Victor Clarence Adventures (+the reason behind Roger's name) by holodude INFORMATION BEHIND THE STORY I have decided to try my hand a writing fiction, and started by creating a reason of why Roger Wilco was named Roger Wilco. (see Chapter 1). This spawned the idea of a new character in the StarCon universe and of my novel. EDIT: The novel is now complete, so enjoy! The Amazing Adventures of Victor Clarence By Derek Turner (aka Holodude) PROLOGUE There once was a man named Roger Wilco. He was a janitor, although he preferred 'sanitation engineer.' He was a hero of sorts, saving the galaxy on numerous occasions, but always screwing things up later. He was a fluke. An accidental hero. A statistical wonder. Roger was the hero of all who were clumsy. Of all who were unsophisticated. Of all who clean. But Roger Wilco, Sanitation Engineer for the StarCon Federation has, regrettably retired after years of service for the universe. But his name will live forever, part folklore, part history. He will be remembered as a great hero, but many will say it is an urban legend. Some will say he was a hero, but wasn't really a janitor because no janitor could ever be a hero. Some will even say it was a big hoax, and it was created by the StarCon Federation to try and give hope to all officers, even janitors. And some, will know the truth and will know he existed, did heroic things, but was a misguided fool. But even those who know the truth, rarely even know the true beginnings of this curious hero. The story is simple... CHAPTER ONE: THE BEGINNING Roger Wilco was born, just as he lived, purely by chance. His parents, having been told that they both were unable to have children, gave birth suddenly and unexpected to Roger Wilco. It was so unexpected, that right before he was born, there still was no name given to him. Now StarCon has this strange, relatively unknown rule, that officers of the StarCon Federation must submit the name of their child within minutes from the time the child is legally part of the family, so that StarCon can keep track of the potential officer for recruitment purposes. This rule applies for both children born, as well as adopted, and in order not to discriminate against adoptions, StarCon only knows the name of the child, and has no way to obtain whether it was the biological offspring or an adoption by the parents. So on the morning that Roger Wilco, the miracle child, came into this world, Roger's parents still did not have a name for him. In order to address the issue of overpopulation in the StarCon worlds, certain planets will only allow children to be born if a permit has been acquired. However, any potential parent can adopt a child, and if a child is born without a parent, the child will be redirected to the central adoption agency, and the biological parents will be banned from adopting the child, unless someone adopts the child first and then issues a transfer of custody to the biological parents. Now, having been told by the planetary medical authority that both of Roger's parents were unable to conceive a child, and the fact that all known STDs had been cured, or were curable with simple medication, Roger's parents decided they had no need of a contraceptive. But now, they had an illegal child on the way, with the StarCon Federation minutes later asking for a name of the illegal child. On top of the problem, was they didn't even have a name for the child yet. Somehow Roger's parents had to find a way to keep an illegal child, without alerting the authorities, plus name this illegal child, send StarCon the name without having them become aware of any wrongdoings. They needed luck on their side. Once Roger was born, he still did not have a name yet. His father was in communication with StarCon about 'official business', while his mother was waiting for the communication with StarCon's Recruitment Office so she could give them her child's name. "Affirmative. Vector 3-5-9-mark-3..." Roger's Dad was saying into his communicator screen in the vehicle. Roger was so unexpected to his parents, they had forgot to book space into the planetary hospital. They were on route to the nearest drop-out clinic. These were like drop-in clinics, but instead of 'dropping in' on the doctor unexpectedly, the doctor is actually 'dropped out' from med-school. However, their luck was such that they didn't even get to the clinic. They were on the side of the planetary spaceway, the main highway that ran through Roger's world. "Honey, could you stop that 'official speak' with them for a minute? We need to come up with a baby name before..." Roger's Mom shouted at her husband. But it was too late. A shiny golden robot, with a red tunic uniform that carried a golden triangle on his chest, came onto the mobile's viewscreen. "Please state the name of your newly acquired child. If a name is not given with 30 seconds, the child will be confiscated and given to those who are more decisive." The robot said coldly. Roger's Mom was so desperate. She didn't know what to do. If she didn't answer the robot, she'd lose Roger. And if she asked her husband for a name, the robot would register Roger as "What should we call him honey" and he'd die of humiliation. Whatever the next words she spoke, were going to be her son's name. Even at this critical moment, her husband couldn't stop talking business to his colleagues. "Wilco. Roger. Affirmative. Sector 3-8 on Stardate..." He was saying into his personal communication device. And Roger's Mom thought "That's it! The answer to my prayers!" "Roger Wilco. My new son is named Roger Wilco." She said proudly into the viewscreen. "Understood. Adoption complete. We will come by when your offspring reaches the age of enrolment." The robot declared. Then the viewscreen went blank. Roger's parents, whose last name shall remain nameless for it would tarnish their reputation, and put good StarCon officers into a court-martial for failing to complete custody papers truthfully, were overjoyed. OK, only the mother was overjoyed, the father was ... in acceptance of the situation. If they were found guilty of misfiling papers, (and they would if their names got out) they would end up out of StarCon, face a hefty fine, and they would also have to serve some manual labour on a nearby mining world, alongside criminals who could easily kill them in a heartbeat. So Roger's parents named their son Roger Wilco. Their last name was not Wilco, and nobody they knew was named Roger. He was unusual. And unusual he became! Roger's both first and last names mean 'Affirmative,' which suited his father, as it made him sound like a StarCon Cadet. And now, many many years later, Roger is done saving the universe and making a fool of himself. He is now retired. Now, who will take over Roger's hero status? Who will be lucky enough to stumble around and make fools of themselves, while becoming a hero that saves the universe countless times over? CHAPTER TWO: A HERO IS BORN With Roger fading from people's minds, there is a growing need for a new hero. StarCon has created their own heroes through their extensive StarCon Academy training programs, but they all seem to have an ego problem. They do so well on all their tests, they think they are unbeatable. Then, they encounter some unusual problem, and still think they can solve it. They don't take things seriously enough, and boom, the problem doesn't get solved, and the so-called-hero is blown to bits. A historian by the name of Norman Chompersky could see that StarCon was in desperate need of someone to be a hero, but wouldn't let it go to their head. He knew there needed to be somebody to follow in Roger Wilco's shoes, but you can't just make a hero out of thin air. Or can you? Norman was one of the few individuals who knew the true story behind Roger Wilco's birth and his name. He knew he did not bore the last name of his parents, for fear it would indicate he was their biological son, and he'd be taken away. Norman knew the story because he was a friend of Roger's son. The story had slipped out when they both went into a bar and got blasted. He only found out the story because he accidentally left his recorder on after completing his journal entry. Now Norman's Wife, Kelsey Chompersky, was a beauty. She came from the Orient System, and had a slight brownish colour in her skin. Both Norman and Kelsey had acquired their permit for a child. Both parents have to be approved, in order so that a child is not born to one parent who wants the child, and one who doesn't want them. In all other cases, the child would end up being Mr. or Ms. Chompersky. However, the Chomperskys had different plans. They wanted to make a hero. Norman knew the circumstance behind Roger Wilco and he wanted to replicate it. His wife Kelsey is a psychoscientist, a scientist who deals in psychoscience. For those who are unfamiliar with this science, it is essentially similar to the chemistry idea that 'there is order to randomness.' In a ball of gas, each air particle does completely random, unpredictable movements. But if you take the entire mass of the particles, they act in a uniform, very predictable fashion. Psychoscience is the science of predicting the uniformity in the chaos of the human race. Each human will react in unpredictable ways. But as a whole, the human race should, theoretically, react in predictable ways as a whole. In this way, one can actually predict the future. And according to Kelsey's scientific research, there was no hero coming, but one was needed. So with Kelsey's knowledge of the need for a hero, and Norman's knowledge of how the unlikely hero of Roger Wilco came into this world, they had tried to create their very own hero. So even though the Chomperskys gave birth to their own child and had the papers for it, when it came time to name the child, they chose to forgo giving the child their own last name. This was to create a name just as the way Roger was named. They had figured out a backup name, in case their plan did not work. The plan was set in motion with everything orchestrated. They had their craft on the side of the planetary spaceway, they had a doctor on call within transporter distance in case something went wrong. Norman had arranged to have discussions of various technical matters related to StarCon in an attempt to emulate Roger's father. Kelsey was nagging at Norman about getting a name. And then they waited... A few hours rolled by, and the baby was born. There were no problems with the pregnancy. Norman then started his communication about StarCon with his friend. The idea was to create a name, that had a meaning related to flight. Both 'Roger' and 'Wilco' translate to 'Affirmative'. These are words used in official communication within military-like organizations and police forces. It is also used by pilots of various crafts. The Chomperskys wanted to name their baby with words of similar origin. "What's the status of the craft?" Norman asked into his communicator. "Would you please stop talking to him and help me choose a name." Kelsey teased him. This was all preplanned, and seemed almost ridiculous. But then again, this whole idea of creating a hero by copying how the only other recent successful hero was created, was a ludicrous concept. A screen popped up onto the main viewscreen of the craft. It was StarCon. They asked for the baby's name. Now is the moment of truth, Kelsey thought. But Norman was, as he was instructed, still conversing with his friend. "What vector? There clearance? How much? Will the craft disrupt the field?..." Norman asked his friend. Of course his friend would give him answers that were, well, standard. This wasn't a real conversation, but rather, a make-believe one. Just as children do when they are imitating someone. Kelsey was frantic. This wasn't going to work, she thought. I was supposed to use the words Norman was using. But Vector? Clearance? How the heck could I call my kid Vector Clearance. And then it hit her. She knew what to say. "Victor Clarence. My son is named Victor Clarence." She said proudly. It was a simple change of vowels. Vector becomes Victor, Clearance becomes Clarence. It made perfect sense. But would it work? She had deviated from the pattern that was used to create Roger. Had she made a fatal mistake by a simple slip of the tongue? Only time would tell. And so, Victor Clarence was born a healthy child. His parents had given him an almost identical childhood to Roger Wilco. This was all part of the master plan. But the one slip-up was still nagging at Victors parents. Kelsey and Norman were very curious about what effect it would have on their pride and joy. And soon, they would find out. CHAPTER THREE: SUCCESS OR FAILURE, THAT IS THE QUESTION It was a bright sunny morning in the Chompersky household. The sky was bright blue, and there were no clouds in the sky. Today was decision day. "So what will it be son?" Norman inquired. "Your required education is finished, and now you get to choose where you will go from here. What career will you pursue? Will you get further education? It is all in your hands now." "I want to be a member of StarCon!" he beamed. Kelsey and Norman were delighted. Their slight mishap looks like it was not a problem after all. But Norman wasn't convinced. He knew too much about the impossibilities of what they were trying to accomplish. He didn't have the science to show it could work, and he was convinced it was still impossible. "So ..." he slowly stated. "you want to be ..." He paused. He knew it would sound very funny to Victor, but he had to know. He just had to know that it had worked. "... a janitor?" he blurted out. "WHAT??!!" Victor was shocked. "Are you nuts Dad?! Did you smell gas again? I mean, who the heck would TRY to be a janitor anyway?" "Why Roger Wilco of course. You HAVE heard of him, haven't you?" Norman inquired. He was trying to save the situation. He realized it hadn't worked after all. The mix-up in names had altered the course of their son's path to becoming a hero. But hero or not, Norman still wanted to have a son that he loved, and who loved him back. He desperately didn't want to alienate him, ESPECIALLY since he was in his teen years now and had always been so close to him. "Oh course Dad!" Victor teased. "You are always talking about him. How he is the greatest janitor ... er ... sanitation engineer there ever was. And how he saved the galaxy. It is like you are obsessed with him or something. You know Dad, you really shouldn't believe in those urban legends. You might just start convincing yourself they are true." "But Roger was real!" Both Kelsey and Norman shouted in unison. This time it was only Kelsey who spoke. "Victor, you know how important you are to us. But it is time you learned the truth. You are important to us in more than just your typical family love situation." "Oh, how so?" he inquired. "Well, this is going to be hard to take. Sit down." He sat on the orange leather couch and crossed his legs. It looked a little strange, but he was always strange compared to his peers anyway. AT least that part he had in common with Roger Wilco. "You were, well, an experiment." Norman told him. "Go on." "Your mother and I, using our combined expertise, made a shocking discovery one night." Norman cooly said. "The world is in need of a hero. Not your flashy, typical hero, but a more average Joe hero. Like Roger Wilco. We discovered there was a huge need for another Roger Wilco. But if things went on as normal, psychoscience told us it would never happen. Roger was a fluke. You were, well ..." He paused. This was hard to explain, and it had to be said right. But it was Kelsey who spoke next. "You were the result of careful planning in order to create an individual similar to Roger Wilco, in hopes that YOU could be the hero we were searching for." "I see." It was all Victor could say. Anyone who ever met Roger Wilco would know this is the exact type of answer one would expect of a hero such as him. Norman broke the silence. "And that is why I wanted to know whether you'd be a janitor like Roger. I'm sorry son, we should have told you earlier. But we couldn't afford to change the setup. It would have ruined the experiment. It looks like our efforts were in vain." And so Victor went off to StarCon Academy. He was no Roger Wilco. Or was he? Didn't he have too many similarities with Roger than pure coincidence? So what would become of him? Would he turn into a hero after all? After all, even after Roger became Captain, he was eventually demoted back to janitor. Perhaps it was simply that Victor had the urge, just like Roger, to become Captain, but would end up settling for janitor in the end. Only time would tell. CHAPTER FOUR: THE ACADEMY Victor Clarence was now a Cadet. He had classes and classes in every subject under the sun. He failed some, passed others, and excelled in a few. But overall he was just an average student. That said, he certainly excelled far more than Roger Wilco ever did. Now there is a secret that Victor had been carrying since he was about 10 years old. A secret which probably accounted for much of the differences between Roger and himself. One day, he had gone to school, but forgot his lunch. He turned around and went inside the house. Right beside his lunch was a disk. Having remembered that he had put his assignment on a disk just like the one beside his lunch, he took it and put it in his bag. When he arrived at school, he put in his disk and loaded up his assignment. Or so he thought. There, on the screen, was a program. Well, not really. It was a whole bunch of programs to be more exact. And in the corner of it all read the words "Software by ScumSoft". Victor had found the disk with all the ScumSoft games, including those starring Roger Wilco. And it was that day, that Victor realized he did not want to be the bumbling janitor. But now he was at the academy. He hadn't told his parents which field he was setting his sights on. They had just assumed it would be command, as Roger had always wanted. But not Victor. He had found among the software on that fateful day, a series of games called Police Quest. He fell in love with them and decided he wanted to be, what would be the StarCon equivalent of a police officer, or Military Police. Victor Clarence wanted to become a StarCon Police Officer. The StarCon police are just like other Military Police groups. They work internally within their organization. For instance, if there are assaults on officers of StarCon, they would intervene and investigate. But if there was an assault on someone, and no StarCon officers were involved, the StarCon police would leave it to the planetary police. So Victor took all of the basic classes at StarCon Academy. When it was time to specialize, he took a few Command courses, but the majority were for the police field. He did this for two reasons. First, he didn't want to upset his parents, because he knew they desperately wanted him to be like Roger and strive to become Captain. And this way, if they asked how he was doing, he could simply tell them how his Command courses were going, along with the generic courses. This way it wouldn't be until he graduated that they learned the truth. And by then, they wouldn't be able to influence either him or the Academy to make him take the Command line of classes. The second reason was to see if he actually wanted a Command life. He thought he didn't want it, but he knew he was similar enough to Roger, and since Roger loved being in command, he wanted to see if he too liked that. When someone enters StarCon Academy, they are assigned a room, and live in it until they graduate. This prepares them for living on a starship, or space station, and acts just like most dorms in other educational facilities. But at the Academy, a roommate is mandatory and is assigned, not chosen. The day was the day of the roommate assignments. Victor and the rest of the Academy hopefuls listened to a speech by the president of StarCon Academy, El Supremo. He said all the usual mumbo jumbo about honour and integrity and stuff like that. But Victor, just like Roger once did at a similar speech, didn't care to listen. But unlike Roger, Victor didn't have the latest cleaning products in his mind. Girls were on Victor's mind. Victor looked around in the sea of potential future graduates, and future commanding officers, and all he could seem to see were eager young babes. Of all races. There were the blue Hubbas from Unhhn IV, who could give themselves breast enlargements or reductions with a simple thought. In fact, the size of their chest directly corresponds with their mood. And from what Victor could see, they were very happy right now. Then there were the Pamelonians of Bwire III. These girls would always wear racy outfits wherever they went (unless on duty and had to wear a uniform), dressed in leather and a bad attitude. Although attractive, Victor was more scared stiff when it came to Pamelonians than aroused. He had heard too many stories about guys trying to court these girls, and end up beat up good. No, Victor Clarence was scared of dying, and these girls screamed 'drop dead gorgeous,' but taken in the literal form. There were several other races that he couldn't identify. It was hard to identify them all since they all had their backs turned to him so they could watch the speech. Now Roger wasn't much into girls, although he was into Bea, and did have an interesting encounter with the Babes of Estros. And of course there was that interesting relationship with Stellar. Roger was more of a 'let girls approach me so I have less chance of making a fool out of myself' kind of guy. Victor on the other hand, was more of a 'hey girl, let's do it' kind of guy. Many may wonder how two guys, supposedly almost identical, could be so different when it came to dealing with girls. The answer lays in the Scumsoft games Victor discovered. In there, he found Leisure Suit Larry, and figured out what girls don't and do want to see, and realized he liked girls a lot too. This made him proactively try and figure out what real girls are looking for and satisfy their needs, as well as his own. It was the Leisure Suit Larry games that made Victor different than Roger when dealing with the female gender. But back at speech, something unexpected happened. Victor, who had before now, always teased and joked around and admired the female variety, had the wind knocked out of him. Not by a punch, but by a girl. He was just looking around admiring the variety of girls, and as soon as he looked at the girl, he lost his breath, his heart rate accelerated, and he was in love. Even with all the 'experience' he supposedly got with dealing with girls in the past, even just looking at this one caught him off guard. And then, suddenly everyone cheered and clapped as the speech was over. Everyone just got up and started to mingle. Victor just had to get over to her before she left. He at least needed her name so he could see if she was in any of his classes he'd be in. Victor pushed and shoved until he got to where the girl was. But she was gone. "Noooo!!!!" he screamed. Those near him shot him quizzical glances and got back to what they were doing. They must have thought he stubbed his toe or something. Or was yelling across the room or something. The girl was gone. Nowhere to be found. The girl of his dreams was there, and now never to return. He put his head down and felt like crying. "What's wrong?" someone asked him in a soothing voice. "Well..." he started to say. He turned around. And he was staring at the face of the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. It was the girl he had tried to run to across the room. Be blushed. Victor's face became a bright red, and he slanted his head, embarrassed. "Uh ... gosh ... you see" he stammered. Victor just couldn't put his sentences together. He had never had such a problem in his life. It was the most embarrassing moment he had ever experienced. "Just tell me. I don't bite." she insisted. "I thought I'd lost you." he stammered. This was so embarrassing. "I hadn't realized you had found me." she said. "Seriously, I don't understand what it was you were so devastated about." "I, uh ... saw you. And I ... um ... wanted to talk to you. And well ... went over to where you were. And then ... er ... you weren?t there." he said. "Well cheer up! I'm here talking to you now. So what did you want to talk to me about? It must have been awfully important for you to get all upset like that." she told him. "Uh, yeah. Real important." he told her. He had no idea what to do now. He knew he wanted to start a relationship with this girl, but he just didn't know how. He had easily created relationships with other girls over the years, but it was always just for kicks. If he had messed up, it wouldn't have mattered. He'd just find someone else to flirt with. But this time was different. This time it was for real. If he messes this up, he could kiss this relationship goodbye. And so far in his life, this was the most important one of all. And he was screwing it up royally. After a short silence he finally asked "What is your name? I didn't seem to catch it." She answered "Well that was because I didn't give it. My name is Danielle. Danielle Venabili." "My name is Victor Clarence." He told her. He hoped they could just continue talking and forget his embarrassing moment he had earlier. But he wasn't going to be let off that easy. "You still haven't told me why you are upset? And how come you seem to be doing better now. Please tell me. I'd really like to know." she told him earnestly. It was too much for Victor. If he didn't just spit it out, he'd have real trouble on his hands. Or worse, Danielle would simply walk away from him, never to come back again. He had to tell her the truth, no matter how hard it would be for him. "Well, you see ... uh ..." he started. "I saw you in the crowd. You were ... um ... so beautiful. I ... er ... wanted to speak to you." Danielle thought about this for a moment and then replied "OK, now we are getting somewhere. You wanted to talk to me because your body wanted to go camping and put up a tent in your pants." "A crude description ... but ... accurate enough." he replied. And then he continued. "And so..." He was interrupted by the president. "Here are the assignments of roommates. Al Stein and Bert Hein..." He continued listing off names. Meanwhile the conversation between Victor and Danielle continued. "Explain further Victor." She commanded him. Like a good officer, he obeyed. "As I said earlier, you were gone when I got here. I got upset and then you appeared out of nowhere." He told her. "Ah yes. I remember now." said Danielle. "I was practicing my invisibilitude." "Your WHAT??" Victor snorted. Clearly Danielle's vision of her discussion partner were diminishing quickly. She shot Victor a quizzical look like she was saying "Where were you the last 6000 years?" But what she said was contrary to her body language. "Invisibilitude is the art of appearing invisible. Even though I look entirely human, and am entirely human, I possess attributes that ... most humans do not know they have. I can appear invisible in a crowded place, a dense jungle, or anywhere else that is 'busy'." All Victor managed to say was "I see." And then an idea popped into Victor's head. Before he knew it he blurted out "Why don't you teach it to me?" Danielle had the patience of a good teacher. As if telling a child that they were not allowed to answer a question without raising a hand she said "I'm sorry Victor. Invisibilitude is a very rare talent, and only those worthy of it are ever taught. Besides, teaching it to another is a very intimate process." Before realizing what he was doing he said "Please teach it to me. I'd SO love to get intimate with you." "You hormone raging pervert!! Get out of my sight, I don't want to ever see you again. EVER!" She screamed at him. Victor turned, walked two paces slowly with his head down in sadness when he faintly heard the president say "... Danielle Venabili and Victor Clarence." He continued pacing away, now smiling. He said over his shoulder "Guess you'll have to close your eyes the rest of your time at the Academy. We'll be seeing a lot of each other whether we want to or not!" CHAPTER FIVE: IF YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, CAN YOU STILL BE LOST? That night was an interesting one. Victor was heading towards his room when he left Danielle. But, being a fool like Roger was, Victor forgot to note the number of his room. Seeing that there were hundreds of new Cadets who will all need rooms, it would be impossible to do a room by room search. Problem was, how could he find out which room was his? He couldn't just walk up and randomly ask people, because there were so many Cadets, there would be very few who would even remember a Victor Clarence, let alone what room he was to be in. But chances are if he asked the males, they'd remember Danielle alright. Problem was, nobody would know her by name. And since nobody would know her name, they wouldn't have paid any attention to what room she was in. Victor didn't know what to do at all. Victor wanted to use the fancy computer terminals that were laid out all around the Academy in order to find out what room he was in. Problem was it would be a week until he would get his passcard in order to use them. No, Victor would have to find some other way to find his room. He desperately wanted to go back to Danielle and follow her to the room. She was bound to have paid attention to something as simple as a room number. After all, she would be listening attentively in hopes to escape to her room and flee the presence of Victor. Problem was, since they were unexpected roommates, her room was now also his room. There would be no escape for her. That being said, she would have probably remembered the room number in hopes to get there first and lock out Victor from the room. Victor would have to find the room somehow, and then try to apologize to her. Either that, or wander around lost, and sleep on some floor somewhere and get penalized for sleeping in a non-sleeping area. He was in a real jam. So Victor decided to just wander around and take a look at the station. Maybe if he figured out the layout, he could find someone who would be his superior, or would have access to the terminals, so that he may figure out what room he would be in. If Roger Wilco were here, he'd probably just stumble into his own room by accident. Victor did not think he'd be that lucky. Victor was walking around looking for the president or other officials who wouldn't mind finding out what room he was in. And then he spotted someplace he recognized. "I've seen this before" he thought. "Yup, I saw this earlier." He walked some more. "Yup, I've seen all of this before." he thought to himself. He continued this trend for a while, and finally realized it. He was going in circles. Now he didn't know what to do. That, and he didn't know where he was anymore. He had thought he was walking in a straight line away from the ceremony and could just turn around to return to it if he had to. But now that would be impossible. Who's to say which corridor he originally came from. He felt hopeless. Victor was thoroughly lost in an unfamiliar environment. He had no idea where to turn, and no clue how he'd ever find his way to his new room. "AAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!!" he screamed in frustration. Victor then decided to curl up into a ball against the wall of one of the corridors. He started to sob. Normally Victor would never cry, but he was going out of his mind. He was going crazy. He was headed for loonyville. Being lost and no clue what to do does that to people. And then suddenly he heard something. There had been nobody in the corridor when he put his head between his legs to cry. He poked his head up to see if he could locate the source of the noise. As soon as his head was free he heard someone say "What's wrong? Are you alright?" It was a soothing voice, not unlike the voice of Danielle. But this was ... different. He looked around, but the tears were blurring his vision. "Uh, I'm ok... but I need help." he told the unknown person. Suddenly he heard the chime of a transport beam. Someone or something was transporting to his location. Victor rubbed his eyes to get a clear view of what was going on. But before he could see what was going on, he heard someone shout with authority "Secure the area! Move, move, move!!" Then he heard movement, of people running who were wearing and carrying equipment. The sort of sound you'd hear when a S.W.A.T. team is in action. Then the man of authority asked Victor "You alright there soldier?" He had to turn to face the man, who appeared to be the leader of the group who beamed in. Victor turned his head and started to answer him. "Yeah, I'm..." But before he could finish, the leader screamed "EMERGENCY BEAM OUT! He's leaking liquids!" And suddenly he and the leader materialized in the infirmary. "fine." Victor finished answering the leader. But the leader wasn't listening. He was rushing over to the doctor, who was just entering the infirmary. "Doctor, you have a patient." he told him. "He's leaking liquids. From the eyes. He may rust or go blind. Hurry!" The doctor just nodded his head and started walking towards Victor. The doctor was of average height and weight, and wore a white suit with the StarCon logo in the chest. He also wore these very small goggles. One didn't know whether they were for protection or to look cool. They made him look weird. And by just looking at him, one would ask oneself "does he blow-torch his patients or something?" But before the doctor could make even three steps, the leader yelled "SECURE THE AREA!! DON'T LET ANYONE OUT OR IN WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!!!" He then looked over towards Victor and added "Don't worry soldier. We'll make sure nobody else hurts you." The leader left out the door, and then armed guards wearing all black bodysuits blocked the entranceways and exits of the infirmary. They were thoroughly armed. Nobody was going to get past them, unless they blew apart the entire wing of the Academy in the process. To Victor it was clearly overkill. After all, he wasn't hurt. He just had cried. He just couldn't understand what the fuss was about. But then the doctor, who wore those silly glasses, did something unexpected. He pulled out a blow-torch. "That's strange, why would a doctor need a blowtorch?" Victor thought to himself. And then, as if reading his mind, the doctor said "Do not worry robot. I will weld around your eyes to prevent future leaking. I'll do that just as soon as you deactivate yourself." Victor couldn't believe his luck. The doctor wasn't a doctor after all. He was a robot mechanic. They had confused him with a robot! "I'M NOT A ROBOT!!" he screamed at the doctor. "I see your identity chip is malfunctioning too. I'll have to disassemble your head while I'm at it." said the doctor. "I SAID I'M NOT A ROBOT!!!" This time Victor screamed even louder. "Hmm, I detect your level of virtual vocal cord output is 20 decibels higher than standard. I'll have to detach your limbs to access the torso section to readjust your safety parameters." The doctor told him. Victor couldn't take it. At this rate, Victor wouldn't have any body parts left intact. He bolted for the door in an attempt to escape the robot doctor. "You are not allowed to leave. I have orders to ensue you stay inside the infirmary." The guard told him. "Darn!" said Victor. He didn't know what to do now. If he remained where he was, he was sure to be burned alive by the robot doctor. He looked at his soon to be killer. He had a glint in his eye as if he was happy about what he was soon to do. And then he saw it. The glint in the doctors eye wasn't a glint at all. They were metallic. The doctor was a robot!! No wonder he didn't recognize Victor as a human, or respond to his yells. He wasn't programmed to! But that still didn't solve his problem. Victor now knew he needed to turn off the doctor, but how? He looked around the room for something he could use. All he could see were a bunch of cans of oil, a few blow torches, a face shield to prevent eye damage when welding, some old robot parts, and some batteries. Victor grabbed the closest item in reach. It was an arm. Victor had picked up a silver metallic arm, that once belonged to a robot. There were wires sticking out of the end of the arm, where the socket would have been. One was labelled positive, and one negative. There was some extra wire that was attached to the arm, and he dislodged them. The infirmary was a large area. Victor could outrun the doctor ... for a while. But sooner or later, he'd fatigue, and the robot wouldn't, and he'd be blow torched to death. And considering Victor's fitness level, that would be very soon. In fact, the robot had cornered Victor in the room, all thanks to Victor's attempt to pick up something, anything that would help him. But it was too late. With all of the materials behind him on the shelves, he made a last ditch effort to save himself from the doctor. Taking the metallic arm, Victor attempted to punch the doctor in the face, hopefully messing up enough components in the process that he wouldn't know what to do, or could not detect Victor anymore. And so Victor took the arm, aimed it with the fingers pointing towards the doctor and thrusted it back into a backswing. But Victor was not able to follow through on the punch. In fact, the arm dropped to the floor. But not until after something miraculous happened. When the arm got to the height of the backswing, the exposed wires connected with one of the batteries. This powered up the arm, and a red beam of light came flying out of the palm of the metallic arm. This beam of light hit the robot squarely in the glint of the eye of the doctor. The doctor then powered down. The robot doctor had a built in sensor in the eye. It would detect changes in the time, in order to simulate sleep, as well as other portions of the spectrum. When robots were first being constructed, they were built with the 5 laws of robotics. These laws were essentially created so that robots would not harm humans, as well as not harming themselves. At least not on purpose. But there was also a relatively unknown procedure used as well. The first robots built by StarCon were built in red-rooms, similar to those used in photo labs. These rooms only had red light available. This prevented the photos from being ruined, and it also prevented the sensors on the robots from being maladjusted. In other words, red light was used to keep the robot in 'unaware mode' until the sensors were functioning, and it could be programmed what times it should sleep and what times it should be awake. One did not want robots running loose in the middle of the night. So when Victor had put the red light built into the metallic arm (used to help humans read maps at night without losing their vision), it caused the robot doctor to do into 'unaware mode.' It was shut down, even though its switch was on, until a flash of green light was used to counteract the red light. But Victor was still in trouble. He couldn't escape the infirmary, which he now figured out was a robot repair station, rather than a human medical facility. But he did notice a large map on one of the counters. It was a map used by the maintenance robots. It looked to Victor like the robot doctor had to upload a new version of the map to some of the maintenance droids for whatever reason. And the map indicated there was an entry point into the sewer, but would end up, if he followed the right path, right outside the president's office. Victor knew this was the only way out. By now he figured out the S.W.A.T. team was all robots, and they would likely not listen to him, just as the doctor did not listen. So Victor, when none of the guards were looking, opened the sewer lid. "Even in the future, sewer lids are darned heavy!!" he thought to himself. Victor climbed down the staircase into the sewer, after carefully replacing the sewer lid. That way nobody would report him missing or anything like that. They would simply be confused how he could have escaped. The sewer was a very large system of tubes, all containing toxic waste flows. Luckily, there were metal walkways. He guessed robots didn't like sewage as much as humans didn't like it. He continued on until he reached a fork in the road. Well, actually, it wasn't a road. It was a walkway. And it wasn't a fork either, it was a knife. There was a knife in the walkway. Victor carefully looked at it. It was a Batmorth from the warrior culture known as the Klingoffs. It was a two handed sword, that looked like a giant bow from a bow and arrow kit. Except the bow didn't have any string, and there were handholes, and it was made of metal and had sharp blades, instead of being dull and without handholes. Victor turned it around to take a good look at it, and heard a 'click' sound. Suddenly several platforms started to turn, and some more came rising out of the toxic waste. The way back to the infirmary was now blocked, unless Victor could somehow jump 100 metres over toxic waste. Which of course he couldn't. Victor then heard some more noise. What moments earlier had been a simple rockface, collapsed into a doorway. It was the only way he could go. Victor carefully entered the doorway, not knowing what to expect. It could very easily collapse and kill him. Maybe he had sniffed too much of the toxic fumes from the toxic waste flows and this was all a dream. It could be very possible he was walking straight into toxic waste, never to be seen again. As Victor entered the doorway what he saw astonished him. There was a staircase that went spiralling downward in solid, what appeared to be black, stones. It looked just like a stairway to a turret in a castle. Except this one headed down, not up. There were lit torches every few feet to light the way. Victor carefully descended the staircase, half expecting to be attacked from behind or for all the torches to go out and he be left in the dark. He was utterly flabbergasted when he saw what was around the last corner of the stairwell. There, in a dark room lit by several more torches were a group of men. They wore ... what looked to be ancient clothing. Victor thought back and figured these people looked like they belonged in Robin Hood. He stood there, with his mouth wide open, for several minutes. Finally someone noticed him standing there. "Hello stranger." someone called out. The person was walking towards Victor. "Welcome to the Space Thieves Guild 3000!" CHAPTER SIX: THE MEN OF PRINCE Victor Clarence had walked right into a thieves guild. He had never seen or heard of one before. He did remember reading Robin Hood once, and these people reminded him of that book. But something about them made him antsy. He was nothing close to a thief. He had no clue what the normal customs were. Victor decided to play it cool. He pretended to be a thief from out of town. That way if the customs were not right, he could try and convince them that it is how they do it where he comes from, and they'd just brush it off. "Hey Bruno. Look who just walked in. Some space freak." said one of, about ten, thieves in the guild. "Yeah, he 'ust not be 'un of us. He's 'un of d'em 'dets from d'ems 'cademy." said a short pudgy thief. "That's Cadet mister." retorted Victor. "Uh oh, he's insulted us. We 'oing to 'ake it boys?" replied the pudgy one. "Uh, yeah you will." said Roger. "I'm ... uh ... one of you. I've come from ... very far away to get here. Only way into this sector is to act like a Cadet. In fact I had to borrow this uniform from ... some unlucky dead ... freak." "I don't believe you!" said one of the thieves. "YEAH!" the crowd cheered. "Prove it!" a man shouted in a deep voice. The crowd went quiet. Very quiet. This man was obviously worthy of their respect. The crowd parted to let him join the group. He was much bigger and muscular than any of the other thieves. In fact, it didn't look like this guy could be a thief at all. There was absolutely no way he could use stealth. He was just too big. Although he could just intimidate people to give him what he wants. "Uh ... how?" asked Victor. "The only way thieves know how to discover who is and isn't part of a guild." he said. And Victor understood. They would duel. They would fight using swords. Or else, they would play a game of pickpocket. The idea was this, one person had the back to the other and is blindfolded. One person is assigned pickpocketer and the other is the victim. If the victim says stop, the pickpocketer freezes exactly where they are. If he is in the middle of pickpocketing and is touching the victim, the victim gets a point. If he is not touching the victim, then the pickpocketer gets a point. This is a game usually reserved to see who is the best pickpocketer. Of course Victor, being the unknowing person he is, was convinced it was a swordfight, even though it was most likely the game. "I am prepared for the challenge." said Victor. "Good." the big man said. "Choose your set of electrodarts." Victor looked blankly at the electrodarts and tried to look like he was choosing. He had no clue what the heck was going on. He was thoroughly confused. Eventually, after choosing his darts and the big man shooting his dart at the electroboard, he figured it out. The challenge wasn't a swordfight, nor was it a pickpocket game. He was challenged to a dart game. The big man was almost perfect. Victor had no chance. And if he lost, he would surely be beaten up or killed by these thugs. After all, who'd find him if he was thrown into the sewage. He needed to find out a way to fix the game so that he'd win. Luckily, when Victor had found those ScumSoft games, one of them was Quest For Glory. In the game there was a scene where the hero, if he chooses to be a thief, joins the Thieves Guild. The hero can, among other things, play darts for money in this guild. And luckily Victor had played this game many times. Unfortunately he had only played it as a wizard or fighter. He just wasn't into thievery, even in video games. So Victor had no idea how to play this dart game. Yes, it was different than in Quest For Glory. That was darts, and this was electrodarts. The difference is that electrodarts uses an electronic scoreboard and darts, and automatically tallies up the points. Now Victor wasn't sure how he could rig the game. In fact, he didn't even know how the game was played. He was totally in the dark in this one. And it didn't help that there wasn't a light switch in the guild either. "Do not stand there all day. Choose your set of electrodarts or I will choose for you." said Victor's challenger. Victor did as he was told. He chose the blue set of electrodarts, and his competitor chose the green set. Victor figured it really didn't matter to him which set he took. He'd win with neither. Especially considering he has lousy aim, is inept when it comes to throwing, and has no clue where he was supposed to aim these darts. All around, he was in deep trouble. It was either win, or die. So Victor, having the same set of characteristics when it came to cleanliness as Roger Wilco, looked and was appalled at how dirty the electrodarts were. Victor looked around for something to clean them with. There was ... nothing. Oh well, he'd have to use his spit. Not very sanitary, but it does the trick. And so Victor spat on his darts and rubbed them with his shirt. Now Victor's shirt was made of a unique fibre, which was magnetic. Victor liked to brag that he had a 'magnetic personality.' Realistically, it was more like he had 'bipolar' personality. But whatever his real personality, his shirt magnetized the dart, without Victor realizing it. When he went to throw his electrodarts, he realized he never got a good look at the board. There was not enough light to fully see the board from where he was standing. "Could I inspect the board?" he asked. "Go right ahead." said his competitor. Victor walked up to the board and looked at it. Now Roger was always a neat freak, and so was Victor. When either of them saw a stain, or a mess, they cleaned it up. So when Victor saw that the centre of the dart board, which had the logo of the manufacturer, was smudged and illegible, he proceeded to clean it. Again, he used his spit and shirt to clean it. "What are you doing?" his competitor asked. "I'm cleaning the board. You really should invest in some cleaning products. They would make that board sparkles." Victor said. "Just stop stalling and play. I don't have all day." grumbled his competitor. Victor walked back over to where his competitor was standing. He threw his dart. It was headed about a 45 degree away from the board, looking like it would land on the ceiling. "Hahahahaha" laughed the competitor. But he had spoken too soon. The dart, got about halfway to the board, and then shifted angles and sped up and landed right in the middle of the dartboard. Exactly where Victor had started cleaning. "Did I screw up?" asked Victor. "...No." grumbled his competitor under his breath. Little did Victor realize, but when he had started to clean the board, he had magnetized it with his shirt. Having both the electrodart and the board magnetized made them attracted to each other and the centre of the board had pulled in the dart. He had accidentally rigged his darts to automatically be bullseyes, as long as they were aiming such that they would have landed near the board. The competitor nearly threw a perfect game, but Victor was better. One shot even had the dart facing the wrong way, but the magnetism straightened out the electrodart midflight and still landed in the middle. The competitor was not impressed. After that throw, he knew Victor had rigged his darts. "Give me those darts." he commanded. "Uh ... ok." said Victor as he handed the big man his last remaining dart. Then the big man said "Here, use this electrodart. If you can throw a bullseye, you leave with your life. If you don't, we will kill you. Block the exit boys!!" And so the mob of thieves blocked all the remaining exits to the guild. Victor was trapped. Plus he had to throw a bullseye without a magnetized electrodart. Victor took a look at his new dart. It was made by ...? He couldn't read it. He rubbed his shirt on it to read the label of the manufacturer. It was made by Acme Games. They were a subsidiary of Droids R Us. "Just throw already!" yelled the crowd. And so Victor threw ... a bullseye. Even Victor was surprised. He had thought his darts were rigged somehow, but having changed them, he was convinced he couldn't throw a bullseye. This proved to him he could actually play electrodarts. But the truth is he sucks at it and couldn't throw a bullseye to save his life. Although somehow he pulled off the impossible. Victor then calmly exited the guild and continued on his way. When Victor reached the sewers again, the walkways were back the way he found them, before he touched the weapon. He eventually came to a ladder and climbed up. What he saw amazed him. CHAPTER SEVEN: STRANGE ENCOUNTERS OF THE WEIRD KIND When Victor released the hatch and climbed out of the sewer he was amazing at what was looking back at him. It were a bunch of angry women. It seemed that he had landed himself in the women's washroom. He carefully surveyed his surroundings. The hatch was on one of the side walls of the women's washrooms. It overlooked the entire washroom, although the stall walls obstructed his view so he didn't know if there were anyone in the stalls. But he did know there were three angry women in front of him with big frowns and grunts of anger. As far as Victor could tell, he didn't recognize anybody. "Uh ... hi." he managed to say. "What are you doing here???!!" a blue-haired women angrily asked him. It was more of an assault than a question. "Uh ... I ... er ..." Victor tried to explain. But the women would have none of it. One of the women was a Pamelonian. She quickly grabbed Victor and thrust him to the ground. He was pinned and there was no way for him to escape. In another time, this could have been a sign of passionate love between him and this Pamelonian. But she wasn't going to kiss him now, she was going to beat him up. Or at least that is what Victor thought was going to happen. Then the Pamelonian yelled to the others "Hold him down!" The women complied. There was certainly no escape for Victor. Not unless the floor or roof caved way. But there was virtually no chance of that happening. To Victor's surprise, the Pamelonian just laid there, smiling. There was no attempt at a punch, or a kick or anything that would indicated hostility. She was just ... smiling. "Maybe I misjudged her. Maybe I'm turning her on or something" thought Victor. Victor decided to enjoy the moment. It wasn't everyday that a women jumped on top of him and had a smile on her face. Suddenly Victor felt a gentle push on his chest, more so than before. And then he remembered. Pamelonians chests expand when they are happy or aroused. Victor was starting to get aroused now. The pressure kept increasing as the size of her chest got bigger and bigger. But shortly thereafter, it was no more laughing matter. The pressure was getting so much for Victor that he was having a hard time breathing. He yelled for help, but nobody was there to help him. Nobody was there to save him. And then he passed out. But the women did not stop there. They planned on killing Victor. They planned on crushing Victor until his lungs collapsed and all of his organs crushed. Suddenly the door to the washroom swooshes open. The women continue what they are doing and pay no attention to this new occupant. "What's going on?" the women asks in a soothing tone. "None of your business!" came the brash answer. This stopped the conversation completely. But not before the new entrant to the washroom came closer to see what was going on. "Get off him! You're hurting him!" she screamed at them. But they did not move. One of them said "We do not take orders from you. Now get lost!" And then the new occupant got angry. Very angry. "You asked for it!!" she told them. And then she disappeared. The women thought she was just going to call the authorities. But by the time they'd arrive, Victor would be dead and the women would have left the scene of the crime. But little did they realize what she was doing. All of a sudden, there is motion from the ceiling going at lightning speed. Then the distortion expands into a conelike object and the women are flung away from the Pamelonian. Suddenly the Pamelonian starts to get up, but somehow quickly does a flip and smashes into one of the stalls in the other end of the washroom. The blur that had caused this commotion now started to merge itself into a single unit, moving slower and slower until it was fully visible. "Come on Victor," the figure said. "We are going home." CHAPTER EIGHT: ALWAYS HARD TO EXPLAIN Victor groggily woke up, only to find he couldn't pinpoint where he was. He started to move, only to find out he ached all over his body. "Don't move Victor." a soothing female voice told him. "It will only make it worse." He recognized that voice. He had heard it once before. He just couldn't place it. "She's right." a man told him. "You almost died back there. You were lucky she found you when she did. A few more seconds and you'd be dead. Finito. Nonexistant. Finished. Zonked..." "I get your point!" yelled Victor. That hurt his chest. His chest. He suddenly remembered something was on his chest earlier, but the details escaped him. "Who...?" asked Victor. It was all he could say. The man told him "Sorry about that fella. I guessed I assumed you knew who I am. My name is Dr. Jeclive." The soothing voice then told him "Don't worry Victor. You'll live. I'm just glad I found you when I did." And then he remembered. That voice was none other than the girl of his dreams. It was Danielle Venabili, his roommate. It was just too bad he was in such bad shape, and couldn't open his eyes to see her because he was in so much pain. "What...?" asked Victor. He still couldn't remember what happened. Both the doctor and Danielle looked at each other. It was the doctor who spoke first. "Well I wasn't there. I think it is best if I let Danielle here explain it. I've got some more work to do and tests to run. I'll be in my office if you need me." He then trotted along towards his office. They were both alone. This was the first time they had seen each other since Danielle yelled at Victor that he never wanted to see him again. "I guess you probably want to know what happened." she said. "What do you remember?" "My chest ... something ... was on it." he managed to say. "Correction, someone." she told him mockingly. She continued using her soothing voice and, at least to Victor, appeared genuinely concerned for him. "Well, let's see... where to begin?" she said. She seemed deep in thought. It was shattered when Victor said "The beginning." "Of course!! Why didn't I think of that myself! You're a genius!!" she exclaimed with fake excitement. Victor started to laugh, but it was interrupted by a sharp pain and a grimous. "Alright, no more jokes. I promise." she told him seriously. It is well known that 'laughter is the best medicine.' However, it also can be a huge problem for a patient depending on their injuries. Laughing contracts the chest muscles, and can cause so much pain to certain patients that they are knocked unconscious, or go into shock. Danielle clearly realized that Victor could be one of those patients. She continued. "I walked into the women's washroom and there were three women hovering overtop of something laying on the ground. I tried to inquire as to what was going on, but they essentially told me to leave, and I could sense they would become hostile if I tried to interfere. But something told me I should find out what was going on anyway. They were acting like bullies. As I got closer I could see there were two people pinning you to the ground and one ..." She paused. She looked away from Victor, who still had his eyes closed. She imagined his eyes were still sensitive to the light, but didn't want to ask the doctor about it. "Con...tin...ue" Victor urged her. Seeing how desperate he was, she bit the bullet and continued. Luckily the bullet was made out of chocolate, so her teeth didn't shatter. She was still looking away from Victor, with her back turned to him. "You were ... in the horizontal lovemaking position." Her voice was shaky, and not as soothing as it usually was. But Victor didn't even notice. He wasn't experienced enough (or intelligent enough) to understand these signs. In the matter of moments, Victor's face first went bright red and blushed. Then, almost immediately he gasped. And then immediately after that he asked "Was I having ...?" Danielle laughed. "Goodness no! You thought ... ?" She laughed again. Victor welcomed the opportunity to hear her laugh. It was refreshing indeed. "It was far from it, really." she said. "Basically they had you pinned down against your will. And ..." She stopped. Her smile faded from her face and a facial expression resembling a mixture of concern, sadness, and anger, making her expression unreadable. Not that it mattered to Victor. He still had his eyes closed. She walked a few paces away from Victor, and bowed her head. She was obviously disturbed. "What's the matter?" Victor asked. Even with his eyes closed, he could sense something was bothering her. "Uh, what? ... Oh, sorry. Everything is fine. Just wandered off for a bit there." She told him. Victor didn't buy it. But he didn't want to offend her. Not after his display at the president's speech. After a short pause she continued. "To make a long story short, they were crushing you. They put ... too much weight on you and had almost killed you when I entered." She walked back beside Victor and tried to cheer up. "They wouldn't listen to me." she said. "I told them to get away, but they wouldn't. They told me to leave. I knew then what I had to do." Danielle closed her eyes and took a few breaths. She bowed her head and said "I used my invisibilitude. I used it to attack them. I'm ashamed of myself." To Victor, it sounded like she was about to cry. "Don't cry. You should be proud. You saved me from ... certain death." Victor told her. "True." she told him. "But invisibilitude is not to be used for aggression. No matter what. I have misused the sacred art. I am a disgrace." This time she did cry. Something happened within Victor. Something strange and unidentifiable. Something happened to his soul. He felt guilt, and lots of it. He felt other emotions, too many to identify. They were extremely prevalent, in quantities he didn't know could happen. He was completely overwhelmed with emotion. "I'm sorry." he told her, on the verge of tears himself. "I'm sorry for forcing you to use invisibilitude. I'm sorry I got lost and ended up in the women's washroom. I'm sorry I got lost, which started all this. I'm sorry I did not pay attention when they called the number of our room. I'm sorry I treated you that way back at the President's speech. I'm really sorry Danielle. How can I ever repay you?" He still had his eyes closed, but she could see he was full of emotion. He meant all of that. And then, something totally unexpected happened. Danielle, stopped crying and wiped her tears away. She lowered her face so that their faces were only centimetres apart. And then she kissed him. Passionately. It was so unexpected, Victor didn't have time to respond. Ideally he would have liked to return the kiss, but by the time he got his senses back, she had ended the kiss. He opened his eyes to look at her. "You just did." she said. "I needed to see your eyes, to see if you really meant all those things. You did. Think of the kiss as an incentive to treat me better. You know all your mistakes you made, but I'm going to give you a second chance. There may be more kisses to come, but only if you do everything right. I'm warning you now. You screw things up one more time, that's it. I'll ask to be transferred to another room. I'll tell them you assaulted me. In a way, it would be true. You would have assaulted me emotionally. And then you'll never see me again. But I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. I'd just not make any stupid mistakes like you did in the past." Victor looked at her. She was so beautiful. He knew he didn't want to mess this up. He'd been given a second chance, something he didn't deserve. He then made a promise to, no matter what, not hurt her. Ever. There was nobody like her, and he just found that out. If she left him, he'd never be happy again. It was amazing that a simple kiss could make Victor open his eyes. It is amazing how a good aphrodisiac can make a very good pain killer. In fact, he was so focused on Danielle and thinking about her, he forgot he was injured. "Doctor?" Danielle called out. "Yes? What is it?" he replied. The doctor came walking towards Danielle and Victor. "Is he all set to go to his room?" she asked. The doctor replied "Well, he's up now. Finally got his eyes open I see. I don't see why not." "Thanks, doc." she told him. Danielle then walked over to Victor, held his hand and helped him to his feet. Once he was up, she dragged him out the door, almost causing him to trip several times. When you haven't been walking for a while, it is tough to be forced into it. And so the two lovebirds went to their room. Well, one was in love, and the other was as beautiful as a bird, but had no clue about who she was or where her flight was taking her. CHAPTER NINE: THE MORNING Victor and Danielle walked to their room. It was the first time Victor had seen it. It was a fairly small compared to what both were used to, but it was adequate. The room was essentially divided into three areas, forming a 'T' or a cross. As you enter, there is one large room, divided in the middle. On the left was the living quarters for one of them. To the right is an exact copy of the other side, intended to be the living area for the other individual. In the centre, in a straight line from the entrance, is the washroom. There was only one washroom, and that made both Victor and Danielle weary. What would happen when they both needed to go simultaneously? They both put the thought it out of their heads. The room was without any decorations. Cadets were to personalize their rooms to their liking. Having no wall between the two living spaces would force new Cadets to learn how to deal with conflicting opinions. It was not unheard of for one Cadet to put up pictures of ferocious animals fighting with each other, and have the other one scared out of their wits because they were afraid of big animals, and couldn't stand the sight of blood, even on a poster. In the room, there were several standard pieces of furniture. On each side of the main room there were two beds. Each were of medium size. They would handle two humans decently, or even one large alien. In the centre of the room was a round table with two chairs. This was the only table. Assumingly it was to be the table at which meals were eaten. There was a cafeteria of sorts at the Academy, but many Cadets preferred to avoid it and use the replicators in their room. There were two replicators in the room, one on each side of the door. They were firmly mounted into the wall. It seemed strange to Victor why two were needed, until he examined them closely. One was designated for solids, and one for liquids, although they both could be programmed for either. The door to the room swooshed open and Danielle and Victor entered. By now they were not holding hands. Victor, still recovering from his injuries, was being supported by Danielle, the way someone supports a friend who has sprained their ankle. It was clear that although Victor could walk, he ran out of energy very quickly. It would be several days before he fully recovered. Lucky for him, there was only some minor informational sessions going on for the rest of the week. The Academy kept things very light, until classes start up. At that point, they shift things into hyperdrive. The Academy did not want to lose those that have trouble finding there way around, or have trouble getting settled in a new stage in their life. By having a 'do nothing important week,' the Academy allows all cadets to be comfortable with themselves and the Academy before setting into their studies. This maximizes the grades achieved since nobody is trying to figure out where their classes or other rooms are, and are fully concentrating on learning the material taught. Danielle set Victor onto what would become his bed. She tucked him in and told him to get some rest. Being very exhausted from their walk, he agreed. If anyone were to observe the two of them, they would come to the conclusion that Danielle was a nurse, and Victor her patient. And they would also notice she enjoyed what she was doing. Did she want to be a nurse? Was she at StarCon Academy to become a doctor on a starship, and viewed this episode with Victor as just a step in her training? Or was there something more then what meets the eye? Was there more to the relationship than just simple empathy? Any normal human being would have come to the aid of Victor and would have been concerned he would make it. Some might continue to worry until he made a full recovery. But nobody was there to observe and ask these questions. Nor did Victor or Danielle ever think about the questions. Only time would tell what the relationship would hold, if anything. It may hold life-long friendships or even love, or it might just hold a bucket of mud and disappointment. The next day, Victor groggily woke up and was still sore. Although this time, he was significantly less sore than before. His pain was gone too, and he was easily able to open his eyes. When he opened them he saw Danielle smiling down at him, with teeth as white as fresh snow in the sunshine. "Good morning." she said soothingly. "I was wondering how long you were going to sleep." "What time is it." asked Victor. He had no clue when it was. For all he knew it could be several days since he went to sleep. "It is 1300 hours." answered Danielle. "I didn't want to wake you. You were sleeping like a baby." "Like a crying baby? Or like an exhausted baby?" he teased. "Neither. You were sleeping like the big baby you are." she said teasingly Victor laughed. It felt good. His ribs weren't hurting anymore. A bit sore, but the pain was gone. Danielle just smiled at him and appeared to be deep in thought. Victor was still lying in bed, and she was sitting on the side of the bed, facing him. She had a look on her face that signalled she was happy, and was having happy thoughts. Unfortunately her thoughts were shattered by Victor's voice. "Uh ... you're sitting on my arm. It is going numb, could you move please?" he said. "Oh ... sorry." she told him, while moving so that Victor's arm was free again. She wasn't smiling anymore. Her upbeat, carefree nature was gone. It was replaced with a serious look of nonemotion. At that moment, she could have been thought to be from the Vultins, a race of nonemotional beings. "You looked like you were in another dimension. What were you thinking?" asked Victor. "Oh, nothing important." she told him, this time looking down at the floor. She still was serious, not showing any emotion. But even Victor, having the intelligence, or lack of it, of Roger Wilco knew that she was lying. It was important to her. Very important. He had no idea why, or even what signalled that she was lying, but he knew. Something about the way she had acted triggered an instinct in Victor that instantly told him that what she was thinking of was of utmost importance to her. All of a sudden, her serious look was gone and she changed the subject. "You must be hungry." she said. "You haven't eaten all day. I'll get you something from the replicators. Anything in particular you feel like?" "Something leafy." he told her. "I feel like cleaning, so I might as well clean my digestive tract." "How would you clean up after whiplash of the heart?" she asked him. Victor stared blankly, waiting to see if the neurons in his head were going to fire, resulting in him understanding the question. Unfortunately they did not. After several seconds, Victor finally responded. "WHAT??!" he asked. He had a twisted look on his face, thoroughly confused. "Oh, nevermind." she told him. "It doesn't really matter." This time Victor was so confused he didn't know what to think. The truth was, the answer to the question Danielle had asked did matter. It was just that no matter who she asked, the answer would always be the same. Confusion and no understanding of the question. Even though she never asked anyone before or since this time she asked Victor, she knew nobody would understand. Nobody but her was capable of understanding it. Danielle got the replicator to make them some meals. She brought back a bowl of hot mushroom soup and a bowl of caesar salad. She handed the salad to Victor. "Thanks." he said, taking the bowl from her. "Don't mention it." she told him, and proceeded to eat her soup. There was no dialogue while Victor and Danielle were eating. They did not look at each other either. Victor was extremely hungry, not having eaten in over 24 hours. Danielle on the other hand, was preoccupied with something. She hadn't been her usual self all morning, although Victor had no idea what that actually looked like and so did not realize it. The time period until dinner was used to discover who the roommates were. Questions revolved around the basics. Where are you from, what was your childhood like, and so on. Nothing major, nothing that important, nothing very intimate. It seemed like it was just a way to pass the time. The entire day, Victor did not get out of bed. He was too exhausted and needed rest. He still hadn't recovered fully from his near flattening. After dinner, they decided to get some shuteye. Danielle walked over to Victor's bed. She sat gingerly on the side of the bed, making sure she did not sit on any of his appendages. She smiled at Victor, and proceeded to stroke his hair. Victor smiled back. He could see that she was in another dimension again, but, considering how much he cared for her and the fact he liked her stroking his hair, he just let her do her thing. Eventually she came to. "Goodnight." she said in her usual soothing tone. She smiled. "Hope you sleep well." "Same to you." Victor told her. "Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite." That brought her completely back to reality. "Bed bugs?" she asked, her voice slightly shaken. "Where? They dangerous?" She was clearly agitated. "It was a figure of speech." Victor explained. Clearly she hadn't heard it before. "Oh ..." she said, blushing. She was clearly embarrassed. "Please refrain from using any more expressions unless they are explained first." she told him cooly, almost sounding like a recording. "Uh ... sure." said Victor. He was clearly baffled that she had not heard the expression used. Come to think of it, he had no idea where the expression originated or what it originally meant. Perhaps there are beds that are actually alive, and then eat the person who sleeps on it. Something like a Venus Fly Trap, although this would be a Human Sleeper Trap. Victor then made a mental note not to use the crocodile and alligator expression when saying goodbye. CHAPTER TEN: THE TALK The next day, Danielle was back to normal. Whatever it was that was bothering her had been settled, she was her usual self. Victor was in remarkably better shape. He wasn't sore anymore, but was weak and still needed assistance. He still had trouble moving around, not having used his muscles much in the last few days. All that day, Danielle happily helped him with everything from getting him food to helping him move around the room. She acted as a good friend and nurse, although she actual was neither. She had no medical training, and she hadn't known Victor enough to really be considered a friend ... yet. The day went very well, and they talked about many things, though most were not important enough to bother being remembered. Then they went to sleep. The following morning, Victor was completely healthy, mobile, and needed no more assistance. It was unsettling for Victor to not have Danielle hovering over him, or helping him every time he wanted to do something. Sometime in the morning, after Victor had gotten and eaten his breakfast, Danielle approached him. "We need to talk." she told him. Her voice was soothing, although did not contain any emotion. "Uh, sure." he told her. He did not know what it would be about, nor had any ideas on why they would need to talk. But he'd soon find out. They both walked over to the table in the centre of the room, and sat down in the chairs. Each person was on their own side of the room, facing each other. Danielle got right to the point. "You are now fully healed, correct?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer. "Yeah." replied Victor. "Good." she told him and continued. "You now do not need any assistance, from me or anyone else for that matter. You are completely own your own now." "Uh ... I don't understand" he told her. He was not good at figuring out the hidden meaning of what people said. "I'll explain." she told him. "You were injured, and needed help. I helped you. You also needed emotional help, your psyche was damaged and were emotionally hurt. In short, you needed cheering up. It would do me nor you any good if I was angry or emotionless. You were too close to going into a deep depression, and I had the power to prevent it. I would not let you or anyone else be harmed that way just because I didn't feel like interfering." "I'm not following." he declared. His inability to follow what she was saying was starting to get on her nerves. She sighed. "Very well, I'll try to make it simple. I was artificially extra nice to you, and smiled more than normal, in order to improve your mood. This prevented you from going into a depression that could have been catastrophic. I felt obligated to be extra nice because I'd be responsible for any damage done by not interfering, since it was in my power to prevent it from happening." Slowly the words started to sink in for Victor. His eyebrows furrowed as his face made an expression of disbelief. It did not even cross his mind that Danielle's emotions she displayed were anything but what they actually were. It shocked him. The colour in his face started to fade. Danielle, quickly diagnosing the situation, saw that Victor was going into shock. She rolled her eyes, shook her head and sighed. Then, using her nursing abilities she had been using for the last few days, she helped him recover from the shock. Surprisingly she displayed her 'artificial niceness' while helping Victor, something she probably could have not done and still got away with it, since he was now aware of it. Victor soon recovered and thanked Danielle. "Thanks." he told her. "Thanks for everything. Sorry you had to put up with me these past few days." "It was either that, or hear you moan and groan from your side of the room." she told Victor. "Besides, it is not like I could have gone anywhere. This is as much my room as it is yours." She was right. She had nowhere to go, and there was no way to escape it. She could have walked around the station, but she had already done that and knew where everything was. She had no possible reason to be wandering around. Besides, that is how Victor got into trouble. "So what now?" he asked. He dreaded what her answer would be. "Well, we are going to be seeing a lot of each other, no matter what." she said. "There are no walls between our living spaces. But still ..." She paused. It appeared as if Danielle did not know what she was going to say next. It looked like she was orchestrating a conversation, having the next pages handed to her only at the last second. Victor then said "I hope we can still ..." He stopped. He just couldn't say it. If he said that he hoped they could still be friends, that is probably all the relationship would amount to. He wanted more than that. And if he said that he hopes they can still try dating each other, she might outright reject him as he would be 'moving too fast.' He just couldn't finish the sentence. The two of them looked at each other. They couldn't finish their sentences. The moment of silence was welcomed, but was still awkward for both of them. They sat there, not saying a word, just looking at each other, for several minutes. They were both waiting for the other to make a move. It was Danielle who finally broke the silence. "Why don't we just take it one day at a time?" she said. It was more of a statement than an question. "I guess we should." Victor confessed. "How about this: we both try to act as if the last few days never happened and start over. Yes, we'll never forget those days. We will have those memories forever. But rather, why don't we just start over. We didn't exactly get off on the right foot. Treat this as pressing the reboot button of our relationship." "Well, I'm just glad it isn't the shutdown button." quirked Victor. And so their relationship started over again. For Victor, he would have liked to have a relationship where Danielle was that extra happy person. It uplifted his spirit so much. But as the expression goes, 'life is tough.' But considering how he screwed up at the beginning, never figured out her emotions he saw were forced, and had to be rescued by her which forced her to use her invisibilitude for aggressive purposes, he was lucky she was willing to give the relationship another shot. He just hoped the shot wasn't a bullet in his heart, but rather an arrow from Cupid's bow. CHAPTER ELEVEN: CRIMINOLOGY CLASS The next day was the first day of classes at StarCon Academy, ... and also the first day of the new relationship between Danielle and Victor. Victor was mostly taking the basic courses, but he was also taking an advanced criminology course as well. This course would make him into a full fledged officer of the peace, giving him the basic skills to investigate and solve crimes, as well as deal with criminals. Or so the brochure went. Victor walked into the lecture hall, not quite sure what he was expecting. A thousand questions went through his mind. Would there be thousands of Cadets there? Would he have a hope of doing well? Did the professor mark on the parabola? Was he insane taking an advanced course? Would he really be a good police officer? Would he be a good StarCon officer? Why was the sky blue? Who created the creator of the universe? Was Roger Wilco a good lover? His thoughts were shattered when he heard some voices. "Please take your seats. The lecture is about to begin." someone said. Oh no! Victor was going to be late for his very first class, in his very first year! He raced towards the entrance of the class, one of two side entrances. Luckily for Victor, there were no doors on the rooms so he could run in them at full tilt. Unluckily, he didn't get into the class unnoticed. "Stop right there young man!" came a voice from the front of the lecture hall. Victor halted. He slowly turned his head towards where the voice was coming from, and a man in a StarCon uniform was on stage staring at him. It was the professor. The professor was talking to him, Victor Clarence. When the professor continued, he was using a much calmer voice then his command tone he had used just moments before. "Please come down here." The professor told him. Victor, not wanting to get into any more trouble then he was already in, obliged. The lecture hall was such that he had to walk through many several rows of seating until he reached the stairs that led up to the stage. Victor decided he wanted to take a look at the lecture hall, to see where he'd sit once he talked with the professor. While walking, he looked all around, and all he could see were people. All he could see were living creatures from various worlds all looking straight at him. They were all looking at Victor Clarence. He felt important. Well, until he tripped over the first step leading up to the stage. He fell face first into the black staircase. Then there was a deafening roar. All those hundreds, if not thousands of people were laughing. They were all laughing at Victor Clarence. Suddenly, Victor didn't want to be the centre of attention anymore. Luckily the StarCon engineers had used a giving material when constructing the staircase. They probably assumed there would be very old professors who would have to walk up on these stairs and one would probably fall. Little did they realize it would actually be a very young Cadet who'd be thankful they were soft and forgiving. In fact, Victor didn't even have a scratch from the fall. Well, except for the emotional scar he had to endure. When Victor finally reached the top of the stage, he had somehow expected the professor to be smiling at him. Perhaps even laughing. Instead he was deadly serious and whispered to him. "You alright?" he asked in a hushed tone. Victor nodded. That seemed to make the professor more relaxed and upbeat. The professor picked up his microphone and started to have his conversation with Victor. It had seemed so long ago that Victor had been running into this packed lecture hall, not knowing what to expect. He had almost forgot why he had come onstage. "What is your name?" asked the professor. "Uh ... Victor, ... Victor Clarence." replied Victor. It was clear to anyone in the hall that he was nervous. Wouldn't anyone be nervous talking with the professor who'd end up determining whether you pass or fail, in front of what looked to be thousands of fellow Cadets. "Alright Victor. What year of study are you in?" the professor asked. Victor looked down at the floor and almost blushed. The last thing he wanted was the professor or students to think he was a brainiac. Because that was the furthest from the truth. "Uh ... first." he said. "Really?" said the professor. And then he faced the large audience, now filled with all those who had come later than Victor. "So, you want to be a cop, is that right? You want to be a StarCon police officer?" Victor looked stunned. Professors didn't just know what first year Cadets were aiming towards. Especially if what they were trying to do career wise was a secret to their family. Victor hadn't told anyone what he wanted to do, not even Danielle. Besides, students take criminology with all sorts of different aspirations. Some take it so that when they encounter hostile aliens, they understand how the criminal mind works and what potential crimes they are likely to commit. Some take it as an elective to meet graduation requirements. Some take it as a first step to becoming a police officer. The list goes on and on. But how did he know he was wanting to be a StarCon Police Officer? The question bothered Victor immensely. But he didn't have time to think about it, because the conversation with the professor wasn't over. After several seconds from the time the professor asked his question, Victor finally answered. "Uh ... I guess so." was all he could say. The professor nodded, more than necessary in fact, and appeared as if he completely understood what Victor was saying. This seemed odd to Victor. Nobody, in all his years of existence, had figured him out. He was never understood. This came partly from his close resemblance to Roger Wilco, at least in personality and preferences. So for a professor, who had seen him for a total of three minutes, to completely understand what he was saying seemed odd to Victor. Very odd. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the professor, yelling with authority into his microphone. "Your attention please!" he said. "Your attention. You are about to witness your first demonstration of criminology. The first demonstration of criminal law." This got everyone's attention. The few murmurs in the crowd subsided and there was complete silence. Everyone was wondering if there was a criminal in the room. "This is Victor Clarence." yelled the professor. "He is in his first year here. He does not yet understand the rules of this very establishment. He, upon realizing he was late, ran from where he was into this very room." There were gasps all around the hall. It sounded like a huge vacuum had taken one big suck of air from the room. "Uh ... " said Victor. "Is that not allowed?" There were more gasps, but this time they were followed by the murmurs of whispers and soft voices. The crowd was discussing it with their neighbours. When the noise finally subsided, the professor answered his question. "Yes it is." he said. "Under Section C, Subsection A-32, Page P-2, Paragraph B-4 it states that there is to be no running in the Academy other than ... " He stopped. A hand went up in the front row. "Press the buzzer if you have a question." said the professor. And then, above the professor on a screen behind him, there was a green dot, indicating the student is free to speak. "Professor." the student started to say. "I believe that it was Subsection A-35, not A-32, and it was Paragraph C-4, not B-4." The student then sat down and waited for the professors answer. It was clear at this point that Victor was not in a class of equals. He was not in a class of lesser beings either. He was the town fool in a town full of Einsteins. He didn't have a chance at passing the class, especially if the professor grades on a parabola. "My mistake. You are correct." said the professor. He then made sure that there were no more questions and continued. "The rule states that there is to be no running in the Academy other than in an emergency great enough that the Blue Alert Sirens are activated. "Uh ... I thought I had heard sirens." replied Victor. Victor, had neglected to mention that he had thought he had heard the panic sirens that go off in his head. The professor, simultaneously looked down and slapped his palm of his hand on his forehead and made a loud sound. He then made a large sigh, waited a few moments and pulled his head back up. He then proceeded to make a big speech, which first-year Cadets always seem to expect of their professors. "It is the tradition of StarCon Academy that nobody who attends the Academy will ever leave it without having a job available in the StarCon Federation. It is a well known fact here at the Academy that all members of StarCon, even the janitors, have the potential to help in the saving of the universe and ridding it of evil. It is our duty to ensure that all Cadets are as prepared as possible for their position in their chosen field of study. I will personally ensure that Victor, as well as the rest of you, pass my class with the skills necessary to investigate crimes." And then Victor was silently told to have a seat and attend the rest of the lecture. "Good luck!" said the professor. He was addressing the class on wishing them success in the course. And then he added under his breath "You'll need it Victor." CHAPTER TWELVE: ARE ROOMMATES EVER ALONE? After all of his classes were finished for the day, Victor went back to his room. He was exhausted. He never realized how much work learning could be. In fact, Victor was so tired he didn't even notice that Danielle was not there. In the past week or so she had been in the room at all times, or at least when Victor was there. And now ... she was gone. After a minute of trying to figure out why there was no dinner waiting for him - it was Danielle's turn to use the replicators - Victor finally realized she was gone. His heart started to race. What had happened to her? Where did she go? Would he ever see her again? And then something caught his eye. Right in the middle of the kitchen table was ... something white. Victor approached with caution. It was flat and curled. It roughly formed the shape of a bowl, except much flatter and thinner. In fact it was as thin as a Marulu flatsnake, which were almost invisible they were so flat. Fearing it might attack him, Victor slowly approached in the crouch position, using as much stealth as possible. Victor was soon within striking distance of his prey. "I've got you now" he whispered under his breath. He leapt up and smashed his clenched fist into his prey. If it wasn't flat before, it sure was now. Victor then removed his hand from the prey and examined the damage. Surprisingly it was exactly the same as it was before he punched it. But upon examining it, he noticed something he hadn't seen before. There were markings on it. Curious as to what they were, and now knowing his prey was dead, Victor picked up his flat prey to examine the markings more closely. The markings were a bunch of symbols, with slashes and swoops. And then he realized he had seem these symbols before. They weren't symbols per se, but they were letters of the alphabet. The markings weren't symbols, they were words! Having figured this out, Victor wanted to see what sorts of words would be inscribed on the back of an animal. He read the words aloud: "Victor, My classes start just after yours finish. Will not see you any time except weekends. Danielle." He finally figured it out. It was a note left by Danielle for him. And it wasn't an animal after all. Victor searched through his memory banks and figured out it was a rare substance known as paper. With the advent of the Personal Electronic Pads, the use of paper were eliminated. All communication was electronic, eliminating the need for a printer or computer paper. AutoSaniCloths replaced toilet paper, and after all these were invented, paper production was halted. It was the first time Victor had actually seen a piece of paper. He felt humiliated. At least nobody had seen my embarrassing moment. he thought. He thought too soon. "What, you've never seen a piece of paper before Victor?" came the voice of Danielle from the entranceway. She laughed. Victor could tell she had been holding it in, trying not to make a sound. HE wondered whether she had used her invisibilitude to observe him. He'd made a mental note to ask her at a later date. "As a matter of fact, I haven't." he replied. This just made Danielle laugh even harder. She bellowed over in laughter. Victor waited patiently for her to regain her calm. "You are probably wondering why I'm here when I wrote you the note." she said when she regained control. "You see, I had forgot my notepad." She pulled out a pad of paper. Victor had never seen a sheet of paper, let alone a whole pad. It looked like it was the same size as the one she had used to write the note on. Victor was thoroughly confused. His face went all twisted as to ask "Why not just use the P.E.P.s?" "You're probably wondering why I don't just use a P.E.P." she said. "Well, it is a long story, and I don?t' have time to tell it. I'll be late for my class. Oh, and I thoroughly enjoyed your performance. It just made my day." She laughed again, heading out the door. As quickly as she had appeared, she was gone. And then it hit Victor. He realized he didn't have a clue about that woman. As much time as they had spent together in the last week, he still did not know much about her. For starters, why was if funny that he hadn't seen paper before? It had been obsolete for as long as he was alive. Did that mean she was older than she looked? But then why would she just be starting at the Academy now? There were so many questions he'd like to ask, but they'd have to wait until the weekend. For all of the rest of the week, Victor and Danielle did not see each other, even for a second. There classes were such that one would never be home when the other was, except when they were sleeping. And Victor was always fast asleep by the time Danielle arrived home. And Danielle was always asleep when Victor left for his classes in the morning. For the rest of the week Victor wondered whether Danielle had scheduled hers so that they would not see each other on purpose. And then the weekend rolled around. Used to his sleeping habits back home, Victor slept in until about 1100 hours. He woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs. He quickly got on his housecoat and got out of bed. He walked over and sat down at the table. "Good morning." said Danielle, who was sitting at the table, already eating her breakfast. "I thought you'd never wake up. I was trying to wait for you to wake up before having breakfast, but you just took too long." "If you were so impatient, why didn't you wake me?" asked Victor. "I did. You smelt my breakfast and woke up." she said. And that's right. Victor did smell something and it made him wake up, or at least the timing was such that it appeared very probably that was the case. And then Victor realized he normally didn't smell food. Of course there is the smell of the actual food itself, but this smell ... it was more like the smell of cooking, rather than the food itself. And replicators never replicated the smell of cooking, just the food. This prompted Victor to take a closer look at his surroundings. Sure enough, he spotted dishes and items over in Danielle's corner, just laying on the counter. Amongst these items, Victor could recognize a portable fusion cooker. It was essentially a portable cooking appliance that would cook foods using a tiny fusion reactor. It was rare to see a working model of these, most were found in museums. They are still used in various places where conventional power is not available. There are a few around for the camping enthusiasts, although most simply bring a fusion replicator, a portable replicator with a very limited menu of food items. Although these can be programmed so that all the family favourites are there. All these items were next to the sonic cleaner, which cleans anything you put in it. This can be everything from clothes, to dishes, to the family pet. Clearly the items on the counter were going to be put into the sonic cleaner as soon as Danielle finished her breakfast. "How come you made breakfast using a portable fusion cooker?" asked Victor. Why didn't you just use the replicator? Was it broken?" "Oh, no. It wasn't broken" she said. "I just find I like the smell of food cooking when I eat food. A replicator usually just makes it taste bland." "But why now, and not earlier, when you brought me that caesar salad?" he asked. "Well I only need it for breakfast. It seems to wake me up and make me vitalized." replied Danielle. Victor got up, and walked over to order some toast and sausages from the replicator. After a few seconds the meal appeared and he returned to the table with his breakfast. By now, Danielle was all finished and was putting her dishes and the items used to make her breakfast into the sonic cleaner. She returned to the table and waited for Victor to finish his meal. Once all dishes were put into the sonic cleaner, they both sat back down at the table. "I have some things I need to discuss with you Victor." said Danielle. Her voice was soothing but serious. Oh great, another serious talk. thought Victor But he responded with a simple nod to show he understood. "First off, we will not see much of each other in this semester of study. Even less than you expect." said Danielle "Oh?" replied Victor. "Yes, I am going back home for the weekends. I need the comfort of home to defuse all the stress of my classes." she said. "Uh ..." Victor hesitated. He thought about what he was going to say and decided to say it after all. "You sure ... I wouldn't be able to help you de-stress in some way?" "Sorry Victor. I know you mean well, but I need to see my parents. Going back home for a few days makes me feel like a kid again. That's something that you, or anyone else for that matter, are unable to do for me." She seemed almost ... disappointed that was the case. "So ... when you leaving?" asked Victor. He hoped not until the following stardate. "Right now actually." she told him. This time she was noticeably sad. Was she sad that Victor wouldn't be seeing her, sad she was going to see her parents, or sad about something else? Victor had no idea. "I've just got to go and get packed. Would you like to help me?" "ABSOLUTELY!!" beamed Victor. This part, he hadn't considered. But then as quickly as he was happy, he was sad again. Helping someone pack wasn't fun. Even if you were in love with the person. And he knew he would be accelerating the time that she would be in their room that day by helping her pack. And so they walked over to Danielle's side of the room and started to pack the things she would need. The conversation continued over on her side of the room. "If you need me I'll be on hyperwave transmission." she told Victor. "Select wavelength 100.3 and send out your message. It'll reach me." "But that's ..." said Victor. He was clearly surprised. "Yes, it is. That is the wavelength of our transceivers at home. The frequency is not used anymore, and is not monitored either. The quality is too low by today's standard." "So why use it?" asked Victor. It was starting to be clear how much he did not understand about this woman. First invisibilitude, then the portable fusion cooker, and now using outdated communications equipment. It just didn't make sense. "We prefer the old. The area I come from is mostly in the 'wild zone' of our planet." she told him. Wild zones were zones designated to preserve biodiversity. Nobody was permitted into this area, unless one was living the way of barbarians. No visitors are allowed into these areas, for fear it would ruin the natural state of these areas. However, live video feeds from various satellite and soil cams provided enough information for conservationists to determine whether anyone is actually in these areas, and to see whether the wildlife is living happily in these areas. Occasionally people would decide to live the old ways and were permitted into these areas. But nobody has ever heard of someone living in a wild zone. It is too dangerous. The wildlife is not domesticated and is liable to unpredictable behaviour. The fact that Danielle was from a wild zone answered some, but not all, of Victor's questions. However, he did not feel this was the time to have his other questions answered. Victor realized he probably wouldn't be seeing Danielle the entire semester of classes. He was really sad. It was almost as if she was purposely avoiding him. They finished packing her things and she walked to the entrance of the room. She stopped. Victor noticed she appeared to be deep in thought for about a minute. She turned around, now facing Victor. "Listen, you may not see me the rest of the semester." she told him. "But I'll be here. Don't just trash the place or anything. I'm still going to be here, living in this very room Victor. Just wake up in the middle of the night and I'll be over there in my bed." She pointed to where her bed is, opposite Victor's bed. All Victor would have to do is wake up and look over at her bed in the middle of the night to see her. He guessed there may be nights where he'll wake up, just to watch her sleep. She then proceeded to do something unexpected. She leaned toward Victor and gave him a peck on his cheek. It stunned Victor. He was not expecting it. "That is an incentive for keeping this place tidy, clean, and for not rifling through my stuff." she told Victor. "If you can do that, this relationship may just have a chance. But I wouldn't count your chickens before they were hatched." "Chickens ... ?" asked Victor. He was confused. "Oh, right. You need a history lesson." She told him. She smiled at him and gave a slight shake of her head. "Well, chickens were once an animal that was harvested for food. With the advent of the replicator they were no longer needed and were left to the wild. Unfortunately their genes had been modified so many times for breeding purposes, they had no hope in the wild. These birds once could fly, but those genes had long been eliminated, and so in the wild, they were sitting ducks." "Ducks ... ?" asked Victor again. "Jeez, I guess when this semester is over I'll have to give you some history lessons." she jokingly told him. "Ducks were an animal that could fly. They were hunted with rifles for food as well as trophies. But a sitting duck is an expression used to say that the duck is just sitting in the water and very still, just waiting to be shot. It is an expression used to indicate an easy target." "Uh ... oh. I see." said Victor. Danielle wasn't too sure he understood but it didn't matter. She had to leave to get home in time. She then grabbed her luggage and went out the door. That would be the last time Victor would see her until right before exams. CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE MISSING EXAM For Victor Clarence life wasn't too great during the semester. He had found the love of his life, who he could not tell whether loved him back or not. Not only that, he hadn't seen her because they were always away from their room at different times. Yes, life was tough for Victor. He missed Danielle so much he almost went into a depressional withdrawal. However, other than his nonexistent personal life, Victor was doing well in his classes. He was on time for all his classes, even for criminology. He had learned his lesson from the professor. He'd never again run in the Academy. But what Victor failed to realize, was that life as a StarCon Cadet was more than just studying. There were friendships to be made, organizations to form, fun things to do. But Victor would have none of it. He missed Danielle too much. What he failed to realize was that his studies were suffering because of his missing friend. Having been his first semester of classes, he did not realize how tough the tests would be. He would not be prepared for many of them, except the one titled 'How to ensure your workspace is neat and clean.' In that one, he was at the top of the class. But he was at the bottom of the class for criminology. It wasn't that Victor didn't pay attention during class. He did. It wasn't because he didn't do the work. He did that too. It wasn't because he didn't remember things. He was average at that. But it was because he wasn't engaged in it enough to fully understand it all. He could regurgitate any information the professor had told him, but he wouldn't remember much from the textbook. Luckily the professor told him most of what was in the book. But Victor was like a walking encyclopaedia. He knew the facts of it all, but had no clue about the practice. It was like when young students understand the math, but just can't figure out the word problems. If they could figure out which mathematical formula went with the written problem, they'd ace it. Instead they fail, because they can't figure out what formula to use. A similar thing was happening for Victor Clarence. Classes were finally over. The only thing that remained for Victor were his exams. His first was criminology. Then in a week's time he'd have his other classes. Victor, as usual, walked to his room from his last class of the day. Except this time it was the last class of the semester. He walked through the door, looked up and got startled enough to jump back a few paces. There, in front of him was Danielle Venabili. She had returned. "Don't look so surprised to see me." she told him. "My classes are over as well you know." That hadn't occurred to Victor. He was so used of not being in the room, he had expected her to continue to not be there. "How long you going to stay for?" he asked. "I'll be here as long as I'm not in my exams." she said. "And when are they?" he asked, hoping that they were not all right away, so that they'd be able to have some time together. "I don't remember." she told Victor. "But I have got some study groups for my next exam lined up for the next few nights." "I'm exhausted." said Victor. He was. It was partly due to the long semester, and partly due to the overflow of emotion now that Danielle was back. "Me too." said Danielle. "Why don't we get some rest and talk in the morning. I've got a few important things I want to tell you." They both moved their separate ways and got ready for bed. For the first time in ages, Victor got a good night's sleep. The tension caused by his depression from not seeing Danielle had vanished, making him more relaxed and had allowed him to get a good night's sleep. He groggily got up, and looked at his bedside clock. It was 1100 hours. "Good morning." he said. Danielle would be cooking breakfast at about this time. But Victor didn't smell anything. Nor was there a response to his words. He rubbed his eyes, and got up. His heart was racing. "DANIELLE??!!" He shouted, to make sure she wasn't just in the sonic shower or something. There was no response. And then Victor saw something on the table. It was a P.E.P. "That's strange." he said aloud, to nobody in particular. "That's not mine. And Danielle would never use the things." He walked over and picked up the P.E.P. On the screen was a message. Victor read it aloud. "Good Morning Sunshine! As I told you earlier, I have an exam. It is a long one. I will not be back until tonight. Don't wait up for me. Danielle." It was very odd. Danielle would never call Victor Sunshine, and she would never use a P.E.P. either. And she had told Victor she had study groups for her next exam for at least two nights. That meant either the letter or what she said was a lie. Considering it was written on a P.E.P. it was clear that this message was not written by Danielle. Or Danielle was forced to write it. But why? Something was definitely wrong and Victor knew it. And then Victor remembered something he had heard in his criminology class. If a victim is kidnapped, they will usually leave a note. It would be uncharacteristically different, and the person who knew them and read it would see it was different right away. This looks normal for the kidnappers, and some even require their victims to leave a note so that they will not report the victim missing until much later, long after they had gotten away. Of course the kidnappers would read the note, but they would not be well enough acquainted with their victims to see the hidden message. "So she's been kidnapped." said Victor aloud. It took several moments for that to sink in. "NOOOOOOO!!!!!" he yelled out to nobody in particular. It seemed silly for someone who was all composed, to just break down and scream, and then just as quickly remain calm. But that is what Victor did. It was almost comical, if it weren't for the deadly serious nature of what was taking place. Victor looked at the note on the P.E.P. and it just looked wrong. But there didn't appear to be any hidden message, except to indicate that she wanted him to know she'd been kidnapped. And then Victor realized something. This would be no ordinary P.E.P. Most people used them to keep notes, make lists, and even a diary. But most of these would be thumbprint protected, so that only that one person could access them. But there usually were a few almost meaningless items that would be on it, which the kidnappers would never even think to check. They would only think to check them if they could somehow figure out that she doesn't normally use a P.E.P. And so Victor closed the message and opened up a list of all the files on there. There was only 2 files. The message he had already read, and a grocery list. But nobody bought groceries anymore. Victor opened it and read aloud what it said. "To Bye: 10 Medical Supplies, 11 Hot organic meals. To Bye Later: 12 Shuttlecraft." The list did not make sense. First off, the word should have said 'buy' and not 'bye'. He knew Danielle knew how to spell the word correctly. Second, why was there an ongoing number sequence of 10,11,12? Thirdly, if this was a shopping list, why put 'bye later'. One would just create a new list for items to buy at a later date. It was thoroughly confusing. Victor would have loved to go to the StarCon police with this, but they wouldn't believe him. He had no proof she was gone. And that is what the kidnappers wanted. After several minutes, Victor finally thought of something. He recalled that the medical supplies were located in the Infirmary, Hot organic meals were only available in the Cafeteria and the Shuttlecraft were only available in the Launch Bay. Now having access to the computer systems, he brought up a map of the station. It was just as he had suspected. If one went from his room to the Launch Bay, they would first pass the Infirmary, then the Cafeteria and eventually reach the Launch Bay. "That's it!" yelled Victor. "This isn't a shopping list, it is a list of where they are going. And the numbers are the times indicated they would pass the landmarks. They would pass the Infirmary at 1000 hours, the Cafeteria at 1100 hours, and then they will reach the launch bay at 1200 hours. It was already 1130 hours, which didn't give him much time. Victor was going to have to be a hero and rescue Danielle, his damsel in distress. CHAPTER FOURTEEN: THE PURSUIT Victor knew that Danielle was in trouble. Being kidnapped is one thing. Not knowing why she was kidnapped was another. If it was for ransom money, she would be safe, at least for now. If it was for another reason, she could be in serious danger. Knowing where the kidnappers were taking Danielle it was easy enough for Victor he intercept them. But not knowing what they looked like, or what Danielle was wearing in the morning made things a bit more tricky. Victor could have tried to run to the Launch Bay in time to intercept them, but that would have been too risky. He just wasn't fit enough to guarantee he'd get there on time. He could try to alert the authorities at the Launch Bay, but that would do no good. He had no proof that she had actually been abducted. So Victor decided to use his last option. The emergency transport. Victor had always been afraid of these things, because they never seemed to work correctly. The stories that his parents told about how Roger never quite transported correctly the first time had always made him weary of the device. But this was the only way he could save Danielle. It is easy enough for Victor to get there, but what would he do then? Ask them politely to release her? He knew that she possessed powers not even close to his. She had the power of invisibilitude to boot. So why didn't she use it? It seemed strange to Victor that Danielle could actually be abducted. She had shown her power and self-defense in rescuing Victor earlier. So why didn't she just use invisibilitude to either escape or attack her captors? It just didn't make sense. And then another question rose its head. Was she drugged? Even with these questions, everything still pointed to the fact she had been abducted and was in need of Victor's assistance to be rescued. He needed a weapon in order to ward of the abductors. But he hadn't been issued a polyphotonic phase gun or anything similar. He'd have to find something else. But what? Nothing around the room appeared to be dangerous enough to be a weapon. Victor desperately tried to think back to his classes and see if he remembered anything about potential weapons. He remembered the story of how someone made a homemade phase gun, but that would take time. Victor just didn't have the luxury. He remembered how a man had overpowered some attackers using only his speed and bare hands. But Victor wasn't big, and wasn't fast. He needed something else. And then he tried to think of what Roger Wilco would do. He thought back and figured the first step was to empty his pockets and see what could be useful in the crisis. Victor did this. He only had a super squirter that shoots liquids incredible distances with incredible accuracy, Danielle's P.E.P. which was probably not Danielle's either, and finally an electrocharge. An electrocharge is a device used to 'jump start' any electronic device without using wires. You simply point and shoot the beam of electric current at the object and it absorbs the energy. Victor decided these items would just have to do. Victor opened up the emergency panel, which was located on the far wall of the room. It was a panel that had options that would be useful in any sort of emergency. He typed in the command for the emergency transport to the Launch Bay. Nothing happened. He tried again and still nothing. So Victor decided to try his electrocharge. His hand slipped right as he pushed the button. The beam, which originally had been aiming at the emergency panel, hit his fishtank. It struck the top of the water, and there was a crackling sound. Almost instantaneously, the fish bubbled to the surface, dead. It appeared the electric current produced by the electrocharge is dangerous when combined with water. Victor tried again, and this time the beam hit the emergency panel. The panel sparked to life. Victor punched in the code and he was transported to the Launch Bay. Victor had never actually been transported before. He felt a tingling sensation and a sense of incompleteness, before merging again and feeling whole. It was quite an unnerving experience. But Victor had no time to waste. He entered the Launch Bay. He wasn't prepared for what he saw next. In the corner of the large room that housed many different vessels he saw some figures, some quite agitated. He approached cautiously, attempting to get a better view. He saw an individual wearing a brown cloak, covering up their face and hands. The persons arms appeared to remain touching each other. Flanked on either side of this individual were two more individuals. These reminded Victor as 3rd year Cadets. They were young, eager, and seemed to think everything over before making decisions. Or at least that is how Victor saw them. It was really hard to determine who they were from where Victor was standing. Victor realized these individuals were standing near one of the intercom stations. These were communication devices mounted on several poles in the areas of the Launch Bay. They were used by engineers so that they could talk to each other and be working on different vehicles at the same time. Victor activated the panel next to him to hear what was going on. "This isn't what I signed up for." he heard a male voice whisper. "Shut up. You'll draw attention to us." he heard a second male voice whisper. "But isn't that better than ..." the first one started to ask. It was clear that he was agitated about something. "I said be quiet! I know what I'm doing." the second male said, noticeably louder, but still in a hushed voice. It is then that he saw several figures approach the three of them. Even from Victor's distance he could see one was smiling. "Show me her face." said the smiling one, as he approached. The second male removed the cloak from the middle figure. It was Danielle. She was unconscious. Victor now knew why she was cloaked and had her arms together. Without the cloak she could be identified, and it would be easy to see she was unconscious. With the cloak she could just stand there and nobody would think anything of it. Her hands were together because they were tied to prevent her escape. "Good." said the smiling one. "It is her. Have her loaded onto my ship. I will be leaving just as soon as she is aboard safely." "But you said she'd ..." said the first male, quickly interrupted by the smiling one. "I lied. So what." The smiling one turned around and headed towards his ship. "Where's our pay?" said the second male. Without turning the smiling one said "Oh, I wish you hadn't asked. Give it to them boys!" He then waved a hand at his bodyguards dressed in all black. They appeared similar, but different than the S.W.A.T. team at the robot repair shop earlier. These were definitely human. The bodyguards then walked over to the second male, who had his hand open expecting his payment. But instead the bodyguard leaned back and kicked him in the jaw, knocking him out cold. The first male ran as fast as he could away from the bodyguards. The bodyguards did not pursue and headed back to the ship. The first male was running straight for Victor. He knew he wouldn't stop, but Victor just had to talk to him. He needed information. Information only that man could provide. He could have tried to wait for the second male to come to, but he didn't have the luxury of time. Victor silently put his foot out just as the first male was running by. He tripped. Victor, expecting this, caught him before he hit the ground. "I need information." said Victor, summing up all his courage and tried to sound authoritative. "But..." protested the first male. "Fine." said Victor. "Then come with me." Something in Victor's voice changed, and the first male did not protest. Maybe the first male was starting to understand what Victor was trying to do. Or an equally good explanation is that he had lost his partner and felt unsafe. At least if he was with Victor, the first male would be somewhat safer than alone. The two of them ran for the smiling one's ship. The airlock was closed. It was taking off and there was no way they could get on it. Victor knew he needed a vehicle to pursue them. He knew that it would take a few moments for them to get clearnance from the Academy to fly out into space, and that they wouldn't risk triggering alarms by trying to escape with force. But what could Victor use? Surely all the vehicles that were unattended were locked. Victor needed a ship, and fast. And then he saw it. It wasn't a ship exactly. It was more of a pod. A two-person pod. A training pod to be precise. Once upon a time, Victor had talked to one of his classmates who was in maintenance. Victor was telling him how he wouldn't go into maintenance because the repair modules were too hard to use. This classmate told Victor that they were easy, and proceeded to take him up in a pod that looked exactly like the one Victor was looking at now. The only difference was that now he'd have to drive it, whereas before, his classmate drove it. The two climbed in and strapped themselves in. The only problem was the ignition. In order to start it, a series of buttons had to be pressed. Only the maintenance crew had access to the correct series. But Victor had been shown the series of buttons when he was with the classmate. Recognizing only several of the buttons on the ignition keypad, Victor pressed all those he recognized. His dumb luck had it that the machine powered to life. A quick buzz sound told them that the shielding had been activated. It must be an automatic feature of maintenance vehicles. It was so small, larger vessels were bound to bump into them on occasion. A shield would protect them in the event of a bump. Quickly powering up thrusters, they were in pursuit of the smiling one's ship. Victor, having no previous flying experience, somehow managed to pursue the ship. Since the other ship was not through customs and still did not have clearance to leave the Landing Bay, their pod was able to get only several metres from the other ships hull. "I'm going to transport over." said Victor. "I'll find my way to the transport pad and transport you over as soon as I can." Victor would be lucky if he could even find the transport pad, let alone use it. But he didn't want the first male to panic. He was already in a panicked zombie stage. Victor pressed the buttons to transport over and ... nothing happened. Correction, there were noises. But Victor still didn't transport over. And then suddenly, something came out of the front of their pod. It was a grappling hook. It sped violently towards the hull of the smiling one's ship and punctured it. There was no hull breach, but they were now securely fashioned to the ship. At just that moment, the smiling one's ship got permission to leave the Launch Bay. They sped up quickly and went into hyperdrive. Because of the grappling hook, the pod was going into hyperdrive along with them. "If I hadn't pressed those buttons," thought Victor, "I'd have lost her forever. I guess I might have the luck of Roger Wilco in my blood after all." CHAPTER FIFTEEN: RECOVERY MISSION Victor, now flying at hyperdrive speeds, was contemplating what to do. He decided now would be a good time to have a talk with the first male. "What's your name?" he asked him. "Joey Tribbles." he told Victor. "Alright Joey, explain yourself." Victor said authoritatively. "My ... roommate has been taken captive by you and handed over to that smiling one." "Oh, you mean Mr. Bosh." Joey said. "Go on." urged Victor. "Well, I guess I better explain myself." Joey said nonchalantly. "Originally we were to take Danielle and leave clues as to where you could find us. Then we got this transmission from Mr. Bosh. He told us we could make a fortune by simply handing Danielle over. I thought it was a bad idea, and told him that. But Bob thought otherwise. Mr. Bosh told me she needed her because of her abilities. He was the president of an educational institution and needed her to teach something called invisibilitude. He also said we would only have to get her to him, and then she would have the free choice to decide. He told us that she wouldn't answer his messages so that this was the only way he could get a face to face meeting." By now, Joey was clearly agitated. "So when he didn't give her a choice, and you your fortune, you were very angry and upset." concluded Victor. "Exactly. So what are we to do now?" he asked. "I have just the plan." said Victor. He had no clue what he was to do. But he couldn't afford to let Joey know it. Victor carefully opened all the panels and compartments in the pod to see what he could use. Other than the keypad there wasn't much. However, he did find a maintenance torch. He took it and put it down his pants. Well actually it went into his never-ending pockets, which made it look like he put it down his pants. There was a button that was blinking and had a diamond on it, with the right 1/3 of it missing. It was probably due to wear and tear, and the paint came off in the right side of the button. Considering it was blinking, Victor pressed it. The pod immediately sprang into action. The grappling hook tried to retract, but it was firmly wedged into the hull of Mr. Bosh's ship. The pod was pulled closer and closer towards the hull. They were going to crash into the hull. There was the sparks from the shield on hull, and the already weakened hull gave way. The pod smashed through the hull into, what was now an empty room. The room decompressed, everything in it, except the pod, was sucked out into the vacuum of space. And then a small electric noise indicated the emergency force field had been activated. The air flowed back into the room through the air vents. It was safe to breathe now. Both Victor and Joey dismounted from the pod and walked over to the doorway of this now vacant room. "Uh ... I have a question." said Joey. "Oh. What?" replied Victor. "Well, if we are able to rescue Danielle, how are we going to get her back to the Academy? There is only room for two people in the pod." Victor hadn't thought that far. He didn't want to alienate Joey, because he could turn on him, and take the pod back to the Academy himself. Victor would be left alone on the ship with Danielle, but with no way of getting back to the Academy. "Simple." said Victor, not quite sure what his answer will be. "Well ... Uh ... you'd ... try and find a ... shuttle or something. If you get interrogated, say you were trying to find Mr. Bosh to ask him about your payment. I'll take Danielle back with me using the Pod. You can find the launch bay in this thing ... and use it to come back. Or else land with this ship and find some way to come back. They know who you are, but they don't know me. You're not likely to be considered an intruder, but I am. It is logical." "Oh. OK." said Joey. He clearly was less than thrilled that after he had been forced on an expedition, he'd have to fend for himself to get back. Then again, he was part of the reason this expedition had to be taken, since he had a hand in kidnapping Danielle. Victor told Joey to guard the pod. He also told Joey that if he is discovered, he should tell them that he is trying to fix the pod. Its navigation subroutine got damaged and you are trying to fix it. In addition, he told him that if he has to, fly away, and then crash back into the room so Victor and Danielle can escape. Victor didn't know what he was doing. He never wanted to be a hero. That was his parent's dream. But here he was trying to be a hero. He thought that it is amazing what love will do to a person. If it wasn't for the love he had for Danielle he wouldn't be trying to be a hero. He wouldn't have attempted to figure out what happened to her. He realized that Danielle was his life. Even if she never returned his love, he needed her. It provided purpose to his life. The Academy, a life in either Command or the Police Force meant nothing to him if he didn't at least see Danielle on occasion. Throughout his life, Victor had used the Leisure Suit Larry influence and flirted with as many women as he could. Now, he didn't seem to care anymore. He only cared about one, and that was Danielle. But if he didn't save her, he' never see her again. So Victor stealthily opened the door and looked both ways. The hallway was empty. The ship was a medium size ship. Not a large carrier. It did not house many ships. It would only supply several escape pods and a shuttle or two to land on planets. It would not take much searching to find Mr. Bosh and Danielle. Victor, for some reason or another, turned on his P.E.P. This one wasn't the one Danielle left him, but rather his own he had used to store his notes and things. It was strange for Victor to do this at such a thing, especially at a time like this. He was waiting for it to load up, so he leaned against the wall. As soon as he did that the door next to him swooshed open and out popped a man in black. He looked just like one of Mr. Bosh's bodyguards. Victor was careful to keep his eyes on the P.E.P. and not draw any attention to himself. The man walked past Victor without even a flinch, and grumbled something under his breath. He walked down the hall and out of sight. He was obviously upset about something. If Victor hadn't looked at his P.E.P. he'd have been found out. It was looking more and more like Victor had Roger Wilco's luck after all. Just before the door from which the man had exited closed, Victor heard something. "Well, my dear ..." was all he could hear before the door closed automatically. It was Mr. Bosh. By his tone of voice something told Victor that he was talking to Danielle. Victor just had to get in there! Victor decided it was now or never. He was going to save Danielle. He pulled out his super squirter and entered the room. One of the bodyguards quickly turned and tried to tackle Victor. But Victor didn't see the bodyguard. He saw a buckazoid on the floor. He bent down to pick it up, causing the bodyguard to miss Victor and go crashing into the wall. However, the bodyguard did hit Victor's super squirter and it went flying. It landed on the ceiling, and being made of a breakable material, exploded on the ceiling. Because of the artificial gravity on the ship, everything and everyone in the room got soaked in water. "Oops." Victor said aloud. But Victor somehow managed to stay dry. The super squirter exploded just as the bodyguard was over him. He got shielded from the splash. Victor looked around the room and spotted Danielle. Now soaked in water, she was more beautiful than he had ever seen her. She was wearing a bodysuit, which seemed a few sizes too small. Victor noticed she didn't look too happy about it. He had been around Danielle enough to know that she wouldn't be caught dead in that kind of suit. She had been forced into wearing it. Danielle was alert now, although she was tied up. She was spread out against the far wall of the room. She was spread out in the Da Vinci's cross. Her legs and arms were spread apart and were attached to a torture board. The board was not electronic, but ancient. It had clamps, with rubber insides, in order to be more comfortable for the prisoner. It also reduced the friction and made it tougher for the arms and legs to be freed. She had a gag in her mouth to prevent her from talking. However, her eyes were visible and were looking straight at him. Well, at least she looks somewhat comfortable. thought Victor. But his thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Bosh. "Look out behind you there. You're soon to be tackled by my men." said Mr. Bosh. He was smiling again. "I'm not going to fall for..." said Victor. He was cut short by a heavy object ploughing into him like a bug on a windshield. He was the bug. What hit him was the windshield going at mach 3. He was hit so hard that many of the items in his pocket fell out. The electrocharge did a nice backflip worthy of a '10' in a competition. But this was a competition. This was deadly serious. Victor's arms went flailing as he fell to the ground. "Hahahaha" laughed Mr. Bosh. "Your feeble attempts are useless my friend. Nothing will stop me from using this lovely lady to teach my army invisibilitude. They will use it to take over the universe!!" What scared Victor was that he was serious. And it might just be possible. With an army full of people with invisibilitude they could sneak up on any army and ambush them without them even realizing who was attacking. No wonder there was so much screening and reluctance to teach invisibilitude. It was just too darn dangerous if it got into the wrong hands. When Victor's arms finally hit ground, something was under the left one. He heard a 'click' and there were screams all around. The bodyguard that had whacked Victor, which turned out to be the same one that tried to tackle him, was also screaming. They were screaming in terror and pain. Some of them even started running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Everyone in the room, except for Danielle and Victor, were screaming. Victor got up and looked at what his arm had hit on its way down. It was his electrocharge. And then Victor understood. Just as happened in his room with his fish, the electrocharge fired into the water, this time it was all the water around the room that came from the broken super squirter, harming all living matter in contact with it. Luckily for Victor, the bodyguard had shielded him from the water and so he was dry. His boots were made of rubber, so they repelled the charge and he was safe. Similarly, the rubber in the arm and leg clamps had protected Danielle from any damage. Danielle. In all the commotion, he had almost forget. He needed to save her. He walked over to her and removed the gag. "Finally." she said, sounding exhausted. "Not even a thank you?" he teased. "Get me out of here first. Then we can discuss thank yous." she told him seriously. It was true. They weren't out of the woods yet. Actually, they aren't exactly in woods. They're in a space ship ... oh, never mind. I'm sure you all get my point. There were probably a few crewmembers, including the pilot, who were not affected by Victor's electrocharge incident. "Do you see any way to remove the clamps?" she asked him, concern starting to creep into her voice. "No." he said concerned. And then he stood up straight, put his arm up in the air and pointed to the heavens. He had a smile on his face. "Let me guess ... you've got an idea." she said, jokingly. It was clear she didn't care for his antics. Problem was although they appear to the contrary, Victors actions were not melodramatic, they just happened. If one was to view this scene, one would conclude Victor was acting or goofing off and was exaggerating the motions of discovering an idea. But he wasn't. "Yes I do." he told her with a smile. "It is going to get really hot in here." He then proceeded to put his hand down the front of his pants. Danielle's face went white, her mouth went wide open. Danielle said "Victor Clarence, if you think you can just take advantage of me when ..." She paused. Victor had taken his hand out of his pants, but it wasn't empty. In his right palm was the maintenance torch from the pod. "Close your eyes." Victor ordered. Reluctantly, Danielle complied. Victor flipped a switch and turned on the maintenance torch. It glowed with a blue light. Victor knew he risked burning Danielle. Not to mention going blind from the light because he didn't have anything to cover his eyes. But he had no choice. If they were going to get out of here with their lives, he had to act now. Carefully Victor cut through the restraints and freed Danielle. As soon as Danielle was free and Victor had turned off the maintenance torch, she proceeded to hug him. Then, to Victor's surprise. She passionately kissed him. But Victor pushed her away after only a few seconds. "Later." he told her. "If we sit here any longer we won't be able to get back to the Academy. Sooner or later someone will find us." They ran to the doorway, but it was too late. The door opened and a man, armed with a polyphotonic phase gun. He pushed it towards the two and indicated he wanted them against the wall that still held the broken restraints. They complied. He was still in the doorway. "My, my, what do we have here? Two lovebirds who want to spring from the nest? You know that isn't allowed." he told them, with a smile on his face. It wasn't Mr. Bosh, but there was a resemblance. His brother perhaps? "It isn't? Oh ... sorry. We will be on our way now." Victor took Danielle's hand and proceeded towards the only exit, which was blocked by the man with the gun. "Hold it!" he shouted. They froze. Victor hadn't expected that to work, but he had to try it. The doorway was motion sensitive. It was like the grocery mart doors which open when someone approaches, except this one opens when someone approaches from either direction. The man with the gun was close enough for the doorway to be open. Victor looked at the door, to see if there was a way he could escape. He saw none. But then a figure entered the doorway. It was Joey! "QUICK JOEY! GRAB HIS GUN!!" Yelled Victor. "If you think I'm going to fall for that ..." the man with the gun started to say. But it was too late. Joey had tackled him, and the gun went flying right to Victor's feet. He picked it up and put it in his right hand. With his left he grabbed Danielle's hand. "Quick Victor, take Danielle and get out of here!! NOW!!" Yelled Joey. "But..." Victor started to protest. "You heard the man! Let's get out of here. You yourself said we can't stay here any longer." said Danielle with some urgency in her soothing voice. "Alright." Victor ran out the door with Danielle, looking back once they went through the door. He saw Joey on top of the man who had the gun. He waved them on urgently. The door then closed behind them and they ran to the pod. "Hop in." said Victor. Danielle proceeded to jump like a kangaroo a few paces and then jumped right into the passenger seat. Victor smacked his head and told her "I didn't mean it literally!" "Well how was I supposed to know it didn't have a hop only security system!" she retorted. Victor, ignoring her last comment, fired up the pod and powered up the thrusters. And then it hit him. How the heck were they going to get back when they didn't have hyperdrive? Did they even know who was close enough to call for help? CHAPTER SIXTEEN: AND NOW TO RESCUE THE RESCUERS The pod raced away from Mr. Bosh's ship. Even if there was no way back, he didn't want to be anywhere near that ship if the crew regained control of the ship. There was so much chaos when they left, they probably would not have noticed a pod leaving the ship, or any other vehicle for that matter. After a minute or two, Danielle figured out that the pod did not have a hyperdrive. She was noticeably worried. "How are we going to get back? We have no hyperdrive!" she said in a panicked voice. To Victor it was soothing nonetheless. Victor didn't have any idea. There sensors only detected Mr. Bosh's ship. And then that too disappeared. He needed some way to boost the sensors. "Got any ideas on how to boost the sensors on this thing?" asked Victor. "Not unless we could use radar." she said jokingly. Humour was best at tense situations. And this situation was getting tenser by the minute. It was funny because radar had not been used in centuries. There were a few rogue worlds that would use it, but only because they had low power potential. The modern methods required massive amounts of power, which was widely available on most planets and ships. That reminded Victor of something. Something he had read somewhere. But he couldn't remember where he read it, or more importantly, what he read. Victor looked down, trying to think. His line of sight just happened to hit a small box near the floor of the pod. There was a dial and some numbers on it. "Any idea on what that is?" said Victor, pointing to the box. "I don't believe it!" said Danielle. "It is an antique radio. I've heard of them and have seen some old pictures, but never one in person." "An Amplitude Modulating and Frequency Modulating radio?" Victor asked, with a smile creeping into his face. "Why yes. Yes it is. ... What good does that do for us?" asked Danielle. But Victor was already fiddling with the dials, pressing buttons and levers all over the pod. He was now a man of action. He was working rapidly as he talked. "If I can tie this radio into the sensors, I can modify the amplitude of the sensor emittor relay." he said, pulling a level beside Danielle. "And by changing the frequency, it will be able to detect objects rather than communications." And so several minutes later, the sensors were boosted and were able to pick some things up. "At maximum speed, we'll reach the Academy in ..." said Victor. But he stopped. His mouth just went wide open. "What is it Victor? How long?" asked Danielle, concerned. "A year!" he said. They didn't even have enough food and water rations to last a month, let alone a year. They had to find some other way to survive. "We have really only one choice." said Victor. "Our food and water will not last very long. We need to find replacements. We need to land on a hospitable planet, and wait for our emergency signal to reach the Academy and someone come rescue us. And that could be weeks down the road." "Then let's do it." she said, more cheerful than before. "It looks like we have no choice." And so Victor looked at his new readings from the sensors, trying to locate a suitable landing spot. "There is a planet at vector 342 mark 7, distance 900 kilometres. We should reach it in ... 1 hour." said Victor. Both Danielle and Victor let out sighs of relief simultaneously. At least it was close. Victor didn't know if either of them could stand more than that with nothing concrete to do. Nothing cement to do either. And so Victor sent out an emergency distress signal to the Academy. He included the coordinates of the planet they were aiming for. He knew it would be at least 24 hours before they would get it. The pod did not have a hyperwave transcommunicator. An ordinary slow moving distress call would be all they could send. And so they waited. In the hour that followed, they both remained completely silent. They did not talk to each other, except for occasional questions to make sure the other was alright. They did not look at each other either, except for occasional glances to ensure the other had not had a heart attack or was injured or frightened. They just sat there, thinking. Neither made a move, except for several shifts in position to try and get comfortable. It was very quiet, with only the hum of the engine that could be heard. The hour passed and they were descending into the planet which would become their temporary home. The silence was finally broken. "Hang on." urged Victor. "I don't think this thing has landing gear." "Just try to make sure my hair doesn't get ruined. I just got it cut." said Danielle, not quite humorously, but not quite seriously either. It was an odd thing to say. But it did provide enough humour to make trying to land without anything as much of a landing gear, in a pod that is only meant for working in spacedock, flying at 300m/s straight into the atmosphere of an unknown world, with unknown perils, and with only severely limited emergency rations, seem less stressful than it was just moments earlier. The shield of the pod glowed bright red, absorbing massive amounts of heat as they entered the unknown planet's atmosphere. Victor scanned for a nearby body of water. He would want to land near a body of water, as it is a commodity that is most needed when on a survival mission. The pod had an emergency ration kit, which contained two bland meals, with a small vessel of water. Victor figured it probably held 5 litres. His scans revealed a small lake and he attempted to steer the pod to a flatland near it. The controls for the pod were not very easy to use. They were not meant to be used flying through the turbulence of the atmosphere of an alien world. The pod shook violently, but that did not seem to bother Victor or Danielle. They were more worried about the landing than the entry into the atmosphere. Victors scans also showed there were very little in the way of animal life, but there was some. There were plenty of plants, which meant there were probably several that were edible. But there were probably more than a few that were poisonous. When the pod reached slightly more than 500 metres from the surface, Victor punched at his controls. The thrusters were now in full reverse, attempting to land the pod, leaving it intact. It was a delicate manoeuvre, and one that would not be attempted in any StarCon Academy course. It was just too dangerous. Victor didn't even know if it would work. Neither did Danielle. But it was all they could do now, their only option. Again, they waited. "The shield won't hold forever." Victor shouted to Danielle over the roar of the engines. "You better brace for impact." "Can you transport one of us to the surface?" Danielle asked, her voice equally loud. "No." shouted Victor. "I tried that earlier. It seems this thing doesn't have a working transporter. It only has a grappling hook, but it was damaged." "Oh." she said, this time in a normal voice. Victor didn't hear her. But Victor wouldn't have listened even if he did. His eyes were focused at the ground, which was approaching very quickly. They were going to crash. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: LIFE ON AN ALIEN WORLD The pod hurtled down at unimaginable speeds and crashed into the surface of the alien planet. Luckily the shielding held just long enough for the pod to remain relatively intact. If it hadn't held that long ... they'd both be dead. Victor slowly opened his eyes. His head hurt like he had been run over by a train. When the pain subsided enough, he bent forward. "Where am I?" he asked aloud, not really expecting an answer. "We are on the alien world." came Danielle's soothing voice. At that moment, Victor's head cleared up enough that his senses came back to him. He remembered crashing into the planet and thinking they wouldn?t make it. "How did we survive?" asked Victor. By his late estimates, they would have not made it. They were not even close to being in a condition to survive. But here they were. How was that possible? He didn't think Danielle would have an answer, but apparently she did. "Invisibilitude." she said. He voice was deadly serious. There was no soothing sound in her voice anymore. Victor felt a chill go down his spine. He knew how much Danielle hated using that thing, if you could call it that. "I guess I should thank you. So ... thank you." he said. "I'm sorry you had to use it. I tried my best to save us. I guess I'm not a good pilot after all." Victor really didn't think he ever was a good pilot, but he thought he was average. Now he knew he wasn't average. Danielle's answer surprised him. "If it weren't for your ... heroic efforts, we'd not be here." she said, this time her soothing voice was back. "It was your exceptional piloting skills that allowed me to use invisibilitude to save us." Victor did not understand. He knew he had not initiated full reverse soon enough. He knew it only seconds after he had started them. He was used to normal hyperdrive ships, not maintenance pods. The pod had a 2 second delay before reverse could be initiated. This, almost trivial, delay had not given the pod a chance at survival. But it somehow did, along with its occupants. "Explain." ordered Victor. "Very well." said Danielle. "The engines ignited precisely 2 seconds after I would have expected they would. This increased our speed dramatically over the normal safe limits of a craft such as the pod. However, I caught a glimpse at the readings coming in during this delay and had we ignited the reverse thrusters - which require a thousandths of a second chemical 'spark', for a lack of a better word - the atmosphere, enriched with an unknown element, would have ignited and literally blown up. Had you initiated the reverse thrusters when I expected you would, we'd be dead. The entire atmosphere of this world would be gone." It was luck that had saved them. Sheer dumb luck. Had Victor been any other person, he'd have realized about the delay and ignited the reverse thrusters at precisely the wrong moment. They were doomed. Either the reverse is initiated 'too late' for the pod to survive, which did happen - although Victor was still convinced that it shouldn't have survived - or else the reverse is initiated 'at the right time' but it blows the atmosphere and the pod with it. Statistically they were doomed. They were supposed to be dead. But they were. All thanks to invisibilitude. "So how does invisibilitude come into play?" he asked Danielle. "Simple." said Danielle. "Invisibilitude is not just some crazy skill one learns. It is tied in with the space-time continuum. So when we were bound to crash and die, I used invisibilitude. Once initiated, I jumped out of the pod." Victor interrupted. "But wouldn't you die upon impact?" asked Victor. "Without invisibilitude, yes." said Danielle. "But with it, I changed the speed of time so that it was synched with the speed of the pod. It was then easy for me to jump out and land on the top of the pod. I then sped up time to ensure the survival of the pod's shield." "But the shield only would last 2 seconds of impact." said Victor. "It would surely die out and the pod would have so much momentum it would be crushed. Or buried." "True." admitted Danielle. "But I accelerated the time of the shield, but not reality. I was touching the pod and so was able to keep in in synch with my natural time, while the time of the universe accelerated so that the pod crashed, slowed down and came to a rest within less than 2 seconds. This was a process that in normal time would take at least 30 seconds." All this talk about changing time was giving Victor a headache. He knew that he knew nothing about invisibilitude. He still didn't. What he knew is that it changed time, allowing the individual's timeclock to be separated from the universal one, allowing the individual to live at a different speed of time. But he had no clue what the heck that meant or how it was to be done. And he didn't want to know. All he cared about is that it had saved Danielle and himself. At least it is good for that, he thought. And then Victor realized he hadn't even asked the obvious question. "Are you alright Danielle?" he asked, concern creeping into his voice. "Yes." she told him with a smile. "But my use of invisibilitude has made me weary. I don't usually use it for that long. And my life isn't in as much danger as it just was." "At least you have no physical injuries." said Victor. "I'll look in the pod to see what we can use from it." Victor walked over to where the pod had finally come to rest. Although it was more or less intact, the hull had started to bend away in places. It definitely wouldn't be operating in space anymore. The dashboard lights were all out. He fiddled with the knobs, switches and levers, but none of it worked. He guessed the power source was probably dead. In the rear of the pod, Victor found a large box. The box was red in colour and had a white cross on the top of it. It was the first aid kit. It was made with a material foreign to Victor. He assumed it was probably fireproof, rip-proof, water-proof, and probably even kid-proof. A first aid kit that could survive a crash into an unknown planet at such a high velocity was bound to have these characteristics. Victor carefully opened the kit to see what it contained. It seemed that every first aid kit he had ever looked at always contained different items. For something that would seem to be a standard, they sure were anything but standard. This one contained an emergency blanket, various bandages for healing wounds, an emergency ration kit, as well as a few odds and ends that Victor couldn't identify. The emergency ration kit contained two full meals that required no water, no cooking or heating. They required nothing at all, except to be opened and eaten. The catch was that it tasted awful. A super meal, in a super condensed space meant it was super awful tasting. Think of it as an entire turkey dinner with all the stuffings, in one single taste. Sure, each individual one is great, but when you combine them all, it just tastes plain weird. Seeing that Danielle was exhausted from using invisibilitude, he gave her the blanket to keep warm. She gladly accepted it, smiled, and drifted off to sleep. Victor made sure to let her know what he was going to do before she headed off into the dreamworld. Victor decided that a water supply was needed. One could live without food for literally weeks, living off one's body fat. But one can only survive without water for not much more than one, maybe two weeks. And that is if they ... drink their urine. It was something that Victor wanted to avoid. Especially since they didn't have anything to drink it out of. It would just be plain ... weird. And so Victor headed off in the direction of the lake he had found using the pod's scanners. After only several paces, he found a suitable walking stick from a dead plant. Victor made sure to make marks in the strange orange soil in order so that he could find his way back. He didn't know what he was going to do once he found water, he just wanted to make sure it was there and usable. If it wasn't they'd have to start searching elsewhere for water. After about ten minutes of walking, Victor decided to take a walk. He'd better not use up all his energy at once. He didn't have an unlimited supply of food to refuel him with energy. He sat down on what looked to be a stump from a logged tree. It was funny that Victor didn't think this strange, as he had scanned the planet from above and determined there were no intelligent lifeforms other than the native animals. And they'd be no more intelligent than a moose or squirrel. If there were no intelligent life then who cut down the tree. Surely nobody from the civilized world had crash landed before them. Or had they? Victor found himself starting to go paranoid. This was the first phase of his, yet undiscovered condition. He had hyperparanitosis. It is a disease that, if untreated, will bring a man to go completely crazy. It is a relatively rare condition and only certain specific conditions would cause it. And for most of the worlds, these conditions would not present themselves. But Victor had a very different and interesting time in the last semester at the Academy that must have consisted of these specific conditions. It was too rare for anyone to know exactly what caused it, but they knew that if untreated, it can also be contagious. That presented a different problem. Victor would have to be around Danielle, so she was bound to get it. And of course Victor didn't know that he even had the condition, making the spread of it that much more likely. The stump that Victor had chosen to sit on suddenly lurched, getting Victor off-guard. He quickly poked it with his walking stick and stood up. The now had a slight hole or indentation in it and was secreting a green ooze. He suspected it was blood. The instant that Victor realized it wasn't a stump, the stump turned into an animal. Victor instantly figured out it must be telepathic. It read his mind on what was not hostile and would not look out of place. It would have projected itself as an image of a stump to Victor's brain, and until his brain understood that it was getting the wrong image, the illusion was over. The animal appeared to look like a skunk or a chipmunk. It was hard to tell now that it had a green ooze all over its body. Victor did realize it wasn't going to die. The bleeding had already stopped and small new hairs started to appear already. "I guess I better get out of here before it heals and gets mad at me." he said aloud. Victor seemed to, just like Roger Wilco, speak aloud in times he was alone. But unlike Roger, Victor did not have some man's voice talking back to him and saying how idiotic or moronic he has been. And so Victor hightailed it out of there towards where he thought the lake was. If it wasn't for him dragging his walking stick, he'd have forgotten to make marks so he could find his way back. After a ways, Victor looked back to make sure he wasn't being followed. He wasn't. But he saw the big trench in the ground that he realized must have been made by his walking stick. He had completely forgotten he was carrying it. And then he tripped. Victor's walking stick hit a rock, tripping him and causing him to fall onto his back. Into a pool of water. Luckily it was very shallow so Victor's mouth was never below the water line. There was no risk of drowning. But now he was soaking wet. Victor got up and looked at what he had landed into. There in front of him was a large lake. The water that made up the lake was a crystal blue, and was very clean. In fact, Victor had never seen water as clean of this anywhere. Not even in holovids. Deciding that his mission was accomplished, Victor turned around to start back towards Danielle and the pod. He was amazed at what he saw. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: SURVIVAL There, in front of him was a large stream that hadn't been there just moments ago. In the small trench that his walking stick had made, water flowed back towards the pod. Victor knew the water did not reach the pod because he hadn't dug a trench the entire way, just since his encounter with the stump animal. There was a slight downwards slope, maybe a total of 1 degree, that extended from the lake all the way back to the pod and beyond. Victor knew he could easily draw the water down to the pod so they would permanently have drinking water right there. There would be no more need for any treks to the lake. But Victor noticed the stream was now much larger than the original size of the trench made by the walking stick. It was about double the width of the walking stick's diameter. Something was causing the soil to give way for the water. A very interesting and never before seen phenomenon. Was it something in the soil? Or was it something in the water? A third very remote possibility was it was something in the walking stick, but Victor would never think of that. Seeing as the trench was now getting larger, Victor decided he better run back to Danielle to let her know. If the water got back to where she was and she was still asleep, she could be in danger. And so Victor started to run along the trench of water towards the pod. It seemed that the trench was getting larger and larger by the minute. By the time the trench had ended, which was where the stump animal had been, the trench was about 30cm deep and a 50cm wide. It originally was only about 5cm wide and deep. It was certainly getting wider. But Victor noticed that the water had overcome the stoppage in trench and was still continuing down to the pod. Victor knew he better run back there and get him and Danielle to figure out what they should do and determine whether this expanding stream would be any real threat. Victor ran as fast as he could to the pod. He didn't know why he was running so fast. Something in his mind got a hold of the commands to the legs and he bolted out of there like a cat in the dark. It would have been more interesting had he nutted out of there like a dog in the light, but then that just wouldn't make sense. When Victor arrived, he found something he did not expect. Danielle wasn't sleeping. Her blanket lay on the orange ground, but she wasn't in it. Victor looked everywhere but could not see her. "Danielle? Where are you?" he asked, hoping for an answer. There was none. She was gone. Victor had no idea where she would have gone, or even why. Things just were not making sense. And then he heard some noises. There was a rush of water like the sound of a roaring waterfall. And there were screams too. It was Danielle. Victor quickly turned 180 degrees to where the sound was coming from, but it was too late. There, only 2 metres in front of him was a roaring river, moving at incredible speed. It knocked him over hard, and he was unconscious. Luckily he had gulped in some air right as the wave hit. He started to rush down river, wherever it was going. The screams were from Danielle. She was flailing frantically as she was pushed down river in the general direction of Victor and the pod. A few moments later she struck Victor. The blow was enough to bring Victor back to consciousness. Danielle, who's head was above water and was treading water and was in better control than before, pulled Victor up so his head was above water. He spat water in her face. "Don't you ever do that again!" she yelled at him, in order to be heard above the roar of the raging river. "If you do, you'll be in for some serious kicking in the gluteus maximus." "Thanks." was all that Victor was able to say. "Thanks for saving me. Guess we are even now, huh?" But she wasn't listening. Her eyes were wide with fear and moments later both were at a dead standstill. They had hit the pod with a bang. Somehow the pod remained in place as the water rushed by. The two frantically tried to mount onto the top of the pod, where it was dry. The top of the pod was flat enough that there was room to lie down, but only wide enough for one person. Danielle and Victor sat down on the pod and contemplated what to do next. "Well that was interesting." said Victor. "Tell me about it." replied Danielle, using her normal soothing tone of voice. They were both soaking wet. Danielle, in her bodysuit, looked like she had just been scuba diving. But Victor's clothes did not fare so well. They were not made to be soaking wet, and flowing down a river. It just wasn't one of the tests that all clothing went through to get certification. "I think it is nearing nightfall." said Victor. He was right. The stellar objects were coming into view. There were thousands of stars ready to be seen in only moments time. But for now, it was dusk. The bright light that had been daylight was quickly subsiding. Neither of them had bothered to see how long a day on this world was. It could be a few hours, or it literally could be days long. But the quickness of sunset suggested it was around 20 hours. The night came quickly and there were thousands of stars that became visible in the jet black sky. And it started to get cold. Very cold. Victor and Danielle were on top of the pod, and they were starting to really feel the effects of the drop in temperature. "We're going to get hypothermia." said Danielle, remarkably calm. It was a statement rather than a worry. "We are if we don't do something about it." said Victor. "What do you propose?" she asked. Something had told her that Victor had an idea on what to do to solve the problem. "Do you still have the blanket?" asked Victor. "No." replied Danielle. "Darn." he said, clearly frustrated. "I was going to suggest snuggling under the covers to conserve body heat. But that idea is out the window without the blanket." "Well, run outside and get it before it blows away." she told him jokingly. "Your idea still holds validity, even without the blanket." "You don't mean ..." Victor started to say. He knew that without the blankets they would still get hypothermia if they snuggled because their clothes would not dry out fast enough. "I do mean it Victor." she told him calmly. "We are in a hospitable area, and our lives are in great danger. If we get hypothermia we will both die. There is no doubt about it. Modesty has no place in the here and now." And she was right too. The medkit was since long gone, and nothing in it would have saved them from hypothermia anyway. There was very little light. Most worlds had moons that would light up the world by reflecting some light rays from the sun. But on this world it was almost completely dark. The two could barely make out where each of them was. They were only silhouettes even though they were right beside each other. "Let's do it then." said Victor. They both proceeded removing their clothing until they were stark naked. However, there was so little light it would be very difficult for them to even realize it. They laid their clothes on the sloping side of the pod. It wasn't flat, but the clothes would remain stationary. And they were in no danger of going into the water during the night. They then proceeded to lie down, one atop the other and embrace each other. Their body heat would warm each other up, dry out their skin and save them from hypothermia. It was the only way they could have survived the night without getting deadly ill. Victor's hyperparanitosis was getting worse. He was getting paranoid about being modest around Danielle, about how the sky was so black something was coming to attack them. His paranoia was growing, but Victor somehow understood it. A vision danced in his head of one of the general courses in the Academy. It was the professor for wilderness training. It was like a tape recording of the lecture where he taught about the rare condition known as hyperparanitosis. And Victor had all the signs. Victor was now experiencing the next step in the disease: visions. According to the lecture, the third step was the inability to distinguish dreams from reality. Victor and Danielle, laying atop the pod, fell asleep in each other's arms. Sometime in the night Victor got woken up. Danielle had pushed him in the arm to wake him. "What is it?" he asked. It was still pitch dark. He still couldn't make out details on her face. "Let's do it." she whispered. "Huh?" replied Victor. "Come on." urged Danielle. "I'm cold. It's the only way I can warm up. I think this is probably going to be the only way I'll survive the night alive." Victor managed to find her cheek with the back of his hand. She was right. She was cold. She'd need to be warmed up. It wasn't as if Victor didn't want to do it. It was something he'd wanted to do from day one. But this wasn't the way he wanted to do it. He at least wanted to see her expression while they ... did it. But he was paranoid that she'd die if he didn't help her warm up. He finally agreed. It was an experience that Victor would never forget. It was fantastic, and it was with the women he loved. He hoped he'd be able to do it again someday. They fell asleep again in the position they were in when Victor had been woken up. CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE CONDITION The next time either woke up it was morning and there was brilliant sunshine. Victor noticed he wasn't laying underneath Danielle anymore. Danielle had moved. "Danielle?" he called out into thin air. "Ah, you're up." she replied cheerfully. It was clear she didn't have hypothermia. She turned her head to look at Victor and immediately put a hand up to her face shielding her view. "For someone who was so darn concerned about modesty last night, you should probably get dressed." "Uh ... Oops ... Sorry." came Victor's reply. He had not even realized he was still naked. Victor grabbed his clothes and proceeded to get dressed. He then turned his attention back to Danielle. Danielle was sitting on the side of the pod, her legs draping over the slant of the pod. Her hair shone beautifully in the sunshine. She was wearing her bodysuit again, but this time it was dry. Victor wanted to ask her if he warmed her up enough during the night, but thought better of it. He then thought about his condition. He had hyperparanitosis and he showed all the symptoms of it, or at least up to the stage he was at. The problem was he didn't know whether Danielle had actually woken him up, or whether it was just some fantasy, a by-product of his condition. This made him very uneasy. He didn't like not knowing what actually happened last night. He didn't really want to ask Danielle, because it would be embarrassing. He realized he should let her know about his condition before he does something completely off the wall. At least that way, she'd understand it was the condition that made him do it, and not by his own free will. But it was Danielle who spoke first. "I have something very important to tell you." she said sombrely. Whatever it was, it was very serious, or else it made her sad. "So do I" replied Victor. "I've got hyperparanitosis." she said. Victor's mouth dropped open. He knew it was contagious, but he didn't expect it would have spread that fast. All was silent for a few seconds before Victor replied softly "So do I." They both looked into each other's eyes, feeling each other's pain. They didn't need to say another word. They understood each other. And then, he understood more than he imagined. There would be no way to find out what really did happen last night. They both could have been having the same hallucination. If only one remembers it, that one dreamed it. Or maybe the other's brain thought it was a hallucination and forgot about it. There just was no way to find out what went on. And bringing the subject up would just make things more complicated. Any discussion would surely involve telling the other whether they wanted what supposedly happened during that night to actually happen. But fate would have it that the subject would come up anyway. "Uh ... did we ... ?" asked Danielle, he voice soothing, but with a touch of fear. "... I don't know." he told her truthfully. "I was going to ask you the same thing." "But ... how ... ?" asked Danielle, who was clearly confused. "Hyperparanitosis." answered Victor. He said it slowly and sadly. "Was it ... a dream?" asked Danielle. "Maybe ... or a hallucination." said Victor After a pause, Danielle said "Or ... it happened." "It's ... possible." replied Victor. There was another short pause. And then Victor spoke again. "Did you ... ?" he asked, not able to finish the question. "Enjoy it?" offered Danielle. "Yes." replied Victor. "Yes to the question or yes to the answer?" ased Danielle, clearly confused again. "What was the question again?" asked Victor "Did you enjoy it?" she told him. "But it wasn't real." he told her. "It could have been." rebuttled Danielle. "Yes." said Victor. "So you did enjoy it then?" she asked. "Yes ... I mean no ... I mean, I was just agreeing that it could have been real." he stammered. "Oh." was all that Danielle said. "Now, the question is, did you enjoy it?" asked Victor. "Yes." replied Danielle. "Good. I thought you enjoyed it." replied Victor, with a smile. "No ... I mean, I was just agreeing that the question of whether I enjoyed it was the question we should look at next." she stammered. "Forget that question. The question now, if you choose to answer it, is that did you want last night, if it did happen, to happen?" said Victor. "Yes." came the answer from Danielle. "So you did want it to happen?" asked Victor. "Not that ... I meant yes, I will choose to answer it." said Danielle. "And?" inquired Victor. "I'm not sure." replied Danielle. "So you are not sure." said Victor, it was a statement more than a question. But Danielle heard it as a question. "Yes." she told him. "So you did want it to happen. Good." said Victor. "No!" screamed Danielle, clearly frustrated. "So you didn't want it to happen. then." asked Victor "NO!" she screamed. And then she added in her usual soothing voice "I'm just not sure, that's all." "Darn it. Can't we get straight answers out of each other?" asked Victor. "No." came the answer. But it was neither Victor of Danielle who said it. It came from behind both of them. They instantly turned to see who had answered their question. There, standing on the orange dirt, strangely not even damp, was the figure that had answered their question. He was smiling confidently and standing tall. It was Joey. He was suppressing laughter. Joey had answered finally arrived to answer their emergency call. CHAPTER TWENTY: RESCUED AT LAST It took Joey far less time than Victor had anticipated the earliest answer would have come. It had only been what, ... 24 hours since he crash landed? The sense of time was distorted for Victor and Danielle. They had no way of knowing exactly how long they were on the planet. Neither were wearing portable chronospheres. "How did you get here so fast?" demanded Victor. "So fast?? Victor, you've been here for seven days!" replied Joey, clearly surprised. It is a well known fact that when there is nothing to do, as in the case of a crash landing, time slows to a halt. An hour feels like a day, a day feels like a week. But clearly the reverse had happened. Time hadn't seemed to slow down, but rather it appeared to speed up. Was a single rotation of the planet the duration of a standard week? Victor just didn't know. "How long is a single day here on this planet?" asked Victor. He needed to know. "About ... 20 hours or so. I'm not sure exactly, but that is the approximate answer." answered Joey. He did not understand why he was asking the question. Victor paused, and thought about it. It should have been roughly 140 hours or so if a day on this planet was a standard week. But only 20? His eyebrows furrowed and his face scrunched up. He was deep in thought. How could a week have seemed like a day. And they didn't have anything to eat or drink in all that time. How could they still seem to be in healthy state, as if it really had only been a day. And then his eyes lit up and went wide. He understood. As if to ask for an explanation, Victor turned and looked straight into Danielle's eyes. She smiled back. Having been on this planet for an extended duration had made them understand each other enough that she knew exactly what he was thinking. She nodded her head and explained. "Invisibilitude." she said, still with a smile on her face. "It saved us in more ways than one. When I used it back when we crashed, I must have not only touched the shilding of the pod to make it last longer, I also must have touched the planet. Probably some dust from the surface in the wind or something like that. Whatever the case, it also slowed the time for the planet. Time on this planet has been operating at a much slower speed than in the universe. That is why we only lived through about a day on this planet, but it equated to as long as a week in standard time." "Incredible." remarked Joey, with his eyes wide and his jaw dropped. He could hardly believe it. "Invisibilitude." said Victor. "All this talk about it makes my head spin. It gives me a headache too. I just don't get it." But Joey wasn't listening. "I now understand why Mr. Bosh tried to get a hold of you." he said. "He wanted to use your abilities to slow time. He could conceivably spend years on a super-weapon, and creating ships, but it would only have taken days in standard time. Imagine, you create ships and send them out. They destroy some of the opponent's ships, and most of theirs. And then, in the time the battle took place, a new complete fleet is deployed to finish off the enemy, while the enemy has only completed a quarter of a single ship. There would be no time to rebuild for the enemy. Truly amazing." And then Victor's heart sank. Danielle was a wanted women. He expected he would have to compete with hordes of men to grab her heart, but he didn't expect this. Now he'd have to fight off mad scientists, evil generals, recruitment campaigns and the like. They could offer her anything she wants. Once they had her under their control, she could essentially manufacture time. And time was money. She was a living treasury. She was money, as much as they wanted. Victor Clarence had no chance against them. Suddenly Victor was back to reality. Were his thoughts getting affected by his condition. Would Danielle's thoughts be affected too. Suddenly getting back to the Academy was of prime importance. More important than it had ever been, even aboard Mr. Bosh's ship. "We've got hyperparanitosis." he said. "We have to get back to the Academy. We need to be cured." "Then hop aboard my new ship." said Joey. He pointed through the trees and bushes to his ship. The three walked through the bushes and got a clear view of the ship. It was black, and sleek, and smooth as ice. It was a cool ship. Not cold, but cool. There was one large dome shaped oval window. It was the type of window that fighters used. Except this was at least five times larger. The ship looked like it could hold about 5 people comfortable. Lucky for them, there were less than 5 of them. Joey put his hand into his dark black leather jacket. He pulled out a remote. There was one large red button on the remote, and nothing else. Joey pressed the button, he heard a beep and a few clicks. "It's unlocked." he said smiling. So it was a ship with an alarm system. Handy. Victor wondered how he managed to snag such a ship. But that thought faded as quickly as it came into his head. Joey approached the rear end of the ship. There was a large flat rectangular door with a small handle to the left of it. Jeoy put his hand into the handle and pulled. The door opened revealing the inside of the ship. The three passengers loaded into the ship, and then Joey closed the door again. "Take a seat." said Joey, as he headed towards the pilot's seat. Victor and Danielle found some chairs and sat down. They buckled up as well. "Where did you get this ship?" asked Victor. He suspected he already knew the answer. "I got it from Mr. Bosh." he said. "I found the shuttlebay or whatever it was and there were a bunch of remotes on the wall. I took one, pressed the button and the lights on one of the ships flashed. I opened it, keyed in the commands to open the bay doors and away I went." Victor was right. He stole it. Then again, Victor had stolen the maintenance pod, now ruined in the planet below. While they were talking Joey had already taken off and had gotten the ship now out of the atmosphere into normal space. "What now?" asked Danielle. Both of the two males turned their heads to look at her. She hadn't said anything since they had gotten onto the ship, and they had almost forgot she was there. "We eat." said Victor. As soon as the word came out of his mouth, he heard his stomach growl at him. Danielle laughed. It was good to have them both in good spirits again. "What do you have to eat on this ship?" asked Danielle. She didn't even know if he knew what there was, considering it really wasn't his ship. "I think there should be a replicator back there." came the response from the cockpit. "Not sure what it was programmed with, but it should be edible." Danielle unstrapped herself, walked a few paces to the back of the ship and found the replicator. It was fairly large and looked like it was for creating broken engine parts, rather than food. But they were hungry. Very hungry. She proceeded to use the interface pad to figure out what foods it could make. She ordered two salads. She would have ordered meats, but she didn't know what sort of alien flesh would come out. Not to mention what colour it would be. And the fact that some cultures eat meat raw. Right now, she just couldn't handle the sight of raw meat. Danielle turned around with the salads in hand and walked gracefully back to where Victor was sitting. She handed him his salad and she sat down in her chair. She buckled up and proceeded to eat. "What, no meat?" said Victor jokingly, who was happily eating like a pig. Or a dog. Or any animal that eats really quickly, as if inhaling food rather than chewing it. "Not unless you wanted some dead, raw animal that was secreting green juices and looked like it was garbage." teased Danielle, between bites. "Who knows, it might have been the best thing you ever tasted." joked Victor. "Or it could have tasted like feces." retorted Danielle. She was smiling now, having completed her salad. Victor smiled back. They were definitely in a good mood now. Something both hadn't fully experienced for a very long time. "Did you guys have a good time?" came the voice from the cockpit. Joey couldn't resist joining in the fun. "Best vacation I ever had." replied Victor. Strangely enough, it was true. He'd never had that much excitement in his entire life. Not when they visited the salt mines of Transglobula. Not when they saw the magnetic storm over Bermtruda III. Never. He just never had that much fun. On top of it, he had spent this time with Danielle, his one true love. "We should do this every year." said Danielle, with a smile on her face. "You know, get kidnapped, get rescued, crash land and almost die, almost go crazy, and get rescued again. It would be a blast." Danielle was certainly feeling better. Her spirits were lifted, and her soothing voice was back too. Not to mention her jabbing with Victor. Yes, Victor was certainly glad to see a smile back on Danielle?s face, and a jump back in her step. Victor, Danielle, and Joey were all relaxed and having fun again. They shared some stories of their adventures the last few days, and exaggerated their heroicness more than necessary. Especially Victor. By listening to him talk, you'd think he single-handedly saved the universe. In a way he had. He had saved the love of his life, Danielle, from falling into the hands of Mr. Bosh. Had that happened, StarCon could have been wiped out almost certainly. Of course he needed luck and the help of others such as Joey, but Victor did save the hands of Mr. Bosh's army. Still, he'd be back someday. He'd come back for her. But this time, Victor Clarence would be ready. END OF PART I *** PART II CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE WELCOMMING COMMITTEE Danielle, Victor and Joey made it back to the StarCon academy less than an hour later. Victor and Joey expected to be greeted by a cheering crowd, having saved Danielle from her kidnappers. Not to mention the fact they could have saved StarCon by not releasing Danielle before Mr. Bosh's ship reached his headquarters. Boy were they wrong. When the ship arrived, it needed to clear customs and be cleared to land in the Academy Launch Bay. Joey radioed the information to the StarCon officials, and waited. Several hours passed and they still were not granted access. Finally, Joey got a transmission from the Launch Bay. "Please identify yourselves." came a voice through the loudspeaker. They had already provided the information hours before, but probably a new shift of officers were on duty. Hopefully they'd have better luck with them. "We are Joey Tribbles, Victor Clarence and Danielle Venabili." said Joey into the communication device built into the ship. There was a long pause. Then the voice came back on the loudspeaker. "Please do not be alarmed." said the voice. "You will be transported to the central detention centre where you will brief the commanding officer. Your vessel will be controlled via our central computer. It will be in the Launch Bay when you wish to leave." Victor, Danielle and Joey all looked stunned. They had their mouths open, and scrunched up faces with their eyebrows up. They had no clue what was going on. Why were they not allowed to manually dock their ship? Why were they being transported to the detention centre? Where was the cheering crowd? But before anyone could say a word, they felt the familiar tingle of a transporting beam and they were standing in the detention centre. The three of them were in a small square room. It was approximately 5 metres by 5 metres. There were three walls, and where the 4th wall would have been was a force field. It glowed bright blue. In behind the force field was a large wooden desk. In behind the desk was a large, fat man who wore the familiar security force badge on his StarCon uniform. It was obvious he was in charge. "Do not be alarmed." came the loud rumbling voice of the man behind the desk. "Why does everyone say that?" said Victor. "Doesn't saying that make the people more on edge, since they start to wonder why you'd be trying to calm them down?" "SILENCE!" shouted the man behind the desk. He was now standing. His eyebrows furrowed to make a large 'V.' He was angry. Or at least annoyed. "I am the one around here who will ask questions. You will only provide answers." "So it's like Jeopardy." said Victor. "We provide you with an answer and you provide us with a question to match the answer. Joey, give him an answer." "OK." said Joey. "Part of the title of a movie with lambs, or the thing that happens when nothing happens." "SILENCE!" shouted the man, agitated. He is definitely used to being in control. "Hey this guy is good!" said Victor. "Give him another one Joey." "NO!" yelled the man. He was starting to get red in the face from getting angry. "Then we switch?" asked Victor. "You give us an answer and we give you a question?" "NO MORE GAMES!!" Yelled the man behind the desk. His skin, normally pale pink, was very red now. "NO MORE QUESTIONS! NO MORE ANSWERS!" "If there are no more questions and answers, I guess you are done interrogating us." said Joey. "We free to go?" "NO!" Yelled the man behind the desk. It took incredible restraint for the man to not just jump out and strangle their necks. He was an official of StarCon, and as such, he must act in an according manner. And that means no strangling of people's necks, no matter what they have done. The man closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. That appeared to calm him. His skin was now only bright pink instead of bright red. "Listen, I need answers from you." he said slowly, restraining himself so his voice was calm. "I will ask you a question and you answer it. There will be no tolerance of any games. Understood?" It was Danielle who answered this time. "Completely." she said. and then looked sternly at Victor and then at Joey. The both smiled nervously at her. "Where is the maintenance pod?" asked the man. "Uh ... Mr. ?" asked Victor. He didn't know what to call the man behind the desk. "Call me Julian. Now answer the question please." said the man behind the desk. "Julian, Danielle here was kidnapped." Victor said seriously. The full extent of what had happened was starting to sink in. "I know that. It was a setup by your professor of criminology." said Julian. "WHAT???!!!!" Victor shouted, eyes wide with disbelief. "All that we went through was ... a setup??!!" "No." replied Danielle. Her voice was soothing, but sad. She looked at the floor while she continued. "The setup was for Danielle to be kidnapped by Joey and another classmate. They were supposed to wait at the Launch Bay and have you rescue me. But something went wrong. I was unconscious so I'm not sure what happened. The next thing I know I was ... in a spaceship ... tied up, unable to escape." Julian was watching with interest. He did not have any idea what this had to do with the maintenance pod, but he was sure it would emerge somewhere. "I believe I can fill in the gaps." said Joey. "My partner in crime, so to speak, was Bob. He got a deal from Mr. Bosh, the owner of that spaceship Danielle was talking about. The deal was that we would get a fortune if we simply handing Danielle over to Mr. Bosh. I thought it was a bad idea, and told him that. But Bob thought otherwise. Mr. Bosh told me she needed her because of her abilities. He was the president of an educational institution and needed her to teach something. He also said we would only have to get her to him, and then she would have the free choice to decide. He told us that she wouldn't answer his messages so that this was the only way he could get a face to face meeting." "But what about the maintenance pod?" asked Julian. "What does this have to do with the maintenance pod? Where is it?" He was getting impatient. "I can answer that." said Victor. "I needed to rescue Danielle, who had been taken into Mr. Bosh's ship. I needed a craft. I simply took the maintenance pod." "Simply took it?" demanded Julian. He was standing again. "You can't just take a pod. They have security protocols. And passwords. You don't have the clearance for them. How the heck did you just take one?" "Uh ... I'm a lucky guesser?" Victor said. He was right on that one. He was a lucky guesser. He was just lucky. He had Roger Wilco's luck. But if he was so lucky, why were they in a detention centre and not back in their rooms? "So you took it." Julian said. "And where is it now? I trust it is in your ship?" "Uh ... no." said Victor. "It crashed. Into an unknown planet. The hull was damaged beyond repair." "WHAT??!!" yelled Julian. He was getting upset again. "Not only did you steal a maintenance pod without setting off the security alarms, you managed to get it out into space and crash it into a planet? Those things are worth millions of buckazoids!! Each!!" He shook his head in disbelief. "But we saved Danielle." pointed out Victor. "Yeah, but she's just a cadet." said Julian. "She isn't even an officer, or an admiral, or some dignitary. How am I supposed to justify this to my superiors? I'm in charge of security and you just bypassed it and destroyed one of my maintenance pods!" "Tell them it was an accident." suggested Joey. "But it WAS an accident." retorted Victor. "I meant to land the thing. Luckily Danielle here saved the day." This got Julian's attention. And a big "Why'd you say that??" stare from Danielle. "And how exactly did she save the day?" asked Julian, curiously. "She slowed down time for us." said Victor, as calmly and believable as if he was saying it was sunny outside. And then Joey's eyes lit up. He remembered something. "Uh ... I hate to break up story-time, but I have something super duper important to say." said Joey "They've both got hyperparanitosis." And instantly it made sense. The incredible stories. The fanciful, unlikely events. They were all the result of hyperparanitosis. They had gone crazy and seen unseeable things, experienced impossible events. Julian understood this. He flipped a switch on his desk. "This is Commander Snuckertucky of Security." he said into his desk. There must have been a communication device built in, but Victor couldn't see it. "Please transport the individuals in the interrogation cell into the infirmary. Two of them have hyperparanitosis." He flipped the switch back and turned his head back towards the cell. "Get healed my friends." he said. "Get healed from your disease. I'm sorry this had to happen to you." And then they were gone. They were beamed away by a transporter beam. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE AFTERMATH When Victor awoke he was on a healing bed. There was an electronic restraining device keeping him in, and under the healing rays. Victor thought it was just like being in a tanning salon. Except the rays were healing him, not hurting him. "Danielle?" he asked into thin air. He didn't know where she was. Most of his view was blocked by the healing device. "What is it Victor?" came the soothing voice that had always made Victor happy when he heard it. "Where are you?" he asked, hoping his ears could triangulate her position if he got her to say enough. "I'm here." she told him. Great. That really helped him. Not. "I can't see you." he told her. "I can't move, I'm in a healing device that has me pinned down." And then he heard footsteps. "Ah, you're up I see." came a familiar voice from the other end of the room. It was Dr. Jeclive. "Good to see you again Victor. I trust your other injuries healed nicely." "Oh, yes doc." said Victor. "My injuries were so nicely healed, they now say please and thank you." "Good to know you haven't lost your sense of humour Victor." the doctor said with a smile. He was now directly above Victor, looking at the healing machine. "Uh ... doc? Could you get this thing off of me yet?" he asked. It wasn't like he was claustrophobic, but Victor just didn't like being trapped. "Hmmm..." said the doc as he was checking over his instruments. "I don't see why not." He then pressed a few buttons and the restraints came loose. The healing machine retracted itself into where it came from. Victor wondered how such a large device could fit into such a tiny hole. But as quickly as the thought came to him, it disappeared. Victor sat up and turned so his feet were dangling over the ledge of the healing machine biotable. It was the classic image of the patient sitting on the examination table with the doctor using his instruments to check out the patient. Except here, the doctor wasn't examining the patient anymore. And he wasn't using his instruments now that the healing device was put away. And the doctor wasn't wearing white. And he didn't have a light on his head to see better. OK, so it wasn't the classic image after all. Victor shoved off the table and got to his feet. He located Danielle in the far corner of the infirmary. She was already standing, apparently not needing the healing device to cure her of her condition. She was smiling at Victor. Victor looked at her. "You're as beautiful as ever." said Victor. "Hello to you too." she replied, smiling. Victor wasn't sure if she heard him or not. But he didn't press further. "So are we cured doc?" asked Victor, who wasn't too sure if they were free of hyperparanitosis or not. "Yeah." he said. "But it is in remission. It could come back at any time. If you get any more symptoms just come back and I'll take a look at you." "Great." thought Victor. "Just great. Now I'm never going to know whether things that happen to me are real, or are a bunch of hallucinations." Danielle seemed to be looking like she was in another dimension. She was just staring at nothing in particular. It was clear to Victor that she was deep in thought. Her mouth had a slight curl, as if reminiscing of old times. "You alright Danielle?" Victor asked, concern creeping into his voice. At the sound of her name, she immediately came back from whatever dimension she was in. She shook her head gently and blinked her eyes a few times. "Huh? ... Oh, yeah. I'm fine." she told him. Victor could tell something was bothering her. It was just like what seemed to be ages ago, when she was using fake emotions on him. Whatever was bothering her then, was starting to bother her again. Whatever it was, it was causing her to do lots of deep thinking. "So what now?" asked Victor, clearly not sure what he should do. "I guess we should finish writing our exams." she told him. "Our exams!" he said a little louder than his normal voice. "I had completely forgot about them. I missed my criminology exam!!" His eyes went wide, and he quickly turned his head to look all around the room. He appeared to now had an immense amount of energy. "Danielle, I gotta run." he told her quickly. "I have to go talk to my criminology professor about the exam I missed. I'll meet you back at our room. And doc, thanks for the treatment." The doctor came out of his office and said "Anytime." But Victor had already left. He was already out the door on his way to meet his criminology professor. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: JUDGEMENT DAY Victor ran all the way to the lecture hall. It was ironic that he was running now. It had been the very first day in which the professor had put him in front of the class and made an example of him. He had ran into the class. This time however, Victor slowed when he was getting near the class, to make sure he wasn't seen running anywhere near the lecture hall. For some reason Victor came to the lecture hall, even though it would have made more sense to go to the professor's office. But then again, Victor had no clue where his office even was. Victor entered the side entrance to the lecture hall. Surprisingly the professor was sitting on the edge of the stage, dangling his legs over the edge. "I've been expecting you." he told him. Victor stopped dead in his tracts. There was no way he could have known he was coming. He might assume he would have looked for him, had he known that he hadn't attended the final exam. But how could he possibly know? There were thousands of students in his class. How could one out of thousands be singled out. A second possibility entered his head. The administrators told him who had missed the exam. And, remembering him from the first class, he knew he would be coming to see him at some point. But why now? How could the professor know he would choose this precise moment to come to speak to him? He couldn't have been sitting there all day, every day for the last week or so. Could he? Victor just didn't know what to think. "Don't just stand there. Come, sit next to your old professor." he said casually, as if he were talking to his grandson. Victor complied. He sat with his legs dangling, right next to the professor. "How did you know I was coming?" Victor asked incredulously. "Simple." he said. "You think you missed your exam. You need to talk to me. Missing the exam would have made you fail the class. You didn't want to fail, did you?" "Of course not." Victor said evenly. "But you said that I 'think' I missed it. What's that all about? I wasn't even here for my exam!" "Ah, but you were!" said the professor. "I didn't ever say the exam was a written exam. Oh no. That wouldn't be suitable for an honours class. Sure some of the class actually did write a very long and difficult exam, but you Victor, you had a physical exam." "A physical exam?" Victor asked, scrunching up his face in confusion. "Yes, a physical exam." replied the professor. "And, I must say ... you passed it with flying colours!" Victor couldn't believe this. He never took an exam. He had no idea what the heck the professor was talking about. How could he pass an exam that he didn't even know he took. Victor suspected that he was getting him confused with someone else. "I still don't get it. I didn't take an exam!" said Victor, increasing his volume slightly in agitation. "Hmmm ..." said the professor with his hand on his chin, deep in thought. "I think we need to take more drastic measures for you to understand." The professor took something out of his jacket pocket and pressed a button. A tiny green light lit up on the top of the object. "Dear, would you mind coming on stage for a moment?" the professor said into the object. And then the light on the object went from green to red. "Who were you talking to?" asked Victor. "Just wait here a moment." the professor told him. "You'll find out in a minute." Victor stared at the back entrance. Suddenly something black emerged. It was a silhouette of whoever the professor had summoned. Whoever it was, they were walking very gracefully. Slowly, more and more details were observable. Soon, Victor could tell it was a woman. She had a wonderful figure. She was still a silhouette though, so Victor had no idea who it was. It probably was one of the professor's friends who would tell Victor about the exam. Probably a philosophy colleague who would say how exams are tests. And tests are rarely written. Or something like that. With the angle of the stage, it was hard to see the face of the woman who had been summoned. Victor looked closely at her once she was close enough that details started to emerge. And then Victor saw the hair. He had seen it before. He strained his memory to remember. He was still thinking when the woman walked up the stage and her face was finally visible. It was Danielle. "Danielle??!" asked Victor, clearly not understanding how she related to his exam he supposedly had written. It was the professor who spoke next. "Danielle, would you be so kind as to explain to Victor here about his exam." "Why certainly." she said, using her soothing voice. She was smiling now. "He actually already knows you set up the kidnapping. But something went wrong." "Oh?" said the professor, clearly concerned about deviations from his plan. "How so?" "She was handed over by Bob - Joey didn't want to - to someone named Mr. Bosh." Victor told him. "Mr. Bosh?" asked the professor, putting his hand on his chin to think. "Ah, yes. Mr. Bosh. He wants to take over the universe if I remember correctly. We send an armada every now and again to keep him in check. You'd think he'd learn his lesson one of these days." "He almost got away with it." said Victor. "If I hadn't taken Joey and went and saved Danielle, he would have very likely succeeded in his plan." "My god!" exclaimed the professor. "You mean he came her and took Danielle right from the Academy? That's insane! And he got away with it until you foiled his plans? You're a hero Victor! And you're not even finished your first year yet!" "All in a days work!" explained Victor. He put out his chest, put his hands on his hips and looked proud. In this pose he truly looked like a hero. After a few seconds, his pose decomposed. Something occurred to him. "Uh ... you still haven't told me about my exam." said Victor. "Sorry about that chap!" said the professor. "Your exam was simply to follow the clues and to rescue Danielle. Unfortunately you also had to rescue her for real in the end. I'm giving you an A+ on your exam." Victor smiled. He never expected to get an A+ in anything at the Academy. Heck, he'd never expect to get an A- either. But the professor wasn't done talking. "And according to my calculations ..." he said, looking over his P.E.P. "You get overall a mark of ... B." Victor's smile disappeared just as fast as a marmelu runs away from a zinkork. He was clearly disappointed. Danielle walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. She turned her head and looked straight into Victor's eyes. "It could be worse." she said with a slight smile. "Just imagine what you would've got if you only got a B on the exam." She made a slight laugh, turned her head and started walking towards the exit. A few steps away, she burst out laughing, bellowing over because of it. After a few seconds of laughing, she turned and walked backwards so she could talk to Victor. "You should have seen your face!" she told him, suppressing more laughter. "It was ... priceless." She smiled, turned, made another laugh and walked out of the lecture hall. "Sometimes I just can't figure out that woman." Victor told the professor after Danielle was out of hearing range. "You know, that woman doesn't even understand herself sometimes." he said. And it finally made sense. Victor finally understood how the professor knew he had wanted to be a StarCon cop that first day. The professor was partly telepathic. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: RELAPSE Finding that he did not need to take a criminology exam, Victor returned to his room. He found Danielle lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and relaxed. She noticed Victor and turned her head towards him. "It feels good to relax." she told him. "As I'm sure it felt good to laugh." he told her, with a grin on his face. "Yeah." she said. "You're just so darn funny sometimes Victor." "I know." he told her. "I'm a barrel of laughs." "More like a truckload." she said. They both laughed and shook their heads. Sometimes it was just hard for the two of them to have a conversation without breaking into laughter. Other times it was just hard to have a conversation. "So when's your next exam?" asked Victor. "Oh ... tomorrow I think." replied Danielle casually. "Aren't you going to study?" he asked seriously. Getting bad marks on an exam was no laughing matter. "Come on Victor, with all that we've been going through the last while, are exams really that important?" she asked him. It was more of a statement than a question. But Victor answered it like it was a question anyway. "But it is important!" he told her, increasing his voice slightly. "It is if you want to become a StarCon officer." "Heh ... I don't care if I become one or not." said Danielle nonchalantly. "Then why are you here?" asked Victor, in an unusually quiet voice. "You." said Danielle, smiling. She almost looked like she was in love. "This doesn't make sense." thought Victor. "She was here to become a StarCon officer, and that was before she met me. Why would she decide it didn't matter. Nobody goes to StarCon Academy just for kicks. All Cadets have determination, they'd never give up the dream. There was no way she would have remained here just because I'm here. If she really did love me and didn't want to become an officer, she'd just stay at the Academy as a civilian." Civilians were allowed at the Academy, but only in certain unrestricted areas. This allowed them to gauge how StarCon operated and see whether they wanted to join it or not. It worked well for recruitment as well. Certain interested individuals would be allowed to tour some of the restricted areas and would be encouraged to enrol. Victor didn't understand it. Danielle should still want to be an officer. And then he realized. This isn't happening. And as soon as he understood, his world swirled into a sea of colours. It was as if someone had taken a wet painting of his world and swirled it around and around until it was just a mass of swirling colours. And then the scene faded. It got darker and darker until it was pitch black. After a few anxious moments, there was finally light. At first it was dim, but it grew gradually until it was about the intensity of normal indoor lighting. Everything was pure white, no colour whatsoever. But then Victor could start to see a few colours. Again, there were only a few tiny specs at first, but over a few moments it grew and grew until everything had its own colour. But it was still a blur. And finally, Victor's eyes adjusted and the view came into focus. He was in the infirmary again. Above his face was Danielle and the doctor. There was deep concern in their eyes. "Remain calm Victor." said the doctor. "You are alight now. You had a hallucination." Victor's head throbbed, and he was slightly sore. But other than that he felt pretty good. "What happened?" he asked, barely able to keep his eyes open. "We were laughing in our room." came the voice of Danielle's soothing voice. "And then you stopped and fell to the floor. I couldn't wake you. You were transported to the infirmary right away. The doc here did some tests and your condition is back. Your hyperparanitosis is flaring up again. I'm sorry you had to go through this Victor." And she meant it. Victor could see she was deeply concerned. This wasn't some hallucination that he was happening, that was for sure. It was at that moment that Victor could see that Danielle truly did care for him. How deep that went, he wasn't sure. As far as Victor was concerned, he hoped it went for miles. "Can you cure me doc?" he asked slowly. He didn't think he could, but it was worth a shot. "Hmm ... I think so." he told him. "I got scans of your active hallucinations and I think I've got enough data to secrete the proper hallucinophages. That should prevent any more hallucinations from occurring. But it will require time." "How much time?" asked Danielle. "A week. Maybe two." said the doctor. "Last time you were in here you seemed in a rush to leave. Plus I didn't have enough data to secrete the hallucinophages. It is up to you whether you will have the procedure done or not." "He will get the procedure." said Danielle quickly, not allowing Victor to even attempt an answer. This surprised Victor very much. This was his life they were talking about, not hers. Somehow this gave the impression to Victor that she really did care for him. She cared enough that she could not even let him make the choice about a procedure that would save him from going crazy. Was she crazy for Victor Clarence? It was really hard to know. As the professor said, she sometimes doesn't even know herself. She probably doesn't know what to make of her feelings for Victor. "Whatever you say Mommy." said Victor in a mocking voice. She looked at him in a stern way. The way a mother does when her child did something wrong. "Are you saying I'm old enough to be your mother?" she asked incredulously, barely hiding a smile. "Uh ... er ..." Victor started to say. His face went a bright red and he was blushing. "Um ... that's not what I had in mind. I just ... wanted to crack a joke about how you made my decision for me, like mothers do for their kids." It was Bashful vs. Snow White. The question now was who would win? "Next time you want to crack something, use a nutcracker." she said playfully. "They are a more reliable cracker than saltines." And the winner is Snow White! Victor shook his head and laughed. He was no longer embarrassed. "You may think the procedure is a laughing matter, but it isn't." interjected the doctor. He was serious, although it looked like he might be suppressing a smile. "When shall I commence the procedure." "As soon as possible." said Danielle. Again, she was making Victor's decisions. Victor wondered if he'd ever get to make any decisions in a relationship with Danielle. But frankly, he didn't care if he did or not. As long as he was with Danielle, he did not care. But suddenly Victor had an instant thought. "What about my classes? I've got exams to write!" he said aloud, concerned. "Don't worry, I'll take care of that." she said. "You're not going to ... ?" asked Victor, curiously. "Write them? Pull the alarms to postpone the exams? Steal the answers?" she asked, teasingly. "Of course not Victor. I'm just going to have your exams exempted." Victor heard that it was possible to get an exemption. He had never heard of a successful one though. Let alone four successful ones. She'd have to get 4 exemptions if she was to get him to agree to the procedure. And he just couldn't see that happen. "You'd never successfully get them. It just doesn't happen." he told her. "Let's just say ... I am extremely confident I can get one. The legal way. Without anything devious." she proclaimed, sounding extremely confident. "I guess my mind is made up for me." replied Victor. "Let's get this show on the road, doc." "Save me a seat." said Danielle with a smile. "I always love a good show." And with that, she turned and headed out the door. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: TREATMENT Victor underwent the treatment to cure his condition. It was a simple process and took only about five minutes. The process involved taking hallucinophages that the doctor had secreted, and inserting them into Victor's bloodstream. The process literally took seconds, but the bulk of the five minutes was monitoring his lifesigns, readings, and other instruments to ensure that there were no complications. Even with advanced equipment, inserting foreign substances into the body is still risky business. As the doctor had told him, Victor's recovery period would be about a week. This was to allow for the enzymes in his body to react to the hallucinophages. It was strange that with all the advanced equipment in the infirmary, it still took time for the body to do its thing. "Hey doc." yelled Victor, trying to get the attention of Dr. Jeclive in his office. "How come I have to stay here for a week? I feel fine." The doctor casually walked over to Victor, looking as if he was frustrated to have to do so. "Like I've already told you, your body needs time to heal." the doc told him, sounding exhausted. "Like duh!" said Victor. "But couldn't you speed it up or something? Or let it heal while I do other stuff?" "Other stuff?" asked the doc. "Like what?" He was genuinely curious what Victor wanted to do. "Like ... well ..." he was deep in thought. The doctor looked anxious. He was fidgety and restless. He desperately wanted to get back to his office for some reason. But he knew he better get rid of Victor's curiosity otherwise he'd be pulled away from his office over and over until Victor was satisfied. Finally Victor looked up and said "Like card games. They are always fun." The doctor didn't have much time for card games. But he knew someone who did. But she was unavailable for the day. She had given him strict instructions to not bother her unless it was an emergency. This certainly was NOT an emergency. "I'll tell you what." the doc told Victor. "I'm very busy today. And so is everybody else. If you would like, I'd try and see if I can get you someone to play cards with tomorrow. But I'll only do that if you let me get my work done. Is it a deal?" "It's a deal." said Victor smiling. He was thinking about who might come and play cards with him. It might be the great Arnold Swatz, a big and muscular man who intimidated his opponents with size, but beat them with skill. Or maybe John Win, a comical character who was the biggest blackjack player in the history of the game. That was, until it was found out he had an x-ray implant after a mining accident when he was a kid. It was just because of him that they introduced the law that banned any implants or other devices that could potentially help a player better their odds of winning at gambling. They were worried that there might be players out there who could mind read. Unfortunately, it caused the robot community to be banned from gambling, which severely reduced the profits of the major casinos. And during the Paltic revolution, in which most of the human population got exiled, there were very few customers who were allowed in to the casinos. Their profits fell so much, the majority of them closed. Victor thought himself to sleep. Eventually his brain was too exhausted from thinking up people who he might play, and just went into REM mode. When Victor awoke it was morning already. It was strange that Victor would sleep that long. He wasn't used to sleeping that long. Victor realized he must be weaker than he thought. Victor heard footsteps coming from the doctor's office. And by the sounds of it there was more than one person. "Good morning." said the doctor, his voice getting louder as he approached. "Good to see you are up now. You slept quite a bit there." "Uh ... yeah." said Victor. "I must have been tired." He decided he better sit up. When he finished sitting up, he looked up at his visitors. It was Danielle and the doctor. Danielle was wearing a pretty dark blue dress, a type of garment Victor hadn't ever seen her wear. He wondered whether she regularly wore them, or whether this was for some kind of special occasion. "Good morning Victor." came the soothing voice of Danielle. She was smiling at him. "I hear you wanted to play cards." "I was getting bored out of my mind." he told her. He looked and saw a small box in her right hand. "Will you be playing cards with me then?" "As a matter of fact I will." she said happily. The doctor had set up a table that pulled out for Victor. It was mainly for meals and such, but it made quite a good card table. "What shall we play?" asked Victor. He knew he wanted to play cards, but he didn't know what to play. He knew a variety of games, but had no idea which ones Danielle knew. When the doctor was out of earshot, Danielle whispered "Strip poker." Victor, who had a smile on his face ever since Danielle had arrived, looked at her stunned. He no longer had a smile on his face. Replacing it was a wide open mouth. He just couldn't believe it. Before he could answer her, Danielle laughed out loud. She smiled and shook her head. "I was joking Victor." Danielle told him. "You thought ... ?" She laughed again. This time much harder. Meanwhile, Victor was still speechless. "You are just so funny sometimes Victor." she told him seriously. "If I'm ever down, I just come to you and you're bound to cheer me up." "Likewise." said Victor. And he realized he meant it too. Danielle had that effect on him. If he was ever down, or lonely, or sad, he would just go to her and her vibrant personality would just lift his spirits. And she seemed to understand that. He laughter was now gone, and she seemed speechless. After a few moments of grasping at words, she finally said "I don't know what to say. ... Thanks for the compliment." It was beginning to show that Danielle was figuring out there was more to this man than just fun and games. His intelligence was low, but he wasn't dumb. If there was ever any doubt she only had to look at the fact he actually successfully rescued her. And in a case where most full fledged StarCon officers probably would have failed. He wasn't a bumbling fool, although sometimes he looked it. The more she was around him, the more she found in him. "Well I know what to say." he told her. "Say what game you'd really like to play." "Hearts." she said. It was appropriate. The two of them played cards for the next several hours, giving each other their hearts. They chatted as they played and enjoyed each other's company. On one of the hands, Victor finally asked "So how are you coming with the exemptions?" He expected her to say it wasn't working. "It is coming well." she told him in between plays. "I've contacted your professors and they all seem to understand the situation." But Victor knew understanding it meant nothing. He needed an exemption, and time was running out. He just hoped his time hadn't already run out. If it had, he'd be forced to leave the Academy in disgrace, having failed his classes. And if he failed, he would not be allowed back into the premises for a long time. And that would mean saying goodbye to Danielle, something he didn't think he could live with. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: RECOVERY The following day, Danielle and Victor played cards again. She did not stay all day though, as she had to continue trying to get Victor his exemptions. The card games went well. It relieved Victor's boredom and got his spirits up. For Danielle, it was a way of simplifying her life at the moment. Right now things had gotten complicated, and by sitting down and playing cards for a while made her forget how complex her life really is. Neither of them won too many times. Sure there were streaks, as there is in all games. But there was no outright winner. Each series of games was close, with the winner only known very late in the series. One hand Victor asked "Having trouble getting my exemptions?" "Actually no." she told him, creating a look of surprise on Victor's face. "Don't look so surprised. I told you I could get them. In fact I've already got one exemption." "But how?" he asked her. The game of cards was now on hold, with their attention focused solely on the conversation. "I told you, I have my ways." she told him, clearly annoyed at having to repeat herself. "But I guess you want to know more than that don't you?" "Of course." he told her seriously. "Very well." she started telling him. "It is really quite simple. All I had to do was explain to the professors what is going on. Then, I'd come back and ask for an exemption, and they'd usually give it to me. At least that is what I've found so far." Something itched on the back of Victor's neck. He suspected there was more to what she had done than what she had told him. But he wasn't about to doubt her outright. "What exactly did you say was going on?" he asked, with a dubious smile on his face. The question had caused a minute, almost unnoticeable, reaction in Danielle's face. What was it? A blush? A look of fear? Surprise? But as quickly as it came, it disappeared. Victor didn't see it long enough to figure out what it was. She said "I told them..." She paused. She was deep in thought, carefully choosing her words. "I told them about ... our adventures. I told them about the condition we had. I told them about your present condition and the treatment. I told them that is why he will not be able to take the exam. They would nod their heads in understanding, and I'd leave. I'd come back later and ask for an exemption. The time difference allowed the facts to sink in, and made it appear that I was not there to get an exemption but to be a friend of yours and explain why the exam will be missed. I still have to go back tomorrow and see the last of them. I don't suspect there will be any problems." And so the next few days went. Danielle would come and play cards with Victor and then at some point he'd ask about the exemptions. She'd say she's working on it and is almost finished, and the process would repeat the next day. This process repeated until the last day of that week. That day, Danielle had elected to wear a knitted sweater with some nice pants. Victor realized that no matter what she wore, he'd always think she'd look beautiful. The truth of the matter was, no matter who you were, no matter what she wore, Danielle would always appear beautiful to you. She was just that kind of a person. "Why, you're looking lovely today Danielle." came the voice of Victor from across the room. It was clear to Danielle he was much better than he had been. The previous times she had to get really close before he even noticed her, let alone spoke to her. And she was glad. "I've got some good news?" she said smiling. She sat next to him at their makeshift card table. Except today, she didn't bring any cards. Noticing the cards, or lack thereof, Victor replied "What? We're playing with invisible cards today and I'm going to win every game?" He laughed and then smiled. She returned his smile. She shook her head and said "No, silly. I've got your exemptions. Every last one of them." That wiped the smile off the face of Victor. And back again, was his look of astonishment. He just couldn't believe it. He never would have ever thought that she was capable, or anyone else for that matter, of getting him exemptions. She truly was a very remarkable women with many talents. "Uh ... what now?" asked Victor, not sure what he should do or say. "A thank you would suffice." she said, teasingly. Victor paused for a second, thought about something and then nodded to himself. He leaned towards Danielle and gave her a great big hug. "Thank you." he whispered into her ear. "Thank you so much. I ... I didn't think it possible. You ... You're amazing Danielle. I don't know what to say" While still in the embrace, Danielle pulled her left hand up to her eyes. Victor suspected she was crying, but he didn't care. After everything she has done for him, she could cry as much as she wants. They sat there, locked in a silent embrace for about a minute. Neither said a word, but both had smiles on their faces. The doctor, who had come out of his office, approached them. While they were still in the embrace, he leaned down, put a hand on Victor's back and whispered "You're cured. You can leave whenever you want Victor. Good luck." And then the doctor went back to work in his office. Upon arrival at his office, which was well out of earshot of normal voices, he sat down on his chair. "Good luck Victor." he said into the air. "Good luck with everything." CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: THE ASSIGNMENT When Danielle and Victor finally disengaged from their embrace, they looked each other in the eye. It was clear. They deeply cared for each other. Whether they would become lovers remains to be seen. The moment ended when Victor finally asked "About my exams, do I write them later, now that I got the exemptions?" Danielle was back to her old self, but she was still smiling. "No Victor." she said, using her soothing voice. "The exemption means you get the mark of however well you did in the class. You do not need to write an exam." Victor was pleased. He did want to write his exams, especially after not studying for most of them. But what about Danielle? Didn't she have exams? "What about your exams Danielle?" he asked her, concerned. He didn't want her missing her exams just because of him. "Oh, I took the liberty of getting myself exemptions when I got yours." she told him. And that was that. They both then decided they better retire to their quarters for the night. It would be the first good sleep Victor would get that week. The infirmary beds were, as the name suggested, firm. The two were awoken early in the morning from a loud beep. It was coming from the intercom circuit. It continued to beep and would keep on beeping until someone answered it. Victor groggily sat up and walked over to the intercom and pressed a button. Nothing happened, and the beeping continued. Victor rubbed his eyes so he could see. He probably pressed the wrong button. Now, he pressed the right button and in a small box a picture of a tiger came on the screen. Well, it was an upright, humanoid tiger that could speak. And he was talking to Victor. "This is Admiral Tigress of the StarCon Academy." he said, his voice slightly distorted by the intercom system. "Are you ..." he looked down at his paper. "Vector ... Clearance?" he asked "It is Victor Clarence!" insisted Victor, clearly cranky from not getting enough sleep. Danielle meanwhile, was somehow still sleeping. Or at least she looked it. Victor suspected she pretended to be asleep so she wouldn't have to answer the intercom. "Whatever." came the reply from the Admiral. "In any case, you have been assigned to the StarCon Junior Police Squad. You are to report to Commander John Flakes, the individual responsible for the squad. You are to be there, at their head office, located in Sector B-5 by 0800 hours. You are allowed to bring one individual to aid you on your assignments, even if they are not trying to be a cop. Admiral Tigress out." And then his image disappeared. Victor was going to be a Junior StarCon Police Officer. And he could take someone with him to help. But who? And he'd have to be there by 0800. That was only in a few hours! He'd have to act fast. His mind raced, he was completely awake, with adrenaline running through him. And he knew who he'd take with him. Danielle. She was a perfect fit. She had invisibilitude in case they got into trouble. Even without it, she knew she was awesome at fighting. One look at Danielle and you knew she was capable of releasing some damage on you if you make her angry with you. She could be his bodyguard. But he didn't want to wake her just yet. He didn't want her wrath for waking her up too early. He could wait another hour, and she would have enough time to get ready to report to the Commander. But that would still mean she'd be angry at him for waking her up earlier than normal. He have to somehow get her up and awake fore she realized what time it was. And that was not an easy thing to do. And so Victor got ready. He had a shower and got dressed, as well as groomed himself. He was ready to go. It was still a few minutes before he'd have to get Danielle up, and he still didn't have a plan. But his luck would have it that he thought one up right on the spot. OK, he wasn't exactly standing on a spot, or a big dot, or anything like that, but you get my point. He had a plan. Victor walked over to where Danielle was sleeping. He turned her clock forward an hour. It now read 0758 instead of 0658. Danielle normally got up at 0800 hours and had an alarm that would go off to wake her at that time. Victor waited. A couple of minutes later, Danielle's alarm went off. Victor made sure to be sitting on his bed, nowhere near Danielle's clock. He didn't want her wondering what she was doing on her side of the room. When she sat up, he approached her. "Good Morning." he told her with a smile. "I had a call last night on the intercom. I've got to check-in with Commander Flakes of the StarCon Junior Police Squad." he paused before adding "And you're coming with me." That woke her up. She immediately stood up and was wide awake. "What did you say?" she asked him. " I had a call..." he started to say. "Not that! The last part." she said annoyed. "You're coming with me." he said with pride. "Why?" she asked, curious. It wasn't like she didn't want to go or anything like that. She just couldn't find a reason why she'd be asked to come along. After all, she wasn't going to be a police officer. "I was asked to take someone along to help me with my cases." he said finally. "You're the best candidate for the job." "I'm the only candidate for the job." she retorted. She closed her eyes, shook her head, and smiled. "Alright, I'll do it." she said eventually. "Good." Victor said smiling. "Now get ready, we have to be there in an hour." Danielle did so, appearing not to even realize it was an hour earlier than the clock said. The truth was, she did know what time it was. She hadn't read the clock, but she knew it would be the wrong time. She knew Victor had turned the clock forward an hour. She knew it all. But somehow it just didn't matter. Somehow she had just let him manipulate her. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: CHECKING IN When Danielle finished getting ready, they walked to the main office of the StarCon Junior Police Force. They did not say a word the whole way there. Victor was excited and thinking about all the great times he's going to have. Danielle was wondering when Victor was going to tell her about his manipulation of her clock. She was already figuring out what she'd tell him. When they arrived, it was several minutes to 0800 hours. Victor wouldn't have wanted to be late for this one. Lord knows what would have happened if he was caught running so he'd be on time. It was bad enough when it was the first day of his criminology class. He wouldn't want to see what would happen if he was caught running by the group who actually policed that sort of thing. The StarCon Junior Police Force office is a building into itself. Even though it is housed under the roof of the StarCon Academy, it has it's own roof and walls. If the Academy all of a sudden collapsed, chances are that this office would still remain standing. The building was made out of a bright red baked earth, similar to the compound known as adobe. It seemed out of place in the advanced world of the academy, but it probably was the original structure and nobody had the heart to tear it down. It made anyone who looked at it feel as though they were back in the beginnings of the Academy. Back in a time where space travel had only just begun, and aliens were something only seen in movies. Now, with the advent of transwarp and hyperdrive, space travel is simple and easy. And aliens are all around you, making one feel their race is in the minority, as there is no real majority anymore. Victor and Danielle walked up the steps and entered the office. An office was a bad descriptive word for what they saw. There was too much space and people to merely be called an office. Victor felt that there should be a new word, just to describe what they saw. As far as the eye could see there was open area, with people bustling around at desks, or walking between various points. It was hard to imagine that all this was under the archaic roof of the original structure of the Academy. The ceiling rose enough to cause the eyes to forget there was a ceiling at all. It was more like a cavern, but that suggested it was underground and a natural formation. This was certainly not natural, and definitely not underground. As they marvelled at all of their surroundings, a tall, handsome man approached Victor and Danielle. He was wearing a red StarCon uniform, the colour of command. This was almost certainly the Commander. "Welcome!" he bellowed out as he was walking towards them. "Welcome to my little piece of paradise." He put out his left arm and indicated they should go in that direction. He followed from behind, saying a few quiet words to various individuals who needed his input. They reached a single, enclosed room at the end of what seemed to be the only hallway in the building. They entered it. Victor had expected the room to be made out of the same baked soil that everything else was made out of. The outside of the room, Victor noticed, indeed was made out of the baked soil. But as soon as he entered, he noticed it was simply a shell that housed the Commander's room, which was definitely hi-tech. The room was like a box inside a box. The outside box was the baked soil layer, which formed the original room. But the Commander, or someone before him, had constructed a room within that original room. All the walls were of space-age materials. They were the same materials that were found all over the station. Originally there had been a window in the baked soil layer, that looked over the magnificent view of the rest of the 'office.' This window remained, but a hyperlaminant window was installed and conformed to the shape of the old window. The hyperlaminant window was almost invisible to the naked eye, but on occasion it reflected some light, an effect which Victor could see. In the middle of the room was a large wooden desk. This one was very lavish and had intricate carvings on it. Victor wondered whether it would have been carved some time ago. Decorations such as that one were processed by machinery these days, and were done so ever since Victor could remember. This desk, however, was most certainly hand-carved. It is interesting that something done by human and machine can be identically done, but the finished products are very different. They may have the same geometric shape, but the human carving would have something that the machine created one didn't. Originality and a soul. The carving by a human is unique, and has slight imperfections. These imperfections give it character, and when the eye meets these imperfections, it sends more happy signals to the brain than when no imperfections are there. The Commander sat down in his desk, his back to the window. He motioned for Victor and Danielle to sit down in the two chairs that were laid out in front of his desk. They were much less stylish than either his desk or his ergonomic chair. But they were chairs nonetheless, so they sat down. "Alright Victor, I'll give it to you straight." he told him with a straight face. "There is a conflict going on near some of our outposts in Sector 372 mark 8. All available personnel with the proper training are being asked to go and help out with the conflict. An unknown race has been destroying everything in that vicinity and trying to take over. We fear our outposts will be next." "So you want me to get training and head over there?" Victor asked. It made sense. He had probably heard about his rescue of Danielle by now, and he would just need some formal training before being ready to be shipped off to that sector. "Well, no." said the Commander, again with a straight face. No matter what he said, he showed no emotion. "All our qualified personnel are leaving for that sector, and we have very few people policing back here at the Academy. Your recent rescue mission has indicated to us that you would be capable for such a position." "What about me?" asked Danielle. She wanted to see how she was going to fit into the scheme of things. "You will be the trusty sidekick." he told her. She looked confused. With the Commander's lack of emotion, it was hard for her to figure out it was a joke. Commander Flakes shook his head and gave a hint of a smile. "A joke. However, you will aid Mr. Clarence here in whatever areas he desires. You may need to protect him and act as his bodyguard, or you may need assist in finding clues, or something else entirely. Wherever he goes, you will go. As far as both of your educations here, think of it as a work experience. A good job here may just get you a promotion and more. That's more than a normal Academy training would give you. A heck of a lot more in fact." Danielle and Victor considered this. They both agreed to take on the assignment. It wasn't as if they'd come all this way and say no. Essentially because they were practically ordered to take on this assignment. Saying no now, was like mutiny. "Very well. Here's your first assignment." he told them, handing Victor a P.E.P. Victor expected it to be some disturbing the peace or other misdemeanour crime. His eyes went wide in disbelief. "But this is ..." he couldn't finish the sentence. "A murder investigation." said the Commander, finishing his sentence. "Let me see." said Danielle, putting out her hand as if to ask for the P.E.P. Victor gave it to her. She put it in front of her and started to read it. She was so deeply involved in reading the case, it was as if the world outsider her and the P.E.P. did not exist. Both the Commander and Victor looked at her, patiently waiting what she would do next. When Danielle finished reading it, she raised her eyes, appeared to think for a moment, and then grabbed Victor's hand. She stood up and dragged him out of the office, managing to say "We better investigate before the trail gets cold." And then they were gone. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: A POLICE QUEST While Victor was being pulled along by Danielle, he managed to get the P.E.P. from her. He tried to read, but it was just like reading in a autocraft that had lost its stabilizer mechanisms. Luckily he doesn't get motion sickness. Victor read the facts contained in the case file on the P.E.P. A Cadet had been murdered. It had happened, only a few hours ago. It probably had occurred when they were getting ready. It begged the question which case file they would have got if the murder hadn't occurred. But as quickly as that thought had come, Victor let it vanished and continued reading. The Cadet had been a member of the Platians, who had deep green skin. They had no facial hair, just what looked almost like scales. Victor didn't know too much about their species, but knew they had some conflicts with a race known as the Quarkulans. The Quarkulans were a peculiar species. They had at one time been similar to the Vultins. However, the Quarkulans embraced their emotions and harnessed their power. They had pointed ears, which always pointed towards the nearest magnetic field. It was a build-in compass. Victor suspected, that the long conflict with the Quarkulans had its latest casualty, the dead Cadet. But he still knew it was too early to determine anything conclusively. As Victor read on, he found that the Cadet had been shot with a photronic phase cabitulator, a beam usually used to ensure alignment of the energy fields in the energy reactor. It looked as though it may have been just an accident, as a recalibration of the energy fields was scheduled for that morning. There was a built-in photronic phase cabitulator in the vicinity of where the body was found, which indicated it most like was an accident after all. But Victor had learned in his classes to never rule anything out, not even the impossible. In a universe with advanced technology nothing is impossible, just improbable. When Victor finally reached the end of the P.E.P. he noticed his feet had stopped moving. They had arrived at their destination, the energy reactor. The energy reactor was an impressive sight. The room looked more like engineering on one of the starships, rather than a room with some reactors. Victor could not tell the full length of the room, because two huge reactors blocked his view. There was about 10 metres from the entrance to the reactors, but there was only about 20cm between where the two reactors were closest. Each reactor looked like a large cylinder. Each had a giant swirl of colour, continually changing as time passed by. The swirl of colour rotated to make it appear it was a bunch of swirling gas. The two reactors went from floor to ceiling, and Victor thought they may even go further in either direction. There were two entrances to the reactor room. They were both on the same wall, facing the reactors. They were in the far corners, so that there was a long wall going along the front of the reactors, between the two doorways. In the middle of this wall, was a built-in photronic phase cabitulator. There was a control panel that was such that you could control it without getting near the dangerous equipment. There were two settings, which would allow the user to control which reactor the device would interact with. When the beam was turned on, it would emit a bright red energy beam. If anything living crossed this beam, they would be severely injured, if not fatally. It appeared that the Cadet had just that happen. The dead Cadet was laying face down in a pool of blood halfway between the wall and the reactors. It was clear by the position of the body that he had fallen forward, and was facing towards the reactors. To Victor, it looked as if someone accidentally switched the setting to change to the other reactor. This would have moved the beam of red energy over to the other reactor, slicing through the Cadet before he knew it. But upon examining the body there was no slice across his back. There was just one giant gaping hole. This suggested that the beam had been improperly shut down in between settings. It would have been turned on, and thinking that it would turn on facing either of the reactors, the Cadet would have been in the middle, at precisely the spot the beam would hit. And he would be killed because of it. Victor relayed what he suspected to Danielle. "But that doesn't make sense." she told him. "The reactor should have been shut down correctly. It would seem to be a major error if it was left in the middle position. It would seem only a power failure would have caused it. I don't think any Cadet would be that incompetent." "You're right." he told her. And then thought to himself "Even I am not that incompetent." "That is not the only thing that bugs me." she told him, while she was moving around, examining the scene some more. "Think about it. A Cadet gets killed. The only way that could happen is if someone turned on the machine here. But if they were at the controls, they would see and hear the Cadet scream in pain and die. Don't you think the Cadet would have turned off the beam and initiated an emergency beam out? Wouldn't he have tried to save his comrade, even if it looked like he was dead?" "I hadn't thought of that" said Victor, appearing surprised at Danielle's deductional abilities. She had more talents than anyone else he had ever met. He wondered what other hidden talents she had. "Uh ... could I ask you a question?" he said, walking over to the dead body. "How come he is on his face? Wouldn't someone have turned him over to see who he was?" He was clearly puzzled by this. She thought about his question and examined the body herself. "Well it just tells us that this is the way the Cadet fell. It tells us he hasn't been moved at all, and that nobody had found him to turn him over." "Uh ... could you explain that?" he asked her, almost blushing in embarrassment. He knew she had fully answered his question, but he just didn't understand. Danielle gave a small sigh, closed her eyes and lowered her head. A few moments later she looked up and answered his question, obviously thinking it did not require any clarification or explanation. "Very well." she said, exhaustingly. "You see, the body is face down because it hadn't been touched. If it had, it would have been turned over. The beam of light would have come over from the cabitulator over there and ..." She paused. She appeared to be deep in thought for a few seconds. "And what?" asked Victor, impatiently. "And it doesn't make sense." she told him, with a frown of confusion. "It just doesn't make sense. If a beam came at you and hit you, you'd fall in the direction the beam was headed. Some of the beam's momentum is transferred to you. But here ..." she pointed to the body "... here, the body is face down, and pointing to the reactors, but ... by the severity of the wound, he was clearly hit in the front, and not the back. The beam that killed him couldn't have possibly come from that cabitulator. If it had, the most severe section would be on the back, not the front. Funny, I hadn't noticed the unevenness of the wound when I first came here. But now it is clear. This was no accident. This wasn't some clumsy job at resetting of equipment or machine malfunction. This was cold-blooded premeditated murder!" But Victor wasn't convinced. He was confused. "Uh ... but preliminary scans by the individuals who found him indicate that it was indeed a cabitulator that killed him. If so, then it has to have been from the cabitulator on the wall." "Not necessarily Victor." she told him slowly. "In my experience I have come across some experimental portable units. They never got very advanced, but that was a few years ago. It is clear that this was meant to look like an accident. And it was set up so that if we thought it may be murder, we'd think it was using the control panel over there. I'm sure if we scanned for prints on the panel, we'd conveniently get some prints of a Quarkulan. And we'd arrest him, and we'd think we'd solved the case. But no, that isn't the case. The murder was done with a portable cabitulator, not the stationary one in the wall." "So what now?" asked Victor, curiously. "We're off to the races." she explained. "Let's just hope their horse hasn't already won, because the Lucky Ducky has just entered the race." "Lucky Ducky?" asked Victor, with a curious look. "You're lucky. I'm as beautiful as a duck." she explained. But Victor just had no clue. His faced was scrunched up with confusion. What race are they going to? What's this about horses? And what about a new entry into a race? He just shook his head, smiled and followed Danielle out the door. CHAPTER THIRTY: THE HEAT IS ON Victor had no idea where they were going. He finally knew they were looking for a killer, but had no idea where to start. Luckily Danielle knew. "Where are we going?" asked Victor, between strides. "The Science Lab." she replied, never breaking a stride. Victor didn't bother asking why. He'd find out soon enough. He knew the lab wasn't very far away. After about five minutes of fast walking they had arrived at their destination. The Science Lab was a laboratory in the full sense of the word. There were scientists from all sorts of species, performing countless experiments that Victor could not even begin to understand. There were rows upon rows of these scientists at their workstations. They were fiddling with dials, turning knobs, adding chemicals, and a whole lot of other things that Victor just couldn't figure out. Strange thing was, they were all wearing white. Every last one of them. Victor wondered to himself how far back the tradition of wearing the colour of no colour went when it came to scientists. "We're here, so now what?" asked Victor, curiously. "We need to get some scanning equipment." she told him. "We need to find out more about that cabitulator beam that killed the Cadet." And Victor then understood. The equipment made available by any of the police forces on any of the StarCon worlds, would be vastly inferior to those available in the 'name of science.' Well, at least when it came to non-aggressive equipment, such as scanners and other items that would never be associated with war or violence. And he suspected they were here to get a scanner to determine more information about the beam that killed the Cadet. "Can I help you?" asked someone who appeared at the front counter, which acted as a barrier between the scientists and the outside world. She was another scientist. She wore glasses that seemed larger than necessary, and had her hair that was tied back in a ponytail, although it wasn't tied back very well. Strands of hair were all over the place, but Victor guessed that probably was caused by hard work. "Yes you may." Danielle answered the woman. "We are with the StarCon Junior Police Force and require a scanning device. The ones provided by the department are vastly inferior for what we need. The amount of data provided by the departmental equipment would tell us nothing of what we need to learn, but one of your general scanners would." "I'm sorry." said the woman. "Our scanners are not allowed to be used outside of the Science Lab. Furthermore, we are not allowed to give scanners to unauthorized personnel unless there is a system-wide emergency. If you wish to obtain such a scanner, you must first fill out the proper paperwork with your department, which will then be reviewed by their board, and if approved, it will be sent over to our board of directors, who will themselves approve it." "And how long would that take?" asked Victor, joining the conversation. "Minimum 6-8 weeks." said the woman. "Plus if you'd like overnight delivery there is an extra surcharge. If you wish to have it delivered to your room, ad another charge, and another week. And do not forget about taxes. Oh, and there is also shipping and handling of course." "WHAT??!!" asked Victor, raising his voice. "6-8 weeks? But we need it today. No, we need it this hour. Any longer and the ... stuff that we need to scan will no longer be able to get scanned!" Victor was clearly outraged. "Isn't there some way we could borrow one?" asked Danielle, using her soothing voice. "Well, there is John Way's scanning device." she told them. "But he's away, and if you guys busted it I wouldn't hear the end of it. That thing is his baby. It can tell him anything he wants to know about all types of weapons. He uses it to scan the target after he shoots a single target with several different weapons, some even the same model and type. The device allows him to figure out which ones hit the target and which ones didn't. He even fiddles with the settings and tests them. The scanner will tell them which mark was created by which setting. Oh yeah, that thing is his baby. Here, I'll show it to ya." She proceeded to walk over to the other end of the counter, put her hand underneath the desk and she pulled out the scanner. It was a simple handheld device which didn't look impressive. She showed it to them, but wouldn't let them touch it. She said she didn't want them wandering off with it. She was probably right. They'd probably end up running away, scanning the body and running back. She proceeded to walk back to the spot and replace it under the desk. Danielle proceeded to put her arm around Victor's shoulder and steer him away from the front desk. Facing away, they could not be heard by the women at the desk and she would not be able to lip-read either. "I've got a plan." whispered Danielle, careful to make sure she didn't reveal anything to the woman at the desk with her body gestures. "Do anything and everything you can to stall her. Keep her occupied. Don't let her notice I'm not there. I'm counting on you Victor, don't let me down." Calmly, she proceeded to steer Victor back to the front counter. She nudged him to get him to start occupying the woman's attention. Danielle stealthily headed slowly towards the employee entrance. "Uh ... I didn't catch you name." Victor said, appearing more bashful than he really was. "My name is Emmanuelle." she said, in a very caressing voice. She smiled at him. "A man in a well?" asked Victor, getting excited. "Where? I better go help him." He looked all around. There were no wells in sight. He turned to face Emanuelle again. She had her head lowered in her hands, and she was rubbing her temples. She was also shaking her head in a mixture of amusement and disbelief. "No." she told him. "My name is French. My parents are from a remote planet called Francophonia. But with the advent of translators, nothing would ever sound French to you. Except names such as mine, of course." "Nice to meet you French." Victor said with a smile. "Just call me Emm." she told him, frustrated. "It should be easier that way." "OK Emm." said Victor. "So what exactly do you do around here Emm?" "I'm the front desk." she told him, smiling proudly. "Really?" asked Victor, wide-eyed. "Would have thought they would use some sort of table or something. Maybe a bunch of metal or wood. But a person? Jeez, humans are taking over the universe. We're replacing everybody and everything. Including desks, apparently." Emm made a groan in frustration. Victor was starting to get on her nerves. when she finally calmed down, she spoke again. "You don't understand." she told Victor. "I work at the front desk. I help people who come here, to the front desk. That is my job." "Oh." said Victor, seeming to start to understand. "Well I'm at the front desk, and I need help. I have this awful itch on my back. Could you scratch it for me." "THAT'S IT!!" she screamed at him, obviously having enough of his antics. "LEAVE!! Leave at once!! Or I'm calling the police and reporting harassment." "But I AM the police." Victor insisted. "Just LEAVE!!! NOW!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. And so Victor turned and left her. He walked about four paces and stopped. He then proceeded to turn himself around and walk back to the front counter. "I thought I told you to leave??!!!" She told him, not having enough energy to yell. "And I did." he told her. "I've returned. I need that scanner." "And I said no." she retorted. "And I came back to ask again." Victor replied. This was getting nowhere. At least from Emm's viewpoint. There was a line-up starting to form behind Victor, although most kept their distance after witnessing the earlier confrontation. Emm knew she had to get rid of Victor, so she did the only thing she knew how. She was going to escort him off the Science Lab's premises. She walked away from Victor and out the staff entrance. She approached Victor. "I am ordering you to leave the premises." she told him, in the most authoritative voice she could muster. "Please follow me, or I shall have you arrested." Knowing that he had given Danielle his best shot at a distraction, he complied. If it wasn't good enough, he'd know that it wasn't possible for him to do anything better. There was only so much one could do before one gets escorted away. Emm grabbed Victor's arm and politely walked towards the entrance to the Science Lab. If one had seen them, you would think that Victor was escorting Emm, and not the other way around. And they looked like they had just come from a dance, or other social gathering. It looked to Victor like Emm was enjoying the moment. He didn't know whether it was because she was close to him, or because she was finally getting rid of him. But to Victor, it didn't matter. AS they were walking, Victor stole a glance over his shoulder. He saw Danielle, stealthily exiting the staff entrance and she stopped. She looked towards Victor, smiled, and gave him a thumbs up. It was the 'wait to go' signal. It made him happy he hadn't let Danielle down. But he also wondered what the scene looked like from her point of view. Was she giving him the thumbs up for being escorted by Emm, thinking they might have attempted to start an intimate relationship? Victor shuddered at the idea. But even if that were true, Victor could explain that he did it only for Danielle. He could say he sacrificed himself in order to not let her down. And he thought to himself what an interesting dinner table conversation it might be. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: A TALE OF TWO BEAMS After Victor got outside of the Science Lab, he waited for Danielle. Moments later, she ws by his side. "So what did you do back there?" asked Victor, curious about what exactly Danielle's plan was. "Well, it is pretty simple." she said, smiling as she recalled what happened. "You and that chick..." "Her name is Emm." Victor interrupted. "She is not a chick. Her real name is French." "Fine." she said, not really caring what the girl was called. "While you are Emm were doing whatever you were doing..." "We were talking." Victor interjected. He didn't like her making all these assumptions. "Fine." she said. "While you and Emm were talking, I slipped through the employee entrance. I used stealth and found the scanner. Once you were ... escorted away, I carefully left without being seen. It was nice not to have to use invisibilitude for a change. It made me feel ... normal again." "Next time, I'd advise you not to slip through the entrance." said Victor, seriously. "Sliding through an entrance can be dangerous. You never know what you'd find inside. It is best to walk through an entrance, but also use stealth tactics." Danielle closed her eyes, bowed her head, cupped her hands around her face and sighed. A few moments later she raised her head and faced Victor with a slight smile. "It is a figure of speech Victor." she explained. "I did not literally slip through the entrance; the expression means that I used stealth to enter the entrance." "Oh..." was all Victor managed to say. The two walked in silence back to the reactors. When they arrived, Danielle ran over to the body and scanned it with the scanner she ... borrowed. "Well, what does it say?" Victor asked, impatiently. "It says..." she said as she was trying to figure out what it was telling her. "... that ... WHAT THE??!" "What is it?" asked Victor, worryingly. "This says that the beam wasn't even StarCon." she told Victor. "That doesn't make any sense at all. StarCon is the only agency that manufactures a photronic phase cabitulator. Well ... except for ..." She stopped talking. Her eyes went wide, her mouth opened. She looked to be in another dimension. "Except who Danielle?" probed Victor. It was several moments before Danielle finally responded. "Except for the ... Livenosoars." she said finally, straining herself in the process. Victor gasped. The Livenosoars were a reptilian race that were almost extinct. They once were very aggressive and started attacking their neighbours. But a meteor had crashed into the planet, and it just happened to land in the largest city just as the war ceremony was going on. The city was destroyed, and the ensuing tidal wave wiped out virtually all life on the planet. The only survivors were mostly from spaceships who returned only to find their planet destroyed. Several small underwater cities survived the impact of the meteor, but none very large. They were an experiment in underwater development. After that day that the planet was destroyed the Livenosaurs eliminated all contact with the outside world. Until today. Today, the first contact was made with their species. In the form of an energy beam that killed a Cadet. "Are you certain it is the Livenosoars?" asked victor, concern creeping into his voice. "All the signs point to them." she told him. "The energy signal matches their known weaponry. If they constructed their cabitulators anything like their weaponry, then it was one of their cabitulators that killed the Cadet. There have been rumours from Traders that parts for a photronic phase cabitulator were heading to the Livenosoars homeworld. Traders are the only beings who have contacted the Livenosaurs since the fall of their civilization. But Traders are unreliable, and will tell lies if they are paid enough. They have no loyalty, except to themselves. If what the Traders say is true, it looks even more like they are responsible. There is nothing to suggest that it was otherwise." "But what do we do now?" asked Victor. "We now know it was them, but what next? We can't just go to the Livenosoars homeworld and ask everyone if they've seen a portable photronic phase cabitulator." "But we can Victor." said Danielle, in a soothing but commanding voice. "We can. And we will. We are now going to land on the Livenosoars homeworld. Tonight." CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: HOW TO GET THERE? Victor was shocked by Danielle's statement. He had no desire to go to the homeworld of the Livenosoars, even if it is on official business. Victor realized that their venture would require a spaceship, and it would have to be heavily armed. After all, they did not want to end up as more dead Cadets. And if they wanted a heavily armed ship, they knew where to get one. The Junior StarCon Police Squad office. Danielle and Victor set out to the office, in order to ask Commander Flakes if he would supply them with a ship. He doubted they would, considering the conflict, but it was their only possible action. Well, it was if you discount all the illegal, or death-defying actions. The two walked quickly to the office. When they arrived, Commander Flakes was at his desk. He looked up and acknowledged each of them with a nod. He motioned for them to sit down. They did. "So how goes the investigation?" asked the Commander. "Very well." said Danielle, which surprised the Commander. "Interesting..." said Commander Flakes, stroking his gotti. "Victor is the officer, but Danielle is in charge. Interesting indeed. And she's a female no less." Danielle looked at him with a look of 'watch what you say buddy,' squinting her eyes slightly and clenching her jaw. She asked slowly "And what is that supposed to mean?" The Commander, never breaking his appearance of zero emotion, told her "Officers are officers, whether they are male or female. They all get the same training, although each gender gets some added training in different areas. And whenever we have an officer who has someone help, that is all they do. They simply follow orders, a script monkey as the programmers call them. You could basically write a script for a robot, and do your role Danielle. But Danielle, you aren't doing your role. You are doing much more than that. You have appeared to take over the investigation. That is a remarkable feat, considering that even in instances of two officers of equal rank, the male is always in command. But here, where there is an actual command structure, where Victor is an officer and you Danielle are unranked, there should not have been any opportunity for you to take command. But you did. Remarkable." After a short pause, Danielle told him why they had come. "We need a heavily armed spacecraft." she told him. "We plan on going to the homeworld of the Livenosoars." Commander Flakes showed his first real emotion. His eyes went large, his mouth went wide open, but not sound came out. The hair on the back of his neck went up, but only Danielle was able to detect it. "The Livenosoars?" he asked, still wide-eyed. "You're investigating the death of a Cadet, not invading a homeworld." "With all due respect, sir, we are following the information we gathered from the crime scene." she told him. "We need that spacecraft. We need to get to the homeworld to find out who killed that Cadet!" She was on the verge of getting angry. She was already annoyed. "I'm sorry Cadet, but I have my orders." he told her with a serious face. "The StarCon Federation has a non-interaction treaty with the Livenosoars. We do not interfere with them, and they do not interfere with us. It was put into place after the collapse of their civilization. If you land on their homeworld, you will be in violation of this treaty. Request Denied!" "Uh ... I hate to break up the party." interjected Victor. "But could you please just look at the scanner. Uh ... It's got ... stuff you should see." He motioned for Danielle to give him the scanner. She did. When she handed him the scanner his eyes went wide. Every paragraph unnerved him even more. He handed the scanner back to Danielle. "This was a deliberate attack on the StarCon Federation, designed to ignite war between two species." the Commander told them, as if reciting a history lesson. "No doubt they would continue such efforts in order to ignite war between other species. Eventually, empires would fight each other, and one would fall. The victor would fight another empire, only to have their empire fall. The series of targeted attacks, designed to look like enemy sabotage could end up destroying the stability in this portion of space. All the Livenosoars would have to do is keep increasing their numbers, and by the time empires have fallen, they could come in and dominate. The Livenosoars are trying to take over the universe, but they just made their first mistake." "And what would that be?" asked Victor incredulously. "Their crime was committed in your jurisdiction." he told them. "Oh, I knew that." came Victor's childish response. "This is a job for the Secret Attack Force." said the Commander, making sure nobody but Victor and Danielle heard him. "But they aren't here, so I guess you two will have to do. You will be Honorary Secret Attack Force Commanders, using their equipment, designed for stealth and sneak attacks. You two will save the universe." "Cool!" said Victor, acting like a little kid. "Do we get a swearing in ceremony? I've always wanted to be at one of those." "No." came the authoritative voice of the Commander. "I'm not going anywhere unless I have a swearing in ceremony." said Victor, still acting childishly. "Fine." said Danielle. "@&*#. I swore, now you're in. Commander, where do we get our equipment?" Commander Flakes pressed a button underneath his desk. The side wall of his office retracted into the floor. There in the room that became visible was infinite amounts of various weaponry, armour, and most importantly a ship. A small, two-seater ship that had room for cargo, held in place by a force field. Victor thought it probably was used more for storing hostages or prisoners of war. They had found their ship they were looking for. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: LIVE NO MORE OR CONTINUE TO SOAR? Victor and Danielle grabbed as much equipment as they could carry and boarded the ship. The ship was a shuttle, but very sleek. There were two chairs for them to sit in, and then there was some space to store or hang stuff, and finally, the cargo hold. It looked like it could only fit about three people standing, only one if it was on its side. But right now it held none. "Simply press that big red button in the middle to get it flying." he told them. "If you get into trouble, and it is a big emergency, pull the yellow handle underneath the pilot's chair." The Commander left, and Danielle and Victor strapped themselves in. They were ready to rock and roll! Ok, so they really didn't want to rock, and they probably did not want to roll the ship, but you get the idea. Victor was in the pilot's seat, so he was the one who pressed the red button. Nothing happened. He pressed it over and over and over and still nothing happened. He was beginning to wonder if the thing worked at all, and then he saw a lever. It was the brake. He released it with his right hand. And then they skyrocketed out a hole in the ceiling and off into space. But Victor had pressed the button too much. They were going too fast! "What ... now?" asked Victor, pushed back into his seat my the massive amount of G-force. "Slow ... down." replied Danielle. Victor noticed how beautiful she looked with the pull of 20 G's revealing every curve of her body. But he had to turn his eyes to see her, and they felt like they were about to be ripped out of the sockets because there was so much force. Neither of them knew where the controls were for the throttle. The ship was rocketed towards the unknown and unbelievable speeds, and Victor couldn't do a thing. He just should not have pressed the ignition button so many times. It had given them a ten times greater thrust than was necessary. Funny thing was, in all this commotion and danger, Victor's foot got sore. He tried to lift it to scratch it. Little good that would have done, considering his arms were stuck against his body. There was no possible way to scratch it to relieve the itch. And then he passed out due to the lack of blood flow in his body. His foot, slightly suspended, was now free to move in its own free will. It bent backwards at an unbelievable angle. "Click" Something made a sound and his foot stopped moving. The ship lurched to a halt and both Victor and Danielle got whiplash. They also got bruises all over their body from the restraints. But if they didn't have them, they'd be through the windshield and out into the vacuum of space. Victor's foot itch had saved them all. It had stopped the ignition reactor. Victor and Danielle regained consciousness and made groaning noises, due to their new bruises. "What happened?" asked Danielle. "I ... have no idea." came Victor's bewildered response. "I'll proceed to locate the Livenosoars homeworld." came Danielle's soothing voice. Somehow it made Victor feel better, and for a moment he forgot he was bruised. Only for a moment. When she finished finding the planet she pressed a button and sent it to the autopilot. The ship lurched slightly as the plasma drive came online. "We'll be within range in five minutes." she told Victor. "What weapons do we have on this thing?" "We have phase calibrator pistols, light ray torches, quantum handheld matrixes..." "Not those weapons!! The ship's weapons!" she said, flustered. "Oh. ... In that case I don't know." he said honestly. And then the ship shuddered. They were under attack. "BATTLESTATIONS!" yelled Victor. "We're already at our stations and I'm right beside you." she told him. "You didn't have to yell." To which he replied "But it is more fun that way!" She closed her eyes, gave a slight shake of her head and then worked hard at her controls. Again, the ship shuddered under attack by invisible spacecraft. They still could not see their attackers, although they knew it would be a Livenosoars ship. "Fire the weapons!" yelled Danielle. Victor was at the only weapons station. "I can't find them!" he yelled back. The ship shuddered again, but this time more violently. If they didn't find the weapons soon, they'd be damaged by the time they did find them. "Get out of the chair!" she yelled, as she unstrapped herself. Victor gave her a curious look, but did as he was told. Danielle proceeded to hover over the controls and rapidly press a large combinations of buttons. Victor though that if she was typing, she'd have typed a novel in less than a minute, and war and peace in only five minutes. "She's using invisibilitude..." he said under his breath. It was the only way anyone could have moved their fingers that fast, with that precision. She was sacrificing herself for the survival of them both. Victor, now standing behind the two chairs, had a clear view out a side window. There were two ships, one on either side of them. They were small, fighter ships that had probably made up part of the planetary defence fleet of the Livenosoars. A turret suddenly popped into view. The turret starting shooting out green beams of light in rapid succession at the fighter ships. Before he could see if they had hit its target, the ship shook heavily under a new barrage of attacks. Sparks flew out of the panels. Victor could barely see that Danielle's hands got hit, but she was still flying at the controls. Turrets started appearing all over the hull of the ship. They were firing rapidly at the attackers. Suddenly there was an explosion. "One down, three to go." came the reply from Danielle, without even pausing at her controls. Within thirty seconds, the last of the ships were destroyed. Victor walked back over to Danielle, and was carrying a medkit. Her hands were dark red, blood oozing out of them. They were in really bad shape. "You should have stopped." he told her softly. "You should have stopped when the sparks came out. You might have permanent hand damage." "I couldn't." she explained. "I couldn't just let you down like that. If I had stopped, even for a moment, we would have been dead. I used up all of our contratargeters. They divert beams away from the hull. In effect, they are like a shield. But they were all destroyed. If we had sustained a few more shots from them, we'd have been goners. I have no idea how we'll get back. They'll destroy us in an instant." She put her head in her hands and sobbed. But Victor's mind was elsewhere at that moment. He was looking through the front windshield. And there it was. The Livenosoar's homeworld. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: THE LANDING PARTY Victor was looking at a planet that looked remarkably like a moon. It was bombarded with craters, having purged the sea of life. There were remnants of oceans, small lakes and such, but they were very small in the scheme of things. Except for small patches of green, it was hard to even tell there was any life on the planet. But Victor knew better. He knew there were killers down there. Killers who wanted to take over the universe. They wanted to take over his universe. The lack of life on the planet confirmed what he had thought earlier. They had indeed taken down the defence force, or what ever was left of it. But he knew there would be ships on the planet, that were under development, in landing bays, or for general planetary use. They would come after them when they found out they had arrived. They still would have no hope leaving the planet. One shot and they'd be gone. Well, they actually did have hope, but they didn't have a chance of making it out alive. Well, that wasn't true either. They did have a chance, but it was so marginal it really wasn't much of a chance at all. Victor finally heard sobbing coming from the corner. Having analyzed the planet, his subconscious finally gave him the message that she was in distress. It was sort of like an answering machine that came on whenever you left the door, except for Victor, he had only went out to get the paper from the porch, but ended up being chased around by his own dog. He walked over to her, kneeled down beside her and put his arm around her to comfort her. "We're not going to make it." she said between sobs. This wasn't going to be an easy job to get her back on her feet. And Victor desperately needed her on her feet. After all, he had no clue what to do. It was her idea to come to the planet. "Of course we are going to make it!" said Victor cheerfully, even though he too did not believe they would. At least he'd die in the company with the love of his life. "We ... uh ... just need to finish your plan first." "What plan?" she asked, suddenly coming out of her maniac somberfest. "Why your plan." he told her. "The plan you have to arrest the person responsible for the death of the Cadet. The whole reason you convinced me to come to the Livenosoar's planet. You do have a plan, don't you?" "... Of course I do." It was her turn to lie this time. Danielle had a plan once, but it was only to come to the planet and find the perpetrator. But she thought on her feet, deciding the next step as she went along. She never wanted to rely on a single plan that would fail if a single event did not happen. It was just too risky. But in her present state, she would not be able to think on her feet. Victor needed to get her back to reality. "OK. Good." replied Victor. "Where should I land?" She looked at him with a blank stare, not sure what to make of the question. She was in her own dimension again. "Fine." he mumbled to himself. "I'll just land it where the largest population centre is." He used the controls to tell the autopilot to land at the site he chose. "What do we do once we land?" He waited, but there was no answer. If he waited for Danielle to come out on her own, it would be too late. They would have landed, been detected, and assaulted by whatever ground forces there were. They just didn't have that kind of time. Victor would have to act fast. Danielle was now curled up in a little ball in the corner of the spacecraft. She had completely withdrawn from reality. The knowledge of certain defeat had reached her, and she just wasn't ready for it. Victor imagined that her mind probably had curled up into a little ball inside her head too. She was in complete withdrawal, and he had to get her back. But how? Minutes went by, and the spacecraft was getting closer and closer to the planet. Ever since he realized she'd need to be helped back to reality, he had an idea on what to do. But he desperately didn't want to do it. He'd do anything else to get her back, except for what he would end up having to do anyway. He was going to have to talk her out of it. "Danielle, it is me, Victor." he said to her, in the best impression of an adult talking to a scared kid. "You and I are friends. We share a room back at the StarCon Academy. Remember the Academy?" She nodded her head slowly. "Good. We are both Cadets at the Academy and have been through a lot in the last while. I rescued you from a man named Mr. Bosh. Remember that?" She thought for a moment, and then nodded her head slowly. "OK, now I'm going to need your help. I know you are scared and you just want to be back home, but you have to help me. It is the only way I can get both of us safely home. I'm going to have to talk to your older self, the one with all the knowledge and stuff. The one I know." She gave him a look of confusion. She didn't understand what she was asked. Danielle was now a child again, in an older body. And then the spacecraft landed. It was slightly outside of the populated region, far enough away that they would not be noticed. But the occasional planetary scan would reveal them very shortly. Victor was almost out of time. "DANIELLE!" he shouted. "DANIELLE!!! I NEED YOU!! YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT HAS THE ABILITY TO SAVE US!! I ... I MIGHT NEED YOUR INVISIBILITUDE!!!" But she just stood there staring blankly. It was too late. Victor had failed. Danielle was still a kid, and they were about to be found out and killed. Seeing the end is near, he felt he owed it to himself to tell the truth. He picked Danielle off the floor and made her stand up. He looked deeply into her eyes. "I love you Danielle." he told her softly. "I've loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you. Every time I saw you, you inspired me to be greater. Greater than some hero my parents wanted me to be. Every time I turned around you were showing me new sides of yourself, impressing me all the more. You are the greatest person I have ever met. I would have loved to spend my life with you, but now that isn't possible. You've gotten yourself locked into a cocoon, trapped as a little kid. Because of that, we will both die. I love you and I wish that didn't have to happen, but there is no escape." She was still in her look of blank stare, as if she was a mannequin instead of a human being. Victor then did something he wanted desperately to do for quite some time, but didn't want to do for fear he'd mess things up. He kissed her passionately. They were locked in a passionate embrace for over a minute. Finally, she pushed back, and the embrace unlocked. "WHOA!!!" She yelled. "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?" She was back. She was herself again. And not a moment too soon. Victor looked through the windshield and saw a craft heading their way, coming from over the nearby mountain. The design was Livenosoar. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: TO CAPTRURE, OR NOT TO CAPTURE, THAT IS THE QUESTION "No time to explain!" yelled Victor. "Bogey at 2 o'clock. We need to get out of here. Any ideas?" "This ship still work?" asked Danielle, over the roar of the incoming ship. Victor looked at the controls. They were dead. They had no power. There was no way to repair them in such short a time. "Nope." "Darn." cursed Danielle. "We'll never escape by foot. ... We'll have to find some way to survive their assault." "But how?" asked Victor. "We have weapons and armour and stuff, but there are too many. We'd never be able to fight through them all." "We will surrender." said Danielle. "We'll tell them we are traders. Our ship got attacked when we tried to come trade, and we crash landed here. Tell them we want to get back home. I'm sure they will take us prisoner. But first we need to set up portable stasis fields." She grabbed some components out of a side locker Victor didn't even know existed. She seemed to take a very unlikely combination of items and fiddle with them until they fit together. In about two minutes, she had two portable stasis fields. She gave one to Victor. "Put it in your pocket." she ordered. "If they get close, activate it. Simply press down on your pocket and it will squeeze the ball and activate the stasis field. They will not be able to touch you. Don't waste it, I'm not too sure how long the power will last. Hopefully long enough so that we can get into a cell. I have a plan ... but I haven't worked out the kinks yet. Put your arms in the air to surrender. If they go to push you around, activate the stasis field. I think they'll simply tell you to move with their guns though." And so they waited. About a minute later, the other ship had arrived and landed. A group of reptilian aliens exited the craft, armed with various weapons that Victor didn't even recognize. They saw their hands raised in surrender and motioned with their guns to follow. Danielle and Victor complied. They boarded the alien ship and were put into their cargo hold. A force field was activated to keep them from escaping. Danielle managed to steal glances out the side port and attempted to memorize the way to their craft. She could see that the Livenosoar's craft, or at least this one, was made for much larger beings than humans, and the controls would be too difficult to figure out. There would be no escaping the planet via a stolen Livenosoar craft. Only a few short minutes after takeoff, they arrived at a large building. The building had many large fences around it. Some as high as a kilometre high. The craft landed on the roof of the building. "OUT!" yelled one of the Livenosoar's pointing with his gun out the door of their craft. They complied without incident. Victor could immediately see they were on a detention centre. The walls were higher than necessary, the room between the walls and the building too small for any normal craft to land. There were turrets all around the building. He knew it would be very tough to escape. The Livenosoar's took them on a route that seemed to be designed to disorient their bearings more than anything. It was if they didn't want them to know which general direction they would have to run in order to attempt an escape. Eventually they reached an empty cell, and the Livenosoars activated a force field. Two guards were stationed on both the left and right side of the force field. The cell was ... just a cell. There was a small outcropping of rock that Victor assumed would be a bed. There were two pits in the ground with lids over them. Victor assumed these would be the equivalent of a toilet. He realized their stay here would not be very sanitary. Victor started to answer a question, but Danielle gave him a look that shut him up right away. For whatever reason, she didn't want him talking. A few minutes later several Livenosoar's came around a corner and entered into sight. "Welcome to my little bit of paradise!" the one in ceremonial garbs exclaimed. He was obviously the leader. "Oh yes, what a paradise!" Danielle replied sarcastically. "A 5 star hotel." "I'm glad to see your spirits are up." he said seriously. "What brings you, two lowly humans, to Livenotopia?" "We are traders." she told him. "We thought your civilization went extinct a while back. In order to cut some time off our trip, and increase our profits, we cut accross what was once your space. Little did we know it still was, and we were ambused. Our systems were damaged and we crash landed on this planet. We need to repair our ship, but we just didn't have enough time to repair it before we were threatened. Would you be able to help us repair it so we can get out of here and let you get on with your lives quicker?" "Uh ... no." he replied coldly. "Your ship is undergoing ... scientific examination. The technology of humans has advanced so much since our last contact. We wish to learn as much as we can from it. When we understand your technology, we'll let you go. But for now you'll remain here. I hope you enjoy your stay." He turned and headed back from the direction he came. Danielle turned her head, winked at Victor and said "I wonder if the war has started yet? That news report about that Cadet being killed ... and by a cabitulator. I sure wouldn't want to be the guys responsible, having waves and waves of ships attacking in order to get revenge." The leader stopped in his tracks. He slowly turned around and walked back to where he was standing before. "This is news to me." he told them. "What exactly did this news report say?" It clearly interested him, and both Victor and Danielle knew why. A Livenosoar doesn't care about other people's problems or wars. They only care about their own, meaning, this Livenosoar was the one responsible for the Cadet's death. They now had their suspect. Danielle reached into one of her pockets and produced a P.E.P. Well it actually wasn't one, but very similar. She pressed a button and attempted to hand it to the leader. It froze at it hit the force field. The leader nodded, and one of the guards lowered the force field. The other guard took the small P.E.P. The guard then raised the force field. The leader watched in fascination at the news clip. It had showed the results of the murder, even shown pictures, and said how it was a Quarkulan attack. It also mentioned how StarCon was sending out fleets of ships to prepare for an attack. He smiled, thanked Danielle and turned. He was heading back around the corner. "Uh ... Could I have it back?" yelled Danielle. She only got a "No." from him and a loud laugh. He definitely wasn't going to give it back. But Danielle wasn't sad. In fact, she was smiling. She too wanted to laugh, but she was holding it back. She couldn't afford to let the guards hear it. Her plan was working out nicely, but even a laugh would ruin it. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: A PLAN IN MOTION Victor couldn't understand it. Danielle had gave the leader a news report, that ... couldn't have been real. But it certainly seemed real enough for the leader. And Danielle had lost the report. By all accounts she should be sad, angry, or depressed. But she was smiling. It just didn't make sense. "What was all that about?" Victor whispered. But Danielle didn't answer. She turned away from the guard and gave Victor the 'ssshhh' symbol. The interplanetary silence symbol. She wanted him to shut up. So he did. She moved her head towards the guard who was manning the force field. She then lipped the word 'distract him.' Victor nodded back in understanding. Victor had no idea how he was going to do what Danielle asked him, but he would give it his best shot. "Hey guard!" he yelled. Both guards turned and look at him. "What do I do to get some food around here? I'm starving!" "One meal a day." replied the guard. "You missed today's meal. No food for you today. Must wait until tomorrow." "NO!!" yelled Victor, causing the far guard to come closer to him. "I NEED FOOD! GET ME FOOD!!" "No food." replied the far guard. "If you don't get me food now, I'm going to cause you some big trouble." said Victor. "Oh yeah? What can you do in there? See this?" he said as he moved his hand towards the inside of the cell, creating a blue spark, which prevented him from advancing any further. "It is a force field, and you can't pass through it." "Then I'll kill myself on it." said Victor, knowing a sustained jolt from it would be lethal. "Your leader wouldn't be happy that you let me die. I hold the information needed to operate that technology he is so concerned about." The guards considered it. "You will not kill yourself." the guards concluded. "Humans are concerned for their welfare. They will not jeopardize it by killing themselves." They had seen through his bluff. Victor snuck a glance to see what Danielle was doing. She had carefully slid herself into the far corner, right next to the force field. She saw his glance, and made a motion with her fists. She wanted him to fight them. Considering he was pretty much dead anyway, and that Danielle probably had a plan up her sleeve, he decided might not be such a bad way to die after all. "How about we fight?" he asked. "If I win, one of you will go get me some food. If you win ... well, I'd probably be dead anyways." The guards looked at each other like Victor was nuts. He probably was. "Agreed." said the far guard. The other guard was still manning the force field. He lowered it, and the other guard entered the cell. The force field was then raised again. Victor, as well as the guard manning the force field, glanced over to see whether Danielle made it out when the force field went down. She did not. But she was looking straight at her chest, as if it had morphed or something. A strange thing to be doing at a time like this. Both looked away, back to the fight. But Danielle wasn't actually looking at her chest. Hidden, under her undergarments was the small scanner they had used on the dead body. She was looking at the readings from the scanner and not her ... er ... chest. Turning away from the men, she made it appear she was adjusting her clothing. In reality, she was pressing a sequence of commands on the scanner. She was attempting to deactivate the force field. She could not risk having the guard's attention being thrown from the contest. She carefully leaned towards the force field and ... nothing. It had been deactivated. Slowly, she edged herself outside the force field. She stayed as near to the force field as she could, without actually being inside of it or touching it. She didn't want the guard to realize the field was down, and activate it while she was in the direct path of it. She knew that would be lethal. She was facing so that she was looking inside the cell, as if watching the match. She slowly crept towards the guard manning the controls of the force field. When she got close enough to him, she acted as if she fell. The guard instantly realized that the force field must be down, but before he could do anything, Danielle's leg swung around and knocked his feet from under him. The surprise of the guard gave Danielle enough time push him into the cell. She immediately punched the controls to activate the force field. The guard tried to get back to his post, but got a nasty jolt from the field. Danielle decided to see how Victor was doing in his match. He wasn't doing well. He had a nasty bruise on his left shoulder, with the skin exposed from a large rip in his clothing. He had several cuts on his face, although nothing serious. Yet. "Use the stasis field!" she yelled, as she pulled out the scanner from under her clothing. She quickly pressed a different sequence of buttons, and she put it onto her belt. But Victor couldn't use the stasis field. He had one arm defending any attacks to the head from the two guards, and the other was free. He attempted to use activate the stasis field, but before he could, he was picked up off the ground by one of the guards. The guard held him over his head and prepared to throw him at the wall. "Goodbye Danielle." he told her softly. "I'll see you in the afterlife. Assuming there is one." Victor was prepared to die. The guard threw him as hard as he could at the wall. Danielle couldn't look. She turned away, not willing to see her good friend die. There was nothing she could have done to save him. And then she heard the sound of an object flying through the air at incredible speeds. She waited to hear the squashing sound, of Victor compressing himself into the wall. He would be a pancake. She waited ... but she didn't hear it. Instead she heard one of the guards yell out "WHAT THE?" She looked to see what had confused the guards. Victor was laying on the ground, barely conscious. He had a glow of white around his body. The stasis field had been activated! What Danielle was not able to realize was that when Victor had been thrown against the wall, his arms and legs flailed. By pure luck, he arms managed to accidentally press the button to activate the stasis field. The field activated before he got to the wall. The stasis field took the blow of hitting the wall, and Victor was still alive. His dumb luck had saved him again, while trying to save the Universe of a horrible threat. He was turning out to be a real good Roger Wilco after all. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: BACK TO THE INVESTIGATION Danielle just could not believe her eyes. Victor was alive, thanks to the miraculous feat of activating his stasis field. But the two guards were trying to drain its battery by absorbing the shock it created when they touched it. Sacrificing themselves, the guards looked like they were warming their hands by a log fire. But the log fire in this case was Victor. And if he didn't escape, they'd drain the battery and he'd be toast. Well not toast, but he'd be dead. Finito. Killed. ... The list goes on and on. Danielle somehow had to get him out of the cell. But she couldn't just deactivate the force field. The guards were much faster than Victor, and they'd both escape before she could reactivate it with Victor on the safe side. She just had to figure out another way. She took her scanner off her belt and tried to see if she couldn't find something that would allow Victor to escape. When she pointed it at Victor, she got five readings. Three were just lifesign signals, so she ignored them. The other two interested her very much. The first was the frequency variance of the force field. She had found this out earlier, when she had sent a feedback loop in that frequency to deactivate the force field. But this time that wouldn't work. She looked at the second reading, which was Victor's stasis field. The reading she got indicated it was operating at a different frequency variance than the force field. But if she could somehow sync them up ... Her thoughts went into rapid fire mode and she went to work. She ran over to the controls for the force field. She used her scanner to change the frequency variance to match Victor's stasis field. "Quick Victor, run through the force field!" she commanded. "Quick, before your stasis field collapses." He gave her a quick shrug as if to say 'you are nuts' but proceeded to run at the force field anyway. The guards were running after him, and being much healthier and agile, they kept pace. They continued to drain the battery in his stasis field by touching the field. By the looks on their faces, Danielle could see there wasn't much life in the battery. Victor got to the force field and ran through. He seamlessly ran through as if the force field was not there. The guards were trying to clutch and grab at him as he ran through, but the stasis field wouldn't have any of it. When the stasis field finally quit, Victor was just barely through the force field. The guards got a nasty jolt from the force field as they gave their last ditch efforts to grab him. Victor and Danielle were now safely outside of the cell, with the guards inside it. The guards could not escape thanks to the force field. Now they needed to continue their investigation, or at least escape from this place alive. "We better get back to the spacecraft." she told him quietly, making sure nobody would hear them and alert other guards. "But what about the investigation?" asked Victor. "Don't we need proof of all this? Proof that he actually killed that Cadet." Danielle pointed to her scanner she held in her left hand. "We already have all the proof we need." Victor clearly didn't understand how that could be possible, but he wasn't about to argue. He needed to get some medical help, to heal the shoulder wound and the cuts on his face. "But where do we go?" asked Victor. "I can't tell north from south in this cavernous place. They led us everywhere when we came, making me lose my sense of direction." Again, she pointed to the scanner. It was amazing that a scanner so small as the one in Danielle's hand, could do so many things. It had tracked out a route where they had come, and had scanned inside each room as they walked by. Not only did Danielle have a map of the building, but she knew where the guards would hang out, what each rooom was for, and where the defence turrets were located. If they had only got a scanner from any division of the police forces of StarCon, they would have got something that would only do one or two things, neither which would be helpful to them now. But the one she had in her hand, it could do so much more. After all, it was designed for science, not the military. It just goes to show that Military Intelligence really is an oxymoron. At least when it comes to gadgets, such as scanners. Danielle led them through hallways, going every which direction. Eventually she stopped suddenly and put her arm out to stop Victor from moving forward. "Someone's coming." she whispered, indicating a small closet they should hide in. Victor and Danielle squeezed in, what would turn out to be the janitor's closet. It was not meant to house any person, let alone two, so it was a very tight squeeze. It was so tight that Victor thought that his flatten Danielle's. Of course that never happened, but Victor wouldn't have been surprised if it had. To make matters worse, they were forced to hold their breath while the Livenosoar walked past. Livenosoars have a good sense of smell when it comes to gases, and would have detected breathing coming from the closet. But in order to hold her breath, Danielle sucked in a big breath, making her chest expand outwards, squishing the two even more. The Livenosoar finally walked past and they exhaled. They exited the closet and continued on their way. There were several other instances along their chosen path where they had to hide in rooms, but they were all plenty big enough and did not cause any problems. Eventually they reached the infirmary, where they were going to fix Victor's injuries. The problem was there were doctors and nurses inside that would attack them if they entered. They stood outside the entrance, scanning around to make sure nobody was anywhere near them. Danielle told Victor to hide in one of the nearby vacant rooms. He did as he was told. Danielle proceeded to send a command to the electrical circuit via her scanner. The dim lights that peered underneath the doorway suddenly disappeared. She knew she had turned off the lights inside. Danielle proceeded to frantically insert commands into her scanner. A small package materialized beside her. It was a medical pack. Danielle proceeded to quickly use her scanner to turn on the lights inside the infirmary. She cautiously scanned to make sure nobody was going to leave the infirmary. But someone was. They were headed for the door Danielle was just outside of. She had nowhere to run. None of the nearby rooms were close enough. She stood right next to where the door would open and held her breath. The door swung open, right in front of Danielle. It had almost bonked her in the nose, except the toe of her shoe had stopped it from coming any further. She heard a large Livenosoar walk out of the infirmary and into the hallway. It walked around the corner. Using her scanner she found out it was heading right towards where Victor was hiding. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? Victor was hiding inside a room. There were several items strewn across the room. He didn't really know what the heck the room was used for, but he frankly didn't care. He kept the light off, as to reduce the amount of suspicion. Victor was simply standing out of sight of the doorway, waiting. Suddenly the small amount of light that entered the room from the doorway that was half-closed, disappeared. The room was now dark, and Victor couldn't see a thing. Well, actually he could. He looked at the door and made out an outline of a large Livenosoar. This one was particularly large, filling up the entire doorway. It made a sniffing sound, and turned in the direction of Victor. He had been found. But Victor did not know what to do. He had nowhere to run. The only exit was blocked by the beast. He could not see anything, there just wasn't enough light. The Livenosoar growled, ready for a slaughter and a new meal. After all, it was lunchtime. Victor, even without seeing anything, knew that he was going to get attacked by the Livenosoar and he couldn't do anything about it. So he fainted. Well, he didn't purposely choose to faint, but that is what his mind did for him. The Livenosoar, not being able to see his prey, and now not able to smell its breath, turned to turn on the light. Victor's body fell to the floor, but hit something on the way down. Whatever it was went flying and hit something else, making a 'clank' sound. There were several more different noises, and finally there was a loud thud. With that loud thud, the ground shook, and there was no more noise or movement after that. Meanwhile Danielle was still hiding behind the doorway. When she figured it was safe to come out, she carefully closed the door to the infirmary, making sure nobody saw or smelt her. Seeing how Victor's signal in the scanner had stopped, and that there was a Livenosoar signal in close proximity, she raced towards them to see if she could help Victor out. She was totally unprepared for what laid ahead of her when she turned on the light to the room. There in front of her was a giant Livenosoar, knocked out cold. And in the far corner, Victor lay face down, unconscious. "Oh my god!" she exclaimed, running to his side. "Are you alright Victor?" There was no response. Seeing how there was not much choice, considering that the Livenosoar might wake up and assault her at any minute, she did the only thing she could think to do. She kissed Victor as passionately as she could. A few short moments later, Victor awoke and was startled to find himself in a deep kiss. He thought he must be dreaming. But something inside of him made his arms push her away. They both got up, and he saw the Livenosoar lying on the ground. "WOAH! THAT WAS INTERESTING." he told Danielle, regarding the kiss. "Glad to see you came to my rescue and saved me from that beast. I thought I was a dead man." "I didn't save you." she told him seriously. "You were both unconscious when I arrived." "But ... how?" asked Victor. They both looked around the room to see if they could piece together what happened. In the corner, beside the Livenosoar, was a very large object. It looked like a large trophy of some sort. There were small blue specs on it, that Victor assumed was blood. He saw similar blue patch, although slightly larger, on the Livenosoar's head. There were various objects strewn across the room, including springs, pulleys, and so on. Victor could only assume he hit something on the way down that caused a series of very unlikely events that finally caused the trophy to fall on the Livenosoar's head. "We better leave before he wakes up again." Danielle told him. And so they left, leaving the Livenosoar to deal with his own wounds. They knew he was in no danger of dying, but he was in danger of waking up and attacking them. Of course that was a danger to them, not to him. The two of them continued on their way, this time towards the motor yard instead of the infirmary. On their way, they stopped in an empty room and used the medical pack to repair all of Victor's wounds. His face didn't look perforated anymore and his shoulder was much better, but still sore. But his shoulder was still exposed, still stinging in the open air. Unfortunately, technology still wasn't advanced enough to have medical packs create clothing overtop wounds to protect them. Their journey to the motor yard was uneventful. They did have to make several stops to avoid guards, or make a slight detour to avoid defence turrets. But overall it went very smoothly. The motor yard was full of various equipment that required some sort of engine to propel it. Hence the name. They found several very armoured hovercars, but they were so armoured, neither Victor or Danielle could find the door. They suspected there was an anti-theft device on it as well. One wouldn't want just any old person to come and steal your vehicle, only to find out you can't even destroy them because it is so well armoured. They did however notice a set of hoverbikes. They were similar to the antique vehicles known as 'Barley motorcycles', except these did not carry farm goods behind their vehicles. These did not have any compartments or trailers behind them. They did however, not run on wheels. They were a form of hover craft, using a complex glotuloso suspentomometer motor which allowed the vehicle to hover at incredible speeds, while still being relatively close to the ground. But it also allowed full flight when it got up to high enough speeds, although if one slowed too much, it would come crashing down to earth. It was meant more for an emergency avoidance mechanism more than anything. This particular type of engine had been not in use for years on StarCon worlds, but Victor surmised that the Livenosoars had to buy whatever technology they could get their hands on from the traders. Any tech, was good tech, as long as it did the job. Danielle used her scanner and scanned the bikes. Their controls were much too complex for either of them to use, but Danielle could use the scanner to operate it. It would be tough, but doable. "Hop on." said Danielle, pointing to one of the hoverbikes. Victor did. He did the bunny-hop onto his bike. "How do you use this thing?" asked Victor, looking over the complex controls. "You don't." she said, pointing to the scanner that was in her hand. "I can operate mine using a scanner. I've told your hoverbike to use its slaver circuit. It will be slaved to my hoverbike so that it will do everything I do." "I hope you don't crash." said Victor. "Well, if I did, you'd know to jump out of your bike before you crashed too." said Danielle, jokingly. With both of them mounted on their hoverbikes, Danielle used her scanner to activate the bikes. They roared to life, but remained stationary. She then set them into motion, towards the exit and towards their crashed spaceship. On Danielle's scanner, it looked like a handheld video game. In a way it was. The controls controlled their crafts, and different symbols represented the various hazards, including other ships and so on. Only if she crashed, or got hit by enemy fire, it was game over. For the game, and for both of their lives. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: THE WAR OF STARS IN THE FOREST Danielle was able to, somehow, disable the closest turrets. Victor did not know how she could do it, and fly at the same time, but he couldn't see what she was doing anyway. For all he knew, she could be writing a letter and flying at the same time. The scanner was just too small for him to see from his vantage point. The hoverbikes headed out the main gate, which was connected to the motor yard via a small outside road. As soon as they went outside the main entrance, they must have tripped an alarm. Sirens all over the place went off. It was deafening. They could hear shouting and various Livenosoars running frantically behind them. Victor looked behind him to see what was going on. After all, he couldn't control his hoverbike anyway, and was starting to get bored. He saw a whole bunch of Livenosoars running around, and many of them had mounted various contraptions. He noticed the big armoured vehicle they had seen in the motor yard still was not being taken, probably because it was too slow to catch them. Victor noticed some vehicles were starting to catch up to them. They seemed to be streamlined versions of hoverbikes. Victor noticed an emblem on the side of one of the bikes. He instantly recognized it as Bikerosoft. Knowing the company, the other bike was probably twice as fast as Victor or Danielle's, required twice as much maintenance, died and made critical stops for no apparent reason five times more, and had three times worse fuel efficiency. "They are gaining on us!" yelled Victor, in Danielle's direction. She nodded in understanding. Suddenly, both their hoverbikes veered off sharply from their present course. They were headed for a heavily wooded area. Victor thought it was suicide. But it was either that, or let the others catch up to them and they would be dead for sure. Once they entered the forest, Danielle slowed the hoverbikes slightly. She did not want to increase the risk of crashing into one of the many large trees. It would be fatal if she or Victor did. Victor had expected the Livenosoars to stop the pursuit, considering they would have a very hard time navigating through the forest. But when he looked over his shoulder, he was surprised to see they were still pursuing them. After a minute or so, one joined them in the forest, firing its laser beams at them in rapid succession. "Bogey at 6 o'clock!" yelled Victor. Again, Danielle nodded in understanding. Instead of her straight line tree avoidance route, she took their hoverbikes in a rapid in and out through the trees. It was like ice hockey or soccer practice. But instead of cones to skate or dribble around, there were lethal huge trees. As they were performing the manoeuvre, Victor looked over his shoulder. Another Livenosoar had caught up and were in the pursuit. "Another Bogey!! Right behind us!" replied Victor. "Hang on!!" yelled Danielle. Victor, having no clue what stupid thing she was about to did, hugged onto the bike with his dear life. Danielle punched some commands into her scanner and then she too grabbed on with all her might. The hoverbikes then proceeded to perform a complex manoeuvre. Danielle's bike went right beside a tree and then turned right into it. It narrowly missed the tree. Victor's bike then did the same. The bikes hovered, motionless several metres from the tree. Danielle quickly dismounted. As the Livenosoar's approached the tree, they were going full speed. Danielle timed it so that her hoverbike went screaming across, at such an angle that it was slightly above the ground, and slightly above where the Livenosoar's bikes would be. The bike came out right in front of the tree just as the first Livenosoar was coming around the tree. The Livenosoar had no chance to even see the bike until the very last moment. It hit him in the chest and head, sending him flying off his hoverbike, bleeding blue blood. The bike, still moving at full speed, smashed into a tree and made a loud 'bang' and caused a large explosion. The second Livenosoar, witnessing all of this, veered sharply off to avoid any such attacks on his cycle. Danielle, standing near the tree, punched in some commands into her scanner and her hoverbike came back to her. She mounted it and they continued on their way. The second Livenosoar, rejoined the pursuit. He left his comrade there, lying on the forest floor, bleeding. These creatures lacked compassion. Several minutes later, the second Livenosoar had caught up and was getting within firing range. Victor looked over his shoulder and shouted "He's back!" Danielle nodded, and punched a few controls on the scanner. All of a sudden the two bikes split apart going in opposite directions. The Livenosoar contemplated which one to follow, but he was too slow to react. He careened right into a large tree and died in the explosion. Livenosoars did not react very fast, did not have very fast minds. The bikes then rejoined each other and continued on their way. Victor looked over his shoulder to make sure nobody was following them. He could see something in the distance, but dismissed it as just some of the local forest wildlife. The two of them finally exited the forest and they could see their spacecraft. The two vehicles finally reached the spacecraft a few minutes later. They both stopped. "Here at last." said Danielle. There was a loud 'squak' of a bird in the background. Now most people would have just ignored that sound. But Victor wasn't your usual kind of guy. He was the type of person who would drive on the highway system and then use his aeroalarm to honk at those walking nearby. They would then stare at the vehicle and try to figure out who it was that they knew, not realizing that is was Victor, someone they had never met before. Victor also was the type of person to talk to species of wildlife that were not even smart enough to understand language. So in this case, Victor turned to tell the bird to 'shut up.' But when he turned his head, he did not see a bird. All he saw was a large rocket only metres away, heading straight for his head. Quickly, Victor ducked his head letting the missile fly by, harmlessly landing in an empty clearing nearby. But Victor wasn't conscious anymore. He had hit his head on the dashboard of the hoverbike when he tried to duck away from the rocket. Danielle, who had just seem all this action, also saw there was a Livenosoar behind them, smiling. His vehicle was the source of the rocket. But suddenly a blue beam of light shot straight at the Livenosoar, coming from Victor's hoverbike. As it turned out, Victor had managed to hit just the right controls in order to activate the weapons. He had activated the pulse ray, which fired and hit the Livenosoar, knocking him out for at least a few hours. Victor had saved himself, with his dumb luck. Again. He sure was turning into some Roger Wilco. In fact, he might just become a better hero than Roger ever was, but that was still yet to be seen. CHAPTER FOURTY: THE PROSECUTION Danielle dismounted her hoverbike and walked over to Victor's. He was still lying with his head against the dashboard, unconscious. "Victor?" she asked, concerned. "Wake up Victor." But he didn't move. She proceeded to turn Victor over onto his back. She noticed he had a very small gash on his head, but nothing serious. It could be fixed with the medical supplies in the spaceship, assuming he didn't bleed to death first. She ripped a small piece of clothing off of her right leg and straddled Victor. She put the piece of clothing on the gash on Victor's forehead. While she was holding the piece of cloth to stop the bleeding, Victor's eyes started to open. The sun was shining bright, and was almost blinding to Victor, who had come out of the darkness of unconsciousness. All he could see was the smiling face of Danielle, glowing in the bright sunlight. The last thing he could remember was the Livenosoar attacking them. He must have killed them, he thought. The only rational explanation was that this was the afterlife. It was all the more believable, the way Danielle glowed angelically, appearing more beautiful than ever. He proceeded to thing that Danielle must have been his guardian angel, but she had failed. "This ... the afterlife?" asked Victor slowly. "Wha ... oh, no Victor." she told him. "This is the current life. The afterlife comes after you die." "But aren't I dead?" he asked, confused. "If you keep up that attitude, the Livenosoars will probably see to it that you will be." she said, playfully. "Now get up, we have to get out of here, remember?" She proceeded to unstraddle him and enter the spaceship, leaving Victor thoroughly confused. Victor sat up, and then dismounted his hoverbike. Seeing his surroundings again, he figured out he must not be dead after all. His head throbbed, and he felt his forehead and found the piece of cloth Danielle had used on him. He instantly recognized it from her attire, even though it was soaked with blood. She had saved him again. How many times had he saved her, or she saved him? He had lost count. Victor walked over and entered the spaceship. It was exactly as they had left it, although there seemed to be a few things missing. All their gear seamed to have disappeared. Not the tools or anything like that, but all the armour, weapons and other military equipment. The Commander would not be pleased. "I see they took all our weapons and armour." commented Victor. "That is the least of our worries." she told Victor, concern on her face. "The main computer core's power supply is toast." "Really?" asked Victor. "I would have thought they'd use waffles. Or pancakes. Or maybe eggs or hash browns. Toast is too easily burned." Danielle shook her head. Victor's antics never quite fit the seriousness of the situation. But then again, that's what made him different. Strange thing was, she could never figure out whether he was just stupid, or if he was trying to be funny. She guessed it was probably a bit of both. "Victor, what I meant was the power supply is dead." she explained. But Victor's mind was elsewhere. And then she saw why. That bird who had made noises as it almost got hit by the Livenosoar's bike, which ended up saving Victor's life, was back. It was inside the cabin of the spaceship. "Get that thing out of here!" yelled Danielle. "I don't have time for this! I have to fix this thing or we're both going to be dead!" Victor started chasing the thing all over the cabin of the spacecraft. It slowed for a second, and Victor tried to tackle it. But considering it was above the ground, it was hard to tackle. But he did manage to grab one of its legs. The bird was frantic, trying to get away. Eventually it broke free and Victor came crashing to the floor with a loud 'thud.' "Mental note to self, never grab a bird by its feet or I will be in for a wild ride." he mumbled to himself. Victor realized his hip where he had fallen was really sore. But all of a sudden there were exclaims of happiness from Danielle. "It's fixed!!!" she beamed. "I don't know how, but it is fixed." Victor reached into his hip pocket to see why he was so sore. He pulled out a broken mess of wires and plastic components. Sadness erupted in his face. He recognized the tattered mess. It was the electrocharge. Correction, it WAS the electrocharge. He had forgot he had taken it with him. Ever since his rescue of Danielle, he kept it with him as a souvenir. It was a memento to remember those days, and to remember Danielle by. And now it was ... broken. What neither of them realized was that the electrocharge had been activated when Victor had fallen on his hip. This 'jump started' the power supply for the ship and everything was back up and running. Unfortunately, the weight of Victor broke the electrocharge, making it useless. His luck had saved them again. If that bird hadn't come into the ship, and if Victor hadn't fallen on his electrocharge, he would never have thought to use it and they would be without a working ship. But now it ran perfectly. "Come on Victor." called Danielle from the pilot's seat. "Strap yourself in. It is time to go home." Victor did as he was told and the ship took off. Victor looked at some of the readings and got a big scare. There were several ships on an intercept course. And he remembered that even a single shot could destroy the ship. They were doomed. CHAPTER FOURTY-ONE: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER "Uh ... Danielle, ... I hate to break this to ya ... but we've got about ten ships on an intercept course." Victor told Danielle in the calmest voice he could muster. It was a very shaky voice. "Roger." acknowledged Danielle, in a slightly shaky voice. She too was getting worried. "My name is Victor, not Roger." he told her. "I may act like Roger Wilco, but I am not him. I am Victor Clarence." "Roger means acknowledged, Victor." she explained. "I was simply acknowledging your doomsday observation." All he managed to say was "Oh." He turned his attention back to the instrument panel beside him. The ships were not just on an intercept course, they were arming weapons. "They are arming weapons!" shouted Victor. "We're doomed! They'll be within firing range in 15 seconds!!" His body was shaking fearfully. "Do you think this constitutes as an emergency?" asked Danielle, lowering her arm beneath her chair. "YES!!!!!" screamed Victor at the top of his lungs. Danielle proceeded to pull the yellow handle the Commander had shown her. All of a sudden everything just disappeared. Well, not everything, but the cabin did. All they could see were stars. The entire ship just disappeared. But they weren't floating. There was still artificial gravity. There was still life-support. There was still breathable air! So what had that handle done? The ship was gone, no controls or walls or even floors were visible. It was like it just disappeared. But both Victor and Danielle were in the sitting position. They looked at each other with expressions of bewilderment. They just sat there, in what seemed to be like open space. Just sitting. What else could they do anyway? The ships were still approaching, Victor could see. Although he didn't look out any window to see that. He just turned his head and looked through what appeared to be space itself. "They're still approaching." said Victor, scared stiff. "I can see that." she said. And then an idea popped into her head. Victor, curl up into a ball in your chair. Make it so that your seat would block the view of you from their ships. I'll see to it that I can rotate the ship so that it is even less visible. Danielle proceeded to take out her scanner and command the ship to make a turn, 90 degrees straight downward. It complied. She put the scanner back into her belt and curled into a ball, just like Victor. She knew that the view from the ships would be obstructed by their chairs they were sitting in. Their bodies would not be visible, although they might be detectable by sensors. She just didn't know exactly what that handle had done, so she just couldn't tell. They waited for a good ten minutes before one of them popped a head up. Victor, considering his latest luck, was elected to see if they were gone. He checked, and he could see the ships in the distance, heading back to the Livenosoars homeworld. They had escaped. "So what exactly did that thing do?" asked Victor, bewildered. "I have no idea." replied Danielle. "It seemed to have refracted light in such a way that no matter where you look at it from, it is completely invisible. Or rather, it is simply black, not reflecting any light. It is like that vehicle I read about in one of my Academy history classes. There was this thing called 'radar', and it could detect other vehicles for targeting and detection purposes. It would hit an object, and it would hit the surface of the craft and bounce back to the radar site. Someone named Wilbur Rong built the first aircraft to be invisible to light, and named it the stealth glider. The glider was such that there was no perpendicular angle on it, making the likelihood of a radar pulse bouncing back virtually zero. In effect it became invisible to radar. Now radar is a type of radio wave, which is part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. You probably remember that from your basic StarCon Science course. Now, light rays are also part of the electromagnetic spectrum. What I think has happened is that the exact same thing that happened with radar has happened with light. Our eye is our radar site, and the light beams that bounce back are what we see, although we need a light source, and can't manufacture light waves using our eyes, unlike radar. In effect, by pulling that lever, it made it so that the entire ship, inside and out, warped so that it is not visible to anyone, including us. It probably made it invisible to sensors, just as it could be made invisible to radar." "So ... it made the ship invisible?" asked Victor, not comprehending Danielle's long lecture. She sighed. She probably wouldn't have made a good teacher, especially if she had students like Victor. "That is correct Victor." she said. "The problem now, is how to make it visible again." "Try pushing the handle back in." suggested Victor. Danielle tried that, but nothing happened. She tried pulling it out again, hoping to reverse the process. Nothing happened at all. "Try using your scanner." suggested Victor. Danielle proceeded to take out her scanner and see if she could reverse the invisibility. She frantically pressed buttons on the scanner, searching for anything that could help them, or indicate how to turn it off. She found none. "Nope. Any more ideas?" asked Danielle, her eyebrows furrowed with worry and concern. "Nope." replied Victor, mockingly. "I think we will have to fly it home invisible, via the scanner." Although Danielle had enough flying by scanner for one day, she saw no alternative. She agreed with Victor and started heading back towards the Academy. It was like riding on the wind. Both Victor and Danielle realized that this was going to take some getting used to. That, or lose one's lunch every two minutes. CHAPTER FOURTY-FOUR: SPEED, CAN'T SLOW DOWN The morning came and Victor eventually woke up. With his eyes closed, trying to go back to sleep, he smelt something. It was food. Instantly he knew he was back in his room, and Danielle was cooking. It felt good to be home again. Victor knew he'd never get back to sleep, especially with the smell of bacon and eggs in the room. He opened his eyes, and walked over to the table. He noticed he never did change his clothes, but he didn't care. He just was glad he was back home, safe again. A few moments later, Danielle and Victor were at the table eating breakfast. They didn't really say anything to each other, they were still pretty exhausted. They finished their meal and then Danielle finally broke the silence. "I think it is probably time to have that little talk we had agreed to." she said. "I've got two pieces of paper and two pens. When I give one of each to you, we will both write down what we think of each other, and write down what we would like out of a relationship, if there is to be one. We will compare the notes when we both finish." They both silently filled in their pieces of paper, and put them in a pile in the middle of the table. "I think we better say a few words about our recent experiences first." suggested Victor. "Agreed." "I'd like to say, since we first met, my life has changed dramatically." he began. "I knew when I saw you, that you were somebody special. You proved it to me ever since the day we first met. It has been one heck of an experience, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. It has been an adventure, like a game in a way. We were getting attacked at every turn, fighting bad guys over and over, being chased and escaping. It was the most exhilarating time I have ever had in my entire life. I'd like to thank you for making this possible. Without you, none of this fun and games would have been possible. I would have had a dull life without you. Or at least a dull month, anyway." Danielle smiled. It made her feel good to know she had made an impression. It was always her goal to improve people's lives no matter how much it drained her. She was the type of person who would give until it hurt, and then give some more. "That was ... very touching Victor." she said. "Now I'll say a few words. When I first met you, you were an obnoxious pervert. You were the scum of the earth. But then, going into that washroom, and seeing you defenceless, on the verge of getting killed, something changed. I knew I had to save you, even if you were still that scumbag you were before. I believe ever person deserves a second chance. I hoped that seeing the good people can do, you'd treat people better, with more respect. And you know what? I think you have. Every time I turned around you were becoming a better person. And then all of a sudden, you'd do one of your crazy antics, and I'd think you a little less highly. That is the thing with you Victor, I never can quite figure you out. Every time I think I have you pegged, ... you just prove me wrong. The game for me was trying to figure you out. I don't think I have, but I don't think I'll even try anymore. You are ... different. You are not a person who can be painted with a single brush, or explained as a certain way. Ever since I met you, you've changed my view of the universe. You've changed me, as much as I have changed you. Both for the better. Thank you Victor. Thank you for making this past while, the most memorable moments of my life." There was a short pause before Victor snatched at the folder sheets of paper in the middle of the table. "Alright, let's see what is in this one." said Victor. "This one is yours. It reads: "If you were to ask me whether I wanted any relationship with you Victor, at that president's speech, I would have said 'Absolutely not.' But that didn't happen. We were fated to have some relationship, and it grew from there. I care for you deeply victor, more than I have with anyone else in my life, past or present. I would like to continue to grow our relationship, grow it until it blossoms. Where it will take us, I do not know. But I know, I'd like to spend much of my life around you. You are like liquor, you are intoxicating. Luckily I'm not a drunk, or I'd have to go to an A.A. meeting every time I set eyes on you. Victor, I would like to be your girlfriend, and I hope you'll accept me as such." Victor was starting to cry, but he held it in. His eyes were watery, but there were no tears. Danielle picked up the sheet of paper Victor had wrote on and proceeded to read it. "What I want from a relationship with you Danielle is ... sex." Victor went into shock. His eyes went wide, his jaw dropped, and he went white as a ghost. And then ... Danielle laughed. She laughed so hard, she pounded her fist on the table a few times. When she had control of herself she said "Jeez Victor, can't you take a joke?" She laughed again. Victor's face slowly returned to normal and he shook his head, smiled, and gave a very small laugh. "Victor, it was just a harmless joke." she said. "But you should have seen your face. It was ... priceless. Anyway, here's what your paper really said: What I want from a relationship with you Danielle is something I haven't wanted any time before I met you. A very stable ongoing, healthy, relationship. Having flirted with everyone on the block, but not really caring about any of them, I never did have a relationship. They were just ... ways to goof off and have fun. But now, ... now I realize that you are everything I've ever wanted, and more. You are a very great person, and I respect you for that. In fact, I respect you more than any other individual I have ever met. I would really hope that we could continue to have a great ongoing relationship. I would sincerely hope that you would consider to have me as a boyfriend. I imagine you'll probably say no, but I hope that sometime in the future this might happen. I hope this ... thing we have, will continue and never go away. I love you Danielle, with all my heart." Now it was Danielle who was on the verge of crying. And unlike Victor, she actually did. But she was also smiling, meaning the tears were tears of joy. Then, Victor and Danielle looked at each other and locked their eyes. They sat there smiling at each other, until they both stood up and walked to each other, so that they were mere centimetres apart. And then they kissed. Passionately. It was the first time they had both willingly kissed each other. And it felt good. Very good. They stood there kissing, for over a half-hour. Eventually they got tired of standing so they stopped kissing. "And that, is an incentive to develop our relationship." they said in perfect unison. CHAPTER FOURTY-FIVE: EPILOGUE As amazing as the adventures were for Victor and Danielle, they were just the beginning. The two had even more amazing adventures in the years to come. The adventures were numerous and thrilling, each one being more remarkable than the last. Victor continued aiming for his dream to be a part of the StarCon Police Force, succeeding after only a few years. Danielle, who seemed attached to Victor no matter where he went, never took an official role on the Force, always electing for an unofficial assistant role. Eventually Victor got high enough in the Force that he made Danielle an honorary officer. Victor had some amazing cases he had to solve, some more complex than others. Some even stranger than fiction. But he always took Danielle with him to solve these cases, as she was the one who did the work, while Victor was the one who got the credit. It was something that even helped them in certain cases. There was a particular case where the perpetrator of the crime had arranged meetings with Victor. But not realizing Danielle was the one who did the work on the case, the info he fed didn't end up being used, since he contradicted himself when he left the meeting, was in the view of Danielle, but not Victor. She was the undercover officer who took things in, and remained close to Victor. It worked well. You could bribe Victor, but it would do no good. Danielle was the brains of the operation. In each and every single year that Victor was on the Force, he ended up saving the universe of some major threat. Less than a year after their original adventures, Victor and Danielle managed to expose corruption in the Junior Police Force. With the scandal that ensued, Victor, with Danielle at his side, managed to take over the Commander's job. He did not yet have the rank of a Commander, but he had the job. In his ensuing adventures his luck bailed him up countless times, and when his luck failed, Danielle's expertise kicked in and saved him. On several occasions she had to use invisibilitude. She even tried to teach it to Victor once, but he just kept screwing up. If he ended up doing it right, he would end up going back in time and doing something to himself so that he wouldn't do it right. This was the failsafe mechanism built into the system, which virtually nobody knows about. Unless one has the gift of invisibilitude, one will screw up the attempt to go back in time once they are actually back in time. After Victor's parents died, Victor retired from StarCon. He, like Roger Wilco before him, decided he had done enough time as a hero. He hung up his hero status and tried to live a life as a normal StarCon citizen. But for some strange reason, even then, he stumble upon plots to blow up their world, destroy StarCon, threats to dominate the universe, and the like. And each time, he felt obligated (with the help of Danielle of course!) to help rid the universe of these threats. And each time, he managed to thwart them off, usually by some unbelievable feat of luck. Several years after their first adventures, the relationship between Victor and Danielle continued to be one of intrigue and misunderstandings. But they both loved each other, and eventually, ten years after they first met, they were married. They eventually had one child, a boy. The only thing they knew was that they didn't want to name him Roger, for fear he might be a hero. Victor understood being a hero was just too risky a job. He'd encourage his son to get one of the most respectable jobs that has virtually no risks, except for the use of toxic chemicals. They were going to encourage him to become a janitor. THE END I hope you enjoyed my first ever novel! It was a blast to write.