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, she lost her quarry. This time, though, Kei could feel a general sense of commotion directly ahead. Kei reached a ledge and looked down. The man had climbed almost all the way down the ladder. Kei now saw where he was heading. From the foot of the ladder, it was just a few running steps to the horse stables. Unless Kei planned to steal a horse herself, she had to act now. She swallowed hard as she realized she'd have to jump. "I hope this hurts you more than it hurts me," she said, and leapt off the ledge. As she landed on him, she decided it couldn't have hurt him worse: he was still conscious. He was still trying to wriggle away from her, for that matter. She punched him on the chin, causing her new bruises to scream in protest. She dragged him to his feet by his collar and (without understanding why) demanded, "Where's the key?!" The man looked completely confused. "The key!" "Yes, you bastard, the key! What have you done with it?!" "I--I gave it to you!" Kei thought, "Christ, lady, why are you doing this to me? I'm trying to help you! Let me go before..." The man's eyes made an alarmed glance at something behind Kei. Kei turned around to see the market enforcers approaching. The man jerked out of Kei's grasp and tried to make a stumbling run for the stables. One of the enforcers raised his crossbow, but instead of firing a bolt, there was a sound like a whip cracking and the man fell down, blood oozing from his back. Kei had heard the phrase "her head swam" before, but didn't know it referred to a literal feeling. Kei was so confused she could feel it like water about her head. Her knees buckled and she collapsed, unconscious... * * * ...awakening a moment later to find Yuri standing over her. The girl was quite winded, speaking in between breaths. "Are (puff), are you okay?" "Y...yeah," said Kei. "Where am I?" "Well, a few more steps and you'd be in the parking garage. For awhile there, I didn't think I was going to catch up with you. I don't believe you jumped off the balcony like that. Are you sure you're okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine." Still, she winced as she got to her feet. "What were you trying to do?" asked Yuri. "I--" Kei suddenly remembered the man she was chasing. She looked toward the garage. Sure enough, there he was, lying in a crumpled heap, surrounded by mall security. Kei ran over. "Is he okay?" "Don't worry, ma'am, he's dead as a doornail," said the leader of the security group. "Thanks for your help in apprehending him. You're one hell of a brave lady." "My help? Why did you kill him? He wasn't dangerous." The guard smiled. "Show him, Bill." "Bill" turned the man over, reached into the now bloodstained jacket and pulled out a small handgun. "He seems dangerous enough to me." thought Kei. Most worlds required a suspect to show an intention to use lethal force before a law officer could use such force himself. Yuri gently grabbed Kei by the shoulder. "Let's go, Kei." As she left, Kei muttered to herself, "Mall cops. The lowliest form of law enforcement..." To Yuri's surprise, Kei asked her to drive their rental car back to the hotel. Kei usually griped about Yuri's driving ability, but this time she just rode in silence, looking at the city pass by as the wind whipped through her red hair. It wasn't until they were halfway there that she finally said something. "He wasn't running from me, he was running from them." "Why would he have been running from you?" Yuri asked. "All he did was slap you in the back. Hardly something to cause him to fear for his life." Kei didn't say anything for a moment. Then she turned to Yuri. "Yuri, if I tell you something, will you promise not to think I'm nuts?" Yuri smiled. "I already think you're nuts." Kei turned away and started to sulk, so Yuri quickly added "No, Kei, I won't think you're crazy. What's wrong?" "When I was chasing that man, it was like I was someplace else, like I was somebody else. It wasn't a mall anymore. It was an open-air marketplace like you might see in an early civilization. YAAH!" Kei yelled as the car swerved slightly. "D-did you say an open-air market?" Kei nodded. "When Close and his goons were taking us to the hotel, I looked out the window and saw a primitive market instead of a mall. I thought I was daydreaming, because the vision vanished when you shook me. Were you wearing different clothes?" "Yeah, sorta like an armor bikini." "I was too. When I saw the market, I was wearing this silvery robe. You know, it's like..." "...like what the characters in our role-playing campaign wear. I take it back, Yuri. We are nuts." "Both of us nuts in the same way? Not too likely." Kei agreed, at least she thought she did. "Wait," said Kei. "I want to check on Tarc." She and Yuri stopped at Meridian's room, only a few doors from their own. Kei knocked on the door. "Who is it?" came Tarc's voice from inside. "It's us," Kei said, "your partners in this mess." To Kei and Yuri's astonishment, Tarc replied, "Please go away." "Are you alright?" asked Yuri. "I'm perfectly well. I simply don't wish to see anyone at the moment." Kei and Yuri walked to their room, taken aback. Kei flopped onto one of the elegant sofas. "This case just keeps getting weirder and weirder, Yuri." "This is a case now?" asked Yuri as she sat across from Kei. "Not really, but I guess I think of it as one. ENGH!" She started to squirm against the back of the sofa. "Something on my back. Itches." "Let me see." Yuri examined Kei's back. There was a red mark near where the running man had slapped her. "Hey, something's stuck in your back." "Well, get it out!" Closing one eye and sticking out her tongue, Yuri managed to pull the tiny object out of Kei's back with her fingernails. It was a flat, square chip about one millimeter square. "Looks like some kind of microchip. So that's what that guy was trying to hide. Maybe we should tell MacPherson about this when we see her tomorrow." "No," said Kei. "Huh?" "That man... He said he was trying to help me, that he'd given me some kind of key. Obviously he was talking about that thing. And they killed him. Let's find out what's on the chip, then decide whether or not to give it to MacPherson." "Suit yourself," said Yuri. "Gee, where am I gonna put this thing? I'm afraid to breathe on it, it's so small." "Say, Yuri, could we try an experiment?" "Ah! I know what to do!" Yuri opened the mint on the pillow of her bed, ate it, then wrapped the microchip up in the foil, making a little ball. "This'll be a little harder to lose. What kind of experiment?" "Hold my hand." Yuri gave Kei a funny look, then understood what she meant. "You want to try for clairvoyance? That never works." "It did when we were chasing that little ESPer girl." "Yeah, but not on purpose," said Yuri. "I've never been certain that it was us who made that vision and not the girl. The only who really thinks we're psychic is the central computer." "Well, it can't hurt to try," Kei said, holding out her hand. "Oh, alright." Yuri walked over to Kei and took her hand. "We should probably clear our minds or something." "Yeah. Think of a blank computer screen, or a blank sheet of paper." Yuri and Kei held hands and concentrated. They cleared their minds of all thoughts, opening them to visions of what was to come. They held their breath, and just when it seemed the moment would burst... Nothing. Yuri let go. "I told you this was useless." Kei shrugged. Kei was having a lovely dream. Everything was back to normal and she and Yuri were laying waste to a operations center of the Lucifer Crime Syndicate. Just as she was about to tell the battle-scarred Syndicate leader to "Go ahead, make my day," she was shaken awake by Meridian. "Wazisitz?" she asked, squinting at him. "The time is right. I go now to confront Nag'sharath. Come with me." "What the hell--? What time is it?" The clock answered her question, about three hours before sunrise. "I suffered a momentary lapse of faith yesterday," Meridian continued, "but I understand now that I have to continue, despite my enemy's attempt to change the rules of the game." "I don't understand a damn thing you're saying." "I would prefer to have at least one of my partners to back me up, but I will go alone if necessary. I chose you because I feel that, deep down, you understand. Efena would merely attempt to talk me out of it." Kei rolled over, away from Meridian. "Oh, man, don't pull this on me now. It's too early, I can't think straight, I don't want to deal with this. If you want to go confront your demon, have a ball, just leave me alone." "So be it." Meridian turned and left. "Idiot," mumbled Kei, pulling the covers over her head and falling asleep again. Kei bolted awake. she thought. She checked the clock. It read twenty minutes later than the last time she checked. She had. "Oh, SHIT!!" She jumped out of bed and started shaking Yuri. "Wake up, wake up, dammit, WAKE UP!" "WAH!" shouted Yuri. "Wutizzit?!" Kei told her. "Oh, Kei, you ditz!" "I know, I know, but c'mon! We gotta stop him!" Yuri jumped out of bed. "I'll call security." She ran over to the vidphone, pressed a button, and was greeted by the bleary eyes of a uniformed security man who apparently hadn't been working the night shift for very long. "Yeah?" he asked. Yuri was momentarily at a loss for words. It occurred to her that if she exaggerated the threat to MacPherson in the slightest, the security could get orders to shoot to kill. How could she explain the threat without causing the man to panic? "Uh, I don't know exactly how to say this..." Suddenly, Yuri had it. "I think a friend of ours is sleepwalking, and he might, um, cause some trouble for Ms. MacPherson." "What kind of trouble?" the guard asked, at once giving Yuri his full attention. Yuri thought a bit more. "Well, he, um, was talking about `confronting' her. I think he thinks she, like, did something to him. Like I said, he's, y'know, he's sleepwalking." "Is he armed?" "Oh, no, no! He's perfectly harmless! He's just upset about something, that's all." That seemed to satisfy the guard. At his request, she gave him a brief description of Meridian and hung up. She turned back to Kei. "Well, that should take care of--huh?!" Kei had gotten into her uniform while Yuri had been talking. "Get dressed, Yuri." "Kei, we don't have any jurisdiction here. We're not on a case. If we do something stupid, we're likely to get thrown in prison. And remembering how we left Elenore, I wouldn't count on the 3WA to get us out!" Kei took her pulse-pistol out of a small bag under the bed and stuck it in her holster. "I don't give a damn! I watched the security guards at the mall gun someone down in cold blood. I'm not gonna let that happen to Tarc." Yuri knew the pattern. Once Kei had set her mind on doing something, no force in the galaxy was going to convince her otherwise. So Yuri would tag along, ostensibly to keep Kei from getting into trouble, but invariably Yuri would end up helping her to make things worse. For a moment, Yuri considered crawling back into bed, but instead she sighed and took her uniform out of the drawer. Minutes later, the girls were in one of the central elevators, on a seemingly interminable ride to the very top of the tower. "130 floors to go," announced Yuri. "I wonder what possessed her to live so far above ground." "Well, Tarc did say she liked high places." "That was the first Nora MacPherson." "Was it?" To their disappointment, the elevator stopped fifteen floors short of their destination. "Damn," said Yuri. "Security lock. We can't go any farther without a key." "Well, then we'll just have to take the stairs." Kei ran through the doors before Yuri could protest. The girls arrived at the top floor, puffing a little from the exertion of sprinting up fifteen flights of stairs. Yuri considered herself to have won a partial victory in that she had managed to talk Kei into letting her pick the lock on the door to the stairs rather than shooting it off. Yuri wasn't sure she hadn't set off any alarms with her magnetic lockpicker, but she was damn sure blowing a hole in the door would have attracted attention. "Which way?" she asked Kei. "This is your idea, remember?" "I don't know. Let's go this way. Just keep your eye out for Tarc." Yuri thought it would be hard to miss him. The floor seemed completely deserted. The only sound was the barely noticeable hum of the environmental control system. The corridor through which the Angels were walking circled the perimeter of the tower and had a series of plate glass windows along the left side. Yuri tried looking out one, but got dizzy and decided to quit. Kei and Yuri walked briskly, looking for any sign of life. They found some, though not the kind they had hoped for. They turned a corner and nearly ran into two of the shade- wearing bodybuilders that MacPherson liked to use as personal guards. "What are doing here?" asked one. (Or "Vat ah hyu doing heah?" to be exact.) "A friend of ours got lost," said Yuri. "We thought he might have come up to this level." "This level is restricted," said the other muscleman. "You should not have been able to come up here." "Really?" asked Kei, feigning surprise. "We had no idea! Right, Yuri?" "Sure, no idea, heh, heh..." The guards seemed unconvinced. They walked toward the girls. "Come with us." ("Komm mit uss.") Kei drew her gun. "Hold it right there! I came up here to make sure my friend is safe, and that's what I'm going to do!" Yuri grimaced and drew her own gun. The guards looked at each other and smiled. They leapt forward, one to a girl. Both girls fired. Both girls hit their targets in the chest. Neither wound seemed to have any effect. Then the guards were on top of the girls, ripping the guns out of their hands and throwing them away. "Now you will come with us." The guards each picked up a dumbfounded Angel with one hand and began to walk down the hall. The silence was broken by a faint, high-pitched trilling, and suddenly the window behind them shattered. Kei and Yuri's ears popped as the level began to depressurize. The wind staggered the guards and they dropped the Angels as they tried to keep from being blown out the window. The girls looked to see what had caused the window to break, and saw Meridian standing there. In his hands, Meridian held a sword. Kei thought it was the most beautiful sword she could possibly imagine. It could well have been mistaken for Excalibur, or any of a number of other famous blades, were it not for one glaring difference: you could see through it. The entire sword, from the hilt to the point, was made of the purest crystal. It flashed and shimmered and broke the light that hit it into a thousand tiny rainbows. It was, in a word, breathtaking. "Crystal Knight," said Kei to herself. The wind slowed to a breeze as the atmosphere on the level exhausted itself. The guards looked at the new arrival and sneered. "Meridian." With a bellow, one of the guards rushed Meridian, arms outstretched as if to break his neck. As the guard approached, the sword began to glow from within, a bright, golden light that didn't hurt Kei's eyes when she stared at it. Meridian calmly took a step back and swung the sword in a long arc. The blade went through the guard's midsection like a warm knife through butter. The guard screamed as flames poured first through the hole in his torso, then through his mouth, nose, eyes, ears, and pores. In seconds, all that remained was a charred patch on the carpet. The other guard looked warily at Meridian, unsure of what to do. Similar expressions were on the girls' faces. "Allow me to show you something interesting," said Meridian to Kei and Yuri. He approached the remaining guard, who began to back away. Meridian extended his sword, caught the guard's sunglasses and flicked them away. The guard's eyes were completely black, no pupils, no whites. "You poor, sick thing. Try as it might, it just can't make you completely human, can it?" Yuri found her voice. "W-what is he?" "I'm about to show you." The guard spoke. "You will die. You will all die." Meridian smiled. "That's never stopped me before." He struck the guard across the temple with the flat of the blade, hard, knocking him down. The guard shouted, "Ah! Ah!" as the skin at the contact point began to ripple and melt. The guard clutched at his temple. The effect spread to his hands and they began to change. The changes accelerated. The hair warped into spines and serpentine appendages. The skin grew scaly. A tail burst out of the guard's pants and extended until it was nearly two meters long. The feet extended until the shoes burst, becoming claws similar to the hands. All the while, the creature screamed and writhed. "Hurts just as much going this way as it does the other, doesn't it?" asked Meridian. "But I am nothing if not merciful. You have served your purpose." Meridian drove the blade through the creature's chest and pulled it out. Within seconds, it had burned away to nothing, leaving another smoking patch on the carpet. "Well?" Meridian asked the Angels. "Now do you believe me?" Kei didn't know what she believed anymore. It occurred to her that the galaxy could be swallowed by a black hole the next day and she wouldn't be surprised. "Were those...d... demons?" "I suppose that's as good a name as any," Meridian said. "They're depressingly stupid creatures, but they make handy slaves for Nag'sharath. I'm going now to confront Nag'sharath itself." "No." It was Yuri. "Efena. You still do not believe me?" "Whether I believe you or not, it doesn't make any difference. If you're crazy or lying, then you just murdered two people and I can't let you murder another. If you're sane and those really were demons, then it doesn't make any sense to go barreling in there with a sword. We should go back and come up with a real plan. Either way, I can't let you go." "What about you, Gliora?" Meridian asked Kei. "Yuri's got a point. She's always got a point," she said quietly. Kei was having trouble getting the images of exploding demons out of her mind's eye. "Then I'm sorry." Meridian held up his sword and tilted it back and forth, flashing rainbows into the girls' faces. Kei opened her eyes, groaned, and shook her head. The thin air on this floor was making it hard to wake up. Yuri had already regained consciousness and was struggling to her feet. Kei tried to follow suit. "How long have we been out?" she asked. "I don't think there's any way to tell. We'll just have to hope we're not too late." Yuri picked up her gun and ran in the direction the guards had been trying to keep her from going. Kei groaned again and did the same. They had run what Yuri figured was a quarter of the way to the other side of the tower when they heard Meridian shouting. They immediately turned in the direction of the voice. Meridian was again confronting guards, this time not musclebound personal guards but two uniformed security personnel. One was trying to restrain him as he shouted at them. The crystal sword was nowhere to be seen. Meridian's face showed a mixture of fury and outright astonishment. "Dammit, why are you doing this! Don't you understand! It only wants your destruction!" "Certainly, sir," said the other guard, who was trying to fit a pair of plasti-cuffs on him. "And I just want you to stand still. How about it?" Meridian wasn't done arguing. "You're human! All of you! The wrongness of this should sing in your blood! It's a demon!" "Hey, any demon that pays me 50 credits a week is alright with me!" said the guard behind him. Yuri ran up. "Oh, thank god you caught him in time!" The lead security guard turned his head. "You know this guy?" "Please don't hurt him. He's just a little funny in the head right now. He'll get better, I promise." "If he'll just hold still and let us cuff him, there won't be any problem." Meridian looked at Kei, pleadingly. "Please help me. They don't understand what they're doing." Kei almost thought he was going to cry. She felt her eyes tear up herself, and she turned away. That did something to Meridian. Using the guard behind him as support, he reared back and viciously kicked the other guard to the ground. "You all make me sick!" He came down and pulled out of the other guards grasp. He wheeled and floored the man with a fist to the chin. "What has happened to the human spirit?! Are you all that willing to sell yourself into evil?" "Tarc, stop it!" Yuri shouted. "You're only making it worse!" The guard Meridian had kicked to the floor was far from unconscious. "Crazy bastard," he muttered. He reached into a holster and pulled out what appeared to be a handgun. After that, everything seemed to Kei to happen in slow- motion. "NO!" she screamed. She drew her gun, too late. The man fired a tranquilizer dart into Meridian's back. He staggered and dropped to the floor. The other guard, also not unconscious, saw Kei pull her sidearm. In a single motion he drew his trank-pistol and shot a dart into her side. Kei collapsed as well. Yuri ran over to her friend and pulled out the dart. "Oh, Kei, you idiot," she said, starting to cry. "Please be alright." She looked up to see that the guard that had gunned Kei down had gotten to his feet and was now holding the gun on her. "Sorry, lady, but I'm not taking any chances." He shot Yuri and everything went black. Nora, dressed in a red satin nightgown, dismissed the guards with thanks and the promise of a bonus in their next week's checks. Behind her were three of the muscle guards. Once the men had gone, she turned to the one with the blonde crew-cut. "Therian, have your people take these ladies back to their rooms. I want you to put their nightclothes back on them and put them to bed. Perhaps they'll think it was all a dream. I doubt it, but it's worth a try. They'll have to be eliminated eventually, but I'd like to put that off as long as I can." "Understood." Human males would likely have been excited by the prospect of undressing Kei and Yuri, but the guards merely picked up the two girls without showing the slightest trace of emotion. "What about Meridian?" Therian asked. "He comes with us. He had his chance." ------------------------------------------------------------ -- END CHAPTER FOUR -- Posted on behalf of Ryan Mathews by: ======================================================================== = ___ = = "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's the fifth chapter in this ongoing project of mine. The end is in sight! It looks now like there will be 7 or 8 chapters. For those who don't know what this is, there's a synopsis of the previous chapters at the beginning. If you'd like the previous chapters, you can FTP them from wpi.wpi.edu or get them from Larry Mann at eaiu146@orion.oac.uci.edu. I can't keep stuff like that in my account, so don't ask me. In this chapter: Cyperpunk mind-hacking, horror, and a completely nude Yuri! 'Nuff said... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE DIRTY PAIR in THE GAME ETERNAL by Ryan Mathews CHAPTER FIVE 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. However, 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. At a mall, Kei is slapped on the back hard by a man who is running from someone. Kei gives chase herself, and has a vision that she is chasing him through a primitive marketplace. The man is gunned down by security guard after explaining to Kei that he had given her "the key". Back at the apartment, Tarc is uncharacteristically depressed, and a small microchip is found in Kei's back. Tarc appears in the middle of the night to tell Kei that he is about to go after Nag'sharath (Nora), but Kei falls asleep again. The Pair chase after him, catching up on one of the top floors of the immense tower that houses both them and MacPherson's offices. There Tarc battles two of MacPherson's security personnel with a crystal sword, revealing them to be demons. Tarc and the Angels then come up against human security. Since the girls want to stop Tarc rather than help him make more trouble, the three end up being shot with tranquilizers. Nora appears, orders the Angels taken back to their room and Tarc taken into custody. ------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER FIVE Kei and Yuri sat on the sofa in their room, silent, as they'd been for hours. Neither one of them could remember a time when they'd sank this low. They had no job, no money, were possibly wanted fugitives, and the only person they could have counted on as an ally had just revealed herself to be an enemy. The Pair had awoken to find that Tarc had gone missing. The central desk of the tower's apartment complex told Yuri that Tarc had checked out, but neither she nor Kei believed it. They both remembered the "dream" they'd had that night, and they knew it hadn't been one. They just weren't the type to share dreams, at least not ones that so closely mirrored reality. If their convictions were not enough, what Yuri had seen was. The first thing she did when she heard that Tarc had gone was to go outside with a pair of binoculars. Luckily, it had been a clear day and, sure enough, she could see a work crew replacing the glass that Tarc had broken. MacPherson had to be behind it. There were no two ways about it. Only she had the influence to completely erase every trace of the last night's events, to order them changed into their nightclothes and placed in their beds as if nothing had happened. A pin couldn't drop on Platonia without Nora MacPherson III being informed of it. There wasn't going to be any meeting with MacPherson that day. A message left with the desk informed the Pair that important meetings had forced the sale of the _Lewis_ and_Clark_ to be moved up two days. It seemed fairly obvious that there was not going to be a sale. And that meant the Pair had come to the end of the line. Or had they? Yuri stood up and walked into the bedroom. She returned a few minutes later wearing a green jacket she'd bought the day before, and carrying her bags. "Where are you going?" asked Kei. "The Lovely Angel." "I figured it had come to that. Do you think we can make it out of UG space without being discovered?" "I'm not planning on running just yet," said Yuri. "I just thought I'd see what's on that chip that ended up in your back. Probably nothing useful, but you never know. But I didn't think there was any sense in coming back here afterwards, so I packed. You coming?" "Yeah, let me get my stuff." "Well, Therian, what do you think?" asked Nora, with a smile. "Doesn't he add a striking note to the decor of the office?" "Surely you cannot intend upon keeping him here," said Therian, peering into the cryo-chamber. "Why not? I like him here. He's visible from my desk. I haven't had that many victories over this being. I want to gloat a little every now and then." "With all due respect, my lord, if you wish to gloat, why not kill him and have him stuffed? Surely that's a wiser course of action than keeping him, alive, this close to your person." Nora sighed. "Oh, Therian. I thought I'd made you smarter than that. That body is no more Tarc Meridian than this one is Nag'sharath. If I kill him, I release him." Nora took a long drag on the cigarette held in the filter in her right hand, let it out, and reclined on her desk. "Ah, yes. A wonderful view from here. Yes, I think I'll keep him this way. This very capsule kept him nice and frosty for seventy-eight years, on its own power source. I figure with a fresh power module, I can keep him unconscious for at least a century. Who knows, by then this marvelous civilization may have invented a bet-UNH!" The cigarette fell tumbling to the floor, where it began to char the carpet. Nora grasped her temples with both hands and began to sink to the floor, a thin trickle of blood running out her nose. As the Angels walked through the spaceport toward the docking area for private craft, Close called out to them. "Miss Kei! Miss Yuri! Wait!!". He was running toward them, much as he was when the first met. "Is there a problem?" Yuri asked. There was a pause as Close caught his breath. "You tell me! What's this I hear about you leaving?" "Who told you we were leaving?" asked Kei. Neither one of them had informed anyone of their intentions. "I was told that you'd entered the spaceport with your bags packed. I drew my own conclusions." He gestured toward the girls' bags. "I see they were right." Kei reddened. "Who's `they'? Are you spying on us?" Close made an exasperated motion. "No, I'm not spying on you. `They' are the people who were behind the checkout desk when you picked up your hanger pass." His tone of voice was a lot less pleasant than it had been the day before. "I really hope you're not planning to skip out on us, especially after Ms. MacPherson has given you each 10,000 credits. I've been assigned to see that the sale goes smoothly. It could jeopardize my job if you take off." "Look," said Kei, controlling her temper, "as far as I'm concerned, you guys can just take that piece of junk! Our lives have been nothing but hell since we discovered it!" "Be that as it may," replied Close, "we still want your signature on a bill of sale." He paused to let out a breath. "Look, I'm sorry about the delay. Ms. MacPherson is having some very important meetings with some stock market officials that can't be put off. She'll be free in just two days. Stay, enjoy the city. We'll pay for everything." This didn't ring true with Yuri. "Why does the sale have to be done in person? Can't you sign it for her?" "Ms. MacPherson wants to meet you. She wants to learn about your discovery of the ship in your own words. So, what do you say?" "Well, I hate to contradict your contacts," said Yuri, "but we weren't planning on leaving yet. We just wanted to spend some time on our ship with our pet." Close was visibly relieved. "Great! Listen, we could relax the no-pet restriction at the hotel. How big is it?" "Huge. We'll keep in touch, Mr. Close. C'mon, Kei." "Wonderful!" Close called after them. "Oh, and if you're worried about the 3WA, don't be. It's not a problem." That didn't exactly put Kei and Yuri at ease. The only way to truly escape the 3WA was to disappear. The Angels opened the _Lovely_Angel's_ main hatch and were nearly flattened by Mughi. The large, furry animal had an Angel under each of his front paws and was alternately licking each face. Between laughs, the girls begged him to stop, and eventually he relented. "Okay, Mughi, we get the point," said Kei, wiping Mughi- slobber off her face. "We've been neglecting you for the last couple of days." Kei took her and Yuri's bags into their rooms, while Yuri went to the bridge. By the time Kei caught up with her, she has already placed the microchip into the bridge's data reader and fired it up. "Anything interesting?" Kei asked. "Well, there's only one file on the chip. It's some kind of graph." Yuri showed Kei the screen, which showed part of the huge design. "What does it mean?" "I think it's a diagram of control." Yuri pushed a button and the diagram scrolled to the very top. "See, there it says `Nora MacPherson III' at the top. Then underneath her are a bunch of holding companies, like `MacPherson Enterprises' there. Then underneath that are the companies each of those controls, and so on." "Sounds pretty boring." "I dunno," said Yuri. "Let's see what's at the bottom of the graph." Yuri decided to scroll through the graph the long way, just to take a look. As she moved down through the lower levels, she noted that not all the names were of corporations. There were names of persons and planets listed as well. What that meant, she couldn't even guess. Finally, she reached the bottom, and let out a low whistle. "What?" asked Kei, impatiently. "What is it?" "Just look at all the names at the bottom of the graph. It's like a `Who's Who' of UG Corporations. Genom, Gainax, Tyrell, Bandai, Kuan Yin, Zik Zak, they're all here. If this graph is right, then MacPherson is indirectly controlling all these corporations." "Is that bad?" "Well, it's like, a serious violation of antitrust laws. If she were ever caught, she'd be fined pretty heavily and be forced to sell off her holdings." Kei thought for a moment. "You think if we confronted her with this, we could get her to tell us the truth about Tarc?" "We'd probably end up dead. Besides, we don't even know that this stuff is true. Maybe the guy was a nut and made it all up." Kei poked a button. "There's more to the file." There was more, a simple text statement. "PLEASE CONFIRM WITH MACPHERSON DATASYSTEM. 348-BLUE-SAD" "Now what the heck does that mean?" asked Kei. Yuri knew what it meant. "That guy, he said he'd given you a key, right?" "Uh-huh." "That's what that is. A key. It's for hacking directly into a neural computer." Kei looked excited. "COOL! Go for it!" Yuri thought about it. Hacking into the MacPherson central computer system could give them answers to some of the mysteries of the last few days. But it could also get her killed. The MacPherson Datasystem was a network of neural computers. Neural computers were fashioned after the model of the human mind. The advantage was that information could be stored and retrieved quickly in much the same way that people do, by forming connections between facts and concepts. Neural computers could quickly bring entire bodies of knowledge to bear on a single problem, and could even invoke a form of artificial intuition. Critics had worried that a large system of that nature could become sentient, but except for rare cases like the Damocles Tower control system, that never happened. Besides, one benefit of neural computers made them desirable enough to risk even that. They were dangerously difficult to hack into. Neural computers operated in a way that was so different from the standard datamatrix, that the only type of computer that could communicate with one was another neural computer. It was possible to convert data from a datamatrix into a form understood by the neural computer, but the algorithm was so complex and subjective, it required a neural computer to run it. So in order to hack into a neural computer, you had to already have access to one, and they were very, very, expensive... unless you used the one in your head. "Are we on-line?" Yuri asked Kei. "Yep!" Kei checked over a datascreen. "We're hooked into the Batyra city dataline. You should be able to address the main MacPherson system at 416." Yuri pulled an interface cable from the console and put the plug into a socket behind her right ear. "Listen up, Kei. If I start to make any anxious motions, any at all, cut the power. Got that?" "Got it!" "Okay. Here goes nothing." Yuri closed her eyes and made contact. Yuri concentrated, trying to make sense of the data that was flowing unimpeded into her brain. Kei knew that Yuri liked hacking, so she assumed that Yuri was enjoying herself. The truth was, Yuri hated it. Hacking wasn't any fun for her when she could get killed doing it, killed in a very painful way. Most computers in the UG were operated, or could be operated, through interface cables that plugged into the user's nervous system. This didn't ordinarily imply a merger of user and computer; it was just a very quick and efficient way to give the computer complex commands. This was different, however. Yuri had to actually pretend to be a computer system. What Yuri wanted to do was to fool the MacPherson network into believing that she was a process asking to communicate with the network. The hard part was to convince the system that she had the clearance to do so. This is where the "key" that had been on the chip came in. Yuri managed to block out the extraneous noise and sent a "request comm" command to 416. Instantly, a passcode request came back. Yuri had to send a conception of the number 348, the color blue, and the emotion sad nearly simultaneously or be denied access. She was allowed three tries to allow for any line noise, but after that, she would be kicked out with a quick power surge which was harmless to most systems but could prove fatal to her. "Professional" hackers usually had a device installed to resist the surge, but the _Lovely_ Angel_'s system wasn't designed for this sort of thing. On the first try, she managed to think of think of the number and the color, but was too nervous to get the emotion right. She tried again, this time thinking of how she felt when she had been six and her puppy had been hit by a landing aircar. The MacPherson system welcomed her in. Yuri ordered the system to set up a "slave process". This process would mimic, to a certain extent, the operation of her own mind, and feed data back to her. Just as the ancient keyboard operators had the illusion that they were typing directly into the computer instead of into a communications program, so Yuri now had the illusion of being inside the system. Yuri took a moment to get her bearings. The vast structure of data storage loomed before her. Yuri drifted through the structure in a search-mode, looking for anything interesting. She found some protected files and, after a bit of effort, picked her way inside. Nothing particularly exciting. One file confirmed some of the information in the stranger's graph, boring statistics on who owned what. She searched a bit more and found what appeared to be MacPherson's appointment file. Yuri opened it up. MacPherson was scheduled to meet that day with the executive board of the UG Securities and Exchange Commission. she thought. Still, none of this was really what Yuri was looking for. She wanted any information on the original Nora MacPherson, the _Lewis_and_Clark_ disaster, Red Johnson, or, even better, Tarc Meridian. So far she'd found nothing. She picked open the last of the protected files, to no avail. She was about to browse the vast expanse of unprotected data on the tiny chance that there might be something buried in a historical article, when her attention was caught to the communication ports, lying just "above" the datafiles. More out of curiosity than anything else, Yuri drifted over to take a look. There were ports to other systems, ports to hardcopy printers, ports to hyperspace transmitters, and one that Yuri couldn't recognize. It had no label. Yuri decided to send a signal down the mystery port and see what was on the other side. Unfortunately, the unrecognizable port seemed to have just as unrecognizable a protection code. Never one to back down from an intellectual challenge, Yuri got to work... ...and had no luck at all. Yuri had no real idea how long she'd been banging away at the port. She knew from experience that her time sense played tricks on her when she mind-hacked. She felt fatigued, so she thought it could be hours. she thought. Yuri thought about giving up, then decided to give it one more shot. She "stared" at the port, trying to find the one way she could get it to open. Suddenly, there it was. Yuri saw the solution and wondered how she could have missed it before. She gave up trying to open the port; she now saw that was impossible. Instead, she approached the port, did a "twist", and just... drifted through. Kei had nearly drifted off to sleep when she saw Yuri spasm as if she'd been shocked. Kei jumped up and ran over to her friend. "Yuri? You okay?" Yuri didn't respond. Yuri was not just concentrating anymore, she was unconscious. Kei lifted one of Yuri's eyelids: the pupil was completely dilated. Kei bit her knuckle as she nervously considered what to do. Kei didn't know if it was safe to disconnect her from the console, but to leave her like this... Kei decided she would give Yuri five more minutes, then cut her loose and run her to the sickbay. She ran to get a stretcher. The first sensation Yuri had was of something cold beneath her feet. Yuri looked down. Her feet were bare. She was standing on a black tile floor. She could see her reflection in the tile. She was completely nude. Yuri looked around. She was standing in what appeared to be a large room in a much larger mansion. This was apparently the reception room. It was roughly circular, with three doors evenly spaced along the opposite wall and twin marble staircases curling up the side to an upper level, where more doors stood. Yuri felt disoriented. This wasn't how mind-hacking was supposed to feel. She looked down at her naked body. She was solid enough, alright. This body responded just as easily as her real one. That is, assuming that this wasn't her real body. That was impossible, wasn't it? Yuri felt a strong impulse to try to cover herself with her hands but repressed it. Panicking wasn't going to solve anything. Behind Yuri was an open door, beyond which was an indistinct mass of a swirling lights. She figured it was probably the port she came through. Yuri had to decide: go back through or stay here and explore. She almost went back when it hit her that she and Kei would have yet another mystery on their hands, and she was sick to death of mysteries. She screwed up her courage and walked up the staircase on the left. Kei returned with the stretcher to find Mughi sniffing at Yuri and mewling anxiously. "She's gonna be okay, big guy, honest! She's just hacked off a little more than she can chew. Get it? `Hacked'?" Kei laughed nervously at the lame pun. The mansion was beautiful, well-kept, and well-lit, but seemed deserted nonetheless. Figuring that she still had to be in a computer, no matter how bizarre the operation, Yuri looked for anything that might hold information: desks, cabinets, closets. There was nothing of the sort, just an endless series of hallways and sitting rooms. At least the rooms up there were carpeted; Yuri's toes had been going numb from the all the tile and marble. Yuri figured that anything important would be at the top of the structure, so she walked up every staircase she could find. At last she reached a level that was different from the others. The light was a bit dimmer, the walls a bit less artistically carved. The level seemed more functional than the others, consisting of a short hall with three doors. Yuri walked over to the largest door, a smooth metal creation, and pulled. A blast of freezing cold air hit her naked skin, raising goose bumps. Yuri endured the chill and peered in. The room seemed to be a freezer, of all things. The contents were simply a huge mass of ice. thought Yuri. Ignoring the screams of protest from her bare feet (this wasn't her real body anyway), she stepped inside for a closer look. Inside the ice appeared to be the frozen body of Nora MacPherson III. Yuri recognized her from 3V newscasts. She seemed younger, with her hair still raven-black. Or was this an image of Nora MacPherson, the grandmother of the current ruler of Platonia? She looked an awful lot like the photo of the original Nora that Tarc had called up on the _Lovely Angel_'s computer shortly after they found him. That was the problem: MacPhersons tended to look an awful lot like their mothers. Maybe they were clones. Not at all certain what she had found, Yuri stepped out of the freezer and closed the door. She then stopped to rub her feet. Real or not, they were killing her. Yuri soon recovered enough to continue exploring. She pushed open another door and walked into a library. Her joy at finding a source of information was tempered with a realization of the hopelessness of finding anything specific. The library seemed infinitely large, stretching out to forever in all directions, row after row of shelves filled with books. The books closest to her seemed the oldest. On a hunch, Yuri picked up the book on a bottom shelf, as close as she could get to the door. She figured it would be the book that was first in whatever order this library used. The book was covered with dust that stained her hands black. She blew the dust off and was rewarded with a sneezing fit. She opened to the first yellowing, crumbling page and read... "I AM NAG'SHARATH." Yuri dropped the book. She knew where she was. She fought off the urge to panic, but it came back. She ran out of the library. She was three steps down the staircase when she decided she had to know what was behind the third door. She walked back up to the door, and cautiously opened it. The real world was behind it. Yuri could see a spacious office. The view changed constantly, but Yuri saw that there was one of MacPherson's bodybuilders in the room. He was talking to someone. "With all due respect, my lord, if you wish to gloat, why not kill him and have him stuffed? Surely that's a wiser course of action than keeping him, alive, this close to your person." Yuri wondered. Then Yuri saw. In a small alcove off the office, stood the very cryo-chamber that she and Kei had spirited off the _Lewis_and_Clark_. The same man was inside it. The difference was that, this time, there was a label pasted across the glass. It read "TARC MERIDIAN". "Oh, my god!" Yuri shouted, as the realization finally hit her like a ton of bricks. "It's TRUE! It's ALL TRUE!" That did something. Yuri heard a loud grunt of pain, and the view shifted wildly. Suddenly, it was getting very hot where Yuri was. She turned and ran back down the steps. But it wasn't the same place. This was not the same mansion she had walked up through. It was grey and ugly, cracked stone and twisted black iron replacing the marble. Even worse, something huge could be heard moving around somewhere. To her terror, Yuri found that she was lost. Yuri turned a corner and stepped on more of the black tile. This time it turned to hot tar beneath her feet. Yuri sank in to her shins and fell, screaming. The thing was coming closer, making the tar ripple and quiver with its approach. Yuri was terrified of even seeing what it was. She was still sinking into the tar and it was now up to her navel. She was completely stuck. Yuri knew there was only one way out. She concentrated, trying to ignore what her senses told her was her body, and tried desperately to send a signal to her *real* body, to wave her real arms. The thing's enormous shadow darkened the hallway in front of her as it began to turn the corner. Then Yuri's mind exploded in pain. This time her first sensation was taste. Blood. Her own. It was flowing from her nose. Yuri's vision focused and she saw Kei looking down at her. She was holding the inferface cable in her hand. "Are you okay, Yuri?" asked Kei. "You really had me worried." "Sure, I'm fine," Yuri replied. "Hand up?" she asked, extending a hand to Kei. Kei helped Yuri up. Yuri thanked her, then punched her clean in the face, knocking her to the floor. "I said CUT THE POWER!" Yuri screamed. "Not pull the plugs! You stupid bitch, you almost killed me!!" Yuri readied herself for Kei's rebuttal, or better yet, for Kei to attack. Kei was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry," she mumbled. Then she started to cry. Yuri didn't know what to say. "No, that's... that's okay. I shouldn't have worried you like that." "It's just," said Kei between sniffles, "it's just that we've lost everything. I couldn't bear to lose you too..." "Oh, Kei," said Yuri. She kneeled down and embraced her friend, crying herself. "We'll always have each other. I swear." "MY LORD!" Therian rushed to Nora's side, helping her up. "Are you well? What happened?" Nora wiped her nose. "That bitch. She got into my HEAD!" "She... was inside you?" "She infiltrated my mind through the mystical link I set up with the datasystem. There's only one way she could've pulled that off. And it means she's going to be able to do a lot of annoying things if I don't put a stop to this now." She punched a button on her comm unit. "Get me Close." ------------------------------------------------------------- NEXT: Bloody Card! Astral projection! Weird weather! And answers! Lots of 'em! If you have comments or questions, send me email. If you need previous parts, FTP them from wpi.wpi.edu or ask Larry Mann at eaiu146@orion.oac.uci.edu. ---------- 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. Yes, it's been about a year since I began writing this mini-novel about the Dirty Pair's adventure with the reincarnated demon-slayer Tarc Meridian. I'd like to thank all the readers who encouraged me not to give up. They probably didn't realize they were encouraging me, just nagging me, but it was encouragement nonetheless. This chapter features a long segment written from Mughi's point of view, to the best of my knowledge the first time this has been done. Chapter 7 should follow shortly, as it's merely what was left of Chapter 6 after I realized it was too long. :-) Comments are invited. For example, has anyone guessed who the bodyguards who follow Nora MacPherson around all look like? :-) ------------------------------------------------------------- THE DIRTY PAIR in THE GAME ETERNAL by Ryan Mathews CHAPTER SIX 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. However, Red/Meridian steals the _L&C_ himself, forcing the Pair to steal their own ship to follow. They travel to the planet Platonia, wholly owned by Nora MacPherson III. There they are put up in a hotel and given 10,000-credit debit cards and sent out to go shopping while Nora talks with Meridian. At a mall, Kei is slapped on the back by a running man. She gives chase (having an odd vision of herself as a swordswoman in the process), but the man is gunned down by security. Later, a microchip is found on Kei's back. That night, Tarc goes after "Nag'Sharath". Kei and Yuri try to beat him to MacPherson. When they are accosted by two of MacPherson's bodybuilder security guards near the top of the tower-like building, Tarc comes through the window brandishing a crystal sword and fights them off, seemingly turning them into demons before killing them. However, they have worse luck with the standard security, and all three end up tranquilized. Kei and Yuri awake to find themselves back in bed in their nightclothes. Realizing that MacPherson is trying to cover up the events of the previous night, they become depressed. They move back to the Lovely Angel, where Yuri takes a look at the chip that was in Kei's back. It contains a graph, that, if true, shows that MacPherson controls most of the major corporations in the UG. It also contains a key for cyber-hacking into the MacPherson datasystem. Yuri uses the key and finds herself inside the mind of Nora MacPherson III, where some facts are confirmed. ------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER SIX This scene had been played out countless times before: one of the Lovely Angels rushing headlong into some disastrous course of action while the other chased after and tried vainly to talk some sense into the girl. The big difference this time was that the roles were reversed. "Will you just explain this to me?" asked Kei as she tried to keep up. "Why are we going back?" After Yuri had cleaned the blood off her face, she had immediately ran to her quarters and grabbed her still- unpacked bags. Kei had been unable to get her to stop long enough to answer questions and was currently chasing her up the boarding walkway, back to the spaceport. Yuri answered without looking back. "I saw Tarc, Kei. It's all true. Everything he said." "How did you see him?" "I don't know, but I did. MacPherson or Nag'Sharath or whatever she is, she's holding him in a cryochamber in her office. It says `Tarc Meridian' on it." "You were probably just hallucinating!" "I was NOT hallucinating! And I'm gonna go get him." "What?!" Kei grabbed Yuri's hand to stop her. Yuri stopped dead in her tracks, then did a 180 and headed back to the _Lovely_Angel_, just as fast. Kei turned to run after her, confused as hell. "So you've changed your mind? Good." "No. We just..." Yuri paused, trying to remember the odd feeling that had run through her when Kei had grabbed her hand. It had seemed so clear, but now, mere seconds later, it was fading. "We have to arm ourselves. I think." "Well, that's always a good idea," agreed Kei. "But let's go back to this `go get Tarc' thing." They reentered the ship and headed for Yuri's quarters, past a curious Mughi. "Do you want to leave without him?" Yuri asked as she walked into her quarters. She placed one of her bags on her bed, opened it, and pulled out her uniform. "Well..." Kei thought about that. It had been bugging her. She actually caught herself missing him every now and then. But Tarc had left *them*, hadn't he? Why should they risk their lives to-- Kei's thoughts were rudely interrupted when Yuri's bra hit her in the face. "Sorry about that," Yuri apologized. The brunette had already stripped to the waist and was busily removing the rest of her clothes. "Well? Are you going to change or just stand there and watch me?" Kei rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. I'll go change." Kei walked out of Yuri's quarters and headed toward her own. A moment later, Yuri heard her shout. "MUUUU-GHI!" "Mughi?" Yuri wondered aloud. "Why would she call for Mughi?" Yuri fastened the top on her two-piece 3WA outfit and went to see why. She found Kei in a storage area near her quarters, where they had stashed the cryochamber after Tarc had been taken out of it. Only it wasn't there anymore. Mughi had beaten Yuri there, and the large, cat-like animal was sniffing the empty space. "Well?" Kei asked the Angels' pet. "What happened to it? You were supposed to be guarding the ship, remember?" Mughi meowled and gave Kei a grin. "Worthless furbag," muttered Kei under her breath. "A-hah!" Yuri shouted triumphantly. "See! What'd I tell you?! MacPherson must have it!" "Then how'd she get it?! Mughi may be lethargic, but there's no way they could've taken something that big off the ship without waking him up, and if he'd been drugged, we'd know it by now, right? So what'd she do, wiggle her fingers and make it reappear in her office?" Kei twiddled her own fingers in a sarcastic demonstration. "Maybe. Tarc keeps saying she's a demon. She probably has some kind of sorcerous powers." Kei stared at her partner, dumbfounded. "You feeling okay, Yuri?" "Huh? Of course I am, why?" "Well," Kei said, "it's just that you're usually so rational, and--" "You think I'm losing it?" said Yuri, angrily cutting her off. "Let me refresh your memory, Kei: We found a 78- year old ship by accident, with a frozen man on board who claims to be the last of a race of mystical avengers. Since then, we've both had visions of ourselves as other people, we've both seen the man vaporize two other men with a crystal sword after turning one into some kind of creature, and I've nearly been killed after I hacked into a computer and found myself inside what was probably MacPherson's head! NOTHING about this has made sense from the moment it started! And you want me to be rational? I've tried! It hasn't worked! Maybe there is no rational explanation, Kei!" Kei opened her mouth to give a snappy rebuttal, realized she didn't have one, and closed it again. "Oh, hell. Guess I'll go change." They soon arrived, uniformed and armed, at the multi- leveled parking garage where they had parked the rented car they'd been driving since they arrived. Close had been nice enough to arrange a spot on the first level, so they didn't have to bother with the elevators. Although there were plenty of other cars on the level, Kei and Yuri seemed to be the only people present. "Must not be rush hour," Kei commented, looking around. "Where'd we park?" "Over here," said Yuri, pointing toward a six-wheeled blue convertible. "So what are we gonna do when we get back to the tower?" Kei asked. "Well, first we need to find some way to get into MacPherson's office. Then I thought that once we got Tarc out of the cryochamber, we'd ask him what to do." "Hmm. I guess that doesn't make any less sense than--" Kei caught a glimpse of movement near the railing where the second level overlooked the first inward from all sides. A split-second later, she recognized it. "YURI, GET DOWN!" Kei forced Yuri to the ground. A pulse beam hissed through the space where Yuri's head had been and made a coin- sized crater in the pavement. In a flash, Kei had her gun out and fired, hitting the sniper between the eyes. Spasming, he fired a few shots skyward as the impact knocked him on his back. "God damn it, they're *armed*!" came a shout from above. "To hell with the property damage, mow them down!" The rest of the snipers revealed themselves, ringing the Pair on the second level. Kei and Yuri ran for the wall underneath the point where Kei had killed one, weaving back and forth to present poor targets. They reached their destination, dodging pulse beams, and dived behind another car for cover. Kei's heart soared. Finally, a crisis she understood! There were bad guys up there and they were shooting at her! She could deal with this! The return of normalcy to Kei's universe made her so giddy that she nearly lost track of her surroundings. She ducked as one of the gunmen fired... * * * ...and the crossbow bolt buried itself in the wall behind her. Gliora cursed. As much as she loved her sword, it was useless in situations like this, where the enemy was attacking from a distance. Gliora thought. The raven-haired sorceress was calmly digging in her robe for some item that could the help the warriors out of their predicament. Gliora opened her mouth to ask her friend what she had planned, when something occurred to her. She bit her tongue. * * * "AAH!" As Kei had hoped, the sudden pain jolted her back to reality. Yuri looked oddly calm, and Kei figured she knew why. She grabbed Yuri by the shoulders and shook. "Yuri! Snap out of it!" Yuri started. "Oh! I...I lost myself again." "Yeah, me too. Got any ideas as to how we're going to fight the *real* bad guys?" Yuri drew her hand from where she had been searching her uniform. The Bloody Card was in it. "Maybe I had the right idea all the time," she mused. Kei looked at the Bloody Card with her usual distaste. Although she'd never admit it to Yuri, the thing scared her half to death. Monowire-sharp and self-propelled, once in the air it didn't care who it cut. Only Yuri's skill as a thrower kept the two of them from being sliced just as bad as the enemy. Still, this was a desperate situation if there ever was one. Kei swallowed. "Throw the damn thing." Yuri did just that, putting spin on the Card to keep it diving and swooping at the gunmen for several seconds. One of them made the mistake of batting at it and lost a thumb for his effort. In the brief panic that followed, another gunman shot one of his colleagues. Kei and Yuri used the distraction to scurry back to their car. As she leapt into her seat, Kei tapped her earring to open a comlink. "Mughi! Get the Lovely Angel ready to-- WAAH!" Kei yelled, as the car jumped forward, pitching her into the back seat. "Dammit, Yuri, who said you could drive?!" "If you wanted to drive, you should've gotten into the driver's seat! Now hold on!" Yuri floored it, throwing Kei into the back seat again, after she had almost made it back to the front. Then Yuri stomped on the brakes. Kei went hurtling head-first into the front seat, her obscenities muffled by the seat cushion. "I almost forgot," Yuri said. She stuck her index and middle fingers in her mouth and whistled. The Bloody Card broke off from its swooping and headed straight for its owner. "Dammit, Yuri! Will you make up your mind--YAAH!" Kei ducked as the Blood Card zipped past her to be caught between Yuri's index and middle fingers. Yuri hit the gas again and they were off. Mughi was having problems of his own. He had been enjoying one of his frequent long naps when he was awoken by the sound of the hatch signal. He yawned and lumbered through the ship at a leisurely pace until he reached the main hatch. He opened it. Outside was a man dressed in a security uniform. Behind him was a very muscular man wearing sunglasses, whom the Angels would've recognized immediately. The smaller man began talking as soon as the hatch opened. "Excuse me, sir, but I'm going to have to ask--huh?" He stared at the furry animal that had opened that had opened the door. Mughi cocked his head and stared back. The muscleman spoke up. "Ignore the animal. We are here to collect the pilot." "Yeah, right, right." The officer spoke to Mughi. "If you don't mind, we'll just step inside and talk to your master." Mughi *did* mind. His sensitive nose had gotten a whiff of the bodyguard, and although he couldn't place the scent, he knew he didn't like it. He let the men know how he felt with a low growl, baring his teeth. The smaller man backed off a step and Mughi hit the switch to close the hatch. In a blur, the bodybuilder had his hands in the door and began forcing it open. Mughi slashed at the man's hands with his right foreclaw and was rewarded with a satisfying scream as the hands were quickly pulled away. It was at this point that Kei's voice came over the Lovely Angel's intercom system. Mughi knew he'd done the right thing and felt a little proud as he started to trot to the bridge. Then he yelped as his right forepaw hit the floor. He stopped to examine it. The paw was swollen, and the fur was matted with some dark substance that didn't smell like blood. Reflexively, he licked it, and immediately spat at the taste. Favoring the paw, he limped the rest of the way to the bridge. Once there, he climbed into the command seat and keyed in the code to open the door to the hangar. Nothing happened. Mughi wasn't too surprised. He knew now that the beings who ran this place were his enemies, and enemies don't cooperate. Mughi activated the _Angel_'s laser cannons, and sat back to wait for his enemies to comprehend what he had done, and to open the door. Still, nothing happened. Now Mughi *was* surprised. He knew his ship was powerful, and he knew the simple steel walls of the hangar could not possibly stand up to even one shot from the laser cannons. He thought for a moment, then guessed that they were hoping just to slow him down a little. He shrugged, and hit the fire switch. The lasers hit a force-field which briefly became visible as the blasts ricocheted off to return to the _Lovely _Angel_ from all directions. The shockwave knocked Mughi onto the floor, bouncing painfully. He crawled back to the console and queried the computer for a damage report. The armor was holding, but it couldn't take the backlash it would receive from a blast even slightly more powerful. Frustrated, Mughi paced the bridge, still favoring his sore paw. His mistresses were in trouble, and he couldn't get to them. He thought about leaving the ship and fighting his way outside, but quickly abandoned the idea. He didn't think he could fight his way through scores of people with guns, at least not with a sore paw. Then Mughi stopped as he remembered a game his redheaded mistress liked to play with her enemies. The game was called "chicken", and it could be played in a number of different ways. Dropping a live grenade on the floor and seeing who runs first, for example. Or putting the _Lovely_Angel_ on a collision course with another ship to make it change course. Or just interrogating a prisoner by pulling a bandana over your eyes and firing randomly in his direction. Mughi thought he'd come up with another interesting way to play the game. Climbing back into the command seat, he first disengaged several safety overrides. Then he activated the main engines, putting them on a build-up to escape velocity thrust. If he tried to use the thrust to escape the force- field, he knew he'd just crush the ship. But if he let the engines continue to build power until they went critical and exploded, he figured he could take out the entire spaceport as well. He reclined in the chair and waited for his enemies to figure that out. The answer wasn't long in coming. After a few minutes had gone by, and the engines' hum had become a deafening high-pitched whine, the hangar doors slowly began to open. Mughi grinned and reached for the switch that would harmlessly purge the engines. But before he could touch it, he was lifted out of the chair by one hand and thrown against the opposite wall. Mughi shook his head to clear it and looked up into the eyes of the man whose hand he had slashed. The sunglasses the man had been wearing were gone, revealing eyes that were jet- black, without whites. Black blood dripped from the man's wounded left hand onto the floor. Fear gripped Mughi. He arched his spine and bristled like a cat, baring his teeth and snarling. He backed away as the man slowly approached. When Mughi realized he had been backed into a corner, the instinct to survive overcame him and he pounced. The man was not prepared for Mughi's strength and was knocked onto his back. Mughi grabbed the man's head between his forepaws and began banging it against the floor. This proved to be a useless maneuver, as the man seemed unaffected by the blows and quickly rolled Mughi over and pinned his forelimbs. When he had so easily knocked the man over, Mughi had guessed that the man had no experience in fighting animals. Now he was sure. In the man's eagerness in to pin Mughi's "arms", he had overlooked the fact that Mughi had other two limbs with claws just as sharp. Mughi pushed down with all his strength, and disemboweled the man. Instead of dying like he was supposed to, the man instead shrieked at the top of his lungs and climbed to his feet. The gash Mughi had opened in the man's abdomen began to spread. Flesh started to fall off in clumps, revealing something inhuman and scaly underneath. The man's face split open as it transformed into something else, something with a much larger mouth and much longer teeth. The hands were likewise changing, talons pushing their way through flesh that was quickly sliding off and slopping onto the floor. Mughi took a long look at what was coming into being in front of him, and snapped. Mughi's race was not naturally intelligent. That ability was given him by the 3WA's genetic engineers. In the wild, creatures like Mughi were hunters, dangerous creatures who survived through the ability to kill anything that threatened them. The creature in front of Mughi was definitely a threat, the likes of which he had never seen before. Mughi knew only one response. He pounced again, saliva flowing from his gaping jaws. Mughi once again knocked the thing to the floor, this time clawing and biting at anything he could get ahold of. The beast's talons tore into him, but he ignored the pain. He was beyond it. He was swallowing the very juices that had caused his paw to swell, but he didn't care. Nothing mattered but the kill. Blood sprayed the bridge, some of it the beast's, some of it Mughi's. The two rolled in the wet, sticky mess, clawing, biting, tearing. At last, the creature made a fatal mistake. Mughi got on top of it, got his teeth into its neck, and, with a monstrous effort, tore its throat out. Mughi howled in victory as black blood sprayed his face. Mughi panted heavily as the adrenaline wore off, and sanity returned. With a different kind of terror, he realized that the engines were seconds away from detonating. He pulled himself up to the console, and hit the purge switch. Unfortunately, with such a powerful buildup, the purge was now far from harmless. In fact, it was sufficient thrust to send the _Lovely_Angel_ taxiing out-of-control across the spaceport tarmac. Mughi tried to bring the ship under control, but found himself too weak. The fluid that had made his paw sore now coated his body. It was in his wounds. He had even swallowed a great deal of it. He made a feeble attempt to activate the brake, then slid off the chair. He whined softly as he fell unconscious. TO BE CONTINUED... ---------- 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. The latest chapter of my Dirty Pair short novel. (Boy, is it late. :-) ) Thanks again to all who nag me to finish this. Comments are appreciated. I rarely get many, but I appreciate the ones I get. :-) Anyone interested in previous chapters should write lmann@orion.oac.uci.edu or download them off wpi.wpi.edu. About 3 chapters to go! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE DIRTY PAIR in THE GAME ETERNAL by Ryan Mathews CHAPTER SEVEN 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. However, Red/Meridian steals the _L&C_ himself, forcing the Pair to steal their own ship to follow. They travel to the planet Platonia, wholly owned by Nora MacPherson III. There they are put up in a hotel and given 10,000-credit debit cards and sent out to go shopping while Nora talks with Meridian. At a mall, Kei is slapped on the back by a running man. She gives chase (having an odd vision of herself as a swordswoman in the process), but the man is gunned down by security. Later, a microchip is found on Kei's back. That night, Tarc goes after "Nag'Sharath". Kei and Yuri try to beat him to MacPherson. When they are accosted by two of MacPherson's bodybuilder security guards near the top of the tower-like building, Tarc comes through the window brandishing a crystal sword and fights them off, seemingly turning them into demons before killing them. However, they have worse luck with the standard security, and all three end up tranquilized. Kei and Yuri awake to find themselves back in bed in their nightclothes. Realizing that MacPherson is trying to cover up the events of the previous night, they become depressed. They move back to the Lovely Angel, where Yuri takes a look at the chip that was in Kei's back. It contains a graph, that, if true, shows that MacPherson controls most of the major corporations in the UG. It also contains a key for cyber-hacking into the MacPherson datasystem. Yuri uses the key and finds herself inside the mind of Nora MacPherson III, where some facts are confirmed. Having discovered that Tarc is being held captive, Yuri decides the Pair should rescue him. MacPherson decides that enough is enough and arranges an ambush in the spaceport garage, which the Angels successfully defeat, speeding away in a car that had been provided for them earlier. Meanwhile, Mughi tries to get the authorities to release the _Lovely_Angel_ by letting the engines build to detonation. Before he can release the engines, though, he is attacked by one of the demonic bodyguards who had forced his way onto the ship. He kills the guard, but is severely wounded, and the thrust from the engine purge sends the _Lovely_Angel_ out-of- control across the tarmac. ------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER SEVEN Yuri gasped. "Is that what I think it is?!" After speeding out of the garage, Kei and Yuri had had a brief discussion. The conclusion was inescapable. They were on a hostile planet, and the jig was finally up. That having been established, there was only one place to go, the only reasonably safe place on the entire planet: back once more to their ship. Yuri had put the car into a tight turn, heading back to the hangars. Unfortunately, their destination seemed to be having troubles of its own, as it was rolling at about 120 km/h toward one of the boarding complexes at the far end of the tarmac. "What in the galaxy is Mughi up to?!" Kei wondered. "I don't know, but we're gonna find out! Hang on!" Yuri grabbed the wheel firmly with both hands and floored the accelerator. She crashed the car through a small barrier, causing several terrified luggage handlers to run for their lives, and began to chase after her ship. Kei tapped her left earring again. "Mughi! Come in, Mughi! Yuri, I think he's in trouble." "I know he is. Look at that!" Yuri pointed. They had gotten close enough to see that the _Lovely_Angel's_ starboard hatch had been completely torn off, leaving a gaping, ragged hole. "Well, at least we know how we're going to get inside," said Kei. "Put the top down." Yuri nodded. She knew what Kei had in mind. She hit the control, and the car's roof folded itself neatly into the back. "How long until it hits the building?" Kei asked. "WHAT?!" Yuri shouted back, straining to hear over the roar of the wind. "HOW LONG UNTIL IT HITS?" Kei shouted. "LESS THAN A MINUTE!" Yuri yelled back. "WHY DIDN'T YOU ASK ME THIS BEFORE I PUT THE TOP DOWN?" "WHAT?!" "NEVER MIND!" Yuri pulled alongside the _Angel_ and matched speed. Kei climbed onto the back of the car and stood up, carefully. She took a deep breath, let it out, counted to three, and jumped. At first, she was certain she'd missed, but then her hands found purchase at the edge of the hatch, and she grabbed hold. The sharp, torn metal cut into her right hand, but she ignored the pain and pulled herself up. She kneeled and extended her left hand toward the car. "YURI! COME ON!" Yuri couldn't hear Kei, but she didn't have to. She put the car on cruise and stood up. She steadied herself as best she could and jumped, grabbing for Kei's hand. She felt her foot bump the steering wheel, but she stretched and somehow Kei caught her anyway. The car veered off and plowed into several other vehicles, security cruisers, luggage carriers, rental cars, before finally exploding in an impressive fireball. Kei braced herself against the walls of what used to be an airlock, and pulled Yuri into the ship. "Thanks K--" Yuri saw the blood on her hand and realized where it had come from. "Kei, you gashed yourself pretty bad." "There's no time to worry about that! We gotta get to the bridge!" Kei ran onto the bridge, slipped in something, and slid all the way to the front. When she saw what she had slipped on, she almost threw up. Yuri screamed. Mughi lay on the floor, bleeding and semi-conscious, in a huge puddle of blood and slime. The shredded corpse of something lay next to him. "Is...is he...?" "I don't know," said Kei, pulling herself into the pilot's seat. The boarding complex nearly filled the canopy window. "But hold on to him! There's not enough time to brake!" Yuri grabbed Mughi and dragged him against the back wall. She heard him moan softly, which gave her hope. At least he was alive. A second later, Kei opened the throttle and pulled back on the yoke. The _Lovely_Angel's_ engines screamed, and it was airborne. "Climb, you bastard, climb!!" screamed Kei. The building continued to get bigger, to the point where the Angels could make out people panicking inside. thought Yuri. They almost didn't. The landing gear struck the complex, smashing windows and tearing off a large chunk of the roof. Kei was almost shaken out of her chair, but held onto the controls. The _Angel_ continued to climb until it reached a safe altitude. Yuri cradled Mughi's head in her arms. "That's right, Mughi. Mommy's here. Everything's gonna be okay." Mughi smiled, weakly. If his mother was still alive, she was on a planet almost no one had heard of, nearly a thousand light- years away. But he appreciated the sentiment. Yuri turned to Kei. "Help me get him to the sickbay." "I'm sorry, Yuri, but I can't leave the bridge. What if they send fighters after us?" "You think they will?" "They're bound to do something." Yuri thought about that. "You're right. I guess this is it, then. Time to blow out of here and start our lives as fugitives. Or throw ourselves on the mercy of the 3WA and hope all we lose are our jobs." "Guess so," agreed Kei. "It's just that...well, now that I actually have to do it, I...I don't know. I just don't want to leave..." Yuri started. "TARC!" "Yeah. I mean, it's kinda our fault what's happened to him. It's not fair, you know? And besides, I sorta... I kinda like him. Do you understand?" Yuri didn't answer. "Yuri?" Kei turned around. Yuri was slumped over Mughi, apparently unconscious. A strand of light extended from her back upward through the hull. "Oh, shit," said Kei. "Now what?" Yuri looked back at the _Lovely_Angel_ as she floated rapidly away from it. She didn't know exactly what had happened. One moment she had heard Tarc's voice calling out to her, the next she had found herself floating above her body, then passing through the hull. She had heard of "astral projection", but didn't really believe in it. Yuri found that she could see herself. Weren't spirits supposed to be invisible? But there was her "body", transparent and naked, floating through the sky. A glowing thread stretched back from her feet to the ship, presumably to her body. Yuri wondered how far it could stretch. Yuri looked ahead. She was being drawn toward the top of the immense tower, where MacPherson supposedly had her office. If Yuri's previous vision had been correct, Tarc was being held prisoner there. Yuri concentrated on the tower and accelerated. There was no sensation of speed, but before she could wonder about that, she was there. She reflexively threw up her "hands" as she hit the plate glass windows, but she passed right through them as if they weren't there. There was no doubt about it, this was the place. It looked exactly as it had before, with the exception that the alcove that had previously displayed Tarc was gone replaced by a wall. Yuri went past a desk, to the wall and through it. Behind was the cryo-chamber, the glowing indicators providing the only light. Yuri asked herself. She reached out to the deactivation switch and, to her amazement, pressed it. With a hiss, the chamber opened. Tarc groaned and shifted. "You came. I wasn't sure it would work, but it did." Yuri reached for a light switch, but before she could press it, the wall slid aside. Yuri turned and looked into the angry face of Nora MacPherson. "Well, we finally meet face-to-face, almost. Funny, I was rather hoping you'd have your body with you at the time." Yuri asked, then felt stupid for trying to talk without vocal cords. Somehow, Nora heard anyway. "Do? Nothing, really. Oh, there's lots of things I'd like to do. Like snap that umbilical cord to your body and laugh as you evaporated." Yuri gulped. "But I won't. I can't. Ask your friend if you'd like to know why." Tarc got to his feet, supported by Yuri. "You won't win, Nag." Nora shook her head exasperatedly. "Oh, shut up! You are so tiring. I told you I didn't want to play your stupid Good and Evil game, but would you go away? Of course not! And you!" Her eyes bore into Yuri. "What is it about you and that redhead that you won't let good enough alone? I would have paid you, you know. Paid you and let you go on your merry way, off the planet and out of my life. But noooooo, you have to follow Meridian here to your glorious destiny!" said Yuri. "Only after you got nosy." "You're still up to something," Tarc said. "You've changed the rules of the game, but you're still playing it. You can do nothing else." Nora's expression darkened into something horrible. "Gods and demons, how I hate you. I just want to...to..." Her fists clenched into tight balls. Yuri watched, stunned, as the carpet beneath her began to shrivel, darken, and decay. The black spot expanded until it reached the desk, which began to darken and crumble itself. A small plant in a pot on top wilted and died instantly. The death of the plant seemed to shock Nora out of her rage. "M-my canary..." she muttered. "No. I can't. Not when I'm this close to bringing it all down." She turned to Tarc and raised her voice. "Is this your plan, Tarc? To provoke me?" Tarc didn't reply. "Go on," she said to Yuri. "Take him and get out." Yuri took a firm hold on Tarc and floated toward the window. Then she realized: she could go through the window but he couldn't. She stopped. Was this Nag'Sharath's idea of a joke? To force her to carry him down more than two- hundred levels, maybe through a gauntlet of armed security guards? "Oh, for crying out loud," grumbled Nora. She gestured, and the window exploded outward. The pressure equalized, blowing the desk clear and forcing Yuri to hold on tighter. "GET OUT!" Nora yelled. Yuri did. When Yuri floated in the hatch of the airborne _Lovely_ Angel_, a naked female ghost carrying a semi-conscious man, Kei was there to meet her, her injured hand bound in a bandage from the bridge's first aid kit. "Yuri? My god, it really is you." said Yuri. "A-are you trying to talk to me? Your lips are moving but I can't hear anything." Yuri gestured Kei out of the way and floated to the bridge. Kei followed after. "Did you die, Yuri? Is that it? Then how come your body's still breathing?" Yuri placed Tarc gently on the floor of the bridge, away from the puddle of black demon-slime, and returned to her body, which still cradled Mughi's head in it's lap. She took a deep, satisfying breath. "Man. That's something I don't think I want to do ever again." Kei bent over her, concerned, looking between Yuri and Tarc. "Are you both okay? How did you do that, Yuri?" "We're fine and I don't know how I did it. I just-- OW!!" "What's wrong." "My hands! They're all swollen!" It wasn't only her hands. Yuri could feel her body swelling wherever it had touched the slime. The pain was increasing noticeably with each moment. "Oh, no. Kei, don't touch this stuff. I think Mughi and I have been poisoned." "Yuri?" Yuri struggled to get to her feet, but the pain forced her back to her knees. "We have get to the sickbay. Maybe the mediscanner can formulate an antidote." Tarc shook his head, weakly. "Your science cannot help you. That was demon's blood you touched. There is no antidote." Kei felt the tears welling up and angrily fought them back. "You're saying Yuri's gonna die?! For real?" Tarc waved her off. "No, no. I'm sorry to mislead you like that. Help me stand." Kei took Tarc by the arm and pulled him up. "You better have a cure, mister! Yuri's never died on me yet, not for real, anyway. She's not gonna start now." One of the tears escaped and began rolling down her cheek. With a curse, she wiped it away. Tarc made a gesture that looked familiar to Kei. He held his left hand out, fingers curled as if it were gripping something. Next to it, he held his right hand, fingers curled almost but not quite into a fist. Kei placed the gesture: he had made it in the spaceport when they had first encountered MacPherson's bodyguards. Tarc closed his eyes and concentrated, and suddenly, his right hand was holding something, something made of crystal. He pulled, and his Crystal Sword emerged, as if from an invisible halbard in his left hand. The entire sword emerged, and he gripped it with both hands, panting from the effort. He dipped the sword into the puddle of black slime, which was consumed in seconds in a flash of white light. Kei gasped. "Yuri," said Tarc. "Touch the sword. Hold it. But be careful not to cut yourself. I mustn't get blood on it." "What happens if blood gets on it?" asked Yuri. "Very bad things. Now, touch it." Yuri placed her hands on the flat of the blade and felt the pain leave her, instantly. A moment more, and the swelling was completely gone. Yuri took her hands away and stared at them in disbelief. "Yuri, are you alright?" Kei asked. "I think so." "You'll be fine," said Tarc. "Now help me touch your friend Mughi. I have to be holding the sword, and I'm afraid my hands aren't very steady." Tarc kneeled, and Yuri guided the flat of the crystal blade safely onto the unconscious Mughi. In moments Mughi's fur became clean again, as the muck that had been covering it disappeared. But Mughi did not stir, despite Yuri's attempts to wake him. "What's wrong?" Yuri asked Tarc, pleadingly. "I thought that was supposed to cure him." "All I could do was purge the poison from his body," Tarc said. "He was lying in it for a long time. I'm afraid the damage might be irreversible." Yuri ran her fingers through Mughi's fur. She could feel his breath, cool and faint. "So there's no hope?" "I didn't say that," said Tarc, walking back to the wall and sitting down, the sword across his knees. "You have within yourself the power to heal him." "How?" "Place your hands on Mughi and close your eyes." Yuri hesitated for a moment, then did so. "Good," continued Tarc. "Now, clear your mind. I want you to think only of warmth, gentle, healing warmth. Do you understand?" "I think so," said Yuri. "Be sure. This is important." "Okay." "Now repeat after me," Tarc said. "Simpris contunum de..." "Simpris contunum de..." repeated Yuri. "Omnos se soporum nom tu..." "Omnos se soporum nom tu..." As Kei watched, Yuri's hands began to glow. To Kei's surprise, her own injured right hand began to tingle. "Tempranum gis sevran em hontori..." "Tempranum gis sevran em hontori..." The glow spread to Mughi's body, and he began to stir. "Pularan ke tristum sev poranis..." "Pularan ke tristum sev poranis..." As Yuri completed the phrase, Mughi yelped and jumped to his feet. He then jumped on Yuri and began licking her face. Yuri laughed out loud. "It worked! You're okay!" Kei removed the bandage from her hand and was stunned to find it completely healed. "How...?" "It appears your friend was as concerned about your injuries as she was about those of your pet," said Tarc. "The two of you are linked in ways you don't yet understand. I'm not surprised that you healed." Kei stared at Yuri in amazement. "Those words, what did they mean?" she asked Tarc. "Nothing. I made them up. They're gibberish, as far as I know." "What?" said Yuri, surprised. "But they healed Mughi!" "No," said Tarc. "*You* healed Mughi. The words just helped you to have confidence, much like a magic medallion given a child, to help him learn to swim." "But I'm not a sorceress." Tarc sighed. Suddenly the ship lurched. In a flash, Kei was back in the pilot's seat. Yuri got up and ran to her side. "What happened, Kei? Did something hit us?" Kei scanned the console readouts. "No, just heavy turbulance. Really heavy. I'll pull us out of it." "I don't think you should--" Tarc began, then was cut off as the ship lurched even more violently, throwing him several feet across the bridge. "This is weird," said Kei looking at the console for some clue as to what was happening. "We're caught in some kind of miniature jet-stream. Maybe full thrusters, combined with the heat-shield?" "No!" shouted Tarc. "You'll only succeed in tearing the vessel apart! This is Nag'sharath's doing." "Doing what?" Yuri demanded. "She's taking the ship somewhere. I suggest you shut it down and let her." That didn't sound like a good idea to Kei. "You mean just let her herd us to our death?!" "Trust me, killing us is the last thing she has in mind right now." "She thought it was a great idea a few hours ago!" "Things have changed since then." Yuri took a look at the console herself. "I'm afraid he's right, Kei. There's no way we're pulling out of this without shredding the ship. We're stuck." Two hours later, the _Lovely_Angel_, flying without engines, made a gentle landing on a tiny tropical island in Platonia's largest ocean. A sensor scan of the surroundings showed exactly what Tarc said it would: a hemispherical force-field, with no apparent power source, enclosing the island. Realizing that they weren't going anywhere for awhile, the Angels decided to enjoy their surroundings. They dug swimsuits out of their on-board wardrobe and were soon frolicking on the beach. Tarc, for his part, stripped to the waist, but didn't seem interested in having fun at the moment, choosing instead to sit in the sand and stare moodily off into the horizon. Next to him sprawled Mughi, stretched out on his back and snoring loudly. Tarc jumped, as two female hands were suddenly covering his eyes. "Guess who?" "Gliora," said Tarc. "Oh, phooie," said Kei, mildly annoyed. "I thought you'd stopped that `Efena and Gliora' crap." "Sorry," Tarc said, smiling. "It's just that you sometimes remind me so much of her." Kei smiled back. "Well, you're in luck! Turns out I can't get mad at someone who looks so sexy with his shirt off." She gave Tarc a big hug, startling him and causing him to blush. "Kei!" shouted Yuri. "Will you cut it out! Save your libido for later." "Hmph." Kei sat down and folded her arms in defiance. "Sorry, Tarc," Yuri said. "You must think we're pretty unprofessional, having fun in the middle of a crisis like this." "Not at all. In fact, I admire your ability to relax. I always did. Uh, with Efena and Gliora, I mean." "Hey!" shouted Kei, instantly in a good mood again. "Remember that time on Agerna, when we took a bath in the middle of a case?" Yuri laughed. "Yeah, and that guy barged in on us in the middle of it, and we got attacked?" "We had to finish almost the whole case wearing nothing but towels!" Kei and Yuri broke up laughing. Tarc listened to their laughter for a moment. A solemn expression spread across his face. "I am so very sorry," he said, softly. "Huh?" said Kei and Yuri in unison. "I've tried to convince myself that you two are really Efena and Gliora, my old partners. That the memories would come back, with time. But they won't. Not any more than they have already." Tarc stood up and walked toward the ocean, as Kei and Yuri stared after him. "You aren't them. Not anymore, at least. All the myriad reincarnations have changed you to the point where you have become different people. Fragments of my friends' souls remain inside you, but I fear that's all that remains." He turned to face them. "I am so sorry to have involved you in this. It is no longer your fight." There was silence for a moment. Then Yuri spoke up. "I still don't understand." "Well, it's high time that you did!" Tarc exclaimed. "The sun will be going down soon. I suggest we gather some wood and build a fire. I've always found that to be the best atmosphere for telling stories." "You mean...?" asked Kei. "Yes. Tonight, I will explain everything to you." NEXT: Tarc's story. ---------- 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. I'm sure you're all familiar with my excuses for taking so long, so I'll skip them this time. I would like to thank Larry Mann for his help in plotting Tarc's history. ----------------------------------------------------------- THE DIRTY PAIR in THE GAME ETERNAL by Ryan Mathews CHAPTER EIGHT 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. However, Red/Meridian steals the _L&C_ himself, forcing the Pair to steal their own ship to follow. They travel to the planet Platonia, wholly owned by Nora MacPherson III. There they are put up in a hotel and given 10,000-credit debit cards and sent out to go shopping while Nora talks with Meridian. At a mall, Kei is slapped on the back by a running man. She gives chase (having an odd vision of herself as a swordswoman in the process), but the man is gunned down by security. Later, a microchip is found on Kei's back. That night, Tarc goes after "Nag'Sharath". Kei and Yuri try to beat him to MacPherson. When they are accosted by two of MacPherson's bodybuilder security guards near the top of the tower-like building, Tarc comes through the window brandishing a crystal sword and fights them off, seemingly turning them into demons before killing them. However, they have worse luck with the standard security, and all three end up tranquilized. Kei and Yuri awake to find themselves back in bed in their nightclothes. Realizing that MacPherson is trying to cover up the events of the previous night, they become depressed. They move back to the Lovely Angel, where Yuri takes a look at the chip that was in Kei's back. It contains a graph, that, if true, shows that MacPherson controls most of the major corporations in the UG. It also contains a key for cyber-hacking into the MacPherson datasystem. Yuri uses the key and finds herself inside the mind of Nora MacPherson III, where some facts are confirmed. Having discovered that Tarc is being held captive, Yuri decides the Pair should rescue him. MacPherson decides that enough is enough and arranges an ambush in the spaceport garage, which the Angels successfully defeat, speeding away in a car that had been provided for them earlier. Meanwhile, Mughi tries to get the authorities to release the _Lovely_Angel_ by letting the engines build to detonation. Before he can release the engines, though, he is attacked by one of the demonic bodyguards who had forced his way onto the ship. He kills the guard, but is severely wounded, and the thrust from the engine purge sends the _Lovely_Angel_ out-of-control across the tarmac. The Angels board the moving craft and barely manage to get it safely in the air. Yuri is then "called" by Tarc, and finds herself drifting, out of her body, toward the tower. There she meets Nora MacPherson III, who angrily tells her to take Tarc and leave. Although in a ghost-like state, Yuri is able to carry Tarc to the airborne _Lovely_Angel_, where Tarc shows her how to use her newfound power to heal Mughi. The ship is then caught in a wind tunnel of Nora/Nag'sharath's making, and deposited on a small island surrounded by a force-field. There Tarc announces his intention to fully explain everything that has happened to the two girls. ------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER EIGHT "I fail to see the significance of this," said Tarc, staring dubiously at the reddish thing stuck on the end of his stick. "It's a hot dog," said Kei. "Haven't you ever roasted hot dogs over a fire before?" She took a bite out of her own. "No. What animal did this use to be?" Yuri smiled. "Kei and I have found that some questions are better left unanswered." Tarc grimaced. "I'll pass, thank you." He passed the stick to Kei. "Suit yourself." Kei stuck it in the fire. "By the way Kei," said Yuri, turning her hot dog over, "good job getting the fire started." "It was nothing any Girl Scout couldn't have done." "You were a Girl Scout?" Yuri asked incredulously. "For about a year. Until they kicked me out. I beat up a bunch of Boy Scouts on a joint campout." It was a beautiful night. Platonia's two moons provided enough light to see by, but not enough to overpower the stars. The gentle sound of the waves, combined with the crackle of the fire, made for a soothing backdrop to the conversation. Tarc took a deep breath and let it out. "Perhaps I should begin." "Sure," said Yuri. "I'd love to know what's going on." "I'm not sure that you will, but I'll try my best." Tarc paused as if to gather his thoughts. "A long time ago, I don't know exactly how long, the world was for a brief time ruled by demons." "Which world?" asked Kei. "This one?" "There is only one world, as far as I am aware. True, it has greatly increased in size since my last life, thanks to the invention of your ships that sail between stars. But it is still the world." As I was saying (Tarc continued), the world was for a time ruled by demons. The demons gained their power when the world's gods at that time came to blows and destroyed each other in a cataclysmic war. Wars such as that usually destroy the world, and this nearly did. However, enough of humanity survived to begin again. Unfortunately, so did several score of the most powerful demons, who had served as lieutenants to the Dark Gods during the wars. These demons became known as the Controllers, as they staked out portions of territory and ruled them with a terrible hand, doling out life and death as they saw fit. The war left great scars upon the land. Perhaps "scars" is not the correct term, as these scars could not be seen, nor did they exist in any one place. Rather, these scars were weakenings of the boundary between this realm and the realm that had once played home to the gods and the demons. Those who were strong of will could manipulate the forces there, bend them to their will. These people became known as sorcerers. But there were no sorcerers like the Controllers. The demons had, after all, come from that realm in the first place. For them, the manipulation of those forces was effortless. It was for this reason that nearly a score of years passed before the Controllers faced any serious opposition. When opposition did come, it came in the form of the Crystal Knights. These Knights brandished swords of purest crystal, like my own, that could destroy lesser demons with a touch. The Crystal Wars had began. I'm sorry, I have to laugh when I say that. The truth is that, for the first two years, the glorious Crystal Wars were nothing but a series of minor skirmishes. For all the power in their swords, the Knights were unable to attack even the weakest Controller. They survived only by hiding their base of operations. When the base was discovered, the Controllers sent their forces en masse. The Knighthood was nearly wiped out, scattered across the entire realm. But Crystal Knights are able to sense each other, and so the Knights were able to slowly regather over a period of two years, despite the Controllers success at hunting them down. It was during the second gathering that I joined their number, at seventeen years of age. I had considered myself an accomplished swordsman, but I was embarrassed the first time I tested a Knight. Still, they must have seen something in me, for they accepted me as a squire. A little more than a year later, I was shown how to produce my crystal sword out of the fabric of my soul. By that time the number of the Knights stood at fully thirty score. The Wars were now to begin in earnest, and I was to be part of them. We had discovered through our sorcerers that the Controllers gained much of their power from gateways to their realm which had remained open after the god war. If those gateways could be sealed, the demons would still be terribly strong, but perhaps not unstoppable. With that information, we were able to secure the alliance of most of the world's human armies. We pressed the attack and forced the more minor of the Controllers away from their gates, but we did not know how to close them, and distance from the gates only lessened the Controller's power somewhat; it did not remove it. So for three years all we did was hold the small continents where those gates were located as we attempted to find some way to seal them. Help came from an unexpected source, in the form of a small demon child named Orin, who stole the secret of the gates from his master and gave them to us under the condition that he be allowed to remain on our plane after we destroyed the Controllers. The gates on the minor continents were quickly sealed and destroyed. Armed with the knowledge that the demons would now be considerably weaker, we attacked. Now that they knew we could cut off their source of power, the demons gathered on the main continent of Halarm to protect the remaining gates. There was nothing to do but fight a horrible war of attrition. The battle went on almost without pause for four years, fought by sword and by sorcery, by honor and by treachery, by any means possible. The lesser warriors of both sides fell like insects, their bodies littering the land like leaves in autumn. The Crystal Knights survived better than the other humans, partly because of our skill, partly because the others would sacrifice ten of their number to save one Knight. This they did because they saw us as their only means of salvation. We were. Still, our numbers were being significantly reduced. For two years, the war was a stalemate. Then our forces were blessed with a series of victories. Each victory meant a gate was closed and sealed, which further weakened the Controllers, paving the way to future victories. After one year more, there remained only one gate, the largest, most powerful one at the top of Mount Kalorm. It took us six months and countless lives to fight our way up the mountain, but at last we made it to the hideous shrine they had built to house the gate. Our sorcerers got to work and closed the gate but, in one of fate's cruel twists, Mount Kalorm became active and erupted. The shrine collapsed before the sorcerers were able to seal the gate. The sorcerers barely managed to teleport me and the rest of the Knights present to safety before they were crushed to death under tons of rubble. The gate was not sealed, but it was closed, and being as it was, buried under tons of rock, the Controllers had no way to immediately reopen it. Victory was ours. It was just a matter of how long it would take. It took another half-year. When it was over, the remaining Controller Demons had scattered all over the world, and the Crystal Knights had been reduced from a proud thirty score to a tired and battle- weary eleven. Our purpose did not end with the close of the war, however, not as long as a single one of those creatures remained in our realm. We split up and became travelers. For six years we sought out the demons and did battle with them. Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost. When a battle was lost and a Knight died, we all felt it, wherever we were. Eventually, our number was reduced to two, myself and my friend Jayse. We took to travelling together, the better to prevent either of us from becoming the last of our kind. We had carefully kept track of the greater demons left unaccounted for after the end of the Crystal Wars. There was only one left, the last of the Great Controllers, Nag'sharath. We spent a year tracking Nag'sharath and finally engaged it in the land of Agenta, near the southeastern shore of Halarm. The battle did not go as planned and Jayse was struck down. I was nearly killed myself, but I gathered the last of my strength and fought on. At last, I ran the creature through with my sword, and obliterated it. I had won. The Crystal Knights had won. There was now but one of our number left, but we had outlived the Controllers. Tarc paused to take a drink from a bottle of water. "That was a great story," said Kei. "Don't get me wrong, I love sword and sorcery stuff, but what does it have to do with us?" "I'm not finished," Tarc replied. "That was only the first part of my story." I buried Jayse. Then I spent a week healing myself. After that, I pondered what to do next. With the Controller Demons all gone, there was no purpose in remaining a Crystal Knight. I considered putting away my sword for good. But something prevented me. True, Nag'sharath was gone, but I could still sense evil in the world. There will always be evil; it cannot be extinguished anymore than can good. However, if the evil was strong enough for me to sense, it meant that someone as strong as I was needed to combat it. So I got on my horse, and I began to search for the evil. I searched for fifty years. Along the way, I took part in uncounted petty battles. I played the hero, or sometimes the mercenary, although such jobs had to chosen with great care. If I chose a side that I did not believe in with all my heart, I risked corrupting it and rendering my sword useless, or worse. Eventually, I decided to lend my services, for a time, to the Emperor of Muaarl. Although the Empire was in decline at the time, it was still the dominant nation in the land of Halarm. I felt that if the evil force I yet sensed was to find a point of focus, it would have to involve the Empire in some sense. Still, I had my doubts as to the worthiness of Empire's continued existence, which is why I had avoided that course of action for so long. My sword had granted me an immortality of a sort, and although I nearing eighty years of age, I still appeared a man in his thirties. A young sorcerer named Alton had taken to travelling with me, and he planned as I did to enter the service of the Emperor. It was in the small town of Shankara that I met with the two lady warriors, Efena and Gliora, half-sisters who had been making quite a name for themselves at the time. I had been diverted to Shankara by the strong presence of a dark magic in the town, only to find that the sorceress Efena had already taken care of it by the time I arrived. Alton and Efena, it turned out, had been great friends during their training by the sorcerer Guruk, and he introduced me to the pair of young ladies. Both Efena and Gliora were daughters of the Emperor of Muaarl, the difference being that Gliora was legitimate and the heir to the throne. Gliora had renounced her claim to the throne, however, to accompany her sister on her travels. Certainly, Gliora didn't look like any princess I'd ever met, with wild red hair, brilliant skill with the sword, and a tendency to get foul-mouthed when angry. Against my better judgement, I found myself fascinated by her. To my utter astonishment, I found that the lady warriors had a companion who traveled with them: none other than Orin, the demon "child" who had helped the Crystal Knights turn the tide against his masters. Add to this the fact that Alton and Efena's mentor, Guruk, had stood with me during the final battle at Mount Kalorm, and it was clear fate was taking a hand. Alton and Efena agreed with me, exchanging stories of magical signs that had manifested recently, signs that were almost certainly the harbinger of a much greater evil about to take place. We decided to set out for Muaarl the next day. Or rather, all but one of us decided. Gliora was reluctant to return to her homeland, fearing that her father would never let her leave again. Eventually she gave in, though, and we began the trip. Once in Muaarl, we made our way to the capital city. While resting, we were surprised to see pass by two men, both of whom were known to us. One was Shargan, an evil man whose arranged marriage to Gliora had been one of the principle reasons for her running away. The other was Dektar, who had been one of the Sorcerer's Guild during the Crystal Wars before being exiled for attempting to seize the power of a demon's gate for himself. The two conversed like business partners. It was obvious the two had something to do with whatever was about to occur. However, Dektar's familiarity with me, and Shargan's with Gliora, was bound to make following them difficult. While we debated how best to proceed, Orin slipped away to follow them on his own. He promptly disappeared. Later that day, we were attacked by several minor demons. The attack was unsuccessful, of course, but the message was clear: We know you're here. Leave. Which, of course, we had no intention of doing. We waited for the next attack. It wasn't long in coming. That night we were attacked individually by assassins while we pretended to sleep. All of us save for Gliora were able to defeat our opponents. Gliora found herself the subject of a kidnap attempt by Shargan himself, who had brought along several men. The rest of us arrived in time to assist Gliora. My crystal sword revealed that several of Shargan's men were in fact disguised demons, and I began to lay into them. But during the course of battle, I was tripped and dropped my sword. One of the enemy moved to finish me off. Gliora grabbed my sword and, before I could scream at her to stop, ran him through. To my utter horror, the man turned out not to be a demon. His blood coated the sword as Gliora pulled it out. I saw my sword begin to bubble and crack. Then I blacked out from the pain. When I awoke, I was on a hillside many miles from the battle. Alton and Efena had together worked a spell to teleport us safely away. But my sword had been coated with human blood; why was I not dead? Alton handed me my sword, wrapped in a cloth which Efena had enchanted using her own lifeforce. It halted the sword's deterioration, but at the cost of Efena's vitality. The young sorceress lay on the ground, conscious but barely able to move. The truth was, I did not feel much better myself. We decided to head for the one person we knew who could restore my sword, Guruk, Efena and Alton's mentor. We mounted up and began riding. We were a sorry lot. Efena and I weren't worth much to the rest and, despite my consolations, Gliora blamed herself. To make matters worse, we were attacked again. This time, the battle was disastrous. Demon's blood killed our horses. Efena was fouled by the stuff as well, putting her minutes away from death. Soon, Gliora was also stricken. My friend Alton ordered me to drag the women away from the battle, even though it meant his certain death. I did so. I could only think of one way out. I unwrapped my sword, causing the bubbling and cracking to begin anew. Fighting the pain, I grasped the sword and whispered an ancient spell we Crystal Knights had used during the war to contact the nearest member of the Sorcerer's Guild. I had no idea if Guruk would still be aware of such a signal. Thankfully he was, and Efena, Gliora, and I were safely teleported out of danger. But not before I saw Alton struck down. I awoke to find a smiling Guruk next to me. He had repaired my sword and restored Efena's lifeforce. We had been transported to the nation of Grafton, and were under the care of the Princess Rubiera, who, it seemed, owed the lady warriors a favor. It was nighttime, and I walked out on a balcony to look at the stars and get my thoughts together. I was joined by Gliora, who was dressed, not in her usual warrior's garb, but an elegant flowing gown more suitable for the heiress to an empire. She smiled and said that the Princess had offered her a place in the Grafton nobility. She was almost certainly going to turn it down, but had decided to try it for a day to see how it felt to be a princess again. She asked me what I thought. I thought I'd never seen such a beautiful woman, and I told her. She blushed. But I also told how much I needed her, how I needed her warrior side, especially with Alton gone. We talked for hours. She asked me about my past, I asked about hers. We talked about our families, our plans for the future. One thing led to another. That night, I compromised my purity. The next morning, Guruk called us to his side. In a scrying pool, he showed us two alarming appearances in a nearby town. One was Orin, looking not at all himself. The other was an ancient object which contained the lost spell for opening gateways to the demon's dimension. Not for creating them, mind you, just for opening them. There was only one gate on which that spell would be of any use: the big one atop Mount Kalorm, which the knights had been able to close but not seal. Efena was having trouble dealing with Alton's death, seeing it as a personal failure on her part. She had not recovered well from her injuries as a result of this. It was thus decided that Gliora and I would split up and search for the key. Before Guruk had lost the image, he had placed the key in a nearby town, in the possession of a fellow in a purple robe. "Hey!" Kei interrupted. "I know this part!" "You mean at the mall?" asked Yuri. "Sure!" Kei told Tarc how, while chasing a man through the mall, it was if she had slipped into another world, becoming someone else. Tarc nodded solemnly. "Yes, I can see how that would happen. When presented with a similar situation, you began reliving the experience of your previous life." Yuri looked puzzled. "I thought you said you'd decided we weren't really Efena and Gliora." "I'm getting to that. Let me finish." Gliora caught up with the man first (continued Tarc), only to find out that he'd already passed the key onto his contact. Worse, he wasn't a man at all, but a disguised demon. Only a quick strike by Gliora saved her life. Moments later, she saw Orin in the crowd, waving to her. She ran to him, and found herself ambushed by three large demons, seemingly led by Orin himself. Luckily, I caught up to her and together we finished off the attackers. Part of me had never trusted Orin in the first place. A reformed demon? The concept was alien to me. So I was happy to do what I felt should have been done more than fifty years ago. Despite Gliora's pleas, I ran Orin through with my sword. To my astonishment, he screamed and fell unconscious, but did not burst into flame like the other demons. When he came to a moment later, he was once again as he had been before his kidnapping, and completely unharmed by the sword. Gliora cried joyfully and hugged him, thanking me. She thought I had planned it that way. I was too stunned to correct her. When the three of us arrived back at the castle, we found a healthy Efena waiting for us. Guruk had had a mentor-to-apprentice talk with her and she claimed to be ready to join us. We had failed to retrieve the key, so we had to prevent them from using it. That meant travelling to Mount Kalorm. Guruk teleported the rest of us part of the way, halfway up the mountain, but could get us no closer, thanks to Dektar's spells. As we ascended, we were attacked, time and again, by increasing larger hoards of demons and demonic creatures. For awhile we were able to make progress, but eventually we found ourselves overwhelmed by numbers. Before we left, Guruk had given to us three enchanted parchments with instructions to tear them and throw the pieces before us. I tore the first, and from the fragments rose a wall of fire, incinerating the enemy. The wall rose up the mountain and we followed. The wall died out, however, and we once again had to rely on our swords to protect ourselves against the ever- increasing demonic hoard. I tore the second parchment and we found ourselves surrounded by light. The light did not hurt our eyes, but it blinded the demons, and so we tore through them easily as we continued towards the top. When the light died, we were close enough to see Dektar. He was gesturing and shouting, maintaining a whirlwind spell which hovered above the buried gate, sucking the debris into the air. I could also see a shadowy form next to Dektar. It was insubstantial, shimmering and wavering like a heat- ghost, but I recognized it. It was Nag'sharath, whom I had failed to destroy fifty years ago. The reappearance of a Controller Demon filled me with purpose. The minor demons that continued to attack us became more of a distraction to me than a threat, and I slew them like flies. But Efena and Gliora did not have the advantage of weapons that grew stronger with one's purity of purpose, and I knew that they would soon fall. I tore the third parchment and we were surrounded by wind. The demons were swept away into the sky. We were lifted as well and deposited at the top of the mountain, just as Dektar succeeded in clearing away the last of the debris. Gliora landed roughly and stayed down. Efena immediately began to recite the spell to seal the gate. Such a spell is worthy of an elder sorcerer, and she had trouble casting it. Still, the contradiction of her spell made it impossible for Dektar to reopen the gate. He cursed her loudly and called upon Nag'sharath to summon more demons. Nag'sharath could do no such thing, though, for I had it on the defensive. It was obviously very weak, for a Controller, and one touch with my sword would be more than enough to destroy it for good. The demon swerved and swooped, trying desperately to stay out of reach. Dektar ceased his attempts to reopen the gate and turned his considerable power on Efena. She found herself unable to breathe, and collapsed. After uncounted attempts, I managed to brush Nag'sharath's ghostly form with my sword. The demon screamed in agony, but did not vanish. I stopped dead in my tracks. The touch should have finished it, but it didn't. Something was horribly wrong. I searched my mind for anything out of place, anything that would explain my weakness. I found it. Deep in my mind, I feared for Gliora's safety. I found desires, to hang up my sword and take her as my wife, to spend the rest of my life at her side. I found memories of the night I had spent in her arms. All this I had buried, for fear it would compromise my sense of purpose, but it had anyway. Worse, now that I had unburied these images, I found myself unable to rebury them. I was filled with doubt, and Nag'sharath could tell. Dektar continued to kill Efena, but he neglected to pay attention to Gliora, who had come around. With one thrust of her sword, she ended his threat. Nag'sharath howled as the man it had used as its tool crumpled to the ground. It raced to Dektar's side and flowed into his body through the mouth. Nag'sharath rose as Dektar, the wound instantly healed. The demon would have the power of itself and Dektar combined, as long as it could keep its new body from falling apart from the stress. With a gesture, it caused Mount Kalorm to reawaken. The ground trembled and quaked as the volcano began building up to an eruption that would completely destroy the mountaintop on which we stood. The ground opened up, forming a ghastly crack in the ground which led down into a river of molten rock. Nag gestured once more and Efena and Gliora were hurled into the abyss. It was as if the life had drained out of me. My sword's glow dimmed to pale shimmer. The demon laughed, a deep hearty laugh, and produced its own sword, a twisted blade of obsidian that was as much of an expression of its soul as my crystal blade was of mine. We went at it, but my heart was not in it, and I began to lose. My side was slashed, and my own blood splashed onto my sword, contaminating it once more. The blade again began to bubble and crack. I fell to my knees as I felt death approach. I could see Jayse welcoming me to his side. Then I heard the voices of Efena and Gliora calling to me. At first I thought their ghosts were summoning me from the other side, but no, they urged me to fight on, offered to lend me their strength. Nag'sharath's expression changed from glee to worry as I struggled to my feet. Although moments away from destruction, my sword glowed brighter than it had in fifty years. With a yell I charged and buried the sword into the demon's chest. A second later, the sword exploded, taking Nag'sharath with it. The quakes ceased. I collapsed. The remaining fragments of my sword melted like ice, and I knew I wouldn't be far in following them to oblivion. What saddened me was that I knew I hadn't done my job. In the state my sword had been in, it couldn't possibly have killed Nag'sharath, no matter how brightly it had glowed. Nag'sharath's essence had most likely been imprisoned in the rocks surrounding the gate. They would hold the demon for a few years, but eventually someone would wander up here and set it free, and I would no longer be around to oppose it. Efena's voice consoled me. She told me that there was a way I could continue the fight, a way Guruk had discovered. Her voice came from a swirling mist. I thought it to be her ghost, but to my astonishment, the mist formed itself into Gliora and Efena, alive and unharmed. When Dektar had died, his protection spells had slowly faded away. As Gliora and Efena fell, they left Nag'sharath's sphere of influence, and Guruk was barely able to teleport them out of danger. Efena explained how my soul could be kept intact, flowing from one existence to the next, ready to become aware again whenever Nag'sharath resurfaced. She would have to accept the same fate as I in order for the spell to work. She and I would be bound, to fight once more as a team against the enemy. Gliora protested at this point. Holding back tears, she demanded to be let into the deal. If her best friend was to be bound to a quest for all eternity, she would go with her. Efena was touched, and agreed. The three of us held hands. The last sound I heard was Efena's soft voice reciting the spell. As we were bound, I became intimately aware of Efena and Gliora, of their souls as well as their bodies. They were beside me, within me, a part of me. I marveled at how beautiful they were. Then I died. "Wow," said Kei, softly. The fire had died down to a flicker, and the three were lit only by the glowing embers and by Platonia's larger moon. "So then you were reincarnated as Red Johnson?" asked Yuri. Tarc laughed. "Oh, no, that comes *much* later. Let's see, my next life was as Dempson Trit, a scholar who never even held a sword before I came into his life. When I became aware, I searched for Efena and Gliora. I found them as Hinna and Flira, two traveling traders. They became their old selves almost as soon as they recognized me. "By that time, the legend of the Threat of Mount Kalorm was well known, and the local sorcerers had built a special prison to hold the demon: a ring of stone arches. It was just a matter of getting the demon into the stone." "Why didn't you just kill it that time?" Kei asked. "I tried. I couldn't. I'm nowhere near as powerful as I was in my first life. And even then, a Crystal Knight needed a lot of luck to defeat a Controller by himself." Yuri shifted her position and looked into the stars. "So let me see if I've got this. We're supposed to be Efena and Gliora reincarnated." "No," said Tarc. "Not directly. Let me try to remember..." He thought for a moment. "You are the reincarnations of Tatiana and Chris, two explorers from the early days of space exploration, who in turn were reincarnations of Helena and Jasmine, two rebel leaders on the Ganymede colony, who were previously Moira and Kyoko, a singing group in Mega-Tokyo, who had been Gina and Tandy, two cub reporters for the New York Times, who were--" "Okay, okay!" Yuri interupted. "I get the point!" "How many lives have we led?" Kei asked Tarc. "I don't know. I lost count long ago. Scores. I suppose if I tried I could remember them all." "I feel old..." said Kei. "See, that's the problem," said Tarc. "With each successive reincarnation, Efena and Gliora grew more distant. At first, they remembered everything upon seeing me. As the eons passed, however, I found myself needing more and more to convince them of who they were. Until at last, I met you. I was unable to completely revive your memories, because you can't really be said to be Efena and Gliora anymore. There's just too much distance between you and them." "But...the visions I had," Kei said. "Who do you think you are?" Tarc asked. "Kei." "Exactly. You're a girl named Kei, with a few stray memories of another life that will probably go away when I do." Tarc stood up and walked slowly towards the ocean. He stared into the stars, lost in thought. Yuri began to feel awkward. She cleared her throat. "So, um, so what's the game?" "The game?" "You know, the `Game Eternal' you keep talking about. The one you and this demon play." Tarc smiled. "That's just my way of referring to our conflict. After the fifth life or so, I began to see a pattern to our war. Nag'sharath would awaken, take a human host, and take over a city or nation. I would then awaken. It was my challenge then to find my partners, fight my way into the city, confront the demon, and force it back into its new prison. It was like a game. After awhile, I began to enjoy it. I would judge myself by how efficiently I could achieve the goals, whether I took a few weeks or a few months to defeat my enemy. But it's all gone wrong this time." "So I've gathered," said Yuri. "How?" Tarc turned and walked back to where Kei and Yuri were sitting. "Do you remember how I told you about when I ran the friendly demon Orin through with my sword, but didn't hurt him?" The girls nodded. "Well, when I first entered my room at the tower hotel, Nag'sharath was waiting for me. We talked about many things--" Kei interrupted him. "You talked?! Why didn't you finish it off right then?" Tarc gently waved her off. "I was wearing a symbol of truce at the time, the medallion I received at the spaceport." "But still--!" "Every game has its rules, Kei, even an eternal game. As I was about to say, she asked me to produce my sword. To my disbelief, she grasped the blade with her bare hand. The pain made her wince, but she received nothing more than a minor burn." "Wait a minute," said Yuri. "Why are you referring to Nag'sharath as `she'? You always said `it' before." "What makes a demon?" asked Tarc. "Huh?" said Kei and Yuri in unison. "What causes a creature to be a demon? What is the defining nature of the beast?" Kei and Yuri looked at each other, then shrugged. "Demonology isn't one of my fields," Yuri admitted. "Is it their mystic nature? Sorcerers are mystical. Demons come from another dimension, but then so did elves originally. It's said they live off misery, but I've seen no real evidence of that. I think that tale was started simply because misery follows them around so closely. I do know that demons feed off lifeforce, but so do we. We just do it indirectly. So what makes a demon a demon?" "Well, they're evil, aren't they?" offered Kei. "Yes!" exclaimed Tarc. "They're evil. But that's not enough. Human history is filled with individuals who have slaughtered thousands, even millions. These people were evil, but they weren't demons. Demons are evil, mystical beings from another dimension, who draw upon mystical energy to accomplish their evil deeds." Tarc sighed. "Which brings me to Nora MacPherson III." "You mean Nag'sharath?" asked Kei. "I mean Nag'sharath, alias Nora MacPherson III, alias Nora MacPherson Jr., alias Nora MacPherson. When Nag, as Nora, arrived at the end of her two-year journey in a cryogenic escape capsule, she found a world unlike any she'd ever seen before. She realized it would be a long time before anyone found me, so she decided to explore for awhile before she went about the process of setting up demonic rule in some little pocket of civilization. "She found, to her amazement, that she didn't need sorcery to exercise power. There was a power far greater than even that: money. She spent time learning about the art of manipulating this new power, how to use it to take anything she wanted, to control, to destroy. "She started a business making the spaceships like the one that had inadvertently set her free. It turns out that demons make extraordinarily good businesspeople. They're cunning and utterly ruthless. Within ten years, she was a millionaire. "She realized that, if she behaved herself, she could gain nearly unlimited power, and yet have nothing to fear from me when I was awakened. For in this life, she has yet to cast a spell that directly harms anyone. So she's not really a demon, just a controlled human. "If I attacked her with my sword, I would commit murder. Worse, human blood would contaminate my sword, and without a sorceress to help me, that would be the permanent end of me." Kei sneered. "Well, I don't have any problems like that. I say Yuri and I should go waste her." "Kei, Tarc just said she's nothing more a ruthless businesswoman. You can't kill her for that! Hell, we'd have to blow away half the CEO's in the UG!" "I don't buy that, Yuri. Hey Tarc, what was the demon's goal?" Tarc looked puzzled. "What do you mean?" "Well, your goal was to capture Nag and force it into a prison. If you had ever failed, what would happen?" "Nag wanted to re-establish demonic rule. First, it had to destroy the existing society. Once that had happened, it would mop up the remaining splinters of civilization with its own armies and take over." "How would it destroy the society?" asked Yuri. "By starting apocalyptic wars, or causing terrible natural disasters. Or both." "When I rescued you, you told Nora that you were sure she was `still playing the game'." Tarc paused for a moment in recollection. "When Nora and I talked, she told me about how she planned to bring everything down. She could barely contain her excitement. At the same time, though, she was mocking me, because she knew I wouldn't be able to understand a word of it." Yuri's pulse quickened. Maybe now she'd learn what the Big Plot was. "What did Nora say she was going to do?" "I didn't recognize the word. But it's very big and very powerful, and Nora is going to make it crash into something." Yuri was disappointed. "How will that destroy something as big as the United Galactica?" "I have no idea," admitted Tarc. "I'm sorry." Kei yawned and stretched. "Let's sleep on it. Maybe it'll make more sense in the morning." The others agreed that it was a good idea. Kei waited until Yuri had fallen asleep, which didn't take long. Then she quietly crept over to where Tarc lay and cuddled up to him. Tarc stirred. "What? Kei, no," he whispered. "Relax," said Kei, smiling. "I thought you were asleep. I'm not gonna try anything. I thought we could, you know, keep each other warm." "Your smile is warmth enough for me," said Tarc. "But I must decline even that. I'm sorry." "But," Kei started, still blushing from Tarc's compliment. "But, I thought we, you know..." "The last time I allowed myself to fall in love, my mission almost ended in disaster. I can't allow--" Now Kei's cheeks were red for a different reason. "Well, excuse me! So sorry to get in the way of your great purpose!" "Kei, please try to understand." "I understand perfectly! Please, enjoy your purity!" Yuri woke up. "What's going on?" "Nothing," grumbled Kei. She curled up and fell asleep. Tarc did the same. But only after staring sadly at Kei for several minutes. Kei was dreaming. In her dream she was flying. She liked dreams like that, especially when she realized she was dreaming. Then she could take over her dream and pretend she was a superhero. She was deciding which of the 3WA's archenemies to fight when she saw Tarc and Nora standing nearby, having a calm discussion. They were standing in a white void, two solid beings in an empty universe. thought Kei. "BANZAIIII!" she yelled, and went into a power dive. She went right through Nora. "What?! What kind of crappy dream is this anyway? Fall down when I hit you!" She made a few more passes, but was unable to affect Nora in any way. Kei stopped. "So that's the deal," said Nora. "Give yourself up, and I'll let your friends go. In a day from now, there will be no possible way for them to affect my plans anyhow." Tarc was silent. "Look," said Nora after a few moments. "I know you want to continue the fight. But you have no comprehension of what I'm about to do, so you have no hope of stopping me, save by murdering my host, and I know you won't do that. Come back to the cryo-chamber. There's no place for you here." "I can't," said Tarc. "So you condemn your friends to play the game with you. Even though you know how it ends for them." Tarc stared at the "ground". Nora continued. "Efena had an powerful mentor to save her and Gliora when you let them drop. None of the others were so lucky." "What are you talking about?!" asked Kei, floating above them. Nora continued to talk, but Kei was distracted by something that opened above her. It looked to be a gate of some sort. Curious, Kei flew through. Her name was Tatiana, and she wore a bulky-drab colored uniform. Together with her co-pilot Chris, they searched the Minakan asteroid belt for veins of minable ores. A red- haired scientist they had picked up for transport to a colony was about to reveal his true identity. Kei disengaged herself from the memory. Once free, she saw that the other side of the gate was a corridor. She headed down it. Her name was Helena, and she was about to use whatever means necessary to extract information from her prisoner, when she noticed that the prisoner looked familiar. Her name was Moira. Together with her partner Kyoko, they had just brought the house down with a ninety-minute set. The winner of a "Meet the Angels" radio contest was a red-haired young man, and he told them the game has begun again. Her name was Gina, and the city editor had assigned her and Tandy a new photographer for their latest assignment. They knew him, but couldn't say from where. Kei flew faster and faster down the corridor. The lives became a blur as she passed them. They were interesting, but Kei really only wanted to see one. She flew and flew until at last she reached the end of the corridor. Her name was Gliora. She was not wearing fur and armor, but a one piece suit with a fox-tail attached to the belt. She wielded a sword inlaid with ruby. She and Efena had just succeeded in lifting a curse from the town of Shankara, when the last of the Crystal Knights came riding into town. All seemed as Tarc had relayed it before. Kei "thought ahead". She was in an ornate bedroom with Tarc Meridian, a tall, handsome man, with his red hair pulled back into a short ponytail. She looked at herself in the mirror. She was dressed in a flowing gown, the clothing of the nobility. "I guess you're right. This really doesn't suit me, even though I grew up wearing the stuff." "Then please," said Tarc, "allow me to help you out of it." Tarc began to unbutton her dress from the back. She didn't try to stop him. The dress fell to the ground. He placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed the nape of her neck. Her pulse began to race. Her breath came in shallow gasps. She turned and stood before him, naked from the waist up. She hesitated, then moved toward him. He embraced her and kissed her passionately. Kei reluctantly pulled away from the memory. As much as she was enjoying it, she didn't know how long she had before she woke up. She thought ahead. She was near the highest point of Mount Kalorm, trying to stand up, to get away. But she couldn't; the ground was shaking too much. She turned and saw Dektar's animated corpse laughing with delight. It gestured again and the ground behind her split open. She was barely able to roll away as the crack widened into a gorge which glowed from the light of the molten lava flowing within. She tried again to get to her feet. "What's this?" said Dektar's body. "Would you like to get up?" She stared at the thing, horrified. Behind it, Efena also struggled to stand. Tarc was too far away to do anything but scream at them. He was trying to sing to his sword, to set loose its blasting power as she had seen him do before, but the noise from the quake was drowning him out. "Please," continued the demon. "Let me help you." It gestured once more and she was lifted into the air. Efena was lifted as well, and the two of them collided as they were thrown into the gorge. "GLIORA!!" screamed Tarc. As they flew by, he reached for her. She stretched, and caught his grasp. thought Kei. She hung onto Tarc's hand for dear life. Efena gripped her leg. Beneath them, the molten lava flowed and bubbled. The demon laughed. "I seem to have discovered your weakness, Tarc. Please, do save them. It will only take me a minute to open the gate. Of course," it added with a grin, "if you let go of your sword, I'll obliterate you. Now go do what's right." It laughed again and walked to the gate. Tarc tried to pull the two of them up with one hand, grunting and heaving with the effort. He tried again, to no effect. He looked back at Nag'sharath. It had begun conjuring, and the gate began to glow with new light. Tarc looked back at Kei, a look of despair in his eyes. He wasn't trying to pull them up anymore. "No," she heard herself say. "P-Please. You can't..." "He has to," said Efena. Tears began pouring out of Tarc's eyes, and he whimpered. "No!" Kei said. "Gods, no!" Tarc let go. Kei screamed as she fell. As was usual when she fell in a dream, she reflexively began to wake up. As she did so, a series of visions flashed before her eyes. She was in a burning room, and Tarc had stopped clearing the debris from the door, lest he miss his chance to stop the demon. She was in a car, underwater. As the water reached the roof, Tarc swam away in pursuit of his quarry. She and her partner were tied to a bomb. Tarc had given up trying to defuse it. She was in a room filling with nerve gas. She was hanging from the window on the 78th floor of a skyscraper. She was in a shuttle, and the hull had been breached. She was about to executed by a firing squad. She was falling, burning, drowning, suffocating, dying. And in each and every case, there was Tarc, leaving. Kei woke up with a yell. "What's wrong?" asked Yuri, a little annoyed at Kei's having woken her up twice in one night. Tarc also woke, but said nothing. Kei opened her mouth, about to tell Yuri angrily about all she had seen and heard, about how the glorious Game Eternal always ended with their tragic but necessary deaths, about how the gallant and noble Tarc Meridian, last of the Crystal Knights, sacrificed them each and every time to his goal of, not killing Nag'sharath, but imprisoning it, so it could awaken centuries later and kill both of them again. She wanted to scream, to rant and rave, to hurt Tarc for all he'd put them through, for the eternity of being killed he'd condemned them to. But as she started to say it, she couldn't see the point. The Game was over for them, as least as it had been played in the past. Tarc had said so himself. To throw a tantrum over past lives seemed worthless. "Nothing," said Kei. "I just had a bad dream." She rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. The next day found Kei and Yuri on the beach, working on their tans. Kei yawned. "Don't you feel the slightest bit guilty about this, laying around in the sun while the MacPherson- thing plans god-knows-what?" "Not really," Yuri replied. "I mean, it can't be that big a deal. Tarc said she can't use magic in any harmful way, so I can't see what she could do to destroy something as huge as the UG." "He said she was going to crash something into something." "Hmm," thought Yuri. "Maybe she'll crash an asteroid into Platonia an collect on the insurance." "Can you insure a planet?" asked Kei, sitting up. "I don't know." Kei lay back again and sighed. "It a shame our communications are cut off. Whatever she has planned, MacPherson stock is sure to go way up after it happens. If we could get a buy order in, we could make a killing on the stock market." Tarc walked up them, rapidly. "What did you just say?" "Huh?" said Kei, confused. "We were just trying to guess at what MacPherson has planned." Tarc shook his head. "What was the last word you said?" Kei thought for a moment. "You mean `stock market'?" "That's it!" Tarc shouted. "That's what she's going to crash! One of those!" Kei and Yuri stared at each other, their eyes wide. "What's a `stokmarkett'?" asked Tarc. THE DIRTY PAIR in THE GAME ETERNAL by Ryan Mathews CHAPTER NINE 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. However, Red/Meridian steals the _L&C_ himself, forcing the Pair to steal their own ship to follow. They travel to the planet Platonia, wholly owned by Nora MacPherson III. There they are put up in a hotel and given 10,000-credit debit cards and sent out to go shopping while Nora talks with Meridian. At a mall, Kei is slapped on the back by a running man. She gives chase (having an odd vision of herself as a swordswoman in the process), but the man is gunned down by security. Later, a microchip is found on Kei's back. That night, Tarc goes after "Nag'Sharath". Kei and Yuri try to beat him to MacPherson. When they are accosted by two of MacPherson's bodybuilder security guards near the top of the tower-like building, Tarc comes through the window brandishing a crystal sword and fights them off, seemingly turning them into demons before killing them. However, they have worse luck with the standard security, and all three end up tranquilized. Kei and Yuri awake to find themselves back in bed in their nightclothes. Realizing that MacPherson is trying to cover up the events of the previous night, they become depressed. They move back to the Lovely Angel, where Yuri takes a look at the chip that was in Kei's back. It contains a graph, that, if true, shows that MacPherson controls most of the major corporations in the UG. It also contains a key for cyber-hacking into the MacPherson datasystem. Yuri uses the key and finds herself inside the mind of Nora MacPherson III, where some facts are confirmed. Having discovered that Tarc is being held captive, Yuri decides the Pair should rescue him. MacPherson decides that enough is enough and arranges an ambush in the spaceport garage, which the Angels successfully defeat, speeding away in a car that had been provided for them earlier. Meanwhile, Mughi tries to get the authorities to release the _Lovely_Angel_ by letting the engines build to detonation. Before he can release the engines, though, he is attacked by one of the demonic bodyguards who had forced his way onto the ship. He kills the guard, but is severely wounded, and the thrust from the engine purge sends the _Lovely_Angel_ out-of-control across the tarmac. The Angels board the moving craft and barely manage to get it safely in the air. Yuri is then "called" by Tarc, and finds herself drifting, out of her body, toward the tower. There she meets Nora MacPherson III, who angrily tells her to take Tarc and leave. Although in a ghost-like state, Yuri is able to carry Tarc to the airborne _Lovely_Angel_, where Tarc shows her how to use her newfound power to heal Mughi. The ship is then caught in a wind tunnel of Nora/Nag'sharath's making, and deposited on a small island surrounded by a force-field. There Tarc announces his intention to fully explain everything that has happened to the two girls. That night, Tarc reveals his history, how he became a Crystal Knight, how Efena and Gliora helped him defeat Nag'sharath the first time it reappeared, how their souls were bonded together, so they could defeat Nag'sharath every time it reappeared. He explains that, in its guise as Nora MacPherson, Nag has taken great pains not to explicitly use its magic for evil, using the power of money instead, so as to rob Tarc of some of his power. That night Kei has a disturbing she dream. In it she learns that the "Game Eternal" always ends in her and Yuri's deaths. The next day, they deduce that MacPherson intends to destroy the UG by crashing its stock market. ------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER NINE "Could she do it?" Kei anxiously asked Yuri. "Crash the stock market? Well, sure, I guess. I mean, she controls most of the UG's biggest corporations. All she'd have to do would be to get all of them to dump all of their stock on the market at the same time. Except..." Yuri's voice trailed off as she thought about it. "What?!" yelled Kei. "The stock market can't be crashed that easily. There's safeguards. If the major indices start to fall too fast, they can shut the whole thing down." "How do they shut it down?" "There's this group of officials from the UG Securities and Exchange Commission that would be called into an emergency session. They get together and decide if the situation is serious enough to merit shutting down the market. THAT'S IT!" Yuri leapt to her feet. "Close said that MacPherson was going to meet with some stock market officials, and I confirmed that when I hacked into her datasystem! She's going to detain the guys so they can't shut the market down!" "I'm afraid I still don't understand," said Tarc, who stood behind the girls, scratching his head and looking confused. "But you said yourself that money is power, right?" Yuri asked him. "Yes, but to me, money is gold, jewels, things you can touch. I don't really comprehend the money Nag'sharath manipulates. It's like vapor, no substance." Yuri tried to explain it to him. "See, there are these corporations, powerful entities, that sell pieces of themselves, called stock. This stock is worth whatever someone will pay for it. Since these corporations are very powerful, their stock is worth an awful lot. Just about every company worth anything invests in this stock; so do lots of planetary governments. When the market crashes, all these folks will lose their money." Tarc thought it over, but his expression told Yuri that most of what she had said had gone over his head. She decided to make it simpler. "Okay, imagine this. Suppose an evil sorcerer walked into a large, powerful nation, and cast a spell which caused all the jewels and precious metals in the nation to vanish. What would happen?" Tarc brightened. "Yes, I see. That would be disastrous. And Nag'sharath plans to do something like that?" "Close enough." "Then we must stop her." "How?" asked Kei, angrily. "We're stuck here! You said that yourself." "You're right," Tarc replied. "I misspoke. I'm sorry." He turned and began to walk back to the ship, quietly. "Alright, spill it!" Yuri shouted, stopping him in his tracks. Tarc turned back and gave her a confused look. "There's a way for us to get out of here, isn't there? Something you're not telling us?" Tarc was silent for a moment. "No." Yuri glared at him. Kei did too. She wasn't exactly sure why Yuri was glaring at him, but she figured she ought to help. Besides, after last night, she felt like a good glare. "Alright, yes," Tarc admitted. "There is a way for us to get off the island." "Great!" Kei shouted. "What is it?" Tarc continued. "There is also a way to turn pig droppings into gold, a way to walk through mountains, and a way to survive a fall from a tall cliff onto solid rock, all of which, in my studied opinion, are much easier to accomplish than the way of getting off this island." "Oh," said Kei, and sat back down. "I still wanna hear it," said Yuri. Tarc smiled cynically. "It's simple. First we distract Nag'sharath, to get her to drop her mystical barrier. Then you teleport us off the island." "Oh," said Yuri, and sat down next to Kei. "I knew there would be problems when you told me MacPherson owned this entire world. Demons such as Nag'sharath can exercise their power effortlessly within their domain. This entire world is her domain. She can keep this island sealed off without even trying." "Then why do you even bother trying to fight her?" Yuri asked. "You make it all sound so hopeless." "Not at all. The trick is not to let her know exactly where you are, to keep the element of surprise. We're much too close to her for her to be able to sense our location. It's like trying to read a book held an inch in front of your eyes. That's why she's keeping us here. But since she can't actually sense us, it's impossible to distract her." Kei sighed. "Then it *is* hopeless. Looks like we're gonna lose our money after all, Yuri." "Unless..." Tarc walked to where his Crystal Sword was stuck in the sand and pulled it free. He walked several steps down the shore as Kei and Yuri stared after him. As he stopped, he leveled the blade in the direction of a large boulder jutting out of the sand. Tarc sang, a single, clear, pure note. The sword began to resonate with his voice, forming a harmony that fed back upon itself, becoming more complex and intense. The girls winced and clapped their hands over their ears. Simultaneously, Tarc stopped singing and gave the sword a sharp twist. The tone vanished immediately, replaced by a deafening bang as the rock exploded. "What the hell did you do that for?" Kei yelled over the sound of her ears ringing. Tarc walked over and picked up a handful of fragments. "Damn. They're too big." He dropped the rocks and clapped the dust off his hands. "I can't do it alone. How are your singing voices?" The girls stared at him, dumbfounded. "I don't know. Okay, I guess. Why?" Yuri asked. "If I can increase the force of the blast ten times, I think I can cause an earthquake." A few minutes later the three of them stood around the sword, which had been inserted back into the ground. "It's not important what note you sing," Tarc said. "It just has to be as clear and pure and loud as you can make it. Now grab the hilt and I'll start." Once all three were touching the sword, Tarc began to sing, the same note he had used before. Yuri joined him, singing a note in a higher register. The sword began to resonate with the harmony, and Yuri could feel it in the soles of her feet. Kei joined in, her note much lower than Yuri's. The sword began making its own music at this point, as the harmony continued to feed back upon itself. The ground began to vibrate. Visible ripples could be seen dancing across the sand. All three continued singing, until the tone from the sword was nearly deafening. Just when Kei thought her lungs would burst, Tarc went silent and pulled the sword out of the sand. There was a loud thump, and they were all tossed a few centimeters off the ground. They waited, but save for the ringing of ears, all was silent. "Is that it?" asked Kei. "Kinda disappointing." Tarc sighed. "Oh, well. It was only a theory after all. Still, I'd had such high hopes. An earthquake within her domain might have been just the distraction we needed." "Why is a distraction enough?" Yuri asked. "I mean, it's not like a simple earthquake is going to make her forget to keep the force-field up." "On the contrary, that's exactly what would happen. Barriers such as this are not self-sustaining. They to be continually defined and sustained by force of will. In the back of her mind, Nag'sharath is continually thinking `barrier, barrier'. The actual effort of producing the barrier is incredibly small, but she must continually put out that effort." "Wait a minute," said Kei, her eyes beginning to light up, "you said the force field had to be continually defined. You mean she has to keep thinking about what the force field does?" "Yes, more or less." "Yes! Great! Yuri, get working on that teleport spell! If this works, I'm gonna give MacPherson a distraction that'll make her head spin!" Kei turned and ran flat-out back to the ship, throwing up clouds of sand in her wake. Yuri stared after her. "`Teleport spell.' Yeah, right. I don't know how to teleport." She turned to Tarc. "How did Efena teleport?" "She didn't. At least not while I was alive." "Gee, that's nice to know," Yuri said sarcastically. "This is ridiculous. I'm *not* a sorceress." "You healed Mughi." "That was different. You showed me how." "I didn't show you anything. The spell I gave you was gibberish, remember?" "But I believed in it!" Yuri stopped and thought about that. "You mean if I find a spell I believe in, I might be able to do it?" Tarc shrugged. "I couldn't tell you for certain. I'm not a sorcerer. But Guruk told me that belief was an important part of any spell. If you could create a spell in which you could believe, or at least suspend your disbelief, perhaps it would work." "Suspend my disbelief..." Yuri blinked. "You know, that gives me an idea. One that's so stupid, it just might work." She ran back toward the ship. "Thanks for the advice!" Tarc looked after her, smiling. "We'll be off this island before dinnertime." Kei stared intently at her monitor screen on the bridge of the _Lovely_Angel_. Her hunch had been correct: they were not as cut off from communication with the outside world as they had believed. MacPherson had cut off their ability to send hyperspace messages, but something as simple and usually useless as an old-style FM signal had been forgotten. She sat crosslegged on her chair as she worked with the few frequencies she had available to her, so absorbed in her work that she didn't even notice Yuri enter the room. Yuri closed her eyes and crossed her arms in front of herself, hands held flat. "Oh, spirits of the earth. Heed me, and release Kei from your bonds." "Huh? Did you say something, Yuri?" Kei moved to press a button on her console, only to find it was half a meter underneath her. "WAAAAH!" "Isn't that cool?!" Yuri shouted gleefully. "I made you weightless!" Kei arms and legs flayed out in all directions as she tried to stop floating upward. "Yeah, yeah! Really cool! GET ME DOWN!" "Oh, I'm sorry!" Yuri put her hands back into position. "Spirits of the earth, take Kei once more under your dominion." Kei yelled as she fell to the floor on her face. "Owww. Yuri, where the hell did you learn to do that?" "Right here!" Yuri held up a thin book. "It's the Book of Spells from the DungeonQuest game we were playing! I can make the spells work for real! I just have to believe in them enough! I can light fires, make winds, electric bolts--". "Please, no more demonstrations." "You were right, though. I do have to say the words. What are you working on?" Kei told her. Yuri gave a low whistle. "Wow. You're right. If that doesn't distract her, nothing will. Well, I better go practice." Yuri turned to leave. Kei watched her for a moment, then called after her. "Yuri?" Yuri stopped. "Hmm?" Kei fumbled for what she wanted to say. "I... If we don't make it through this one, I--" Yuri was surprised. "What kind of talk is that? Since when have you ever worried about dying on a mission?" Kei started to tell her about the dream she'd had the night before, of all the deaths she'd suffered during Tarc's Game Eternal, of how Tarc never lifted a finger to keep her alive, but she changed her mind. "I just have a real bad feeling about this one. If we don't make it out, I just want you to know... You know..." Yuri smiled. "You don't have to say anything. You're the best friend I've ever had." She laughed. "Besides, if Tarc's right, even if we get killed, we'll still be seeing each other again, right?" Ten of thousands of kilometers above the surface, the _Lewis_and_Clark_ hovered, lifeless and dark, its immense bulk dwarfing the two tiny security ships that escorted it through its orbit. Inside one of the ships, a pilot yawned. He half-heartedly complained to his colleague about the dullness of the work, after all, who was going to steal an eighty-year-old hulk like the _L&C_? His friend admonished him not to question an easy living, and returned to his nap. Inside the huge relic, an automated technical communications station received a radio broadcast ordering it to come on-line and activate the engines. It attempted to do so, but the engine computer had recently been slaved to a much more efficient warp-controlling system, and so it asked that system for permission to begin engine burn. The much more advanced computers in the warp controllers weren't about to obey their primitive counterparts without more information, so they inquired as to the source of the order, obtained the information from the tech comm station, and reconfigured themselves to receive the primitive FM signal. They then asked the originator of the command for more details. Kei raised her fist in triumph. Then she sent the warp controllers a set of details that would have sent their heads spinning, had they heads to spin. A human would have gulped and asked for confirmation, but the computers obediently executed the commands. A moment later, the bored pilot was frantically shaking his co-worker awake as the _Lewis_and_Clark_ came suddenly back to life. The massive nuclear engines in the rear remained dormant at first, emitting only a dim glow. Thrusters on all sides of the ship did the work, sending the _L&C_ into a lower orbit. Space was alive with frantic conversation, each ship accusing the other of dozing off and letting a hijacker on board. Soon, tracking stations on the surface joined the racket, announcing that the ship was on a collision course for the capital city of Batyra. A little later, and static had drowned out much of the noise. The nuclear engines were no longer dormant, and were glowing brighter with each passing moment. A tractor-ship was diverted from high orbit, but had yet to arrive. The security ships linked up in a desperate attempt to board the craft. The ship had been examined before, of course, but with a ship the size of the _Lewis_and_Clark_, no one had wanted to explore all of it. What had been explored had shown no suitable docking ports. The search was now resumed, in a much more panicked state. It took them only a few minutes to realize it was hopeless. Two men began suiting up for an attempt to board extra- vehicularly, but before they got their helmets on, the _L&C_ struck the atmosphere, rendering that plan useless. The hull of the huge ship began to glow. The glow from the nuclear engines was blinding. The tractor ship arrived and raced ahead of the _L&C_, locking on and pulling with all its might, trying to increase the relic's orbital speed and get it out of the atmosphere. The operation resembled a tick trying to pull an elephant. Still, some progress was made, and it looked like the ship could at least be pulled clear of Batyra, to land in the ocean. The glow nuclear engines blotted out the image of the ship, to where it looked like a star was being pulled through the sky. Success! The ship was now over Batyra, but was definitely not going to land there. The population of the city was saved! The pilots cried for joy as they hugged each other. Unfortunately, the celebration was short-lived as, three seconds later, the _Lewis_and_Clark_'s nuclear engines went critical and detonated. A six-megaton blast ripped through Platonia's upper atmosphere, throwing a large chunk into space, never to be recovered. Throughout the city of Batyra, power supplies were cut off like a switch. Electric cars died in the street, office buildings went dark, air traffic lost power and made panicked landings. The shockwave hit the city. As high as the blast was, the concussion still managed to blow out most of the windows in the city, especially the high office towers, showering the city in glass. In her office at the top of the great tower, Nora MacPherson screamed as the entire building shook like a willow in the breeze. In her concentration on keeping from being thrown out the window to her death, she forgot all about maintaining the barrier that surrounded the Lovely Angels and the last Crystal Knight. Kei dropped the bags she was carrying. "Wow. I felt that. It's down, isn't it?" "Yes," Tarc confirmed. "Yuri, I must insist that you hurry." "Okay, okay!" With her middle finger, Yuri drew a short line in the sand. In front of the line, she drew a five pointed star. Behind it, she drew an arrow pointing away. "I sure hope this works." "It will." Both Kei and Yuri were in full uniform, fully armed with both sidearm and grenade belt. Kei dragged the luggage closer to the others. "Well, if it's down, can't we fly the Lovely Angel out?" "It won't be down that long," said Tarc. "And Yuri doesn't believe she can open the gate big enough to get the ship through, which means she can't." "Hey!" shouted Yuri. "It wasn't in the book, okay? Now shut up, both of you. I'm trying to conjure here." Yuri faced the line and folded her arms in the same manner she had used to make Kei weightless. "Lords of light and time and space, respond," she said, making signs with her hands for "light", "time", and "space". Kei threw a glance back at the Lovely Angel. Mughi stared out dolefully from the cockpit canopy. He was almost fully recovered from his poisoning by demon's blood. He had wanted to come along, but the Angels had insisted he stay behind and guard the ship. "Lords of light and time and space, respond. Lords of light and time and space, respond." Nothing happened. Yuri remained calm and continued to repeat the phrase and the hand gestures. Kei fidgeted. Nothing was happening. Any moment now, the barrier could come back up, and they didn't have a hope of distracting MacPherson again, even assuming she didn't nuke the island in revenge. Kei wanted to say something, but she knew that would break Yuri's concentration, and so she remained silent. "Lords of light and time and space, respond," Yuri repeated. And repeated. And repeated. The fiftieth time she said it, something happened. The sand in the line she had drawn began to move, as if blown by the wind. But there was no wind, and the sand was being blown outward from both ends of the line. The sand flew up, up, and over, forming an oval that was just big enough for a man to walk through. Yuri went silent, but did not open her eyes. The view through the oval of sand became cloudy, until it impossible to see through. Then the view cleared. Kei looked through the oval and saw Batyra, instantly recognizable by the huge tower. Things looked pretty bad over there. Kei swallowed as it hit her that she might have overdone it a bit. "Okay," said Yuri. "It's stable. But I don't know how long I can hold it." Indeed, the effort was showing. Beads of sweat rolled down her neck. "Let's go," Tarc said. He picked up the bags Kei had packed and tossed them through. The view of the city on the other side of the gateway shook violently. Yuri yelped, and sand began to fly off the gate in all directions. "Wait! Wait! Something's wrong!" "No time!" Kei shouted, and pushed both Yuri and Tarc through, before falling through herself. Kei fell in every direction at once. Around, she saw what she might have thought were Heaven and Hell, had she believed in such places. Her body was a mathematical point. Then it filled the entire universe. She screamed and heard herself from a far-off distance. Reality stretched, warped, bent, fractured, reformed, before finally spitting her up, like a wad of phlegm, onto a cold hard surface. "Ohhh," Kei groaned. "Mommy, please don't make me go on that ride again." She opened her eyes and saw a blur. She shook her head to clear it and tried again. This time what saw made her go "Ohhhhh, shit!!" Tarc and Yuri were nearby, equally unconscious. The luggage was nowhere to be seen. Kei shook Yuri. "Wake up, you idiot!" "Whuh? Where are we?" "Congratulations, Yuri!" said Kei, sarcastically. "You teleported us fifteen meters! We're on the bridge of the Lovely Angel!" "Then where's Mughi?" Kei blinked. Yuri had a point. Mughi should have been all over them, licking their faces and whining. Tarc sat up, inquired as to his location and was told. "That doesn't seem possible. I've been teleported before, and I can tell you with some certainty that we traveled more than fifteen meters." Kei held up a hand. "Wait." "What is it?" asked Yuri. "Someone else is on board." The three listened and heard at least three voices, coming closer, voices that were oddly familiar. "We better hide," said Kei. "I have a sinking feeling I know who's coming, though I'll be damned if I know how." The three of them crammed into a storage locker and waited. The mystery of Mughi's absence was solved as he lumbered onto the bridge, followed closely by another set of Lovely Angels, also in full uniform. The other Kei walked to the main console and did a few routine checks. "Kei," said the other Yuri, "don't you think it's a bit extreme to go out there fully armed? I mean, it's only the media we're talking about here." "That's exactly why! The only language the media understands is violence. It improves their ratings. Nothing like a good blast through the ceiling to shut up a noisy reporter. Or between the eyes." Yuri sighed. "I don't even see any reporters out there." "They'll be there," said Kei. "Okay, we're ready. Mughi, you stay here and take care of the ship." Mughi nodded and yawned. The Angels walked off the bridge calling to Tarc that it was time to leave. The Angels in the closet stared in disbelief. "That's exactly as I remember it," said Kei. "We must have gone back in time two days," said Yuri. "It would explain where the bags went," said Tarc. "I put them through before the gate collapsed." "Well, let's get out of here," said Kei. Yuri grabbed Kei by the shoulder. "Wait! If Mughi notices you, it'll change history! Who knows what'll happen then?" "Gee, you're right. We'd better wait for Mughi to fall asleep. Shouldn't take long." An hour and a half later, Mughi finally dozed off. Kei, Yuri, and Tarc walked out of the closet, wincing in obvious pain as about a billion tiny demons performed phantom acupuncture on every limb on their bodies. "You stupid furbag," whispered Kei, then froze as Mughi moved. His sensitive nose sniffed the air, didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, and he didn't wake up. He smacked his lips and started snoring. The three of them moved off the bridge, where they could safely talk. "Well? What do we do now?" Kei asked. "I think it's obvious," said Yuri. "We grab as much stuff off the ship as we can that we know our old selves won't miss. Then we grab a hotel room and formulate our plan of attack." "Get a hotel room? With what?" "With this." Yuri reached into her pocket and pulled out the debit card MacPherson had given her. Kei's eyes lit up. "You brought it with you! Yuri, I could kiss you!" "Kei, not in front of Tarc," Yuri joked. Tarc thought it over. "Then when the two days have passed again, we take Nag'sharath completely by surprise with a complete plan. I agree. Let us begin." "Just a moment," said Kei. "Let me fetch something that I know won't be missed." She disappeared and returned a moment later with a portable hyperspace transmitter. Goulet wiped his brow. He took a swig from his bottle of antacid, found none left, and tossed in the wastebasket with the rest of his empties. He wondered what he'd done to deserve this. Just when his life had seemed to take a turn for the better, it had now become the worst in recent memory. For the seventh time, Goulet replayed the message. On the viewscreen appeared a rather nice hotel room. Inside the room were Kei, Yuri, and the red-haired man Goulet recognized from the newscasts. The man sat on a bed and looked impassive, but the Lovely Angels practically fell all over each other in their joviality. "Hiiiii," sang Kei. "Remember us? You're probably looking all over the galaxy for us, huh? Well, guess what? We're on Platonia!" "That's right!" Yuri chimed in. "And something really interesting is going to happen in two days! It would be a real shame if the 3WA missed it." "Yeah, I'd send someone over ASAP!" "Remember," said Yuri, "that's Platonia, in two days!" "See you soon!" they said in unison. The message ended. Having run out of antacid, Goulet moved to pain-killers. He popped a handful in his mouth. What Kei and Yuri had no way of knowing is that, while all the time they were fretting about a life of being chased by their former employers, they were really in no danger at all. Goulet had carefully suppressed the true facts of the case. Yes, Kei and Yuri had indeed stolen the _Lovely_ Angel_, but that was simply because they were under orders to pursue the suspect who was about to steal the _Lewis_and_ Clark_. The Angels' actions were regrettable, but necessary due to an inability to cut through the red tape needed to free their ship. No pursuit of the Angels had since been ordered. Goulet had concocted this elaborate lie in order to give the Dirty Pair time to escape before the truth of the situation became known. Goulet had every confidence in the Pair's ability to never be found again. He would at last be free of his curse. Oh, but no. They decided to contact him. Sending a message in which the so-called criminal appears in the room with them, obviously not under arrest. In which they state flat out that the 3WA is "looking all over" for them. Worse, although it was addressed for him, they sent it in a code that could be deciphered by any 3WA organization. Eventually, someone was going to ask him questions. Questions he didn't want to answer. Goulet felt his career begin to loosen from his grasp. He hit the comm panel on his desk and punched up Transportation. "I need to go to Platonia," he said to the aide who answered. "Certainly, sir. We have a flight to that sector scheduled for--" "Now." "Now, sir?" "Now." "Uh, o-okay," the aide stumbled. "Let me see if I can find a warp shuttle available..." "How fast?" "Sir?" "How fast can I get there?!" shouted Goulet angrily, causing the aide to shrink back from the screen. "The...the entry time to the Platonia system is four days, sir." "Don't give me that crap! I used to be a pilot myself. That entry time isn't set in stone!" "Well, uh..." The aide thought about it. He also sweat a great deal. "Um, the smaller the ship, the closer you can get, so the less entry time. Plus, if you know the system, you can avoid the major gravity wells, and shave a little more time off. But it's *really* dangerous, sir!" "What's the minimum time?" "Well, if we give you the smallest warp shuttle we have, and if you cut it as close as possible, maybe thirty-six hours." "Great. Have it ready in an hour. I'll be flying it myself." The aide nearly fell over backwards. "W-w-what?! Sir, this is highly irregular." "I know. I know," Goulet said. "Hopefully, in two days, it will all make perfect sense." To me as well, he added to himself. Kei took a breath to calm herself. She still didn't believe what she was about to do. Yuri had warned her about the dangers of altering history. In one of their previous adventures, they had had experience with time travel, so they both knew the potential problems. Screw with history, and you can create duplicates of yourself, or worse, erase yourself from existence. And yet, here she was, about to enter the hotel room where she and Yuri were sleeping. Just a few minutes earlier, Tarc had woken her up and asked her to join him in his battle against Nag'sharath. She had refused and fallen back asleep. In twenty minutes, she would wake up and frantically wake Yuri. Passing for herself, she had obtained a spare key from the front desk. Kei opened the door, as slowly and quietly as she could. She looked inside. There she was, sleeping soundly, as was Yuri. On the nightstand next to Kei's bed was what Kei had come for: the white medallion Tarc had been given upon their arrival on Platonia. "What's the big deal?" Kei had asked. "It's just a piece of jewelry." "Hardly," Tarc replied. "As I said before, it's the equivalent of a flag of truce. When I, or any of us, wear it, Nag'sharath is not permitted to harm us, provided we do not attempt to harm her. I believe it may prove useful if we have to liberate hostages." "What makes you think Nag will obey it?" asked Yuri. "For the same reason she won't use her magic to harm us now. She's trying to avoid being evil, to avoid empowering me. Besides, she obeyed it when we met in the hotel." "How do you know it's in the room?" Kei asked. "I don't remember seeing it there. Of course, I didn't look for it." "I left it there in the hope it would protect you somehow. When Nag's demon guards took you back to your room, they probably took it with them." "Well, then, taking it would alter history, right?" Kei said. "Yes, but not in any way that applies to us. I don't remember seeing it after I left it in your room. For matter, aren't we altering history simply by standing here?" Kei fidgeted. Tarc looked her in the eyes. "Please?" he asked, gently. And she had said "Okay." She hated herself for that, but dammit, she did like the guy. Creeping forward, not daring any but the shallowest of breaths, she moved toward the medallion. The Kei in the bed rolled over, causing her to freeze. No other signs of consciousness were evident, though, so Kei took another step forward. No wonder she had never seen it, she thought. Tarc had placed it behind her clock. Cautiously, she wrapped her fingers around the medallion. No problem. Now to get out as quietly. As she lifted the medallion, the chain caught in the clock's power cord. The clock clunked to the carpet. Kei woke up with a start and stared right into Kei's face. "Whuh the hell?" thought Kei. "You're dreaming, Kei." "Oh. Yeah. Thazz godda be it." Kei rolled over and went back to sleep. Kei sighed in relief, quietly. She looked at Yuri, who had evidently slept right through the whole thing. "Sleep well, girls," she muttered. "You're gonna have a hell of a day tomorrow." A day went by. Kei went to answer the door. "Room service!" announced the man on the other side. "Goody goody!" shouted Kei. "Gimme that!" "Um, ma'am, while I'm here, I've been instructed to inform you that the neighbors have complained about the noise." "Tell 'em to shove it," said Kei cheerfully. "We'll be out of here in a day anyway." As Kei slammed the door in his face, the man looked incredibly relieved to hear that. The room was not quite in the same state it had been in when the message for Goulet had been recorded. The cleaning staff had not been allowed in, so the room was a morass of twisted bedsheets and dirty clothing. "Hey, everyone! Continental breakfast!" Kei yelled. "Great," said Yuri. "I could use one of those donuts." The hotel room had been set up as command central. Yuri had gone out and bought a sketch board, which was now filled with everything they knew about MacPherson and her tower. "The problem," said Tarc, between sips of orange juice, "is that we don't know exactly where she's holding or going to be holding the delegates from this stock market you speak of." "Maybe not," said Kei, her mouth full of donut, "but I know who does." There was a knocking at the door. "GO AWAY!" shouted Kei. The knocking repeated, so hard it shook the door. "Oh, fer crissake," said Kei. She walked over and threw the door open. "We don't want any-- uhhhh...." Goulet stormed into the room, looking so furious smoke could almost be seen curling from his ears. "This... had... better... be... GOOD!" A piece of donut fell out of Yuri's mouth. "Wow. How the heck did you get here so fast?" "Let's just say I'm lucky to be alive." Kei wrinkled her nose. "Not to put a damper on this swell reunion or anything, but you don't smell very good." "Of COURSE I smell bad, you DITZ!" Goulet bellowed. "In order to get here in two stinking days like you `requested', I had to come in a ship that was so blasted small, it didn't even have room for luggage! I haven't bathed or changed my clothes in two days! Or eaten," he added, rushing over to the tray and shoving donuts into his face. "Hey!" said Kei. "You better pay for those!" "We, uh, really weren't expecting you until at least this evening," said Yuri. "How did you know where we were?" "The comm and the menu," said Goulet, crumbs flying out of his mouth. He pointed to a table. Sure enough, the room service menu had the name of the hotel written on it, and the comm number was the same as the room number. "Now," he said, regaining some semblance of composure. "Would someone mind terribly telling me what the HELL is going on here?" "It's kind of a long story," said Yuri. "Then for starters," Goulet said, looking straight at Tarc, "who the hell are you?" "Tarc Meridian." Goulet stared at him. "Tarc... Meridian?" he asked. Then he passed out. He revived a moment later, with the help of Kei, who threw some water in his face. Coughing, he sat up. "Are you okay," asked Yuri. "I am perfectly fine, Efena," he replied, startling the hell out of Yuri. "Tarc, you fool, did you really think I would give Efena such a spell and not make myself a part of it?!" Tarc looked at him. "Guruk?" "Of course!" said Efena's mentor. "Well, well," said Kei, with a nervous laugh. "Looks like the gang's all here." CHAPTER TEN Nag'sharath, or Nora MacPherson III, as she called herself, stood in her office at the top of the great tower and looked contentedly out the window. In front of her, beneath a sparse scattering of clouds, spread the city of Batyra. Nora's gaze was not directed toward the city, however. Nora looked up, toward the stars. They weren't visible, of course. It being daytime, the sky was a brilliant blue. Nonetheless, Nora could sense the stars behind it and, more importantly, the more than two thousand inhabited planets that orbited them. Two thousand planets in a loose confederation known as the United Galactica. A confederation that had no idea what was about to hit it. Today was the day, the day on which seventy years of analysis and planning, of plotting and scheming, was finally going to come to a head. Nora had spent most of the last century gaining ultimate, secret control of almost all the UG's major corporations. Now she would order all those corporations to commit suicide in her name. With the members of the UG Securities and Exchange Commission held incommunicado in her offices, nothing would be capable of stopping the apocalyptic market crash that would follow. By the end of the day, all her corporations would cease to exist. All other corporations who had invested heavily in them would soon follow as their assets vanished like so much mist. The UG's money supply would be cut in half. Unemployment would skyrocket as companies began dropping like flies. The crime rate would go through the roof, until even the vaunted Worlds Welfare Work Association would be powerless to stop it. Very few would be able to afford their services, anyway. Before too long, the 3WA would follow the corporations into oblivion. Planetary governments would become insolvent, unable to pay debts owed to other worlds. As people on those other worlds began to starve, interplanetary civil wars would be inevitable. Wars which MacPherson Armaments, one of the few corporations not slated for death today, would gladly encourage by selling low-cost weapons to both sides. Thus would begin the final death of the United Galactica, as the entire galactic society decended into chaos. Nora expected the entire process to take fifty, maybe sixty years, during which time she would remain vigilant against the rise of any organization or individual attempting to piece everything back together. Once the society had been destroyed, she would begin to take control, planet by planet. At this point, she might begin to use her powers in earnest, creating a demonic army. But then again, it would be exciting to see how far she could get without it. So exciting. When it was over, she would restablish demonic rule in the entire galaxy. The terror of those few years on one single, pathetic world eons ago would be nothing set next to what she would accomplish. Demon and human alike would tell stories and sing songs of her for millennia. She would no longer be a demon. She would be a goddess. Nora felt warm and giddy as she contemplated the struggle ahead of her, a struggle that would take at least a century. Struggle was what she lived for, what drove her forward. The thought of a terrifying battle that would span galaxies and centuries caused an involutary shudder of pleasure to pulse through the body she wore. Nora thought with a little laugh. Before the Knights appeared, the demons had had no real opposition, and thus no purpose in their lives. Nora remembered the ecstasy she, or rather Nag'sharath, had felt when it had learned of the Knights existence. At last, some amusement! Unfortunately, the Knights had proven too amusing, and had won the damn war. Since then, Nag'sharath had been awoken time and time again, each time to do battle with the same single Crystal Knight, Tarc Meridian. It had been fun at first, but the battle was too much the same every time, much too short, and Nag always lost. Eventually, it was completely sick of the self-righteous little twerp. Nora was so happy that she had found a way to break the cycle. It was amusing to see the frustration on Tarc's face as he realized that the rules had changed, that he was near- powerless against Evil when it didn't wear the face of a mystical demon. Tarc and his two partners were safely imprisoned on an island, far away. They were powerless to stop her, even if they knew how. In less than a day, the galaxy would be on an unstoppable course toward chaos. Maybe... Maybe she'd let him go. Yes, let him go on some abandoned planet hundreds of light-years from anything, and dare him to come after her. Eventually, he would, and they would have it out. Only this time, the battle would not be some piddling little contest to keep her from becoming established on one or two disgusting little planets. No, this time the conflict would be epic, a lone Crystal Knight against a demon with ultimate power. The thought of carrying on with the knowledge that Tarc was out there somewhere, searching for her, ready to justify her existence with his crystal sword, was intoxicating. Nora's breath rang in her ears as she contemplated such a future. Nora yelped and opened her eyes. Looking down, she saw that her hand had strayed to between her legs. She shook her head and took a deep breath. Nora cursed, cursed her body for its damned physical responses to everything, cursed herself for fantasizing about straying from her plan. Of course she wasn't going to let Tarc go. As soon as the market crash was safely on course, she'd make the force-field around the island airtight and gas the whole place. Tarc, she'd retrieve and put back into cryo-stasis, the other two she'd just kill. Kept alive, Tarc couldn't reincarnate and fetch the others. Tarc and his Game Eternal would be over forever. Close, her aide, entered the room. "Ms. MacPherson? They're ready for you in the conference room." Nora, once again the picture of professional composure, nodded and followed Close out of her office. Minutes later, she entered the conference room, where ten stodigily-dressed old people, six men and four women, awaited. "Ladies and gentlemen," she said, beaming a smile that could have charmed the last centicredit piece out of the pocket of a vagrant, "I suppose you're wondering why I called you all here." Kei marveled at how far she'd come in the last week. When they had discovered the _Lewis_and_Clark_ and its single passenger who had claimed to be the last Crystal Knight, she had quite naturally thought he was mad. Now her boss, Francis Goulet, had turned up, claiming to be Guruk, the powerful sorceror who had been Efena's mentor, and Kei thought it made perfect sense. Besides, the glowing scrying- sphere the man was manifesting in front of him tended to lend credence to his claim. Still, the body's new personality wasn't helping it get along with Kei any better. The two of them were involved in an argument that was getting more heated by the second. "You can't be serious!" Kei yelled. "We've been planning for days now, and you want to throw it all away?!" "Nag'sharath is a mystical being," Guruk calmly replied. "It must be fought on a mystical level." "Haven't you been listening to anything we told you?! It's not like that anymore! That kind of approach won't work!" "Actually," said Tarc. "I have to agree with Guruk. His added power changes the situation considerably." "What?" asked Kei. She sounded hurt. "I just think that, in the light of this new development, we should rethink--" "I don't believe I'm hearing this," said Kei. "Tarc, we worked on this plan all day and all night since we got off the island. It all fits together. It'll work! And now you want to toss it and come up with a new one, just because this jerk shows up?" Yuri spoke up. "I gotta side with Kei, Tarc. We've put too much effort into this plan not to use it. Besides, I don't think we have the time. Look." She pointed at the scrying sphere, whuch had been had been tracking MacPherson's movements. She was currently addressing the officials of the UG Securities and Exchange Commission, giving a boring lecture on the expansion of the UG and its effect on the economy. Yuri continued, "The stock market opens in three hours. Kei's distraction is set for only a little bit before that. There's no time to come up with something different." Guruk shook his head. "You still don't understand. You have no choice. Your plan is doomed to failure, as it attacks her on a purely physical level." "I keep telling you, your precious demon has sworn off magic!" Kei shouted, slamming her fist onto a nightstand. "We have to do the same, or we play right into her hands!" "The Game Eternal is a mystical game," said Tarc. "That is the way it is played. That is the way it will always be played. Tampering with it is foolish." "Ah," said Kei, sneering. "Of course. I should've known. You don't want to use our plan because it doesn't let you play the role of the heroic mystical knight. You just can't live without your glorious, climactic `confrontation', can you? If you don't get to strike Nag'sharath down with your fabled crystal sword, you don't want to play, is that it?" Tarc was silent. He seemed unable to look Kei in the eye. "Well, screw it!!" Kei yelled. "And screw the both of you, too! I'm leaving!" Yuri's head snapped around. "Kei?" "I'll carry out the plan myself, if I have to. It might not work, but goddamnit, if I have to die, I'm gonna die as Kei of the Lovely Angels, not Gliora of fucking Muaarl!!" "D-die?" stammered Yuri. "Oh no," whispered Tarc, staring at Kei. "Yes, Tarc, I know," said Kei. She picked up her gun, utility belt, and a large satchel and headed for the door. "Gliora, WAIT!" shouted Tarc, desperately. Kei stopped, turned, and gave him a glare that could have melted steel. "I... I meant `Kei'," Tarc whispered. "No, you didn't," Kei muttered. She stomped out, slamming the door as hard as she could. "I'd better go after her," said Yuri. She took off an earring and tossed it to Tarc. "Use this if you need to get in touch with us." Yuri left the room and went running after her partner. For a long time, the room was silent. Tarc just stood there, staring at the place Kei had been. Finally, Guruk said, "You still love her, don't you?" "More than you can possibly imagine," Tarc quietly replied. "She's not the same woman, Tarc. Unlike you, she hasn't had the totem of a crystal sword to hold her to her identity through the millenia. She's had scores of lifetimes to change, and she has." Tarc slowly shook his head. "At her center, she's still the woman I love. I can feel it. She can as well. And now that she realizes how many times I've had to sacrifice her life..." "You must force yourself to forget about her. It will only--" "Please," Tarc interrupted, holding up a hand, "you don't have to remind me of the dangers of compromising my purity. But it still hurts." Kei was already in the car when Yuri finally caught up to her. "Kei, waaaaaaait!!" "Hop in!" Kei said, gunning the engine. Yuri jumped into her seat as the car started to move. She sat in her seat panting. "Where... where are we going." "Phase one, Yuri." "Right." Yuri rummaged through the satchel and started getting into costume. It was amazing what a ten-thousand- credit debit card could get you in this town. "Um, Mr. Close, the reporters are here to see you." Close blinked and spoke to the woman on his intercom screen. "What reporters?" "They say they have an appointment to interview you about the _Lewis_and_Clark_." Close blinked again. The interplanetary newsmedia weren't even supposed to be aware of the _Lewis_and_Clark_'s whereabouts yet. Had MacPherson's vaunted media control failed? Not likely. Reporters who stuck their noses in the wrong places on Platonia tended to end up dead. And yet, if the media had indeed gotten out of control at this critical juncture, and he did nothing about it, MacPherson wasn't likely to be pleased. He decided to at least talk to them. The moment he set foot outside his office, he knew he'd made the wrong decision. "Ah! There's the man of the hour now!" said a smiling Yuri, dressed in a reporter's jumpsuit and wielding a microphone. Behind her, Kei aimed a camera at his face. Close quickly turned to his secretary. "Ms. Tsugawa, I want you to--" "Oh, please!" Kei interrupted. "Don't start talking yet. There's some very special tape in this camera, and I wouldn't want have to start... (ahem) shooting... early." Close stared at her. She grinned back, and flicked a switch on the side of the camera. Close swallowed. "I'll, uh... Let's find a quiet place to talk, shall we?" "Excellent!" beamed Yuri. They walked into the hallway outside. "Whatever it is you're planning, you won't get away with it." "We're already partway there," said Kei. "March." On the elevator, Kei and Yuri took turns slipping out of the jumpsuits, revealing uniforms underneath, while the other held a gun on Close, a gun which, unlike the camera, really *was* capable of killing someone. "Okay, big boy," said Kei, "we need to know a few things. One, where exactly is the room where MacPherson is addressing the market officials? Two, where can we find a remote security terminal? Three, what's your access code?" Close laughed out loud. "If you really think I'm going to tell you any of that, then you're even more incompetant than the media makes you out to be!" Yuri reached into the satchel and began rummaging around. "Oh, we're pretty sure you'll tell us. Ah!" She pulled out a medical injector. "Gee, I sure hope I remembered the formula right." Before he could object, she reached over and jammed the injector into Close's arm. Fifteen sublevels down, the elevator finally slowed to a halt. Kei had a look around. "Looks abandoned." "Oh, it is, it is!" exclaimed Close, a goofy grin on his face. "This level will only be activated in the event of a massive assault which renders the surface unlivable! It's EMP-hardened and completely radiation proof!" "Just show us where the terminal is," said Yuri. "Certainly, certainly! Right over there, next to the black cylinder! Is there anything else you'd like to know? I'm so pleased to be of service!" "No, that will be all. Why don't you just sit down over there and pass out?" "Great idea!" said Close, enthusiastically. "In fact, I haven't heard such a good idea in uhhhhh..." Close slumped onto the floor, unconscious. Yuri jacked into the terminal, plugging the interface cable into the socket behind her ear. She entered the access code and called up a menu of tower security functions. Kei opened the satchel and pulled out a hyperspace transmitter, the same they had used to contact Goulet. It had a carrying strap, which she slung over her shoulder. "I'd better be on my way," she said. "You have the schedule down, right?" "To the second. You better hurry it up if you don't want to be behind." "You sure you'll be okay?" "Close will be out for hours. Besides, he's a wimp. Don't worry about me, nobody'll even know I'm down here. And I'll be in constant contact through our comlinks, so it's not like you're leaving me." Kei though. She looked at Yuri uncertainly. The visions she'd experienced of past lives, lives lost in the eternal struggle between Tarc Meridian and Nag'sharath, were still with her. This could be the last time she'd ever see Yuri. Shouldn't she say something? "Kei?" No, Kei thought. What was there to say? Besides, it wasn't the Game Eternal anymore, it was the Lovely Angels versus a crazy woman who wanted to crash the stock market. "You're right, Yuri, I'd better get my ass in gear." Kei walked back into the elevator. "Kei?" said Yuri. Kei looked back at her friend. "Good luck." "Thanks." Kei smiled one last time, before the doors closed and sealed her off. "And so," said Nora, pointing to the viewscreen behind her with a laserpoint for emphasis, "if we extend the cycle to a twenty-year period, we find a clear migration of the areas of concentrated production towards the outlying regions." The officials nodded their comprehension. They actually seemed to be interested as well, which amazed Nora. It was taking all her concentration to stay focused herself. As Nora took a deep breath, preparing for the next volley of tedium, a shrill beeping came from a com panel. Nora apologized to her guests, walked to a corner and pulled a personal communicator from her pocket. "Yes, what is it? I'm in the middle of a--". Nora stopped in mid-sentence, stunned. "How? Where?" The communicator told her. "I'll call you back from my office." "Is there a problem?" asked one of the officials, a balding man with glasses. "Yes, but I'm sure it will be taken care of shortly. I need to leave you for a few minutes." The door slid open. Nora walked out and talked to the suited muscleman in sunglasses standing guard outside. "Something is very wrong, Therian. Under no circumstances are you to allow anyone into this room. This is of the utmost importance. I can't trust it to one of my standard guards. Do you understand?" Therian nodded. "Kei, you've got two more guards about thirty meters in front of you." Kei cursed and flattened against the wall. "Damn, this place is like a military base!" "Parts of it are. You're just gonna have to take another route." "There *are* no other routes, Yuri! We've exhausted them all!" "Jeez, you're right." At her post in the sub-basement, Yuri looked over a map of the area Kei was exploring. Kei was right; she was completely blocked off. MacPherson must have anticipated what they were about to try. Kei unholstered her gun. "There's nothing else for it. I'm just gonna have to fight my way through." "While you're carrying that transmitter on your shoulder? Get real!" "You got a better idea?" "As a matter of fact, I do. Gimme a moment." Yuri tapped a few keys and hoped the guards didn't have orders to stay at their posts even if the tower started crumbling around them. Around Kei, alarm claxons sounded. "Oh, shit, I've been marked!" "Stay put, Kei! It's not you!" Sure enough, the guards began running away from her, toward the other side of the station. "What the hell did you just do?" Kei asked, staring after them. "I simulated a firebomb going off on the other side of the tower. It's not gonna fool them for long, of course, so you better get your butt through and cover your tracks as fast as you can." "Got it!" Kei ran over to where the nearest guard had been stationed, in front of a grate leading to the ventilation system. "Good old ventilation shafts. You can always count on them." She put her gun on narrow beam and began cutting through the bolts. "Well, then get it there! I am not having my capital city destroyed just because you can't get a tractor ship there in time." Nora pounded the desk in frustration. Less than an hour before her masterstroke, and the _Lewis_and _Clark_, the ship she herself had brought here, was about to crash on the city. It couldn't be a coincidence. In fact, what was left of the real Nora MacPherson *knew* it wasn't. The ship simply wasn't capable of spontaneously piloting itself. If worse came to worst, and the tractor ship couldn't stop it, she'd authorize a missle strike to destroy it, but that raised the problem of debris falling on Batyra, especially the debris from the ship's nuclear engines. It would be a horrible mess to deal with when she had the least time to spare. Nora wondered. She checked mentally. No, she hadn't failed to keep the force field intact. Tarc and his pals were still safely imprisoned on the island. Whoever was responsible for this, it couldn't be them. "Oof!" said Kei as she fell from a vent in the ceiling and landed in an unglamorous heap on the floor. "Who are you?" asked one of the officials. "I must say, this is highly irregular." said another. "Heh, heh. Yeah, I guess it is," Kei said, getting to her feet. "But then, that's me. `Irregular' is my middle name." The officials stared at her. "That's a joke. Don't you guys have a sense of humor?" Kei looked around at the officials, all of whom were wearing business suits and dour expressions. "I forgot, you're bureaucrats. Of course you don't." Kei placed the transmitter on the table and got about the business of setting it up. "Okay, folks, here's the story. Your friend Nora MacPherson is crazy. In a couple of minutes, she's going to force nearly every major corporation in the UG to dump all their stock on the market at once." She finished the set up procedure and trained the visual pick-up down the table. "You guys need to call the stock market and shut it down before that can happen. I've got this transmitter ready to go. All you have to do is--" "Say, don't I know you?" said one of the men who still had some gray hair. "Yes," said another, nodding. "She's one of those two girls who are always on the news. What do they call themselves?" "The Dirty Pair!" "Ah, yes, that's it." "Oh, dear," said a woman, raising a wrinkled hand to her lips. "Does this mean we're all going to die?" Kei stared at the table, trying desperately to keep her temper under control. "If you would listen to me, I need you to--" "Well, yes," interrupted an official, "but you see, there's a problem with that." "Yes, of course," said his colleague. "We can't simply shut down the market every time a redhead falls through the ceiling and tells us to. Why, it's against procedure!" "Kei, what's going on?" asked Yuri through Kei's earring. "Nothing," Kei replied. She was furious at herself for having failed to see this coming. People with guns she could deal with. Idiots in suits weren't as easy. She forced herself to be calm. "Gentleman, ladies. As I told you, if you don't shut the market down, every major corporation is going to start selling itself off and everything is going to crash." "Mm," said one of the bald ones. "And you have proof of this?" "Well I--" The old woman shook her head. "Why would they do such a thing? Mass corporate suicide? I find that very hard to believe." "I'll explain," said Kei. Then she remembered to check her watch, and discarded the official explanation in favor of a more succinct one. She pulled her gun. "You see, I have a gun, and if you don't shut down the goddamn market right now, I'm going to start blasting everything in sight! Isn't that simple?" The officials all gulped at once. One spoke up. "I think, in light of this young lady's rather eloquent argument, we should put the question to a vote." "You have five seconds," snarled Kei. The vote was unanimous. Across Batyra's sky streaked the _Lewis_and_Clark_, glowing brighter with every passing moment, a shooting star in the middle of the day. Soon it was painful to look at, so nobody did, which was a good thing, since it meant that when it would explode less than a minute later, no one would lose their vision. Kei shut off the transmitter. The order to suspend trading had been reported received. Kei couldn't remember the last time she had felt this good. Certainly it must have been before they found that stupid ship. "Thank you for your cooperation," she said with a smile. "You won't regret it." "Since it saved out lives," said one man, "I already don't regret it." "Well, I better be on my way." Kei prepared to jump back into the vent. Then she remembered. "BRACE YOURSELVES!" The officials looked on, dumbfounded, as Kei curled into a ball. The lights went out. One of them recognized what she was doing, put two and two together, went pale, and started to do the same himself. The others just stared. There was a low, rumbling noise. The noise quickly grew louder. Then, suddenly, the room tilted, and everything in the room, including the people, were thrown violently against the back wall, then against the front. Nora took deep breaths, trying to regain some semblence of calm. Her office was almost at the very top of the tower, so when the explosion hit it, it had tilted almost ninety degrees, both ways, three times. The explosion blew out the office window and she nearly had been thrown through it. She had survived by grabbing ahold of her desk, which was fused to the floor, but two of its legs had broken loose during the ordeal. If the rocking had lasted any longer, she and the desk would both have been thrown several kilometers to the ground. As she calmed, she felt that something was wrong, something was missing, as if she had forgotten something. She leapt to her feet. The island force field! She checked. Sure enough, she'd let it drop. She put it back up, but now there was no way to tell if Tarc and the others were still trapped there. Still, there was nothing they could do now, was there? Or was there? Nora decided there was no harm in checking. She tapped the terminal on the desk. It had been knocked out by the EMP, of course. Backup systems would soon be available from selected terminals, but she wasn't that patient. Utilizing the mystical link between the computer core and her own brain, she established a hyperspace comlink to the stock market's trading network and asked for the latest quotes. The computer replied that trading had been suspended for the day. Nora sank to the floor, stunned. She needed to think fast, if she was to salvage anything. As she disengaged from the computer, she noticed a familiar process. Close was accessing security functions. During a crisis like this, his place was at her side, not at a computer terminal. She sent him an angry message and kicked him off. Kei uncurled, nursing the bruises from her own collisions with the walls. "Damn. I definitely overdid it with that distraction." The room was dark. She squinted, but it was useless; there were no windows anywhere nearby to let in any ambient light. She began to feel her way around. She found pieces of the transmitter. That didn't bother her. Thanks to the electomagnetic pulse from the explosion, it was worthless anyway. She elicited a yelp of pain from one of the officials when she touched his leg. she thought, "Is everyone okay?" she asked. There was a chorus of mumbles and groans. It sounded like the right number of people, but she couldn't be sure. "Look, will someone call a roll?" Someone cleared his throat, said who he was and began calling names. Everyone answered but "Davidson". Someone else spoke up. "There's someone next to me who's unconscious, but breathing." Kei sighed in relief. "Then that's everyone. Sit tight, and I'll go get some help." Kei was crawling toward where she thought the door was when a large hand grabbed her by the collar of her uniform and lifted her off the floor. Kei stared into dimly two glowing eyes. "Vhat ah hyu doing heah?" Kei grimaced. Only MacPherson's goons had accents that bad. If this one was as powerful as the last two she and Yuri had faced, she was in big trouble. "Excuse me, sir?" said one of the officials. "Could we trouble you for some assistance? Some of us are in need of medical attention, you see, and..." Therian ignored him and walked out, carrying a struggling Kei. "Kei? Kei, are you there? Are you okay?" Yuri repeatedly tapped her communicater earring but got no response. Yuri decided Kei's comm was almost certainly fried. When the pulse had hit, even the lights in Yuri's supposedly EMP-hardened chamber had flickered. A message came on the screen. "CLOSE, GET THE HELL OFF THE SYSTEM AND GET YOUR ASS UP HERE! I'M IN TROUBLE!" It took less than a second for Yuri to realize what was coming next and grab the interface cable leading to her head. It was too long, nevertheless. Before Yuri could pull the cable loose, a flashbomb went off in her head. Yuri's poor brain, still recovering from the near-disastrous cyberhacking three days ago, couldn't take it. She slid off her chair onto the floor, unconscious. Behind her, Close stirred. "What do you mean, you CAN'T reopen the market?!" Nora screamed at the market officials. Unwilling to wait any longer, Nora had restablished connection with the computer and had brought the back-up power system on-line. The first thing she did was connect to the comscreen in the meeting room where the officials were being held, the same screen she had been using for her presentation. The screen in her office showed what a mess the room had become in her absence. The officials were bruised, bloody, and disheveled. One was even unconscious. Still, they somehow maintained their composure, as if they simply didn't know how to lose it. "Well, it's regulations, you see," said one, pushing his cracked glasses back up onto his nose. "If the market is closed, for any reason, it must remain closed for one business day while the reason for its closing is investigated. If we just reopened it, the very same situtation would continue that caused us to shut it down." "B-but, you *know* why it closed! That little bitch held a gun to your head!!" The man cleared his throat. "Well, yes, of course. However, there is the matter of the curious claim she made. She seemed to believe that you had the means to make every major corporation in the United Galactica dump all its stock on the market at once, thus crashing it." Nora went pale. "Of course, I'm certain such a spurious claim can be easily disproved. Nevertheless, we would be remiss in our duties if we did not investigate it. Economic security, you see. So, please understand that--" Nora cut the connection. She walked, as if in a trance, to her desk. The chair had flown out the window, so she just slumped against it. Somehow the sorceress Efena had found a way to sneak through her force field. That, Nora could accept. But how could they have figured out what she was up to? Sure, they knew she was meeting the market people at the exact time she had told Tarc the end was going to come. She had even told Tarc she was going to make the thing crash. But she hadn't told him how. The journalist. Of course. It had to have been him. Somehow the bastard had communicated his data to the Dirty Pair before he had been killed. That was her error, then. She should have seen that possibility, cut her losses and ordered the girls killed immediately. A dozen courses of action passed through her mind, none of which would work. Her first inclination was to kill the officials, but that would accomplish nothing. The investigation would continue regardless. To stop it, and she did have the clout to do so, would raise so many eyebrows throughout the UG that a dozen independent investigations would no doubt pop up, and she couldn't stop those. You can only kill so many reporters. The idea which followed naturally was to somehow mislead the investigation. That was nearly impossible. Her organization was so gigantic that there wasn't anything big enough for it to hide behind. And UG Investigation Bureau officials were notoriously hard to bribe. Of course, she could take control of them all. Call up a few demonic allies, have them possess the investigation team. She dismissed that idea as soon as it occurred to her. She had gotten as far as she had by abandoning magic. To use it now would destroy even what little she had left. There was a solution. She was certain of it. She just needed time to think. Her thoughts were interrupted by a swishing sound behind her and a bright flash of light. She turned to see the last person she wanted to see. Tarc Meridian held his crystal sword at the ready. "The time has come, Nag'sharath. Engage me." CHAPTER ELEVEN Kei squirmed and cursed, trying to wriggle out of Therian's grasp, to no avail. The muscular man held firmly onto Kei's uniform as he carried her down the corridor, oblivious to her writhing and kicking. Kei cursed Tarc Meridian out loud. If he hadn't crapped out on their plan, this wouldn't be happening. His crystal sword would have been there to vaporize MacPherson's demonic bodyguards, just as it had done to two of them earlier. Where Therian was carrying Kei, she had no idea. Then she saw the end of the corridor. There was a window there, blown out by the force of the _Lewis_and_Clark_'s explosion. Apparently, he was planning to throw her out of it. Seeing how close she was to death cleared Kei's mind, and suddenly she knew exactly what to do. She blinked, wondering how she could possibly have missed such an obvious solution. She undid the clasp at the front of her uniform and dropped to the ground, leaving a startled Therian holding an empty top. In less than a second Kei was running toward the emergency stairs as fast as her legs would carry her. Therian dropped Kei's top and strolled after her, catching up with each stride. Kei reached the steps, only a couple of seconds ahead of her pursuer, and ran into an ordinary security guard. "Hey!" he yelled. "You aren't-- uhhhh..." His eyes dropped to her bare chest and stayed there. Not one to pass up a gift, Kei kneed him in the groin and chopped him on the back of the neck. She quickly grabbed his gun and fired off a few shots. The narrow beams went right through Therian, but failed even to slow him down. Kei decided it was time for a different tactic. She ran down the steps, firing down as she passed. Therian calmly entered the stairwell and continued walking after her. As Kei had hoped, as he put his weight on one of the steps she'd shot, it gave way and he fell through to the next level. Kei backtracked, nimbly jumping over the missing step and back toward the door. The security guard was regaining consciousness, groaning, and had rolled over. With his body no longer blocking the door, it had swung shut. Kei tried the door. It was locked. Kei aimed the gun and began to burn through the bolt. She made progress, but slowly, too slowly. She heard thumping sounds and turned around to see Therian coming back up the stairwell. She cursed the wimpy rent-a-cop gun and ran up the stairs. Therian narrowed the margin between them with each step he took, taking the steps three or four at a time. It was obvious Kei couldn't outrace the man. She reached the next level and tried the door. Locked. She turned around. This time Kei aimed for his head. Therian dodged the shot, and then he was there, right in front of her. Kei tried to fire again, but he snatched the gun from her hand and crushed it. He grabbed her by the neck, held her in the air, and squeezed. Kei punched, slapped and kicked him. He didn't even take notice. Kei stared helplessly as her field of vision narrowed and went gray. And then he just dropped her. Kei gasped and coughed, sucking down as much air as she could. "I understand," said Therian to the empty air. He looked down at Kei. "I'll be back." Then he walked past her up the stairwell. Nora stared at Tarc as one would stare at a particularly disgusting insect. "Go away and leave me alone." Tarc merely repeated his request. "Engage me." His sword glowed with a pale light. "Haven't you done enough already?!" Nora screamed at him. "You've ruined me! All my plans have been flushed down the proverbial toilet! I've been reduced from the most powerful woman in the galaxy to someone afraid of the goddamn law! What more do you want, my blood?!" Tarc didn't reply. "Of course you want my blood. That's your sole purpose of your existence, isn't it? You could care less what I'm doing. You just want to kill me. Well guess what, Tarc! I'm not gonna play!" "You cannot deny what you are, Nag. I offer combat. You cannot refuse." "Watch me!" Nora swung her arms for emphasis. "I have no intention of fighting you, Tarc. Can't you get that through your thick skull?! Give it up!" "I cannot." "Why?! I did, why can't you?" "You are Evil. I must fight you." Nora rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Oh, gawd. Not that tired old crap. Tarc, do you know how many credits I've given to charity? Neither do I, but it's in the millions. My MacPherson Medical is a non-profit corporation dedicated to finding new medicines. I founded MacPherson University, and some the galaxy's greatest leaders have graduated from it. What makes me evil?" "You are Evil because you hurt people." "So do you! Look at that!" she said, gesturing toward the window. "The city's been hit with a major shockwave and an EMP blast, engineered by your friends, I'll wager. You think no one got hurt? If so, you're a fool. "Hell, what about our past?" she continued. "Our battles have always been cataclysmic, with cities being consumed by fire, wind, or water. Whose fault was that, Tarc? I certainly had no intention of destroying those cities. I wanted to rule them." Tarc was silent for a moment, then he replied. "I don't wish to discuss this. Engage me, or I will strike you down where you stand." Nora laughed out loud. "Oh, wouldst thou, most brave and gallant Tarc Meridian?" She slinked up to him, hands clasped before her in mock supplication. "Wouldst thou truly strike me down in cold blood? Wouldst thou murder me?" Tarc looked uncomfortable, but said nothing. "Ha!" Nora excalimed as she turned and walked away. "There you have it. I think I'll just ignore you, Tarc Meridian. You're so powerless, it's pathetic." "Nag," Tarc said, suddenly. "Hmm?" Nora replied, turning casually. "I'll make you a deal." "Go on." "You say you wish me to go away and cease my persecution of you. Very well. But first, you must do one thing." Nora raised her eyebrows, intrigued. "What's that?" "Look me directly in the eye, and tell me, from the bottom of your heart, that you have no desire to fight me, ever again, for all of eternity." Nora stared at him in disbelief. Was he serious? Could it really be that simple? She laughed again, but this time it was a short nervous laugh. "That's all? No problem." Nora walked up to Tarc, stared him down and cleared her throat. "I," she began, and stopped. she told herself. She opened her mouth to start again, but nothing came out. A wall panel slid aside, revealing a secret entrance to a stairwell. Therian stepped out. "Ah," said Nora, stepping away from Tarc, and feeling more relieved than she could remember feeling in recent days. "Therian! Just the person I wanted to see." "Therian?" said Tarc. He immediately brought his sword up again. It began to glow brighter. Nora spoke to her musclebound aide. "Our friend Tarc here seems to have a childish need for combat. Why don't you humor him. In fact, while you're at it, why don't you kill him?" Therian nodded and walked toward Tarc. Tarc took a step back and swung his sword in a wide arc, slicing through Therian's abdomen. What was supposed to happen at this point was that white flames would burst from Therian's abdomen, rapidly consuming him. What actually did happen was that Therian grunted in pain, thick red blood sprayed everywhere, his entrails plopped onto the carpet, and he died. Tarc eyes widened. He held up his sword, the blade coated with blood, and stared in utter disbelief. Nora cracked up, laughing so hard she had to lean on the desk to keep from collapsing. Tears ran down her face. "What's the matter, Tarc? Got icky blood all over your sword?" "B-but, `Therian'. I thought..." "Oh, he carried the name of my right-hand demon, but that was just for sentiment's sake. He was a human as they come. I enhanced him a little, but that was all. I used him as a model for the others." "Then who..." "Oh, come on, Tarc, I'm a businesswoman now. I need a businessman for my right-hand aide. Could you see me introducing a warrior named Therian at a board meeting? I--" Tarc paled and dropped to his knees. Myriads of tiny bubbles began to form inside his sword, turning it cloudy. With an audible snapping sound, a crack formed down it's length. "Oooh," said Nora, smiling and feigning excitement. "Can I see? This is something I've never managed to do to you before, though gods know I've tried often enough." Tarc breath became shallow and rattling as his sword continued to deteriorate. "Oh, well," Nora said. "Goodbye, Tarc. See you in twenty years. Or maybe not. Like I said, I never did do this to you before. Maybe this time you'll be dead for good, hmm? That would be nice." Nora threw back her head and laughed again. Yuri groaned and stood up. Her nose was bleeding again, or rather had been; the blood was already dry. "How long have I been out?" she wondered aloud. "Almost an hour," answered Close. Yuri whirled around, causing her head to throb. Close was standing behind her. Yuri whipped her gun out of its holster. "You sit back down." "I don't think so. Ms. MacPherson ordered me to come to her aid, on that very terminal as a matter of fact. I tried to tell her I was with you, but she won't respond. Something's occupying her. I'd like to know what you did." "That's none of your business." "If it endangers Ms. MacPherson, it's my business. I should be there beside her, but something tells me I can help her much more by taking you out." Close raised his hands and casually snapped the cuffs. Yuri gasped and fired. The beam bounced off Close and burned a hole in the wall. Close smiled. "You don't know what a pain it's been, playing the role of the businessman-wimp while my lord recruits a human to play my role. I understood, of course, but I never claimed to like it." He charged Yuri, who jumped out of the way. A single blow crushed the computer terminal. Close growled and charged her again. Yuri readied herself and executed a judo throw. Close's flying body went smashing through the concrete wall behind her. Yuri decided it was time to make tracks. She grabbed the satchel and headed out the door. Something green and serpentine wrapped itself around her legs and brought her crashing to the floor. She looked back to see Close, or what she figured must be Close. It was eight feet tall, green and scaly, with yellow eyes, bat-like wings, a wide mouth full of sharp teeth, and an incredibly long tail that was still wrapped around her legs and drawing her forward. "I will consume you," it said. "I will consume you and wrest the answers from your soul!" Yuri reached inside her top and pulled out the Bloody Card. She was about to throw it when she had a better idea. She passed her left hand over the Card and whispered some words, words she only barely remembered and half-understood. The Card began to glow with a bright white light. Now she threw it. The Card struck the thing in the chest and stuck there. The demon screamed as the light began to consume it. It struggled, screaming, and as Yuri watched, it started to fight it off. The light grew dimmer and shrank. Yuri considered running, but an idea struck her. Maybe now that it was weakened... Yuri pulled her gun and fired. This time the beam pierced the demon's body, causing plenty of damage. Yuri fired again and again, until the demon stopped moving, then fired a few more times for good measure. When she stopped, the demon's head and chest had been reduced to a pulpy mess. Yuri plucked the still glowing Card from the creature's chest, being careful not to touch any of its blood. Suddenly something sent a chill down her spine. She knew exactly what it was. It was Tarc and he was dying. This time, it took Yuri almost no effort at all. Without completely understanding what she was doing, she made a swift series of hand motions and teleported. Kei tried yet another door. It was locked, just as the other twelve had been. It was no use. The stairwell almost certainly opened only on the ground floor, and Kei would have trouble looking inconspicuous on such a busy floor, especially if she was walking around topless. Kei sighed and started down to try the next door. A bright light flashed behind her, and there was Yuri. Before Kei could ask what was happening, Yuri had grabbed her hand and teleported again. The Angels arrived in Nora's office. Nora was momentarily startled upon seeing the new arrivals, but only momentarily. "Well, well! I wondered when you'd get here. You're just in time to watch your friend die." Kei looked down and screamed Tarc's name. The Crystal Knight lay on the ground, his face the color of slate, his mouth open, his eyes blank, breathing in short, choked gasps. His sword was almost unrecognizable, a warped mass of blood, cracks, and gray bubbles. Kei knelt by him and shook him. "Tarc! Tarc!" "Oh, that won't do any good," said Nora. "He's got blood all over his sword, you see. Blood does nasty things to a Crystal Knight's sword, and as goes the sword, so goes the Knight." "You filthy *bitch*!" Kei screamed, and charged her. Nora calmly raised a hand. Light flashed from her palm, and Kei was thrown back across the room, slamming against the far wall. "Now, that was self-defense," Nora said to Kei. "Self- defense is okay. Please don't think that my abandonment of magic extends to allowing you to harm me in any way." Yuri stared at Tarc and his sword, hoping for some burst of intuition that would tell her what to do. When it came, and when Yuri realized what it meant, a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek. She gathered her courage, knelt and grabbed the sword. Yuri's entire body began to glow. Then the glow left her body and flowed into the sword. Yuri collasped in a heap as the blood vanished from the sword, which began to repair itself. Tarc struggled to his feet. Grunting with the effort, he brought his sword back to the ready position. "Nag..." "What the--" said Nora, blinking. Then she noticed Yuri crumpled on the floor. "Ah. Your sorceress friend must have channeled her entire lifeforce into your sword. How very resourceful of her." "What?!" Kei yelled. She ran to Yuri and rolled her over. The girl was very much unconscious. "By the way," Nora continued, "I'd recommend you not let go of that sword, no matter what happens. Both you and Efena would die instantly." Except for the fact that he was standing, Tarc didn't look much better than he had when he was lying on the floor. "Engage me," he demanded, he voice barely louder than a whisper. "Blow it out your ass," Nora responded with a smile. She pressed a button on her desk terminal. "Security?" "Security, Jenkins here," a voice responded. "Bring a shuttle to the top of the tower in ten minutes." "Did you say the top of the tower?" the voice asked incredulously. "You heard me. MacPherson out." Nora cut communication and turned back to the others. "I'm afraid the time has come for me to go. I'll be seeing you. Count on it." Kei pulled Yuri's gun from its holster and leveled it at Nora. "Don't you take one step or I swear to god I'll blow your head off." Looking disgusted, Nora raised a hand. "Oh, no you don't!" Kei yelled. Reaching with her free hand into a pouch on her belt, she whipped out the white truce medallion she had retrieved from their hotel room. Nora stared at the medallion. "You can't use that against me. If you attack me while holding it, that nullifies the truce." Kei smiled wickedly. "I haven't attacked you yet." "But if you do, I'll be dead before I can retaliate." Nora stared at Kei and the medallion for a long time. Then she started to laugh. "A loophole! You found a loophole! That's brilliant! Honestly, I could have used you in some of my business negotiations." "For someone who claims to have abandoned the Game," Tarc said, "you certainly seem willing to follow its rules." "I broke that rule once before, if you'll remember. I didn't like the results. I wonder if Kei understands what would happen to her if she attacked me while holding that thing." "Perhaps nothing," Tarc said. "Perhaps," Nora agreed. "She is using a gun, after all, not a spell." Seeing Tarc and Nora discussing the battle so casually unnerved Kei, but she refused to let it show. "I mean it. Move and I'll kill you." "Even a pulse beam only moves so fast," said Nora. "I might be able to kill you before it reaches me. Or dodge it." "Move and we'll find out." Nora and Kei stared at each other for a long time. For a moment it seemed that Kei might actually win her gamble. Then the room started to shake. At first it was just a low vibration, accompanies by a soft rumbling sound. Then the sound grew louder, and the room began to sway. Nora looked around her nervously. "What is this?" Kei knew exactly what it was. "It's your earthquake, Tarc!" "Earthquake?!" Nora shouted over the rumbling, which was still growing in volume. "What is she talking about?" "An experiment. I had believed it a failure. Apparently the effect was simply delayed." The room began swaying violently, throwing everyone a few centimeters off the floor. Nora grabbed onto the entrance to the stairwell. Kei and Tarc had nothing as solid to take ahold of, and to Kei's utter horror, Yuri's unconscious body was being thrown closer and closer to the open window with each jolt. Terrified, she pointed this out to Tarc. "I can't save her," Tarc said. "I can't risk letting go of my sword." Kei lay flat on the bucking, swaying floor and began riding the waves, jumping forward each time the room jerked. Her goal was the desk. They were now being thrown almost a third of a meter into the air every second. One of Yuri's feet was thrown through the window. Kei had only a few seconds, or the rest of Yuri would follow it. Kei reached the desk, grabbed onto a leg and reached for Yuri. Stretching, she was barely able to touch Yuri's wrist when the room bucked again. Yuri was thrown away from Kei, but her limp arms were flung away from her, and Kei was able to grab on. Kei hung on for dear life. The earthquake still wasn't finished. Behind her, she heard a loud snapping noise. She screamed as the desk broke free. Kei and Yuri went flying through the window, desk and all. Kei let go and made a grab for the window frame as the desk's greater inertia carried it over their heads. She held on to the frame, howling in pain as a glass fragment cut into her hand. The tower continued to sway. "Will you knock it off, already?!" Kei screamed at the world. Perhaps the world heard her, because the swaying slowed and finally stopped. Kei strained to pull both herself and Yuri back through the window. Then, almost as an afterthought, the tower did one more quick little jolt. Kei was caught off-guard, and it was just enough to knock her hand loose. Kei screamed, and then a hand was around her wrist. Tarc's hand. Kei breathed a sigh of relief. When Tarc failed to begin pulling them up, Kei decided maybe her sigh was premature. Tarc strained to haul the two girls in with one hand while keeping his other firmly around his sword. He wasn't making any progress. Nora strolled over to where Tarc knelt on the floor. "Here we are again, eh, Tarc?" Tarc ignored her and continued pulling. "I'd forget it if I were you. In your condition, there's no way you're going to pull both women in with one arm. And of course, if you should let go of your sword..." Nora shook her head slowly. "I'm leaving, Tarc. It's decision making time for you again. And we both know what decision you're going to make." She turned, walked swiftly to the stairwell, and disappeared inside. Tarc tried one more time to pull the Angels inside. Then he stopped, out of breath. He stared into Kei's eyes. His mouth moved as if he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Kei asked, bitterly. "Let go." "Kei..." "We both know you can't both kill Nag'sharath and save us," Kei said, scowling. "And we both know which is more important to you. So do it already! Let me drop!" Tears welled up in her eyes. She blinked to clear them, but it did no good. Tarc remained motionless. He looked at Kei, painfully. Kei blew up. "If you're waiting for me to forgive you, I'm not going to, so just do it! DO IT, DAMN YOU!!" Kei had no idea how Tarc took her outburst; she could no longer see through her tears. "Perhaps..." started Tarc. "Perhaps there is more than one kind of purity." To her astonishment, Kei felt a second hand grab her wrist. Tarc pulled, grunting with the effort, slowly pulling Kei toward the window. Kei pressed her boots against the side of the tower and pushed as hard as she could. Finally, Kei was safely inside. She held onto Yuri and helped Tarc pull her in as well. Kei and Tarc sat on the floor, out of breath. Kei was helped to her feet by Tarc. With effort, she faced him. "Tarc, I'm really sorry. Please forgive me for saying-" Tarc waved her off. "You don't have to apologize for being right." Suddenly, it hit Kei: shouldn't Tarc be dead? Kei took a look at Tarc's sword, lying on the carpet. As Nora had warned, it was beginning to deteriorate, but much more slowly than Kei had expected. "Tarc, don't you think you should pick up--" Tarc pulled Kei close to him and kissed her. Later, Kei would wonder how it could be possible to be so unaware of how much she had wanted something until she had it. She had no idea why Tarc was kissing her. All she knew was that she didn't want him to stop. Ever. Kei's universe shrank until there were only two people in it: herself and Tarc. Tears ran down her cheek and mingled with his. When at last Tarc pulled away, it was as if Kei had just been born. She blinked at the world around her, bewildered. It took her a moment to remember where she was. When she did, she realized for the first time in nearly an hour that she was half-naked. She covered her breasts, blushing like a schoolgirl. "Kei," Tarc said, "I love you. I've been fighting my feelings for millenia, in the belief that they would corrupt me. I was wrong. My love for you gave me the strength to survive." Yuri stirred. Tarc walked past her and picked up his sword. It was completely healed, and more beautiful than ever. With even the slightest movement, light sparkled and prismed within it. As Tarc grasped it, it glowed with a bright, pure white light. "Tarc," said Yuri. "You're okay." "Yes," Tarc confirmed. "More `okay' than I have ever been. I can finish it now." "Finish it?" Kei asked, alarmed. "You've given me the strength to destroy Nag'sharath once and for all. That is precisely what I shall do." "Tarc, no! The 3WA should be here anytime now. We'll explain it to them, let them handle it!" "They won't be able to stop her. Only I can stop her." Tarc walked toward the stairwell. "I'm doing this for you, Kei." He walked in and started up. "Tarc, please don't! I don't want to see you get killed!" Kei ran after him, but a high-pitched tone came from the stairwell, and the metal stairs blew apart and twisted. The stairs were now a warped mass of metal blocking any attempt to follow. "Dammit, Tarc," Kei screamed after him. "It's all the same! Whether you're doing it out some sense of mystical justice or for me, it doesn't matter! It's all the same." Kei started to cry again, then stamped her foot and decided she'd be damned if she'd cry. She ran over to Yuri. "Yuri, how are you feeling?" "Okay, I guess." "Great! Teleport us to the top of the tower." Yuri nodded, concentrated, and waved her hands. Nothing happened. "I can't. Something's blocking me." "Damn it!" Kei yelled. She put her hand on her chin and thought for a few seconds. "Can you take us down?" Yuri closed her eyes and considered it. "Yes, I think so. But why?" "'Port us to the hangers. We'll steal a shuttle and fly to the top of the tower!" "Hey," said Yuri, brightening up, "that's a good idea!" She waved her hands and the two of them vanished in a flash of light. Nora paced angrily atop the tower. There wasn't that room to pace, the top being a platform with only about seven square meters of room, part of which was taken up by a small booth which was the exit to the stairwell. A large flashing light on top of the booth warned planes to go around. Nora leaned against a small railing and stared anxiously out over the horizon. Someone with good eyes could barely detect the horizon curving, so tall was the tower. Clouds were visible below. Nora was able to breathe easily only because she willed it to be that way. She had a plan. It was a desperate plan, but one which she thought would work. She would get the hell off the planet and disappear. After a suitable length of time, she would return as her own daughter, just as she had done twice before. In her absence, her empire would no doubt crumble under public scrutiny, but she doubted it would collapse entirely, so she wouldn't have to start from square one. Hell, she might even be able to turn it to an advantage in the field of public-relations, as the crusading daughter who desires to atone for her mother's sins. But the plan necessitated getting off the planet immediately, before the 3WA arrived, and her shuttlecraft was nowhere to be seen. "Where the hell are they?" she said. "They should be here by now!" Then she saw it. The small shuttlecraft was headed right for her. And right behind it was the _Lovely_Angel_. "Oh, no," said Nora. "Your time is up, Nag," said Tarc. Nora spun around.Tarc was behind her, holding his crystal sword. "You! Don't you ever give up?!" "No." Nora felt the fury rise within her and struggled desperately to contain it. She couldn't lapse now, couldn't afford to. "I...," she started, taking deep breaths, "will not... fight you. Understand? And you can't fight me unless I use magic. So go away and quit annoying me!!" Calmly, Tarc let go of his sword with his right hand, and rotated the blade so it hung down, relaxed. Then he made a fist and nailed Nora right on the jaw, knocking her to her knees. "You bastard," Nora mumbled, wiping blood off her chin. "We can fight this battle on whatever level you please, Nag," Tarc said. "But we *will* fight it." Again, Nora felt the black rage rise inside. She shook her head to focus her thoughts. She snuck a look at the shuttlecraft. It would be there in less than a minute. The _Lovely_Angel_ continued to pursue, lazily. Who was flying it, she wondered? With a single swift movement, Nora shot out a leg and brought Tarc tumbling to the floor. She leapt to her feet and ran to the other side of the platform, waving her arms. She looked back to see Tarc get up and walk toward her. "Don't think I can't knock you back like I did Kei. Self- defense, remember?" "And I can deflect your blast with my sword." Cursing, she realized he was right. She stared desperately at the shuttlecraft as it tried to lose its pursuer. "Dammit!" she screamed at it. "Pick me up first, then do that!" Then the shuttlecraft slowed and turned to face the _Lovely_Angel_. "What are they doing?" Nora wondered aloud. A second later, she knew exactly what they were doing. "NO! You idiots!!" A burst of laser fire flew from twin emitters on each side of the shuttlecraft, striking the _Lovely_Angel_, staggering it, knocking it off course. The larger ship recovered and fired a single missile. Nora watched in despair as her shuttle was transformed into a cloud of burning debris. Nora screamed at the top of the lungs, a deafening, incoherent growl. She beat at the railing with her fists, denting it. Once again, the fury came, hot, dark, threatening to consume her. She screamed again, her face red, her veins bulging. "NAG!" shouted Tarc. Nora whirled to face him. "Shut... UP!!!!" she screamed. An intense blast of blue flame exploded from her hands, catching Tarc and flipping him in the air. The energy wrapped around him like a huge fist and slammed against the floor, once, twice, three times. "I'LL KILL YOU!" Nora bellowed. "KILL YOU!! KILL!!!" She let him go and watched as he fell into a heap. Nora panted, wide-eyed. She could not believe how good that had felt. She was like an alcoholic taking her first drink after seventy-eight years on the wagon. Her entire body tingled as if she had just had an intense orgasm. She had been wrong, all this time. This immensity of the lie she had been forcing herself to believe was revealed to her in a flash of understanding that was like a blow to the head. Here was her destiny, right here, lying in a pile on the floor right in front of her. Why was she running from it? Unbidden, her hands formed fists, left on top of right. A blade began to extrude from within her hands, extending until it was more than a meter long. It was long, black, and twisted, with no single flat surface, as if it had been haphazardly chipped out of a solid block of obsidian. Storm clouds formed out of nothing and began to swirl about the tower, rumbling and flashing from lightning hidden within. The wind picked upHolding her sword at the ready, Nora advanced on Tarc. Seeing this, he smiled at her, a sad, relieved smile that seemed to be one of gratitude. "Tarc," Nag'sharath said quietly, her voice barely audible above the wind and thunder, "I love you." Then she attacked. "Oh, no," Kei said the minute she saw her surroundings. The tremor apparently had been no less severe on the surface than it had been high up in the tower. The roof of the hangar had collasped in sections, crushing many of the ships and planes and blocking any passage to the outside. "It's probably like this throughout the hangars." "Maybe," said Yuri. "Maybe not." Suddenly she snapped her fingers. "Hey! When I 'ported us off the island, we ended up in the hangars, didn't we? Our bags didn't come with us because of the time slip, but they should've gone to the same place!" Kei brightened as she understood. "Where was the _Lovely_Angel_ parked?" "Follow me!" said Yuri, and started running. Kei took off after her. "Say," Yuri said after they had run for awhile, "I've been meaning to ask you about your outfit." "Oh, that. I had to ditch the top to get away from one of MacPherson's goons." "Well, shouldn't you put something on?" "Like what?" "Good point," said Yuri. "We're in hangar 7-A, now. Our hangar should be just around the corner." The Angels turned a corner. There they were, just as Yuri had predicted, two large travel bags lying in the center of the space that been occupied by the _Lovely_Angel_ just a few days earlier. However, the Angels' attention was drawn to what was happening beyond the bags. About a dozen of MacPherson's bodybuilders were locked in pitched battle with Francis Goulet, who seemed to be holding his own. Kei reminded herself that it wasn't really Goulet, but the sorcerer Guruk. Nevertheless, it still looked weird to see him fight. As Kei and Yuri watched, he dispatched two of them with blasts of energy from his hands. The others began to surround him. Kei opened her mouth to warn him, but Yuri clapped a hand over it. She closed her eyes, whispered a phrase, made a quick gesture, and Guruk was surrounded by a wall of flame. The guards flinched back from the fire, and Guruk quickly sent five more of them back where they came from. The others noticed the reinforcements and quickly left. "Efena!" said Guruk, walking through the flame unharmed. "What wonderful timing! I see illusion spells are still your forte." "I guess so," Yuri replied. "I still don't really understand how I'm doing it. I try not to think about it." "What the hell are you doing down here?" Kei asked. "Well, I--" Guruk started, then got a good look at Kei. He cleared his throat and averted his eyes. "Oh, fer crying out loud," Kei grumbled. She went to one of the bags and went rummaging through it. Guruk continued. "I was, how do people of your time put it, `running interference' for Tarc. We felt that if I caused trouble here at the base of the tower, it would distract forces from Tarc's efforts at the top." Kei found a sweater and put it on, then opened up the other bag. "Good news, Yuri! They look undamaged!" Kei pulled out two jet-packs. "Great!" said Yuri. "Now all we have to do is get outside." "No problem," said Guruk. He stretched out an arm toward the debris-blocked hangar gate and let loose a titanic blast that punched a huge hole through it. "Wow," said Yuri. "You idiot!" Kei shouted. "You wanna draw attention to yourself?" "Yes," agreed Guruk. "As I said, I'm--" Yuri interrupted. "Uh, I think we have a problem, guys." She held up a hand, indicating the small pieces of plaster and concrete that were beginning to fall from the ceiling, pieces that grew larger with each second. Kei screamed an obscenity and ran for the hole, Yuri and Guruk following after. They made it outside just as the hangar's ceiling collapsed entirely. "Oh, shit," Kei whined. "There was really useful stuff in those bags, too." "That felt good!" exclaimed Guruk. "Haven't stretched my mystical muscles like that in eons! There's advantages to being reborn in a younger body, let me tell you." Yuri stared skyward at the storm clouds obscuring the top of the tower from view. "Something's happening up there." She looked back at Kei, and began to put on her jet pack. "We'd better hurry. Kei, can we really fly these things all the way up there?" "I don't see why not. Actually I'm more worried about breathing. The air's gotta be incredibly thin up there." "Take me with you," said Guruk. "I can assure you breathing will be the least of your problems." "That's nice to hear," Kei said sarcastically as she snapped the last belt into place. "Ready to go, Yuri?" Yuri nodded. She and Kei each took one of Guruk's arms. A moment later, the three of them headed up. The battle continued in earnest. Multi-colored sparks flew from the swords as they struck together, again and again. Behind them hovered the _Lovely_Angel_. At the controls, Mughi was unsure of what action to take, if any. Nag'sharath drove Tarc back three steps with a furious series of thrusts. "Ha! You're losing your skill, Crystal Knight! You never would have fallen for that move when first we met!" "On the contrary, demon! I merely underestimated the ability of your current form to perform it! I shall not do so again!" Tarc yelled and began driving Nag back toward the other end. He pressed her against the railing, sword crossed against sword, and stared her down. "This time it ends, Nag. This time I am powerful enough to finish it for good." "Truly?" the demon asked, smiling wickedly. "When I attempted to swear off the battle, I found I could not. Can you?" Tarc stared at her, quizzically. "Oh, please," Nag continued. "Don't tell me you aren't enjoying this as much as I am. Can you really live in a future where all such battles are denied?" Tarc released her and backed off. "You talk nonsense." "Do I?" Nag advanced on him, smiling. "Now myself, I am the great Controller Demon, Nag'sharath, Evil in the highest degree. I can count on someone arising to confront me. Great Evil begets great Good, after all. But you?" The demon laughed disdainfully. "Your sole purpose is to rid the world of my presence. Are you willing to lose your purpose by succeeding?" "Stop talking and defend yourself!" screamed Tarc, and attacked. Laughing, the demon parried. After what seemed like an eternity, Kei, Yuri, and Guruk finally reached the summit. As he had promised, Guruk had whispered a subtle spell that kept a pocket of surface- pressure air around them, allowing them to breathe normally. As they hovered, approaching the platform, Kei looked down. She whistled at how far they had climbed. As it had turned out, her belief that they could fly the packs all the way up was very nearly over-optimistic. They were here, they had made it, but the fuel cells were almost exhausted. They wouldn't be able to take them back down, which was one reason Kei was overjoyed to see the _Lovely_Angel_ hovering nearby. "God, will you look at that," said Yuri. Tarc and Nag'sharath continued their struggle, apparently oblivious to their presence. "Glorious, isn't it?" commented Guruk, appreciatively. "The eternal conflict between Good and Evil has a purity to it that's so spiritually uplifting." Kei twisted her head to look down at Guruk, who was still hanging from the two girls' arms. "You're crazy!" "I don't expect you to understand." Yuri checked a readout on one of the harness belts. "We have to set down. We don't have enough fuel to reach the _Lovely_Angel_." "No," said Guruk. "We must not interfere." "It's either that or fall," said Kei. After taking a glance down, Guruk agreed. As the three of them set foot on the platform, Nag'sharath immediately became aware of them. "Look, Tarc! Your friends have caught up with you!" "Do not attempt to distract me," Tarc said, parrying the attacks the demon continued to throw at him. "Oh, I'll admit it was such an attempt," the demon said, smiling. "Nevertheless, it is true." "Perhaps so. But if I look, you will seize the opportunity to strike me down, will you not?" Nag laughed. "You know me so well! Not unlike a lover." "You are obscene!" Angered, Tarc struck violently, driving his foe backward. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Kei angrily asked Guruk. "Blow her away!" "I will not interfere," Guruk replied, shaking his head. "What?!" Kei said, stunned. "Tarc is fighting for his life! Are you just gonna let him be killed?" "Nag'sharath is more than a match for my power. Tarc has much more experience fighting it than I do. It is his battle. Let him fight it." "Like hell," growled Kei. "C'mon, Yuri, let's end this thing." Yuri swallowed nervously. "O-okay." "You're making a grave error," Guruk intoned as the Angels walked away. The battle went on without pause, thrust and parry, strike and dodge. Neither Tarc nor Nag'sharath were able to inflict any damage on the other, and neither seemed to be tiring. "Powerful enough to destroy me, eh?" the demon asked. "You'll have to get that sword through me first." "It is just a matter of time," Tarc replied. "Bullshit," said Nag. "You're holding back. You don't really want to destroy me, and you know it." "If you truly believe that, lower your sword." "Ha! And miss all this fun? I think not." Nag cut loose with another vicious swing that knocked Tarc back a step. Suddenly, a wall of fire sprung from the floor, surrounding the startled demon. "What is this, Tarc?" "I don't know," Tarc replied honestly. Kei jumped out from behind the stairwell booth and fired Yuri's gun as fast as she could pull the trigger. The blasts dissipated as they reached the demon. Kei kept firing in the faint hope she could wear Nag down. Nag slowly turned her head toward Kei, sneering. "I smell two women warriors." She raised her hands. "First things first." The flame was sucked into her hands forming two glowing balls. She put her hands together, and the balls formed into one, which shot forward and sought out Yuri, who was still concealed behind the booth. Yuri yelled as she was knocked backward off the platform. She shot out a hand and caught the railing. "Yuri!" Kei screamed, then screamed in pain as a huge, invisible fist began to crush her. "And now, your interference comes to an end," said Nag'sharath. "You have annoyed me for the last time." "LEAVE HER ALONE!" screamed Tarc, enraged. "Make me." With a warrior's yell, Tarc charged, unleashing a titanic swing meant to cut the demon in half. Nag calmly dodged. Tarc's swing missed, throwing him off-balance for just a split-second. But that was all Nag needed. She counterattacked, cutting a deep gash in Tarc's right side. Tarc groaned and collasped. "You should have listened to your mentors, Knight. Perhaps love doesn't corrupt one's purity, but it certainly makes one foolish in battle." Guruk helped Yuri back onto the platform. "You should have listened to me. I fear it is all over. And I fear we have lost." "No," said Yuri. "I can't accept that. Not yet." She touched her earring to call the _Lovely_Angel_ and was rewarded with a loud blast of static. She looked over to where Kei was struggling painfully t get to her feet. Kei looked at her and made a gesture with her hands. It was sign-language for the letter "D". "D" as in "distraction". Yuri nodded. "I'm going to miss you, Tarc," said Nag'sharath as she stood over him. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. But as much as I love you, I love power more. And the best plan for getting power involves dispatching you now. I'm afraid," she said as she touched her black sword to his chest, "you won't be coming back this time." With both hands, Nag raised her sword, point downward. There was loud cracking noise, followed by a blinding burst of light. Nag glanced toward the source. Someone threw her violently to the floor. When Nag looked back, Kei was standing before her, holding Tarc's crystal sword at the ready. "You wanna fight, bitch?!" Kei asked, grinning. "I'll give you a fight!" "Don't make me laugh," Nag'sharath sneered back. Kei yelled and struck at her. As she blocked, Nag's eyes widened in astonishment at the force of the blow. The demon rolled to safety and jumped to her feet. Kei unleashed a savage series of thrusts, forcing Nag'sharath to parry as fast as she could. To Nag's utter disbelief, she found herself being driven back. "Yeah!" cheered Yuri. "Go Kei! I didn't even know she knew how to use a sword." "Gliora's swordplay was always a joy to watch," said Guruk. "She could defeat men twice her size." Kei kept up the assault, driving the demon back farther and farther, until at last she had her back against the railing. "Not so smug, now, huh? Now you're gonna pay! Pay for everything you put us through! Pay for--oof!" Using the railing for leverage, Nora drove her feet into Kei's midsection and pushed her back. "That won't work again," said Kei. She lifted her sword and prepared to attack once more. "Forget it," said Nag. She threw down her sword in disgust. "What...?" "I don't want to fight *you*! This is pointless!" The demon looked at Tarc. Though lying on the floor, he stared defiantly back at her. "It looks like our battle has been postponed," said Nag. "I'm leaving now." "You're not going anywhere!" said Kei. "Yes, I am," said the demon. She turned her attention back to Tarc. "We will meet again. Count on it. And when we do, our struggle will be the stuff of legends. Until then..." Nag stared at the sky. Her eyes began to glow a sickly electric blue. Her mouth dropped, revealing the same color within. Nag's body quivered and shook. The glowing blue burst forth from her eyes and mouth. With a thundrous roar, the demon Nag'sharath tore free of the body of Nora MacPherson, which collasped. For a moment, Kei could see it as it once had been, a monstrous creature, half human, half lizard. Then it was merely a glowing ball of blue light which shot skyward. Kei stared after it. "We... we beat her." Kei laughed out loud. "WE BEAT HER! Tarc, we did it! We won!" When Tarc didn't reply, she looked down at him. He was staring after the demon with an odd expression on his face. "Tarc?" Kei became aware of something cold and wet running down her arm. It was the sword. It had turned to ice in her hands and was melting. "Oh, no," said Kei. "Oh, no, no, no..." She gripped the sword tighter, trying to stop whatever was happening, but it squirted out of her hands and broke into a dozen pieces, which rapidly melted until they didn't even resemble a sword anymore. Suddenly, Kei knew exactly what was happening, and the tears began to well up in her eyes. She knelt by Tarc. "Tarc, don't! Please don't! You beat her! *We* beat her! You don't have do this!" Guruk and Yuri walked up from behind. Kei took no notice. Tarc's eyes began to glow, a bright, golden color. "Tarc, NO!" Kei sobbed. "Please don't leave me!" She held onto him as hard as she could, as if that could stop him. Tarc Meridian tore loose from the body of Scott Johnson. As with the demon, Kei could see him as he used to be, a tall, handsome knight, with his red hair tied back in a tail. Then he was a ball of golden light, which shot after the demon. Tarc sped after Nag'sharath, catching up to it. "NAG!!" Nag's awareness focused behind it. "Tarc? What are you doing?" "It ends, Nag! It ends now!" Nag'sharath knew then what Tarc intended, and for the first time in its memory, it knew terror. "NO! DON'T!" The demon tried to outrun the Knight, but it couldn't. It screamed in agony and despair as the two collided. There was a blinding light, and a deafening explosion. Then all was silent. Kei and Yuri stared at the spectacle. "Flip sides of the same coin," said Yuri. "They annihilated each other. Like matter and antimatter." Kei said nothing. The man she still held onto stirred. "Tarc?" But as he opened his eyes, she knew it wasn't him. "Nora?" he said. He tried to get up and go to her, but the wound in his side forced him back down. "You better stay there," said Yuri. "You're hurt pretty bad." Slowly, Kei let go, stood up, and walked away. "What the hell am I doing here?" asked Goulet. "It's an incredibly long story, sir," Yuri answered. She faced the _Lovely_Angel_, still hovering a hundred meters off the platform, and waved her hands. "Mughi! Bring it down!" Nora came around. "Red? Red is that you?" She went to him. "It wasn't a dream, was it?" Red shook his head. "Oh, Red," Nora said sadly, "I'm so sorry." "It wasn't you." "I know, but I still hate to think that..." Nora's voice trailed off. Not knowing what else to say, she held him. Despite the pain, Red held her back. "Mughi!" Yuri continued to shout and wave her arms. The _Lovely_Angel_ began to move toward them. Yuri cheered, then stopped as she suddenly felt weak. She groaned as her eyes filled with spots. Yuri sat down and tried to stop her head from spinning. "Guys," she said, "I think whatever was keeping the air thick up here is gone." CHAPTER 12 Several days later, everyone found themselves in the office of Nora MacPherson once more. This time, however, the circumstances were very much different. The office showed signs of wear, though not as much as might be expected. Being Nora MacPherson had its advantages, one of which was quick repairs. Still, there was a different desk in the room, and the window glass still had the stickers on it, proof that the adventure of the day before had really occurred. "So let me get this straight," said Goulet with a snort. "You're going to tell the 3WA that you *hired* them?!" "Of course," said Nora. She leaned back and put her feet on the desk. "You see, I've known for some time that things weren't entirely kosher within my great empire. I suspected a conspiracy. I couldn't trust my own investigation forces, and if I hired the 3WA outright, they might suspect. So I hired the Lovely Angels secretly and directly, through you. You are authorized to do that, aren't you?" "Well, yes," said Goulet, "but only in extreme situations! And even then I have to fill out a ton of paperwork afterward to save my ass." "I think saving the ass of one of your best customers counts as an emergency. How much business did I throw your way last year? Three million credits?" Goulet shifted nervously in his seat. "Yes, but--" "And I think my payment check of a million c's should help a lot in smoothing things over." "Sure, but..." Goulet thought it over. "Look, what about the demons?" "What demons?" said Yuri. "Exactly," agreed Nora. "I don't think anyone saw anything but us. And even if they did, who would believe them?" "What about the theft of the _Lewis_and_Clark_?" Goulet asked. "A clever ruse designed to provide an explanation for the Angels' presence on the planet, should the secret come out." Goulet mulled over a bit more. "I don't have a choice, do I?" Yuri winked at him. "Not unless you want the real story of the Lovely Angels' great escape to get out." Nora put her legs back down and leaned forward, looking right at Goulet. "The 3WA officials *are* waiting for an explanation." Goulet stood up. "Okay. Fine. I know when I'm beat." Goulet walked to the door, then stopped and turned around. "Oh, and Kei, Yuri?" he said with a cynical smile. "I *will* get you back." With Goulet out of the room, Nora breathed a sigh of relief. "You really think they'll buy it?" "They should," said Yuri. "I think it makes sense. Besides, they'll never figure out what was really going on. They'll be desperate for any explanation that's even possible. Right, Kei?" Kei grumbled her assent and continued to study the carpet, as she had since she'd arrived. "I hope you're right," said Nora. "I'm not ready to step into that demon's shoes. She was the businessperson, not me." "What are you going to do?" Yuri asked. Nora looked at Red, who was seated next to her. "I think we should tell them," he said. "After all they've been through, they've earned our trust." Nora nodded. "Red and I talked it over for a long time. I can't manage this empire the demon built, and I don't really want to. So I'm going to sell as much of it as I can." Noticing Yuri's alarmed look, Nora quickly reassured her. "Don't worry, I'll do it slowly and carefully, and I'll keep the companies intact. The economy will be safe." "That's a relief," said Yuri. "But you said you're not a businessperson. Isn't it hard even selling the stuff?" "Yes," said Nora. "But that's what assistants are for. I've given them their orders and I can just hope they can carry them out without my help. I understand Kuan Yin has already made me an offer for my armaments firm." "I thought you owned Kuan Yin." "No, I just controlled them. I won't anymore. Anyway, once I've cleared up this mess as much as I can, Red and I decided that the two of us will just... disappear." Yuri blinked. "Disappear?" "It's not as hard as you might think. I haven't aged a day since I was possessed. I can wash this gray out of my hair and look like a completely different woman. I'm going to convert a few million credits of my assets into cash and the two of us are going to resettle on a fringe world, far away from Platonia." "But won't your companies collapse without you?" "Oh, hell, no," said Nora. "There's safeguards for that. After all, I could die any day, right?" "Well, I wish you both luck," Yuri said. "Thanks." Nora looked at Kei. "Kei, I realize how much Tarc meant to you. I can only say I'm sorry." "Save it," said Kei. "It wasn't your fault. Now if you don't mind," she continued, standing up, "I want to get as far away from this planet as I can, as fast as I can." "Uh, certainly," said Nora, a bit taken aback. "The repairs to your ship should be done by now." "Good," said Kei, and left without saying another word. After a more polite goodbye, Yuri hurried after her. Soon after, the _Lovely_Angel_ left orbit, warped, and once again began the day-and-a-half sublight trek toward Elenore and home. Yuri sat on the floor in one of the small observation rooms, poring over the book that had given them so much help in recent days. "Phooie," she said. "It doesn't work any more. I mean, I can mumble phrases and wave my hands 'til they fall off, but nothing happens." Yuri sighed. "Looks like the magic's gone, Kei." Kei said nothing, just stared out the portal at the stars. Yuri got up and walked to her. "Kei, what's wrong? You haven't said more than five words at a time since we left." "Nothing," Kei mumbled. "Is it Tarc? I miss him too." Kei turned to look angrily at Yuri. "Miss him?" she asked. "You gotta be kidding. After all the shit he put us through, I'm *glad* that bastard is gone." "Kei..." "No, really! I mean, he comes out of frickin' nowhere, drags us through hell and back, almost costs us our jobs, then just when we start to get along, he kills himself!" Kei took a breath and continued. "And to top it off, after all he'd put us through, the jerk has the utter nerve to say that--" Kei's words caught in her throat. She tried again. "To say that he--... that he loved--" Kei's head dropped and she fell silent. Her body started to shake. It wasn't until her first breath that Yuri realized Kei was crying. Yuri took her friend in her arms and held her. Kei let it all out, in long wracking sobs. After a few minutes, Kei quieted and pulled away. "Are you okay now?" Yuri asked. "No," said Kei, sniffling. "But I will be, thanks." "I wish I could explain why Tarc did it. Maybe it would help." "I think I know why. Tarc didn't want me to die again because of him." Yuri stared at her, not understanding. Kei smiled back, sadly. "It's a long story. But you know what I hate the most?" "What?" "Tarc said the two of us were bound together for all eternity, that no matter what we were reborn as, we'd end up together. I kinda liked that idea. But now, with Tarc gone, that's all over, isn't it?" Yuri laughed. "Oh, I don't know. I can't really see the two of us apart. We're the ultimate team. I'll betcha we were bound together long before we even met Tarc." Kei laughed too. "Maybe." "Tell ya what," said Yuri. "When we're reincarnated again, I promise to come looking for you. Deal?" Kei smiled. "It's a deal." And together they sailed into eternity. T H E E N D ---------- 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.