CHAPTER NINE

     "Could she do it?" Kei asked Yuri, anxiously.
     "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, without 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 quietly began to walk back to the ship.
     "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.  So did Kei.  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?"
     "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 for her to be able to sense our location.  It would
be 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 tenfold, 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 stop her from
keeping 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
Efera 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's arms and legs flayed out in all directions as she
tried to stop herself from 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 such 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 of the nuclear engines blotted out the image of
the ship, to the point where it looked as if 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 with 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 her, 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 nosy
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 their every limb.
     "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 it 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 actually in no such
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?"
     <Think fast,> 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," Kei said 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 have heard 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, Efera," he replied, startling the
hell out of Yuri.  "Tarc, you fool, did you really think I
would give Efera such a spell and not make myself a part of
it?!"
     Tarc looked at him.  "Guruk?"
     "Of course!" said Efera's mentor.
     "Well, well," said Kei, with a nervous laugh.  "Looks
like the gang's all here."

END CHAPTER NINE