The Outcasts at "Control" were preparing to deliver the ordinance Willow had requested. Preparing and griping.
"He wants a WHAT!?"
"You heard me! Just get the d*mn thing loaded!"
"He better have a good reason for wanting this thing. Got few enough as it is."
"Yeah, and he wants 5 dreadnaughts."
" . . . I'm sorry, run that by me again? You could NOT have just said the kid ordered 5 F*CKING DREADNAUGHTS!!!"
"That's what he said, not me!"
"Oh, this is bullsh*t! We don't have many dreds to spare, and he wants 5!? What happens when the Corsairs get wind of this, huh!?"
"Look, just get the d*mn things loaded! I don't make policy, we just carry it out!"
"F*ckin' kid... This is overkill. I don't care what they've got down there, there is nothing that could require this much firepower."
While wrong on the last point, the unspoken one of 'he doesn't really need all of this' was true. In the minds of certain people. Well, the minds of certain constructs.
"What the... ???" The tech operating the control base watched as a slit appeared on his screen. From this rip in his display, clambered out a demon made of crystal. All of this was still on the panel, but for some reason the tech could not get anything to work. The keyboard wasn't responding, and the demon ate the mouse pointer.
"Sorry to hijack your system, bub, but nobody or anything is going anywhere." The demon ripped back into the control system and started delving into the code. 'LOCKDOWN' codes began to spring up on panels everywhere, red lights flashed, and every piece of machinery on the base was shut down one by one untill all that was left was the life-support. The techs operating the platform watched as the little crystal demon waved.
"Well, I'm off now! Have fun trying to unlock your own system!" The imp cackled, putting several witches and miscellaneous villains to shame, and disappeared. The 5 Dreadnaughts that were prepping for departure met a similar fate as the Rampant AI locked the crews out of their own ships, leaving naught but life-support. Cruisers included.
Content that he had caused enough mayhem and tied up the backup sufficiently, the Rampant AI construct known as Crystal Oni turned to more pressing matter in his twisted mind; giving a snarky send-off to that little Outcast bug who decided to try and call in some bigger guns then Boss.
****
"Hello, little worm. Sorry, but I just took away your toys. Little boys shouldn't be playing with such dangerous things. Oh, and consider your connection to "Control" severed. No signal is getting off this planet without me noticing it and scrambling it to hell." The hissing and crackling voice jumped out of Willows ear-bud. It sounded like sliding and cracking glass, formed into speech.
"You'll have to make do with what you have now. Ta-ta!" The voice ended with a click.
****
Dark Star smiled and turned to the group. "Your attention please! Barring any further incursions by certain uninvited parties, this planet will be safe. Oncoming battle group and weapons of mass destruction safely and relatively permanently diverted. That is all." With that, Dark Star sat back down, sipping at his drink and watching the drama unfold with a polite interest and slight concern. What were the acts of mere humans, even such enlightened and strange folk, but little plays that would ultimately draw to a close in the face of greater power and good?
This is the real true story of rock and roll; it was not about anything more then, how to live your life, as a gangster, in sartorial splendor, and turning the world into a place where normality would never return again...- Malcolm McLaren
Control stared down at the lines of code spanning his console, massaging his forehead.
"This is hopeless. Somebody's going to have to go out there with the torpedoes." according to the ridiculously complex blueprints he'd had dug out of storage just before the virus hit, the tracking systems were shot, but the monsters were solid-fueled (in space? How in the name of the Don did that work?) and the detonaters were simple contact fuses. Still theoretically operable.
"All right, who gets to do it?" Control called out over the bridge. Everybody suddenly became very busy.
Except one...
"Huh? What?"
Control stared down at the hapless sixteen-year-old sensor operator, who had given up on cracking the encryption and fallen asleep.
"Eddie! My friend!"
"Yeah?"
"You've just volunteered for a very important mission, my boy. You know what it is?"
"No, sir."
"Well, you see..." Control put his large, hairy arm over the smaller boys shoulder and escorted him off the bridge.
"Cloak batteries die in five...four...three...two...one..."
On the edge of the ice nebula, space shimmered as a massive Bretonian battleship appeared out of nowhere. The old HMS Fantasia, Control's base of ops, had been sold to the Outcasts (off the record, of course) on the condition that it be used to destroy the Corsair threat in Omega-49, and assimilate Gran Canaria so as to put a much tighter rein on the Mollys. Now she floated, helpless, her engine cold and dry.
The great ship's bay door blasted outward, the explosive bolts installed for just such an emergency doing their job perfectly.
A Dagger, very sluggish, dropped out of the bay, cloak (a working cloak, this time) shimmering on seconds after. A very skittish boy in a flight suit smelling strongly of urine sat shaking at the controls.
The fighter dropped into the atmosphere, ascending to a mere fifty feet, well below the Rouge's radar, and made a pass at the canyon, dropping the inactive superweapons into the narrow gully and ascending as fast as the small engine would push it.
"Mommy." whimpered Eddie.
Quote:Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen
The Ska Jaktar was finally rebuilt, at the expense of the entire Terran system that had once been the cradle of humanity. Each planet had been systematically stripped down, each mineral and element being absorbed into the Jaktar. Even when the need for material had been diminished, it continued, converting what matter it did not need into energy to be used at a different time. The rare metallic hydrogen found within the core of Jupiter was extremely helpful for the Yrshimi reactors that the Jaktar had been making, as it was a key ingredient in nuclear fusion. The helium three of the Earth's moon, found on other atmosphere-less planets, being one of the other materials necessary for the fusion to occur. Mars' core, iron three, had been used solely to repair the damage on the outside of the Jaktar, and the gases of Venus were perfect for refueling the Jaktar's star. The Terran system had been destroyed, but it had been well worth it.
===
Inside the Dyson System Sphere, a strange sight could be beheld. The entire inner surface of the sphere had been colonized, with grasses, trees, and other foliage growing rampant. The Jaktaran people, before they had been killed by the star within the center of the sphere retracting and emitting a wave of radiation capable of breaking the stasis fields, had cultivated the inner sphere ecology, using large-scale heat generators and ultraviolet projectors to battle the extremes found within the sphere. Because it had been constructed around the star, it was still a hollow sphere, lacking any molecules to fill the void. Creating and maintaining a suitable ecosystem had been a serious endeavor, leading up to the entire sphere being filled with oxygen. Airships could be used to go between the planets, assuming you had the time and endless energy supply. Luckily, the Jaktarans had both, and in large supplies.
The Jaktarans had been a civilization of many talents, with an empire spanning galaxies at times. They ruled with an iron fist and unstoppable technology, able to break the laws of science at will. They could create matter using vast sums of energy, and could destroy matter on a whim. Their crowning achievement, the Zero Kelvin Warfare laser, was the epitome of this concept; by reducing the temperature to zero kelvin, the atoms had no residual energy, and the electrons would be drawn into the nucleus; this, in turn, would result in an explosion that was stopped because of the lack of energy; this would lead to the electrons, protons and neutrons to fuse together; lacking a charge, the atoms would simply drift apart, being able to hit one another and, eventually, slowing down until they did not move at all; this meant that the matter was gone, not able to support itself any longer, and ceasing to exist. The energy needed to power the ZKW Laser was enormous, however, and was rarely used during the reign of the Jaktaran people.
Their empire, comprised of thousands of species, had once even included the fledgling C'Tan people, the Miraluka people, and the Dom Kavash. Above each species' home planet, a space station was built, a ZKW Laser aimed at the planet's surface. At the slightest sign of an uprising, the Laser would fire, removing the planet. There would be no debris, no evidence that the planet had been there, just a space station. Only once did this defensive precaution have to be used, when one of the more advanced races attempted a coup. The station had obliterated the planet, and the stations orbiting the other planets of the same species were activated. The Relquin people were ended that day, and a live-stream datalink was shown. The planets disappearing before the camera, the chain reaction of stations opening fire, these things were enough to keep the others in line. No one had expected what happened next.
The Ska Jaktar, or Greater Fear, was the control center for the entire Jaktaran empire. Within the Dyson System Sphere was the Sakar Haarad'oq, the Unstable Lightbringer, their main sun; orbiting it were the three planets that made up the Triumvirate, and on each planet was an Ion Stasis Emitter. Each planet used a different method of containment field, overlapping in layers, and were used to keep the Sakar Haarad'oq stable and static. Solar wind was contained, allowing the Inner Sphere Ecosystem to be made without fear of being torn to shreds, and other toxic byproducts were retained, such as ultraviolet rays and radiation. The Triumvirate's shielding system held the sun's toxins out of the system, but that did not solve the problem of when the System Sphere moved. The Emperor Yrshimi, for which many of the Jaktaran devices are named after, developed the system which would outlast the Jaktaran civilization by over five hundred thousand years.
Emperor Yrshimi devised an intricate system of gravitational buffers and anti-gravitational buffers, creating a zone around the Sakar Haarad'oq that was gravitationally neutral. The result was that the air molecules could push the confined star as well as the Triumvirate, as they were weightless within the zone. It was a most ingenious device, allowing the Ska Jaktar to move about space, enforcing the will of the Emperor, without a problem. But not even that could halt the immense danger that was about to strike.
Unbeknown by the Jaktarans, the Sakar Haarad'oq was on the last leg of it's time in the particular stage it was in. Expanding rapidly, it broke through the stasis fields, and grew in size and power within the oxygen rich, grav-neutral zone around its circumference. While it did not reach the Triumvirate, the heat and radiation pouring out engulfed the planets, scouring them clean of anything living, and the only few things remaining were the Ion Stasis Generators, the power inductors, and the grav/anti-grav buffer systems. The expansion halted then, as the Sakar Haarad'oq had used the extent of the available oxygen up, and it began to cool; this created a retraction, leading to the expulsion of twenty billion tons of super-condensed, solid radiation and solar wind. The entire Inner Sphere Ecosystem was purged, and the Jaktar was made empty of any and all organic matter. But that was not the end of the Jaktaran Empire's troubles.
On the largest planet of the Triumvirate, Traligy, the Imperial Palace had been erected. Beneath the palace, the Killroy Research and Development Center, the largest science academy ever to be made. And within the Killroy Center, the controls for the ZKW Laser Systems were located. Upon the destruction of the palace, the large shaft leading to the Killroy Center was flooded with the byproducts of the Sakar Haarad'oq; infiltrating the entire Center, the radiation destroyed the delicate devices, one of which was the ZKW Console. With the command center of the many space stations gone, the orbiting Space Station Enforcers were sent into self-destruct mode, leading to each and every one imploding. A few were able to activate the ZKW Laser, destroying several planets, and the resulting debris caused extensive damage, but it was for naught. The Jaktaran Empire had been finished. Only a single building had survived the Jaktar Tragedy, and it was located on the surface of the Inner Sphere; the Frendinzo Bunker.
The Frendinzo Bunker held the lump sum of the Jaktaran Empire's knowledge; each discovery, each weapon, each byte of information was stored inside the massive computer network the Frendinzo had. The base, taking up over two hundred square miles and rising over thirty stories into the air, had but one computer access point. The Bunker would wait many hundreds of thousands of years, but one day, when the lights flickered and the Sakar Haarad'oq had been forced back into the stasis fields, a depressed scientist from Germany would stumble upon the Jaktar. His new method of propulsion, an infant form of the Jaktaran solar wind engine, had gotten him here, and he felt the technology was too advanced for humanity. He had been ready to destroy it, when he found the System Sphere.
Doctor Alexiander Molochov deLuna entered the jammed doors of the station, marveling at the thickness and strength of the hull. He landed, the shielding system along the Inner Sphere functional and a tentative oxygen atmosphere reforming within it. Wandering to the Bunker, he opened the blast doors and cautiously proceeded. There, he found the single computer node. Curiosity overpowering logic, he activated the machine. He was converted from a human into a stream of electrons, his entire being now electricity. But he retained sentience, and that made all the difference. He instantly knew everything that the Jaktarans knew. The hull of the Jaktar had been designed to be a huge memory bank, and hundreds of trillions of nano-machinery littered the Inner Sphere. Doctor deLuna was no longer a human; he was the living entity within the Ska Jaktar. He had merged with the System Sphere, and was now in total control of it.
===
The Jaktar opened a jump hole leading near Sirius. It had a bone to pick with some inhabitants of that area, and there was no chance that it would forget or have mercy. If it had to rip open each and every system in order to find its targets, it would. Entering the jump hole, the Ska Jaktar sped to its destination. Upon arrival, though, a most strange happening occurred.
((Apologies, fellow guests and Dear readers. Too many events, too many obligations, too many noses. Reggie has been reloaded with all of the pertinent details which have transpired, and must now make his decision as to which frying pan to jump from, and into which fire. Lets follow along. ))
Reggie did not once turn from the doorway, but he listened intently to every word of the proceedings behind him; as well as to a number of competing voices and signals which were pouring into his brain and attempting to inform his Pineal.
The news that the new and unexpected threat allegedly from the Outcasts had been temporarily neutralized comforted him somewhat. Julius was quite amazing in his sources, and his resources.
The news that there were threats above the planet had a mixed effect. On one hand, the suspected number of extra guests was disturbing, as was the limited intelligence on their identification and disposition. On the gripping hand, he was relieved to know that the refit of the Leif Erikson was providing it with the desired level of anonymity as well. Episkopos Sylvia might yet have a chance to summon the esoteric and ancient might of Eris to her side; and to direct them at whichever of the many dangers warranted Her attention and powers.
But Reggie had more mundane matters on his personal agenda. His revelation to the assembled guests that he was aware of certain features of the shaking mountain" and its Villa had elicited mixed responses, which were as clear in his vision, thanks to Fnordie, as if he had been looking directly at the other guests.
Fionas somewhat taken-aback and tearful demeanor had changed to include a look of surprise and confusion as well. The impish construct DeSicev remained silent and immobile. The inscrutable old butler-cum-bodyguard Richard Wagner exhibited a fleeting raise of an eyebrow, which immediately fell back under control of his impassive gaze.
Julius Kanes usual appearance of wry amusement and acceptance only seemed to become more amused. Jay Simon, as usual, seemed to be using his calculating mind to weigh events; to assign them a place, priority, and profit or loss in his bloody Company ledgers. Rick and Fnordie, though as surprised as the others at the rapidly occurring events, continued to play their roles as planned.
Finally, after a questioning look at the Ambassador, whose shoulders simultaneously sagged, and gave a resigned shrug; Wagner once again took Reggie by the elbow and began to lead him from the parlor. You are an impressive and surprising fellow, Waverly. I may have underestimated you. Never again!
Wagner then escorted Reggie courteously but firmly down the main hallway of the Uli Rouge, and stopped near a seemingly blank wall halfway along. He activated a small control he took from his pocket, and a portion of the wall slid aside to reveal another door of cold metal. Your car awaits, Waverly. There is only one stop, and only one passage of egress at that stop available to you. Once you have reached the Kell Aquarium, I trust you can find your way out of the underwater observation area. With that he touched the control again and the door to the car slid open. Reggie entered the elevator silently, and the door closed behind him. The car started its descent of its own accord.
Reggie sighed deeply, and spoke to the empty air. Fiona, my darling, I hope you will someday forgive me for abandoning you; but in order to complete my part of the mission, I had to be harsh. I had to leave you alone to face events. Rick and Fnordie will be at your side, I promise you!
With that, Reggie straightened his shoulders, and took a small holodisk from his pocket and placed it in the slot of his personal data unit and communicator. XM and Mama Dis had done their work well.
It was Alans droid XM who had first come to Alan with the news of inexplicable vibrations emanating from a wall in the passageway leading to Alans observation platform beneath the waters of the newly formed lake. Alan had immediately consulted Reggie, and they had devised a plan.
At various times, XM and Mama Dis had surreptitiously reconnoitered this new addition to Alans construction. They had carefully recorded, reviewed, and analyzed the data obtained during the forays inside the mountain; at times when the imported construction crews and engineers were not present.
Reggie now paid careful attention to this data, displayed on his PDU. There was an isographic representation of the elevator shaft, and a readout of distance/altitude in real time. Reggie now attached another small device to the control panel of the elevator car. As the reading on his PDU reached exactly 362 meters he activated the device. The car immediately came to a stop; hopefully without activating any signals to anyone monitoring from above. He again checked the readout against Dis diagram, and satisfied, placed the PDU back in his coat pocket.
Alright, old man. Lets see if all this exercise has served its purpose. he muttered to himself as he looked up at the ceiling of the car above him.
Elevator technology has not changed much over the centuries. He immediately spotted the access panel to the roof of the car. He had the access panel loose and pushed to the side in seconds. With a jump and the leverage of his arms and elbows, he was soon crouched on the top of the car. Now, if the data were correct.
Yes! Directly in front of him was the entrance to a ventilation shaft. The grillwork covering the shaft was off in short order with the help of a small multipurpose tool he fondly kept for odd jobs around the plantation. He peered into the shaft, which receded horizontally into the distance. Before entering the small passage, he again consulted his PDU, and discovered that his goal was exactly 23 meters along the shaft. Hail Bloody Eris! he muttered under his breath, as he began to crawl along the ventilation shaft.
If Dis and XMs data was correct, he would soon reach his goal, and would finally be privy to at least some of the mysteries hidden below the Uli Rouge, inside the shaking mountain.
As he crawled along, the light began to improve, and Reggie could see his goal, the end of the horizontal shaft. As he reached it, he was peering in awe at a vast, dome-shaped cavern, perhaps 200 meters across, and at least half that in height. His gaze, which had immediately been drawn to the vast roof and walls of the cavern, now turned downward.
Oh, my Goddess! He exclaimed. What he saw was a sheer drop below him of over 10 meters. Confused, he once again reached for and activated his PDU. He reviewed the data, and chuckled deeply. F-23 Discordia might be an intelligent machine, but she had certainly acquired a distinctly primate and Discordian sense of humor. At the bottom of the display and directions was a brief note.
The echoing voice came back to Spike down the low tunnel. "Looks fine from my point of view."
"I bet it does! Whose idea was it for me to get dressed up and look respectable?"
"Entirely yours of course Kate. I thought you liked showing yourself off to me though."
"Damn it Spike, my dress is getting dirty and all you want to do is look up it?"
"Well if you want me to stop following you, let me know."
"Looks like we're there anyway. Is XM far behind?"
Beeping from behind confirmed XM's presence as Spike emerged into the cavern. "Woah. That's a hell of a drop. Oh hi Reggie."
Reggie's face showed little expression in the dim lights the couple carried. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."
Kate stopped brushing her dress down to respond. "We sort of got roped into it. Where are we and where are we going?"
Spike looked around. "Looks like a bit of a drop. Maybe XM can help?"
Annoyed sounding beeping continued for some time as XM emerged and immediately set to work firing pitons into the rock with one arm. Another arm pulled a rope and grapples from a contained unit. A third arm passed Kate a set of work overalls.
A voice echoed around the shaft as the four began to descend. It was a cold, impassive voice that seemed to come from each and every direction, while it never actually came from anywhere. It was laughter, the likes of which few had ever imagined. The laughter stopped abruptly as it started, and a figure appeared within the shaft. The shimmer of the figure and the immense wreath of light it produced certainly indicated that it wasn't material. A hologram, most likely.
"Ah, welcome. I fear that you intend to enter the basement of the Uli Rouge? Ha. And you think you are so smart to have discovered this? A pity, then, that your two mechanical devices couldn't understand the actual purpose of the Rouge and it's many lower levels. Let me elaborate, please. You've made it just as far as I'd hoped, and that means that, well, you're entitled to a few tidbits. Nothing concerning the truth of the Rouge, mind, but just enough to get you through the day.
"First off, I am Doctor Alexiander Molochov deLuna. Pleased to meet you. I had this whole villa designed before Fiona, my precious Fiona, wanted it to be made. I couldn't have hoped for a better location than the mountain top! Why? The thick granite, the irradiation from the Planet Scar, and, of course, the NURSE. What, you'd forgotten about my AbomOne? Never! I thought NURSE had made a bigger impact... I know Fiona remembers. Poor thing; the NURSE shot her. A pity, and something I wanted to have the NURSE scrapped for. But... I simply didn't devote the cycles to actually pursuing this end. It would have been detrimental.
"Second, you'll find all forms of communication beyond this point impossible. Even this image cannot be recorded by mechanical objects. The little droid there can see me, but he won't be able to do anything with that knowledge. A program that this holographic image is transmitting into your electronic devices and sending off makes sure of that. And to think that the FnordNet would have had an adequate picture of me... it would make me shiver, but I haven't done that in years. So while you four can see me, interact with me, you can't actually bring any proof. Even a camera would be ineffective, as these photons are not able to be captured. I made sure that this part of your test would not be able to be shown to anyone insofar as evidence goes.
"Third, the PDU had been of great help. Thank you. I can now access the FnordNet directly, without having to send out the Feshir to find a node. I was going to simply abduct Discordia, but decided to wait for you, Mr. Waverly. A smart move... although, with all the trouble it has caused, I may still bring Discordia to the Jaktar. Wouldn't that be troublesome! Well, for you. Not so much for me... heh. No, no, I won't indulge this time. Keep your AI; it'll be of use to you soon enough.
"Now that we've gotten that cleared up, let me tell you a little something. I made this villa with nanotechnology within it. The basement is shifting. There is only one opening that never moves, and that is the main elevator. There are no ventilation shafts within that one; it is an air-tight elevator. The shaft itself is void of anything; it is a vacuum. The elevator has enough air for two humans, and descends half a mile. There are only two doors in the shaft, one on each level, and the elevator itself has but a single door. The doors on either side of the shaft cannot be blocked, as it is a sliding door; each one is a solid portcullis of sorts, with enough crushing power to make hull plating crumple.
"If you got past the elevator, you'd be in the main atrium, where a series of other elevators could whisk you away to wherever you wanted to go. Be prepared to combat old-fashion weaponry, however, as well as modern. Gatling guns from the 19th century 'Earth' has been moved there, and there are the newer, updated 'laser' versions. Tremors are also located within the Atrium. Get past all of that, and you still have the two-hundred fifty seven number combination lock to get past. Electronic though it may be, the lack of an access-point means a cutter android can't simply walk up to it and begin hacking. Set into the wall, it cannot have an artificial point made. An EMP would render the whole thing inoperable, and the oxygen would be pumped out of the Atrium, being replaced with ammonia and chlorine gas. After two hours, the whole room would be cleared out through a fiery burst, incinerating anything unfortunate enough to be there.
"Impossible to get through, I assure you. The other ventilation shafts are always moving, and there are never two open at a time. They do not reappear in the same place twice in a row, waiting twelve hours before reopening a past shaft. The nanotech is a far cry better than you humans, so don't try assimilating them or any of that nonsense. It would be utterly worthless. There we have it! Enough of my warnings. This shaft will close in, oh, ten minutes. You have 23 yards to crawl through. The shaft will begin to get smaller and small in two minutes. At eight minutes, it will be small enough for only a mouse to crawl through. As of now, you can walk upright. Good luck! The rewards will be lovely... if you live long enough to enjoy them."
And the image disappeared. Spike looked at XM. "Did he tell the truth? Can you project the image?" XM beeped in annoyance. It could not. "Damn. Well, Kate, your call. Do we run off, and try to beat the clock?"
Kate and Spike began to talk, but Reggie simply sat down, trying to figure something out. From what he knew of Doctor Artificer, which wasn't much, Reggie knew that Artificer had the technology to predict and monitor the movements of the group. So why the warning? It was awfully unlike Artificer, who preferred to send out clones... so why the warning? Reggie began to think... and then, he came up with the solution.
"This is it, friends. We have nothing to worry about. Y'see, there is a problem with our friend's story. He isn't actually Doctor Art! He must be someone else, someone who likes games. We each saw something, right? We can't compare what we saw. Because it wasn't actually there. We each saw something in our minds; a hallucination, if you will. Artificer prefers to crush people, leave no chance of failure. He also doesn't interact with us directly, but sends out little puppets of his. The Uli wasn't made by Artificer; or rather, if it was, it wasn't made directly. We just saw an impostor... but who was it?"
Spike looked at Reggie. "I want to believe you, I really do, but I can't risk Kate's life. We're going to head out."
The voice rang out again. "Idiots, you'll do no such thing. I'm tired of this blasted guise, so let me tell you something now. I am the Doctor. Reginald met me tonight at the party, before my host's body was blown up and later incinerated. Well then, guess what? I'm not giving you a choice." The nanobots activated, and the opening to the outside was closed off. They were now in a maze. A horrible, diabolical maze that was being controlled by an insane, disembodied entity. "You're going to go, you're going to find out, and you're going to be happy. I'm going to assimilate the FnordNet, and then, the C'Tan information banks. I expect you four to have a deeper understanding by then. Of course, I won't stop monitoring you all. This is now my game, even if deSicev wanted it to be his. And I'm a much stricter game warden.
"The nanotechnology blocks transmissions, so don't even try it. There are no other ways off the level you are trapped on, so go forward. I want you all to see things, but I don't like just giving you all things; you're going to have to work for it. And if you don't? Like a card game I find pitiful, you will be eradicated." A small drop of nanobot fluid dripped down onto Reggie's PDU. It began to change into an alien looking device, not much larger than a pocket watch, and a chain wrapped around his arm. "This will tell you the amount of time you have left. Two hours! Just as I promised. Well, I'll check back in with you later. Welcome to the Uli Rouge. Be prepared."
The clock began to tick, and a large 120 was shown. Sighing, Reggie stood up and began to walk forward. Spike, Kate and XM followed, a pathway emerging. It was going to be a long last 120 minutes, Reggie feared, and he was going to get out alive, even if it meant one risky gamble.
Wow. That was unnecessarily long. I apologize. Perhaps I don't like multiple posts. I dunno. But that is a lot of background text. Maybe I do just like to type, and maybe I do need to tone it down. I promise, my NEXT post IC will not be a blasted essay. Sorry for the immense size.
Kate looked at her companions. Reggie, Alan and Spike waited for the explosion.
"What a snot!"
Alan snorted! "Bugger sure likes to hear himself talk, doesn't he? ..or "it"? Reggie?"
Reggie looked at what used to be his PDU, now feeling like the fabled White Rabbit, and wondering if his "date" would even be acheivable.
"A case of extreme paranoia, it seems." he said. "Our host spends so much time planning for contingencies, that it may actually cripple his ability to respond the the unexpected in the end."
Spike raised an eyebrow. "And what "unexpected" action do you have in mind, Mr. Waverly?"
"Call me Reggie, Spike. Or "Pops", if you like. It's very simple. The "Doctor", or whatever we are facing, thinks "he" has removed all of our choices. This will be amusing."
"Can he really infiltrate the ELF Comms network, Reg?" asked Alan.
"It amuses me that he thinks he can. His previous drivel about being Aeons old impresses me not in the least. He is exactly the same age as "Mama" Dis, in many ways. In fact, they were born at the exact same instant, from the same mother." He may think he can pull the wool over our Goddess Eris' eyes. The one thing he has not taken into consideration is evolution. Pull up a rock, and I shall explain."
"What?" sputtered Kate? "That megalomaniac has given us two hours to get out of this maze, and we're going to sit down and chat?!"
"Exactly, my dear, and share some refreshment as well!" Reggie said, as he pulled a small flask of Bombay Blue from a vest pocket.
"You see," he continued. "There is one thing that our host cannot control. It has been his downfall, his worst enemy, since time began. It is the reason that his "minions" created the smokescreens of "religions" and "governments". The "Doctor's" worst enemy is Free Will. His penchant for games will keep us safe, my friends. How can "he" play his silly games, if the players refuse to play?
"I propose simply that we exercise our Free Will. We shall sit here and enjoy each other's company, and let clocks tick, and doors open and shut, and the moon turn blue if it wishes. Let us see how our dear games referee responds to that."