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*Letters * mean they're stressed. LetTers mean their tone of voice is raised. _Letters _ mean they're accented but not stressed. Members.home.net/dow75stories The Sands of Destiny: (1) Where It Lands, Nobody Knows By Ron Dow75 [email protected] Occasionally, he had a semi-awareness, as the lifepod asked him for instructions. It was suppose to maintain course for the most trafficked parts of the space lanes. Evaluating the chances of rescue, it's next option was to find the nearest registered habitat. The third option was to find the nearest habitable planet. Martet must have altered the priorities, because the lifepod wanted to know where he wanted to land. From his slumber he had memories of the hot and arid Arkhrea, for nearly 25,000 G.R. years, the ruling world of the Pargarsus Parsector, ancestral home of the Hamdar, Clan of Rulers. Yes, that was right. He was to be their chieftain, heir to the Sands of Destiny, and one of the richest in the entire known galaxy. And one already deemed worthy, for, despite his life of privilege, he had been raised to know the deserts intimately. "If you can survive the Waste of Tibball," the old saying went, "you can survive anywhere." Crown Prince Rashard chose. "Take me someplace cool and moist." * * * * * The next time he was aware of anything, it was of voices. Not electronic impulses, or maintenance dreams, but real, humanoid voices. They must've been speaking a non-standard G.R. dialect. It was taking longer than he thought it should to reprogram his new brain to understand it. But at least he had a body again. The reason he couldn't see this time was because his clone's eyes were still closed. He lay there, as the final connections where made to give him full sentience. There was something wrong. The lifepod must have been damaged in the battle. It had not created the perfect clone. He hoped it circuits could repair itself well enough to place him in a better clone. This one was defective. It felt-- "Steffani? Are you okay? I told you not to touch that thing! But do you ever listen?" Who was this girl talking to, he wondered as his eyes opened. (What a strange, ugly costume this spotted girl was wearing.) Pink with white trim shoes and socks, long long (especially from this angle) bare legs, green with blue and yellow plaid pleated skirt, blue, and now unbuttoned, coat, white shirt, and a green scarf coming out from under her buttoned up collar. (Are those brown-orange spots on her face part of the local symbolism?) "Maybe we should get a nurse," a boy he could not see said. (Green! He'd landed in a green land full of trees! And a blue sky! And best of all: White billowing clouds.) "No... I'm fine. ' Just a little shock. Really!" He spoke! Only it wasn't him who had done it. And it didn't sound like His voice! "Gee, Steff! You had us worried for a moment!" Rashard's new eyes suddenly began darting around. Again, it wasn't him directing them to do it! "Where is it?! Where's my treasure?!" "Right where you dropped it." Rashard saw the glittering lifepod on the ground beside the hip of a-- "Technology stinks!!" "Then leave the thing alone, Steff!" "Did I just say that?" Steffani asked, startled. "Whoa, Steff! I told you girls couldn't handle all those sparkles." "No!!" Steff yelled, grabbing for two-foot long rod encrusted with jewels. "I got it first!!" "Only 'cause you knocked me down to get it!!" the boy in painfully plain clothes yelled back, grabbing for her hand. "Leave my lifepod alone!!!" Steff roared in a voice nearly two octaves below her normal one. The surprised boy was pulled from the ground and thrown over the head of Steffani, to land several feet away in the underbrush. "Croft!!" A girl and two boys went to help him, while the rest of the party stood amazed, staring at Steffani. "What just happened?" the original girl asked. "I, I don't know, Diedra," Steff said, holding her treasure close to her. "Something grabbed my arm, and judo-threw me!!" Croft told them. " 'Something'?" Even his friends sounded skeptical. "Oh, right. A magic wand," sneered the short, short haired boy with a large head dressed like all the rest of the males: Dark pants, but with blue jackets and white shirts like the girls, but still were different in many ways, and instead of a scarf, a green and blue striped thing around their necks that seemed useless. "Magic?" Steff asked. And with that, she rose up off her knees. "She's flying!" "She's levitating. And I still don't believe it!" the boy said. When Steffani had her feet under her, she gently landed. "Oh, wow! Steffani!! You DO have a magic wand!" "It's not magic. Let me see that," the group's brain said, walking over to it. "Careful, Collins," Steffani's friend warned. "I just want to see if I can see the scientific explan--" "He just wants to see if it's worth his blackmail-scheming to get it for himself!" Suddenly, the boy was shoved back by an invisible barrier. He tumbled onto the dirt path, next to a stone with footprint and the word 'Raccoon' on it. "I told you. The magic wand now belongs to Steffani." "Me?" Steffani said, looking down at it. (The breasts weren't huge, but definitely pronounced.) She smiled. "Does this mean she gets three wishes?" "It's a wand, stupid! She gets as many wishes as she wants!" "Can you give me a wish, Steffani!!" "Me, too!" "I'm your best friend, Steff!!" "No, you're not! Diedra is! And I'm *hers *!" "Uh, well. I guess." "It's not a wand! It's a sword!" Croft said, having gotten up out of the underbrush. "A sword?" "Don't listen to Croft. He's the original fantasy king." "A magic sword?" Collins said, sitting on a rock beside the footpath, watching the spectacle unfold. "It makes as much sense as a magic wand." "I'm telling you, it's like something out of "Star Wars"! Or "Tenchi" Or..." "See? Fantasy king." "And a troublemaker." "I'm glad he didn't get the magic wand." "Amen!" " 'Don't believe me?!" "No," more than one of the groups said. "Let's bet then. Winner gets to keep the thing!" "Are you nuts!!" "Yeah! Magic or not, that thing's got to be worth a fortune!" "It's covered completely in jewels, for god's sake!" "Steffani, let's see if it really is a-- Where'd she go?" "She's disappeared!" "Magic!" The magic moment was broken by Steffani's scream. * * * * * "Let me go!! I don't want to be a puppet!!" she yelled, hanging onto a tree with all her might. She was kicking her feet against thin air, a good foot off of the ground. Meanwhile something was trying to pry her fingers from the rough bark. The arm holding the rod was wrapped around the trunk. "You can't make me!! Ask anybody: Nobody can make me do anything I don't want to!!...." But she was loosing the fight. Seeing her elbow straighten out, unwrapping from the tree, Steffani did the only thing she could think of. She threw the rod, with all its jewels. 'No!!' she heard in her head. Steffani was dropped. From the ground, she saw a boy maybe a little older than her running after the thing. He looked almost like a ghost: more outline than substance, more transparent in the middle than the edges. And he was naked! Steffani got up, and ran the other way, looking back only to make sure he wasn't following her. 'You fool!! You can not be rid of me that way!" "What?!!" She screamed in fright, stopping to look to see where he was now. She tried to remember the stance she was suppose to've learned in her self-defense classes. "Perfect! Stay scared of me! Come on! We're going back to find my lifepod AND my kahar!' "No! No!! Let go of me!! I told you, you can't make me do anything!! I'm too stubborn! Too pig-headed! Too, too--much of a Big, Fat, Pain!!" she yelled, but turning around and marching back anyway like a clockwork toy. 'Keep telling yourself that,' the voice in her head did not sound sarcastic. Which only infuriated her even more! "I'll find a way to get you!! Some way, some day!! Kill me, and I'll become a ghost, too, and Haunt you!! For *Eternity *!!" Despite having to move against her will, she did still possessed enough determination to make the march awkward and difficult. They were just about to leave the hiking path! She was being taken into the woods!! Stephani froze inside. And out. 'Searing Wind! Just when I thought I had found a way to dominate.' "Dominate?!" Steffani had a sudden flash of a kinkiness that, luckily, had been just stories the girls had passed around. 'My kahar!!' the voice cried. The boy-ghost had collapsed in a clearing beneath a tree. Steffani was now completely out of control of her own body, as it raced over the underbrush to get to the fallen spook. 'No! It was too soon! I have not been integrated into this new body enough to sustain any separation!!' "Steffani!!" "Steffi!!" "Kane!! Where are you!!" "Be careful! You don't know what weirdo's out here!" "Kane's the only weirdo we've seen today!" Steffani was on her knees before the fading ghost boy. (At least he was laying frontside down.) 'If I lose the cohesion, I lose control of my dzhins." Her hands went through the gen that was not there. 'If I lose control of my dzhins, I can never rebuild my body,' his silent voice sounded incredibly marooned and forlorn. 'If I can not rebuild my body, I will fade...' "There you are, Steffani!! You have the whole field trip out looking for your ravaged body!" Diedra told her. "Kane's over there?!" "Yes, Mr. Nestor! She just, uh, lost her. Damn! I can't tell him about a magic wand, can I? They always want proof about that sort of thing." "Come on, Miss Kane! You've had us all worried, and made us late back to classes!" the large bald man with long gray sideburns stepped over the underbrush, towards the student that was giving him the trouble this time. "He's gone. I don't hear him any more." "Who's gone, Steff?" "My, genie." "A magic wand, AND a genie?? Maybe Collins was right." "A naked genie." "Well, if you're going to have a genie...." "I said, we have to leave, Kane," Mr. Nestor said, taking the kneeling girl by her wrist. "Don't think this won't be--" "No!" Steffani cried, breaking her wrist free. "What in the world?!" Mr. Nestor said, seeing the girl lay down beneath the tree. "My thoughts exactly," Steffani's friend said. "You sounded so lost and alone," she whispered as she lay within the outline of her genie-ghost. "I know the feeling. Sometimes I wish I did not have to be. Ever." "How very teenagery," Mr. Nestor said, looking down on her, exasperated. "If that is a word: Yes," Diedra agreed. "I know that wish well." "Come on, Kane! We can no longer afford..." his words failed him. The prostrate girl rose into the air. When her knee was bent but still inches off of the ground, she moved up more straightly. She turned to face them, lowering her legs towards the ground. "Steff!! You DO have a genie!!" Diedra clapped her hands together in delight. She stood with a look of contentment was on her face. "And, I think, he has granted me my wish." * * * * * "She lost her magic wand?!" some of the others asked, trying to keep their startled and disappointed reactions low enough for the adults in the bus not to pay enough attention to them. "It's a sword!" Croft said more loudly. "A space artifact." "Really??!" "Something from outer space?!" "A close encounter of the 2nd kind?!" The boys were now interested in the story. "It's where a genie lives," Diedra explained to the girls who would listen to her. "I should know! I was there when she told me. I AM Steffani Kane's Best friend, after all!" "Oh, come on, Diedra! Who ever heard of a genie in a wand?" "Don't you read? Or see shows about genies and magic beings? They can live Anyplace!" "No, Didi, I have better ways to waste my time than with nonsense like that," the other girl had used Diedra Oscherwitz's hated nickname on purpose (especially annoying because everybody knew her real name was Deana Delyse). * * * * * "It doesn't sound like anything I've read about on the subject," Collins was telling the yeomen the teachers' had assigned to a different group. "It just doesn't fit the parameters established by Roswell. And I'm sure I would have run across an objet d'art like that in my data scans. "Still. When we get back, we shall have to set up a search grid. Whatever that item is, it has to provide valuable information that we can..." "Right, boss. I'll get on the cell phone, and bring in the reserves..." * * * * * Steffani sat in the front of the bus, across from the driver, and in front of Mr. Nestor. She had earned that 'honor', because as soon as they got back, she was headed for detention. And maybe worse. Of course the other students did not like not being able to swarm around the current class celebrity. And what if she could grant wishes? Maybe she did not need that wand, or magic sword, or whatever it was. Didn't she say she had a genie? Mr. Nestor had heard and seen it himself! But it was more than just authority figures like the class teachers and bus driver that held back the greed for gossip and wishes. They did not want to upset her. She might not grant them their wishes, then. Worse, she might curse them, or something. But more than that: She was acting totally Weird! * * * * * Steffani was smiling peacefully as she examined her arms. To her now attuned eyes, they were nearly inside rather muscular forearms. Not huge, brawny muscles of the bodybuilder. ( Those always did gross her out.) Not the thin, but wiry muscles of a racer. (They were painfully masculine.) No. These were the well-proportioned musculature of a swimmer. Yes. And her ideal of masculine beauty. Of course it was still more ideal than substance. Her genie was still a ghost. The bulges of his muscles could only be seen if she could see their edges. And then she had to concentrate. She remembered hearing or reading somewhere that genies, as a rule, where suppose to be hairless, top-heavy giants, with large muscles *and *large fat deposits. This was the result of them being eunuchs. The peace on her face lessened. If she did not look, did not concentrate, she did not have to see what she did not want to see. This genie was not a eunuch. And he *was *naked. I am not curious; I am not curious; I am not curious, Steffani kept reminding herself. * * * * * Detention Room. Mrs. Carver presiding. 'The Butcher'. Former parole officer. Trained in hand-to-hand combat. " 'Make the punishment fit the miscreant'. One hundred math problems, Miss. Kane." Cruel! 45 minutes and Steffani had only 36 approved by Mrs. Carver. "Hey. Psst. Genie. You can't help me with math, could you? Hey. You there?" Steffani groaned. A welcome distraction came when one of the school secretaries entered, and whispered something about an emergency to Mrs. Carver. Something about the school shops gang, again. "You all still have 45 minutes of detention," she reminded them before leaving. "Thank you, genie," Steffani said, putting her head down on his arms and her arms on the desktop. * * * * * "What are you doing at school this late?!" "That's detention!! You can't go in there!!" "Mr. Shrapnel's calling the police!!' "You were right!!" "I told you!!" "As soon as I caught it on my radar, I knew where it was going!!" "Man!! Some people get all the breaks!!" "You make your own breaks!" "I say the gang break some--" When Steffani raised her head, everyone became quiet. She yawned. That's when she noticed that she had the magic, jewel encrusted, sparkling wand back in her hand. Or, rather, *his *hand. And standing around the front of the detention hall, were representatives of just about every bad influence the school had to offer: Collins Ticker, the school's blackmail genius; Marlon Brazer and other Choppers, the school's shops gang; Betty Rocker of the Home X-Quad; Croft Emmerson, with his Practical F/X; Nina Armstrong, one-girl Varsity; Noah Little and Hazmat Club, unlimited; Adonis and Aphrodite James, and the Gossip Promoters (officially known as the Theater Club); Anne Onnimus, mystery girl of SOAP (Save Our Animals Permanently). And Diedra. Badder than the bad, Steffani rose from her desk-seat. Gathering up her things, she strode forward. As she approached the teacher's platform, she noticed that the hand not holding the rod, had the paper with the math problems. She smiled as it tossed it on top of the desk. Everybody made way for her. No one said a word to her. "I wondered if this was the way nobility was treated," she said under her breath. 'It is the way it is suppose to be treated.' So heard, Steffani took even more of a regal bearing. It wasn't until she was out the door (all eyes still following her) and headed towards the exit, that she realized: "He used, MY body, while I was, *_Asleep *_!!!" * * * * * She was still shaking when she left the building. Mostly, it was with rage. There was a reason she'd never had a real boyfriend. She had cussed the genie honestly. Companionship was one thing, it was a whole other thing to-- "There she is!!" "Steffani! Yohoo! It's me--" "Hey! Don't get in front of me!" "I was here first, when you--" "Who's Steffani? Some singing star?" "Who cares who she is; something's happening in this town, at last." "Steffani! Remember when you had that unexpected you-know-what, and had to borrow my you-know-what?!!" "Oh, right! Embarrass her into giving you something!" "Hey! Things like that happen to a girl!" "Steff? We still have a date, right?" Outside the grounds was a crowd of nearly a fifty people!! Most of them, she didn't recognize; some of them where adults; and most of those weren't, she thought, teachers. A crowd generates a crowd. "What's going on??" Steffani asked them, rattled by all the attention. "What's that floating next to her?" "It can't be just flying like that." "It's her magic wand!!" "Magic what??" "It's where her genie lives!" "Magic wands? Magic genies? What are you kids on?!" "It's television!! Uncensored, uneducated..." "It's video games and computers! Boy, are you out of date!" "Steffani!? Steff!" one of the girls who'd been there when Stefani'd gotten her scepter asked. "I hear you got a wish! Can you make wishes come true?" "You just want some wishes for yourself." "As if *you *don't, Sondra!" "Give her the chance to catch her breath! I mean, she just got them and maybe she'd like--" "Knock off the crap, Monica!" both the girl and Sondra said. "You never *were *interested in her before..." Steffani suddenly saw the truth: Here she had been upset at the thought of *One *other being trying to control her life!! Suddenly, her world shattered! The windows of the school exploded out in a thousand pieces. The crowd screamed, and, stupidly, looked at the on-rushing glass. Those that had sense, didn't, and ran. "A bomb!!" "Terrorists!!" "A psycho student!!" "The Hazmat Club!!" Sondra'd fallen down, and, afraid of being trampled, looked up to see... "Magic!!" she cried. She was right!! Steffani saw the shards and slivers of glass take the shape of.... A true, barrel-chested, narrow-waisted, bulging-muscled, giant--and for real eunuch-- Genie!! "Genie, stop this!! You're only going to make things worse!!" Steffani told the genie-boy that was still surrounding her body. 'My integration is not yet finished! You rejected me!' "Damned right, I reject you!! If you think--" The genie looked over the people around it. Those that had not escaped, stopped much further away, to stop and stare, and see what would happen next. Others were frozen where they'd been, unable to move. Quite a number just marveled. "I've seen better effects!" Croft said behind Steffani. "Give me a break! How many times do you see something like *that *in real life!" Brazer said. "The _Comic-Book Effect _!!" Collins said. "This *ain't *no comic book!!" Onnimus yelled. "It is now," Croft grinned, satisfied now. "Steffani Kane!! What are you going to do about, about --Your Monster!!" Betty Rocker ordered. The monster-genie looked, now, at them. And stopped its survey. It had found its purpose for being. "Stop it!! This won't get me to help you!! I told you I was pig- headed!!" Steffani said, throwing up her hands, trying to be as brave as she could. The glass thing attacked. Everybody around her ran like mad. Steffani stood her ground, too stubborn, too scared to move. But she still screamed. The massive fist smashed down on her. The ground was hit by a hundred pounds of glass crashing against concrete. "Steffani!!!" Diedra screamed, now without anybody in front of her. When the giant's paw withdrew, Steffani was gone. There stood the most perfect specimen of masculine handsomeness Diedra had ever seen!! It did not matter he was not in a heroic stance, with his arms over his head, and face looking away and down from the terror. It did not matter he was nearly transparent. (Was there something inside?) It almost didn't matter that he was-- "Can't you bother to conjure up some clothes!!" the boy yelled at someone who'd just done something mean to him. The tenor voice sounded a lot like Steffani's. Diedra scream as a piece of her blouse was ripped off; it exposed her upper chest, fancy bra and minimal cleavage. Other girls screamed and yelled. And boys, too! The pieces of bloused, shirts, and shoes flew around the crystal boy, and began to piece themselves together. The giant's foot came down, with hundreds of pounds of glass compressing itself together; concrete and glass flew from the force of the impact. The foot shattered. The boy stood more straight, more confident, now. He wore a seamless, all white body suit that managed to be loose and still hug his muscles; he wore gold colored, translucent, ornate bands around his ankles, waist, wrists, and color. He wore a crown that framed his face: the sides were like falcon wings, with a beak in the middle of the simple gold band that went around a turban-like head covering; the turban, itself, had a scarf like train that could almost be imagined to be a cape. And there was real flesh on his hands and incredible face!! It was all too much for Diedra. She was in love. The boy said, "See? You *can *obey commands. Now!" he ordered, holding out his scepter (there was no other way to think of it now), "call off your monster genie! Make him disappear!" The monster-genie made like it was going to bow before him. But, instead, it dug into the grass, soil and walkway in front of him. "Stop it!! I am your master. I mean, Mistress! Obey me!!" As the ground beneath him began to shake and rise up beneath him, his clothing, bands, and--Eww!!--even flesh disintegrated. Steffani fell off the rubble being lifted up into the air. She landed on her butt and elbows. Debris landed on her. The giant was positioning the mass of material over her; she had to move a shoulder to avoid being hit by a falling chunk of concrete. 'Attack!! It is our only hope! Attack!!' "Attack *that *thing!!" Down came the 'ton' of-- Steffani moved like she had never moved before: Jumping up into the air!! High up! Her feet raced over the top of the falling ground, being pushed by something that supported and controlled her feet. That was all that was left of the genie-boy's body. That and the remnant that surrounded the scepter: It was drawing her own hand right for the chest of the monster!! 'Who is the master?!!' "*We *are!!" 'Stubborn, pig-headed--" he cursed as together they plunged the scepter into the center of mass of the kahar. "By the Right of the Hamdar: I command you to return to sand!!" they spoke in one (girl's) voice. As gravity took hold, they separated and fell together with the bits and pieces of glass. The scepter had one last trick left in it. It gathered Rashard's weakened kahar under Steffani; the glass she landed on was hard, but not sharp. With some of the other glass, that from the windows, scattered on and around her, Steffani lay where she was, exhausted. So was the prince, 'You used my kahar! That body belongs to me!' "Now you know how it feels..." * * * * * "Steffani, don't move!" "I'm not moving." "The doctors will get to you, darling. You, you just have to wait your turn." "Doctors? I do not need healers." "I'm, I'm glad to hear that, Steffani. But let's wait for the doctors to tell us that." "My dzhen can make all my repairs." "Steffani, you're dreaming. Wake up, dear. There was an accident at school." "It was no accident. It was the Quarantine." "Oh, Steffani! (Sob!) Doctor!! Any one! My daughter's had a head trauma!!" "No, head trauma. It is just I." "No, Candace. You are a clinical psychologist. You know better than to ask someone in this delusional state *who *they think they are." "Crown Prince Rashard of the Chief Family of the Hamdar, rulers of Arkhrea, keepers of the Sands of Destiny." "You just had to talk to yourself, Candace!" "Most of the injuries around here seem superficial, Mrs. Kane. What's this about your daughter?" "She's not moving!! She's paralyzed!!" the woman lost her brave front at last. "I am not paralyzed. Steffani is just not awake yet." "You're the psychologist, does this make any sense?" the doctor asked. "I'm afraid it does," the woman tearfully caressed her lovely daughter's face. "It means she has a traumatically induced personality dysfunction." "A split personality?" the doctor whistled. "A case study in your own family." "She will not be a case study!" the woman put her forehead next to Steffani's. "There are some things more important than fame and recognition. Maybe my own clinic." "Wake up, Steffani! This is beyond my tolerance! Wake up, and face your world!" "Wha--? Hunh? Mom! You're here?" "Don't move, darling! The doctor has to look at you." "Look at me? Why?" "Well, the gashes on your arm, for one." Steffani moved her head to where she could see the arm that had been thrust into the glass monster. It did look bad; but there was all. "He must've stopped the bleeding. I hope he knows about sterilization, too." "He? Some volunteer? Is he off helping others?" "I don't think he's really into helping others," Steffani said, trying to sit up. "Don't move! Let the doctor examine you!" Steffani ignored her mother's advice, "I think, as a prince, he thinks the universe owes *him *." Her mother's hands on her shoulders, Steffani got on *her *knees. Putting her hands on her arms, the girl looked her mother straight in the eye, telling her what had happened that day, "At first I thought he was a genie. He was really talking about his kar, or something. For someone who talks to me through ESP, he doesn't make himself very clear. "Anyway, he came from this jewel thing; you know, like a genie in a bottle, only this was a scepter. At first everybody said it was a magic wand. Well, the girls did. The boys wanted it to be a dumb sword. And Everybody was jealous that I--" she looked away. "Where is it?" she said, looking around. "Did you see where it went this time?" she left her mother's arms. They were left hanging there. The doctor shook his head, and patted her mother on the shoulder as he left, "This is beyond me." "My poor darling baby," her mom said. * * * * * After kicking first one foot, then the other through the glass-littered school lawn, and looking in the hole in the walkway, Steffani shrugged. "It'll show up. I doubt anybody but me can use it." "That's right, darling. Let's go home, and we can have a nice long talk about--" "It is quite a mess," Steffani said, looking at the scene that surrounded her. Students, teachers and passersby were on their feet talking about what had happened, or were sitting on the grass and sidewalk, having their cuts tended to. There didn't appear to be any major injuries. "Steffani! Do *you *know what happened!?" Diedra said, finally noticing her friend, and breaking away from the group (mostly girls) that she'd been talking with, eager to pass on the gossip she' been heard. "Sure," Steffani said. "Then do you think the Hazmat did this? Gossip Productions say it's Betty Rocker and the Home X-Quad cooking with too much high explosive baking powder." "Diedra!! It was the monster genie! You saw it!" "Monster genie?" Diedra looked at her oddly. "It was made of the glass from the windows?" Steffani waved her arm up at same. Duh! "A glass, monster, whatever...?" the oddly had become the strangely. "You know, Like the 'genie' from my 'magic wand', only big and evil! But he's a prince: And together we turned the thing back to just glass!" Diedra looked at Steffani's mother for help. Mrs. Kane touched her own head. "She got hit on the head." "Oh!..." Diedra said. Looking back at her best friend in the whole world, she said, "Poor, Steff. She's lost in la-la land." "Why doesn't anybody remember a 20 ft--40 foot! tall, glass monster?!!" Steffanie cried in frustration. " 'Cause that sort of thing only happens in comic books, Steff," Diedra tried to reason with her crazy friend. "Comic book?... Collins said something about comic books," Steffani said, turning to look around the area. "Do you know where he is?!" "Why would you want to see *him *?! Is he blackmailing you to act like this for one of his awful experiments?!! Is that it?!" Steffani didn't hear that last part; she had found him in the crowd, and was racing for him. Her mother joined Diedra in their jog after the non-compos mentis, "You think my daughter may being blackmailed? Oh, I hope so!" The rather short boy with short hair but large head was talking with his yesmen, trying to figure out how they could profit from the disaster, in money and/or information. "Collins! Collins, you said something about a, 'Comic Book' effect?" "Why would you want..." he looked again at the mess around him. "The _Comic Book Effect _: No matter how peaceful and boring a place, especially a small town like this, when someone comes into a strange power or ability, other people must also have strange, other, powers or abilities. That, in turn, causes yet other people to have powers or abilities. A chain reaction in the balance of power has set in." Steffani studied on what he said. "Hmm... That doesn't sound quite like it...." "The _Comic Book Effect _, subsection one: The Imbalance of Power can be manifested more directly, in what the insurance companies would call them an 'Act of God'." "That's it!" Steffani eurika'ed. "*_He *_shows up, and *he *brings his problems with him! He's a prince, after all. That means politics, and military, and all sorts of enemies, right? Power! The struggle for Power!" Collins arched his eyebrow. "What _prince _are you talking about?" "Never mind. You wouldn't know him. Nobody will, apparently," she said, satisfied at least that she had figured out why everybody _else _was acting strange. As she paced away, she talked to herself, hoping that if she heard it out loud she could judge just how much sense she was making; she ignored the presence of her mother, Diedra, and the yesman Collins had sent to tail her. "Great. Can you imagine what it's going to be like with the prince's enemies using these yahoos to do their dirty work. I hope *_they *_like their 'powers or abilities' while they're puppets, *too *." She glanced at the yesman. She turned her thoughts back to the problem, "I guess they will." "They want to keep this little war private, so they erase anything that would bring the authorities. It's like Dad's UFO abduction." "UFO?" Diedra whispered to Mrs. Kane. "Shh! It's how we met." "You met on a UFO?!" "No!" she motioned for the girl to keep quiet. "I counseled him on the dreams he had that they had experimented on him." "Steff comes by it legitimately, doesn't she?" Suddenly Steffani stopped. (The other three, stopping short, bumped into each other.) She was furious, "He Tried to hide inside *me *: A *Girl *!! The CREEP!!" * * * * * "Steffani, we really do have to talk," her mother said, breaking one of her own rules, to come into her daughter's space. The ninth time that day. "Shh! I'm trying to get him to get him to answer me," Steffani said, sitting slouched over bent kneed on top of her bed. At the moment, she had her fingers up to her temples. She was still in her school clothes. "You've been at this all evening, Steffani! You can do it again later." "No! I can't let him sleep while I'm awake, if that's what he's doing. That would mean he he'd be awake when I have to sleep, and can take over my body!!" "Dear!" her mother said forcefully, sitting down on the bed. Steffani was still trying to enter a trance or whatever she thought she was doing. Candace Kane took her hands, and pulled them from her temples, "Steffani Isolda, I'd like to talk with this male persona of yours, too. Maybe--together!- -we can return him to where he belongs. "But, in the meantime, I want you to know: You are my daughter. I will always love you --Have always loved you; despite your unwillingness to do as you're told. I am a psychologist, trained to listen and not judge. You can tell me anything; I'll understand. "Is that boy Diedra talked about blackmailing you?!" "No, mom. It's like I've told you a hundred times already; I have an invisible prince who talks to me through ESP." "Steffani Isolda Kane! Can't you hear how ridiculous that sounds?!" "Oh, I hear it plainly. Unfortunately, it's true." Candace threw up her hands. She rose from the bed, "We will have another talk, when you're ready to listen to reason! And we'll have another, and another..." she went for the open door. "I will get through to you! No matter what it takes!" She paused at the door to look back. "I will save you, Steff." "Mom? Is Steffani going to be alright?" Candace turned, and reached out her arm to take in her youngest, "We can pray. It may just be temporary. I shall have to do more research. In the meantime, Barbara, I want you to keep an eye on your big sister, and tell me if she...acts any stranger." "Do I have to? She's making my skin crawl," the eleven year old said. "We all have to do jobs we'd rather not. This is yours. Right?" Barbara didn't want to promise anything. Her mother looked at her with the 'please, for me?' eyes. "All...right," Barbara gave in again. For all her other faults, unlike her sister, not doing as she was asked was not one of them; it was a sibling thing. * * * * * Her back hurt from sitting slouched over on the bed. Steffani got up, and walked her room, stretching to get the kinks out. It was a large room. It was up on the second floor, facing the street. She had heard that it used to be a day porch, before it was closed in by those huge windows. The two middle ones were like 6-ft. french doors, on hinges that opened out. They scared her. There were tales of people who'd committed suicide by stepping out of them. Or were pushed. Or had they just fallen? In front of it ran a single desktop-bureautop-lots-of-extra-surface running the whole 20-ft. width of the room. On the 'other desk' side, she had her aquarium. She would often stare at it; they helped her take her mind off of things. "How are Thelma and Louis today? Is Lonesome George still trying to break up your romance? The snails look happy. I'm going to have to change the water. Where's Mr. Fake Crab? There he is. You got him covered with sand again." Sand? There was something about sand... "And glass," Steffani said, placing her hand's on the aquarium's sides. "That's it! If I can get the scepter to come to *me *, I can *make *him answer me! Control it, and *I *control him!!" She looked at what she was doing. "Now what do I do?" She looked out her large window. The drapes were open. It was nearly dark; the stars were coming out. "Alright! ...'Come to me...Come to me, scepter! I am your mistress! Cohesion. Control. Uh, something about genies..." "Mom!!" Barbara yelled, running for her mother. * * * * * 'Can't you leave well enough alone, girl!!' "No! I told you I was stubborn and pig-headed. I may not always get my way, but I don't do * any*thing without a good reason!" 'Is I separating from you, and leaving *forever *a good enough reason?!' "I'm listening." 'My dzhens were suppose to reassemble my body from the organic matter it found around my landing sight." "Landing site?! Like UFO's?!" 'Let me finish the reasoning! This is costing me! And keep your hands on the glass!" "The glass... Right!" Steffani said, doing just that. "It's an amplifier." 'Something like that. To return: Somehow--Of No attempt of my own!--My carbon patterns were, instead, transferred into *you *!!' "*ME *?!! You're INSIDE me?!!" 'I'm a *part *of you! You have two sets of DNA, now; and an area of your brain has been set aside for the storage of the data that is me.' "You get Out of me!!" 'Gladly. But first I must become fully integrated with you. It is *only *when I have full control--With No interference!--of a carbon-form me, that I may regain full control of my silicon-form.' "That sounds like nonsense!! Get out of me *Before *you take full control of me!!" 'The silicon-based microorganisms are programmed to obey only carbon-based life forms. And my kahar obeys only *My *patterns!' "Liar!! It obeyed me, didn't it?! *I *was the one, wasn't It, who put some clothes and flesh and blood on you, or your kahar, or--You know!!" 'It's not suppose to!! Something, or someone!, has tampered with the program! Though it goes against all the Rights of the Hamdar--" "Your enemies!" "My family does not know where I am at the moment. *I *do not know where I am!' "But that monster! The thing that attacked us!" 'The Quarantine attacked us! This planet is officially isolated. Nothing is suppose to contact you people.' 'And *that's *why the UFO's don't land!" 'I said nobody! None may visit a quarantined planet. Most especially anyone of the Hamdar!' "Don't give me that! Dad's collected tons of books and stuff about them," she said, going to her bookcase. She took out a large book, "We know *all *about you non-visiting visitors!" Opening it, and only briefly having to flip through it, she pointed to the page that had the clearest photo-close up of one of the saucer-types. Also on the page was drawing of two of the aliens, drawn by one of the abductees. "See?! "Well!? What do you have to say to that?!" Nothing. "What? Just 'cause I stopped touching the glass you stopped talking to me?" She looked around, and saw the imitation Tiffany lamp. She laid the book down on top of the bookcase, and pointed with one hand, as she touched the stained glass lampshade. "Well?!" 'I can also talk with you while you are under strong stress.' "Never mind that now, what about Daddy's UFO's!" 'This is strange...These are of a far cruder technology than our own.' "Another type of alien?" she asked suspiciously. 'Show me a photo of these creatures! Now!!' "There are no real pictures, except maybe for fake autopsies, and--" 'It is as we've always feared could happen. The Quarantine Project *has *to be ended. At once!!' "What's the matter?! Why the panic?!!" she said, starting to share his. 'Do you have a computer?! A book of comprehensive facts?! A?" "Mom?!" Steffani said to the woman standing with her sister inside her doorway. "Are you using the modem to research my lunacy?! "Hey! Is that an encyclopedia?" She said, going over for it. "Er, yes, dear," the dazed M.A. said. "Which one? Will this do? Oh! I'm not touching glass," She saw her mom's. "Thanks, Mom!" she said, taking them off her nose. "Well?" Steffani asked as she held both the reading glasses and book. "What am I looking up?" 'Fetuses.' "Fetuses. As in pre-born babies??!" 'Yes. If it is as I fear, your aliens are your children's children's children!' The End (Addendum) For those nitpickers out there, the reason that Steffani could so neatly fit within Rashard's kahar is that dzhins' rearranged her. (A simple thing, considering what they did to put the prince into his lifepod. More on that in the next story.)