SG: WCD #46: Meditations On A Void (Part Three of Three)
Frobozz
frobozz at eyrie.org
Fri Feb 8 07:11:28 PST 2008
"Yo, TDSM, get your eyes on your cards..."
"Which eyessss...?"
"All of them, you bozo..."
"That's it, I fold."
"I'm in," Clark announced, as he tossed a chip into the kitty. "Speaking
of being in... we should discuss insertion."
Clark reached up to wipe the combined spray of five sparfed drinks from
his face.
"Maybe not your best segue ever, Clark," said Tonk with a smirk, as she
sneaked an extra card from the deck while no one was watching. "Wanna take
that one from the top?"
"Delighted. Just promise me you won't expectorate any more drinks in my
general direction?"
"Can't make that a promise," replied Spectrum with a grin. "But we'll
-try-, fair?"
"I guess I can live with that," groused Clark as he tossed a card down
into the discards. One card, please."
"Sooooo..." Tonk suggested, trying to hide an imp's smile. "Insertion."
She paused a beat. "Are you and Karen having trouble?"
"Must not hit a CO. Must not hit a CO. Must not hit a CO."
"Just wait for the all-service boxing match," Spectrum commented, throwing
in two cards. "Then you can lay the smack down without worrying about
rank. That's what I did back in my Navy days."
"There's something to that," replied Clark, considering his cards as TDSM
stood on what he had. "But the insertion I was thinking of takes place
above the waist. Who's up for a little strategy frothing?"
"I'm in," said Spectrum, who then paused and shook his head quickly and
tossed down his cards. "No! I'm out! But I'm in for the discussion."
"Your losssss..." replied TDSM, throwing in his ante. "Call."
"Show 'em," said Clark. "So give us the update, cap'n."
"Well, we're close enough to get a few tickles on the sensors," Tonk
began. "We're lucky though, we think we've found a ground-based
space-dock. Six aces!"
"That... isss a lot of acessss. Sssso you want to attack the dock?"
"Uhm, hm. I really shouldn't cheat when I'm not drunk enough. Yup. If we
go in fast and hard, we could hold a strategic target, get a ton of
information and maybe figure out what our next move is."
"I'm not sure there," mused Spectrum. "I mean a spaceport is going to be
heavily guarded, right?"
"No argument there," said Clark, laying down his cards. "But it also gives
us a very real target where they're almost certain to have tactical Intel.
We might be able to get a clue about why the Nintan are blowing
them-selves up on Earth if we hit it. Three of a kind."
"I guess the important question is, are we talking about holding the
target or are we raiding?" Spectrum asked, reaching for a handful of
beer-nuts. "Because, if we're raiding, we need to go in, snatch and grab,
and get back out as fast as possible. If we're trying to hold the target,
then we need to establish our spearhead and then systematically knock down
all resistance that could dislodge us. And honest to Elvis, I'm not sure
we have the man, woman or toon-power to hold a target for any real length
of time."
"That's a compelling argument for a raid. We need to lay out what our
targets are then and stick to 'em hard. Hey TDSM, what'cha got?"
"Royal flussssh," replied the hideous creature with a ghastly smirk as he
reached out his arms -- all his arms -- to rake in his winnings. "We
ssstrike at computerssss for their intel, yesss?"
"Yes and no," Spectrum answered after a moment's thought. "They may be
network-centric here... so if we grab a computer, we might wind up with
nothing more than a really expensive conversation piece."
"Point," replied Clark, staring at the discarded hands. "Hey, are you
-sure- those were the cards you were dealt?"
"Are you accusssssing me of cheating? Ssssomeone once did that... today,
he sssstars in the Broadway versssssion of 'The Elephant Man'..."
"Y'know, I think I'm juuust going to leave that where it is," said Clark,
turning his eyes away from the discards. "Anyway... if we capture a
computer, we want to make sure it's useful. So maybe we need to change our
choice of targets."
"Can we just hack into their computers from orbit?" Spectrum asked,
picking up the cards to shuffle.
"Can't, sadly." said Tonk with a shrug. "We're not carrying any Powerbooks
onboard."
"Bang goes that idea then. Okay, the game is two cards up, three cards
down, twos are wild and one-eyed Jacks mean you have to do the chicken
dance."
"Let me guess," said Tonk, rolling her eyes. "Foxy taught you that one."
"How'd you guess?"
"Just lucky! So if we can't be sure of grabbing hardware we can use, we
need to go with the next best thing. Personnel who can get us the data we
need. Plus if the troops see anything alcohol-like, they're under orders
to grab it and bring it back..."
"Fooocus, cap'n. That's not a half-bad idea, though it has one problem
that I see: getting our point across."
"Hmmm. The Nintan we encountered on Earth spoke English, so at least some
of them know it," mused Spectrum as he began to deal. "And... come to
think of it, this might be right up Foxy and my alley. We'll see if my
suit can get anything from the computers, and meantime she can see if she
can focus her mental powers enough to get the snakes to give us what we
want."
"This is a lot to load up on an 'if'," said Clark, taking his three. "My
suggestion is we send you both in, and you take one of our techs with you.
Between the three you should be able to extract *something* we can use."
"I love it when a plan comes together," said Spectrum, grinning as he
picked up his cards. "All right gentlemen--"
"Ahem."
"And gentle ladies--"
"Ahem."
"And gentle spiders... ante up!"
***
Foxy stretched languorously in the bunk, sighing contentedly. She
pondered her current situation and life with Spectrum. Being a cartoon
fox working on an eleven minute comedy schedule left little time for her
to develop any depth, or deep feelings for someone. The hyperspacial-edit
accident that had transformed her had turned her into something that was
so much more 3-dimensional in every sense of the word. She smiled and
toyed with the diamond ring on her hand, letting the light catch and
create sparkles.
A sharp rap broke her revere and she pouted, realizing that the person
behind the door was not her Spectrum. He always did the classic
shave-and-a-haircut knock. The hairs on the back of her neck instinctively
rose as she heard the deadbolt unlock from the outside. A tall, lithe
woman in an impeccably tailored brown and white business suit walked
purposely in, and locked the door behind her, before turning and regarding
Foxy.
"Excuse me toots, the ladies room is down the hall." Foxy sniffed
irritably.
"Then we are at least in agreement on one point..."
"Pardon?"
"That there are no ladies in this room. Freak." She spat out the last
word like a dagger.
"Get out!"
"No I don't think so, you see, we have some unpleasant business to
straighten out, and we have not been properly introduced."
Foxy felt a chill running down her spine and she dove for her gun.
"Spectrum!"
"What?" Foxy half-heard his voice, whirled and sighted her gun by hand,
finding only Spectrum at the doorway. She sighed and dropped her pistol
on the bed.
"Oh Sailor, I'm sorry! I just thought you were someone else..." She
paused, sniffing the air. "Waitaminute." She looked at the bed, and
where the gun had been only a moment ago, a snake coiled, hissing
menacingly. "YEEAAAgh!"
"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted..." Spectrum faded away,
and the woman stood in her place. "My name is Victoria Queen, and I have
been ordered to deal with your wild talent."
"You're a PSI?"
"A rather general term. I have several telepathic abilities. You have
tele-empathic abilities, and so far at least you seem to be limited to
projecting strong emotions, and you have not shown any real restraint or
control of that ability. You will find a way to control that power or
else."
"Or else what?" Foxy did not like this woman, and it was obvious the
feeling was mutual. In a tiny recess of her mind, she wondered if she was
"...projecting anger and dislike?" Victoria interrupted? "Yes, but let
me reassure you. My dislike for you and your kind is real enough on its
own without your help. Your wild power is putting our ship, our lives,
and the fate of earth in danger. So, we can do this the hard way or the
easy way. Please pick hard." Victoria smiled evilly.
"Bite me."
"Oh goody, you chose hard. Thanks." Suddenly Foxy found herself in a
sunny field, in rolling English countryside. Hoof beats were heard in the
distance, along with an ominous rumble. The sound of a huntsman's horn
made her ears stand up, and she dropped to all fours, and began running
for the wood. White and brown fox hounds, riding white and brown horses,
closed the distance, at double her speed. She screamed in terror, as a
wave of hounds crashed out of the brush, snapping and snarling, and
driving her away from the safety of the wood. A hollow log offered itself
as a potential hiding place and she ducked, panting, into the darkness.
Around her she could hear the baying of the hounds. Then silence. A
monstrous nose nudged up to the hole, and Victoria's voice intermingled
with the feral growl of the giant hound. "I CAN SMELL YOUR FEAR!" The
nose departed. "MASTER YOUR POWER! FOCUS! You are leaking worse than a
flatulent plough horse!" Enormous paws scratched at the log and it
rocked.
Foxy panted, and then closed her eyes. I've got to concentrate. I've got
to find out how to turn it off. Her gut clenched and she felt herself
corking the emotions. She whispered to herself, "Is it turned off now?"
Giant canines punctured the log, trapping her on both sides.
Foxy screamed in terror and the fear broke through again. "Spectrum! Help
Me!"
The log shook, shattered, and she tumbled to the ground, at the feet of
the giant hound.
With baleful eyes it glared down at the whimpering, cowering anthromorph.
The hound swung a giant paw, and slammed the fox repeatedly against a
hillock. "You. Stupid. Brainless. Abomination. Are you going to kill
everyone!? I didn't want to have to deal with you. I loathe toons, and I
loathe what was done to me to give me these powers!" Another paw swipe
sent Foxy cartwheeling into some rocks. "The only reason you are not dead
right now is that I have orders to help you. But nobody said I had to be
gentle."
The giant paw ground her into the gravel. Sharp edges of the rocks bit
into her fur, like hundreds of small teeth. "Now fight me, you ink smudge
with delusions of humanity! If you can't keep it turned off, at least
learn how to aim!"
Foxy growled, and rolled, dodging another blow. She gathered her rage and
willed it at the giant hound like a burning spear of hate.
The bolt struck true and the giant hound burst into flames. "What are you
trying to do? Make me mad enough to kill you? Oh no, that's too good, to
simple for you. What was that nightmare you had? Oh, yes...." The hound
opened her mouth and a gout of fire engulfed Foxy.
Foxy screamed in terror and confusion as her hair burned. She imagined
she would be ill from the smell of it, but all she could smell was the
same hint of perfume. Victoria's perfume.
"Blond but not brainless?" The hound morphed back to Victoria, her eyes
fixed intently on Foxy's burning body. "I'll give you a hint, just to be
sporting. It's all in your head. The flames are your emotions projecting
from you. Put them out yourself or burn up, your choice."
"I can't turn it off!" Foxy pleaded. She contorted, in agony despite the
realizations.
"You must! Oh dear! Look at your skin, its starting to blister, and your
fur is almost gone! Turn it off!" She looked mockingly at Foxy, "I'd
never muck around in someone's head like this, but you're not someone are
you. What was destroying you in your dream? What are you afraid of?"
Victoria ground her teeth, as a trickle of blood emerged from her nose,
quickly sopped by a delicate handkerchief. "You ...certainly had... no
problems ...turning other things ...off!? What? Oh no. You didn't!" The
illusions faded and she staggered back, "It's not possible!"
***
"Well, you look pretty chipper for a head case." Parker Peterson quipped
as he tapped Rebecca on the shoulder of her armor.
"Oh, Hey, you." Rebecca smiled. "Doc Sloan patched me up and gave me a
guarded release. I'm going to be on 'injured reserve' with him watching
my vitals. I'll be staying on board the ship in case we get another
boarding party scenario thrown at us. I'll be near C & C to keep the
regulars safe, so I might get to watch you guys if there is video
telemetry." She powered up her comms systems and
ran systems checks while some background chatter squawked.
The speaker buzzed, "Affirmative, we are back in real-space, and short
range scanners are clear."
"So..." Parker looked at his feet.
"Yes?" Rebecca eyed him.
"I guess I'll be seeing you later?" He ventured.
The speaker buzzed again, "Okay, Sparks give me tactical long range
scans."
She smiled, "If you manage to keep your head down, maybe. And keep on eye
on Thor for me, willya? He's my friend."
"Friend friend, or FRIEND friend?" Parker grinned roguishly.
"Just a good friend."
"Oh."
"Like you."
"Oh. ...Oh."
She reached over with a gauntleted hand and touched him on the shoulder
gently. "Come on, you know it would not work out. We're from different
parts of the planet, different orbits."
"It's a small world," Parker began.
"...after all, yeah I have been on the ride. I still have the Mouse ears.
But that's Fantasy Land, and this," She hefted her assault rifle, "is
real. You can always email me."
"Yeah, but..."
"And I'm a big enough girl not to get a complex if you don't. So lets
just leave things as they are. K?" She leaned over and gave him a peck on
the cheek.
"CONTACT" The speaker buzzed again. "Extreme long range sensors are
picking up ships. Currently orbiting away from us and the spaceport."
"Don't die. That'll just piss me off." She gave him a cheerful wink.
Sparks voice buzzed again. "That's ... odd. The ships look different.
Kinda ovoid. With rings..."
A familiar voice sounded over the comms channels, its British accent
coolly bringing the listener to attention, "All ground units and assault
teams please report to the dropship."
Rounding a corner, Nikon Ninja nearly collided with Thor, now bristling
with weapons.
Thor regarded him calmly, "Good luck today. I promised Rebecca I would
look out for you."
"Not that I need looking after, but thanks. She said the same for me
about you, too. Guess we're both under orders to come back."
Thor popped his faceplate, showing a lipstick mark on his cheek, while
smiling knowingly. "Yah. So try to keep up, okay bunny-man?" Without
waiting for a response he pivoted on his heel and strode for the dropship.
***
Trooper Daniels' hands tightened around his rifle as he, along with the
rest of his troop, stared at the dull grey wall ahead of him. As soon as
their solid, ugly dropship had finished plunging through the atmosphere,
that wall would split open and release its contents onto a completely new
world. Daniels would be amongst those contents, and it would be his job to
keep himself and the rest of those contents alive, well and able to sip
coffee back onboard the drop-ship afterwards.
...focus...clear the mind...empty yourself...
Daniels glanced to either side of himself, reminding himself for the
umpteenth time that his squad mates were with him. He wasn't alone in
doing this; when you could control nothing else, you could still control
your immediate environment.
...don't throw up a wall... don't *resist*...
You could check your weapons and make sure they were loaded. You could
double-check your suit's seals to ensure that it wouldn't get blown apart
by just one lucky shot. You could run through your missile load-out, you
could make sure that your friends were by your side and you could make
sure that you were fit mind and body for the moment that they sounded the
charge.
...let it flow through you...into and out of you...
And that's where the problem lay. Daniels was about to charge into battle
with a completely unknown environment in front of him, and there was
someone behind him who could turn his mind into an unknown battlefield
too. Yeah, she was cute, yeah she was disarming, but innocence was
absolutely no shield against the threat that she posed.
She could take the one thing Daniels could control -- himself -- and turn
that against him. And that... well that scared the living crap out of him.
...focus...release...fighting gives it leverage...
Daniels had to hope that the lessons Clark had cadged from the ship's
computer would be enough to keep them safe from being overwhelmed by
emotion. A spike of fear in the wrong place, and he could accidentally
fire at a friend's helmet. A surge of confidence and he might find himself
overextending his charge. Anything less than a cool head could
-- and probably would -- kill him stone dead. And the only defense he
had...
...but release... but emptiness...takes leverage away...
...were those lessons. They were all that Daniels had to control his own
environment. He had two choices, he realized: he could attempt to control
his mind using the only tools available, or he could fret and fuss and
pray that nothing happened. Given those two options, Daniels knew which
one he would pick, even if the uncertainty was almost
overwhelming.
...focus...clear the mind... empty yourse--...
The dropship touched land with an ungentle thud that Daniels could feel
through his bones. His rifle snapped into position as he assumed a posture
of readiness. He had his body controlled. He hoped he had his mind
controlled. Everything outside of that was beyond his immediate influence.
The walls split open. Daniels and his squad mates acted on well-honed
instinct, rushing towards the world without.
***
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