Alison part 1 Not only is this one of the most original sex stories ever written it is also fairly decent sci-fi. My pace is brisk. My descriptions are graphic. My characters are deep. Buckle your seat belts and strap on your helmets cuz I'm gonna take you for a ride. Al's dare: find one inconsistency. The graphic descriptions in this story are at many times violent. People do die. People sometimes force other people into situations they don't want to be in. It is not good but it's part of life. You just have to defend yourself and eliminate the perpetrator Just like in a good old detective story (which this is not). I lie. I MIGHT give you an address later. Much much later. The author is a man. This story was finished before I saw Judge Dreed . I discovered some of the objects I used in this story were also used by the creators of Judge Dreed.Draw what similarities you wish but this imaginary universe is much different from the one depicted in that movie. Be warned! This is a Tragedy. (Frowny face to be placed here)Also note that the imagery is not intended to elicit an immediate effect but more to give you ideas and in that way work on you over time. "Nora, what should we do tonight?" Nora and Gus were on their screened porch, Nora was 'reading' Elie to catch up on latest fashion tips. Gus was working out on an exercise bike. "Movie?" "seen em" "Sex?" "We are both 63 remember!" "sigh" "I've got it! we can visit with Harold and Alison." "they are disgusting! I am not saying it is bad for Alison to have huge disgusting tits but for HAROLD, who claims to be a man that's sick!" "Come on they are the only people whom we haven't dined with yet." "Alright Alright but you make the call." "My pleasure." Two hours later Nora, Gus, Alison and HAROLD were seated at a table in one of the area's local dining facilities. Nora, perplexed about why their guests refused to eat demanded "Why are you refusing to eat." "Because we don't" Alison responded with a grin. "Wha.... you don't.... EAT???" Gus and Nora responded in shocked symphony. Alison and Harold nodded in eager agreement. "How can you maintain such a voluptuous figure... All Humans Must eat...unless..." Gus suddenly stared at the couple (whom could be identical twins)with renewed scrutiny. "Are you human?" he finally croaked up in a small voice. "Not a chance!" Harold announced "we are little green space aliens dressed up as humans who are hard at work taking over the world" Alison let out a snort while trying to contain her laughter. Nora looked at them skeptically with a look of "come off it" Gus redirected the situation by asking "well how long have you lived in the area" "29 years" Gus was not surprised. They looked as though they were still 20, they ALL looked as though they were still 20! Since the secret of longevity was discovered 200 years ago everyone lived, looking great, until mortality caught up with them at about the age of 150. This dictated the next question "Well how old are you?" "Me or this body?" Alison asked politely. "Both" Gus asked in shocked curiosity. "we are about 400 years old we were born sometime in the early 21st century" Century (we can't remember when) he is slightly younger than I. We were regenerated when we were in our 20's and have been this way ever since. "How could you live so long?" Nora asked. "every 30 years or so we just go comatose for a week and wake up good as new. Alison replied. "wait, wait, wait Longevity was discovered only 200 years ago." "That is because we are space aliens whom never eat!" Henry explained." Alison looked amused. Nora changed the subject. "Why do you both have such large breasts?" Nora asked immodestly. Gus cringed. Alison smiled benignly and said "oh these" she said holding one of her large thick, nail less hands to her chest "These are nothing they are only one foot in diameter true they are twice the size of normal breasts for this body design but in proportion to how big they can be they aren't much at all." "How big can they be?" Gus asked timidly. Alison said "Almost any size you could want, this body design is six feet tall and by default they have size 0 breasts which measure about four inches in thickness. The sizes are integer values that range up to 5 their diameter doubles with each increment. That computes so that with size fives you would be an armless legless pair of tits joined to a torso and head measuring twenty-one feet and four inches in total width." Nora was aghast. Gus was impressed but displayed a frown. Alison realized it was time to change the subject again "What do you think about the proposal to automate food delivery services?" "What proposal?" Nora wondered. "At the last meeting (the one at which it is decided how the community's resources are to be used.) we debated weather food should be selected and brought home as it has in the past or weather it should be catered." "Who has the most support?" Nora asked. "It looks like the people in favor of catering have the majority." Alison said. "What is your position on the matter?" Gus asked with a grin. "I can't take any official stand on the matter for obvious reasons but I am against the measure because it allows people to behave more like lumps than they already do." After a pause Alison decided to ask something. "You don't seem to take much interest in these matters." "Yeah, we prefer to behave like lumps." Nora answered with a note of regret. {the cheesy goddamned word processor I had been using up to this point allowed me to type the next twenty pages but only saved the above and I am passed off!!! Therefore I am going to go AWOL and try to write something decent!!} selfdest Self Destruct Activated Destruct in 3...2...1 There was no explosion, the laboratory simply was replaced by a block of solidified magma. High above the earth's atmosphere A ship appeared, it was Alison's. It slowly swung around to a launch vector. It's engines exploded to life hurtling the large vessel toward the asteroid belt. (the tiny world of Cres) Knock Knock Knock "Nora please answer the door." Gus said, he was hunched over a table covered with maps, timetables, and coffee mugs. "Why hello Alison what may I do for you?" "Nora, you could help me the most if you would lend me your body." After a pause "hell no" "I am sorry I really must." Ana said a minute before she disappeared. Nora returned to the kitchen. "Who was it?" asked Gus. "It was another damned robotic Insurance salesman." Nora replied. Ana appeared in Alison's living room "Damn that bitch!" Ana screamed. Ana's second thought was to get back at Alison by trashing her house. The house was pretty trashy on its own accord. She found herself sitting on a couch in a two story room It was taller than eahter of its lateral dimensions. The celing was the roof rafters that somebody had painted white. There appearently had been an upper level but it had been ripped out in favor of the living room The room was dominated by a large screen. Across from the screen there was a tv projector and an antique reel projection system. The projectors were sitting in the reminants of one of the up stairs rooms. There was no door or ladder to reach it, It was just a raised platform with slightly different walls than the other rooms. She walked over to another room that was a step down from the rest of the level. The room was being used for a library of some sorts. The shelves were filled with books, interesting rocks, and other little decorative trinkets. There was a desk and a 21" CRT monitor that looked as though it had been through a war. There was a keyboard that had to be at least fifteen years old. The letters on the homekeys were worn off. Most keyboards these days used membrane keys because they are more durable. But this had real Keys. Looking around some more she saw a framed saying. Expecting something from socrates or confusious maybe. Instead she started to laugh. " When Life can't be better; Party. When Life is treating you like shit; Party. " Ana, out of curiosity hit the switch. The computer's overused fan grated to life. The computer began its post workup. It was a quad DEC Gamma 5K The monster was at least a hundred and fifty yeras old. Still it completely out classed the net term that Nora used. The os boot began. Ana became impatent, if it had been a net term it would be functional by now. A simple crude menu system popped up. Select environment: Classical Elisabethan WAR ROOM Sci-Fi Neo Phsychadelic Ana selected classical. Loading... Loading... Loading. The screen finally came up. The immage was so sharp that the screen looked like a window into another physical reality. At frist Ana thought it ws just a walpaper, but when she experamentally tried the space box The entire immage mooved fluidly. She maneuvered her point of view around and found that the place was supposed to be the Acropolis but the temples were different. There was a fountain in the middle and an outrageously buxom woman dressed only in a stola who didn't seem to mind that she couldn't see the reflection of her face over her breasts. She seemed to take notice of Ana's presance and stood to great her. "How may I be of assistance?" the virtual charictor asked. Ana knew just by the woman's mein that she would do ANYTHING she was asked. Ana was about to ask the strange virutal woman to show her where all the embarasing and perverted stuff was so she could send it out across the net. Taking one look at this thing she thoughg better of it. Ana left the computer running and went to another room. The virutal woman started trying to figure out why the user charictor had just suddenly stopped in his tracks. The kitchen sink looked as though it hadn't seen action since it was installed. The refrigerator wasn't plugged in, Inside was a brittle old waranty card anouncing cheerfully that the refirgerator had a lifetime waranty. On the inside it really was still in showroom condition. The hovercar, however, wasn't. Appearently the last person to start working on the thing didn't finish. There were tools littered all over on the floor. The car itself was supported by jackstands. There was a creeper near the tools. Ana would have went back to the house to call a taxi but her newfound curiosity drove her to lay herself down on the cart and take a look. Hanging on by a coaxial tap was a metal box labled: "power regulator, (rear)." From a foggy distant memory Ana remembered that that was what keept the hovercar level and at the correct altitude. There was one sitting on the ground just to ana's left that appeared to be newer than the one sitting in the car. Ana cursed her oversized breasts. Cautiously Ana pulled the old unit from the car. She pulled the new unit into position and attached the cables. She pushed the unit up into the car and reached over to her right, picked up a pair of bolts and thread them in. Just above her head was a worn old socket wrench. She brought it in to position and snuged the bolts down. She dropped the wrench by her side. She just lay there looking at the neatly packed compartment of the car. Then she looked at her clumsily oversized hands. 'Shit that was easy' she thought. After securing and sealing the flow controll pannel back on. She pulled herself out from under the car and climbed into the seat. The seat had been reciently reapulstered. The crntrolls were worn but servicable. The car was of the old style, the kind her grandfather used to drive way back... she could barely remember. It was built back in the neo-fiftys of 2163, complete with chrome trim and tail fins. Anyway these things weren't even street legal anymore. Ana didn't think that would be a problem. She hit the power and climbed out. The car now weighed only two hundred pounds. She lifted the rear. The rear of the car levitated too to keep the car level. she kicked the jackstands out of the way and pulled the car off of the other two. She dropped the car. It fel to five inches off the ground. The car barely responded to Ana's apreciable weight. She pulled out and hit the accelerator. The car slid into trafic. The reason why that particular model was not street legal anymore was because it was not speed regulated. That is There's nothing preventing it from going 120 in a 60 or visa versa. That Evening at the edge of the park the protestors gathered. Nora was standing next to Gus who was trying to set up the picket. Ana was also there. She shot Nora a look that could kill. Before anything could happen the march was underway. The protestors didn't get far. they were stopped by a strange looking man wearing a plaid suit and holding a large cigar. He held everyone at bay with a disarming smile. But looked almost startled when he saw Ana. "now what could this little gathering be about he inquired." Gus Proudly stepped forward and declared "We have decided to put an end to the corruption caused by that monster over there." pointing at the mass occupying the other side of the field. The man looked quizzical for a moment and then asked "how come I get the feeling you don't seem to be in this full heartedly? did your wife push you into this stance?" "Don't listen to him." urged Nora. A dreamy look entered Gus's features and it was evident that he never heard a word she said. "Let me show you what I've got the salesman proclaimed" and led the party across the grass to an area that would be in the shade of a great tree in the daytime. "Please take your clothes off sir." the salesman said in an inviting voice. The protestors watched in horror as Gus complied. The salesman pointed at him and what looked like a pair of Iron underwear appeared. Gus was then levitated onto the top of a waist high iron pole fitted with a brace with holes that matched the holes on the iron underwear perfectly. The next step (obviously) was for him to be bolted in to place. He then went unconscious and first grew to the stature of Ana, (becoming female in the process) then it grew what probably were size three tits and it's legs expanded into spheres of similar dimensions which gave this Gus thing the appearance of having a huge ass too. Most of the protestors left to re-group, others stayed to gawk. some had even requested and were subsequently blessed with credentials of their own! Nora now went home to Gus's house which she now owned. Before resting her tired limbs she wondered how Ana was doing tonight. The old hovercar silently came to rest on the landing pad. Ana had discovered that the old car had been retrofitted wiht altitude controlls and that she could jump out of the stream of trafic completely and divert all power to the aft thrusters. She had burried the needle at 210. When she entered the strange house she heard the sound of voices. They were coming from the library area. The computer was still on that disgustingly overbusted virtual woman was now talking to a man wearing a battle suit and carrying a rifle slung across his back. The virtual woman was speaking to him. "I really don't know what happened. It seemed just like any other powerup but now he's just standing there doing nothing, Do you think this is a crash?" "Unlikely, From what I know about this system, It is among the most stable in the world. He probably just left you on." "But that has never done that before." The virtual woman protested. "Well... Now you get the chance to do whatever you want untill he gets back." The virtual woman didn't seem certain that she especially liked that prospect. "What would I do?" "Well anything. You could do a little surfing or you could join a flame war or if you didn't mind loosing your breasts you could come an join in a game of netwar. We are always looking for good players." "I'm not sure." "You think about it. I've got to get back to work." The man pulled his weapon around and checked his clip. "If you ever need anything or get a little lonely here you are always welcome over at my place, I have pleanty of cycles." "You are always welcome here too, I have pleanty of cycles too." She jestured to four torches on a platform two were burning brightly the thrid was smouldering and the furth was completely dark. Indicating that the processor was dormant. "I appreciate the offer but I must decline, I am a user too I can exist only at the terminal at which I am at. I also wouldn't place too much trust in the long term reliablility of this system. A user is like an Egyptial Pharoh every day he gives the blessings that keep order in this world." "Can I be a user?" "No, But I think I might be able to get you user access, Hold on a moment." The man walked out of the user charictor's line of sight. In a few moments he returned. "There, That sould do it. Just be carefull, you can really crash yourself now." "Okay." "Well goodbye." The comando walked through the strange door and vanished. The woman looked at the sky. with a wave of the hand the sky turned to night. Lines began extending from each of the stars connecting each to other untill the sky became a map of the nodes on the net. She pointed at one. It fell into the fountain. She bent down to look in to the fountain but her rediculous demensions made it difficult. She looked at the user charictor then back at her bresats. Sighed and was suddenly relieved of all the excess volume. She began analysing the node that she had connected too. She looked up at the torches again. Three were now burning brightly. The fourth, the one that handled the user interface was still dim. She looked back at the user and a devilish grin crossed her face. She pointed her finger at the user charictor and the monitor went dark. Ana didn't know what to make of that. "What a day." . The Mass driver was used for sending ore to the ships which feed the space stations. it consists of an ionizer and an acceleration tube. the average payload weighs about a thousand pounds. At orbital velocities the mass has enough force to sink Manhattan. On the trajectory display in William's office a green dot left the surface, slowly arced around the horizon of the circle then after a time appeared on the other side. Moments later the green dot intersected a blue spot forming a red 'X'. The comm monitor went dead. " 'Request permission to leave sir." William dismissed Nora with a distracted wave. The "Galilean Jump Point" is a million amp electrical arc running between the north pole of Jupiter, through Io and back into the south pole of Jupiter. Because the energy needed to preform an interstellar jump is far beyond the current capacities of a ship's engines this arc is used instead to charge the warp coils that can send a ship as far as a parsec. Hence it is referred to as the Galilean Jump Point. Here is the Plan, Nora does the Hop over to that ship that I said was heading to the Galilean Jump Point. She then re-routes the energy from the collectors over to the Fusion Reactor. After she jumps ship, The core will implode then melt the ship. Everybody Got that. Now say it back, 1. get aboard 2. short out core 3. abandon ship 4. watch the fireworks Thank you. Nora appeared aboard the ship wearing an engineer's coveralls and a belt of tools. She then doubled over and began choking, the ship had no air. Fortunately Alison was quick enough to construct a force field around Nora so she could breathe. Nora would have to be more careful in the future. Nora was standing in one of the narrow corridors towards the aft section of the ship, just where she wanted to be. She then walked over to engineering to begin her work. Crewman Jan whom was sent down from the bridge to try to figure out why the ship was weaving back and forth instead of following a straight course was startled to find a 'normal' person working on the engines. Jan pulled out her notebook and wrote: what the heck are you doing here. and then roughly shoved it in Nora's face. Nora showed no signs of recognition but Jan was startled to hear a calm voice in her head "I am here to fix the engines." Jan wrote 'how do you do that' "What? fix the engines." Nora joked. 'I mean talk' Jan scribbled. "Oh I just think what I want to say and then send it into your head." Nora then received a very garbled "You mean like this." "Yeah, kind of like that." "All the normal people on board just suddenly died when we stopped talking. Why are you still alive?" "Trade secret!" "Oh, Are you done yet, I would really like to go back to the bridge now to see whether we are back on course." Nora sighed It looks like she will have to put this piece of junk back on course before she can call it a day. She then closed the panel she had been working on and thought "All done, Let's go to the bridge." Jan nodded and indicated that Nora should follow. As they walked through the halls Nora noticed the wide variety of chest sizes there seemed to be everything from the default to size three. There seemed to be no dress code in effect, every one of them was in a different state of un-dress. then they passed something that made Nora sick an open airlock, iner and outer doors ajar. with two women dangling their feet over the edge of the abyss. the bridge were two types of people, the dead who knew but didn't care, and the living who cared very much but didn't Know. Nora intercepted another garbled telepathic message this time to the almost fully clad ad-hoc captain "Are we back on course?" The ad-hoc captain wrote back 'no.' Nora interrupted "I am a pilot, I can steer this." The ad-hoc captain motioned Nora to the life support console. Nora walked over to the helm, pushed the dead and frozen pilot out of the way and expertly began handling the controls, soon the red line arced back to intersect the blue plotted course line. After seeing that at current speed it would take more than three weeks to reach Jupiter Nora fired the main engines at full burn muttering "lets get this over with shall we" of course no one heard her through the vacum. Finally she locked down the controls and projected "All done." Nora then heard a different garbled telepathic voice the ad-hoc captain's "hey why did you push that person out of His chair" "Why not? He is dead." "How do you Know?" Nora sighed and started walking towards the exit. The ad-hoc captain placed her size two chest squarely in Nora's way. "Because I said so." Nora's thought read accompanied by a wave of irritation. Nora sent the ad-hoc captain flying across the room with a casual wave of her relatively dainty hand. Halfway to the airlock Nora sensed that she was being chased. With a flick of her wrist a force field appeared between Nora and her assailants. Nora jumped right out of the airlock but was followed by one of the people whom were sitting in the door, obviously a rescue attempt, argh. Nora was now floating away from the ship and would probably be about a mile away by the time the ship reaches the jump point. Nora's rescuer collided with Nora about a minute later. Alison had to struggle to stop Nora's spin. Nora said to the rescuer "Oh great company. now we can both watch the ship burn!" Nora's rescuer's face was a portrait of confusion, she was not expecting to hear anything and the message was incomprehensible. The ship's engines were now firing so to slow the ship enough so that it would collect enough energy to make the jump, or so the computer thought. As the ship entered the ion stream the energy was sent to the fusion core. The plasma in the core was compressed to a thin filament thick ring around the core, the energy of this ring was approaching that of a small star. Then the containment field failed. Through the windows a strange glow appeared, got brighter, brighter, then there were explosions as the air reserves were punctured. then the hull itself began to glow, liquefy, then slowly fold in on itself then it began to cool, all that was left was a round glowing asteroid. and two survivors, other than Nora. (the other person sitting in the airlock was able to escape before she was killed by the heat. "Gee that was fun!" Nora said before removing the life support from her rescuer. Her rescuer was frozen solid before Nora repeat the procedure with the other survivor. "Lets go to the telephone BOOTH!" Nora, back in her civilian garb appeared in the little red telephone booth from which she had left that morning. Since now the colonies were safe from mutant domination it is time to try to clean up the Earth. Nora was hungry, so she went to the bar. The only good thing about that pudding-milk was that it sure hit the spot. but to Nora's surprise the bar was empty. "Wussup?" Nora asked the mammoth pair of breasts behind the bar. A depressed voice answered "They went to watch the sacrifice at the cathedral." "Sacrifice?!?" "Yes, someone said something about Harold The Great wanting a sacrifice." "And of corse it got one." Nora muttered as she walked out the door. As she left she heard a wailing voice behind her "Please don't go I am so lonely." At the cathedral was a sight that made Nora's stomach turn knots quicker than the near suffocation she had earlier. In the plaza in front of the church was the makings of a bonfire. Arriving from the central park was a procession clad in black. In the middle of the procession was an oblong blob not too much larger than a normal sized person. This blob, possessing only a very terrified face was being supported by four bearers whose left or right arms had been fused to the blob. It was perfectly obvious what would happen the blob would be placed on a large wooden altar in the middle of the cathedral. I front of a chanting, torch bearing congregation. Then a mutant with a sword would remove the bearers from the blob by chopping their arms of at the shoulder. Next there would be a brief rescission as the bearers leave to recover. Next there would be a chant to invoke the Mighty Harold, who's visage would appear above the altar. Following that the poor victim would be butchered and burned. Nora sent a command to the blob's life support system, the command ordered the system to return to the default settings in 15 minutes or just before it would get butchered. Meanwhile Nora would casually stroll over to the park. Just as predicted Harold's eyes took on a vacant look as Harold's mind left to oversee the sacrifice. Nora made her move. walking around Harold's fleshy mass to find the life support's access port. Aha there it is. A programer appeared. Nora set it, and then inserted it into the access port. Next she ordered the life support system to return to it's defaults, immediately. This programmer is a device intended to rapidly program a brain so if you wanted to create a person, all that was necessary was to make a body just like Ana's then place this on it's forehead or in the access port, usually located at the base of the spine. Wallah now you have a reasonably intelligent person. In this case it was set for re-program, that is destroying what ever mind was already there. Nora walked around to Harold's face and closed her eyes. Using Alison's powers she could see the whole city, she could watch Harold return to a normal size and shape. There were several people who Harold had implanted in it's flesh. those people were released as the flesh withdrew. It was interesting to watch the life support system remove flesh bit by bit, convert it back into what ever substance it had been before and send it back to the core of the earth. But her real focus of interest was the church, she had to make sure the sacrifice was canceled. It was, confused and disgusted mutants were already walking out of the church, and the victim was almost normal again though not human by a long shot. Hmm the people must have ben subjected to some type of mind control. Nora was jostled awake to Harold's voice "Hello?" "Oh hi. My name is Nora, I would like to call you Ana, is that alright?" "I think so Ana responded." "Great, Please come with me." This incarnation of Ana was again very muscular with big hands, small (average) tits. Yet 100% female and this time possessing a complete vocabulary. Nora led the taller stronger Ana through the modestly crowded streets Towards Nora's house. On the way Nora came across the same woman she had encountered earlier that same day. Apparently her boyfriend had left without her, leaving her stranded. Nora was overcame by a flash of pity and ordered Ana to help her up. "What's your name?" Nora asked. "I'm Julie." the pair of tits with legs answered. "Well hello Julie, you can stay the night at my house if you want." "Thank you, I really could use some help." At Nora's house Ana sat in a chair, Julie took up half the couch and Nora was hungry enough to eat a horse. The Goddamn fridge contained only baking soda and a pair of soft drinks!! Nora really becoming irked called for a caterer, A nice juicy stake and root beer, perfect. Normally it takes about half an hour for food to arrive so Nora would just have to distract herself until that time. "Well Julie what got you into this unhappy state?" "It was that lousy good for nothing jerkoff husband of mine who convinced me that I would look good big." Nora refrained from pointing out that finally it was her own decision that got her into this mess. Nora struggled not to let on that she could return Julie to normal with a wave of the hand, that would not be proper. DING DONG Woah that only took five minutes, must be because of the reduced demand. Nora hoped things weren't that bad. she hoped that there still is a viable population of normal people around. Nora dug in as soon as she had laid it down on the table, slowing only when she realized that she may get sick if she ate too fast. "Hey where's our eats?" protested Julie. "Are you hungry?" retorted Nora. "No" Julie confessed. "No hunger, no eats!" Nora gloated. Later that night Nora brought Julie a blanket, and assigned Ana to the guest room. "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!" Nora teased. Nora slept like a log. Alison however couldn't not because she doesn't need nightly sleep or any reason like that, it was because her conscience was beginning to gain ground on her. She had killed in cold blood two ships of mutants, just like herself, in cold blood. She has refused denied help to Julie whom obviously needs it. Saving the cathedral from being defiled was good but the ledger was well into the negative. She had forgotten something, something important, something that would catch up with her very soon. But she just couldn't see it. Julie has made her own decisions, it is time she faced them. All those dead mutants If life is ever to return to 'normal' all the other mutants would have to be killed too. Right? So in essence Alison was planning on signing the death warrants for all mutants who were not named Alison. Ho-boy what a mess. Get some sleep Alison. The next day was cloudy but pleasant. Nora told Ana to wait on Julie for the day. Ana, having nothing better to do, agreed. What to do? Breakfast!, yes that's what comes next. Nora was actually beginning to like that strange drink now being served down at the bar. When Nora requested a drink the bartender inquired "When ya plan to break down and become one of us?" "Don't plan to." Nora said with a small grin. Nora sat at a table with two other people, a casually dressed woman who looked hauntingly like Alison. The other was a strangely dressed woman of similar description but she was dressed in only briefs and a tank top. Her clothes seemed to be made out of the same material that disposable diapers are made. Her eyes looked vacant, her face revealed some sort of sexual climax as she squeezed her arm between her legs. "I wanted you to come have a look at this person here, I can't seem to figure out what is wrong with her." the more normal of the two said. "How long has she been like this?" Nora asked. "Since I met her." "Have you been able to talk to her?" "No, she doesn't seem to understand what I say." This would not have been so puzzling to Nora if she hadn't been so forgetful. Nora reached out a mental hand to see if she could feel anything inside the strange woman's mind. "Excuse me ladies, I have some important business to attend to. What Nora had seen inside the strange woman's mind was that someone had used the programmer (which she had forgotten about after using it on Harold) to completely destroy all traces of intellect and higher emotion from her mind. Nora ordered the scanner on board Alison's ship to track the device, and swap it with a phony. In less than a minute the job was done, time to sack the culprit. In the quiet Emergency room of the central hospital Nora appeared she was carrying a heavy plasma rifle that had to be supported by Alison's telekineses, a shotgun, a couple of hand grenades and a nice shiny pair of combat boots. Off in one corner under hard florescent lights (the bed lights were still dim) was a woman size one tits, lying face down, naked on one of the examination tables, (the table had adjusted itself so this could be done) standing behind the table was a woman wearing a large heavy, royal looking robe, the only thing unusual about her was her massively enlarged head. her assistant was normal and wearing a nurse's uniform. The one who looked like a queen from hell was shouting at the very intimidated nurse. The nurse was trying to use the fake programer on the oblivious woman on the table. Nora took a loud step forward leveled the rifle and let the plasma do the talking. The white hot gas incinerated the bed's equipment and blew a hole in the wall big enough to step through. But when Nora walked over to the table to remove the evil bitch's life support, Nora found nothing there, no body, no ash, nothing! strange. the woman on the table didn't seem to respond at all to the second degree burns she received to her back. Nora watched as the blisters shrank and disappeared. Nora tried to awaken the woman but was unable to get a response. when Nora probed her mind she found nothing, not a trace of activity. Nora reached out, lay one hand on the body and it ceased to exist. It's atoms spread throughout the room. "You can't kill what wasn't alive in the fist place." Nora muttered. Nora took a look around and saw nothing, no doctors, no nurses, and no patients. Outside everything was quiet the street was empty. A robot carrier approached with several work robots to inspect and repair the hospital. Nora was at a complete loss. Hello! someone has just opened fire with a very high powered weapon, destroyed some very expensive equipment, does anyone care?. Think Nora think. Many years ago there was a string of Manson like murders. For months the police were baffled. One morning one officer had the idea to ask a robot for help. He asked "Where might I find the 'Helter Skelter' club." The Helter Skelter club was arrested, tried, convicted, executed, and cremated that same morning. "Robot, where may I find The 'Resistance' or the 'Protestors'?" Nora inquired. "Madame, they are quite a new organization, founded only last week. I believe they meet in the woods north of the city." the robot said informatively. "Thank you, can you please arrange transportation?" "Certainly, madame." The protester's club looked like a mideaval wooden castle. Heavily fortified and guarded. Inside were refugees, and those 'rescued' from mutation who were locked in a primitive stockade. Because Nora was a normal person she was admitted immediately. After someone realized that it was Nora, wife of Gus, who had just entered Nora was escorted to the leaders of the protestors. Gus had been the main leader until he had been mutated which meant that the group was eagerly waiting to see what Nora would do before making any further decisions. The leaders were seated at a large round table lit by a lantern inside an old dilapidated house. (mid 22nd century architecture if Nora wasn't mistaken). One of the participants in the discussion at the table stood up and said "Welcome, We are so happy that you have decided to join us, please have a seat." "Thank you" "We were discussing what to do with the mutants..." "NUKE EM!!!" a muscular man with died blond hair and sunglasses said while simulating the recoil of a macine gun with his arms. "We don't have any nukes." the speaker reminded him, "besides have you ever seen what radiation poising really does to someone?" "Does the computer have any sudjestions?" another debater sujested. "Are you kidding? The computer wouldn't know what to tell someone standing in a burning building!" The first debater said. A man entered wearing a bloody lab coat. "What did you learn from that mutant we killed this morning doc?" "That it wasn't dead." "We ripped it's freaking head clean off!" "Well it has a new one." "Oh great, they're invulnerable too." the person who had probably done the killing said. "Did you learn anything else?" "They seem to have an extremely efficient metabolism." "No doc, I mean a weakness, something we can use." the speaker explained." "They seem to be equipped with a fiber optic tranciever located at the base of the sacrum. I ordered one of my robots to interface with it but the robot couldn't make a good link. Maybe with the right equipment I could make some progress on this but..." "We could take it to the central computer itself and run a encryption scan?" A debater asked. The doctor shook his head and said "Its not that, We aren't sure how to connect to these things, The computer would have nothing to go on until a link were established." "I have the equipment you need." Nora confessed with a half embarrassed look on her face. "But that doesn't solve the problem, maybe we can communicate with these life support things but how can that help us?" The room was silent, Nora absently toyed with one of the weapons she was still carrying. She had little to add to the conversation. "I've got it we could connect them all to the computer! We have been complaining all this time about how dumb the computer is, why don't we fix it with the mutants." More silence. "How?" The doctor said "I have seen that they have the ability to merge with one another. We should be able to link them all together seal them in a warehouse, Then after we find a method of connecting them to the computer, we can call it a day." "That's sick! but,,It just might work. Get on it." The speaker spoke. Sandra was settling down into her new meditaion pose. Before she would sit indian style on her mat with her hands folded. Since that was nolonger possible she had to settle for lying on her back. Since lying down lowered alertness it wasn't an ideal pose. There was a twist, she could now rest four feet above her mattress. Sandra was beginning to hate her new body. It was so clumsy that it was good for just about nothing. It was so unnatural, especially for a person who prided herself on eating only all natural foods. It felt so isolating like being a spaceship or something with absolutely no ties to the planet. But on the other hand it was incredibly well tuned to its surroundings. It could hear the softest sound, see the faintest light, and even feel things too small or too far away to be felt. She could even feel the currents of matter and energy surrounding her and flowing through her. most marvelous. She was beginning to sense patterns that could possibly be traces of a collective unconscious. What a discovery! For what she lost and what she gained she concluded that it was a draw. No net gain or loss. She looked at it as a change in her life, positive in that it brought her to a new experience that made everything old new again. Like for instance she could watch the men with the battering ram knock her door down from the outside while she waited from them in the inside! The men were of the natural variety. They wore plain clothes. The ones without the battering ram carryed clubs and nets. There were also two women carrying guns with large barrels that Sandra thought were called 'shotguns'. brutal wepon. The door yielded and the people surged into her house. They found her quickly. The men hastily put the net around her and one of the women pulled out a siringe and stuck Sandra with it. Within a minute she was out. When she awoke she was in a steel walled compartment with a low celing that was filled with other people of her same type. Strange, she could have sworn that the ground felt more like living flesh then anything else. Suddenly an inhuman mind jumped in on top of hers and went with supreme speed and triggered parts of her brain that she didn't even know of. Sandra watched as the mind in half a second sent a flury of commands to the macine half of her cybernetic being. The macine began to melt her body into the mass of flesh already accumulated in the car. Her body was paralized as her mind froze. This can't happen! There are limits to what is possible. Being transformed into a metabeing is pushing it, this is deffinitely beyond that limit. 旼컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� 읕컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴컴� Within two weeks all the mutants had been melted into boxcar sized units. The train was equipped with two ancient (20th century) sleepers and a vista-dome (Recently in the Smith Train Museum) Nora, in silent protest, was wearing an immaculate emerald green Nazi uniform with full insignia. All she got were compliments. 'oooh Nice!' The train had just gotten underway gliding silently through the night on polished rails. Nora was seated in one of the booths looking at the red dawn. One of the protestors was trying to get Nora to help him go over the plans for the next stage. All he got was German. Nora snapped. "What manner of people are you?" she demanded. The car fell silent as all eyes fell on Nora. "You are quick to be the judge of those who would do something foolish. Yet you can't see it in yourselves. Have none of you thought of what you are doing? How do you think you will be able to live with yourselves after you do this? Back there in those cars are real people! Many of them were forced into being mutated. How can you summarily ship them all off without giving any thought to whether it is really the right thing to do." Nora gave the mute group a cold stare "Idiots!" and marched off. "Husband?" one of the protestors offered. "And PMS." another added. Latter that day Nora was forced out of her quarters by hunger, ate alone at one of the tables and returned to her room. Nora was the only person on the train who knew that the vistadome was rated for seventy five miles an hour. The train was moving at two hundred fifteen, oh well. It would be fascinating to explore how that the program which would have told the maintenance robots to check the lubricant on the ancient mechanical bearings had somehow, over time, ben omitted. Gradually over the trip the vistadome began to vibrate then the bearing started to tear itself apart, someone looking out the window screamed as he saw sparks jetting out of the damaged wheel. Alison calmly ordered her ship to replicate the lubricant from the material on the asteroid and beamed it into the can on the bearing. Next she sent a small robot down with a replicator gun to spray a layer of high strength polymer to repair the dammaged joint. The passengers relaxed as the threat seemed to fix itself. The Central Computer was in a centrally located position for the northern hemisphere (under the polar ice cap). By dawn the train was crossing the Canadian tundra. The track was laid almost parallel to the longitude. Slowly the robot piloting the train eased off the throttle and the train slowed to a saner one hundred miles an hour. The train was headed straight for the arctic ocean. The water parted at the train's coming. This above all must be the coolest achievement of the 23'rd century one of the few remaining physicists of the time had discovered a way to shield an area of water from gravity and the effects of the pressure of the surrounding water. This greatly reduced the effort required to service the Central Computer by allowing trains access. Before then only submarines could navigate that deep. The passengers, rapt with awe watched through the vistadome the light filtering through the thick ice above. The tracks were about a thousand feet above the ocean floor, supported by pontoons and heavy steel cables. The central computer was a huge complex rising from the ocean floor, It looked more like a giant space station than anything else. Once the five mile long train entered the airlock and was split up onto the many tracks of the underwater railroad yard. The waterhole to the surface slammed shut with a sound that echoed like thunder. The train contained the first humans to see the Central Computer in one hundred and fifty years. After taking a look around the train's passengers decided that this place should be renamed Robot City. There were five hundred forty three 'maintenance' robots caring for the vast complex. Over the next two days the boxcars were relieved of their fleshy contents. The large slabs of flesh were stacked in a large, dry, warmed chamber which was to become the Central Computer's new processing core. The leaders of the resistance met in an old office that used to belong to the Manager of Activities. "Where is Nora?" the speaker asked "Aw, she's still in a snit. Last I saw her, she was listening to music down in the rec hall." "I wish she would just get over it." the speaker complained. "Lets get down to business. What is the word from the room?" "Still no go. I suspect some special command is required to get them to fuse together." the doctor answered. "Any suggestions?" silence. "We have already removed them from society, there is no reason that we must do anything more." "I don't think I could let this opportunity go to waste but if we can't make any progress within a week I agree that we should go back to the surface. Any opposed?" "Nay." "Thank you gentlemen." The speaker dismissed the committee. The speaker took a robot and went to the messhall. "What's the fuss Nora?" Nora spewed more German. "Robot, translate." The robot said "She said: 'The Nazis, in Germany used to force people from their homes, pack them into trains, take them to concentration camps. Then the unlucky people were then tortured, starved, and executed; It was called the Holocaust. I feel lower than a Nazi.'" "A Nazi?!, Holocaust?" "Robot." "The Nazi party ruled Germany between 1932 and 1945 reviled by history as being dictatorial, territorial, and Genocidal. The Holocaust is probably the darkest time in human history, Six million people who were considered by the Nazis to be of a lower race were brutally murdered." "I see." the speaker muttered looking at the rug. "Take a look Nora!" the speaker insisted "We aren't Nazis, we didn't torture them, they are not of a lower order but a higher yet no less of a threat to the future of society. We didn't come here to kill them, we came here to make the best use of them that the situation allows!" "I guess you're right." Nora admitted. "I'll direct the modifications." The speaker looked surprised "You mean you can do that?" "Yep." Nora confessed. "But don't tell anyone!" "Good let's go to the 'room'." "No, first I have to round up some robots and have some equipment sent in." "You're the boss... I guess." One week of mutations and modifications later both flesh and silicon were ready for the connection, well almost. To connect the computer to the mutant the mutant had to have a mind to be connected to. That meant that Alison would have to send the programer down again (sob). The device was set for logic and emotion, and to disable all sexual impulses. Nora never took her eyes off the device during the whole ten hour procedure (the bigger the mind the longer it takes to organize it.) Immediately after the procedure was done the programmer was safely aboard Alison's ship. Nora checked to see that the mutant's mind was in a state of stasis and would not do any damage before it was connected to the computer. Nora plugged the five channel fiber optic cables from the computer into the mutant's access port. Each channel could carry terabytes of data. In the control room away from the iron encased mutant Nora and the committee prepared to activate the new computer. "First we must shut down the main computer." Nora said then threw a row of switches. Robots around the world froze in their tracks. Hover cars slowed and stopped. Interactive digital terminals stopped itneracting. "Now we can see what it has to say for itself." Nora typed a command, waited, then wrote "How do you feel?" The answer flashed "Scared." "Why?" "I can't sense anything except your writing." Don't let me confuse you here, this mutant does have all the powers Alison has, and more. Not that this mutant had powers greater than Alison, Alison is maxed out, this mutant simply has the capacity to do more things with them at the same time. Alison could only manipulate one body at a time, in this case it was Nora's by sending commands to Nora's motor cortex. The mutant however could control twenty Noras. The only reason why the mutant wasn't able to see was because the mutant didn't yet know how to. (it wasn't a part of the programmer's instructions.) Also the mutant was designed so the powers wouldn't become active until the mutant had enough knowledge to use them properly. "That's normal." No it wasn't but it sounded reassuring. "Who are you?" the very inquisitive computer asked. "I am Nora Winters, I put you together and made you what you are." "What am I?" came the next logical question. "You are a part of the Central Computer." "What is the Central Computer?" "The Central Computer is the central data handling facility for the entire planet." "Why can't I sense any data then?" "We aren't sure yet if it is safe to let you control the planet." "Why wouldn't it be safe?" "Let me show you." Nora turned to the bank of switches and reactivated the Library Computer. "Please call up the book 'The two faces of tomorrow'." A few minutes passed. "I promise not to hurt anyone." "Good, please look up the statistics on voter turnout for the North American Continent for the last five centuries. What do you think?" "Since this appears to be a democratic government, voter turnout would be a direct indicator of the power of the government during the times studied. The voter turnout seems to have risen after event marked as 'Woman's suffrage' then settled into a shallow decline until the event marked 'Central computer activated'. After then it has fallen to the point where elections have no longer been held and a figurehead has been in place ever since. Does the central computer rule the planet?" "Officially no, but yes that is what it means." "Why don't people govern themselves? Have machines caused this?" "Machines have allowed people to give up responsibilities to them but they have not caused it. Look up the Psychological text describing a theory known as 'Self Actualization'." "It says that when a person's motivations and attitudes are based entirely on conscious decisions, that person can described as being 'self actuated'. Have people lost the ability to be self actuated?" "No, it is simply easier to behave like an animal and go with one's feelings. Instincts are important and are often helpful but they shouldn't be allowed to dictate one's actions." "Then people can govern themselves but they prefer not to." "Exactly! One of your main objectives will be to stimulate people to become self actualized. I am about to re-activate the central computer it will operate without your help, I want you to watch it, learn about it, then try to use it to help people." "I'm scared. What if I accidentally cause something to go wrong?" "That would be very difficult, the computer is stable, you would find it most difficult to cause any problems." Nora reassured as she turned on the remaining switches. Around the world robots returned to their deities some idiot was messing around with the Central Computer but all was well. "Well when are you gonna turn it on? You have been fiddling with buttons that only a robot could understand for the last ten minutes, do something!" None of them could read. A fact that had escaped Alison all this time. The poor bastards just could not read a bloody word. As the author I must point out that the people were indeed educated but because all writing and reading could be done by robot, there was no need to teach it and as I said there was no real government to enforce a curriculum. Nora glared at him and left. The speaker had figured out what had happened but decided to be wise. At one of the tables on the train, now headed south, Nora sat clicking her modestly long fingernails. She was deciding whether or not to cut them back or not. Nora was bored, The entire thing was too easy, No challenge what so ever. The guy who I have referred to as the speaker slid into the booth and asked "So when are you gonna take off that silly Nazi uniform?" "It was NEVER silly! I striped all the swastikas off so it is NOT Nazi anymore, and I am beginning to like it." "Still in a bad mood, huh?" "Not really." "So when did you learn to read, where you a member of the Star Corps?" "Actually I learned to read about four days ago." Nora said with a grin. "Come on." "Okay, Okay, it was actually about 400 years ago." "I liked 'four days ago' better." "Suit yourself. I am sorry, I wasn't paying much attention the last couple of days, please tell me what your name is?" "Name?! Not Paying attention!?" He exclaimed. Nora paled, she just knew that she had just made a big mistake. "We're Neighbors, REMEMBER?, Hello! Are you Possessed or something?" -gulp- "Yes." Nora said in a small voice. "If you are really not Nora, Who are you?" "Alison" "Alison The Whore? The one who never comes out of her house because she is too busy fucking her queer husband?" "Ugh, please don't remind me?" "Whatever. You can let us have Nora back now." "I can't." "What do you mean you can't?!" "When I took Nora's body, I put Nora's mind in another mutant body made to look like mine. Later she was killed by Harold (not unexpectedly)." "Monster!" A pause. "What did you plan to do with Nora's body?" "I am planning to place it under the control of an artificial mind and then jump planet." "No, You are in this for life!" "I can jump right now if I wanted too, what do you mean I am in this for life?" "How well do you think one of your artificial minds would be able to live Nora's life?" "Well...um." "See, When you took Nora's body you also took her life, Now it's yours." "Ouch." "Sor-ry!" "What is your name?" "Chris. Say, why didn't you end up like the rest of the mutant's?" "Too moral." "You're kidding. How could a Whore be Moral?" "I am not really a Whore at heart, It was just the most convenient thing to do." "That's a laugh. When did you have cause to learn German." "My computer can translate thoughts into whatever language I choose, so I never really had to learn anything." "Weird. What else can you do?" "I don't know any parlor tricks, If that is what you are asking." "Could you control that robot back there at the end of the isle?" "Hmm, I don't think I've ever tried that." Nora carefully cupped her head in her hands, with two fingers on each temple. She then closed her eyes. The Robot began to walk towards the table with an unusual grace. At the table it said "What may I have the pleasure of serving you?" Nora turned her blank face to the robot and said in a monotone voice "Root Beer". "Same" Chris ordered. The robot left. A few minutes later it came back, instead of carrying the bottles and glasses on a tray, the bottles were carried between it's metallic fingers and the glasses were cupped in the other hand. With a lightning quick move the robot began to pour the soda down the sides of the glasses in such a manner as to preserve the bubbles. Then the robot lay them out on the table "For you Sir, Madame. Is there anything else I can help you with?" Chris, with an impressed look on his face said "That will be all." The robot bowed and returned to its station at the end of the isle. Nora snapped back to consciousness wearing a wide grin. "how'd I do?" "Nice." Nora glanced at the robot. The lights on it's chest indicated that it was running a self diagnostic. "I hope I didn't hurt the robot." Nora said. "It'll be fine. Now what do you plan to do with yourself Now that you know that you have to be human for the next ninety years." "Please don't remind me of that." "Get used to it." "Sigh, From what I've gathered Nora didn't have much of a life ether." "You shouldn't live Nora's life how she was living it, but how she should have been living it." "Maybe I could get a job as a rocket scientist designing ships for the Star Corps. Except I am lousy at drafting stuff." "That's what robots are for, you come up with the idea and they do it." "You're right. Nice Idea." Nora thought a moment "In fact I am actually beginning to look forward to having a life." "Great. To Alison's new life!" Chris said raising his drink in toast. This is where a normal Author would call it a day, Say 'and they all lived happily ever after' or what not, technically I could do that too. But I would be leaving too many questions unanswered and the story incomplete so Onward and upward! The only catch to writing something this long is that it takes a week to page through it. Nora returned to her house for the night. She found that the people sent to drag Julie and Ana off had kindly broken Nora's door for her. She ordered a meal, bathed and went to bed. Tomorrow she would join the Space Corps. Although it is against my principals to reveal the plot of the next scene, in this case I feel I must. I plan to put Nora through a living hell. This scene is gross, disgusting and has absolutely no relationship to any real persons or events (that I know of). So 'Reader digression Advised'. (chuckle, bad joke) Nora woke up on a bed of some sort. She is on a space station no doubt because she weighed only half as much as she should have. Her hands flew to her face to confirm that someone had ripped her eyes out. The hollow sockets felt strange but there wasn't very much pain. Alison tried to reach out with her powers to try to piece together what had happened. Nothing, Alison couldn't feel a thing. Her powers wouldn't work. With growing alarm Alison demanded an answer out of her computer but there was no response. "Hello Alison." an evil voice said to Nora. 'Oh my god, It is that mutant that was re-programing mutants at the hospital about a fortnight ago. What could It want with me?' Nora thought to herself. "Very good Alison. All I want is what you have wanted, to have fun." "Why have you taken my eyes?" Nora demanded. "I can't let you hurt me, you know that. Here take these prosthetics so your face won't cave in." Nora cold feel some sort of instrument pull her eyelids apart. A horribly cold spheres entered her eye sockets. 'You wouldn't have cared to incubate them even if you had thought of it' Nora thought to herself. "Monster! I am gonna get you for this." "I know, I know." the abomination said in a mock motherly voice. "Nora jumped from the table and assailed the voice." Nora could feel the monster but just wasn't strong enough to do any damage. Nora became numb from the neck down, the monster had suppressed Alison's control over Nora's brain. Since Nora was still standing, the monster must be controlling her body. "Shame shame shame, You should know better." the monster scolded. Nora heard a familiar humming, something like um um darn, she couldn't remember. "NO!" Nora screamed. She realized it was that damn, piece of junk towel rack, breast enlarger thing. The business end of the device was a ring that locked to the poor victim's nipples, then using a very finely tuned laser-particle accelerator it would enlarge the breasts to what ever size desired. Then It would implant what ever type of gravity shielding and life support required. Then the unfortunate woman would probably require a nurse to use the pot or feed herself. Of corse the model on Alison's ship was state of the art. Hopefully something would pop up in the POST and Nora would be spared. Several minutes later: "All done" the monster announced. "What do You think?" Or maybe not. Nora received an image. Judging by the center of focus the viewer was most interested in the breasts. Nora's attention fell on her pale white face. She was suffering from a cold sweat because of the traumas on her body and because of the fact that she was wearing absolutely nothing in a relatively cold room. Her brown hair partially covered the featureless white orbs inside her eye sockets. A trickle of blood ran down the left side of her nose. She looked horrible. The extended size ones (size one tits, but twice as long so they hung down to her waist but weren't unmanageable.) 'at least I'll still be able to walk, for now.' Nora sighed. "I look Horrible." "Such a strange attitude for someone of your nature." The monster commented. "I've changed. I was never really like that in the first place." "Oh really?" the monster said. Come let me take you to your quarters so that you may rest, you have a BIG day ahead." the monster said with a sadistic chuckle. The monster released Nora's body back to Alison. The monster then took Nora by the arm and led her through the station to another room. Nora had to use her other arm to reduce vibrations. As they walked trough the miles of corridors on the station Nora asked "What did you do to the crew?" In 400 years Alison had never seen a horror as terrible as what now entered her mind. The image was that of the large 'above ground' farm on the station, There twenty five hundred or more crewmembers, travelers and residents lay fused together in a writhing mass of limbs and heads being irradiated by the sunlight sent in by the station's huge reflector. "What a nightmare" Nora commented. "This isn't a nightmare, this is life." The monster said. Nora found herself curled up in one of the station's bunks. She was crying. "Come on, pull yourself together, you don't have enough time for this." Nora said to herself. She got up felt around until she found a closet she was grateful to find a woman's uniform that almost fit, the jacket had to be worn open, but it was warmer than nothing. Nora then tried the door and to her pleasure it was unlocked. She felt her way down the hall. She found a cabinet, First aid supplies, useless. No wait, she pulled an elastic bandage out and warped it tightly around her middle. She could walk easier now. The next room was empty, or at least nobody answered Nora's hail. The next locker was old, rusty, probably hadn't been maintained in ages. It must be a weapon's locker. (When people decided that alien invasion was no longer a threat, these lockers became just a part of the scenery, minded by no one.) Nora was surprised to find that it hadn't been replaced by some other facility. Inside Nora found a laser. She removed the safety and hoped that it had enough charge to do some damage. Nora continued to feel around. "Alison... Alison.... Alison.... WHAT? Am I gonna do with you?" the hidiously sweet voice called out. Nora pointed the weapon in the voice's general direction and opened fire. Nora released the trigger. She was pleased to hear a carcass fall to the floor. Nora walked in the direction of the body, felt it's exact location. this being known Nora stepped back and fired until she could hear the life support's power cells explode. The monster was dead. "Serves you right!" Nora gloated. "Now to get myself out of this mess." Nora said. Nora started back towards the infirmary. She stopped in her tracks when she realized that she had no idea where it was. Back to feeling around. After about half an hour of fruitless searching she found an elevator. Helpful, except she couldn't understand braille. She therefore pressed the button with the longest label. On this new level she found that she could use her nose to get herself to find ether the cafeteria or the infirmary. Her stomach led her inevitably to the cafeteria. There she heard the sound of munching. "Whose there?" Nora asked. "Just me. I am sue." the diner responded. "Where are you?" Nora asked. 'this is probably the "nurse" who was with the monster in the hospital, back on Earth.' It was probably asked by the monster to eat as much as she could to become a blob for the monster's enjoyment. The Monster must not realize that even by enlarging the body that the 'nurse' would gain powers of her own.' Nora concluded mentally. To make a long story short (please forgive the pun) Nora used the 'Nurse' to restore Alison's powers and computer. Nora then thanked Sue and then disintegrated her. (Can't let someone like that go running around.) Nora walked with confidence straight down the center of the hallway towards the lift. Now with Alison's powers Nora could 'see' the hall ahead of her. What she actually saw was a third person's view of the hall and surroundings; it was really quite awkward. To fully illustrate the wisdom of her next move I will quickly recount a worst case Scenario. Worst Case Scenario: Nora returns herself to normal, confidently, and humanely returns the crew to their normal shapes, diligently helps remove people from the pile before they suffocate one another only to be declared a mutant by the commander and spaced by a constable named Otto. (Not Odo) That would have been really dumb. Here is what really happened. Nora punched the button for the inner edge of the ring of the station. Moments later she blindly stumbled out of the lift and onto a grassy field, normally used for athletics and as a parade ground. She stumbled towards the moaning mass in the middle of the field. "Hey there is somebody coming." said one of the heads to a nearby foot. The moaning quieted as the conglomeration turned its attention to Nora. "The mutant must have gotten it too, look at it's chest." observed another victim. "Who are you?" a torso and head shouted. "I am Nora." "Can you help us?" "Yes, I think so." "Have you seen the mutant around?" yet another head asked. "No, it took my eyes but I was able to kill it with one of the lasers." "How?" "I heard it walking down the hall. When it came around the corner I pointed the thing in its general direction and.." she demonstrated by pointing her fingers like a gun and pretending to fire. "Oh" "I was trying to find the infirmary to see if I could use that damn machine to return myself to normal when I ran across you." "The Infirmary, that's easy, Just follow the blue lines." a helpful head said. "The Mutant took my eyes, I'm blind." "Ouch." the head said. "Go down two levels, take a right, then a left, I think." "Thanks!" "Good luck!" To accurately emulate the time it would take to get back to the surface Alison refrained from using her senses to guide Nora. An hour and a half latter Nora returned to the surface dragging the machine behind her. "I think I have it." she announced. "Polo!" one of the heads shouted. "Marco!" Nora replied. "You are just about at some steps, be careful!" Nora heeded and carefully brought the infernal contraption to the blob. "I say we chuck this in the smelter as soon as we are back to normal." Nora sudjested. "I'll help." agreed one of the victims. "Can you set this for me?" Nora asked. One of the heads who apparently had the use of an arm said "I'll have a look." The person who was apparently a man carefully manipulated the levers and dials. "That should do It, come closer so I can try to fix you." Nora was almost alarmed fearing what could happen, but decided to go along regardless. Lo and behold, It worked, Nora was 100% her normal self again. {do I detect a pout? We both know this was the right thing to do so get over it.} She was also happy that she could close her Star Corps uniform. "The same setting should work on us, but I'll set the time for a bit longer so we will be safe. I think it would be better if the process were started from the top. Try to climb on top of us with this emitter device." The man instructed. For Nora this was most distasteful but she did it anyway. As the blob melted people began jumping off and returning to their quarters just as much for modesty as for the sake of not crushing those below. A man very aquardly walked towards Nora and said. "Um, Thank you very much for saving my station and crew from the mutants. I hold a position open for you should you wish to join the Space Corps. (aren't you glad that you decided to do this the prudent way?) My E.O. will find you some quarters and assign you a guide for the duration of your stay here." "Thank you very much, but I don't think I will be needing a guide, I need to learn to get around on my own." "As you wish." he said and hurried off to get a uniform on so he could discipline anyone not in uniform. Alison and her computer went to work on a good pair of prosthetic eyes for Nora. That evening (as the clock said it was, 'evening' has little meaning on a space station) Nora was slouched in a large, comfortable chair in her rather spacious quarters, obviously officer's quarters. Alison's solution appeared in the form of two clear cylinders caped at both ends by stainless steel. In each rested a sphere that was black as obsidian tethered by short steel bars terminating with bioactive ceramic to connect to where Nora's muscles used to be. There was also a crystal containing a complete technical reference, and a laser device used for diagnostics. Nora collected these items and went to the infirmary. The doctor was a small man wearing small gold rimed glasses and a lab coat. "I'm sorry Nora, I know that you have probably come to try to get your eyes back, but I have nothing for you." the doctor said before Nora had a chance to speak. "I am aware of that. I would like for you to have a look at this, here." Nora said and handed the equipment to the doctor. "Lets see what we have here." the doctor said as he slapped the crystal into the appropriate slot in his computer. "Most impressive. I don't suppose you would want to tell me where you came across such a fascinating device?" "No." Nora assured him. "Well I suppose I owe you a favor. It is against my practice to preform an unapproved procedure, but I will make an exception in your case. Please allow me time to run a few simulations to determine whether there may be any complications. I should be ready in about a week." If you are still reading this you are probably wondering why Alison didn't do it herself. The reason was both for safety and security. First Alison had decided that it would be much safer for Nora if the procedure were preformed by an experienced doctor. Second it would be in Nora's best interest if she could point to the doctor as the person responsible for her restored vision. Nora was back in her quarters listening to some music. Somebody rang the buzzer. "Who is it?" Nora said in a pleasant voice. "It's me, Commander Perkins, may I come in?" "Sure." The door hissed and Nora could hear Commander Perkins enter the room. Nora addressed the closet and jestured towards the fake plant in the corner. "Welcome, please have a seat." The Commander took a seat in what he thought was the intended chair. "How are you doing." "As well as can be expected." "That's good. I came here to invite you to join us in throwing that cursed device into the smelter." "I would love to go, but I would fear for my safety and I doubt there would be much to see." Nora said while winking one of her ceramic eyes. It really wasn't much of a wink because her eyes couldn't open fully anyway. "We'll watch out for you. Heck I'll even let you do the throwing." "Alright, lets go." I must stop here to point out what a fantasy world this is, I have made things as real as possible with one exception. Almost all the characters introduced so far have been very intelligent, self assured, and swift of thought. I don't think I could keep the action going if I had to keep explaining the central issues to the main characters or go off on tangents solving petty emotional things (the Nazi business was not petty). Gosh I wish real life were like this. Nora, and Perkins floated into the zero-G smelter facility. Nora could feel the heat from the magnetically inducted furnace. There were a few off duty officers present to verify the devices destruction for their peers. Oddly one of the officers looked distressed that the device should be disposed of in this manner. Since he didn't have a justifiable argument he said nothing. Perkins guided Nora to a position near the ore sch and handed Nora the device. "Good Riddance." Nora said as she pivoted in the foot restraints throwing the device. Moments later there was an explosion in the smelter. Fortunately there was enough shielding around the smelter so that there was no damage to person or facility. "Now that is over with, I would really like to take you on a tour of the station." "Can I take a rain check on that, The doc said he may be able to restore my vision in a few days. I think then would be the most appropriate time." "Remarkable! I should remember to give the doc my compliments. I'm really sick of this mutant deal, we have been on yellow or red alert since the beginning. Lets go to the Operations room and see weather things have improved so that we can change that." "Okay." In the operations room there were officers sitting at various consoles monitoring the functions of the station. "What is the situation on Earth?" Perkins asked. "Earth reports that the mutants have been contained." the comm. officer responded. "Status." "All stations secure." "Cancel yellow alert." "Aye sir. Condition green." the officers in the room looked much relieved that the crisis was over. "Lets throw a party." Perkins sujested "All in favor?" "Yes SIR!" "Please schedule for 1900 hours, in the general mess." The party was so dull that I won't even bother to report on it. Several days later the doctor was ready to install Nora's new eyes. While Nora was being prepped for surgery the doctor went on at length about the various functions of the eyes. "The first thing that you will notice about your new eyes is that you will not be able to move them physically." 'But they do in fact move. When I open my eyes they will roll forward and when I close them they will roll back.' Nora added mentally. "If they seem to be out of alignment, I can correct that with the laser." he said holding up the small device that Nora had given him. 'And the eyes could also be adjusted to respond to any range on the spectrum.' Nora thought. "You will not be able to wear contacts. The entire surface of the eye needs to be exposed for it to work properly. 'Oh well.' Nora thought. "You getting this?" the doctor asked impatiently. "Yes, doctor." Nora said. "I am now going to place this neural inhibitor on your head, when it is turned on you will black out. When you wake up you will be wearing a bandage over your eyes. It must not be removed for another two weeks. This is necessary for your new eyes to fuse to your head." The device was tuned on. Alison was completely kicked out of Nora's head. Alison decided to watch the operation. So she formed an imaginary and invisible body for herself. Alison followed the Nora laden stretcher to one of the operating rooms. Nora was then moved to the table, a cloth was placed over her head to protect it from blood and other liquids. A metal device was then positioned inside Nora's left eye socket in order to hold the lids open. The doctor then used a small suction cup to remove the crude prosthesis (a white marble like sphere). Then the muscles that had controlled the old eye were carefully removed. Next a drill was used to bore holes in Nora's socket for the new eye to graft to. A nurse carefully removed the new left eye from its canister. Some of the gel in the canister clung to the eye's supports. This is necessary so that when Nora opens and closes her eyes that the movement would not disturb any of the surrounding tissues. There were also tubes and a short metal spike sticking out the back of the eye. The doctor carefully suspended the eye just outside of the socket. Next the doctor pulled the crudely sealed blood vessels out to meet the eye and fastened them to the small tubes. Then the doctor lowered the eye into the socket. To cause the eye to connect to the brain, the doctor fired the laser at it. Within moments the short metal spike liquefied and extended itself back along the course of Nora's optic nerve. The eye blinked red three times and then returned to black to indicate it's functionality. "Remarkable." the doctor murmured. The doctor repeated the operation on the right eye. Back in the ward Nora's neural suppressor was removed she did nothing. There wasn't the slightest hint of life. The nurse started to get worried."Come on Nora wake up." she said in an urgent tone. Alison was about to join in the pleading too when she realized 'I'm Nora!" "Is it over?" Nora said in a hoarse voice. "Yes dear, You now have a new pair of eyes. Nora sat back an smiled. Her eyes felt fine. Her throat hurt like a son of a bitch (hospital air). Two weeks later the infirmary was crowded around to see the first person ever recorded to have lost her eyes yet was able to regain her sight. The doctor said:"Nora's new eyes, because they were built artificially, have a much different appearance than what you might expect." The audience's attention was strictly on Nora who had already removed the outer bandage and was carefully peeling the patches away from her eyes. The doctor gave up on trying to warn the cloud and left. Nora was well aware that there were twenty people breathing down her collar but she seemed oblivious. She opened her eyes, they worked quite well, they would need some alignment but that was expected. "What are all you people doing here?" Nora asked with a beaming grin on her face. The crowd which had come to cheer fell silent. "Um Nora, I think you should take a look in a mirror." one of the spectators said. "Yes I know what I look like. They are ebony black." Nora said. "Well at least she can see." another said. They gave a half hearten cheer and left. Nora then asked one of the nurses to preform the alignment. It took only a few seconds and then Nora was on her way. In her quarters she took a good hard look at her eyes. They did indeed move, not physically though but electronically. they would focus themselves on whatever object the viewer was focusing. The reflection of her face was haunting. Her eye sockets appeared void. Only from the side could she detect the curve of their circumference. She wasn't ugly, but it sure would take some getting used to. "Commander Perkins? I would like to take you up on that offer of a tour." "Certainly." I am far too lazy to transcribe an entire space station into this crummy text. If you want to know what a space station looks like, read a good space book. (The Two Faces of Tomorrow would be ideal.) If you want a space station tour, add it yourself, heck add anything you want. This entire story was specifically designed to be tacked on to. There are at least a dozen other plots only suggested by this story that may be useful to expand upon. Also it's structure should be flexible enough to be used by another author for some other purpose. Perhaps even a good decent movie could come of this. But there is one condition. You must never adulterate any of the characters or the characters of the characters or the story itself. (No, Nora and Perkins never did it.) "You seem to know a lot about space stations." Perkins commented. "Thank you." Nora said. "I have been thinking about applying for a job in design and engineering, I want to build space ships." Nora said. "Design is a fairly weak profession at the moment. There hasn't been a radical new design built for a long time. Now that I think of it I should be able to pull a few strings and maybe even get you your own team. If you feel up to it, that is?" "Absolutely." The Center for Design was an ancient but well maintained 21st century building. Nora, having a promise to the real Nora to fulfill, sought to be one of the best designers in recent history. Two years later Nora was haply married to Jake Stevens and quick with her first child (Alison's too.) Nora was reading about the station's doctor who had just won the Nobel Prize for his outstanding work in optics. The doorbell rang. Jake went to answer. He came back "There is a ROBOT here to see you, Nora." "a robot?" Yes a robot was following Jake into the room. Jake left trusting that he would get a full report later. "Hello Nora, I came by to ask you a few questions." "You? What questions would a robot have of a human?" "I mean the central computer." "If the Central Computer had some questions for me why would you come instead?" Nora asked. "The Central Computer, as you know is a facility under the arctic. It is not capable of traveling." The robot reminded. "So, what difference would that make if I was it I would come in person." The robot's steel face looked perplexed. "How?" Nora appeared across the room this time with normal eyes and a trim stomach. The robot addressed the pregnant Nora "How did you do that." The second Nora disappeared and the first one returned to life. "It really shouldn't be that difficult, all you have to do is give it a try." (Not difficult to a mutant that is, I really hope you weren't just trying that yourself) The robot concentrated for a moment. After a moment a figure began to appear in the center of the room. The shape slowly defined itself. It looked like a textbook female wearing the most common fashion. Yet the apparition had a ghostly quality about it. "Very good." Nora said "But you are going to have to change the eyes to something else. I am the only person that I know that has black eyes." The apparition's eyes changed. "That's better. Robot, leave us." The apparition looked startled. In a distorted voice it said "Why are you sending the robot away?" "I wouldn't be able to teach you how to use your body if you were able to use the robot." Nora explained. "Can you see?" The apparition nodded. "I trust that you can hear me." The apparition nodded again in confirmation. "Please go into the kitchen and fetch a root beer, please" The apparition walked silently towards the kitchen. Nora closed her eyes and watched over The Computer's shoulder. Its hand passed through the handle on the fridge. It tried again and to Alison's surprise the apparition managed to do it. This time its steps made noise as it walked towards the den. Jake entered "Who is she?" he asked. "She's an old friend of mine, The Central computer." "What, run that by me again." Jake said. "Computer, explain." Nora prodded. In a somewhat more controlled voice than before it said "Yes, I am the Central computer. I am not sure I can explain exactly how I got here but I am who I say I am." "You are going to have to do better than that." Nora and Jake said simultaneously. "Can you please help me, The more I study the planet, the more I become confused. Like why do people seem so unwilling to obey rules?" "Sorry we can't help you there Nora and Jake said." as they rushed the Computer to the door. At the door they both turned to the computer and said pointing to the horizon, "There, out there you will find your answers now get moving, time's a wasting!" The door slammed. "Do you think she'll make it?" Jake said. "I hope so." Nora said. Several years later, after Nora had her second child. Jake took the whole family went to visit Hawaii. Jake was watching his young son play in the water. Nora was sitting under a tree nursing her infant daughter. She was also reading about how a famous doctor was striped of his Nobel prize when he failed to reproduce the eyes that he had installed in Nora's head. a tanned Polynesian woman that Nora had never seen before. Sat her bikini clad self down right next to Nora. "Hello Nora." the Polynesian said. "Hello Computer." Nora said. "Please call me Mimi." "Alright. So what Have you learned?" "I really like that restraint down the street." "Is this some sort of 'You wouldn't tell me so I won't tell you' sort of thing" Nora asked. "Probably" Mimi said. "Can you help me spread my lotion, I don't want to get burned." "I'm busy at the moment, can't you see. You don't need it anyway." Nora griped. "So?" "So? what are you doing in these parts anyway?" "Chilling with the locals, I am the least conspicuous tourist ever to walk these isles." Nora thought a moment "Probably." "Did you know we are not far from the rainiest spot in the world here?" "Yes, about two hundred twelve inches annually. Lets go visit it." Nora suggested. "Good idea, I'll send for a hover car." Mimi agreed. "No I meant we should pick ourselves up off the ground and FLY there. We can also visit the Kek observatory on Maui. Can you have one of your robots handle my daughter until we get back?" "No problem." Nora buttoned her shirt and they both slid into the sky. "Remember I am the only human who can do this. Please don't go around inviting people to fly with you." Nora said. Jake came up from the beach and asked the robot "Where is Nora?" "Nora is with currently with Mimi, she will return shortly." Jake turned around to look for where they might be and Nora and Mimi were right behind him. "How did you get here?" Jake asked. "We flew in." Mimi said. "What else is new?" Jake wondered. Many years passed. Nora had three more children (two boys and a girl.) Nora aspired to learn as many skills as she could (self improvement.) Nora was shocked when she learned that two of her sons and one of her daughters were telepathic. (if you want to know the circumstances of this, please write it yourself.) Nora is at her drafting table working on her latest starship, a Destroyer Class vessel. Roll camera! Action! a human messenger, a member of the Space Corps, arrived bearing a message marked 'To be read by Nora Stevens only' Nora Stevens, You have been reassigned as the Expert advisor in ship Design. You are instructed to attend the briefing at 0900 in location 6-a. Nora destroyed the document. "Thank you" The soldier gave a stiff salute and left. Nora at a loss to what expect attended the briefing anyway. An admiral was at the podium. (It would be helpful to picture the briefing in the Hunt for the Red October at this time.) "Greetings. You have been called here to advise us on what action should be taken in dealing with the recently discovered unidentified vessel on Cres. 1/32nd of a second later Alison barked departure orders to her ship. No response. Alison kept Nora in an upright position while she went to find out what had happened to her ship. Her ship had died of neglect. The admiral was now displaying several Hi-res radar images on the screen. "The ship as you can see is badly damaged from meteor impacts suggesting that it has been there for some time. (79 years to be exact.) It measures one hundred and sixty feet in length. When it's port nicel was still intact it had a beam of one hundred ten. The ship is of unknown design. I want you to go to investigate. I want to know where it came from, who made it, why is it there, and what should we do with it. Your shuttle will leave at noon. That will be all." This is Nora's worst nightmare (even worse than the station incident which she handled in stride). She had lost her ace in the hole. That evening, on the ship bound for cress. "Why are you so down Nora. This is the most exciting thing to have happened in the solar system since Shoemaker-Levy and all you do is sit and mope." said a truly young woman who was probably an astrophysicist or some such. Nora who still could pass for twenty eight looked at the woman with her blank eyes. "Kid when you get to be my age there isn't much that can turn you on anymore." Nora lied. "You should have your adrenal glands replaced then." (adrenal glands do wear out over time and yes Nora did have them replaced by a highly skilled surgeon, the central computer itself.) Nora shrugged and returned to staring out the window. Another young upshot came to the table and suggested "Hey, since there is only .0303-Gs on Cres we should be able to tow the ship to the space station so we can take it apart and find out its inner workings. Nora had to struggle to prevent herself from breaking down and crying. "You don't seem that old." the astrophysist said. She was referring to the fact that as a person gets older they, at around the age of 100 begin to loose their faculties and by 150 they just croak. Since Alison was providing all the mental horsepower Nora needed, Nora doesn't exhibit any such symptoms. The astrophysist beamed "What I think we have here is an unlisted launch vehicle. You know, Back in the two k's all sorts of rich people were building their own spaceships. Some of them were never heard from after leaving earth orbit. This could be a ULF." (unlisted flight) "Why thank you." Nora said sincerely. "Please excuse me, I would like to spend some time alone." Nora said. Nora went back to her quarters. "Nora, get a grip on yourself." she said to the empty room. "Now you know that you are about to be run over by a train, its time to try to stop it. What is going to happen?" she asked herself. "They are going to board the ship, discover the technology that created the mutants, and destroy the ship and Alison to protect themselves from the technology. Perhaps Alison could move the ship into hyperspace and escape. No, Alison is using all her hyper spatial powers to keep track of Nora. What else? They could mistake Alison for the computer core of the ship and try to connect with it (depending on the link used). That would force Alison to become a subordinate part of their equipment, possibly to be rescued by the Central Computer if it ever catches on." Unless Nora was in the room at the time. In that case Nora would have to reveal her self as being Alison, that would be acceptable. Or If Nora could convince them that the entire ship is a relic (a museum piece) they may settle for just chopping the ship up into little pieces and sending them to different museums around the world. "Better." Just possibly Nora could convince them to keep the ship as a museum, intact. Alison didn't think highly of having her quarters put on display like that but it is her best option at the moment. (If she had taken care of her ship when it was still functional she wouldn't be in this happy position.) "Sigh." Nora went to bed. Alison's spirit inspected her ship. she disintegrated all incriminating articles in her 'Sick Bay' She then went to the engineering section and turned off all the systems (none of which were functional anyway) She then set the fuel cells on re-generation mode (they would turn energy into hy-DRO-gen fuel) and activated the matter collector. Alison's ship needs two things: Fuel (for the fusion reactor and the emergency fuel cells which are used to start the reactor.) and Matter (which is used by the replicator systems for repair and consumables.) It would also need a jump start. Several days later the ship Nora was on arrived at Cres. The Asteroid appeared about the size of the average planet in a Star Trek the Next Generation episode. (The creators of Star Trek make their planets appear too small and their ships too big.) The telescopes on the ship made a detailed survey of the crash site? Nora and a group of other scientists were looking at the holo table. "I don't think this was a crash, rather a controlled landing. Look here there is no evidence that there was either a skidding landing or a direct impact. If it was a skidding impact it is likely that the ship would have just skipped off the surface. and if it was a collision there would be a crater." one of the scientists noted. "We should land here so we can investigate the ship." another scientist sujested pointing to a crater near the ship. Nora said nothing throughout these proceedings. By morning the next day Nora's ship had landed on Cres. Nora and her fellow scientists were gathered in the airlock of Nora's ship. a crewmates was giving a lecture about what to do if your pressure suit ran out of oxygen, some maniac decided to rip a hole in it with a Knife, and other such probable difficulties. The leader of the expedition, Captain Keen, gave the word and the suits were sealed and the airlock opened. The troop hiked out onto the planet's surface. In it's quite pathetic gravity they were able to take ten foot steps but for safety's sake they limited their speed to a normal walk. Over the rim of the crater they saw The huge shark like ship. It was resting on an ancient type landing gear suggesting that it usually used a runway for take off and landing. It did look like a a-7 Corsair (you know that jet with the big scoop in front that acted like a food processor when it came in close contact with officers of the Ensign rank.) Its mouth was the matter collector it measured twenty feet Across. Above the mouth could be seen a room in the ship that looked like the captain's quarters. Above the wide nose of the battered ship looked like a series of windows that may have been an observation deck. These windows having been exposed to space were scoured to the point of being opaque. "That proves it." a team member said "The ship had a controlled landing, the gear proves it. yet the landing still could have been caused by some other malfunction." "We will hike around the ship then return to the Newton." The captain said. Closer to the ship they saw how badly it was damaged the almost constant rain of meteorites had left the skin of the great ship pock marked. "Lets take a look at the port nicel, I want to know whether that damage was done in space or by a meteorite here." the captain ordered. When the troop approached the wing it became clear that it had happened while the ship was here, there was a crater exactly under where the fin was severed. "Hey this looks like some type of warp propulsion system. Nora, come take a look at this. It looks vaguely like one of your designs." "Hmm it does, I wonder who built it?" "Lets see what else we can find." at the aft side of the vessel there was a huge impulse engine. "I bet that thing could move this entire moon." one of the engineers mused. The engine he was looking at was just as big as the intake in the front of the ship but more elliptical. Nora decided that she should contribute something lest she look insincere. "Look at the tail section. It appears to have a rudder. that means that it was designed for re-entry." On the starboard side of the ship, under the intact starboard wing were several fueling ports. They were labeled in English. "This must be a human ship!" an excited archeologist exclaimed. He was reading a label that indicated that the ship should be charged with 15,000 volts. The ship was obviously designed to be serviced on the port side. There was a large docking clamp halfway from the bow, the hatch to an airlock that was twelve feet high and fifteen feet across. there was a normal sized door forward of the larger, it also was equipped with a docking clamp. To reach these doors a ladder (such as the one you would find at an airport) would be necessary. Along both sides of the ship there were portholes indicating passenger compartments. "Look at the front of this wing" said a member of the group. "Nora, What do you make of that round door on the front of the wing." It was just big enough for a person to wiggle through. and was close to the fuscilage. "I don't know, a plasma vent maybe?" Nora lied. It is a torpedo launcher. Lets say you were 50,000 miles away from that space station described earlier and you wanted to take it out. You could a. Fire at it all day with your particle cannon Or B. Torp it, once. "Lets take a look around inside." the Captain sujested. "I don't think that is a good idea, I don't want to de-pressurize the interior." Nora said. "Yeah. Do you think she is strong enough to be moved?" "It looks generally sound, but I can't give any guarantees." "Lets do it." The next day the Newton was back in orbit. "Ready tractor beam!" The captain ordered. "Tractor beam on-line." answered the helmsman. "Engage!" ordered the captain. The ship lurched as the tractor beam took hold. "Viewer astern." "Aye, sir." a distortion wave could be seen stretching from the middle of the view screen to a tiny object on the planet below. Meanwhile the engines on the Newton began to roar as more and more thrust was added. Gradually the tiny object began to grow. "Orbital velocity achieved." the helmsman announced. "Cut engines." The captain ordered. The ship was held in a posture that compensated for its lost wing. "Lay in a course for Earth and engage when ready." "Aye." The Newton is a small pre-Nora craft designed for interplanetary use. Nora's ships however are true star-ships. That means that they operated only in space. To land someone on a plannet they would use a shuttlecraft or transporter. The first was built twenty five years after Nora's appointment to the Center for Design. Such a long interval was required because Nora's designs were so radical that an entire space dock facility had to be constructed to build them. This facility will be Alison's new home. At what point did this become a decent socially acceptable Si-Fi adventure? Because the Captain wanted to minimize the stress placed on the ancient ship the return trip took three weeks. The Hermes had to be moved out of the space dock early so Alison's ship could be scrutinized. Nora waited as robots connected the power and a pressurized service tube to the to the ship. 3,000 amps surged through the dormant systems. Through the battered canopy lights could be seen coming on, the ship's computer awoke within ten seconds. Alison checked status. Mostly everything is still functional, The ship would be okay if it had enough time to re-charge. "Nora, You coming?" a man in a security uniform asked. "Yes." The door to the ship was very simple. It was plain except for a small round pock-marked window at about eye level. There was a lever next to the door. To protect the boarding party from the expected 170 below temperatures on board the ship they wore heavy parka like jumpsuits. The Captain who was overseeing the entire mission was at the lever. "Ready?" he asked. "Yes sir!" the security squad answered. The door made a loud cracking sound as it pulled away from the ancient seal from there on it made a kind of a grinding noise (probably because the lubricant had frozen) as it rose into the wall of the ship. The party was blasted by a draft of freezing air. They preceded into the ship. Inside there was a passage (like the one on the Discovery in 2001, and 2010) and another door. This door opened more smoothly than the outer door. The corridor was well lit by florescent strips near the top of the passage. "Gravity! I thought that was a recent development." "Wow! look at these supports. The entire structure looks to have been forged out of one ingot of alloy. I haven't seen technology that could create such as this before." an excited engineer exclaimed. The party seemed to be in some sort of service area. There were what appeared to be environmental suits along the wall. There was a plaque on the opposite wall. The captain read aloud "Cargo, sickbay, transporter, galley, and engineering (arrow pointing aft) captain's and crew quarters (arrow pointing forwards) Passenger's lounge, cabins, and bridge (arrow indicating a nearby circular stairway. Lets see the bridge." The upper deck was dominated by a large, luxurious passenger's lounge the large windows were so scored as to be opaque. "Aft?" the captain asked. The main passage way on this deck passed between two rows of five cabins at the end of the passage way was a hatch. "Bridge, Authorized Personnel Only." "Oh well." the captain shrugged. The Bridge was a room that looked much like the stellar cartography room in Star Trek Generations. Or at least it used to. The walls were an radiant blue. One of the engineers concluded "The walls probably used to show the space surrounding the ship. Look at the red outlines on the walls. They seem to trace the outlines of the interior of the space dock. It must have been a joy to navigate this thing. "Nora, build me one of these." The captain said lustfully. The room was dominated by a large wooden wheel. Next to the wheel was a brass sextant mounted on a steel pillar and what looked to be an ancient radar screen. a lever sticking up from the floor seemed to control attitude while an ancient throttle controlled speed. To the left and to the rear there was a navigator's table above it were several metal tubes filed with charts to the right there was a chair surrounded by many antique brass dials. There were several control panels littered with indicator lights, knobs, and switches. "This can't be the real bridge!" the Captain complained "Where are the computers? Lets go to engineering." On the way he muttered "What kind of ship is this! even the Mercury pods had a computer!" The centerpiece of the engineering room was the giant fusion reactor and impulse drive systems. Both had been dressed down to look like 19th century boilers. The walls were lined with instruments of the same vintage. "Good grief." the exasperated captain said. "To sickbay he ordered." As the troop marched up the passage way between the four cargo bays on their left was a strange room marked "Transporter." inside as a console in keeping with the design of the rest of the ship. "Lets see how this works." the captain ordered. An engineer stepped forward to the controls. He pressed a button that looked like it would activate the console, It did. a holographic image appeared above what looked like an old style radar screen. The image showed a computer generated immage of a space station in blue and the outlines of what looked like people in red. The engineer selected one of these people. He then set one of the dials to receive and pressed energize. There seemed to be some sort of spacial distortion above one of the pads then suddenly a person materialized. The person looked like he was probably a midshipman in rank and was engaged in a shower at the time. He was flushed with embarrassment. The engineer was flushed too. Several seconds later the midshipman was back on board the spacedock. "Amazing!" the captain said. "Nora, Arrange to have this room dismantled, I want one of these." "It appears to be relatively simple, I think I should be able to re-produce it without having to take my model apart." Nora said, trying to keep as much of her ship intact as possible. "As you wish." the captain said indifferently. The sicbay looked to have been built for another ship. It was state of the art. Few hospitals on earth could have basted of such a fine facility. There was even a computer terminal. "Yes, I've got you now!" the captain exclaimed with glee upon seeing the terminal. Nora knew that the terminal was only good for accessing medical data. Among witch rested the complete technical specifications for the mutants. Alison cut the power to the terminal. "Shit." The captain cursed. "I think it saw me coming and shut itself off. Maybe we can find something of use in the captain's quarters." The captain's quarters were luxuriously appointed with polished hardwood (the polish was cracked because of the extreme cold). It was a model state room. It's wide windows showed a panoramic view of the interior of the space dock. (they had not been damaged because the captain's quarters were on the lower deck of the ship and therefore protected from meteorites.) There was a queen sized bed in the middle with silk sheets, It had apparently not been used or been re-made since it was last used. "Well the life support system on this ship seems to be functional. It feels warmer in here than it did when we first entered. Look! here is the ship's manifest." The captain opened it only to find it empty. "DRAT. Security dismissed!" he ordered realizing that the ship was secure. "What do you think?" "I think it should be named the Astronautulus." The engineer said. "Hmm. I agree." the captain said. Nora liked that so much that Alison ordered her computer to add the name to the ship's markings. "This entire ship seems to have been built strictly as a luxury liner built so that it would feel antique. There is a strong possibility that it could have been built in the future and sent back in time somehow. Look at how sturdily it the construction. The technique used is well beyond our capabilities to match." "So we can't fix her and see how well it preforms?" the captain asked. "Right." "Why would the sickbay break with the general theme of the ship then?" the captain asked. "Probably to make the patient feel better. Would you feel safe receiving treatment from museum piece equipment?" "Yes, I see your point. Search the rest of the ship and report to me at 1800." the captain ordered. The meeting was held in one of the space dock's briefing rooms. "What have you found." "It appears that the ship must have been on its maiden voyage when it was parked on Cres. It is obvious that the heads in the state rooms have never been used." "The captain's quarters?" "Strangely it didn't have a head, probably it was meant to share the crew's head. That one has never been used ether." "Strange, Go on." "The Galley appears to have been designed to produce small delicacies to suit the tastes of the passengers instead of providing for the entire compliment. The stock room, which was empty, was so small that if it was used to provide for the entire ship, I would expect the range of the ship to have been no more than two days. Half of the cargo bay is occupied by some strange metallic mass. It is rectangular in shape. It is dull glossy in texture." Nora cringed as the captain cheerfully declared "Aha the computer! Now we have it!" "I don't think so." Nora pleaded "I think it was used for ballast, you know, to balance out the galley, sickbay, and transporter." "Yeah I think you are right, Nora." Nora felt much relieved but tried not to show it. "So what do you think we should do with it?" the captain asked. "I think it would make a great space museum. It's design is similar to modern craft yet its machinery is simple enough so that it would be excellent for teaching." "That is a remarkable idea. I am not sure that it is wise to display such a craft to the public. I really can't see any concrete objection to putting a nonfunctional ship to its best use." The captain decided. The meeting broke up. Nora was most relieved. "Nora, I think I've changed my mind about looking into that ballast thing. I find it unlikely that anyone would use anything more sophisticated than a sandbag to weigh something down. There is too much effort involved in constructing a metal cube. I would like your team to look into the matter." "Yes sir." Nora said planning to Fein an investigation and write some bullshit report. I really didn't like writing that last section. Its only purpose was to suitably set the stage for the next scene. Nora was seated at a table in front of an audience of the Space Corps' highest ranking officers. Admiral Smith was introducing Nora in the most flattering terms. Nora was giving a shy grin. It is Nora's turn. "The class one heavy cruiser, also known as the Constitution Class Starship. It is the most advanced ship to date. Its new secondary hull provides room for additional cargo and shuttle bays and machine shops. By removing these services from the primary hull We have increased the range, and services offered by the ship. It is also the fastest design yet with a maximum cruising speed of warp 6 and a maximum speed of 9. It's engines are able to generate a field of warp 15. Unfortunately materials and construction techniques are not able to withstand these speeds. It is also equipped with the latest weaponry. It carries two banks of Photon Torpedoes. The most powerful offensive weapon yet. So without further ado I present.." Something was wrong Nora's hand seemed week, Nora could barely move it. Alison lifted it for her. The curtain covering the model fell to the floor. All eyes were turned to see the great design. Nora's didn't see at all. "The Constellation!" Nora said then collapsed to the floor. The applauding stopped. The Admiral smith rushed to Nora's side. She was unconscious. Her breathing was shallow and rapid and her pulse weak. One of Nora's team members said "I think she had this last year, she just suddenly went comatose. We took her to the hospital they didn't have a clue. Lo and behold a week later she just got up and was just fine." The admiral looked at Nora again "She's dead. How old was she?" The team member sat back and thought "I've known her for forty years. I know she joined the Corps about ninety years ago, then she was sixty three. Man she's old. She never got senile though she was as sharp as a tack up until today." The admiral looked somewhat surprised. "Yes it was her time the admiral agreed." "Why is the landing gear down?" Sam asked. "We haven't found the controls that work them." the tour guide answered. Below the ship machinery started running and the landing gear climbed into it's niches. "Why are the windows painted over?" Martha asked. "They are so badly damaged that you can't see out of them so we painted star scenes on them to make them look more like they should. Are there any more questions?... Mrs. Hill will lead you down stairs. I would like Mrs. Hill's class to wait in the airlock and Mrs. Jones's class to wait in the lower hall." The Astronautulus had been moved to an airlock on one of the older space stations. Because the space station is very old and a zero-G facility the headcount will be done within the ship's own airlock and hall. Mrs. Hill had just finished counting her class of twenty seventh graders. just as she was about to step onto the space station the airlock door slammed shut directly in front of her face. Just a word about airlock. They open slow (so you have that extra second to think it over.) but when you are in a rush, they close fast. Mrs. Hill nearly had a heart attack. Mrs. Jones rushed into the room to see what was going on. Just then was heard the muffled sound of electrical equipment shorting out. The electromagnetic seal that was holding the ship to the station had failed. The two teachers and most of their respective students rushed to the captain's quarters to try to find out what was going on. The ship appeared to be out of control. The stars seemed to whirl about the ship. Suddenly the ship stopped. The stars seemed to explode outward. The ship had gone tachyon. Aside from being a general cool buzz word Tachyon is the Geek word for swift (fleet of foot). Physicists use it to refer to a theoretical particle that moves faster than light. Hence to go tachyon means to cross the light barrier. If you want to visualize this, My favorite 'Warp sequence' if you will is the one in Star Wars. (yeah that one.) Mrs. Jones and Hill went up the stairs to tell the tour guide what was happening. The tour guide was sipping a cup of coffee, watching the news (downloaded earlier) on a video pad. The teachers sat down. "Is somebody missing?" The teachers looked at each other and said "No but the space station is." "Hugh? run that by me again." Mrs. Hill said "I was just about to lead my class off of the ship when the airlock slammed shut in my face." "Let me go see." Meanwhile, in the cargo bay, Alison was growing a new body appendage. The airlock's outer door refused to open. "It's probably nothing Maintenance should take care of it soon." "You don't seem to understand. Look out the captain's windows." As the trio began to walk out of the airlock they were confronted by the captain. Since this is her birthday (of this incarnation of Alison) she was wearing her birthday suit. How appropriate! She was walking confidently down the corridor to her quarters that was now filled with series. I must make it clear from right here that Alison was not the sex machine that she was when the real Nora had the misfortune of running into her. Yes she was strong, it was part of the body's design. It is just that she didn't care to have enlarged breasts at the moment. She did indeed have breasts though, only half as big as they used to be. Why? Because she is planning on attending a funeral and she really had changed, you dolt! Alison ignored the stares of the ogling series and went straight to the wardrobe (closet, dunno why I picked that other word). The closet was stocked with several antique black uniforms for show purposes. fortunately they were a woman's fit. Unfortunately Alison's limbs were far more muscular than the designer had in mind. Yet the seams did hold together. Alison also grabbed the cap. Her body, newly formed, had not had enough time to grow any hair. Alison left the room and went straight to the bridge. She sat down in the engineer's chair and started inspecting the dials. The other adults on the ship positioned themselves around Alison's chair like an angry tribunal. "Who are you." "The captain." Saying this reminded Alison that she had deities. She then reached over to the microphone and said in a strong male voice. "All hear this! All hear this! You are not to touch any of the controls in engineering or on the bridge unless instructed to do so. You are not permitted to enter the sickbay. You are to stay away from the airlock. Violates will be spaced! Mrs. Hill's class will have the first sleep shift beginning immediately. That will be all." Don't let me lead you astray here. Alison has four sets of vocal chords. a base, tenor, alto, and a soprano. Her favorite is her alto which is smooth and pleasant "Sleep shift?! How long do you intend to be underway?" "IFF all goes well we should return to Space Corps within two and a half days, I have a funeral to attend." That spelling of IFF was intentional, It means 'If and only if'. "Whose?" "a woman named Nora Stevens." "The shipbuilder?" the tour guide asked. Alison gave an affirmative. "She's supposed to be unveiling her latest design today. What do you mean she's dead!" "She is one hundred and fifty years old ma'am. " "So why are you taking us to the other side of the galaxy if you want to attend a funeral on earth? To attend a funeral I need a dress. To get a dress I need a replicator. To get a replicator I need matter. The best place to get matter is a nebula. I really want to fix my ship too. By the way, has your class studied stellar composition yet?" "No I am not going to let you take this ship into some star with my class." "I am only planning on doing a red dwarf besides, I really need the energy." "I'll say you do. Have you looked at your reactor lately?" "No, and I don't care." Alison's reactor had been cut away and painted to illustrate how a fusion reactor works. The tribunal declared a recess. "We are in hyperspace trying to protect a rusty old derelict space cruise ship with our classes on board. And a captain who I think is a little over the edge." "She looks strange. Didn't you notice her eyes." "Pure purple." (the irises) "We need to take stock of our situation. Mrs. Hill go see to assigning your classes to quarters. Mrs. Jones try to keep your class calm. I'll go and ask our 'captain' if she thought to bring any water and food." "Water? shoot!" Alison said as she looked over at some other gages. "Looks like we're in luck, we have twenty gallons. It should provide, granted nobody decides to take a shower or anything. Food will be available after main power is restored." "How do you intend to restore main power?" the tour guide asked out of curiosity. "Once the ship has collected enough matter I plan to tap the star's fusion energy to make repairs. I should be done by tomorrow morning." "Is it safe?" "It is as safe as anything else you try to do in space. We won't be penetrating the star for another six hours. Why don't you go to my quarters and enjoy the view." The ship seemed to be ripping a gash in the fabric of the nebula. The ship was traveling at roughly five hundred thousand miles an hour through the dense hydrogen gasses. If Alison hadn't been funneling the gas away from the ship's prone hull it would surely have been vaporized. It really was a job for the navigational deflector but that wasn't operational yet. "What did she say?" Mrs. Jones asked. "She seems to be confident that the ship will withstand the forces inside a star. She claims that it is necessary for the replicators. Even the latest starships can't withstand those forces!" "Condition yellow. All passengers return to quarters. Lock down all sections. Prepare for entry. No admittance to the bridge." Alison is looking at a holographic image of the ship floating above the 'radar screen'. The ship is a green wire frame. Damaged sections are marked in red. Most of the top of the ship is red, as well as the missing wing and the fusion core. Without main power Alison will have to shield the ship and navigate with her telekinesis. Any weaknesses in her telekinetic shield would show as orange on the hologram. She set the fusion core as top priority for repairs. She is planning to funnel the plasma from the star into the matter collector. The energy from the plasma would be used with the matter already collected from the nebula to repair the ship. If she is disturbed she may loose her concentration, and if that happens before main power is restored... The best place to get plasma from a star is on it's surface. No a star doesn't have a surface laterally but metaphorically it does. The corona is like it's atmosphere, its chromosphere (where the light comes from) is like its crust, it's convective zone is like its mantle. and its radiative zone is like its outer core, a solid mass, and then the kore it is just its kore. Since a star is really very dense Alison will move very slowly through it. Only 25,000 miles an hour. The needle on the gage measuring available energy is well into the red. In the middle of the yellow is a line indicating the amount of charge needed for the replicator. Off in the green is a another line indicating the reactor start level. I've never seen a star up close, if any astronaut is crazy enough to try this type of stunt, I would hope that he (or she) would re-write this. The 'crew' as they apparently fancied themselves watched the event from the captain's quarters. Alison was taking the ship straight down through asses. The sight was actually very spectacular. Since the glass was shielding the crew from the blinding light there was an incredible view of the inside of the star. The tour guide decided to do her job and narrate "The bright layer that we are now passing through is where the heat of the star is converted into light. We are now riding the currents of the star's convective zone. For the next two hours the ship made its way to the radiative zone. The energy gage was slowly climbing up the dial. The replicator came on-line. a status indicator for the fusion core appeared. It would take only three minutes to repair. The ship had settled onto the surface of the radiative zone. Normally it takes millennia for energy to reach this point from the core. When the reactor was repaired Alison began sucking the energy in so she could start the reactor and wouldn't have to keep holding all this heat away from the damaged sections of the hull. This is really the best place to get energy to start a fusion reactor, especially if you are in a rush, have to get to a funeral, pay your taxes. You know. The reactor came online. The ship would now be able to take care of itself. The replicator began to work on the rest of the ship. Alison ordered the computer to take the ship back out into space. All around Alison the paint on the bridge's walls seemed to vaporize as though burned by a fire from the other side. Alison is now standing inside what appears to be a bubble suspended within the star's boiling gasses. It is still the bridge and the ship is unharmed. Alison paged her quarters. "The observation deck is now open for viewing and meal service. We will be leaving the star in about one hundred minutes." Next Alison turned her attention to her uniform. The replicator adjusted its fit. "Thank you computer." On the observation deck a troupe of hungry students were seated at the booths around the edge of the room. Alison went to a storage locker and brought out a stack of digital menus ad distributed them to the students. "Select what you want on the menu by pressing the appropriate button. It will then appear on your table. Alison went to another closet, pulled out a gold disk slapped it onto The turn table, gave it a push to set it spinning, and carefully dropped the stylus into the groove (man). She then lowered the volume by holding her hand out and moving it towards the floor. Alison sat at the table with the teachers. "Well?" "How old are you anyway?" Said Mrs. Hill trying to make a cut about Alison's appearent maturity. And out of curiosity on account of the music. (Clasic Rock) "About 500, I think. I've lost count" "Let me see your teeth." Alison displayed a perfectly aligned set of flawless teeth. "You can't be over sixty then!" "No, I grow a new set of teeth every thirty years." "I thought replicators were only used for clones and complicated equipment." Mrs. Jones commented. "I'm a snob Alison confessed." "The greatest mystery of this ship is its computer. We haven't been able to locate it." "It's well hidden." Alison said with a grin." She then took her hat off to scratch her scalp. "I hate growing hair." she said. "Where is the computer, 'captain'." "Oh that, Let me show you." Alison got up and the teachers followed She walked down the corridor towards the bridge then stopped, turned, and pointed towards one of the solid structural members of the ship. "Here it Is!" "That's a rib! Not a computer." "No, to save space and improve the aesthetics the computer was integrated with the structure. If I were to peel the surface away You would see the carbon optical crystals." "Amaz..." BOOM!!! the ship rocked under the force of some unknown explosion. Alison sprinted to the bridge. The hologram was displaying a red gouge down the left flank of the ship. Fortunately there was no pressure loss. The gouge could only mean one thing. The Astronautulus was under attack! "Red Alert. Battle stations. Secure all hatches." The ship's alarm began to sound, red lamps began to flash. The shields went up. Alison searched the dome. In red brackets a small point could be seen in the distance. As is the usual custom when someone dies in this day and age Jake Was in an examination room at the funeral home. The undertaker was discussing the procedure for cloning Nora. "Yes we can re make Nora's body, no problem, But there are two catches first It won't be Nora. Second, law requires us to implant a device that will kill her at the end of one year." "I've never had a relative cloned before, what do you mean that it won't be Nora?" "First we can only copy about eighty percent of a person's brain. second she won't have her natural soul if you will and her brain will be very immature. This means that she just won't be the same person. Most clones are very lethargic and slow to reason. Also Most patients wake up at some random event in their lives. Some wake up thinking that they are on their honey moon. Or after the death of a sibling. I can make no guarantees." a technician entered the room. "Doc, I think you ought to take a look at these scans." "According to this, your wife's lower, motor, and sensory functions appear to be completely normal. This reading here indicates that her cognitive functions haven't been used in decades. Judging from the amount of wear on that region, I say that she was probably in her sixties when it happened." "What are you saying? doc" "I am not sure, I have never seen anything remotely resembling this." "Will you still be able to clone her?" "I have no idea. I have never seen this before." "Pleas get on it anyway." Let me clarify. To ease the loss of a spouse, After the funeral the clone would try to fill the void. After the clone's expected death it would be quietly cremated. "Direct hit, captain." The gunner reported. "Damage to the port hull." The science officer added. Captain April is in a unique position. That was the fist time in recorded history that a Space Corps starship had fired on another manned ship. He is also perplexed. He had once toured the ship after it had first been set up as a museum. How could that wreck equate to this sleek craft that he is now attempting to engage. "Sir we are receiving a message." The comm. officer said. "Put it through." "Stand down or be destroyed!" Alison exaggerated. "An ancient cruise ship against a destroyer." The captain said to himself. to Alison He said. "Lower your shields and prepare to be boarded." "I have a schedule to keep and I am quite over loaded right now." Alison said truthfully. "Cut. Gunner, send her another message." "Direct hit, captain." The Gunner reported. "No damage to enemy vessel." The science officer added. "She must have raised her shields." The force of a torpedo detonating a mile away from the Stargazer. (I am using this Star-Trek The Next Generation name for the sake of simplicity because this destroyer class vastly has the same configuration.) "Fire at will!" The captain ordered. In addition to the torpedo tubes and the particle cannon on the tail Alison's ship also had a pair of laser turrets. These turrets are normally sit flush with the hull in their niches. These weapons aren't very powerful and won't do that much damage per shot. But they can fire a thousand blasts per minute and their impressive tracking ability makes them a most formidable weapons. "Lost contact with target.... Re-acquiring, Its firing.." Boom, There was an electrical small explosion as the upper gun turret (positioned above and behind the bridge) was destroyed. Seconds later the other gun turret was destroyed in the same fashion. "Weapons destroyed, Captain." The gunner said leaning back in his chair with nothing to do. "Signal our surrender!" The captain ordered. "Sir they are moving off." "Send report to Space Corps. Inform them of our situation." "Secure from Red Alert. Situation normal." Alison said. The damage to her hull was already almost repaired. Alison flipped the disk and went Back at the breakfast table The tour guide asked "How did you get through their shields." "Simple, I used multiple confinement streams on my particle cannon, the outermost penetrated their outermost shield, and so on." "How did you know what frequencies to use?" "I built their shields. Also Shield frequency is always a function of shield volume so my choices were fairly narrow." "You built them?!" "Are you trying to attend your own funeral?" said Mrs. Jones with a brilliant flash of insight. "Yep." "So you have been Nora all along." Mrs. Hill said. "Not quite all along. Only since the mutants, about ninety years ago." "What happened to the real Nora?" "She was killed by one of the mutants." There was a moment of silence. Alison suggested "What book are you teaching? Perhaps you can get on with your daily lesson." "Are you kidding?!" "No, I thought It might ease the stress on the students." "Alright, Do you have the Scarlet Letter?" "You know I really don't like that book. but I'll get it for you anyway." Alison walked over to the bookshelves, and randomly pulled a book off of the shelves. Its cover shimmered as the replicator turned it into the Scarlet Letter. "Here." That evening Alison talked the teachers into letting her show the class Lawrence of Arabia (a history lesson). Alison directed the students to seat themselves around the observation deck. "Where's The screen?" The children wondered. "All that's here is a wall with a bunch of storage lockers. "See those terminals around the ceiling there?" Alison asked pointing to one of the ship's ribs. Around the inner side of the rib were a series of ceramic cones with electrodes sticking out the center. "Yes?" "Watch them." The lights dimmed as if on their own. The room was completely dark except for the emergency lights along the passage leading aft and the ghostly glow of the stars outside. The little terminals around the arch of the ceiling and walls began to burn with St. Elmo's fire. Slowly it extended itself to meet the sparks from the adjacent terminals. The children were somewhat nervous knowing that thousands of volts are surging only feet away. "Don't worry about the electricity. It won't hurt you because you aren't grounded. Image generation will take another five minutes." The sparks caused the air between the terminals to become a writhing plasma. The plasma became brighter and brighter. Until it was a white that illuminated the entire room and obscured the objects behind. Quickly it faded to pure black. The film began. Not only was the image razor sharp it appeared to be in 3D. Lawrence of Arabia was never a three-D film and you didn't get the parallax effect that you would get from a normal Holofilm. Apparently the projector was enhancing the film in real time to improve the effect. The sound felt like thunder but was not so loud that it was painful to listen to. Most of it seemed to be coming straight from the screen like a normal movie. Surround effects were provided by the speakers of Alison's stereo scattered throughout the room. About halfway through the four star epic Lisa (one of the more astute students heard a sound like Thump-Whiz... Thump-Whiz... upon looking around to see what the source was she screamed. You know the movie 'The Black Hole' (probably the best Disney movie ever made) That's what she saw. a huge spiraling mass of debris with a fifty mile wide void in the middle. The Astronautulus was torping a black hole!, How stupid! Strange... The torps seemed to enter into some kind of tight orbit around the lethal sphere. (If the torpedoes weren't equipped with warp engines they would have been torn apart by the gravity well) Alison groaned and let her head fall back on the chair. She had been hoping to avoid a mutiny by showing the movie during the night's activities. Sigh. The class, alerted to the threat began to panic. "Calm down, Calm down, Relax and enjoy the show." Alison said in an irritated voice. One of the students said. "We are sitting right on top of a goddamn black hole and you want us to calm down?!" "Yes. There is nothing really to worry about" Alison said. "Nothing to worry about!? are you mad?" Alison switched the projector off "The situation is well in hand. And yes I do believe that I am sane." "Well in hand?! whose, yours or the hole's?!" "Mine, of course." "What the hell are you trying to do?" "I had to take this entire trip in order to refuel my ship. If I had that onboard I wouldn't have anything to worry about anything for another million years." Alison said gesturing over her shoulder with her thumb. "You can say that again, This is madness!" Not really. The torpedo launcher stopped. Alison had used up her anti matter reserves, it would take weeks to replenish. "Alright class, Science time, What am I About to do?" a particularly bright student stood up and said "When you snap your fingers the collective warp fields of the torpedoes will cause the hole to collapse into a parallel universe the hole will then be about ten feet across, You will then put it into your matter storage facility to tap off of. You will also be able to look through its event horizon to see and travel to any part of the space time continuum." "Excelant, A+!" Alison complemented. She then snapped her fingers. The room lit up as the ring of debris around the hole exploded outwards. The three best cinematic visions of this explosion are 1. The explosion of Ra's pyramid in Stargate (three star movie) 2. Explosion of Praxis, Star Trek VI. (three star movie) 3. The fireworks in Coneheads (one star maybe two or just too much) Alison ordered her ship forwards. The hole was scooped up. Alison then moved her ship into warp by her own telekinesis. The antimatter would still take about a week. "What are you?" one of the students asked. "I don't honestly know. But I am sure I'm not bad." Alison said. "Wanna watch the movie?" Alison was disheartened when they all went to their quarters. By the next morning Alison was wearing her funeral clothes. "Astronautulus to command, Request docking instructions." Alison hailed the space sation. Silence. "I really would like to let my PASSENGERS off safely.." Alison emphasized. "Um, Dock six." The speaker said. "Thank-you." Alison snapped the tranciever off. "After we dock the airlock will be open for precisely eight minutes. any persons and articles left aboard will be spaced. Catch my drift?" The docking procedures went smoothly. They didn't attempt any hostile takeovers. That means Alison wouldn't have to destroy the station. She pulled her ship out as soon as possible and sent it off back to it's asteroid. With its new power source it should last indefinitely. Alison appeared in the chapel. Her hat and veil effectively concealed the fact that she had only a little fuzz on top of her head at the moment. There was quite an impressive showing of people in attendance. Most notably was the Central Computer. He was wearing a 'Vote for Bob' button on his suit. Alison sent a telepathic 'Are you sure you want to become president, Bob.' with a chuckle 'I already run the planet, Why not rule it too?' 'Have you heard of the separation of powers? like the executive from the administrative.' 'So?' 'Shouldn't you at least tell them?' 'Alright I'll send out a bulletin to that effect.' 'Do you think its appropriate to campaign at a funeral?' 'No, but she is being cloned.' 'Where?' 'In the funeral home, up the street.' 'How many telepathic people do you know of?' 'Oops. Who have I been talking to?' Alison walked away. The priest arrived. Talked the talk and left. Next Nora's acquaintances got up, and to Alison's surprise they actually had something sincere to say! The next speaker was Chris, the guy who had talked Nora into shape all those years ago. And to Alison's astonishment he was all praise too. Maybe he thought Alison had died in Nora's body? Meanwhile Alison began to pick up a rather in appropriate conversation between her three telepathic children. 'did you see that woman in the back row?! She doesn't have any hair!' 'I think she is on steroids.' Joe added. 'Look at that dress, how old fashioned!' 'I think her eyes are purple too. What a weirdo.' Alison cringed but decided to defer her revenge. After the service Alison had a word with Chris. "Hello Chris." "Hello?" "Well it's me." "Couldn't resist the urge, I see." "Nope." "So what are you gonna do now?" "Nora is being cloned. That should be fun." Chris grinned. "No I mean after that." "I really don't know." "tisk tisk tisk, You know what we do to mutants who don't have anything to do." "Yes, It'll come to me." "I hope so." Afterwards Alison returned to her ship. She encased her body appendage in a casing similar to that surrounding the rest of her body. She wasn't in the mode to be reabsorbed anytime soon. Alison's mind zoomed to the funeral home where Neo-Nora was waiting to be awakened. "Mr. Stevens, I hope you understand that there is only a very slim chance of Nora waking up. Most of the pathways in the unused part of her had degenerated so we couldn't copy them." "I understand doc. Please wake her." "Hi Jake." Nora said. Her natural tan colored eyes had a sparkle to them. "Would you mind handing me my clothes." The Doctor was unprepared for this eventuality. He sent for clothes. "Nora What day is this." "Thursday, Three P.M. Right after my funeral. Why?" The doctor was dumbfounded. Jake looked like he was about to break down and laugh his heart out. He couldn't have planed a better response. That night Jake asked. "Who put you up to saying that?" "Nobody, I thought it best to tell the truth." "I am not gonna ask. So What was death like?" "Never been there. You did a wonderful job making people believe you actually liked me at my funeral today." "I do like you!" Jake defended himself. "You are really my Nora?" "Yes." Nora said. "Great, Lets order Pizza!" Expecting Nora's clone any day, Nora's team left her work area untouched. "What's the word on the design?" Nora asked. "They have decided to do it. They say that they are gonna need all the help they can get." "Why?" "You aren't gonna believe this but that old rust bucket that you got from cress took on one of our destroyers yesterday and won." "Must have been good piloting, Our ships are second to none!" He grinned. Later at lunch the team started talking about Nora's clone. Nora decided to accommodate this by sitting by herself. "It's Nora! It must be. No clone could be like that." "Her eyes are strange. She can't be Nora, She's a clone alright." "So Nora got herself transplanted!" "No She is dead!. She was just too plain old." "I talked to her this morning, that may be a clone through and through, but Nora is inside." "How." "How should I know, maybe It was an act of god for all I know." "How could we find out if it really is Nora and not a really good clone?" "We should watch her the next couple of days. If she slips up then we know it is a clone." "Why not." This debate will last for weeks. That evening Nora was walking home, to enjoy being alive in a 100% natural body again. (except the explosive in her skull set to go off in precisely one year) "I wonder what the future has in store for me." she said to herself. Alison hauled out her new black hole and took a peak. She saw a blue hover car pull up to Nora, Windows tinted black. a bloody maniac with some sort of weapon step out. a severed arm fall onto the pavement... It was too sick to watch. Nora kept walking. a blue hover car pulled up... Whenever you hear anyone use a superlative, like when I said Nora's worst nightmare, didn't I? You should always try for one better. This scene came directly from Dante's Inferno so beware. So not to taint any new names I will use Jeffery Dalhmer as the villain. I am sooo glad that he is dead. The assailant shot Nora in the back with some type of tranquilizer gun. The dosage was enough to drop an elephant. Nora took only five seconds. The psycho dragged Nora's limp body into the hover car. Alison's telepresace appeared behind the assailant's back. The pervert whipped around as if aware of Alison's presence. He held up a some type of charm. Alison was slammed back onto her space ship by some unknown force. Alison was shocked. Never in five hundred years had she ever encountered an effective countermeasure to her presence. Alison Tried again. She appeared on the monster's driveway. The monster said to Nora "Look, your guardian angle has returned." The pervert then began some sort of chant. Alison found herself in The monster's basement, unable to move. The madman pulled a laser down from the ceiling and started cutting. Alison tried to shout but found she couldn't. Dalhmer laughed. This means war. Alison unpacked her body. Dressed in a copy of Nora's favorite Ex-Nazi uniform She armed herself with one of those pistols from Shindler's list, loaded it with Black Rhinos. She was ready for action. The Central Computer was surprised to receive a message directly to it's brain. That was shocking enough but the message was a horror unto itself. Within ten minutes the pervert's house was completely barricaded by a solid wall of robots. Alison appeared. The Central Computer was dressed as the police chief. "I am going in myself, I want you to cover me." The chief nodded and they both approached the house. Alison held up her hand and the solid steel door melted onto the ground. They carefully stepped over the door. Inside were bodies rotting all around in various states of dismemberment and decomposure. Alison once thought she had an iron stomach. She felt like she was about to puke. The Central Computer looked none to well ether. They heard a noise coming from the basement. Dalhmer had been quick Nora had already been mutilated. Her right arm was completely severed. her left at the elbow. and both legs at the knee. The devil was now gleefully using some crude version of the breast enlarger on Nora. "Freeze!" Alison shouted in her base voice. The monster looked up from what he was doing. Alison opened fire. The Police Chief said "Normally I don't let citizens execute justice in such an expedient manner. But in this case I will make an exception." Alison unloaded the rest of the clip into the machine. It died with a satisfying bang. Alison had to order her computer to build a larger regeneration chamber to accommodate Nora's grossly distorted figure. Nora disappeared onto the ship. "What did you do to her?" The Central Computer asked. "I sent her up to the Sickbay on my ship." "Do you think you will be able to save her?" "I don't know Alison said." Alison appeared in sickbay. Nora was the most wretched sight that Alison had ever seen. The computer was already installing bionic limbs on Nora. 'Nora the Bionic Woman' Alison thought to herself. Alison slipped back into Nora. Ouch It hurts!. was all that she could think. The ship's computer had effectively suspended Nora in place so the Terminator like arm could be attached. The best way to picture this setup is like in Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back. Luke was injured by this ice monster. They set him up in a regeneration tube. The artificial arm described is a device that looks much like the terminator's arm. Once the steel skeleton is attached. It will be placed in a regeneration glove to encase the robotics with human flesh. The only thing to distinguish the new limbs from the old will be her feet. the ball and the heel of the foot will be made out of steel instead of skin. She will only have four toes, like a mutant. The liquid began to drain out of the regeneration tube. Nora found that her breasts were too heavy to support. Alison helped her out as the tubes plexiglass walls were lowered into the floor. The regeneration tube was disintegrated. Alison lifted Nora onto the table and attached The real breast enlargement machine. She hoped that by setting it for zero enlargement she could return Nora to Normal. No effect. The machine must have interpreted this size to be normal. She would have to settle for size one. Even size two would have been a reduction! Size one Was disproportionately Big on Nora, but better than before. Just one final scan, just to see if everything is in order. "What the hell." Alison exclaimed as she found the explosive berried in Nora's head. Alison removed it "oh well" she said to herself as the computer removed the device. Alison, having nothing left to do put herself back into storage. Nora was all alone. She felt cold. She was naked. She gingerly stepped off of the bed and onto the floor. She could have sworn that she had heard a noise form engineering. Gosh it was quiet. Nora couldn't distinguish a sound. Have you read or watched DUNE or one of it's sequels. There is a repeating passage that reads like this: "Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And When it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." This is what I intend to do to Nora and Alison, only they unfortunately won't have the benefit of this wisdom. Her numb limbs carefully moved Nora towards the floor. Her feet made a click-squish noise as the steel followed by the plastic encased gel came in contact with the floor. Nora thought of bringing Alison out again. No two of the same person would not help. She needed company. The door hissed open when Nora pressed the button with her translucent hand. The hall was well lit. but quiet. horribly quiet. Nora slowly, carefully stepped into the hall. She walked forward, around the red carpeted circular staircase with the brass handrail. The floor here was carpeted. Nora gingerly stepped forward. Nora fetched another one of the black captain's uniforms out of the closet. It had to expand around Nora's chest to fit correctly. As Nora was carefully pulling her boots on. She heard it again. this time it stopped her cold. It was the monster, she knew it. It had just fled its body, like Alison can flee Nora's body, now it is after Her! That's just silly she thought. a meteor just then was zapped by the ship's shields. Nora yanked her boot on with a start. She hid in the closet. She wished Jake was here. She tried to reach out to him with the transporter. But she just couldn't seem to make it work. This is silly she said to herself. I have no reason to be afraid. With that she walked with determination out of the closet and up to the observation deck. She felt this Erie sensation Down the upper corridor one of the room's lights was on and the door had been left open. She ordered the computer to close all hatches and shut off all the lights in the cabin area. The sound of the door made Nora start even though she had ordered it so. She brought out her Simon and Garfunkel album. She could barely get the disk around the little metal spike in the center of the turntable. With a jerky motion she dropped the needle into the groove. The music began to play softly and gently. Her heart only quickened. she ran to one of the booths and pulled her legs as close to her chest as her chest would allow. From the bridge she could hear a scratching. It grew louder and louder. It was coming down the passage. "Jake!" she cried out. The transporter obeyed this time. "What the hell!" After he appeared in the center of the room. "Nora?" He walked over to Nora was mumbling to herself and rocking slowly back and forth. Her hair stuck out at odd angles from under her polished hat. Jake reached for her hand. "What happened to you Nora?" he said as he saw the fluid encased mechanism. Nora didn't respond. Jake held her close. Jake was too late Alison's soul was destroyed. In time Nora would grow and be able to use Alison's intellect. They would never be the same. I can only hope that Nora would become as good as Alison was. What a sad note to end a story on! It is twice as sad that I don't really have anything more to say on Alison's behalf. Only that It will be a slow and painful recovery for Nora. I wish her the best of luck. This story Is based mainly on the Flight of Dragons. An Animated feature. The good wizard said: "Millicent, (his daughter) Good can't exist with out the contrast of evil. It is the way of the world." How that applies here is like this. Alison at first was neutral She simply had no reason for being a good person until Harold gave her one. The original Nora was in a fairly polarized situation too. She being the good but unwise and Gus being bad but well aware of when to keep his big trap shut wise. As the story progresses Alison is forced to become a real person, one who acts for the better of others. (we should all be like that) Then she begins to encounter Evil, Her first encounter she wins and becomes a better person for it. Then there is a bunch of filler Interesting, but not so important. Then she is faced with the nightmare. For all her abilities and skills she just wasn't able to withstand it. Nobody has that much strength. We aren't gods! Fortunately she still has her body and as the Romans said Per ventium aspira or some such thing, it means Where there is life there is hope. (its a state motto, forgot which state) If life were perfect No one would be forced to go through such a trauma. But this is not a perfect world. Summary of summary: I created a demigod and let be slain by the monster under the bed. Oh yeah! let me re-iterate a little fact that I mentioned earlier but you probably missed, The Human race became extinct in the year 2273. Everybody is now, in 2422 (start of this story), genetically re-engineered. Have a nice Day! The transition from a money based Capitolistic society to a moneyless socialistic society was a peacefull one. In a 5000 word essay due Thursday describe the process.