by
A ship cruised through the stars headed toward a
solar system where a small yellow sun held nine or more satellites captive in
its powerful gravity. The ship slowed to a stop just beyond the outermost
planet. A figure shielded by an orange protective a suit emerged from a hatch.
He bounced, and floated between metal ladders attached to the ship. As he
approached an engine, he opened a cover and pulled some tools out of a utility
belt strapped around his waist.
Inside the spaceship, in a
room filled with the latest scientific equipment from the home planet of Coo,
Voda, a slender raccoon-like creature studied the monitor which recorded the
vital signs of her male counterpart as he worked outside. She chattered softly
when he returned to the ship.
“The sixth reactor has
successfully been repaired,” Frink announced shutting a heavy door behind him.
He removed his helmet, revealing features similar to raccoons on the third
planet from the sun, pointed ears, a black mask covering the upper part of his
face. His bright brown eyes sparkled, a sign that he was proud of his
achievement.
Voda pushed a few buttons on
a control panel with her slender black fingers. She glanced at Frink. “I'll
wake Gammom and tell him the repairs have been completed.”
“Let him sleep,” Frink
growled stepping out of his space suit. “Any interesting activity in this
dump?”
“I'm monitoring a satellite
orbiting the fifth planet from the sun..”
“What's it doing?” Frink
peered over Voda’s shoulder.
Voda shrugged. “Just taking
pictures.” She glanced at her equipment. “There's a cluster of satellites
orbiting the third planet.”
Frink wrinkled his nose and
scratched his fuzzy brown ear.
“It’s the little blue one,”
Voda said touching a key that caused the planet to blink on her monitor.
Frink curled his lip. “It's
just another class W planet with primitive technology.” He walked across the room
to another set of controls and glanced at them briefly, then back at Voda still
studying her monitor. ”Voda, what would you say if we take this opportunity to
test the Gamma Warp II?"
“Frink!” Voda swung around in her chair to face him.
“You know Gammom wants to be here the first time his life's dream is turned on.
He’s so proud of it that he insisted in giving the game his name. Not too smart because if something goes wrong
his name will be linked to that failure forever.”
“Come on Voda Gammom's asleep,”
Fink pleaded, “no one will ever find out.”
“We have no business testing
the intergalactic video game.” Voda’s eyes widened her tail flicked registering
her disapproval.
“Why should the head
researcher have all the fun?” Fink argued. “You and I've spent some serious
hours putting this intergalactic video game together. When you think about it,
that game should be named Gama-Frika-Voda Warp II.
“We're not authorized!” Voda
drew back her lips into a snarl and glared up at the ceiling. She walked into the
lab and eyed the game monitor sitting on a big plastic box. A three-dimensional
diamond suspended in a two-dimensional diamond sat next to it. Her black
fingers darted over one of several keyboards mounted on two identical consoles.
Frink followed her into the
Lab. “Most of the program is complete.”. He switched on the game console.
“What if something goes
wrong?” Voda shot him a cold stare. “Gammom removed a couple of circuits
yesterday.”
“He was running them at too
high a voltage. I corrected the design,” Frink rubbed his black hands together,
then rubbed his long nose indicating that he was very pleased with himself.
“What about the transport
circuit?” Voda snarled.
“Don't worry; it’s fine.”
“I don't want to be
responsible for turning some fun loving video game enthusiast into atomic
dust.”
“I overhauled the
dematerialization unit just before we left hyper-space.” Frink rubbed his nose
on Voda's shoulder. “Nothing will go wrong. The default is in beginner’s mode.
Besides, when are we going to find another planet with compatible technology?
Just look at those signal patterns. ” He nibbled her furry neck.
Voda growled and pushed him
away. “Have the game instructions been completely programmed?”
“They're in the read me file.” Frink assured her.
“Well-” Voda scampered over
to a control panel. “All right, as long as we limit the access to only one
character. Okay?”
“Fine.” Fink pushed some
switches. The diamond radiated a prism of color, then settled on a blue line.
“Good,” he exalted. “We’re locked into one of one the third planet’s satellites
and-- Frink smiled and rubbed his hands together as the blue line moved across
the diamond and turned red. “Looks like we found a player. Let’s check the game monitor.”
“An ape!” Voda exclaimed. “I
don’t believe it. An ape playing a video game! Did you have to make the
landscape so swampy and isolated?” She snapped on the translator.
“See.” Fink chattered “I told you I fixed the dematerialization
unit.”
Their victim clad in pants
and shirt with short yellow hair plastered on his head sat on a rock and stared
around him. “Where am I?” he muttered.
Fink backed away from his
monitor. “Yuck! It talks. Can apes really evolve into intelligent life forms?”
Voda shrugged and studied
the alien carefully. “It must be the planet's predominate life form.” She
laughed. “I know what’s bothering you. He wears pants just like you. Same shade
of blue too. Covers his chest though, with some kind of shirt. Must not have
any hair on the upper body.” Their specimen stood erect. “Look, he walks on two feet, just as we do.”
“I have a whole list of
monsters I want to try.” Frink reached for a small remote and plugged it into a
socket on the control panel.
“I'll program the non-player
character into an ape princess.” Voda punched away at the keyboard in front of
her.
“A princess?” Frink cocked
his left ear. “Talk about dull.”
“Every fantasy game has a
princess,” Voda said smugly.
Frink scrolled through his
list of monsters. “I'll attack your female third planet companion with a
dontra." A petradon appeared on the planing screen.
“Your bird will tear the
alien to pieces.” Voda’s tail bristled. “I'll arm the ape with a ray sword.”
“Too simple.” Frink thumped his tail and
pressed a few buttons. “He’ll have to chase it. I think we’re ready. Press
enter.””
*****
Bob Phillips sat stunned on
a gray rock. “Perfect ending for a miserable day,” he muttered. “First I failed
the English exam, then my girl broke up with me, and during the last period I
realize I left my science term paper home. I lost ten points before my teacher
even looked at it. Then Jim gave me those fireworks he brought from
He stared at the barren
landscape aware of a green oozing swamp supporting tall rushes and dead trees.
Behind him rocks formed a large barren crater where a bullet shaped metallic
cylinder tottered at an odd angle. Metallic debris surrounded the bottom of the
ship. “Wow! This is like the hollideck on Star Trek.”
A hatch slowly opened near
the top of the spaceship. A young blonde girl examined him tentatively, then
glanced up at the sky. A huge bird with a wingspread of several feet, curled
talons and a long beak swept toward them
“Help! I'm too young to be
some overgrown chicken's dinner,” the girl screamed.
Bob searched the ground for
some kind of weapon when a ray sword slid across a smooth boulder. He grabbed
it, but it slipped out of his hands. He scrambled over the rocks after it as
the big bird veered away from the girl, heading straight for him. The boy
grabbed the sword moments before the talons of the reptile bird ripped him to
shreds. As he swung the sword, bolts of fire shot out from it, ricocheting off
the rocks and the spaceship. The first bolt burned a hole in the boy's sneaker.
He dodged the bolts as some of them threatened to vaporize him.
*******
Frink and Voda oohed and
ahhed- as they watched the boy vaporized the petradon.
“He made it,” Voda
chattered. I was afraid he would be killed, but he made it. How do you like my
voice for the princess? Did you program the ricochet effect?
Frink shrugged. “Gammom must
have.”
“Time to try the NPC manual
mode.” Voda said as she pressed a button.
Fink’s brown eyes grew wide.
“What's NPC manual mode?”
“It's a safeguard I added.”
Voda explained. It enables me to communicate directly with the player. I think
it’s time to enlighten our ape of his predicament.”
The two raccoons continued
to watch game monitor as the princess poked her head out of the craft. “Thank
you.” She pulled herself out of the ship, took Bob's hand and kissed it
lightly. “I am Princess Voda, and you are?”
“Bob Phillips. Where is this
place?”
The princess looked at him
mystified.
“So?” Fink grumbled. “Don’t
see any special effects.”
“Watch” The princess's and
Voda's mouth moved simultaneously. “You warped into Gamma D playing field.”
“I am in a hollideck!” Bob
exclaimed. “How did I get here?”
“Hollideck. Must be some
kind of game they play on the ape’s planet,” Frink said.
“You warped here when you
pressed D on your key board,” Voda explained through the princess.”
Frink’s eyes sparkled with
admiration. “Neat trick.”
Voda grinned at him, as she
continued to talk directly to their guest. “Why didn't you read the read me file?”
“You only read a “read me” file when the program doesn't
work.” Bob shrugged.
“How do you expect to play
the game if you don't know the rules?” Voda asked.
“You just exit the game, and
go do something else when a game’s too complicated,” Bob said. “How do I get out
of here?”
Frink and Voda stared at
each other in amazement. Who ever heard of anyone quitting a game before it was
solved? Frink quickly moved to a computer reserved for critiquing Gammon’s
program and entered this information.
Voda pressed a button, and
glanced at Frink. “Okay, the program is switched back to automatic mode.” She
looked at the monitor. ”What’s next, “
“I’ve planned a good one,”
Frink told her. “Just watch”.
“Wait, we better run my
explanation of what the Princess is doing in a spaceship on an uninhabited
planet. We have to make it credible if our specimen is going to continue to
protect her.”
Frink groaned. “I suppose.
Run your program, but I’m taking a break. I’m sure your ideas are downright
soupy.”
“They’re classics!” Voda
protested. “I programmed a wonderful background for my princess. She was about
to marry Count Argon when pirates attacked her space ship. They damaged her
ship, killing her trusted guards and sent her spinning down to our uninhabited
planet.”
“Just as I said, down right
soupy.”
“Jealous?” Voda wrinkled her
black nose. “Just because you don’t have my imagination.” She grabbed a fish
out of the aquarium and gulped it down. ”You must have noticed that our player
is quite pleased with my princess.”
“So much effort to please
that low level life form is unnecessary,” Frink chattered in disgust.
“Something else must have designed those satellites.”
“Since when do low level
life forms operate computer terminals?” Voda growled. “Ours did well against
the petradon.”
“Come off it, Voda. Apes
build mud huts and raid the disposal systems,” Fink rumbled.
Voda smiled. “What? Just
because he's an ape, you doubt his intelligence.” She returned to the Lab and
the game.
“We'll see,” Frink said as
he followed her. “Most creatures possess survival instincts. The scenario to
test his problem solving skills is almost complete. What? Your character is
still explaining things to our ape? You made your program too long.”
*****
“I'm stuck here?” Bob asked
incredulously.
“Like myself, the only
chance you have depends on finding a portal,” the princess said. We had better
go inside the space ship.” .A green liquid started to bubble up, from the
bottom of the crater.
“Where did that come from?”
Bob asked. “I didn’t see any outlet from the swamp to this crater.”
Again the Princess looked
mystified. She caught his arm. “Let’s go inside. Quick.” She led the way into
the control center and turned on the monitor. The craft slowly swayed from side
to side, and started to spin.
“Now what?” Bob said. He clutched
a railing.
“We've talked far too long,”
The princess answered. “The tide's come in.”
“What tide?” Bob stammered.
“We’re in a crater!
“Look in the monitor.” The
princess lurched toward him as the ship jolted. Outside the ship, green goo
filled the crater. They quickly drifted into the mouth of a wide river. Large
trees grew on the banks.
“Rivers don't have tides,”
Bob complained.” “What are you waiting for? Fly us out of here”
“Can’t. Engine was destroyed
in the crash.”
****
Voda poked Frink in the
ribs. “Ten points for the alien. He's got you on logic.”
Frink winced from pain as he
concentrated on the game monitor. He quickened the current of the river so that
the spaceship bumped and spun as it crashed into large rocks jutting up from
under the water. The raccoon glared at Voda. “I'll bet you five nodums that the
ape doesn't make it.”
Voda grinned. “I'll bet you
ten quantreens that he does. You must admit he isn’t panicking. Look, he’s
going to use that wire as a rope. See how he ties it to the ladder securely.
That’s good example of a problem solving. Now he’s trying to catch a branch to
stop the ship.”
Frink grinned. “He picked a
dead one.”
“Yeah, and you think rivers
have tides.” Voda retorted.
“Yeah, but there was a live
branch,” Frink insisted. “He could have picked right next to it.”
*****
Bob gawked at the dead
branch in his hand for a moment, and dropped it in the river.
“We’re on top of a large
waterfall,” The princess yelled from the control room.
The ship continued to bob
and spin. Bob managed to close the hatch a moment before they plummeted over
the falls.
****
Frink extended his arm
toward Voda. “Pay up; they didn't make it.”
Voda brushed his arm with
her teeth. “You haven't won yet.”
“Pay up.” Frink curled his
fingers.
“You haven't won unless
there are no survivors,” Voda answered.
They watched in silence, as the ship surfaced into a
murky green pool fed by the waterfalls. Voda reluctantly offered the gemstones
to Frink. Before she released them into
his eager hand, the hatch started to open. Voda retracted her hand, and Frink
reached into his pouch on the table.
****
“How do you quit and save in
this game?” Bob asked the princess. The princess limped over to the console,
and the “read me” file came up on the monitor.
Bob stared at it intently. “What do they mean, to exit you have to press
escape three times on your keyboard?” The print turned into gibberish.
The princess screamed, as
the spaceship’s computer started to smoke.
****
Voda looked at Frink in
alarm. “What's happening?”
Frink shrugged. “The
equipment is experimental. It still has a few bugs.” Part of the console
sizzled behind them. A voice babbling silly sounds emitted from the monitor.
Voda rubbed her hands
together. “Something's wrong with the intergalactic translator.”
Frink quickly pressed some
buttons on his keyboard. “I'll program in a distraction to keep the ape
occupied, while we figure out what is going wrong. He grinned. “Let’s see how
our ape handles himself with this little monster.”
Voda bit Frink‘s shoulder.
“We have another problem.”
“Now what?” Frink barred his
teeth.
“The alien entered under
advance reality mode,” Voda explained grimly. “Check your program.”
Frink raced to the control
panel. “What? How? Beginner Mode is the default.”
Voda hurried to her control
station. “I'd better let the alien know.” She snapped the program into the NPC
manual mode.
“Are you aware you are
playing in advance reality mode?” Voda used the princess to convey technical
information.
“You’re a strange one. One
minute you’re a normal person just like me, the next you talk like a
technician. What's an advanced reality mode?”
“The petradon, your sword,
going over the falls, all could have killed you Anything you meet in this
program has that capability. Do you understand?”
Voda switched her monitor to
the outside of the spaceship. She didn’t bother to admire the black trees
silhouetted against an orange and red streaked sky. Her attention was drawn to
the huge bulky monster tearing apart the ship with its razor sharp claws.
“Frink! How could you? You programmed a shazore."
“A shazore? It can't be.”
Frink looked up at the monitor. His eyes widened. “It was supposed to be a
harmless muckmonster.”
“Can we send the alien home
where he belongs?” Voda asked.
Frink nodded. “If I reroute
the transponder, so that it thinks it's getting an escape signal.” Frink pulled
some wires, and reconnected them into different jacks.
Voda pressed a button. “I'll
give the princess a portal transmitter. I'm glad I thought to add the auto
manual NPC feature.”
****
Inside the spaceship, the
princess pulled out a small box from a pouch tied to the belt of her skirt.
“Game's over,” she announced. “It's time to send you home.”
“What?” Bob shook his head.
“I thought we had to make it to the portal or have some one back home press
escape three times.”
“Rules changed,” the
princess answered.
“The rules changed?”
The princess nodded.
“Sending an innocent alien to his grave is not my idea of fun.”
“Who's an innocent alien?”
Bob’s eyes narrowed. “What are you?”
“I'm a non character player
in a prototype intergalactic gaming adventure,” the princess explained calmly.
“I'm in a computer game made
by aliens?” Bob asked slowly. The princess nodded “So all that about Prince Argon —”
“Was just a background
story,” the princess finished his sentence.
“And everything I see and
feel is real enough to kill me.” Bob glanced nervously at the demon tearing
apart the ship, and crouched lower in his hiding place.
****
Frink checked a reading on
his transport control. “You should be set, Voda. Give it a try.”
“Get ready,” she spoke
through princess. “You are going home.”
Voda pressed some buttons
and looked up at the monitor. “Something's wrong!” she gasped “Your shazore is
about to rip Bob and the princess into shreds.
.“It should have worked!” Frink’s fist slammed the side of a cabinet.
“You said you fixed the
transport circuit.” Voda stared at Frink.
“I did.” Frink
double-checked his readings on his oscilloscope. “I'm checking the transmission
path.” Frink peered at Voda. “My signal's there. There's no connection at the
other side.”
“Someone on the other end
must have turned it off.” Voda pushed the button for manual mode.
****
The shazore had torn most of
the spaceship's hull to shrapnel. Bob could see the green pool that the ship floated
on.
“We--uh, are having
technical difficulties,” the princess explained.
“Great.” Bob watched the
shazore. The black giant figure looked almost human, until it moved closer to
their hiding space. Its muscles rippled
under its snake like flesh. It’s teeth were long, curved, and sharp. The
shazore scanned the wreckage. As it turned its head away from Bob and the
princess, Bob shot a bolt of fire at it from his sword. The shazore whipped his
head toward them. .
“It had no affect,” Bob
groaned
“We have to get out of
here,” the princess said.
“All I did was piss him
off,” Bob complained.
“Think of something!” The
princess’s eyes grew wide.
Bob nodded. He pulled out
his firecrackers from his back pocket and a lighter from his front pocket. He lit the wick. As the wick fizzled, Bob
hurled the package of firecrackers as far as he could. The shazore turned to
investigate the sound of multiple crackling.
“Jump!” Bob shouted. He dove
into the green liquid. The princess dove in after him. They surfaced though a
school of minnow size green and yellow fish, which increased in size as they
accompanied Bob and the Princess through the water. After a short while, the
school diminished in size until only one fish remained swimming directly behind
Bob and nibbling on his toes.
Bob glanced behind him and
screamed. The fish had mutated into the size of a shark.
***
Gammom stormed into his
research lab. “Can't you two be quiet?” He gawked at his smoking equipment.
“What the—“
“We got an alien in the
matrix,” Frink answered before Gammom could finish his sentence.
“And something went wrong.”
Voda explained. “The alien accidentally entered the advanced reality mode and
he’s under attack by a shazore.”
“I pulled out the lower
reality units yesterday,” Gammom groaned. I’m still working on them. He walked
briskly over to the monitor. “How are the non character players holding out?
Need at least six to kill a shazore.”
Voda winced. “There’s only
one non-character player and she’s injured. There was no time to create more.”
Gammom whirled around and
snarled Frink and Voda, his sharp teeth capable of serious damage to his
associates. “Why'd you pit them against a shazore?”
“It wasn't supposed to be a
shazore,” Frink whimpered.
“He pressed the wrong
button.” Voda cried.
“Did not!” Frink protested.
“I selected a harmless muckmonster. Something’s wrong with your machine.”
“Well, send the alien back!”
Gammom ordered.
“We can't send him back,”
Voda gasped.
“Imbeciles!” Gammom pulled
out the smoking board, and replaced it with another. “Why not?”
“His point of entrance is
missing.” Frink explained weakly.
Gammom checked the
muliplexed gloatagator. Satisfied with the readings, he shoved Fink away from
the monitor and pushed buttons frantically on first one keyboard, then another.
What did you two think you
were doing?” Gammom drew back his lips and swished his tail.
We just wanted to try it
out,” Frink answered
“Gammom Warp II is for
entertainment purposes,” Gammom snapped. “It's not made to abduct innocent
aliens.” He chose a program from his directory and entered it, which increased
the size of the fish even more.
“You're turning them into
fish food!” Voda complained.
“Can you think of a better
way to escape from a shazore?” Gammom said. “There he goes. Down the hatch. And
so does our non-player character.
“Great escape, Gammon,” Voda
said sarcastically. “The alien and princess are being drawn into the fish's
digestive system.” Voda turned and faced Gammom. “They'll be showered with acid
and squashed.”
Frink stared over Voda’s
shoulder. He scratched his head thoughtfully. “Did you increase the size of the
fish or shrink our alien?”
“Not now,” Frink” Gammon
growled. “We’ll have a course in elementary programming later.”
*****
Green goo dripped from both
Bob’s and the princess’s clothes. “Yuck. I'm drenched.” Bob wrung out the
bottom of his shirt.
“I would have never thought
of diving into the lake and hiding in a fish.” The princess grasped his hand.
“Being swallowed by an
oversized fish wasn't my idea,” Bob answered. Hang on to me, we’ being sucked
in.
“Quick.
Grab a tooth.” The princess caught Bob’s arm, as she steadied herself on the
fish's tooth. Bob reached out, and wrapped his arms around one of the teeth.
The teeth increased in size as Bob and the princess clung to them.
*****
On the Space ship, Gammon
froze, as Vodia’s words were identical to what the princess had said. He glared
at Frink, then realized the younger coon was nowhere near the monitor. He
pivoted toward Voda. “ What are you doing? More to the point how are you communicating
directly with the alien?”
“She's using her auto-manual
feature,” Frink explained.
Voda winced as she watched
the game monitor.
“The teeth are getting
bigger. I can't hold on any longer!” Bob yelled. The space raccoons could
almost feel his terror.
“Try to hold on,” Voda
encouraged him through the princess voice.
“I can't!” Bob lost his
grip. His feet floated behind him as the fish swallowed them.
The princess screamed, as
she lost her grip too. The sides of the tunnel were porous and irregularly shaped.
Red droplets covered the purple walls. The walls slowly close in on them.
“Her what?” Gammom glanced
at Frink, then turned toward Voda. “Voda, I told you not to waste your time on
that.”
“You said I could spend my
free time anyway I pleased,” Voda snapped
“Leave her alone,” Frink
stepped between Gammom and Voda. “Her side project works. Hey, I got it. You’re
shrinking our players.”
“Frink, how would you like
it if I dematerialized you into the Gamma Warp unit?” Gammom snarled.
“Stop it, Gammom.” Voda
glared at him. “Frink did everything in his power to assist the alien.” Her
gaze returned to the monitor. Bob and the princess swam into a large ravine.
Small irregular shaped forms floated by.
“Avoid the giant droplets,”
she warned Bob through the princess “They are a type of acid“
Switch your character over
to auto-mode,” Gammon ordered. “I want that auto-manual mode disconnected now.”
*****
As the walls loomed nearer,
Bob and the princess continued to shrink. ”The wall now looked like a huge
landscape of red lakes, scarlet cliffs, orange ravines and blue mountains. A
large bubble drifted behind Bob and the princess. As they turned into a large
gully the bubble engulfed them.
“Something's sucking us in!”
Bob screamed. A series of round blobs connected to two smaller blobs surrounded
them.
“We’ve been decreased in
size,” the princess exclaimed. This happens on my planet to minute creatures.
We're being absorbed by the evaporating water,” They peered out at the bizarre
landscape as they rode in the water droplet.
The princess pulled out her
flute from a pouch that hung from her waist. They continued to shrink as the
princess played her flute. Two little round balls sped along the outlines of
each of the blobs.
Silver peanut shaped bubbles
passed by quickly. One slowed to a stop. A green hair orange faced guy poked
out of the bubble. “Need a lift?” he asked. “The name’s Orre.”
Bob extended his hand. “I’m
Bob Phillips.” He poked his head inside the peanut shaped bubble.
Orre sat on soft maroon
cushioned seats. He punched a red button on the sophisticated control panel.
“Cool car.” Bob said.
“What's a car?” Orre raised
his thick orange eyebrow.
“People use it to get from
one place to another.” Bob stared back at him.
“This is an ion.” Orre
shrugged. “Free electrons use it to get from point A to point B.”
“Ion? I’m small enough to
get inside an ion?” Bob gasped. How much smaller can I get?”
“We need to get to the
portal,” the princess explained. “Can you take us there?”
Orre pressed a green button.
“Hop on in.”
When Bob and the princess
settled comfortably on the soft seats, Orre pressed another button on his
control panel. The princess stretched out her legs and pulled out her flute.
***
“I shrunk them down to the molecular level.”
Gammom explained. He scanned through the programming code at the monitor.
“Then the alien is all
right?” Frink asked.
“A free electron picked them
up, while out cruising in his ion,” Gammom assured him.
Voda looked up from her
work. “We'll lose him in the circuitry.”
“He's in the elementary
science section of the Gamma Warp.” Gammom said. “He'll be safe there. Keep
still while I check the rest of this—He growled under his breath. “Frink, get
over here.”
“What’s wrong?” Fink clicked
his teeth as he starred at Gammon’s monitor.
“Frink, you idiot, your code
for muckmonster is linked to the shazore file.”
Gammon snapped, his teeth baring down on Fink’s shoulder.
“Ow! Gammon, let go. I’
sorry. Fink yelped. He retreated to the other side of the lab where he sank
into a chair and whined softly disgusted at his mistake.
*****
Bob stared out the window at
millions of peanut shaped bubbles spun along the tubular highway. He felt dizzy
watching them, so he turned his attention to the controls. “What are you
doing?’
Orre’s orange eyebrow shot
up. “Me? Just pursuing that positive charge.” He grinned. “You know what I mean?”
The princess stopped playing
her flute. “We're slowing down. What's
the holdup?”
“Road narrows up ahead,”
Orre explained quickly. “He slammed on his horn, and quickly turned into the
nearest intersection.
Only so many ions can fit in a given space at
any one moment. It's what we call
resistance.”
“I’d call it a traffic jam,”
Bob muttered.
As the road turned, Orre
slammed on the brakes. “Hold on tight. We'll never make it through that.”
Ahead of them a wall of
balls slowly spun in place. Each sphere appeared suspended in mid air, and
evenly spaced apart.
“What is that?” Bob asked.
“A cubic crystal lattice,”
Orre explained. “All those spinning round balls are electrons. An electrostatic
force-field is holding them in place.”
Sounds of a multiple fender
bender filled the air, projecting Bob, the princess and Orre forward. The line
of ions behind them squealed to a halt.
“Better check for damage,”
Orre said. Bob followed him out of the iron and looked it over. The back end of
the peanut shaped bubble looked flat.
“How do we fix--” Bob
started then shut his mouth. The iron returned to its original shape.
“We need to get to the
portal,” the princess said.
Orre shook his head. “We won't
get through that crystal lattice.”
Sulking, the princess
returned to playing her flute. The round balls vibrated and spun faster as the
princess played.
.“Hey, look at that.” Bob
pointed. “The balls are separating a little. Orre, could we get through if the
balls moved apart?”
Orre nodded slowly. “As
their speed increases, the distance between each ball will grow. If your lady
keeps playing, we'll have a change of state in no time.”
The balls spun rapidly to
sound of the princess's flute
Bob nudged Orre’s green
shoulder. “She's doing it. Look at all that space between those electrons. Is
it enough?”
Orre nodded. “If we go fast
enough, we have a good chance to make it to the other side.”
“What happens if we don't
make it?” Bob asked.
“The electric force field
will stop us cold,” Orre explained.
*******
Voda glanced at the game
monitor. “Gammom, they are inside a capacitor.”
Frink peered over her
shoulder, then checked a digital readout on the control panel. “The temperature
of the dielectric is increasing. It's going to melt.”
Voda snarled at Gammom. “My
non player character is acting as if she were a voltage surge.”
“If they to speed up, the
capacitor is going to blow. Voda, how fast can you reinstall your auto manual
mode?"
Voda turned to face him, and
grinned. “In about five minutes.”
“Make it two,” Gammon
snarled. They’re accelerating. I need that manual switch on. Immediately.”
“Auto manual mode is
reconnected.”, Voda said as she attached the final wire. She hurried to the
panel, in front of the game monitor. “Switching now.” She peered through the
game monitor as she pressed the auto manual switch. The princess put down her flute. Voda and the
princess's mouth moved simultaneously.
“Orre, stop!” the princess
yelled. “You'll kill everybody!”
“At this velocity? We'll be killed. The best
thing I can do is to try to accelerate.” Orre pushed a lever.
The princess held out the
portal transmitter toward Bob. “Quick, try to teleport.” The ion flew between
the spinning balls.
Bob frantically pressed the
button on the portal transmission box. He covered his face with his arm to
shield his eyes. A sudden flash of light and many screams of terror surrounded
him.
“We have a connection!”
Frink announced. “The alien has exited!”
“Alive?” Voda asked. “Is he
an ape again?”
“Alive,” Frink confirmed.
“And back in his miserable shape.
Voda applauded.
Gammom looked at his fried
board in disgust. “Are there any other aliens in the matrix?”
“We programmed the Gamma
Warp to only allow one,” Frink explained.
“Check it,” Gammom snapped.
Voda peered at a monitor.
“No other alien life forms are present.”
“Disconnect it,” Gammom
ordered. “I don't want to see another alien in that machine until we reach
Armonia. When you’re finished here report to me on the bridge. There will be an
inquiry into this disaster in fifteen minutes.”
THE END