. As she looked down, she worried that she had jumped too far, that she would overshoot the dragon and land on the other side, or perhaps fall off the ledge to her death. But as she came down she was sure she would hit the mark, and she did: right on the dragon's back. She landed, legs spread, with a thump that made her glad she wasn't a man, and began to climb up the dragon's neck. Yuri continued to concentrate and gather her energies for the upcoming spell, at the same time staying ready to cast a split-second shield if the dragon should come at her again. She relaxed as she heard Kei hit her mark; in a moment the dragon would be too distracted to worry about the sorceress. Distracted the dragon was indeed. It threw its head this way and that in a vain attempt to throw the girl off. But the strength potion had done its job, and Kei held on fast, continuing her climb and finally reaching the head. She swung her legs down and clamped on with a strength that would have made her last lover wince, and unsheathed her sword. "Yuri! I'm gonna need that spell real soon!" Yuri nodded and put her hands in position. If what Kei was planning worked, she would have a matter of seconds to cast the spell. Kei placed the tip of the sword at the base of the dragons skull and pushed with all her enhanced strength, shoving it in to the hilt. The dragon screamed, launching a blast of flame skyward, and tried even harder to throw Kei off, to no avail. The effort did cause a spurt of blood to shoot out, however, and it splattered the side of Kei's chest armor. Within seconds, the corrosive substance had eaten through the chain and it fell free. Kei yelped and tried to hold it together with one hand. Yuri opened her eyes, ready to cast the spell, and saw that Kei did not have the necessary two hands on the sword. "What are you doing?!" "My top's coming off!" "Well, let it! There's no guys here!" Kei had to admit that her friend had a point. She slipped out of the top and threw it away. Too far; it flew over the edge of the cliff and disappeared. As she watched it fall, Kei hoped Yuri wouldn't mind parting with some of her robe. "C'mon, Kei!" Yuri shouted. "Do it, already!" Kei grasped the sword with both hands and shouted, "BLUE FIRE!!" The sword discharged its last bolt directly into the dragon's brain. The creature's body spasmed violently, and it suddenly accomplished what it had been unable to do before, as Kei's feet slipped free of their boots and the girl went flying. Kei made a frantic grab as she fell and managed to hook one hand onto the ledge. As she slammed into the cliffside, she remembered another reason not to have thrown away her chest armor. The pain almost made her let go. Yuri screamed Kei's name and rushed over to help her. Kei could barely see her through the shooting stars. "Yuri, cast the spell..." "Let me help you up, dammit!" "No...no time. Dragon's already waking up." Kei had hoped that the dragon's spasms would throw it off the cliff, making the spell unnecessary, but there was no such luck. The fifty-ton beast was still very much on the ledge and was starting to stir. "Cast the spell, Yuri. Throw the son-of-a-bitch off." Yuri nodded and began to make hand motions. "Oh, spirits of the earth! Heed me! I-- Kei, do I really have to say the words?" "Of course you have to say the words!" "Can't I just do the hand motions?" "It doesn't *work* if you just do hand motions! Hurry up, Yuri! I'm slipping off!" Yuri started again. "Oh, spirits of the-- Oh, this is *stupid*!" she said... * * * ...and threw down the book. "Do you have to be so damn *picky*, Kei? It's just a game!" "It is *not* just a game! It's the best RPG in the galaxy! And it's no fun if you don't do it right!" "Well, it's no fun with you as dungeon-master anyway. You give yourself all the best parts." "Hey, there's some great stuff in it for you! Weren't you just about to save our lives?" "Maybe tomorrow." Yuri stood up and stretched. "I'm through for the day." "What about Mordak?" Kei pouted. "What about him? He's not going anywhere. Me, I'm gonna get a little something to eat and then jog around the lower decks. All that sitting has me cramped." Kei moped for a few seconds and then began to pick up the game. Behind her, Mughi snored. Before he'd fallen asleep, he'd been playing a passable game himself, especially since Yuri had taught him how to throw the dice. Kei got up, worked the crick out of her own back and followed Yuri into the Lovely Angel's small galley. "How long until we reach Elenore?" Kei asked Yuri, who was making a sandwich. Yuri checked her watch. "About three hours." "Another three? Man, I can't wait to get off the ship." Yuri nodded and took a bite. In the last fifty years, space-warp technology had greatly shortened the time it took to travel between stars. However, there remained the nasty little fact of not being able to warp into a gravity well, the space surrounding a large body of mass. This meant that you could never warp as close to a planet as you liked, and that you had to travel the rest of the way at sublight. The length of time that took depended upon the system; it ranged from two hours to two weeks. For the Elenore system, the entry time was about a day and a half. When you were cooped up in a spaceship, even one as relatively roomy as the Lovely Angel, this became an awful lot of time to kill. The Angels had watched some videos, played handball, took naps, and finally played the role-playing game. Now they had about run out of ideas and, with no case to review, boredom figured to drive the girls nuts, especially Kei. So it was with some relief that they heard an alarm go off on the bridge. Kei and Yuri burst onto the bridge and checked the consoles. Yuri found the problem. "It's a proximity alert," she said. "A ship's been detected nearby. It didn't respond to the automatic hail." Kei's eyes widened with anticipation. "Ooh! Is it an enemy?! I could use some action right now!" Yuri checked some indicators. "No such luck, I'm afraid. The ship isn't under thrust and I'm not reading any energy signs. Whatever it was, it's dead." "Aww." "Still, might as well check it out, huh? Better than sitting around on our butts for the next three hours." "Not much better," Kei sighed. "Let's go home." "Yeah, you're probably right. Though, if we did check it out, it would belong to us. Salvage laws, you know." "What would we want with a junked ship?" "Oh, nothing. You're right, it's probably not worth the effort." Yuri got up to leave the bridge. Kei put a hand on Yuri's shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. "Hooold the phone, here! What about what's *inside* the ship? There could be antiques, precious metals, stuff like that!" "I doubt it. More likely it's full of obsolete equipment." "But it might be, right?" When Yuri didn't reply, Kei shouted, "RIGHT?!" "I can see you're going to be impossible unless we check out that ship." "You're damn right!" Yuri got into the pilots seat and worked the controls. She started to giggle. "You're such a pushover, Kei." Kei fumed. (to be continued very shortly) ---------- Ryan Mathews Please inform me of any obvious errors in either part of chapter one. The thing didn't upload right the first time... --------------------------------------------------------------------- Within ten minutes, Yuri had the Lovely Angel on a course alongside the wreck. "Whew," Kei said. "It's huge." "Yeah," agreed Yuri. "And from the looks of it, most of it's engine." "No kidding? Must pack one heluva lot of thrust!" "Not really. It's an old ship." The age of the ship was obvious from its appearance. Although impressive in size, it was decidedly unimpressive in looks. The ship had a roughly circular cross-section, tapering from the widest point, the aft, down to a point at the other end. The tapering was not graceful, however, coming at irregular intervals and at right angles. The overall effect was that of an immense, spacegoing sparkplug. In the time since the ship's design, technological advances had allowed designers to build ships that were beautiful as well as functional, but the ship had been built by people whose limited resources didn't allow such luxuries. "You know," said Yuri, "that ship looks kinda familiar." "I know what you mean, but you know what's funny? I sort of remember it, but the memory's two-dimensional." "That's it! I saw it in a history lesson once! Let me see if I can get a closer look at the name." The hull of the ship was badly scorched, but with the help of a zoom camera, the Angels were able to make out the lettering on the side. Yuri sounded it out: LEWIS AND CLARK, then gasped. "Holy cow, Kei, do you know what we just found?" Kei closed her eyes and thought as hard as she could. She was not as good at remembering facts as Yuri, but didn't like to be shown up. "Umm, umm, Lewis and Clark. Umm, an exploration ship. Found planets during the UG's early expansion. Disappeared in, umm, in--" "Disappeared in 2065, all hands presumed lost. Two years later, Captain Nora MacPherson was found floating in a cryogenic escape pod, with no memory of how she had gotten there. She gave up exploring and founded MacPherson Spacecraft--" "And now her granddaughter is the richest person in the whole damn galaxy, blah, blah, okay, you win." "But don't you understand what this means, Kei?! We're about to solve one of the greatest mysteries of all time!" Kei thought about it. "It *would* be nice to be famous for something good for a change. Think we could make any money out of it?" Yuri rolled her eyes. "I guess we could sell it to a museum." "Hey!! Why don't we sell it to MacPherson?! I hear she collects old ships! I'll bet you she'd pay lots for this baby! I mean, it *did* belong to her grandmother, right?" "Maybe. Let's explore it first and think about that later." Yuri stared at the ship and rubbed her chin. "Hmm. Know what? We can't dock with this thing. Our airlocks aren't compatible with eighty-year-old ships. We'll have to go outside." Kei cheered. "Oboy!! I *love* OVA's!" "That's EVA's, Kei." "Whatever! I'm gonna go get the suits ready!" Kei ran off the bridge. In the airlock, Kei helped Yuri into her suit. "You've gotten a little bigger since the last time you wore this." "I have not! The darn thing shrank because you didn't know how to wash it, remember?" Yuri snapped her visor shut and sealed it. "Did you check the propulsion units?" "Yeah, yeah! I checked it, everything's fine, let's go!" Yuri pressed a panel on the wall and the airlock began to vibrate as powerful suction devices depressurized the chamber. After a few minutes, the noise stopped, and a flashing red light indicated the process complete. The airlock door slid open, and the Angels stepped into space. Once outside the Lovely Angel's artificial gravity field, it was easy to become disoriented, so the girls took a moment to get their bearing. Once they had sorted out "up" and "down" in their minds, they gave their thruster packs a quick burst and drifted toward the wreck. "So, Yuri," asked Kei over the radio, "where is the airlock on this thing, anyway?" "How should I know? I've never been aboard one of these ships. It's gotta be near the front, that's all. The rest is all engine." "So we'll have to search, huh? Figures." The Angels reached the craft and locked onto the hull with their magnetic boots. They split up and began looking for the airlock. Nearly thirty minutes later, neither girl had found a thing. Kei wandered across the scorched hull, looking this way and that for any sign of something resembling a portal. The hull was blackened almost to the color of the surrounding space in some areas, and twice Kei had nearly fallen off when the carbonized hull coating under her boot had crumbled and come free. The scorched "landscape" made her feel as if she'd wandered onto the set of a dystopic SF movie. "Kei, last of the great lady gunlords, struggles across the blasted wastelands in search of civilization..." "What was that?" came Yuri's voice. "Oh, nothing. Just being silly. Any luck?" "Nope. I wonder what this ship ran into?" "Whatever it was, I hope it never comes back--WAAH!" Kei yelled as her right boot failed to find something to step on. She tumbled forward, her momentum pulling her left boot free of the hull. Quickly twisting, she managed to grab a hold of the ledge she had just inadvertently stepped off, before she drifted away from the ship. "Kei! Kei, are you alright?" "Yeah, I'm fine! I just stepped into a well. The damn hull's so black here that I didn't see it." Kei peered into the "well". It wasn't very wide, maybe ten meters across. Along one side was what appeared to be a small monorail track. Kei thought she recognized it and grinned. "Hey, Yuri! I think this is an escape pod ejection chute!" "Great!" cheered Yuri. "Don't move, I'll be right over!" At the bottom of the well was the airlock they had hoped for. Yuri studied it for a moment. "Kei, help me with the seal." Together, the girls operated the wheel which sealed the door shut. They gave a pull in the direction the door appeared to slide, but it wouldn't budge. "Darn, I think it needs to be lubricated," said Yuri. "Maybe if you push and I pull..." "Got it," said Kei. She floated up, placed her shoulder against the wheel, and locked her boots on the wall of the well. As Yuri pulled, Kei pushed off with her leg muscles. There was a creaking sound as the door gave way. As the door opened, Kei, now stretched across the opening, could feel a short gust as the atmosphere inside the chamber escaped. Something glittering flashed by, and suddenly someone was shoving needles into Kei's left arm. Kei didn't even have to look to know what had happened. She acted reflexively, whipping an adhesive patch from a pack on her belt and slapping it over the tear. The danger past, she allowed herself the luxury of a good curse. "Kei, are you alright?" asked Yuri. "Yeah, my left arm's gonna be numb for awhile, but I'll be okay. What was that?" "Just some debris. Whoever left didn't depressurize the chamber after they got into the pod." Once inside, they found that, working together, they could pull the large door closed again with relative ease. Unfortunately, with Elenore's sun on the other side, the chamber was now pitch black. Yuri turned on a handlight, which helped, but not much. "One more door to go and then we're in." Together, they got the inner door open. This time, Kei pulled with her one arm and Yuri pushed. There was a creak, followed by a rush as the chamber filled with air. Unseen objects in the air brushed against Yuri's suit and clattered against her helmet. Yuri shined the light around, and found it reflected back at her in dozens of twinkling points. "Kei, the air is full of glass shards. One must've cut you when we opened the outer door." "Glass?" "Yeah, it's all over the place. We better be careful when we go in." Yuri peered through the door with the help of her light and was momentarily dizzy. Since they had come in through a "well", her mind still thought of "down" as being towards the door. Looking through gave the impression of vast height. Yuri swallowed, did a mental exercise, and shifted her directions ninety degrees. Now the "shaft" looked like what it was, a corridor. Only, now there was another problem. "Gee, it...it sure is dark in there." "Oh, c'mon, Yuri, don't start that." "Start *what*? I...I was just making a point, that's all." Kei and Yuri drifted down the dark, silent, corridor. Their handlights helped them see, but did little to improve the mood of the place. The ship seemed to be as ugly and functional inside as it was out. Everything in sight was a metallic gray. The color seemed to ignore the light that fell upon it, as if it wasn't worth the bother to reflect it back. "God, this place is depressing," Kei said. "And the explorers would spend *years* in places like this? I'll bet they went nuts. Maybe that would explain what happened. What do you think, Yuri?" Yuri didn't reply. "Yuri?" Yuri started. "Oh! Uh, yeah, maybe." Yuri had been distracted by the shadows cast by her light. They leapt out from behind every door and object that they passed and hid when the light was turned in their direction. It was like the ship was full of goblins. A signal went off in Yuri's helmet. She found it a welcome distraction. "Kei, do you read that?" "Yeah. Looks like there's a system still active on this ship. Reading's so faint, the Lovely Angel must not have picked it up. Wanna go check it out? It should just be a couple of decks down from here." No, Yuri thought. I wanna turn around and get out of this place as fast as I can. "Uh, s-sure. Let's go see. It's probably nothing." They found an access ladder and floated "down" to what they guessed from the strength of the reading was the correct level. If anything, this level was even gloomier than the one on which they had entered. Plenty of glass still covered the floor, and the girls had to brush it out of the way when Kei inadvertently kicked it up. The shadows were still giving Yuri the willies. The fact that the ship wasn't dead after all, that there was still something running on it, somehow made it worse. She found herself wishing that her grandfather were here. He had always known how to make the booga-monster under her bed go away. Yuri stopped. Her heart leapt into her throat. Out of the corner of her eye she could see it, waiting. Its eyes shimmered, looking unalive but by no means dead. Its mouth was a mass of razor-sharp, irregular fangs. It lay in wait, mouth gaping, waiting for Yuri to make the fatal move that would alert it to her presence. Then that mouth would whip forward, sinking its fangs into her flesh, ripping, tearing, cutting... Yuri whimpered, but Kei didn't hear. She turned her head as slowly as she could. It was a blown-out CRT monitor, with a couple of metal buttons above it. Yuri started to giggle, then laugh. "Hey," started Kei, tapping Yuri on the back. "YAAAAHH!!" she continued, as Yuri screamed and flung her friend down the corridor. "Kei! Oh, Kei! I'm sorry!" Yuri leaped after Kei, who was bouncing off the walls and letting off a different curse with each hit. "Shit, Yuri, you ditzy, stupid, hyperactive twit!!" finished Kei as she came to a rest. "Where am I?" She gathered in her handlight from the short tether that connected it to her belt, shone it ahead of herself, and found herself face-to-face with a corpse. It was Kei's turn to scream. She pushed away from the transparent coffin and floated backward into Yuri, who had just caught up with her. Together they ricocheted off the opposite wall and ended up in a tangled mess, wedged behind a console. "Who's a twit, Kei?" said Yuri as she tried to work Kei's boot free of her face. "D-dead body! Over there!" Once they had extracted themselves and gathered their wits, they checked out the "coffin". Readings from their helmet sensors confirmed it was the active system they had been looking for. Yuri brushed away some dust to reveal lighted indicators on the cryo-chamber. "This guy's alive?" asked Kei. "According to this, yes." "But it's been almost *eighty years*!" "Cryo-chambers were built with independent power. Nuclear cells. They could operate for two hundred years if they had to." Kei took a look at the young red-haired man in the cryo. "Hmm. Y'know, except for that scar on his cheek, he's kinda cute, in a Beaver Cleaver, take-him-home-to-meet-Mom kind of way. Your kinda guy, Yuri." "Oh, shut up." "So, what do we do with him?" "That's a good question. We don't know what will happen when we start to tow this ship. It might have been weakened by whatever happened to it. Whole decks could collapse. It isn't safe to leave him here." Kei looked back toward the sleeping crewman. "Well, we can't let him out. He'd freeze to death before we could get him into a suit." "I guess we'll have to take the whole thing back to the Lovely Angel." Kei stared at Yuri. "What, you don't mean carry it?" "Why not? There's no gravity to deal with. The problem won't be carrying it but steering it." Kei looked back at the cryo once more, then shrugged. The girls got to work. It took them almost two hours to get the cryo from the one ship to the other. First, Yuri went back to the Lovely Angel to get the tools necessary to undo the bolts fastening the cryo to the floor. After it was free, they began the hard task of coaxing the thing into drifting in the direction they wanted. There were a few slip-ups, such as when Kei stepped her magnetic boot onto a pile of glass, tripped and sent the cryo out of control down the hallway, forcing Yuri to use her thruster pack to stop it. There was also the difficulty of getting the thing up the ladder wells between the levels. But they at last reached the airlock, and maneuvered the cryo into and through it. Once outside, they used a method of transportation learned at the 3WA academy. Yuri rode belly-down on top of the cryo, facing the Lovely Angel, while Kei rode the bottom, facing the opposite direction. Thus, Yuri acted as forward thrust while Kei provided the brakes. Finally, the Angels entered their ship's airlock. Kei let go, and the cryo and Yuri glided into the lock and made a light landing. Kei followed, closed the door, and pressurized the chamber. Kei slumped against the cryo, following Yuri's example, and took off her helmet. "Boy, am I winded. He better not be dead, or I'll kill him." Yuri touched her earring to activate her communicator. She didn't quite feel up to standing to reach the intercom. "Mughi, bring a stretcher to the starboard airlock, okay? We've got a visitor." She leaned back and let out a breath. "Oh, well. No time like the present. Shall we open him up?" The Angels groaned and got to their feet. "You do the honors," said Kei. "You're better at figuring these things out." Yuri examined the small console set into the lid of the cryo, crossed her fingers and pressed a button. For a moment nothing happened, and Yuri smiled nervously at a glaring Kei. Then the seal broke with a "PISH!" and cold air blew out of the cryo, condensing the water vapor in the airlock in a white cloud. The pod opened automatically. Kei and Yuri stared nervously as they waited to see whether they had brought aboard a frozen person or a frozen corpse. The red-haired man stirred slightly and groaned. "Kei, he's alive!" shouted Yuri. "Didn't I tell you?" She walked closer and leaned over the man. "Sir? Can you hear me?" The man's eyes opened, slowly, and he strained to focus. Yuri continued to talk to him. "Try to relax, sir. It will take awhile for you to fully adjust." "Yeah," Kei said. "Especially since you've been a popsicle for the last eighty years." Yuri glared at Kei for her lack of tact. Then the man did something neither one of them expected. He smiled, a big, warm, happy smile. "Well, how about that. You found me." Yuri looked puzzled for an instant, then returned the smile, as best she could. "That's right, sir. You were in space for a long time, but we found you. You're safe now." The red-haired laughed softly. "When I ponder all the problems I've had in past times trying to find *you*, it presents quite a pleasant change to have you find me first. And now, Efena, Gliora. If you'll but help me out of this device, the three of us have a task to perform." END CHAPTER ONE ---------- Ryan Mathews Here it finally is. Hope you think it was worth the wait. In this part you will... SEE -- Kei and Yuri's new acquaintance introduce himself SEE -- Kei almost blow up some reporters SEE -- Their supervisor choke on a glass of champagne SEE -- The girls steal their own ship ---------------------------------------------------------------------- THE DIRTY PAIR in THE GAME ETERNAL by Ryan Mathews CHAPTER TWO The story so far: Seventy-eight years ago, the deep- space exploration ship _Lewis and Clark_ encountered an unknown entity while searching for planets to be colonized. Two years later, Captain Nora MacPherson was found in a cryogenic escape capsule, with no memory of what had happened to her ship. It is now 2142, and Kei and Yuri, headed toward Elenore and home, discover the derelict _Lewis_ drifting toward the Lovely Angel. The girls decide to check out the ship, one of the incentives for doing so being that they will own it, by salvage laws, and can sell it, perhaps to MacPherson's granddaughter, who is the richest woman in the galaxy and collects old spaceships. Exploring the ship, they find another surviving crewman, an innocent-looking young man who has spent the last 78 years in a cryogenic suspension capsule. As they revive him, to their utter astonishment, he seems to recognize them, as girls he calls Efena and Gliora, and asks to be helped out of the pod. ------------------------------------------------------------- There was a brief silence. Finally, Yuri cleared her throat and said the only thing she could think of. "Uh, okay." She helped the man out of the capsule. What else was there to do? The problem with dealing with the obviously insane is that there isn't any logical course of action. The man got up and stretched. Then he began to examine each limb, as if he were seeing it for the first time. Satisfied that he had the correct number of fingers and joints, he clapped his hands and smiled at the girls. "Well! Shall we begin?" Kei opened her mouth, but Yuri quickly slapped a hand over it. Yuri had no idea what Kei was about to say, but felt it couldn't possibly be anything constructive. Yuri didn't want risk provoking the man. "Um," Yuri started again, "sure! What exactly do you have in mind?" "Why, to confront Nag'sharath, of course. Surely you jest, Efena." thought Yuri. "Right! Right, Nag'sharath! Why don't you lie down for awhile, first, while, uh, while Gliora and I check you out? You've been in suspended animation for a long time, y'know. Don't want to go rushing things." Yuri smiled the best smile she knew and hoped the man didn't see the drop of sweat trickling down her brow. Kei, her mouth still covered by Yuri's hand, tried to smile as well and didn't quite succeed. "Nag'sharath is not one to wait, Efena. Every second we tarry could spell disaster for the society." The tone the man took was one of a teacher, content to lecture a point that he has made many times in the past and that he will be content to make many times again. "Now, let us begin." "Well, it's already been seventy-eight years. Surely a couple more minutes won't--OW!" yelled Yuri as Kei bit her finger. "What Efena's trying to say," Kei said with an ingratiating smile, "is that our mediscanner won't take more than a moment to tell if you're okay. It'll take longer than that to reach our destination, right, Efena?" "Thure," said Yuri, sucking on her finger. The man looked impatient for a moment, then sighed. "Oh, if you insist. But I assure you, the body is fine." Kei took the man by the elbow. "Allow me to lead you to the medical chamber." She led the man out of the airlock chamber, pausing only to turn her head and stick her tongue out at Yuri. A few minutes later, Kei joined Yuri on the bridge. "I think I convinced him to stay put for the time being. Or at least until the test is over, which should be awhile. I programed the scanner to give him the works." She sat down next to Yuri. "Well, this little jaunt was certainly successful," Kei said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Let's see, what did we end up with? Antiques? Gold? Nope, just a perfectly preserved loony from the last century. I wonder how much we can get for him?" "Oh, please shut up." said Yuri. She was accessing the files on the _Lovely Angel_'s on-board database. "What are we going to do with him? Will you just answer that?" "If you'll shut up and let me work, I just might have an answer for that. Ah-hah!" Yuri pointed to the screen. "The encyclopedia does have an entry for the _Lewis and Clark_! It was under `DISAPPEARANCES, SHIPS'. Here's our friend." The screen showed a photograph that looked precisely like the man they had found, save for the lack of a scar on his left cheek. The data next to the picture read: NAME : Scott "Red" Johnson AGE : 27 at estimated time of disappearance * FUNCTION: Junior officer, co-pilot, engineering tech * -- Age given is chronological. Due to extended periods in suspended animation, biological age may have been much less. Kei studied the information. "You think if we confront him with this, he'll regain his senses?" "Geez, no! That's the last thing we want to do. We're not psychiatrists, Kei. We'd probably just confuse him. We don't want to risk making his behavior unpredictable." "More than it is now, you mean." "Yeah. What I was thinking of doing was printing this information out and taking it to a hospital. I'm sure there's a lot a facilities that would love to help, for the publicity if not out of the kindness of their hearts." Kei thought about this. "That sounds okay. But what were you planning to do with him while you shop his picture around?" "Well, I thought we could put him up at our place." Kei's eyes nearly popped out of her skull. "WHAT?!! NO! No WAY!! I'm not living with that nut!" "It'd only be for a few days," said Yuri, patiently. "What else can we do with him? We can't just dump him." "Let the 3WA deal with him!" "We could do that. But..." Yuri paused and let out a breath. "See, Kei, there's this little problem. If the 3WA finds out there was someone alive on that ship, our salvage rights sort of go `poof'." Kei blinked. "Hey, you're right. But if you're saying if we keep it quiet, we might still make some money?" She smiled and patted Yuri on the back. "Yuri, that's so sneaky! I'm proud of you!" "Don't compliment me. I'm feeling guilty enough about this already." "Well, when you put it that way, I guess he can stay at our place. But he's not sleeping in my bed." Yuri winked at Kei. "Why not? I thought you said he was cute." Kei opened her mouth to say something particularly caustic and was interrupted. "We're going in the wrong direction." Red had found his way onto the bridge. "Nag'sharath is to be found there," he said, pointing to his right. "Don't confuse him?" Kei asked, out of the side of her mouth. "Don't confuse him," Yuri confirmed. She pasted the smile back onto her face. "Uh...of course! But, um, but--" "We're low on fuel!" Kei volunteered. "Right, right! Low on fuel! Gotta fill up the ol' tank!" Red did not reply. He began to examine the girls with a look on his face that was beginning to resemble suspicion. Yuri began to sweat again. She was certain she had forgotten to do something, but with her mind so preoccupied with humoring their guest, she couldn't think of what. Suddenly Red's eyes focused on the data screen behind Yuri, and the knowledge of what she had forgotten hit her like a hammer. She lunged at the terminal, trying to hit the button that would clear the picture of Red off the screen, missed it, and instead set off a host of error alarms. Yuri cursed to herself. Whatever Red's suspicions were, they would almost certainly be confirmed now. "Could it be," Red started, cautiously. "Could it be that you don't know who I am?" "Uhh..." was all Kei and Yuri could manage. They readied themselves for the possible violent outburst. "No. You don't. As astounding as it may seem, you haven't the slightest idea. You don't even know who *you* really are." Kei and Yuri didn't even bother trying to say anything. How could anyone possibly reply to that statement? Red was silent for a moment, then turned toward them and smiled. "Well! I don't suppose it can be helped, can it? Let us start again. Who do believe yourselves to be?" Kei looked at Yuri, who nodded. She cleared her throat. "I'm Kei. She's Yuri. We're the Lovely Angels." Red bowed. "It is an honor to meet you. Now I shall introduce myself. Contrary to what your library-machine believes, I am not Red Johnson. I am Tarc Meridian, last of the Crystal Knights." "Um, pleased to meet you," said Yuri. She bowed back. It seemed the sensible thing to do. Kei just stood and watched, arms crossed. "Now, I know what you think. You think, `This is actually Red Johnson, stricken with the madness and believing himself to be a fanciful do-gooder.' Not so. This is Red's body, I will admit. But Red is dormant within it. I, Meridian, am in control. I was awakened by the rebirth of Nag'sharath, it which it is my only purpose to confront." "So what is Nag'sharath?" asked Kei. She didn't really think it was important, but was curious to see just how nuts this guy really was. "Nag'sharath is Evil. Evil incarnate. A demon that lives only to cause pain. But perhaps you would be more interested in knowing what Nag'sharath looks like." He walked to the library console and hit one button several times, paging through the crew's photos. "Nag'sharath looks like that." The picture was of Nora MacPherson. Meridian noticed the girls reaction to the image. "Ah, so you *do* recognize it." "Um, sort of," said Yuri. "It's a picture of a very famous woman. She escaped--" "She escaped from the vessel out there," Meridian interrupted. "I know. I was next to her when it occurred. But it was not Lady MacPherson who escaped. It was Nag'sharath, having found a new home in the lady's body. Before Red's mind fell completely dormant, he imparted to me the knowledge of how I could wait for my own escape. Thus I waited in the sleep-coffin for your eventual arrival. Now we three are reunited and can send the demon back to the abyss!" Meridian stopped for a moment and examined the girls' faces. "You don't believe me. No, it's worse than that. My words are gibberish to you. My God, what has happened to the universe..." Kei decided to have a go at talking to him. "Listen, mister, uh..." "Meridian." "Meridian, yeah, right. Look, where we're going, there's lots of authorities you can tell your story to. We work for one of them." "Yeah!" Yuri chimed in. "We're cops! Our organization could surely solve any problem you have! Just--" Meridian angrily cut her off. "It is not for some organization to solve this `problem'! It is for *us*! The three of us, souls bound by an ancient pact to an eternal destiny! It is Good versus Evil, the Game Eternal! And it begins now!!" Kei looked away and muttered under her breath. "Hoo, boy, what a prize..." Yuri muttered back. "Please don't say anything stupid, Kei, alright?" She decided the time had come to make things clear to Red Johnson or Tarc Meridian or whoever he thought he was. "Mr. Meridian, I can appreciate that you think you have an enemy to fight--" "*We* do. It is not a delusion." "Well, whatever the case, we can't just turn this ship around and go after your alleged demon. We have responsibilities to the people we work for. Now you were asleep on that ship for seventy-eight years. Whatever this thing is, it waited for you that long, and it can surely wait a few days longer." Meridian glanced toward the controls of the ship. In flash, Kei was in his face. "Don't even think about it, jerk!" "Kei!" Yuri shouted. "Hey, I know that look! He was trying to decide if he could take over the ship!" Meridian looked at Kei, then at Yuri, then smiled. "You may not know who you are, but you haven't changed a bit. Very well, it seems I have no choice. We shall delay the Game, at least until I can convince you that it can no longer be delayed." Kei was still pissed. "Man, you just don't get it, do you? You've been out of it for *seventy-eight years*! Your demon-lady is dead by now!! Whatever it is that's got you so worried, don't you think it would've happened by now?!" Meridian smiled once more, only this time the smile was decidedly grim. "What makes you so certain that it hasn't?" The final approach to Elenore was uneventful, or at least as uneventful as it could possibly be, as the Lovely Angel arrived behind schedule towing an historical ship nearly eight times its size. They paused for a moment to arrange a secure orbit for the _Lewis_and_Clark_. The man who took their call didn't reply to their request right away. Instead, he stared at them for a moment, looked back and forth between the girls and another screen that presumably showed what they were towing. Then he laughed and gave them coordinates. His reaction should've warned the Angels as to what would happen when they landed, but it didn't, and they were quite a bit surprised to find the _Lovely_Angel_'s reserved dock space surrounded by reporters. "Oh shit, Yuri, now what do we do?" Looking at the sea of faces surrounding their ship, Kei could feel their newly-found meal ticket slipping away. If the media was this excited about the _Lewis_ being found, she could just imagine what they'd do if they met the man who had been on board. "Just stay calm and don't talk to them. That won't seem out of the ordinary. The media know we hate them." "Right." Kei rehearsed to herself. "`No comment.' `No comment.'" She got out of the co-pilot's seat. "I'll go get Prince Valiant." Avoiding the media proved not to be as easy as that. The moment Kei, Yuri, and Mughi disembarked, followed by Red/Meridian in a blonde wig that Kei had gotten him to wear by telling him it was the custom, they were cut off from their aircar by a sea of reporters shoving cameras and microphones in their faces. "Is it true that you discovered the _Lewis_and_Clark_?" "No comment," recited Kei. "Have you discovered any clue to what happened to the ship?" "No comment." "Who's your friend? Did he have anything to do with it?" "No--" To the Angels utter horror, Meridian answered. "I am Tarc Meridian, last of--" Yuri cut in, smiling nervously. "Last of the great singing idols of the Olantrix System! I'm surprised you don't recognize him. His last three albums went gold." The reporters couldn't have cared less. "Are there any records on the _Lewis_ that could solve the mystery?" "No--" started Kei, then bumped into the reporter in front of her. "Hey, move it, jerk!" The reporter didn't move. Neither did any of the others, who continued to hurl questions at them as if they didn't care whether or not they got answers. Yuri whispered to Kei. "They seem to have figured out that we have to get through them to get to the car." She turned to Mughi. "Mughi, look fierce." Mughi cleared his throat and started a menacing growl, which turned into a yawn. He looked at Yuri and grinned sheepishly. Yuri looked disgusted. "Fat lot of good you are." "No problem," Kei whispered back. "I planned for this." Kei went to her belt, which held one cylindrical grenade. She twisted the top until the indicator read "IMPACT" and held it in the air. "Hey, guys! You wanna move it, or you wanna get blown to pieces?" She pressed the arming button so everyone could see it light up. "You wouldn't dare!!" shouted the reporter Kei had bumped into. "Yeah," said Yuri, sweating. "You-- You wouldn't, would you?" "Sure I would! I feel reckless today." She began to toss the grenade from one hand to the other. "'Course, I always feel a little reckless." Kei's reporter, who now seemed to be the leader of the pack, started to sweat himself, but held his ground. "She's-- She's bluffing! Not even she would be that--" "WHEEEEE!" Kei tossed the grenade high into the air. The reporter began to scream at the top of their lungs. So did Yuri. Kei caught the grenade and immediately tossed it again, grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Watch this! Behind the back!" That was all the reporters needed to hear, as they nearly began to kill themselves running away. Kei successfully made the behind-the-back catch and turned triumphantly to Yuri. "TA-DAAA!" Yuri was curled up in a ball on the tarmac. Meridian, on the other hand, just stood there, smiling approvingly. Once the reporters had all cleared out, Yuri uncurled herself and slowly began to try to get to her feet. "Y- you're fuh-fuh, you're NUTS!!!" Kei looked annoyed. "Oh, c'mon, Yuri! Do you really think I'd put you in any danger? This is a dud! Look!" Kei threw the grenade at the area where the reporters had been standing moments ago. The resulting explosion knocked the three of them onto the ground. "Well, it was a dud the last time I tried to use it." At last, the four reached the Angels' apartment in Damocles Tower. Meridian had been curious ever since they had entered the complex. "Do you know that this tower leans?" "Shut up," Kei answered. "I'm sorry, is that a sensitive topic? Would it have something to do with why everyone else in this tower gives you dirty looks as you pass?" Yuri ignored him and keyed in the entry code. She swiped a card through a slot underneath the keypad and the door opened. They walked into the apartment. "Welcome to our humble abode. Kei, why don't you show him where he can sleep." "Oh, this couch will be fine." Meridian patted the furniture in question with his hand. "Yes, quite nice." Kei walked over to a console set in the wall beneath a viewscreen. "Might as well check my mail." She hit some keys, bringing up a screenful of data. "Wow! Yuri, Bobby Huey sent me a copy of his new album. He still remembers me!" "I'm happy for you, Kei," said Yuri sarcastically. "Ooh, that's not the only one who remembers." Kei hit another button and a good-looking man appeared on the screen. "I miss you, Kei," he said. "I can't wait to see you again and stick my tongue between your--BOOP!" Kei quickly cut off the recording. "Uh, heh-heh! I think I'll save that one for later." Meridian examined the console. "What manner of device is this?" Kei's initial impulse was not to answer him; she was still a little annoyed at the prospect of sharing the apartment with a kook. After a second's thought, though, she decided being rude would only make it worse. "Oh, this is sort of our window onto the world," Kei said. "We get our mail here, communicate with other people, even do shopping. It's real convenient." "Yeah," agreed Yuri, "but not as much fun as shopping for real. Wanna hit the mall after we meet with Goulet tomorrow?" "Sure! Heck, after a couple hours with Goulet, I need to go shopping." She yawned and stretched. "I think I'm gonna download Bobby's album and let his sexy voice carry me off to dreamland." "I think I'll turn in too," said Yuri. "Um, Tarc? Will you need anything?" "No. No, I'll be just fine here." He eyed the console again. "Hmm. Interesting." That night, Yuri had a very curious dream. In the morning, she almost told Kei, but thought better of it. Later, she would wish she had told her. It might have saved them a little trouble. [continued in next post] ---------- Ryan Mathews -- Email: bn981@cleveland.freenet.edu DISCLAIMER: Any resemblence of this Snailmail: 786 High Street article to rational thought is Bedford, OH 44146 purely coincidental. [continued from last post] Frances Goulet was happy. He practically skipped down the hall toward his office at WWWA headquarters. What a morning, what a day! Why, he hadn't had a day this good since, well, since the Lovely Angels had been placed under him. He had even foregone his usual morning preventative dose of antacid, which was especially incredible, seeing as how he was about to debrief the Angels on their latest mission. He usually took two doses on those days. But this was no ordinary day. Oh, sure, the Angels' mission had ended in typical fashion, with a ninety-eight story skyscraper falling over, causing a domino effect which demolished most of a major city, but then came the news of what the Angels had done on their way back! He felt like breaking into song. What the hell, he decided he *would* break into song! "Oh, I'm sittin' on top of world, lookin' down on creation..." "Hey, Frances! You look especially chipper this morning!" It was Colberg from down the hall. He stood next to his aide, who was staring bleary-eyed into a cup of coffee, as if he couldn't decide whether to drink or inhale it. "Rick! How are you this fine, fine, morning?" beamed Goulet. "Oh, I'm just peachy and swell, thank you very much. What's gotten into you? Who's the bubbly for? You dating on the job? Breaking in a new secretary?" "What, this?" Goulet pulled out the bottle of Dom Perignon '33 he'd been carrying under his arm. "Oh, this is for two beautiful young ladies who are about to make me very, very, famous. I'm on my way to debrief them right now." Colberg gave him a look. "Uh, pardon me, but did I hear you right? It sounded like you just said you were looking forward to meeting with the Lovely Angels." "I've never looked forward to anything more," said Goulet, and danced toward his office. "It's a beau-ti-ful morning, gonna meet my favorite two girls today, hey, hey!" Colberg shook his head as he watched him go. "It's so sad when they finally crack." "Mmf," agreed the aide into his coffee. "Kei! Yuri! How are you? How was your trip home? Did you sleep well?" Goulet placed the champagne on his desk. Kei and Yuri didn't answer, just stared at their unusually cheerful boss as if he was nuts, which Kei half-suspected he was. Their silence didn't seem to dampen his spirits in the slightest. "I am *so* glad to see you two!" He gave Yuri a big hug, much to the girl's shock. He turned to Kei, beaming. "Don't touch me!" yelled Kei, drawing back. "Who are you and what have you done with Goulet?" "I'm sorry. You must pardon my enthusiasm. Things like this don't happen to me every day." "Like what?" asked Kei. "Did you get laid?" "Ha, ha!" smiled Goulet. "Ordinarily, I'd scream at you for that little crack, but I'm in too good of a mood today." Yuri blinked, trying to get the glazed stare off her face. She still couldn't believe that Goulet had hugged her and was trying to clear the memory from her mind. "This, does this have something to do with us finding the _Lewis and Clark_?" "Indeed it does, indeed it does!" Goulet pulled the cork out of the champagne and produced three glasses from inside his desk. "Join in me in a toast, won't you? To your historic discovery!" He filled the glasses. Kei and Yuri looked at him funny. "Oh, c'mon! It's not every day your boss offers you a drink!" "He's got a point, there." Kei agreed. The girls picked up the glasses. "To fame, fortune, and our names in history!" said Goulet, raising his glass. "`Our'?" asked Yuri. She sniffed the wine and tasted it. Good stuff. "We're the ones who found it," said Kei, knocking her glass back in one gulp. "And for that, I am eternally grateful. Let me show you something." Goulet opened up his briefcase and pulled out a printed sheet. "This is the press release that's going out tomorrow." Yuri took the sheet and read it, her face registering mild surprise. "3WA to reopen investigation of _Lewis_and_ Clark_ disappearance? Why?" "I've got a better question," said Kei. "Who's paying for it?" "No one!" Goulet said. "We're doing it for the publicity!" Goulet's smile grew even wider, and he leaned back in his chair. "Go on, keep reading." Yuri read on. "_Lewis_and_Clark_, blah, blah, blah, discovered by WWWA's Lovely Angels, blah, blah, blah, investigation to be led by Frances Goulet. Ohhhh..." "It was my idea. I figured the 3WA could use a little good publicity. Lord knows you two could." Kei sniffed. "Our publicity's just fine. It's not our problem the idiots out there don't know an accident when they see one. How is this investigation crap going to help me?" "Well for starters, attractive young men from all over the UG are going to want to meet the two ladies that found the legendary lost ship. I understand the standard male reaction to your presence these days is to scream and run away." Kei thought about it. It would be nice to be able to go on dates without having to lie about what she did for a living, she thought. She turned to Yuri. "What do you think? Maybe he's got a point." Yuri took another sip of her champagne and thought for a moment. "What exactly would this investigation entail?" "Ah! I thought you might ask." Goulet pulled a datachip out of his case and inserted it into a slot on the desk. "I spent all night on this." An animated illustration of his plan appeared on a screen behind him as he talked. "First, we land it. Not easy, mind you, but using five tow- ships in tandem, I think we can bring it down in the Elgrave desert. Then we erect a scaffolding and go over every centimeter of the surface, to see if we can find clues as to what it encountered. Then we'll just crack the ship open and search the inside. Here's the best part. When we're all done, we'll turn the whole thing into a 3WA-sponsored museum, right there! Think of the funds we'll bring in! You girls have really done this organization a service. Consider yourselves up for a commendation." The girls looked at each other, then shook their heads. "Sorry", Yuri said, "we're not interested." "Huh? `Not interested'? What do you mean by that?" Goulet felt something in the back of his head, some sort of bad premonition about what the girls were going to say next. He took another sip of wine to make it go away. "Well, if it's all the same to you," said Kei calmly, "we're going to sell the ship." Goulet violently spewed his mouthful of wine all over the girls and had a choking fit. His secretary came running into the room. "Mr. Goulet! Are you okay?!" Goulet tried to answer in the affirmative but all that came out was a raspy hacking noise. He pulled a bottle of antacid from his desk, twisted off the top and took a long swig. He wiped his mouth, made another hacking noise, and waved his secretary away. The secretary glared at the Pair as she left. "One of these days, you're going to kill him, you know! And then I'll be unemployed!" She stormed out of the office. Goulet made another attempt to speak. "Ssssssss. Seh. Sssell the ship? What the HELL do you mean?" Kei had gotten the worst of the champagne spew and was trying to brush it off her uniform, with little success. "Well, it's ours! Salvage laws! We found it, we can do what we want with it!" The veins were standing out on Goulet's neck, veins which the Pair knew like the back of their hands. "Yours?! It's not yours, you stupid ditzes! The ship belongs to the owner of the ship that finds it! We PROVIDE the _Lovely Angel_ to you! You don't OWN it!!" This was news to Yuri. She had thought herself pretty familiar with all UG laws. "You mean, even though we did all the work, it's still belongs to the 3WA? That sucks!" "The moment you locked the _Lovely Angel_'s towing beams on the _Lewis and Clark_, it became our property! It is OUR ship!" Goulet knew he was overheating, but didn't care. He'd be damned if he'd let the Dirty Pair yank away the one chance he had for a little respect in the department. Kei was really pissed now. She decided that if Goulet was going to ruin her chance to get rich, then she'd ruin his fun. She grinned wickedly. "Well, the jokes on you, mister! It isn't your ship because--" "AHEM!" Yuri coughed as loudly as she could. She thought she'd figured a way out of this and didn't want Kei to screw it up. "So you're saying that the ship became the property of the 3WA the minute the _Lovely Angel_ touched it?" "That's right," confirmed Goulet. "Aha! But *we* touched it first! We did an EVA and entered the ship before we started towing it! And we bought the spacesuits ourselves, remember? The propulsion packs on the standard suits kept malfunctioning! Sorry, Frances, it's ours!" Yuri grinned, pleased with herself. "What?" It was more of a whimper than a question. "Yay!" cheered Kei. "We're gonna get rich after all!" Goulet slumped in his chair, stunned. "You... Do you have proof of this?" "Sure!" said Kei. "We have an empty cryo-chamber we took off the ship!" "Why would you take an empty cryo-chamber?" Yuri thought up the best lie she could. "Um, because it was still active and we weren't sure it was empty until we opened it." Goulet stared at the two agents. It couldn't be over that quickly. It just couldn't be. "No. I don't think so. You still found the ship with the _Lovely Angel_." "But we touched it first," Yuri reminded him. "Yeah!" agreed Kei. "Admit it, you lost!" Goulet scowled. More times than he could remember, he had cursed the 3WA's loyalty to that wretched computer. It was that blasted machine's continual forgiveness of the Lovely Angels that prevented him from firing the girls on the spot, much as he wanted to. They were, after all, officially the best agents in the organization. "We'll let a court decide who it belongs to." "No way!" Kei said. "We're not stickin' around that long. Yuri and I think we have a buyer lined up!" An evil smile spread across Goulet's face, and for moment it looked like Meridian might be wrong, that his demon had possessed the Angels' boss. "Heh, heh. Oh, I think you'll stick around. I'm revoking your right to use the _Lovely Angel_." "WHAT?!?" the girls screamed in unison. "B-b-but," Yuri stammered. "That's not fair!" "Welcome to the real world, ladies." Kei glared at him. "Who needs your stupid ship? We'll just rent another one!" "No, you won't," leered Goulet. "I'm also freezing your credit accounts." "You can't do that!" shouted Yuri. "Watch me." For nearly a minute, the two sides glared at each other. Finally, Goulet broke the silence. "Get out. I don't feel like debriefing you now. I'll see you tomorrow at 0900 sharp. Let me know if you change your mind." For a moment, it seemed like Kei wasn't going to leave, but Yuri put a hand on her shoulder. "C'mon, Kei. Let's go." They did. The two girls trudged back to their apartment, Kei still pissed, Yuri still depressed. Yuri sighed. "So much for going shopping, huh, Kei?" "Don't you have a little extra money in another account? I do." "Sure, but that's emergency money!" "So? This is an emergency!" "Kei, let's call this off. I want my money back." "We'll get our money back! We'll sue his pants off if we have to!" Kei pounded her fist into the palm of her hand in illustration. "I hope so. Besides, we sort of committed ourselves when we didn't tell Goulet about Meridian. Lying to superiors is a big no-no." "We've done it before!" "Yeah, but we never got caught." Yuri stopped as they reached the entrance to their apartment. She worked the electronic lock again, and got a beep for her trouble. "Hey! The door's not locked!" "Don't look at me! I know I locked the thing." The Angels hadn't gone to the meeting armed, but their uniforms included tiny backup pistols in a pocket on the insides of their boots. They drew them and took up positions on either side of the door. Yuri pressed a button and the door opened. The girls leapt inside and swept the room. Mughi was on his back, all four legs tied together with one of Kei's bras. Yuri rushed to him. "Mughi, what happened?" She tried to untie him. "Geez, this is hard to get undone! How do your boyfriends manage it?" "Ooooh! Funny, funny!" Kei looked around the apartment. It was obvious what had happened, but she asked anyway. "Mughi, did Meridian do this to you?" Mughi nodded. "Where did he go?" His legs still tied, Mughi pointed at the computer console with his tail. Kei rushed over and activated the console. "Oh, SHIT!!" "What?" "That asshole figured out how to work this thing! He just rented a shuttle with our money!" "Oh, no! He's going back to the _Lewis and Clark_, he has to be!" "Why?" Yuri finally got Mughi untied. The animal gratefully rolled over and stretched. "Why do you think? He's going to restart it and go after Nag'sharath! He could do it, too! Red Johnson was a technician, remember? He knows that ship inside and out!" "Then we gotta go after him!" "No argument there!" Yuri stood up and brushed a few stray Mughi-hairs off her uniform. "Just one thing," said Kei, scratching her head, "how are we gonna go after him?" "We'll figure it out on the way to the spaceport!" Yuri ran out of the room, and Kei and Mughi hurried to catch up. They arrived at the spaceport and were told by a bored, gum-chewing lady receptionist that the shuttle in question had already departed. The girls rushed back to their aircar. "You know what we have to do now, don't you?" said Yuri between breaths. "Yeah," replied Kei. "The question is how? If Goulet was serious, our ship'll be surrounded by guards." She leaned back in the passenger seat and sighed. "Maybe you were right, Yuri. Maybe we should give it up. Seems like we're getting in more trouble every minute." "We'll be in even more trouble if he leaves without us. He wants to assassinate Nora Macpherson, remember? With her being dead, he'll probably target the granddaughter." "Yep. As usual, you've got a point, and as usual it sucks. Let's hear the plan." The _Lovely Angel_ was indeed surrounded by guards, and those closest to the girls as they drove up raised their rifles. The leader of the group, a tall man with the disdainful look of someone very convinced of his own importance, approached. "Well, well. What have we here? Trying to beat us here, were you? Goulet was right." "Oh, puh-leeze," said Yuri, feigning disgust. "We just want our clothes. We may not be allowed to fly the thing, but that doesn't mean you can hold our belongings!" The soldier didn't look convinced. "You look a little out of breath for someone only worried about clothing." Kei stood up in the car. "For your information, we both have very hot dates in a few hours. My sexiest dress is in there!" "You can even accompany us," said Yuri. "Pretty please?" She smiled her most adorable smile. "Oh, what the hell," grunted the soldier. "Lucas, Jones, come with me. Follow me, ladies." The two girls and their pet hopped out of the car. The soldier named Lucas spoke. "Does that thing have to come along?" "Who, Kei?" quipped Yuri. "She has to find her dress." "Oh hardy har har, Yuri. You should be on late-night 3V." Kei couldn't get too mad, because she knew why Yuri had said that. The misdirection worked, and Mughi was allowed on board without further complaint. Once up the steps and on board, the girls began walking toward their rooms. The leader of the security group shouted for them to stop. "Not so fast! You're both going to be escorted." "But a lady's room is her private space!" complained Yuri. "Don't worry ma'am. My men aren't perverts." Kei ran toward one of the soldiers and grabbed him by the arm. "I get Lucas! He's cuter!" Lucas started to sweat. Yuri strolled toward the other soldier. "Fine with me." She stroked his arm. "Jones has such nice muscles." Jones began sweating bullets himself. "Uh, m-ma'am? Don't try seducing us. W-we're trained professionals." "Ooooh!" shouted Kei. "That's even better! I like men with... experience." The leader had heard enough. "Oh, for cryssake, get on with it. And don't try anything! Remember, I'll be staying back here to back my men up!" Kei smiled at him. "You sure? I'll bet I could handle both of you." The leader glared at her. Giggling, the girls led their escorts away. As the leader watched them go, he thought he'd finally hit upon the reason why the ranks of trouble consultants were so full of cute young girls: it was tough to fight with an erection. He looked around and noticed that Mughi had walked off. he thought. Mughi made his way onto the bridge and climbed up onto the pilot seat. He clicked a button with one claw and a steel plate slid across the bridge entrance, sealing it off. He then turned on the engines. Kei was having fun with her escort. She held one of her slinky dresses in front of her. "What do you think? Will this turn my boyfriend on? It really shows off my bust." "Oh, th-that's just f-fine, ma'am," panted Lucas. "Of course, it's cut kinda low. One of my breasts might fall out. That would be sooo embarrassing." Kei saw the soldier sway slightly and decided she should cool it. The last thing she wanted him to do was to pass out in her room. Then it hit her: the man was swaying because the floor was swaying. "What the hell?" Lucas shouted. The communicator on the soldier's belt blared to life. "Lucas, Jones, get your asses to the bridge! We've got a situation!" "Roger! Come with me, ma'am." The two of them met Yuri and the other two soldiers outside the sealed bridge. The leader was furious. "Why the hell didn't you tell me that thing could operate the ship?" "You didn't ask," said Yuri. "Listen, I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding. We haven't taken off yet." She banged on the door. "Mughi! You're being a bad boy! Open the door for the nice soldiers!" In response, security lasers set into the wall fired, forcing them all away from the door. "Mughi!" Kei yelled. "Bad boy!" Another set off lasers fired, forcing them back farther. The leader had had enough. "Take out those damned lasers." The instant the soldiers touched their weapons, the lasers opened up with a continuous barrage. It cascaded from one set of emitters to the next, forcing everyone to run down the corridor. They soon arrived back at the entry hatch. "Hold your ground, men!" bellowed the leader. "We are *not* being forced off this ship!" A laser shaved a centimeter of hair from the top of his head. "GEEZUS!!" He pushed past Lucas and Jones and ran off the ship. His subordinates knew a bad sign when they saw one and quickly followed. Yuri started to follow as well but fell on her behind. Jones called back to her. "Ma'am, the two of you have gotta get off! Let a security ship handle this!" "I can't!" Yuri's hands pressed on an invisible wall in front of her. "He's activated the force field! We're trapped!" The soldiers watched helplessly as the steps folded up and the hatch slid closed. The leader furiously shouted something into his communicator. The _Lovely Angel_ took off, the roar of her engines drowning out the shouts of the guards below. Once the hatch had closed, Yuri started to giggle. Kei stared at her. "When did we have a force-field installed? I didn't think we could afford something like that." Yuri stopped giggling and starting laughing hysterically. She tried to get herself under control, failed, tried again and managed a semblance of composure. "L-look at me, Kei," she said. She placed her hands on a "wall" between the two girls. "Help, help, I'm trapped!" She started to giggle again. "Th-they fell for a *mime act*!" She doubled up on the floor in hysterics. Kei rolled her eyes. The two crewmembers of the 3WA ship assigned to guard the _Lewis and Clark_ were bored. The pilot, a blonde-haired lady in her mid-thirties, turned to her copilot, who was half-asleep. "Hey. Wake up, George." "Gimme a good reason and I will." As if to underline his defiance, he leaned back in his chair and pulled his cap over his eyes. "No one's interested in this pile of crap, Eileen." "You don't know that. There might be something really interesting inside it." "Yup. Sure." An alarm went off on the main console. Eileen checked it: a proximity alert. "Time to earn our pay. Someone's getting a little too close." George sat up and activated a sub-screen. It showed a magnified view of their tiny trespasser. "Oooh! An unarmed shuttle! Shall we go to full battle alert?" "I think a good talking-to will be sufficient." She opened a low-power communications channel. "Guardship to shuttle. Guardship to shuttle. The area immediately surrounding the _Lewis and Clark_ is off-limits to unauthorized personnel. Please alter your course." She clicked the channel closed. "That should take care of it. Probably just some reporter." "Well, he must really be interested in getting a story, because he's not stopping." "What?!" Eileen checked the screens. George was right. The shuttle was still approaching at a considerable rate of speed. She turned the communicator on again. "Guardship to shuttle! Alter your course immediately!" George waved her off. "You're wasting your breath. Take a look at this!" He placed the sub-screen at maximum magnification, allowing them to see into the cockpit. The shuttle had no pilot. Eileen did a mental calculation and estimated that the shuttle would pass them in ten seconds and impact with the _Lewis_ in less than twenty. Not enough time to stop it with a towing beam. "Arm a missile!" George did. "Fire!" George did. The missile found its target and obliterated it. Eileen watched the debris spread out. "I sure hope to God that no one was on board." "At the rate it was going the same thing would've happened when it rammed the ship," said George. "We'll never know anyway. No sense in worrying about it." The two of them had nothing to worry about. The shuttle had been empty. The only occupant had left in a spacesuit moments before the second transmission. Having successfully distracted the guards, he now drifted toward an airlock on the _Lewis_. In the _Lovely Angel_, Kei and Yuri saw the explosion and feared the worst. "Well, I guess that's that," said Kei. She suddenly felt this sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. It took her a moment to recognize it as guilt. "It... wasn't supposed to end like this." "I don't think he's dead," said Yuri. "Wha--?" "I know it sounds weird, but it just doesn't feel right. I don't know how to explain it." Kei was silent for a moment. Besides being her partner and best friend, Yuri was also one of the most rational girls Kei had ever met, even if she did get a little nervous around scary things. Belief in "weird feelings" wasn't like her. "So, um, what should we do about it?" "Keep heading for the _Lewis_ I guess. If something's gonna happen, we should be there." Meridian moved quickly. The knowledge he needed was not his, but Red's. He had managed to coax Red's mind back to consciousness, but the effort of keeping it there was tiring. He wouldn't be able to do it for too much longer. He floated down the unlit corridors with a handlight, brushing floating glass shards out of the way, until finally reaching the engineering section. After some work replacing burnt-out chips with chips from less necessary systems, he activated the backup power system. There was a shower of sparks and something behind Meridian exploded. He thought he'd failed for a moment, but then the cabin lit up around him. He raised his fist in victory, then fell painfully to the ground, followed by a shower of glass, as the artificial gravity came back on. Meridian picked himself up and ran to the bridge. "Yuri, look! You were right!" Kei pointed at the _Lewis_, which had suddenly lit up. The guardship that had been slowly circling the ship now pivoted to face it. Kei could imagine the looks on their faces. They probably looked a little like the one she had on hers. "Strap yourself in, guys. We're gonna need a lot of acceleration very soon!" Yuri began to bring the _Lovely Angel_'s main engines up to full power. She looked up briefly to see the guardship flying directly behind the _Lewis_. "Ohmigod! Those *morons*! What are they doing?!" The _Lewis_'s main fusion engines came on, momentarily blinding the pair until the canopy went partially opaque to compensate. The guardship was blown away like a mote of dust. Yuri watched it nervously as it spun out of control toward Elenore's atmosphere. A moment later, the guardship's engines came on and the ship began to stabilize. "Thank God they're okay," said Yuri. "That would have been all we needed, 3WA personnel dead." The _Lewis and Clark_ had already escaped orbit and was getting smaller as they watched. "I thought you said the engines weren't as powerful as they looked," Kei said. "Guess I was wrong. Hold on!" Yuri pulled a lever all the way back, and they were all pressed into their seats. They began to catch up to the _Lewis_, but slowly. A comm signal lit up on Kei's console. She strained against the acceleration to answer it and immediately wished she hadn't, as Goulet's apoplectic face appeared on the screen. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?!!" "Pursuing a stolen ship, sir," said Yuri, the G-forces squishing her smile into a grimace. "Stolen ship? STOLEN SHIP??!! What the hell are YOU doing in the _Lovely Angel_?" Kei was sick of this. If they were in trouble, they were in trouble. Trying to nice-talk Goulet wasn't going to help, so why bother? "What does it look like we're doing? We're trying to keep the _Lewis_ from being ripped off, which I might add, is a heluva lot more than your stupid guardship could do! If you don't like it, send someone up to shoot us down!" Goulet smiled the wicked smile the girls had seen earlier, in his office. "Oh, that's so tempting. Unfortunately, the _Lovely Angel_ cost us fifty million credits. So I'm afraid I'm just going to have to threaten you with termination." "What's that?" asked Yuri. "There's, um, static from the _Lewis_'s engines. Can't hear you." "DON'T BULLSHIT ME! I've had it up to HERE with--" Goulet's image and voice broke up into buzzing and crackling. The ancient fusion engines were throwing off interference after all. Yuri looked toward the ceiling and mouthed the word "thank you". The _Lovely Angel_ finally managed to pull alongside the still accelerating _Lewis_, and Yuri cut back on the engines. The girls sighed with relief as the G-forces dropped to a more reasonable level, which could be compensated for by the artificial gravity field. "Let's try to get in touch with our friend," Yuri said. "Got it," said Kei. She worked the comm. "_Lovely Angel_ to _Lewis and Clark_! Do you read?" Meridian appeared on the screen. He had removed the helmet to his spacesuit and appeared utterly calm. "Hello, Gliora. Do I read? That's an odd question." Yuri turned to face the comm screen. "Meridian, this is wrong. You have to bring the ship back." "I'm going to confront Nag'sharath. That is right." Yuri had been building a theory. She decided now was the time to use it. "You're mad at Nora, aren't you?" "Mad?" "You're mad because you feel she deserted you. Now you see her as a demon. This Tarc Meridian persona is just you're way of coping with the guilt you feel due to your desire to take revenge. You don't have to take revenge, Red. Nora's dead. She died fifty years ago." Meridian stared at her. Then he threw back his head and laughed until tears ran down his face. "That's the most original theory anyone's ever had about me! I congratulate you! No, I'm afraid I truly am Tarc Meridian, last of the Crystal Knights. And I will go to confront Nag'sharath. It is my purpose." Kei put her face right in the screen. "And how are you gonna do that, huh? Do you have any idea what a primitive piece of shit it is you're driving? It barely has a warp engine! You're gonna have to fly at sub-light for at least six months before you can safely warp! You won't arrive at your destination for five years! You STOLE this thing, you idiot! You stole the biggest news item this sector of the galaxy's had in years! Every security agency in the sector is gonna be looking for you! With five years to get there, do you really think you're gonna make it?" Meridian smiled. "What would suggest I do?" "Turn this thing around!" "I cannot. If I do that, I may never see my foe." Kei stamped her foot in frustration. She looked at Yuri, who shrugged. Suddenly, a light went on in Kei's head. She turned back to the screen. "How 'bout a deal?" Meridian raised an eyebrow. "What kind of deal?" "Yeah, what kind of deal?" asked Yuri. "Simple. We'll help you get to where you're going--" "We will?" said Yuri in disbelief. "Sure! All we ask in return is that you give us the _Lewis and Clark_." Meridian looked honestly surprised. "You desire this craft? Mere seconds ago, you were insulting it." "Yeah, we want it. Waddyasay? Is it a deal?" "Efena, do you desire this deal?" Meridian asked Yuri. "Uh, yeah. It makes sense." Well, it didn't really. But then very little was making sense to Yuri these days, so what the hell difference did it make? Meridian smiled again. "Very well! You are welcome on board. I knew you'd come around. It is your destiny." Fifteen light-years away, Nora MacPherson III watched all this on a viewscreen. Any visitor to her office might have been surprised to see that the screen was not plugged into anything, if it were not for the fact that the visitor in question would see nothing but a blank screen. Nora brushed her long black hair, now streaked with gray, out of her eyes, and sighed. "What do you think, Therian?" She pronounced the "th" soft, as in "there". Nora's muscular assistant stood in the corner, his dark sunglasses and blonde crew-cut making him the perfect stereotype of the bodyguard. He answered in a monotone. "I do not think you should allow them on Platonia. You will not be able to observe them if you let them get that close." "Well, that's not entirely true." Nora took another look at the screen, and smiled. "Mmm. No, I think I'll let them come. I've always wanted to meet the Dirty Pair. Their record of massive destruction has always excited me." She turned off the screen, not by pressing a button, but by waving a hand in front of it. She stood up. "And besides, that's Tarc Meridian on board. Last of the Crystal Morons. He has to `confront' me. It's his adorably chivalrous `destiny'. But if he thinks this confrontation is going to go like the last twelve, he's got another think coming." She walked toward the door and waved to her assistant. "Come, Therian. I have a board meeting." (To be continued...) If you have questions, comments, or are missing previous parts, send me email. ---------- Ryan Mathews -- Email: bn981@cleveland.freenet.edu DISCLAIMER: Any resemblence of this Snailmail: 786 High Street article to rational thought is Bedford, OH 44146 purely coincidental. Okay, here it is! Finally. This is so late, a lot of you readers might not even know what it is. If you'd like the previous parts, they are available from Larry Mann, lmann@orion.oac.uci.edu, not me! I can't keep permanent files on my account. This "Chapter Three" isn't as long as it was supposed to be (8 pages with margins), but I just don't want to delay posting any longer. When I write the rest of this chapter, it'll either be a Chapter Four, or I'll repost Chapter Three again. This is, I'm afraid, a "transition" chapter. This means there's darn little action to be found in it, as we move the cast from one site to another and set up future bits. My transitions are usually followed by a lot of action. So you can bet the next chapter will be chock full of action, if any of you live long enough to see it. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------- THE DIRTY PAIR in The Game Eternal by Ryan Mathews CHAPTER THREE The story so far: Seventy-eight years ago, the exploratory ship _Lewis and Clark_ disappeared after encountering an unknown entity. The captain, Nora MacPherson, was found two years later in a cryogenic escape pod, with no memory of the incident. Seventy-eight years after it disappeared, the _Lewis_ and its sole occupant, Scott "Red" Johnson, are discovered drifting through the Elenore system by Kei and Yuri. Red explains to them that he is not Red, but Tarc Meridian, last of the Crystal Knights, whose purpose is to confront Nag'sharath, a demon he claims occupied the body of Nora MacPherson. Feeling cheated by the existence of a living person on board a ship they thought would now belong to them, the girls decide to hide Red's existence for awhile. The Lovely Angels take the _Lewis_ to Elenore, where their supervisor, Goulet, informs them that the ship belongs to the 3WA, not the girls, and places a hold on both their ship, _Lovely Angel_, and their credit accounts when they threaten to take off with "their" property before a court can tell them otherwise. Their hand is forced when Meridian buys a shuttle with their money and goes to take the _Lewis_ himself. The girls trick themselves past some guards and take the _Lovely Angel_. They catch up with the _Lewis_, where Kei strikes a deal: they will help Meridian get to the planet where Nora MacPherson III lives, if he will sign the ship over to them. Meanwhile, Nora watches all this from a distance of several light-years on a simple viewscreen whose input jack is not connected to anything. ------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER THREE : Kei walked into the _Lovely Angel_'s lounge. "Well, that's that," said Kei. "I finally contacted MacPherson. She's interested." "You really talked to her?" asked Yuri. She was sitting indian-style on the floor, playing solitaire. "Of course not. I talked to one of her aides. The guy was certain she'd be interested, though." The call had taken longer to make than expected, due to the interference generated by the _Lewis and Clark_'s engines as it travelled alongside. The girls had begun to wonder if they'd arrive at their destination not knowing if they were welcome. There was now only one day remaining of the four needed to enter the system of Nora MacPherson's home planet, Platonia. The trip had taken even longer than that, since it had been necessary to make some changes to the control systems of the _Lewis_. Yuri had come up with the idea of tying the ship's ancient prototype warp system into the _Lovely Angel_'s warp control system with an array of transmitters and receivers. The work had been hard, sixteen hours worth, but when it was done, the _Lewis_ had something resembling a modern warp system. The two ships had then warped in tandem to the vicinity of Platonia and began the long trek toward the planet. The girls had spent the time relaxing and trying to keep their minds off how much trouble they were proabably in. They were both dressed casually: t-shirt and jeans, no shoes. It had often been their habit to wear even less than that during the boring part of a trip, but this time there was a man on board. From what Yuri knew of Meridian, though, she guessed they could both parade buck-naked in front of him with no effect. The man was too single-minded; all he talked about was the upcoming "confrontation". Yuri pulled another card from the pile and frowned at it. "Did the aide believe you when you told him you'd found the _Lewis and Clark_?" "Sure he did. It was on all the hyperspace news programs." Yuri slumped and let out a sigh. "I hate the media. Did they accuse us of stealing it?" "Actually, no. We're portrayed as `in pursuit'." Kei sat down beside Yuri and stretched out. "Of course, the newscasts contain a lot of references to the `Dirty Pair' and our track record. We're not being accused of stealing it, but they still make it sound as if it's our fault it's gone missing." "Isn't it?" Yuri hesitated, then placed the card on the third column. "Depends on how you look at it," Kei replied. Kei wasn't allergic to very many things, but accepting blame was one of them. "Do you think we're gonna get away with this, Yuri?" Yuri looked up for the first time since Kei had entered the room. "I really don't know. Without Scott Johnson's statement signing the _Lewis_ over to us, our claim on the ship is shaky at best. For that matter, it's shaky anyway. People are supposed to be `of sound mind' when signing contracts." Kei studied her toes for a moment. "Do you, um, want to give up?" "Do you?" asked Yuri, pulling another card from the pile. "No!" shouted Kei without hesitation. "Of course not! I just thought that, y'know, you might, y'know, wanna think it over." "I've been thinking it over for days now." She removed a set of cards and placed them aside. "I don't feel like thinking about it anymore. Let's see what happens on Platonia. Maybe we'll find an easy way out." "Or maybe it'll get worse." "Don't say that, Kei! Don't even *think* it!" Yuri picked up the last card. "Oh, phooie. I can never win this thing." Kei leaned over Yuri's shoulder and pointed. "Sure you can. Put it there." Yuri placed the card where Kei had suggested, smiled, and cleared all the cards. "Thanks, Kei! I didn't know you were good at this game." "Well, it's not one of my favorite skills. Guys usually aren't that interested in good solitaire players." She stood up. "I'm gonna go check on our guest." Kei walked through the ship to a tiny observation lounge, where Meridian sat in the one chair and gazed at the stars, just as he had been doing the last time Kei checked, hours ago. "Hey, Tarc! How's it goin'?" Kei asked, trying to be friendly. For some reason, Kei found herself detesting the man less with each day, though she still dismissed the man as a lunatic in her mind. If Yuri had asked Kei why her feelings toward Meridian were changing, she wouldn't have been able to answer, so Kei had never told her. "If by that curious question you are inquiring as to my state of well-being, the answer is, `I am fine'." Meridian never took his eyes off the window. "You sure? I mean, you've been sitting here for hours. We were beginning to wonder if you'd gone catatonic on us." Meridian didn't answer immediately. "The world. It's so... huge." Kei blinked at the apparent non-sequitur, then understood. "Oh, yeah. The galaxy's a big place. Lots of people in it. And they keep making more." "It's actually too big for me to comprehend. I've been trying, but my mind cannot grasp an image." He paused, then turned to Kei and smiled. "I am perfectly well, Gliora. Thank you for caring." Whatever kindness Kei had been feeling for Meridian, that statement killed it. "Will you quit calling me that?!" she shouted. "And I couldn't care less about your condition, I just want you sane for when you sign the ship over to us." She turned to leave, then remembered something else. "You do understand about not doing any `confronting' in public, don't you?" Meridian sighed. "Yes, Gli-- Kei. Don't worry, I won't be running madly through the streets, destroying everything in sight. The confrontation is a private affair, unless the demon desires it to be otherwise." "Good!" Kei turned on her heel and left, firmly convinced once more that Meridian was a nut case. By the next day _Lovely Angel_ was in visual range of Platonia. Meridian joined the Angels on the bridge and watched as the blue-white disk slowly grew bigger. Kei couldn't understand his fascination with the planet. "All terraformed planets look alike," she said. "Brown, green, blue, and white." "Well, Platonia *is* a bit different," Yuri said. "Huh? How?" Kei looked out toward the planet herself. "Oh, it's nothing you can see. It's in the way the planet is run. Platonia is privately-owned." Kei looked at Yuri, a bit confused. "What's the big deal about that? Lots of planets are owned by companies. We took a vacation on one, remember?" Yuri looked up from the pilots controls she'd been adjusting. "Not owned by a company, owned by a person. Nora MacPherson III. The whole planet is her property." Kei's eyes nearly fell out of her skull. "She owns it all?! How did she manage that?" "The way any organization does. You hire an exploration company to find a world and claim it in your name. Then you hire a terraforming company to make it habitable. Then you move in." "Man. I knew she was rich, but I didn't know she was *that* rich." "It's not as big a drain on her resources as you might think. She collects rent from everyone who lives or works on the planet. That includes nearly two hundred major corporations that have offices there. Plus, there are some rich mineral deposits on Platonia, and she gets money for mining rights. It's not really any different from any other planet in the UG. The government's just concentrated in one person, that's all." Meridian had been listening to Yuri's explanation with interest. "You say MacPherson is the sole authority on this world?" Yuri nodded. "Yup. Don't worry, she's not a dictator. Platonia wouldn't be allowed into the UG if she was. I think that's the only reason she bothers to stay in the UG in the first place, to convince immigrants that Platonia is a nice place to live." Meridian gazed back at the approaching planet. "Still, it could be trouble." Kei looked at Yuri. Yuri shrugged. The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful. A pleasant orbital controller gave them a secure orbit in which to place the _Lewis and Clark_. Once the older ship was safely in orbit, the _Lovely Angel_ headed down to the surface. They landed in the major spaceport of the capital city of Batyra, and docked at one of the larger loading ports. As they disembarked, Kei and Yuri were stunned to find not a single reporter there to greet them. "We must have landed in the wrong city," said Kei. She and Yuri were in uniform, better to play the role of "pursuers" to an inquisitive media. "NO!" yelled a short, black-haired man in a three-piece suit running toward them. "You're just a bit early, that's all. My apologies, I should've been early myself." He was followed closely by two stoic, heavy-set men, also in suits as well as dark sunglasses. They somehow managed to keep a matter of feet behind the excited man without looking like they were expending the least amount of effort doing so. The man ran, his aides strolled, yet somehow they kept the same pace. The man reached the place where Kei, Yuri, and Meridian were standing. He paused for awhile, catching his breath. "Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Kevin Close, aide to Ms. MacPherson. She's asked me to escort you." Kei noticed Meridian doing something odd with his hands. He had his left hand in a very loose fist near his left hip. His right hand was also in a loose fist, touching the left as if it were grasping something held in the other hand. Meridian was keeping his eyes on the two "aides" as he did this, but as soon as he noticed Kei watching him, he dropped his hands and looked guiltily at the floor. Before Kei could think about what this action meant, something seen in the corner of her eye was thrust at her. It was Close's outstretched hand. "Oh!" Kei shook the hand. "I'm Kei." After shaking hands with Yuri, Close turned to Meridian. "And you... You must be Red Johnson, correct?" "Uh, yes." Meridian looked very uncomfortable saying this. The girls, by contrast, looked incredibly relieved. "Amazing. To be have been asleep for that long of a time, then to awaken." Close examined Meridian for a moment, then remembered his manners and shook hands with him as well. "What do you think of civilization in the year 2142?" "It is... very different from the one I left." "I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is." He reached into his jacket and withdrew a small packet. "If you're Mr. Johnson, then I'm supposed to give you this." Meridian opened the packet. Inside was a simple white medallion, inscribed with an single intricate symbol. Meridian put it on. "Thank you," he said. "What is it?" asked Close. "If you don't mind my curiosity." "It's, um, a long story. It's worth a lot more than it looks." That seemed to satisfy Close, but not Yuri. There was something about the symbol, something familiar that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She saw that Meridian had noticed her stare and she looked away. She covered her embarrassment by asking a question. "Mr. Close, why are there no reporters here? Surely the news of what had happened to the _Lewis and Clark_ has reached Platonia by now." "There are no reporters here because Ms. MacPherson does not wish there to be any. She felt you could probably do without the extra attention." "She was right," said Kei. "So when do we get to meet her?" "Tomorrow. She's too tied up in meetings today, unfortunately. She's reserved some very nice rooms for you to stay in until then. If you'll help me make arrangements to have your ship moved to a hangar, I'll take you to them." "We have our own pilot," Yuri said. "He's still on board. The spaceport can make the arrangements with him." "Excellent! Let's cut to the chase, then! If you'll follow me, there's a limo waiting." Close motioned them ahead. As they walked toward the exits, Kei whispered to Yuri. "Where'd they get these bodyguards? They look like heavys out of some bad action flick." "What I want to know," said Yuri, "is who they're guarding? They seem to be paying more attention to Red than to Close, or to us for that matter." Kei looked and saw what Yuri meant. She wouldn't have noticed if Yuri hadn't pointed it out, but the guards did seem to be making an effort, albeit a subtle one, to flank Meridian. Close was actually leading them by several steps, yet the guards made no move to catch up. Kei decided to ask for herself. She caught up to one of the guards and smiled. "Hey, big guy, I was just wondering. Why are you here? I mean, are we in danger or something?" The guard didn't bother to turn his head. "It is for your own good. Please move away. We are not permitted to talk with guests." "Um, sure." Kei fell back to Yuri's position. "What did he say?" Yuri asked. "`It iss var yoo on goot.' Sheesh, what an accent. I've never heard one like it." "Well, I guess there's no crime in being weird," Yuri said. "Let's forget about it." The three offworlders were hustled into a hover-limo and taken on a driving tour of Batyra. Close was making a point of describing at great length all the various points of interest of the capital city, and didn't seem to notice how little attention he was getting. The city was very impressive, with its innumerable skyscapers, elevated roads and walkways, but it wasn't that much different from the hundreds of other large cities the Angels had visited during their career. Save for one thing... "How big is that tower?" asked Kei, interrupting Close in mid-sentence. "I was about to get to that," replied Close. "That's where we're headed. How tall is it? I have a bad memory for numerical figures. Suffice it to say that the workers who did the top bit had to wear oxygen masks." Kei could believe it. The tower was so tall that its summit easily reached above the cumulus clouds that floated past it. In fact, it seemed to be within reach of the much higher cirrus clouds, though surely that had to be an illusion of perspective. The tower wasn't only tall, but huge as well, at least several kilometers square at its base, tapering in a graceful convex arc to a point god-only-knew how many kilometers in the sky. Kei had to admit she was impressed. "I'm not surprised," said Meridian, who was seated between the two girls in the back. "Nora was the type of lady who liked high places." "Really?" said Close. "I suppose that's why she became an explorer?" "I suppose so." "Hey, Yuri," Kei said, "what do you think? You've been awfully quiet for the last minutes." When Yuri didn't reply, Meridian looked over at her. "I believe she is asleep. She has a glazed look in her eyes." "I'm not surprised," Close said. "From what I've heard, you've had a busy few days. She's probably just tuckered out." Yeah, thought Kei, but she had plenty of chances to take a nap on the trip in. It had taken days. She reached over Meridian and shook her. "Yuri! Wake up!" "W-what?" Yuri shook it off. "Sorry. Must've been daydreaming." "Hey! I almost forgot!" Close said. "We just passed Batyra's shopping mall. I think you'll want to spend some time there." That current got Yuri depressed again. "We don't have any money." "I don't think that will be a problem," said Close, smiling. Seeing that the girls were about to ask a lot of excited questions, he quickly added, "I'll explain when we get you to your rooms. Since you won't be seeing Ms. MacPherson until tomorrow, we felt you should be able to spend the night in comfort, rather than aboard your ship. Among other things, the tower contains one of the best hotels in the quadrant." "Wow! We get all this?" Kei took in the room she and Yuri had been given, or rather the suite. It had at least two rooms. Currently they were exploring the living room, which was decked-out in wall-to-wall deep-pile carpet, two red velvet couches, a picture window with a breathtaking view of the city, a wide-screen 3V set, and many other comforts. "Actually, Mr. Johnson will be getting another room. For propriety's sake, you understand." Yuri called out from the bedroom. "Kei, wait'll you see the beds in here!" She came running out. "They're those kind with the canopy on top! So soft, too. Almost makes me feel like taking a nap!" Close laughed. "Well, I just may have a more exciting way for you to spend your afternoon." He reached into his jacket and produced an envelope. "This is what I meant when I said your financial difficulties weren't a problem." He opened the envelope and took out three cards which he passed out. Kei looked at hers. "Debit cards?" "Ms. MacPherson had them made up for your arrival. Each one draws from an account of ten thousand credits." Yuri examined her card, turning it over and tapping it, as if she thought it might be an illusion. "Ten... *thousand*... credits?!" "It's Ms. MacPherson's belief that the purchase of the _Lewis_and_Clark_ will easily cover whatever you spend," said Close. "Perhaps you'd like to go spend some of it now." "Best idea I've heard in a long time!" shouted Kei. "C'mon, Yuri, let's go consume!" "Coming!" Yuri stopped in front of Close. "Um, thanks! Thanks for everything." "Just doing my job." Close turned to Meridian. "What about you, Mr. Johnson? Why don't you tag along?" "I have found," said Meridian, "that when women go to the market, men just get in their way. I'll just stay here and enjoy the comforts of my room." "Well, okay," said Yuri. She and Kei were halfway out the door. "We'll be back in a few hours." "You might want these." Close tossed Kei a passcard. The girls thanked him again and were soon running down the hallway. "Quite energetic, aren't they, Mr. Johnson? If I were only a bit younger..." "You might find them too much to handle even then. They're almost too much for me, and I'm not even courting them." That got a laugh out of Close. "Probably so, sir. Your room is just down the hall. Shall I show you to it?" "I think I can find it myself. Just let me have the keys and the room number." "Certainly," said Close. "That would be Room 7515, sir. I hope you enjoy your stay." "I'm sure I will." As Close began to walk away, the two bodyguards seemed reluctant to go. After a moment, they followed Close, but continued to glance over their shoulders at Meridian until they had turned a corner and were out of sight. Meridian sighed, walked to his room, opened the door, and walked in. "Your lackeys don't have much faith in me." Nora was reclining on one of the couches, a glass of wine in her hand. "Well, they aren't quite as intelligent as you or I. You should know that." She held up the bottle. "Pour yourself a glass and sit down. We have an awful lot to talk about." ------------------------------------------------------------- Next (tentative) : Kei has a vision, and Meridian finally makes his move. ---------- Ryan Mathews -- Email: bn981@cleveland.freenet.edu DISCLAIMER: Any resemblence of this Snailmail: 786 High Street article to rational thought is Bedford, OH 44146 purely coincidental. Okay, here's the fourth chapter in this ongoing and terminally late saga The Game Eternal. If you need earlier, please write to Larry Mann at .... Don't write to me! I can't keep the parts in my account for more than a day or two. This part begins with a subtle rec.arts.anime in-joke, followed by a bit that almost certainly conflicts with Dirty Pair continuity. Please don't point that out to me, 'cuz I know. (I don't mind discussing it, though. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------ The story so far: Seventy-eight years ago, the _Lewis and Clark_ disappeared while searching for new planets for colonization. Kei and Yuri discover the drifting wreck in the _Lovely Angel_. Their hopes for salvage rights are destroyed by the existence of a cryogenically suspended survivor on board, Scott "Red" Johnson. When revived, he claims he is Tarc Meridian, last of the Crystal Knights, whose destiny is to "confront" the demon Nag'sharath, who he claims possessed the captain of the _L&C_, the late Nora MacPherson, who was discovered in a cryogenic escape pod two years after the incident with no memory of what happened. Against their better judgement, they decide to cover up Red's existence and sell the ship anyway. A wrench is thrown into their plans when Goulet explains that the 3WA owns the wreck, because they own the _Lovely Angel_, which found it. To stop the Lovely Angels from absconding with the _L&C_, he takes away their right to use the _Lovely Angel_ and freezes their savings accounts. Red/Meridian steals the _L&C_ himself, forcing the Pair to steal their own ship to follow. They travel to the planet Platonia, owned by Nora MacPherson III. There they are given 10,000-credit debit cards and sent out to go shopping while Nora talks with Meridian. ------------------------------------------------------------ "Which one of you ordered the cheesecake?" The waiter stared at the order in one hand while balancing two dessert plates on his other arm. "That's me!" said Kei, waving anxiously. "You sure? I could've sworn..." "Trust us," said Yuri, annoyed, "we know what we ordered." "Of course, of course, I'm so sorry." The waiter placed the orders in front of them and left, red-faced. "Where do they get these people?" said Kei. "If he thinks he's getting a tip--" "Oh, come on, Kei, be nice. He's probably just rushed. Look how busy it is today." Kei and Yuri were seated in an open-air dining court on the top floor of the mall. The domed roof was open, allowing breeze and sunlight in, as well as providing a view of the city. Both girls had used their cards to buy new outfits and were wearing them, having relegated their uniforms to one of the numerous shopping bags sitting next to them. As Yuri had pointed out, the place was very busy. The entire mall seemed filled to the bursting point with people. "Oh, alright," relented Kei. "It's not like I can't afford to be generous." "Yeah!" Yuri agreed, digging into her ice cream. "We're rich! Man, ten thousand credits, and he said the price would 'more than cover it'! We're not gonna have worry about the 3WA anymore. We can retire before they fire us!" "Retire, huh?" That thought didn't go down too well with Kei. "Sure. You know, stop working. There's lots of places in the galaxy I've always wanted to see. Now I won't have to wait for a mission to take us there!" "I think I'd be bored stiff." "Well, what else are you going to do?" Yuri laughed. "Join a mercenary corps?" "Maybe." Yuri choked on her ice cream. "Okay, not really a mercenary corps," admitted Kei. "There's this outfit called the Crushers." "Isn't that a terraforming organization?" Yuri asked, cleaning herself off with a napkin. "Pardon me for doubting you, but I can't see you building atmosphere generators." "Well, they also do a little troubleshooting on the side. Some organizations prefer to deal with them over the 3WA, since the Crushers aren't in with the United Galactica yet. Might be interesting to hang around with them." Yuri pouted. "I'd miss you." "You could come along--OW!" Someone slapped Kei on back, hard. It was an older man, running, wearing a dirty blazer and a loosened necktie. The impact with Kei knocked him off his feet, sending him sprawling. Before the stunned girls could react, the man had gotten to his feet and resumed running madly across the court. "What the heck was that about?!" said Yuri. She tried to follow the man with her eyes, but lost him. She turned back to Kei. "Kei, are you al--?" Kei was gone. Kei picked, weaved, and shoved her way through the crowd, trying desperately to keep the man in sight. Exactly why she had decided to chase him, she wasn't sure. It just seemed really important for some reason. She figured she'd rather catch him first and then figure out why, rather than have the reason strike her after it was too late. "Hey! Somebody stop him!" Kei knew before she shouted how little good it would do, but tried anyway. Those who didn't ignore her merely acted annoyed. Kei almost lost track of her quarry, then sighted him again, trying to run down a staircase. Kei found a closer set of stairs that led to the same level and headed down herself. As she ran down the steps, she kept one eye on the man running down the other staircase, with the unfortunate result that she ran right into a fat man walking up the same steps. Both Kei and the fat man bounced down painfully down the steps, ending up in a tangled heap at the bottom. Kei picked herself up... * * * ...and brushed the dirt off her face. The fat merchant scrambled about, trying to gather his chickens together. "You stone-headed tart! That's my livelihood flying off!" "Oh, shut up, you fat boob!" Kei shot back. "You saw me coming down the ladder!" The merchant continued to rant at her, but Kei ignored him, scanning the marketplace for any sign of the man she was chasing. She caught sight of his purple robe halfway across the courtyard, heading toward toward the area where the cloth merchants had set up shop. She picked up her sword and gave chase, the shoppers only too eager to get out of her way. Kei reached the cloth market tent, only to once again lose sight of the man. Figuring that causing a panic would only help him escape, she replaced her sword in the scabbard. Kei entered the tent and began to search. Kei strolled between the vast array of tables, most of which held piles of cloth high enough to conceal someone behind them. she thought. She quickened her pace, trying to cover the area as fast as possible. "YAAAH!" Kei screeched as someone tapped her on the back. She whirled, swept the attacker's legs out and stepped on his throat. It was the wrong man, a tall skinny one with a mustache. "No need for hysterics, madam," he said, after Kei had released his neck, "I was merely about to ask if you required assistance." "No, no I'm not shopping," Kei said, and cursed to herself. If her quarry had still been in the cloth market, he almost certainly could have made a break for it during her little outburst. She considered leaving the tent. The salesman proved to be more persistent that Kei had anticipated. "Well, if you'd reconsider, I'm certain I could fashion you a garment that would be much more stylish than that two-piece armor suit you're wearing now. Armor and fur just aren't in this year, I'm afraid." "I'm not interested, okay?" Kei pushed a pile of cloth samples aside to see behind it. Unfortunately, the salesman took this action to mean that she was interested in the sample at the bottom. "Ah, yes!" He picked up the cloth and held it next to her, a sample of a fine, lime-green-colored silk. "This would look absolutely breathtaking on you! I see an evening dress, or perhaps something more intimate?" "No, that's not my color, that's..." She remembered a face, but couldn't place a name to it. "Oh, I beg to differ, madam. You'd look positively radiant! See how the shade contrasts ever so delicately with your red hair?" "Shut...UP!!!" To hell with subtlety. Kei drew her sword and held it at the ready, a look of death on her face. "Of course, if you're really not interested, I quite understand..." The salesman backed away, grinning nervously. Kei decided she had been wrong about causing a panic. She held her sword in the air for all to see and screamed "EVERYBODY OUT!!" With an overhead swing, she cleaved the nearest table in two. The result was predictable and immediate, as all the shoppers suddenly had an overpowering urge to examine other areas of the marketplace. Kei leapt upon another table, kicking another pile of flowery fabric out of the way, and examined the crowd that was stampeding for the exits. Kei had noticed during her search that nobody in the tent was wearing the type of purple robe that was on the man she was chasing, further evidence that he came from elsewhere. She hoped to be able to pick it out in the crowd, providing he was still in the tent. He was. Kei caught sight of his robe as the man left through an exit on the far side of the tent. Using the threat of her sword to part the crowd, Kei hurried after. As Kei walked out into the full sunlight once more, she was startled by something that whizzed by her cheek and imbedded itself in one of the posts that held up the tent. It was a crossbow bolt. It had been shot by one of three approaching armed men, dressed in tacky blue cloaks with medallions. Their uniforms were supposed to lend an air of authority, but it was obvious how little authority these men carried other than what was supplied by their weapons. thought Kei. She ran through the crowd, figuring that not even someone as stupid as most market enforcers would fire into the crowd. Again,