NationStates Jolt Archive

Asa had been lying comfortably in her lawn chair next to the crystal blue pool in the beautifull Tuesday afternoon sun when the doorbell rang. This in itself was not an unusal occurance in many households, but it was in hers; she had no doorbell. Perplexing as this was, it is only human nature for someone who hears a doorbell ring to go and investigate. Now, normally most of the other people she had been aware of that knew she could be found lying here on a Tuesday afternoon were either at their places of work, or themselves lying in the equally glourious sun down the street a-ways and thus not bothering her, so she was equally perturbed to find a rather tall, somewhat different looking man in a two piece suit standing at her doorway holding a bag of almonds and a tuna sandwich. After hitting her with a suitably disarming smile, she seemed to accept that he was here for some reason that she knew but couldn't remember, so she stood out of the doorway and let him come in.

"It's a lovely house you've got, Ms. Stetten. Very lovely indeed."

"I quite like it, Mister...?"

"Richards. Eric Richards, but I don't suspect you remember me. If you did, you wouldn't be dressed like that."

Standing there in her bikini and silken sarong, most of her thought no, I probably wouldn't. In spite of herself, however, a small and insignifigant little part of her thought but maybe I would, but Asa generally ignored this part of her subconscious. It generally thought bad things.

After pushing these thoughts aside, she realized that Eric had in fact gone and sat down in her kitchen, and had not only already eaten half of his sandwich, but had also poured the nuts into a decorative bowl. Oddly enough, this didn't seem strange to her at all. In fact, she went and sat down opposite him, but not before first producing her own tuna sandwhich from her refridgerator, which she had coincidentally made that morning. Once planted firmly in the chair opposite to him and eating, Eric spoke up again.

"So, you don't remember me then eh?"

"Errr..." was all she could muster when it dawned on her that here was a stranger eating tuna and almonds in her kitchen.

"Don't remember much of last Friday at Ol' Maude's then, I take it?"

A slight flicker of recognition came at the mention of the local pub. "Uhmm..."

"Remember the guy who said he was from another planet in order to buy you a drink?"

She blushed a little. It came to her slowly. "Well..."

"The one who said he'd get you off this rock just to get in your pants?"

She blushed some more, and internally scolded herself for listening to the little voice. "Riiight..."

"Well, anyway, we're leaving in about, oh, seven minutes. Be sure to grab a toothbrush or two. No one makes 'em quite like you humans do."

If this had been a cartoon, it would be at this point where Asa's jaw would have hit the table, but, as reality is only slighly more restrictive, she merely gaped and acted like the universe had just collapsed in on her. This couldn't have been farther from the truth, although it is known that at least one galaxy was being sucked into oblivion at this very moment.

"We're... you're..." she babbled other such nonsense over again a few times while Eric finished his sandwich.

"I said we're leaving in about six minutes now. ANd that you should probably go grab a toothbrush. And maybe a cola for the road."'

"But... how?" was all she manage

"Oh, that's no big deal. I called a cab."

"Oh, ok."

"Yes. They'll be picking us up in about a five minutes now."

She hurried off to the bathroom a dozen or so feet away, and threw her assorted toiletries into a small handbag, and then sat back down at the table.

"Well, you're taknig this rather well for being the first woman to ever meet a known alien."

"I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Oh, probably nothing. Now, here, you'll need this..." he produced a small vial that contained a tiny needle that looked rather sharp, and he stood up and approached her. Before she knew just what he was doing, he swiftly jabbed the needle into her ear lobe and removed it in an equally swift motion before she had time to protest or complain.

Not quite registering this as having happened, she asked "just what the hell are you going to do with that?"

He smiled the disarming smile again involuntarily again, and her small sense of outrage seemd to shrink. "What, this old thing? Just some translator microbes."

"Microbes...?"

"Oh, don't worry about it. Now, hold on. While matter compression and tranportation technicques have been been and remained perfect for centuires, they've still yet to find a way to stop it from making you feel like you left your guts behind."

With that, they blinked out of existance.

tag

They blinked out of existance alright, but not for very long. Of course, when your atoms are copied, ripped apart, pulled through space and time, and then reassembled in the back of an intersteller taxi, one easily makes the mistake that an eternity has passed. Of course, that one couldn't be more wrong, as due to light-speed time dialations, the transportee arrives in the taxi slightly before they left.

Asa was suitably suprised to find herself in the equivlent of a Yellow Cab, especially as this cab was floating in space just beyond the Moon. She was so suprised, in fact, that she could only manage to sputter "You know, I forgot to feed the fish."

Eric could only smile, and said nothing as the cab turned around to head out to the nearest hyperspace on-ramp. As they approached, he warned Asa that if she thought the matter-transporter was unpleasent, hyperspace would be downright evil. However, before they got too close, Eric produced a strange green flask, and took a deep pull.

"But why, or how, can you stand it?"

"Well, you do sort of get used to it. And nothings usually that bad once you've had a few drinks." His speech became somewhat slurred, and he offered the flask to Asa with a wink. "Trust me. You'll need it."

Her head already spinning from being ripped apart and reassembled, Asa couldn't really think of a logical reason for her not to drink from the strangely glowing flask. She took a long pull, longer then Eric's, with the hope that she might just come out of what must be a dream. Yes, she thought, she must have fallen asleep in the lawn chair, and that the burning of the unknown alcohol going down her throat would somehow wake her up. Yes, it would all make sense soon.

Sadly, this was not the case. No, it would in fact only get more strange.

Heh. I tag it! Funny stuff.

Hyperspace really lacks a proper description. Really, it looks like infinity being crammed into a telephone booth, but as no one has any idea what that actually could look like, no one has been able to adequetly describe a hyperspace trip. Of course, being drunk makes you understand the whole process even less, and therefore reduces the masive brain ache that comes from trying to comprehend what you've just been through.

So, in what was both an infinite and non-existant amount of time later, the cab shot off the hyperspace off-ramp and back into what we call reality. By this time both Asa and Eric were rather drunk, Asa more so, being that she was a rather petite woman. This didn't seem to bother either of them the least; in fact, it amused the somewhat tipsy driver, who by habit snuck a shot of Tallrhionen whiskey before each jump to calm his nerves. No one liked hyperspace travel. Except alcoholics.

Now, despite their being drunk and not paying attention, the planet below them rapidly came closer and closer, and pretty soon it occupied most of the window on the left side. Then, they stopped. A small, previously unnoticed speaker came to life, its dull, tinny voice rather loud for a speaker of that size.

"That'll be 35 Nomrian dollars."

Eric suddenly appeared to be sober now, and pulled a small metal wand thing from his inside jacket pocket. He pressed the tiny buttons on the bottom end a few of times, and popped the top end into a tiny socket next to the speaker. After a few beep and whrrrs, the little red light beside the socket turned green.

"Thank you. Welcome to exotic Watmough. Have a pleasent trip."

And then, once again, they blinked out of existance. But this time, Asa was sufficently tanked to not notice her consitiuant atoms being pulled apart and vanishing as much as she did before.

Oddly enough, there were no natural inhabitants on the wonderful little gem of a world called Watmough. While perfect in every way, nothing seemed to develop enough brain capacity to think beyond when it wanted its next meal. This made it an ideal tourist destination. Due to there never having been primitive civilization there to endanger the natural environment, and the new extraterrestrial civilization being advanced enough only to cause minimal impact, the famous pearl beaches of Watmough remaind pearly white despite nearly a million years as a commercial hotspot.

Asa knew nothing of this as she rematerialized off to the side of the lobby of a rather nice looking hotel, surrounded by strange aliens of just about every imaginable sort, going about their businees as if the fact that none of them came from anywhere near here ment nothing at all. Some of them travelled in groups, not unlike human families. Indeed, Asa noticed that there were more then a few miniture versions of some of the aliens, and that they were probably children of some sort.

With that, she promptly passed out.

She awoke on a mattress made of a material that no human had ever felt, covered in blankets that had no english name. Of course, she ntocied rather quickly that she was in fact still in her sunbating bikini, though her sarong and sun hat sat neatly together on a chair beside the bed. Eric was gone.

She felt utterly alone.

Getting up form the bed, she explored the suite carefully, expecting some gray alien to pop up and try to probe her at any second. After checking the closet several times, she felt better. The fact that severl beautiful pastel sun dresses that looked to be her exact size hung in the closet didn't register untill she found some more unidentified clothing of her size and taste in the dresser she was going through.

After dressing a little bit more, she found a curious little applicance in the corner next to the lamp. The words Drink-afier 3000 were embossed upon its face, and when she approached, it proceeded to ask her what she'd like to drink in a clunky, but upbeat metallic-y voice.

"I'd like..." she thought. She wasn't sure if they had 7-Up in outer space. "I'd like a lemon-flavoured fizzy drink."

Promptly, the machine spat out a glass, and filled it with a strange thick blue liquid that looked almost, but not quite, entirely unlike what she had thought she was going to get. The machine thanked her profusely for her order with its metallic voice, and then went dormant. She drank gingerly, but was quite surpised to find that the somewhat slimy, thick bubbling blue liquid had the exact taste of 7-Up.

Interestingly enough, every race in the known galaxy had a drink that was the exact same in flavour, if not texture and appearence. And on no less the seven hundred and eighty three thousand, six hundred and twelve worlds, the drink was called 7-Up.

Eric had not been idle. After he and Asa had materialiszed in the transporter, he felt like he was back in his element. Of course, he had to carry the now unconscious Earth girl up to their room, but that wasn't really that hard. After depositing her in her bed, he hoped on down to the shops accross the street. Of course, everything cost twice as much as it really needed to here, but thats why you bring your own clothes when you go on vacation. After buying some essentials and a small new wardrobe for Ms. James, he decided to hit the beach.

Now, he sun that exotic Watmough orbits is a fairly normal type B star, but that it still make it entirely unlike Sol. Most humanoids don't notice this too much, but being that Eric was from another type B star, he felt much mroe at home. And, seemingly to prove this, he promptly turned a light shade of blue while he folded his towl out on the perfect white-sand beach to lie on.

It was about this time that Asa started wandering out of her room, sightly more dressed then she had been, but still very confused. She managed to find the lift that took her down to street level, and decided that she'd go lie on the beach herself. Of course, while trying to figure out how to get there, she stumbled over a small thing, that she had either entirely failed to notice, or had mistaken for a mop that was sitting in the corner a mere moment before.

It, of course, took exception.

An ancient bard rose to tell a story.

"Once, long ago, there lived an ancient and hideous creatured named... THE TAG. He was everywhere, devouring precious server space and leaving naught but destruction in his wake...

...then, a billion years later, he died. The end."

Treznor fires an airgun and tags the thread for future posting.

"Yow!" says the mop. Asa's eyes nearly popped out of her head as the "mop" yelped in protest. "Oh! I'm terribly sorry! I didn't even see you there!"

"Grummel." says the mop in response.

"Grummel? Pardon me for asking, but what does that mean?"

The mop stuck a pawlike hand with what appeared to be coral pink claws on it out of the mass of yarnlike hair, and flipped it up to reveal a face like a wizened muskrat. "I said, it's quite alright. New around here?"

"Yes, very new. I'm really so sorry. I'd quite mistaken you for a mop."

"I get a lot of that. My name's Yimyam, by the way."

Asa was still rather puzzled by the whole thing, but she polietly stuck her hand out in greeting. "I'm Asa."

The creature sniffs her hand and seems curious. "What sort of thing are you? Aren't you cold?"

Asa noticed that while she had put some clothes on, she was still very scantily clad. "No, not really. Its very warm here, actually. Oh, and I'm human. From Earth. What about you?"

"I'm from Formalhaut." says Yimyam. "I'm on vacation. I just thought you might be cold because it's such a cold day here, and you have no covering except for some pieces of cloth. Mind you, I'm sure being pregnant warms you right up." The creature had a voice rather like a someone with a bad cold.

She wasn't too sure what that supposed to mean, really. "Yes, I'm on vacation too. Would you care to go lie on the beach with me? The sun's wonderful. Oh, yes, and I'm not pregnant."

"No? Oh..." for a moment the mop of hair flips down over the face again, and all she hears is "Grummel." Then Yimyam flips it up again and says, "I'm sorry...I'd love to..."

"Good! Well, come on then," she took the creature's hand. "I think it's this way, though I don't suppose you know where we could find the beach, do you? I'm really just guessing."

"I couldn't miss it. You must come from someplace really cold... I can feel the chill from here." The little creature seemed to have legs of equal length, for it easily walked along beside her. "This way."

Smiling the whole time, they went down towards the beach. "Yes, Earth is usually quite warm, although I find this to be much warmer. Hence the bikini and shorts."

"How come your mammary glands are all swollen? If you're not pregnant, you must be ill? Do you want to stop at a medi-docs?"

She blushed. "Errr.... all of our females are like this."

Yimyam groaned. "I have an idea. Why don't I just shut up?"

Asa giggled. "Oh, don't worry about it. I've seen enough crazy things here today to ask a hundred awkward questions, and its just my first day off my planet."

"I'm female myself, currently." chats Yimyam. "Ah, the beach...not far, see?"

They continued to totter along. "To return the favour," Asa said curiously, "Currently?"

"Yes. When my folk are born and up to a first few years they're neuter, you know, then male, then female. I'm in the female stage."

"Oh. Thats very different. When we're born, we're either male or female, and stay that way. That sounds kinda neat."

"It is. Then depending on how your fertile period goes, you either stay female or turn male again and switch a few times before you die." Yimyam makes a whuffling sound. "If we aren't all hauled off to to the acid mines first, of course. Ah well, that's life, eh?"

"I suppose so." Asa paused briefly. She thought she had spotted someone familar, though slighly more blue then he'd been when she'd last seen him, and dressed in matching tan-and-green hawiian shirt and shorts instead of a two-piece gray suit. "Oh! Its Eric!"

.:tag:.

and a bump. Will post again once irc.esper.net stops being retarded and lets me log on. Cheers.

~Indy

"Oh, it's Eric!" says Asa, having picked him out from the crowd as being one of the few things that looked human.

Yimyam asks, "Who is Eric?"

"Oh, he brought me here. Neat guy. Lets go see him."

Eric was lying at the beach, two drinks within his arms range. He was now sky blue, and would have been hard to see if standing. Well, if he took his green cabana shirt off... He spotted Asa easily and waved, his blue hand almost merging with the sky in his back. Yimyam trotted along with Asa towards Eric, grummeling occasionally.

Asa didn't really notice that he'd changed colours untill she was right up next to him. And, having seen stranger things today, she didn't comment.

When they got over to his spot, he took the two drinks, and handed one to Asa, smiling. "Here, a refreshment." He looked at Yimyam, not yet commenting. What Asa didn`t know was that the drinks contained a alcohol substitute. Twice as effective, but completely flavourless. Well, it still tasted of booze, but still.

"Hello," said Yimyam somewhat cheerfully. "I'm Yimyam."

"So Eric, having fun yet?"

"Actually, I think the fun has yet to begin..." He grinned his trademark disarming grin, and nodded at Yimyam. "Eric. On vacation from homeworld, I see... Rainy weather, this time of the year, right?"

"Yes. Cold rain." said Yimyam.

"I rather like the rain, actually," added Asa. "But not cold rain."

Eric nodded in agreement. "Can be a pain... Err, want a drink, too? My bill." He didn´t even wait for an answer, but winked at one of the jellyfish-like things floating in the air nearby. "One of this kind." He pointed at his drink. "For the young Lady... Or Mr.? I`m always a bit confused with your kind changing the gender every now and then."

"I would... I'm female currently." said Yimyam with a patient air.

Eric chuckled. "The acid rain on Palyma would be perfect for you, my dear. Tears iron apart in mere minutes, but completely harmless for organics. Just... well, warm."

"I find this nice and brisk. Too warm and I tend to sleep too much." explained Yimyam.

Eric nods to Yimyam, again, remembering a night, a few years ago... Yes, her kind was fairly advanced in sexual technology. "Well... sleeping can be fun as well," he adds with a wink.

Asa just blinked obliviously at the conversation, and sat down next to Eric's large beach towel, and siped her drink.

"Anyway, it is all in the hands of... the Unspeakable, so we don't worry too much."

"Unspeakable?" said Asa as she clued into the conversation. "Hmm. That dosn't sound very pleasent. Say, why don't we get some ice cream? Do they have ice cream out here?"

"She means Herbert. Resident on Galos 7. Anyway... yes, they have ice cream here... just order it." He pointed at the floating jellyfishes, who showcased all colours known in the universe, switching through the spectra of light in a rather awkward, chaotic way.

"Ooh. I'll have... lemon."

The jellyfish, or whatever it was, retreated, glowing in a pale yellow, but not without fondling Asa for a moment. "Oh, I forgot to mention... they're rather... keen... on touching their customers. Well, one learns to enjoy it."

"Err..."

"...Herbert indeed..." muttered Yimyam.

It was in this general direction that the conversation continued for the rest of the afternoon. Much alcohol ended up being consumed, By Asa and Eric at least, along with a suprising quantity of lemon-flavoured ice cream. By dusk, the three were rather tipsy, and full of ice cream.

Eric, being the semi- alcoholic he was, could at least stagger rather than crawl along the beach. Something he did enjoy doing, however, especially since he got a very pleasent view of Asa's bottom.

The party moved up towards the beachside bar slowly at first, then with suprisingly little effort thanks to the jellyfish hosts. This suprised them, as it seemed that while they were being helped into the bar, the hosts seemed to be giggling. Of course, having never heard a jellyfish giggle, neither Asa nor Yimyam payed much attention. But this probably wasn't a good sign. Or was it?

If you knew what a giggling jellyfish was thinking about, you'd probably say it was a bad thing.

Conversly, if you knew a thinking jellyfish, you'd probably know that this was not a good thing.

Eric did of course notice the giggling, but then, he wasn't in a condition that would allow him to complain. As a matter of fact, in his current condition, he tended to giggle all by himself, for no apparent reason. This just made him giggle more.

Now, as most well-travelled people know, the Snivvil of Magnil 3 are simply the best restaurant hosts, waiters, and bartenders. They are all very entertaining to watch, are meticulous about details, and give pleasent little jolts when they touch you. However, one thing that these well-travelled indivulas also know is that one should never, ever attend a Snivvil kegger, unless one is either amorphous or sense-dumb. Unkown to most other forms of life in the universe, the Snivvel reproduce by getting extremly drunk, then locking tenticles together and transferring genetic material back and forth untill both are carrying a little baby jellyfish inside them. Of course, first, they exude a powerful pheremone that has the uncanny ability to heighten the senses, paticularly the sense of touch, to most anything that can smell it. And, as being drunk is a mating ritual, bad things tend to happen to outsiders at Snivvil keggers.

Naturally, it was to one of these parties that Asa, Yimyam, and Eric were being helped to.

Now, to save the readers the gory details, no hentai-like tenticle rape occoured. No, before either Asa or Yimyam (or Eric!) could be mobbed and impregnated by half a dozen jellyfish, a rather sober pair of strangers in black suits came in the back door, and promptly managed to attract the attention of everyone present, except Asa, because she was stinking drunk. The two figures wore identicle black suits, and appeared rather menacing, despite being unarmed and totally surrounded. The one on the left appeared rather human, though it seemed as if his skin was a little stretched in places, and loose in others, just enough to give the impression that he wasn't quite what he appear to be. The one on the right, however, was rather short, squat, and very green, but somehow managed to appear less ugly then he really was. As the music finally cut out, Asa turned to see them, just as they announced themselves. The short one spoke.

"We're sorry to disturb you." They flashed their badges. GINS, Divison Eight. Eric sobered up slightly at the sight, enough to pop a sobriety pill from the vial that he pulled from his pocket. Seeing as they wern't looking at him, he quickly scampered over to the booth were Asa and Yimyam were nursing drinks. "...but we've discovered there's an illegal alien here. We need to detain her, for your saftey. Thank you." He popped out another two pills, and handed them to the girls. "Take these. Its time to go."

The Plasito Pharmaceuticals Insta-Sobriety pill was not something that could in any way be called "gentle." The pill had the effect of rather instantously terminating any state of intoxication known to modern science, but it was often deemed to be worse then the hangovers that one would usually get from said intoxication, which was usually pretty bad. It is said, mostly by those who have experienced both, that the Insta-Sobriety pill has the effect of hitting you over the back of the head with a heavy metal shovel, causing you to black out momentarily before your brain unscrambles itself into working order again. Not terribly pleasent.

At this time, however, the shovel-effect was the least of Eric's concerns. The GINS was here, and that ment trouble. Eveyone he had half-seen coming in was from some race that he thought he had seen before, which could only mean one thing. Asa. This thought alone almost sobered him up enought that he didn't need one of the Insta-Sobriety pills he always carried, but he took one anyway. Now, it was their turn.

"Come on you two, we have to go. And no, no matter how cute you think your little giggling act is, it won't get you out of here. Take these." He offered them each a small pinkish pill, with the initials 'I-S' stamped on both sides. The two of them shrugged, popped the pills, and almost simultaniously both retched forward from the imagined shovel-blow to the backs of their heads.

After coming to seconds later, Yimyam groaned, though it was barely audable through her hair. Asa groaned too, but Eric cut that off.

"Ok girls, its time to make our exit. There's a 'port on the other side of town, and it shouldn't be that hard to catch a lift. Ok?"

'Hold on, just what the hell did I just take?" Asa complained. Yimyam shuddered a bit, and them stood up, ready to leave. A pair of Snivvil floated by, and purposely dragged their feelers over Yimyam's head. She shuddered again, and promptly passed out. Eric and Asa were on their feet moments later, and this drew the attention of the two agents interviewing someone over by the bar.

They spotted Asa. They scowled. She spotted them. She ran.

Eric had just hoisted Yimyam over his shoulder as Asa tore out towards the front door of the bar. The back door, the one they came in through, was facing the beach, and figuring there to be another, she had bolted for it. Good, he thought. At least that settles who they're after.

She ran. The front door, or where the front door presumably stood, was only a few yards away. She had a clear line. Neither Eric nor the two GINS agents could catch her.

The ground, on the other hand, could.

As has been previously mentioned, none of the buildings on Watmough are actually built on the ground. They generally hover several inches above it, in order to make keeping things clean easier. Well, the engines that keep the buildings hovering are rather powerful, and their controls are generally available to the police.

Hence, when the two agnets stepped in through the back door, the building went from floating an inch to floating three feet off the ground. Now, three feet is hardly a lethal height, but it is a nasty shock when one expects to feel firm gound beneith their feet, only to find rather un-firm air there instead.

So, naturally, when Asa came flying out the front door, her feet quite naturally hit that air rather hard, and it not being that prone to supporting weight of any kind gave way instantly, and the ground rushed up to meet her with a rather painful thud. Scraped knees and elbows aside, this did little to stop the rather determined earth girl, who started running again as soon as she remembered just what it was she was doing when she hit the ground.

Eric, however, saw Asa take the plunge through the swinging door as he chased her, and so was prepared to make a running jump at the exit rather then fall on his face. He made the leap out of the door cleanly, and landed with practiced ease. Though he hadn't had too much practice running out of floating bars with mop-people on his shoulders while being chased by authority figures, one would be suprised to know that this wasn't the first time something like this had happened to Eric.

When the first agent, the smaller green one, reached the door, he stopped. From his inside jacket pocket came a rather large pistol, though it really was made to appear larger then it was due to his rather diminuative size. Taking careful aim, he fired a shot that would make any Imperial Stormtrooper as green as him with envy. A wonder, magnificent, perfect shot. A shot that entirely failed to hit its intended target, Asa's rear end, and instead hit some passing tourist square in the chest. He was lucky it was a stun round, because a kill round would have vapourized most of the poor bystander. He fired a second shot, equally as glourious as the first, and hit the fuel tank of a hovering hot-dog stand, which detonated in a spectacularly large blue-white flash. After the second shot, Asa ducked around the corner of floating building, Eric right behind her, and he gave up shooting at them. He hopped to the ground, his partner right behind him.

"They'll go to the spaceport, no doubt," said the green agent.

"Well, we've put up a bulletin. None of the 'lines will take them. They'll be stuck," replied his partner.

"You sent the bulletin then?"

"No, I thought I told you to do it."

"It was your idea, why didn't you do it?"

"Because... oh, nevermind. We've got to beat them to the 'port before they book themselves on a non-stop cruise to Squrnoshelous Zeta (a planet, that should be noted, happens to be on the other side of the galaxy) and back. Lets go."

She ran. And ran, and ran, and ran. Eventually she looked back. Nothing. She stopped. Now completely alone on an alien planet. She almost cried.

Almost. Then Eric came around the corner and collapsed in a huff, and she felt better. Funny how someone else's discomfort is generally uplifting to those around them.

She was very relieved to see him, him who might actually know where they had to go. She heard groaning coming from the heap that was her two companions, and saw that both were now conscious. Good.

Still panting heavily herself, she came over and sat down on the dirt next to Eric. Yimyam had come to, and sat up, and Eric managed to roll himself over. Time for some kinda of decision or plan, she thought.

"Well, now what?"

[Short bump between posts. And, I will note now, as I've neglectied to do thus far, that this isn't an open RP. No, sorry, its a story I'm writing with some help. Cheerio.]

They sat in a huff in the alley. Yimyam was rather confused, being that her last memory was slumping over in the bar. Some ten minutes had past since then, but things had only gotten worse.

Now, they'd all decided to make a break for the spaceport. But first, some arrangements had to be made. Eric pulled from his pocket a small flat black device, which looked rather like a Palm Pilot. It was infact a Sub-H-Space-'o-Dialer, but Asa couldn't tell you that. With the punch of a few of the small keys, the Dialer returned to the pocket of Eric's Nalfibre jacket, (a jacket that, thanks to spacebending technology and minor thought-reading, can carry thirty times more stuff then a regular jacket pocket, and will always put the desired item in your hand when called upon) and the three of them cautiously headed for the spaceport. Eric didn't mention he'd booked them on a three month trans-galactic cruise, but that was just a little detail. And an excuse to get Asa back into the bikini he'd buy her aboard.

The starport itself was small and quiet, just as Eric had planned. It was one of the smaller stations, one that would likely have been on the bottom of a search list, and have the least amount of passenger screening. Banking on this, they lined up at the boarding gate, passports and identicards (or, in Asa's case, her earth driver's licence) in hand, hoping that the GINS folks hadn't been here yet. Eric was the first to the desk.

"ID? Boarding pass? Do you have any bags to check?"

He handed the attendant, a rather attractive, thin, tan alien his ID and pass with a wink. "No, no bags. And these two are with me."

The clerk waved them forward, and they both smiled and presented their passes and ID's, and the clerk smiled and asked them the obligitory security questions, and they all smiled and talked about how nice Watmough was this time of year, and how nice this cruise was going to be, and other such pleasentries untill confirmation came back from the computer that these people were who they said they were, which ment she could press her little computer-stamp on their digiatl passcards, and they could go aboard. After passing through an x-ray machine and a metal detector, the ship was laid open to them, and, more importantly, the mini-bar in their cabin. It was still an hour before they left, but they felt safe enough. For the moment, anyway.