SF: Universal Solvents #20

[Gary]

                         UNIVERSAL SOLVENTS
                        (a Tale of Sfstory!)
                             Episode 20
                               "Mauve"
                                 by
                            Gary W. Olson

                                -~-_-

<<Alpha Rio VI - The Planet of Casinos (Vino's House of Merriment and
Extortion)>>

     As a rule, Vino the Three-Headed Yak accepted disrespect from no
being.  When Uulong, the Shadow Ruler of Back-Street Action from
Planet Chicago tried to move in on his casinos on Alpha Rio VI, Vino
fed the twelve-foot tall pinstripe-wearing shadowspawn its own wide-
brimmed shadow hat.  When the son of the Godsfather of Alfhrak IV made
disparaging remarks about the poor feng shui of how Vino's three heads
were distributed on his yak body, Vino arranged to have the boy's head
relocated to a more spiritually suitable location, without having the
rest of his body along.  When Ichthor--the Marauding Goat with a
Thousand Whining Teenage Goat-Young--abducted two of Vino's sons
merely because they were showing some of Ichthor's teenage goat-young
how to have a good time, Vino did not let mere laws of time and space
deter him from leaning on Ichthor until the hideous hellspawn relented
and gave them back.  That was how Real Yaks Deserving of Respect
rolled.
     The current situation posed a challenge to Vino, in that he was
sure he was being disrespected in some fashion, though he was not sure
how, or by whom.  Insofar as Vino had been able to discern, a woman in
an office not far away had fed a lock of hair from a peculiar man
named Sajon into a device that in turn made space all wonky.  The
warped space then abducted the woman, the man named Sajon, and a
variety of other individuals from said office and from the buffet room
that Vino was currently in.  This was upsetting to Vino, because he
had been in the middle of sewing up the allegiance of the more useful
of them, and they had not had his permission to leave in any case.
     "We have a list of the abducted, sir," said one of his lieutenant
Yaks.  "Doctor Bing Von Spleen..."
     "Mmm," said Vino.  "Von Spleen.  A very disrespectful human.  Go
on."
     "The humanoid male called Benjen, the small floating robot thing
called TH1K1, Shoon-Ma the ur-Bagel, an anthropomorphic reptilian guy
called Slithis, your human employee Kalvin Certain..."
     "Kalvin," Vino interrupted.  "A terribly dishonest employee.  And
disrespectful.  Carry on."
     "...and the humans named Shadebeam Moroboshi, Norman Sassafras,
and Sajon."
     "I do not know this 'Shadebeam' or 'Norman,' save by name," said
Vino.  "But Sajon I knew well.  I would be saddened if he is the
source of this disrespect."
     "Our techs indicate that the device known as an ABPSARI, that is,
an Automatic Beet-Peeling Sub---"
     "Skip the balloon juice," Vino snarled.  "Do I *look* like Mister
Freakin' Data?"
     "Er... it's a device that makes extremely weird and improbable
things happen," said the tech Yak.  "Completely random when the wrong
fuel is put in, which happened when the human named Shadebeam put a
lock of hair from the human Sajon into the funnel...."
     "That's it," said Vino.  "You need explain no further.  Go back
to your duties."
     The tech scuttled away.  Vino regarded the now blank monitor
above the dinner buffet and imagined the mess at the office.  How
strange it must have been for the Arachno-Newtons to see their targets
disappear.  Of course, it had not been really random--a lock of
Sajon's hair had been fed into the machine, which meant that Sajon's
bioengineered luck must have affected the machine somehow.  But still,
it had to have been startling to the Newtons' expert intelligence
systems.  He imagined they were still looking for their targets....
     His thoughts were interrupted when a group of velour-shirted
humans were led at gunpoint into the room by several of his Hench
Yaks.  The humans were lanky, uncoordinated, and unathletic, and
appeared to be squabbling with one another.  Their leader, a man with
rubber points glued to his ears, was the only one looking about the
room, and Vino enjoyed the rise of alarm in his expression as this
happened.  There were already been a number of velour-shirted humans
shuffling about the room filling out employment applications before
this group arrived; the only difference was that the new humans were
still alive.
     "What have you done to them?" the leader of the new group angrily
asked.  Vino could tell he was angry by how his voice squeaked.  "What
have you *dooooooooooooooone?*"
     Vino nodded to his Hench Yaks, who proceeded to instruct the new
prisoners on the virtues of not overacting.  When the beatings ceased,
Vino answered the question.
     "I... have done nothing," said Vino, "save offer them employment
as part of a new show I am putting on.  A chorus line of dancing
zombies."
     "And..." said the human, "...how did they become zombies, if I
may ask, sir?"
     "What shall I call you?" Vino asked.
     "They call me... the High Spock.  These guys with me are... Team
E.  These zombies all used to be part of Team E as well."
     "Very well, High Spock and Team E," said Vino.  "They became
zombies, as far as my techs can tell, after gorging themselves on
pudding, dying and floating around in a derelict alien spaceship, and
then being resurrected by a cosmic-powered ur-Bagel."
     "That... that... that's not true!" the High Spock exclaimed.
"That's *im--*"
     A yak waved a cattle prod at the High Spock in a threatening
manner.  The High Spock immediately closed his lips to stifle his
overdramatic and surprisingly non-Trek-based exclamation.
     "I don't make these things up," said Vino.  "The other zombies I
have were made using the latest necro-tronic reanimation gear.  I'm
not sure I trust this 'cosmic power' crap, but we'll see how it goes.
At any rate, these zombies became this way by following orders given
by your former employer, a Mr. Kalvin Certain."
     "I... see."
     "And what were your orders, if I may enquire?"
     The High Spock was not as slow a student as Vino had earlier
thought.  He quite readily spilled the tale of how he had been sent by
Kalvin to Dirk's Space Swap-o-Rama and Grille to detain and hold a
space heroine, one Toni Williams, whom Kalvin believed had tumbled to
Kalvin's pudding price-fixing scheme.  They held Toni in something
called a Nega-Cell for a while, until two Space Hero-students and a
Space Ingenue showed up and also got captured, which led to everyone
escaping from the Nega-Cell and the High Spock and his crew returning
to Alpha Rio VI empty-handed.
     "Not empty-handed, surely," said Vino.  "Didn't you keep that...
what did you call it... 'flying Pinto' that these Space Hero students
arrived in?"
     "Yes," said the High Spock.  "Um... until it was stolen by this
old Sonar Man named Satik.  He was kind of, that is, very, unhappy
with the job he was stuck with at the Sonar Men's weapons outlet on
Dirk's, and saw it as an opportunity to ditch work and go out and see
old friends.  Stupid old man."
     "Well then," Vino answered.  "All you have then, to answer for
your complicity in Kalvin Certain's crimes against me... are
yourselves."
     "I have a two-for-one pizza coupon," the velour-shirted man next
to the High Spock said.  The High Spock scowled and cuffed him.
     "What about our ship, sir?" the High Spock asked.  "Surely, that
is of value...."
     Vino nodded to a tech, who punched some buttons on a pad on its
left front hoof.  The screen over the buffet lit up and displayed a
blocky, nondescript ship against a background of stars.  Barely
visible was how the old name, the W.S. Box-Thing, was crossed out, and
'Enterprise' was spray-painted beneath.
     It became entirely not-visible soon after the ship exploded.
     "Hey!" the High Spock yelled.  "The Nega-Cell was on there!  And
our only link to it!  That was worth something!"
     "Perhaps," Vino replied.  "To any Space Hero looking to break
*in* to my turf.  I looked into it a long time ago, boys.  Not worth
it."
     The High Spock looked rather forlorn.  But Vino was not done yet.
     "I have decided," said Vino, "to allow you to join your zombified
compatriots in my new all-zombie dance revue, 'Goodbye Limbs, Hello
Love.'"
     "But... but..." sputtered the High Spock.  "We're not zombies!
We're not even dead!"
     "Mmm," Vino replied.  "A good point."
     The High Spock beamed.  Logic had always been one of his strong
points.
     "Harlas," said Vino.  "Rigner.  Correct that condition in our new
guests, won't you?"
     As the Assassin Yaks converged on the now-screaming Team E, Vino
moved away, so as to avoid getting any blood on his robes.  He
approached his chief Tech Yak, who genuflected when Vino got close.
     "We've found the means that Kalvin was using to communicate with
his henchmen," said the yak.  "And a tele-transport gate connecting a
portion of his office suite to the planet Zeta Ricola Beta."
     "Zeta Ricola Beta?"
     "Yeah," said the Tech Yak.  "Monks with their own armada and
soldiers and crap.  Some kinda impenetrable barrier around their star
system.  Anyway, after the usual technical crap which I know you are
not interested in, sir, we were able to break the security and
establish a connection.  What are your orders?"
     Vino thought.  Respect was important, but he was tired, and in no
mood to invade a well-armed and far-off planet to chase a group of
disrespectful people who appeared to have some very improbable luck on
their side.  Whether they would still have that luck now that Sajon
was off of Alpha Rio VI and thus not reacting to the planet's
probability fields, Vino did not know.  If Von Spleen was there, he
might have been able to answer the question, before Vino had his
throat replaced with Folgers Crystals.
     Then he thought of Kalvin's former office.  An idea occurred to
him--one that would satisfy his demands for respect *and* allow him to
knock off early for the day.
     "Send three of the Arachno-Newtons through the tele-transport
gate," said Vino.  "*Then* destroy it and Kalvin's communications
apparatus."
     "Right away, sir," the Yak replied, before scuttling off.
     Vino lit up cigars for all three of his heads, and blew smoke
rings with each one.

                                -~-_-

<<In orbit above Mydrus (on the _Challenger III_)>>

     Major Lalan, who had spent much of his life in the service of the
Goornashk Authority, did not understand humans.  He was sure of this
as never before, on arriving via tele-transport beam along with his
fellow prisoners to the bridge of the captured Earth starship
_Challenger III._  Instead of the despair and wailing Lalan expected,
all the humans present seemed focused on their tasks, and the one six-
foot-tall-at-the-shoulder mutant cat hardly seemed alarmed.  In fact,
the only alarmed beings around (human or not-human) seemed to be the
prisoner group itself.  One of their number, Kissy Hitowers, was
screaming at a frequency that made Lalan's massive eyebrows shed.
     "This ship will be destroyed any moment," said Toni Williams, as
soon as she had finished materializing.  Captain... oh, hi Steve!"
     "Toni," Steve Vogel replied.  He stood up from his Captain's
chair, and gave a somewhat effeminate salute.  "How's Buzz?"
     "Good, last I heard," Toni said, as she looked over the shoulder
of the helmsman to get the ship's position.  "We're going to be
destroyed in just a few---"
     "I wouldn't worry about that," said Vogel.  "Kissy, you can stop
screaming now."
     Kissy stopped.  She looked around the bridge, returned her
attention to Steve Vogel, and resumed screaming.
     "Kissy," said Ronald Hastings, who had also been a prisoner, and
who was Kissy's nominal employer.  "Why don't we go scream in the
commissary.  I'm hungry."
     The Space Ingenue took a break from screaming long enough to say,
"What you're hungry for isn't on the menu."
     "Well, yes," said Ronald.  "But I'll make do without ho-hos and
froot loops just this once.  Come on."
     Lalan watched as Ronald escorted Kissy to the turbolift.  They
were followed by Gham and Jerriphrrt, who appeared too distracted by
the prospect of imminent death to be bothered by the screaming.  Once
the lift doors shut, both Vogel and Toni seemed to relax.
     "Sir," said Jean St. Thomas, Steve Vogel's second-in-command.
"Receiving a transmission from the Goornashk Authority vessel that
'captured' us."
     Lalan heard the mocking emphasis of the quotes and wondered what
was going on.
     "On screen," said Vogel.  The screen before him lit up and
displayed the face of a Goornashkan commander whom Lalan did not
recognize.  "Commander Karshak, status."
     "You've got a clear path to the tele-transport gate," said
Karshak.  "We've re-routed all traffic, and de-activated security, per
your orders.  Is that Major Lalan I see there?"
     "Affirmative," said Vogel.  "Get a fix on him, but don't
transport him yet."  The Captain turned to Lalan and smiled.  Even to
Lalan, who had trouble with human expressions, it seemed a rather
effeminate gesture.  "Major, this is where we part ways, I'm afraid.
We're on our way to Zeta Ricola Beta, and I doubt you want to go with
us there."
     "True," Lalan said.  He glanced at the image of Karshak.  "How
did...?"
     "They tried to board us," Vogel explained.  "We captured them,
and then we bribed them shamelessly to get them on our side.  We did
have a fairly convoluted plan worked out where we'd get down to the
planet and rescue you somehow, but instead you got yourselves captured
and transported up here.  It's funny, your command below seems to
think Karshak's ship is about to destroy us."
     "When they don't," Lalan noted, "they'll be branded as traitors
to the Authority, and will be banished."
     "That's where our bribery comes in," said Vogel.  He held up what
appeared to be a small compact disk.  "Coordinates... for Puddenar V,
the Planet of the Living Pudding.  There the natives live in a
symbiotic and slightly perverse relationship with the Pudding that
permeates that planet.  I'm sure you'll fit right in."
     Lalan accepted the disk and felt a little shiver go through his
three arms.  He could barely keep himself from wiggling in
anticipation.  But there was one more thing....
     "What of," he asked, "Mister Funboy?"
     They had promised to get him a new version of his beloved semi-
automatic weapon of mass destruction to enlist his cooperation.  He
had prepared for disappointment; a replacement seemed unlikely to him
due to the circumstances of its destruction--he *had* been trying to
use it against the very people who promised so sincerely to get him a
new one.  But Steve Vogel only nodded and signaled to one of his
subordinates.
     "Behold," said Jean St. Thomas, sounding about as leaden as
someone saying 'behold' possibly could, "the new Mister Funboy, Mark
II.  There's the barrel, there's the trigger, there's the safety, this
thing shoots fish out of this hole here, any questions?"
     Lalan's mind nearly locked up with joy, but he had enough motor
control left to work his three arms and accept both gigantic space
rifle gun thing and compact disk.  Then St. Thomas and Vogel backed
away and saluted.  Lalan thought about saluting back, but his hands
were full, so he settled for waggling his bushy eyebrows at them.
Then a tele-transport beam shimmered around him, making him tingle in
special places.
     When it went away, he was on the bridge of a Goornashk vessel.
He recognized Commander Karshak at once and handed him the compact
disk.
     "The _Challenger III_ is approaching the tele-transport gate,"
said the Goornashkan at the helm.  "Gate security is down and is
preparing to transport their vessel."
     "Tamask Citadel Security is screaming at us," added the mini-
skirted Goornashkan at the communications console.  "We've disobeyed
our orders, are traitors to the Authority, will be hunted down like
sea otters, blah blah blah... so do we go to Puddenar V now?"
     "In a moment, Phil," said Karshak.  On the viewscreen, the
_Challenger III_ was now within the gates, which were shining with
multicolored energy.  Lalan was fairly certain that a lot of it was
for effect--his race was a conquering one, but it also loved a good show.
     A few moments later, the lights died down, and the _Challenger
III_ was gone.
     "Tele-transport successful," the helmsman reported.  "_Challenger
III_ has made it to the Zeta Ricola Beta system.  The security
subroutines we disabled should ensure that no Authority ship follows
them through the gate for twenty-four hours at least."
     "Co-ordinates for Puddenar V have been loaded to the system and
verified," the navigator said.
     "We're ready to go on your mark, sir," said the helmsman.
     "Major Lalan," said Karshak.  "You have the largest phallic
symbol in the room, quite possibly on the entire ship.  Even though
our race doesn't actually have phalluses, per se, we are all
nonetheless impressed.  Would you do the honors?"
     "Of course," said Lalan.  "And just 'Lalan,' if you please.  I
suspect that our lives in the Authority's military service have just
about come to a close."  Karshak nodded, and Lalan turned to the
screen.  Two Goornashk Authority war cruisers were just beginning to
move toward them.  Lalan raised his hand and made the sort of
effeminate hand-choppy sign he had once seen Steve Vogel make.
     "Do that thing!" he exclaimed.
     Engines roared to life, and the ex-Authority cruiser sped out of
the Mydrus system, on its way to a happy, pudding-filled next phase of
life.

                                -~-_-

<<Zeta Ricola Beta (Daaksvong)>>

     It was not the first time Slithis awoke in a prison with a bad
headache.  Nor was it even his first time for waking in a prison with
the words to 'Love Makes the World Go Round' ringing in his ears,
though the first two times had nothing to do with rampaging Wayne
Newton-mecha-spider contraptions.  But it was the first time this had
happened after events in which alcohol and dancing beings were not
involved.  Not as such.
     The cell he was in was roughly eight feet by eight feet by eight
feet in size, and seemed almost archaic to Slithis, being that it was
made of tough-looking metal bars (rather than the more modern force-
field).  There were no cameras around that Slithis could see.  Outside
the bars was a single door set into a white plaster wall that ringed
the bars.  The bars themselves were too thin for even Kate Moss to
slip through, and the sole cell door looked pretty resistant to
tampering.  It was certainly resistant to the tampering attempts of
Slithis's one cell mate.
     "Needlewarp," Shadebeam Moroboshi muttered, as she tried to work
the lock with two metal slivers that Slithis recognized as once having
been part of an Arachno-Newton.  Slithis noticed that the ABPSARI had
replaced what she was wearing before with a black t-shirt, mauve
jeans, and 'Hello Cthulhu' sneakers, and that he had on identical
garb--though it looked far better on her than it did on him.  Suddenly
he was grateful that they appeared to be alone.
     "These locks are tough sonsabitches, you know that, Slith?" said
Shadebeam.  "Either that, or I'm way too rusty on pickin' locks.
How's your head?"
     "Sore," Slithis replied.  "How long have I been out?"
     "Dunno," Shadebeam answered, returning her attention to the lock.
She swept a lock of long blonde hair away from her eyes and scowled.
"I've been conscious for about an hour now.  No one's showed up to see
who the two new people who showed up in their jail cell are.  Either
it's a weekend and they're all off partying, or something big and bad
is underway, and they're too busy to worry about security on a
supposedly empty cell...."
     Slithis watched her fiddle some more, then turned his attention
to the ABPSARI.  The large, ungainly contraption rested in the far
corner of the small cell.  It was quiet now, but Slithis remembered it
last as not having been quiet at all.  It had been terribly loud when
it came to life and opened up the dimensional vortices that swallowed
up himself, Shadebeam, Kalvin, Norman, and Sajon....
     "Hey," he said.  "Where's Sajon?"
     Shadebeam looked up.  "Don't know where the boy blunder is.  Hope
he's not in as tight a pickle as we are."
     "And where... is this particular pickle?"
     "Someplace called 'Daaksvong,'" said Shadebeam.  She pocketed the
metal pieces she had been trying to use on the lock, and gestured to a
plaque on the wall next to the door.  "On planet Zeta Ricola Beta."
     "Zeta Ricola Beta," Slithis echoed.  "Where Kalvin's allies went.
Where Shoon-Ma wanted to go, after turning Sajon into his Champion."
     "Yeah."  Shadebeam sat down on the cell's single bed, next to
Slithis.  Slithis struggled to sit up, and rubbed the back of his
head, which had been resting against cell bars.  "Doubt that's a
coincidence."
     Slithis looked at the ABPSARI again.  It seemed like the lifeless
assemblage of recliner chair, magazine rack, funnel, and assorted
other appendages he remembered it being.  "Did you try--?"
     Shadebeam snorted.  "You think I'm so irresponsible as to try
just chucking something into that funnel again, just 'cause I'm
momentarily stuck somewhere and I'm too honked off to think straight?"
     Slithis just looked at her.
     "It didn't work," said Shadebeam.  "Watch."
     She tossed one of the metal pieces at the funnel of the ABPSARI,
and Slithis could tell it was a dead-on shot.  He braced himself for
more destabilizing hijinks, and was startled when the metal piece
struck something about an inch from the funnel entrance and bounced
away.  It clattered to the floor next to the ABPSARI.
     "What is that?" Slithis asked.  "A force field or something?"
     "Dunno.  Don't care.  It's effectively shielded itself from
having any kind of fuel, useful or not, shoved into it for the time
being.  Guess we shouldn't be too surprised."
     "Why?"
     "'Cause it's been wanting to get us alone for a while now,"
Shadebeam answered.  "Not alone with it, I mean.  Alone with... us.
Each other.  You know."
     Slithis blinked.  Just in case additional emphasis was needed, he
blinked again.
     "I didn't get a vision during our last transit via the ABPSARI,"
she went on.  "The time before, I did, but I think that was just to
get the point across to me that there was something to get--the key to
how to stop all this cosmic revenge crap brought on by people mucking
about with the Breaking of the Fast of the Dawn of the Universe, and
saving said universe in the process.  And that vision was just enough
for me to work out that there was only one way to get that key."
     Slithis nodded slowly, because he did not trust himself to talk.
They had touched on this in a conversation three days before in a
sleazy hotel on Alpha Rio VI.  Years ago, when they had both been
Renegade Anarchists, they had sometimes had casual sex while casually
abusing illicit substances, which caused them to have casual visions
that now turned out to have been rooted in the non-casual cosmic
drama now unfolding.  Shadebeam's suggestion had been that another
round of sex, this time minus the illicit substances, might tease out
the rest of the vision, delivering the answer to getting out of this
whole mess.  She had backed away from the idea a bit too quickly for
Slithis's ego's liking.
     "Now," she said, "you know I'm not a shy girl, right?"
     This drew a laugh from Slithis.
     "I mean," she went on, "if it was just sex, I'd've said, 'let's
do it.'  That's about all the run-up I used to give you, right?"
     "I was high," said Slithis, "and trying to figure out why I was
getting so turned on by a mammal.  I'm sure I missed even the minimal
run-up."
     This time Shadebeam laughed.  Slithis liked the sound.
     "Here all this time I was wondering if I was weird for finding a
reptilian guy attractive," she said.  "I mean, you're generally
anthropomorphic, except for the snout, and your scales feel like
leather, and you've got this long tongue, and..."  She paused, then
shook her head, as if to clear it.  "Right, where was I?  Oh, yes.
Reptile.  Mammal.  Not an intuitive pairing."  She paused again.  "By
the way, what *is* your race called?"
     "Reptilos," Slithis said.  "I'm a Reptiloid.  From Reptilos II in
altiverse 000SUPERGUY."
     "Right," Shadebeam answered.  "Funny I never asked that before.
Anyway, Slithis of Reptilos II, the point I'm trying to get to is that
it's not just sex for me.  Not anymore."
     "I've had my shots."
     "So have I, and I even found a few rubbers in my jeans pocket,
but that's not what I'm talking about," she said.  "The others I've
been with over the years were mostly no great shakes.  One guy, Remmy,
was very bad for me.  He's dead now.  And one... one guy was very
good.  And not because he was good in bed."
     Slithis was not sure where this was going, but it now occurred to
him that there was something he really ought to say before she went
too much further.  What he had always told himself he would, had he
just one more chance.
     "You kind of remind me of him," Shadebeam went on.  She was not
looking at Slithis now, but rather at her hands, as if she was
suddenly scared of his eyes.  "I realized that, not too long ago.
Back at that Blue Yak Group show on Alpha Rio VI, before Kalvin
brought us to his office and things went wonky with Arachno-Newtons or
whatever those things were."
     "Shade...."
     "You don't take it to the extremes he did," she continued.  "But
you've got his... um... genuine... ness... thing.  You know.  I look
at you, and I think there are things that are possible that I'd
thought I'd never...."
     "I've got to say this," Slithis tried to interject.
     "It's occurred to me," she said, "that maybe I got things turned
around.  You don't remind me of that one good guy... his name was
Bart, by the way... but maybe he reminded me of you."
     "Shade, listen, I..."
     "Someone I had and, because I fell through a freak hole in the
fabric between altiverses, lost.  Maybe that's why I forgot your name.
Because I'd been trying to forget that I had you once, and that it's
still possible that I--"
     "I--"
     "--love you," they both said.
     They both blinked.  Shadebeam looked up.
     "What?" she asked.
     Slithis, still trying to process what Shadebeam had just said,
made a kind of gurgling sound.  Shadebeam waited while he tried to
remember what order words were supposed to go in to form sentences.
     "I love you," he repeated.  He mentally went back to check that
he had used all three words, and in the right order.  He double-
checked to make sure he had actually used his external voice to say
them.  "I think I have ever since... then.  The old days.  I knew for
sure three days ago, back at the hotel."
     Shadebeam considered this.  She closed her eyes.
     After a few moments, she started to giggle.  Slithis felt himself
grow warm beneath his scales.
     "I'm sorry," he said, his words feeling stiff as he spoke, "if
I---"
     "I get it now," she interrupted.  "It's not the ABPSARI that
manipulated us to this point.  It's just a tool."
     "Er... what?"
     "An impersonal cosmic force wouldn't have gone to all this
trouble," she said.  She had stopped laughing, but he could see a kind
of odd delight in her eyes.  "I mean, there are more direct ways to
relay visions than... I mean... it could have just... oh, screw it."
     Shadebeam grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to her.
He felt her hand against the back of his neck.  A kind of euphoria
swam through his senses, and he was quite sure it was the best he had
ever felt while in a jail cell.  Or, likely, outside of one.
     "C'mon," she said.  "Let's save the universe."
     Neither of them noticed or cared that the ABPSARI began to glow.

WILL THE UNIVERSE BE SAVED?
WILL THEY NOTICE IF IT IS?
WILL MASS QUANTITIES OF PUDDING BRING HAPPINESS TO LALAN AND HIS
RENEGADE GOORNASHKANS?
WHY ARE HO-HOS AND FROOT LOOPS NOT ON THE _CHALLENGER III'S_ COMMISARY
MENU?
WILL THE HIGH SPOCK AND TEAM E MAKE BETTER ZOMBIES THAN HENCHMEN?
WILL VINO GET HIS OWN REALITY SHOW?

SFSTORY happens, and you are there!
--
Gary W. Olson
swede at novitious dot com
swede3000 at earthlink dot net
Sfstory Archives: http://sfstory.novitious.com