Analog Time, Part Four free porn video

Analog Time, Part Four "Nix" by Sandy Man Her glazed eyes grew wide when she looked up and saw me, eyes that spoke of a woman who had just entered hell. And I was the devil. "What do you want?" she asked. "Who are you? What is this place?" Her jaw trembled as she spoke. I could see the pulse on her neck, like a jackrabbit. Her chest quivered with sharp, quick breaths. Her hands stayed at her sides, but I could see her fingers twitching, and her elbows began to tremble as well. "I-" I didn't know what to say. "Are you me? Or are you Kelly?" "What is this?" she said. "Why do you look like me? Are you an alien? Or a robot or something?" I looked at Bardo, who merely stared at my twin, his hands planted in his coat pockets. I knelt beside her and held my palms up in peace. "I'm not here to hurt you." I looked at her limp hands, at the way she lay her head against the cushion of her chair. "Can you move?" "No, I can't fuckin' move. You think I'm sittin' here on accident?" On accident? I slowly reached over and pulled up the left sleeve of her brown leather jacket. Her forearm was bare; there was no secret message, no tattoo. "We can't take her with us," said Bardo. "At most, that thing will seat two of us." I stiffened. Without turning around, I said, "What do you suggest?" "We should leave her here." I stood up, keeping my back to him. "You know what they'll do to her." "Yes. I also know what they'll do to me." I turned to face him, avoided looking at the gleaming metal slug in his hands. "Is that the stunner? The... neural whip?" He didn't answer. In fact, he looked afraid. I narrowed my eyes at him, cocked my head to the side. "It isn't, is it? Dawson keeps that one pretty close. No, I'll bet this is something that will kill me instantly, isn't it?" "It will. Move." But I didn't move, and he didn't fire. Okay, I said to myself. There might be a way out of this. Have to get personal. "Bardo, Bardo, Bardo," I said to him softly, a knowing smile spreading across my lips. "Do you really think I would give myself amnesia?" "Yup." He raised the slug to eye level. "You think you can operate this baby?" I caressed the smooth plastic of the doorframe with my hand. "It's not as easy as you think. You don't want to be here, fucking around when those Police show up, do you? How about Dawson? You think he's going to be in a forgiving mood? When he finds you here, trying to run off with his only way out?" "I'll take my chances. I'm not stupid." But he blinked, and still he did not fire. I stepped toward him, slow, my eyes locked with his. "I can pilot the Machine for you, Bardo. And I can show you how to pilot it. We can make it work." I gestured at my blonde twin in the Machine. "The two of us are little, after all. We can fit in there with you. On your lap." I emphasized the word lap, and took another step. Bardo took a step backward. "Come on, Bardo," I said pleadingly. "I'm offering you the seat of the Master of Time, with two beautiful women to sit on your lap." "That's stupid," he said. "You're a man." "Not on the outside. Not where it counts." I looked down at the baggy uniform I was wearing and slid my hands into my pockets, as if I to stroke myself. In fact, my fingers were curling around the Pez dispenser with the black Darth Vader helmet on one end. "I've seen the way you look at me, Bardo. It turns you on that I'm stuck in this body, against my will." "Get away from me," he said, taking another step back. "Was I a mean boss, Bardo? Was I a driven man, who pushed and pushed and pushed until you almost went insane from the pressure? Wouldn't you like to fuck me, Bardo? Wouldn't you like to fuck your asshole boss so hard that I just have to come, right on your hard cock?" From the face he was making, I was either hitting a nerve or he was completely disgusted. I'd caught him off guard. "Are you going to shoot me now, Bardo?" An flash of apology crossed his eyes. I glided toward him and looked closely at the gun, my brow furrowed in mock confusion. "Bardo." "Yeah." "What does this thing do?" "It turns live cunts into dead ones," he answered, trying to make himself mean and hard in preparation for the act. "Really? Does it work without the battery?" I opened my fingers and let Lord Vader tumble from my hand and rattle on the cement floor. He looked down, and in that instant I slapped the gun out of his grasp with my free hand. It hit the metal wall of the shed with a hollow bang and bounced into a corner. Bardo looked down, saw that he'd been duped by a Pez dispenser, and slammed a fist into my stomach. My legs nearly gave out under me, but while Bardo turned away to collect the weapon I stumbled toward the Machine and hopped in, nearly squishing my twin. On the floor of the capsule, beside the chair, was a lever, kind of like a parking brake. I instinctively pulled it and the hatch slid shut above us. "Who is he?" asked my twin. From inside, the outer shell of the Machine appeared to be transparent. I saw Bardo recover his weapon and fire it at me. I flinched, but felt no pain. I turned and saw a section of the metal wall of the storage unit melting away behind me. "We're out of sync, I think," I said. And then I frowned at the words. "Who are you?" she asked. Her voice had shifted from terror to a pleading desperation. "What did he mean when he said that you were a man?" "Far as I know, I was born one," I answered. "As for what I am now - I'm not sure. How about you? You got a name?" Bardo was stumbling around like a blind man, feeling for the skin of the Machine. His hand went right through it, but he didn't enter the cabin with us. From our perspective, his hand disappeared when it shared space with the Machine, and reappeared when he pulled it back beyond the dimensions of the Machine's surface. "Kelly," said my twin. "Kelly Gallagher." I examined the controls. They were black, like everything in the interior of the Machine. "Where are you from, Kelly?" "Warsaw." "You're from Poland?" I scowled in disbelief. "No. Warsaw, Virginia." "Ah." I thought that I had detected a hint of Southern. The control panel consisted of two large dials on opposing sides of the panel. In between them were a keyhole, a horizontal toggle that currently pointed toward the dial on the right, and a round red button with a timer. Above all of this was a little red seven-segment LED display that gave the current date and time: 2009 NOV 3 10:07:56. The second slot was counting up, and in four seconds the time rolled over to 10:08:01. "Can I go now?" asked Kelly from Warsaw. "Where to?" I said. "Out of this fucking box!" "Sorry, no. Too dangerous out there for you. Because of me, I guess." Each dial was actually a series of raised dials, set inside of each other, each smaller than the last. I bent over to take a closer look. The outermost dial said Years along its edge, and within that was a dial for Daysx10, followed by Days. Inside this was a dial for Hours, followed by Minutes. I guess I hadn't bothered to cut it any finer. "What do you mean, dangerous? Who are you, anyway?" I pointed at Bardo. "Unless that guy is full of shit, I am the inventor of this Machine." The dial on the right was marked Fore, and the one on the left was marked Aft, and I swear to God that they were marked with black strips from a cheap label maker. The red button in the middle was marked Initiate in a similar fashion, and it had a small timer next to it that went up to an hour. In fact, the timer looked exactly like the dial of the Minute Minder that my mother kept in her kitchen, right down to the Rocket Ship pointer. "What do you mean?" asked Warsaw Kelly. "You don't know?" "Not for sure, no." "How can you not know if you invented something?" "I don't remember." I pulled the key out of my shirt and inserted it into the slot. It was a perfect fit, and as I gave it a turn there was a soft hum all around us. "Why do you look like me?" asked Kelly from Warsaw. "I don't know. Why do you look like me?" "I don't. I've always looked like this." "Really? Must have been a rough labor for your mother." She narrowed her eyes at me while I began making some simple calculations in my head. I didn't need the hours to be exactly right, just the days. "Kelly, may I ask how you ended up here?" "You really don't remember?" "No." "But how is that possible? It was, like, five minutes ago." "Elaborate, please." "You shot me! You shot me in my apartment, you bitch! And then you dragged me down here and now I can't move. That was five fuckin' minutes ago. Stop makin' fun of me!" I thought a moment. "Did I put you in a box when we were in your apartment?" "Yes." "And then suddenly we were in this storage shed, and I put you in here instead." "Yes." "And when did this happen?" "Fucking today! What the fuck!" "The date, please." "It's the tenth of October." "And the year?" She gritted her teeth rolled her eyes at me with a heavy, impatient sigh. "Please," I said, as politely as I was able. "Nineteen eighty-seven." I started making connections. "Kelly, who is the President of the United States?" She rolled her eyes again. "Ronald Reagan." I smiled. "That's right." I started making fine adjustments to the Aft knob, taking my time. "So this might be a little risky, but I'm going to take us back to October of nineteen eighty-seven, because there's someone I need to talk to." "Who?" "Myself." I made the final adjustments and flipped the toggle over to the Aft dial. When I did, a little light I hadn't noticed before started blinking yellow. "Guess it's ready," I said, and leaned back and looked over at my companion. Her hair was much longer than mine, and cut in a feathery, Farrah Fawcett style. I looked down at her feet and saw high heels at the end of her smooth, bare legs. Like a porcelain doll compared to my own filthy toes, but underneath they were exactly the same. Even though we had just met and she seemed to think I was, at best, a shape-shifting alien, I felt a deep connection with her. Deeper than with anyone, now that Cassie was gone. "You wouldn't have some extra shoes on you, would you?" She gave me a look. "I guess not. Well, ready?" "No." I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I leaned forward and pushed the button. Everything went dark. *** There was a moment of weightlessness, as if the Machine were catapulted on a giant spring. And then we tumbled down with a muffled bang. I shook my head and started rubbing at an extremely sore spot on my ribs where I had landed on her elbow. There was also a spot on my temple where I had struck something metal. "You okay?" I asked her. I looked around. The cabin was only lit by the little bulb on the console. Only now it wasn't yellow, it was red. "I don't know," she answered. "I can't feel anything." "Yeah, they shot me with it, too," I told her. "It wears off after a while." My hand felt around for the metal it had struck, which turned out to be the black tube of a heavy flashlight. I turned this on and realized that the Machine was on its side. The world outside the Machine was pure black, and the beam of the flashlight wouldn't light anything up on the outside. "I'm sorry I shot you," I told Kelly. "But I don't remember doing it. And I'm sorry to have to tell you that what you're in is a Time Machine. When I found you it was the year two thousand and nine." "What? You're fucking crazy." "I mean when I found you to-. When I found you just now." I hunted around for the parking brake I had pulled before. I disengaged it, but the hatch didn't open. The skin of the Machine merely went from transparent to opaque. I saw smooth black plastic all around us that reflected the beam of the flashlight. Much better than the void. "Where are we?" "I think we're still in the storage shed, but there must have been stuff in it. Stuff that we landed on top of, and then fell over." "Why is it so dark?" "Because the door's closed. And it's probably night, too. I set the controls to land us in the middle of the night, anyway." I searched around some more, trying to find a way out. "What are you looking for?" "A way to open the hatch." "Try the handle." "What handle?" "The one in front of my face. The one that says Open Hatch." "Oh." I found it and pushed. With only a little pressure, there was a scraping sound and the hatch slid open on its own. "Good work," I told Kelly. "A for the day." "Please don't leave me here," she said, frantic not to be left alone again. I didn't blame her; the last time she'd been left alone she lost over twenty years. I could certainly relate to that problem. "Just going to look around. I'll stand right here. Won't even step outside." We were not, in fact, lying at the bottom of a storage locker. We were on a large stone platform. Above us was a stone ceiling, about a foot and a half above my head. "Whoever built this was small," I noted. "Whoever built what?" I helped her get into a sitting position so that she could see the chamber we were in. "What is this place?" she asked. "No clue. What does the counter say?" "Counter?" "Yeah, the little clock on the dashboard." "It says two thousand nine November three ten-oh-six." "What?" I leaned over and checked for myself. 2009 NOV 3 10:06:03. The second slot was counting down, and in three seconds the counter rolled over to 10:05:59. "What?" I said again. "Backwards?" I glanced again at the little light bulb, which was still flashing red. "Uh-oh." "What uh-oh?" "I think I messed up." "What does that mean?" "I think the yellow light was trying to warn me not to initiate." "Why not?" "Because now we're here." "And where might here be, pretty pretty thing?" I spun around at the sound of the lyrical voice that had appeared behind me. I saw a flash of movement as the thing retreated from the beam and darted around the edge of the ceiling with a hiss. "What was that?" asked Kelly. "I don't know." It had come from an archway on one side of the room. I could feel a breeze coming from open air as I cautiously approached the gap. I reached the edge of the platform and looked down. There was nothing. Endless, empty black. I looked up and saw a great black shape above me, something that blocked the stars. In fact, there was no light at all except the beam that came out of my flashlight. I looked down into the abyss again, and dropped a pebble off the edge. There was no bottom. "Don't fly, little wingie," said a voice somewhere above me. The words were English, but the accent was strange. "You're not ready to leave the nestie just yet." I looked up. There was nothing. I climbed back into the Machine and slid the hatch closed. Without hesitation I located the parking brake and engaged it. The walls turned transparent again, but there was nothing outside to see. "What is it?" asked Kelly. "I don't know. Don't go out there. It talks." I set the Aft dial back forty years and hit Initiate. Nothing happened. The clock didn't change. I toggled over to the Fore dial, set it ahead twelve hours, and initiated. There was no bump this time, no weightlessness or tumble, but the clock jumped back twelve hours, to 2009 Nov 2 20:04:44, and resumed its countdown. Outside, nothing had changed. If that archway was open to the sky, then that meant that there was probably no sun here. I swallowed, and I could feel my heart begin to pound in my chest as I broke into a cold sweat. "Kelly?" "Yeah?" "I don't know what to do." She managed, with some effort, to get herself back into a sitting position. "First of all, who are you?" "Call me Josie." "Why did you kidnap me, Josie?" "Sorry. I don't remember doing it." She sighed. "Okay. What's the problem?" "We're lost." "So how do we get unlost?" "I don't know." She looked at the control panel. "Is it broken?" "Maybe." I looked at the blinking red light. "Yeah, I guess it is." "So fix it." I looked at the control panel. I had no idea where to begin. "I can't." She slowly raised a hand to my chin, pulled my face close to hers. "You can do it," she said. "Fix the problem." She released me and I took a fresh look at the panel. There were tiny screws holding a faceplate together, just underneath the controls. "There must be tools," I said. "Look around." We found a flat socket set that had been under the seat, but had fallen open in the crash and spilled its contents into a corner behind the seat. We spent a few minutes putting it back together and then I got to work removing the faceplate. A jumble of wires spilled out, and I cursed. "There's a note here," said Kelly. She was pointing to a small envelope that had been taped to the inside of the faceplate. It read In Case of Null Zone. And underneath that, printed on the faceplate itself, was a diagram of the circuits themselves, and also a small tray of spare fuses. I opened the note and began to read. "What does it say?" asked Kelly. "It's technical." "Does it explain what happened to us?" "Actually, yes." "Well?" "The power source for the engine of this craft reacted badly to a field of interference, and that shunted us into a Null Zone." "What's a Null Zone?" "It's out there. It's where we are." "Why is the clock moving backwards?" "Because this is the Universe going the other way. It began with the Big Crunch, and it will end with the Big Bang." "Oh." I could see by her face that she didn't follow. "Do you understand it?" she asked. "Sort of," I said. Then added, "No, not really. But the instructions are simple enough." I spent much of the next hour carefully removing the negative power core, which was a metal cylinder about eleven inches long and three around. "This is it," I said as I handed it to her. "This is the problem." She took it in her hands. "It doesn't look broken." "It's not broken, it's drained." "How can you tell?" I pointed to the blinking light on the dash. "It's what the red light's for." "Is there a spare?" I checked the manual. "Doesn't look like it." "Okay, so what do we do to fix it?" "It has to be exposed to a pure negative energy source. While we're here, that means water." "Good. I could use a drink." I raised a hand as I read. "Don't drink any of the water here. If you do, you'll die." "Lovely." She grunted, stretched out her arms as much as she could in the cramped space of the capsule. "Who wrote this manual, anyway?" "I guess I did." "Well, why didn't you put a safety in? You know, something to keep this from happening?" "I gather that there wasn't any interference when this Machine was built. That came later." "When was it built?" "The twenty-first century." Exhaustion seemed to wash over her, and she put her head in her hands. "Then why is there a warning light?" "I don't know," I said. "We'd better go. The sooner we find some water, the sooner we can leave this place." I reached for the parking brake. "No," she said, and put her hand on mine. "No?" "First tell me why." "Why what?" She pulled at her hair. "Why we're here! Why you built a Time Machine but can't remember anything! Why you look like me!" I was speechless. Where to begin? "What do you remember?" she asked. And I told her. Everything. Well, not everything. I told her about waking up on the beach in a female body. Her body. I told her about waking up in a trap on a mysterious island, and about being captured by Dawson. I told her about the invasive Brain Box, and the Stasis Box, that stole time from you. On that one she certainly empathized. I left out the part about sleeping with what is most likely my biological son. "So," I said when I'd finished. "Tell me about you." She took a deep breath. "No," she said, and moved to open the hatch. "I'm sorry," I said. She paused and turned to look at me. "What are you sorry for?" Her face told me that she knew the answer, but wanted to hear it from my lips. "I'm sorry for locking you in a box for twenty years. I don't remember doing it, but that's no excuse." **** "Yeah, well... thanks." She disengaged the parking brake and opened the hatch. I hunted around and found an extra flashlight. Kelly stepped outside and I set the timer on the parking brake. When I stepped out of the Machine, the hatch slid shut and it appeared to vanish. "Why did you do that?" said Kelly frantically. "Now we're stuck here." "No, it's okay." I waved my tattooed forearm toward the space where the Machine had been, and it flickered and reappeared. "I have the key to the cloaking device, see?" She breathed a sigh of relief and I stepped away from the Machine. It vanished again. We explored the edges of the room, which was a stone cube about thirty feet by twenty. In the middle of the room we found a large iron ring set into the floor with a broken link of chain attached to it. "What do you think was chained up here?" asked Kelly. I shrugged. "What do you think is down there?" she asked. "Hello!" I shouted into the abyss, which echoed off of nothing. "I don't know if there's anything down there." "What do you mean? There's no bottom?" "Maybe not. Actually-" I pointed my beam up along the stone wall, then down at the void below us. "Um, I think..." "Yeah?" "I think that's the sky." She shook her head in disbelief. "The what? How can that be the sky?" "Well, there's stuff down there, and nothing up there." "But there's no stars. How can it be the sky if there aren't any stars?" I swallowed. "Maybe it's really, really cloudy. Or maybe there aren't any stars on this world." "What are you saying? That we're on another planet?" I shook my head. "I don't think so. I think we're on Earth, just... a different Earth." I got as firm a grip as I could on the edge of the doorway and leaned out to examine the walls on either side of the archway. "Hey, there's little handholds here. I think we can climb." "I don't understand," said Kelly. "How can there be more than one Earth?" "It's like, the flipside of reality." I looked at her, trying to put my thoughts into words. "Think about it. Time is moving backwards. This world and everything in this universe must have been formed when our universe ended, and now time is counting down, moving backwards toward the Big Bang." I gestured up at the large mountain shape above us. "Somehow, gravity is working backwards. That's what that big tumble was when I brought us here; we were flipping over and crashing into the ceiling." "But... that's crazy." She shut her eyes and seemed to get dizzy at the implication. I tried the weight of one of the handholds. It didn't crumble in my fingers, which I took as a good sign. I looked back at Kelly, who was holding her face in her hands. "Listen," I said. "You don't have to do this. Maybe I should go alone." She snapped out of her funk and gave me a raised eyebrow. "Are you for real?" she said. "How are you better equipped to go out there than me?" She had a point - physically we were practically identical. In fact, now that she was up and about, I could see that she had muscle tone in her arms and shoulders that I didn't have. Climbing would probably come a lot easier for her than it would for me. But I felt the urge to say something. "Well, I'm not as... blonde," I said, looking up at her golden hair. She rolled her eyes. "I'm a bottle blonde, honey." She took the spare flashlight from me and examined the handholds for herself, then added, "And so are you." "Wait, what? What color is my hair supposed to be?" "Dark brown. Your roots are showing." I dyed my hair? Why would I do that unless... "Kelly." "What?" She was trying to focus on the task of starting a climb, and I was the annoying bee trying to distract her. "You said you were going to move back to Virginia, right?" "Yes." "From Boston." "Yeah." "How were you going to get there?" "Hitchhike, probably." "Can you turn around for me?" She gritted her teeth, but did as I asked. Her hindquarters looked very familiar. "Well, at least now I know what your face looks like," I said to myself. "What was that?" The face in question spun around and shot me an extremely pissed off look. "No, not-" I waved my hand to deny having compared her face to her ass. "Sorry. Let's go." "No. What did you mean?" If I told her what I suspected, it would only raise more questions, and I didn't have the answers. "I don't know what I'm saying. Let's go." She kicked off her high heels and returned to the grips on the outside of the wall. "At least it's dry. If this wall was wet and slippery, I don't think I could do this." She shoved the flashlight between the buttons of her striped blouse and found her handholds again. Her feet followed and suddenly she was free of the archway. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" I asked. "I've had some practice," she said with a little effort. "There's a climbing wall in Boston. I go twice a week." She slowly began making her way up the wall. I could see from her route that the handholds weren't very far apart, so it didn't look too difficult. I looked down. Bad idea. Infinity beckoned. "Come on," said Kelly. "It's hard to see, but they're evenly spaced. Use your feet for most of the lifting, and just use your hands to keep yourself steady." She continued up. Soon it would be hard to hear her. I had to start moving. "Right." Luckily the shirt pocket of my jumpsuit was large enough to accommodate the flashlight. I left the beam on and tried to aim it away from my face. The first handhold wasn't too tough, nor was the first foothold. It was harder to step off from the stone with my one solid foot, and harder still to release my deathgrip hug on the archway so that both my hands were on the wall. My heart was pounding. I started to move upward. Had I really thought this would be easy? For one thing, the handholds were a lot smaller than they looked. For another, my fingers weren't nearly as strong as they had been back when I practiced bass guitar for hours every night. One slip of the grip and I would find out what was at the bottom of that abyss. I doubted it was a bouncy castle. I had the urge to go back to the safety of that room. And then what? Starve to death in a little stone room where the sun never shines? Or keep moving the Machine forward until the stone crumbled away from the wind, and then drift off into space? I told myself that there was no going back, and somehow found the strength to follow her up the wall. One thing I did have on my side was a much lighter body than I had been used to. I doubt my fat ass would have gotten more than twenty feet up that wall as a man, even with fingers of steel. Above me, Kelly stopped so that I could catch up. When I eventually did, she took it slow. The beam of the flashlight lit up her backside like a bullseye. You would think this would be distracting, but in fact it gave morale a decent boost on my end. Thanks to my slow and less-than-steady pace, it took us the better part of an hour to get to the hole at the end of our path. I suspected that Kelly could have made it in about half the time, and I appreciated her patience. The hole was a simple circular opening in the side of the wall, and the tower as a whole gradually grew wider as we approached it. I could feel blessed warmth radiating from the opening as I climbed the last few feet. Kelly made it onto the ledge and reached down to help pull me in. We both laid on our back for a few minutes, huffing and puffing. I was dripping with sweat, in spite of the icy wind that had blown constantly during the ascent. The stone itself had a mild warmth to it, like a sidewalk on a sunny day in September, and this had kept me from freezing as we climbed. Kelly was the first on her feet, and she nudged me with her feet until I stood and helped her examine our surroundings. The tunnel was perfectly round, but other than that, unremarkable. And bone dry. "Whoever uses this probably sucks at basketball," I said. We had to crane our necks to stand. "What are you, about five two?" "Five one and a half," said Kelly. "Same as you." Christ. I was even shorter than I had thought. "Well, there's no water here," I said. "Let's see where it takes us." **** About fifty feet in, a strange vegetation started showing up on the walls of the tunnel. Black vines with round pods that glowed with a strange, unearthly grey light from within. "Better turn these off," I said, extinguishing my flashlight. "Never know when we might need them. Kelly did likewise, and as we walked, the pods grew more numerous, and the light brighter. "This light is weird," said Kelly. "It's like it's not really light or something." "There's no color," I said. "It's confusing your eyes." We followed the tunnel for another hundred feet into the mountain, which is about where Kelly started sniffing the air. "Do you smell that?" she asked me. I inhaled. "Yeah. Smells like mushrooms and foot fungus." "I think it smells more like cabbage and bad fish." "Maybe this is a sewer." "Great. Want to go back?" "Like, climb up to the next tunnel? What if there is no next tunnel? Or what if the next one's a sewer, too? At least here it's dry. We don't know what we'll be getting into if we keep going up." "Fine." She started forward again. The floor started filling up with random dead plant matter, leaves and tubules and sometimes roots. Some of it matched the vegetation on the walls, but none of it looked like any earthly plant that I'd ever heard of anything I was familiar with. Then again, it was a shredded, sloppy, rotting mess. There could easily be magnolias mixed in and I wouldn't know it. Suddenly there was a huge pile of the stuff, as well as bits of hair and bone and some soft, squishy material that could only be feces. We were barefoot, mind you. "Oh, god," said Kelly, holding her nose. "I think I'm gonna throw up. I have a low tolerance for this sort of thing." "Yeah, I noticed." I thought back to all the times I'd puked since waking up on the beach, and felt myself start to gag. "Let's get through this as quick as we can." Luckily, the tunnel started to slope upward, and the sharper it sloped, the less garbage we had to walk on. I slipped and lost my footing as we approached the top of the ramp; Kelly caught me from behind and kept me from tumbling down the hill. "Thanks," I said. "Shh," said Kelly. There was a shuffling, scraping sound ahead of us. It was getting closer. "Do you hear that?" asid Kelly. "Yes," I said. "Stand still." We crouched down and waited, and the sound grew louder. Shuffle, scrape. Shuffle, scrap. A shape appeared at the top of the ramp. A very small shape, at most three feet tall. It had two arms, two legs, and a head, and it walked upright. In fact, it was pushing a broom to shove garbage down the hill. It stopped and looked around when it saw the light, as if it couldn't quite pinpoint the source of what it was seeing. The creature had a snout like an elephant's trunk that snaked into a pocket of its heavy black coat, and segmented eyes that glittered in the light of our flashlights like a giant spider. It had no hair that I could see, and its skin was the same jet black as its coat. It scraped a pile of garbage down the hill, and a mass of thick, gelatinous, foul-smelling fluid splashed over Kelly's feet. She squealed in disgust, and at the sound, the goblin dropped it's broom and stared at us. "Uh, hello," I called out. I looked over at Kelly, who stared back at me with wide eyes. I shrugged, and turned my attention back to the creature. "How's it going?" **** The goblin unleashed a string of muffled, gibberish syllables, which I could understand none of. "What's wrong with its face?" whispered Kelly. The enormous round ears of the thing twitched when she spoke, and its black, expressionless eyes zeroed in on her. "That's not its face," I whispered. "It's a mask." The goblin tugged at straps on the back of its head and pulled the apparatus off of its head, which now looked more like a gas mask. "Outworlders," said the creature. "You is from the day place. Yes, no? Maybe so?" "Uh, yes," I answered. "It speaks English," hissed Kelly. "I know it speaks English," I hissed back. "Don't be rude." "Uh, yes," I said, in answer to the creature's query. "We come from a day place. Where are we now?" Luminescent grey irises floated on jet black corneas as he - by now the thing definitely seemed male - blinked at the question and let out a snort through his beak of a nose. "Nix," he finally grunted. "Nix," I repeated. "Is that the name of this planet or is it just the name of your country?" He blinked and said nothing. "Ask him for water," said Kelly. I shot her an irritated look. "Not yet," I whispered. But the stranger had heard her question. "You wants water? What for?" His voice was a sandpaper croak, William Hickey with early stage emphysema. "My friend, she's... thirsty," I said. "Can you help us? Can you give us water?" "Helps you," he said, flicking his tongue over broad, flat teeth. His lips slowly curled into a smile. "Might do, might do. What's init for Tock?" "That's your name? Tock?" "Ayep," he answered, affecting a little bow with his head, the grey rings in his eyes never leaving me. "Tock Lockery is me." "Well, what do you want for the water?" He turned his gaze towards Kelly. "This one here," he snorted, "It's got pretty pale hair on the head." He grinned at her. "Howsabouts a piece?" "You want a piece of her hair?" I shrugged. "We can do that." I looked at Kelly. "Right?" Kelly flinched in revulsion as Tock Lockery shuffled near her, standing on prehensile tip-toes and flashing his widest jet black smile across jet black teeth. "Yeah," she said, as if she was swallowing a cockroach. "Yeah, sure." Tock Lockery did a backflip and drew a pair of metal shears from a loop in his belt. He moved toward her, snip-snip-snipping the shears as he reached for her head. Kelly yelped and backed away, hiding behind me. "Tock! Hold on," I said, holding up my hand to try and stop him. "You get the hair when we get our water." "No good," said Tock, his grin melting into a deep frown. "Cash up front. Sorry, no see-oh-dee." "What did he say?" said Kelly. "Hair now, else you go thirsty," said Tock. "No water 'til den." I sighed. "Fine. Give me the scissors and I'll cut a piece off for you." He grumbled, but reluctanctly handed the shears over. Then he snorted and spat. It occurred to me that he probably couldn't stand the stench any more than we could. "Sorry about this," I murmured to Kelly as I prepared to snip off a small lock of her hair. "I don't trust this little fucker," she whispered. "He seems like he's crazy." Tock regarded the strands that I handed to him. "Not 'nuff," he grumbled. "Too small." "Half now, half on delivery," I said, folding my arms. "Sorry, no 'see-oh- dee'." He regarded the little clump of hair a second time and issued a sound halfway between a snarl and a grunt, which I took as an affirmative. Then he inhaled deeply from the bouquet of Kelly's hair and licked it. Licked it like a man emerging from the sahara might lick a cone of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Satisfied, he placed the hair in a pocket inside his coat. Kelly gave me a look that said, Are you seriously trusting this asshole? I shrugged. "Shears," said Tock, holding out his hand. I handed them over, and he tucked them back into his belt and slung his massive broom over his shoulder. "Off we go," he said, and started up the tunnel. As relates to average land speed, Tock's small stature was deceptive. We had a hard time keeping up with what for him was probably a leisurely stroll. It didn't help that we had no shoes, and kept slipping in the slop and dreck that covered the floor of the tunnel. "Is this a sewer?" I asked Tock after one such spill. His confused look told me that he had never heard of the word. "Okay, what is this place?" "Up top," he answered. "Into the garbage shoot, flyboy." "Is that Star Wars?? I said. ?Ayep.? ?How do you know Star Wars?? ?Everybody knows it. Sees it on the Wire.? ?The Wire?? ?Picture Wire,? he said, and offered no more on the subject. ?So your job is to push garbage down these tunnels and out into the sky?? ?Ayep.? ?Do you like your job?? He paused and turned to look at me, grey irises blinking. ?What you think?? ?So how did you get this shit job?? asked Kelly. Tock made some weezy grumbles before he answered, like the wizard from Conan the Barbarian gargling hot ox urine. ?Dee-moted,? he finally answered. ?For what?? asked Kelly. ?Nnnn. Ate the boss's supper.? ?What?? said Kelly. ?Ate the boss's supper. So he says to the Nollocks, 'Tock Lockery here, he's a banish-ed. Uptown, like.' And then he says to me, he says, 'Into the garbage shoot, flyboy. Come back an' I cuts out yer tongue.' ?I likes my tongue.? Said tongue slithered out of his mouth to lick a black eyeball. ?Must have been some supper,? said Kelly. ?Ayep.? The tunnel gradually got brighter as we traveled, and soon we came to the bottom of a large shaft that seemed to go on forever above us. Tock casually strolled along the wall and then hopped onto the handholds cut into the side of it, nimbly ascending the wall. His arms and prehensile toes propelled him up almost as quickly as he could walk. I rubbed at the blisters from the previous climb, dark and puffy even in the pale grey light, I rubbed at my weary forearms. Kelly sighed as she looked at the wall, then did a few stretches and started up the wall. At about twelve feet she stopped and looked back at me. ?You okay?? I bit my lip and took a long look up the shaft. The vines here were as bright as ever, and the glimmering seed pods made the shaft look like a cylindrical starfield painted onto the inside of a corn silo, and it went on forever. And ever. And. Ever. ?I don't know about this,? I said. She followed my gaze, ?Yeah, it's tall. But we probably don't have to go the whole way. I'm sure there's another tunnel or something along the way. Probably sooner than you think.? ?You think?? I wasn't convinced. ?Whatsammater?? asked Tock, who had turned around and was now climbing back down towards us, headfirst. ?We're not built for this,? said Kelly as she dangled and dropped to the ground. She stood next to me and took my hand in hers. I quietly breathed a sigh of relief. ?So,? he said. ?Outworld fee-males. No good for a little, climb, hey?? He sneered in disgust. Kelly opened her mouth to make some comeback about the capabilities of females, but I gave her hand a hard squeeze that cut her off. ?It seems so,? I said, and gave her a look to keep her quiet. I turned back to Tock. ?Can't you bring the water here?? ?No ken doo,? said Tock. ?Wait here. I get something to bring you up.? He spun around like a spider and promptly disappeared up the wall of the shaft. When he was gone, Kelly let go of my hand and breathed a sigh of relief. I hung my head, ashamed at my inability to climb a wall. ?Thank you,? I said softly. She said nothing, and began to pace along the wall, far away from where I stood. I sat, tucked my knees up to my chin, and closed my eyes. **** The sound of Kelly's scream jolted me awake. She was running from something low to the ground, something that was slithering after her. I sprung to my feet, flashlight in hand. The thing was pale grey, as big as a python, but shaped more like a worm. A leechlike maw bristled with hundreds of tiny, razor-sharp teeth. It was moving fast, almost faster than she could run. I turned on the flashlight and pointed the beam at the thing. Despite not having any visible eyes, it somehow sensed the beam and slithered around it like lightning, its reflexes sharpened by what the physical threat posed by the light. I zigzagged the light to try and catch it, but the best I could do was catch its skin in the beam for a split second before it dodged out of the way. I made a little wall of light between it and Kelly, and the thing reared back and seemed to get the point. Only now it was coming towards me, looking to extinguish the source of the threat. ?Kelly!? I shouted, my heart pounding in my chest. ?Get out your light. We need to work together.? She let out a squeal and pulled her light out from inside her jacket. Unfortunately, in her haste and panic she dropped it. The thing darted its head toward at the sound, and started moving towards her again. ?Never mind,? I said. ?Don't move. It senses vibration.? Kelly froze and I stomped my foot. The eyeless horror turned it's attention back to me. I continued shuffling my feet and painting a tight perimeter of light between me and it. ?Okay,? I whispered. ?Now I just need it to sit still. That means bait.? And then the solution hit me. With one hand I held the light, and with the other I unzipped the front of my jumpsuit and reached down into my crotch. With a grunt I yanked the tampon free from my vagina and tossed it away from me, behind the awful worm. Three soda straw tongues flicked out of the maw as the tampon sailed over its head, following the course of the bloody thing. When it landed, the beast pounced. I gave it a full two seconds to chew at the bloody mess before I zapped it with the light, directly in the spine. There was a bit of vapor, like steam, and the worm let out a terrible, high-pitched squeal. It moved to evade, but now Kelly was ready with her light, and while it could dodge one beam, two was substantially more difficult. It retreated into a hole along the edge of the floor, and vanished from sight. ?Ugh,? said Kelly, still training her beam on the hole. She tried to resist it, but her gorge rose and whatever she'd had for breakfast back in eighty- seven came tumbling out. She couldn't stop shaking. I clicked off my flashlight and held her, stroked her head until she calmed down. She held tightly to me, her hands clinging to fistfuls of my jumpsuit. In a minute she calmed down. ?Did you just use a used tampon for bait?? she asked me. ?Yes,? I said. She gave out a short laugh, but in a moment she broke free of my embrace, as if she suddenly remembered that she wasn't supposed to trust me. ?Thank you,? she said reluctantly, and began to pace again, keeping a sharp eye on the floor for more worms. I turned my back to her and replaced the tampon. ?Josie,? said Kelly after a minute of silence. ?Yeah.? ?Why did you want to look at my ass before?? I cleared my throat. ?It's, uh, a very nice ass.? She rolled her eyes. ?It's your ass now. Get a mirror.? ?Didn't have one handy. Anyway, it's hard to see your own ass in a mirror.? She didn't accept my answer, and waited with arms folded for a better one. But none came, and she let it drop. After few more minutes, a black disk appeared in the shaft above us, and gradually got bigger, blotting out more of the cylindrical starfield as it grew. ?This must be him,? I whispered to Kelly. ?Listen, I don't trust this crazy little fucker any more than you do. Keep your light handy. It worked like a death ray on that worm. Maybe it'll do the same for him.? ?Okay,? she answered. ?Thanks.? She did a few slow breaths to try and calm herself down. I took her hand in mine, and looked her in the eye. ?Listen to me,? I said, ?We're going to get through this. We're going to get back to the sun. Do you hear me?? ?Yeah,? she answered, and gave a forced little smile. It was a start. What I didn't tell her was that the pep talk was as much for myself as it was for her. The black disk grew larger, and we started to hear voices from above it. ?Best not be fuckin' 'round with me, old Tock,? said a voice, higher and more musical than Tock's abrasive drone. ?Boss Man not be teachin' lessons this time 'round. He sends me to chain you up in the sky, maybe.? ?You hush up now,? answered the voice of Tock. ?Scare 'way my fishes. Supplies are limited, yeah?? The grey dots of two eyes appeared over the edge of black disk, which was looking more and more like a giant basket. ?Hey-hey, beauties,? Tock called out. ?Still breathing and kicking?? ?We're here,? I called up. ?What is that?? ?Big big basket,? he answered. ?Can't just drops junko down the hole, yeah? Makes too much of a squishy mess on the floor, and the stink rises all the ways up to Boss Man's place. No good. Gotta sends it down in a big big basket, real neat.? ?Great,? muttered Kelly. ?We couldn't climb it, so he sent a garbage truck to fetch us up.? ?This here is being Mister Zip,? said Tock, introducing a second pair of eyes. ?He helps us get you up to Nix Proper.? ?Why?? I asked. ?Why not just bring the water to us?? ?Because,? answered Tock. ?Boss Man gots all the water. Gots to ask him in person.? ?I thought you said he'd cut out your tongue if you ever came back?? Mister Zip let out a giggle, and Tock grunted. ?Boss Man likes pretty beauties for company. I figure maybe he likes you beauties enough to give me a free pass, yeah?? ?Hold still now, pretty,? said Mister Zip as he raised something resembling a rifle to one shoulder and aimed it towards Kelly. ?Be like a stone, or I whoopsie shoot you in the foot, maybe.? ?What?? said Kelly, and started backing away. As she spoke, something fast and sharp shot from the rifle and sank into a hunk of flesh just behind her. She screamed as she saw the eyeless worm that had been slowly creeping her way. The thing was impaled by the missile, a black, six inch spike that cleaved through the worm's skin like a nail through a poster. Black ichor oozed from the wound, and it wriggled and tried in vain to break free. Mister Zip must have punctured a vital organ, because in a few moments in ceased moving and lay lifeless on the ground. ?Jesus Christ what the fuck are these things?? shouted Kelly. ?Tunnel worm,? said Mister Zip. I spun around and saw that the big big basket had now completed it's descent. Zip was pulling a strip of something rubbery behind another missile. ?And what's that?? I asked. ?Quill gun.? ?Hate to meet the porcupine,? I muttered, and climbed aboard. ?You coming?? I said to Kelly, who was still staring at the dead creature and trying to keep her gorge down. She broke out of her reverie and climbed aboard, and we rose up into the shaft. The big big basket rose up into the back of a large ampitheater. Some kind of a steam engine chugged away at a great winch that was pulling us. We disembarked and I could see the tops of Nollock heads above a large wall, the tips of their enormous ears reflecting a pale, flickering light. ?Come,? said Tock, ?ee go to main stage now.? ?Why?? I asked. I wanted to examine the heating mechanism for the steam engine more closely. Can't have steam without water, after all. ?No talking here on, yeah?? He nodded at Mister Zip, who leveled his quill gun at us. ?Come,? said Tock, and walked down one of the enormous aisles. Zip poked Kelly in the back. And just like that, we were prisoners. As we approached the pit that served as the main stage, I could see what they were watching. It was a fuzzy, black-and-white image shaped like a giant television picture. I had seen the show: Fantastic Planet, a far-out animated French film from the seventies, about a colony of savage humans who lived on a weird alien planet where everything was gigantic. Not the least of which were the blue people called the Draags. ?How can they have TV?? whispered Kelly. ?I don't know,? I whispered back. ?They're intercepting television signals from our world somehow.? The scene the Nollocks were watching was early in the film, in which a young mother was running through the forest with her baby, and being hounded by a giant blue finger from above (of course, here it was a dark grey finger). Before long the mother would be dead, and a Draag child would claim the baby as her pet. The Nollocks absolutely loved it every time the hounded woman turned and tried to run, only to get knocked down once again by the giant fingers from above. Every time she went down, there was a cheer. I looked at Kelly, who had a very nervous expression on her face. Her arms were crossed and one hand had slipped inside her jacket to keep hold of the flashlight. ?Not yet,? I whispered to her. ?Water.? We walked up past the front row and onto the main floor of the ampitheater, just in front of the large screen. The picture on the stage, meanwhile, was getting a lot of snow and distortion. The gathered Nollocks were starting to boo. ?Fix it,? howled a shrill voice, cutting through the crowd. ?Fixit fixit fixit!? The voice was coming from a large, fat Nollock who had a large chair in the middle of the stands. He was kicking a small underling; when the fat one finally sat, the underling dashed up to the front of the stage and began messing with the machinery at the base of the enormous image, which was outlined by a large, thick wire. Fatso, meanwhile, changed his expression once he saw Tock standing on a little wall in front of the stands. ?Stop the flicker show,? he said. ?We gots us a Lockery Tock down in front who gots no more use for a tongue no more.? His face went sour when he looked at Tock, but brightened up a bit when he saw the two of us. ?Nix,? shouted Tock Lockery. ?Gots a present for you, Boss Man. Wants to put bad things behind, yeah? And so Tock here brings you replacement goodies. Pretty pretty ones, yeah?? ?Oh, shit,? said Kelly. ?The supper that he stole was people, wasn't it?? I looked at Kelly and glanced down at the hand ready to pull the flashlight out, but furrowed my brow and shook my head no. ?Hmm,? said Nix in a high-pitched, squeaky whine of a voice. ?You gives Boss Man not one, but two suck-you-lent beauties as replacement for one, eh? What's in it for you?? ?Just yer Pardon, Lord,? answered Tock. ?And...? He hopped up on a step at the edge of the stage and started to unzip the front of my jumpsuit. Meanwhile Zip held his rifle on me, pointed right at my face. ?Maybe you saves Tock a piece, yeah?? Said Tock as he poked and squeezed my right breast. ?The Teats is the sweet meats.? The Nollocks broke into cruel, cackling laughter, while I fought hard against the well of revulsion that was bubbling up inside of me. As soon as Zip laughed hard enough to lower his weapon, I seized the opportunity and hopped past him onto the steps. I began climbing up towards Nix with my arms oustretched in a non-threatening gesture, hoping to avoid being shot. Unfortunately, this meant flashing most of the tribe at close range. ?Great Nix!? I shouted as gently as I could. ?We have other talents to offer you as Outworlders. Spare me and my... sister and we can share with you wonders and knowledge that you haven't dreamed of!? Nix raised a hand to hold the riflemen on either side of him that were poised to fire. ?Yeah?? He said to me. ?What you got, pretty pretty? Sweet smelling snatch? Milky baby sauce?? I didn't dignify that with a response. ?I offer you knowledge, Lord. Such as the power to repair your wire.? Nix scowled. ?Says who Wire needs fixin'?? ?I do,? I said, as I slowly zipped up. ?You're not kicking flunkies because the pictures are in such great shape.? Nix didn't answer, but his face told me that I was right. ?I believe that I can repair this problem if you'll let me.? Nix thought it over, ?What's init for pretty pretty?? said Nix with a suspicious look. ?Our lives, Lord,? I said. ?And perhaps, if my Lord Nix is feeling generous, he might spare a small bit of water for me and my companion.? It didn't seem like he was used to this kind of treatment, and he scratched behind his ears while he thought it over. ?Okay. Fix the Wire, pretty pretty. After we talk about whether you live or not.? I folded my arms and took a crack at the rhythm of the Nollock cant. ?So you lets me fix your pictures and then eats me up anyway? Not very sporting, yeah? So Nollocks start to thinks twice about making a deal with Nix, maybe. Nix being so crafty and all, he don't need to keep a promise. He can trick pretty pretties into fixing the Wire and then roast 'em for dinner. So one of us is next, maybe.? **** There was a moment of silence in the ampitheater, and then all of the Nollocks erupted in laughter. Nix smiled as he looked around at his constituency. ?Howsabout dis. You fixes Wire for me now and I don't keep you alive while I cooks you. You gets a quick, painless kill-dead after I maybe has a little bouncy bouncy fun. And 'den I eats you anyway. How 'dat sound, eh?? ?Not too good,? I answered. ?How 'bout this?? I pulled the flashlight from my pocket and shone the beam directly in Nix's face, which melted into a puddle of black ichor as he squealed in pain. The riflemen dropped their weapons in terror, and ran with the other Nollocks, screaming and fleeing from the beam like cockroaches. I kept my death ray trained on Nix's head until there was only a steaming stump atop his neck. I clicked off the light and turned around. There were no Nollocks in sight. Even Tock Lockery had fled, and Kelly and I were alone in the ampitheater. ?Where did everybody go?? I shouted. ?Come on out and play!? A few Nollocks showed themselves and crept back into the main floor of the theater, trembling in fear and keeping their heads bowed low. ?Why did they come out?? asked Kelly as I went to her side. ?I don't know,? I said. I pointed at one of the creatures. ?You! Come here.? ?Okay, Boss,? said the Nollock nervously. I couldn't be sure, but it sounded female, like Joan Rivers after a week in an opium den. A light went on in my head as the Nollock crept up to me. ?Who is the Boss Man?? I asked it. ?You are, Pretty Pretty.? Kelly's face lit up. ?Whoever kills the chief becomes the new Boss?? ?Bring us water,? I said to the Nollock grovelling in front of us. ?In a bucket. Now!? The Nollock froze and began trembling. ?What's the matter?? I asked. ?Only Boss Man can fetch water. Boss's orders.? ?What's your name?? asked Kelly. The creature looked up at her and looked like it was frozen in indecision. ?Your name,? I said. ?Jinks, Lord,? said the grovelling Nollock. ?Jinks, why am I the Boss?? ?You killed Boss Man. That makes you Boss Man.? ?They know you're not a man, right?? muttered Kelly. I ignored here. ?Jinks, why don't you look at me?? Jinks said nothing, and averted her eyes. ?Jinks, do you have to follow my orders if I can't see you?? Jinks said nothing, but fidgeted back and forth nervously. ?Answer me.? ?No, Lord.? ?What if I give you an order that takes you where I can't see you?? ?Got to do it, Lord.? ?But if I don't see you to begin with? Answer.? ?No, Lord.? ?Jinks, do you want to follow my orders?? She grumbled something faintly under her breath and said, ?No, Lord.? ?Can you pass my orders along to someone else?? ?Yes, Lord.? ?And they have to follow them?? ?Yes, Lord.? ?What if they don't believe you?? Jinks looked confused. ?Can't lie, Lord.? ?Why not?? ?They know.? ?How?? ?Smell.? ?Pheremonal hierarchy,? I said to Kelly. ?It's impossible to lie when dealing with the alpha or someone following the alpha's orders.? ?Weird,? said Kelly. ?Jinks.? ?Yes, Lord?? ?Are the others going to try and kill me?? Jinks looked up at me, trying to suppress a smirk. ?Yes, Lord.? ?Great,? said Kelly. ?King for a day. And then you die.? ?It's more than we had ten minutes ago,? I told her. To Jinks, I said, ?Where is the water now?? She shrugged. ?Not sure, Lord. You try workshop, maybe.? ?Workshop? Lead us there.? ?Yes, Lord.? She stood and led us out the back of the theater and down a long hallway. It was pretty well lit, and I kept my eyes open. Along the way we ran into a few more Nollocks, who had been hiding in corners and cubbyholes. I ordered them to keep a sharp eye out for potential assassins, and to pass along my order to stand down to any that they found. And before we got to the workshop, they found more than a few. I added them to my entourage, which made for a thick perimeter by the time we approached the workshop. Finally we came to the end of the hallway, and a large door made out of a dull metal that I didn't recognize. ?How do I get in?? I asked Jinks. ?Don't know, Lord.? I addressed my little horde. ?Does anyone here know how to get in here?? **** No answer. I examined the door, found some knobs that were disguised as artwork. ?It's a puzzle,? I said. ?Can't be too complicated, or none of these meatheads would ever open it.? ?Can you figure it out?? said Kelly. ?Maybe. Except-? I looked closer at the material that the door's made out of. ?I don't think I have to.? ?What do you mean?? asked Kelly. ?Step back,? I told the assembled host, and did likewise. To Kelly I said, ?Metal seems to be pretty rare here. Like the Wire that they use to intercept TV signals.? ?So?? said Kelly. ?So, this door isn't metal. It's some kind of tough wood, painted to look like metal. And that should mean-? I pointed a flashlight at the door and fired. The grey material sizzled and turned to smoke and ash under the beam. I made a two foot hole before I shut the beam off. ?Anybody hear me in there? This is the Boss Man. Open up.? A face appeared in the little hole. A face with tiny spectacles. ?Who speaks?? ?I do,? I said, stepping forward with my best all-business face. ?Open the door.? Sharp eyes regarded me for a moment, and then the face vanished. Locks clicked into place somewhere inside the door. There was a loud snap and the door began to open inward, scraping the stone floor as it moved. ?Stay here,? I said to the assembled entourage of Nollocks. I nodded at Kelly, who followed me inside. The workshop was not nearly as claustrophobic as many of the other spaces in the Nollock architecture. High ceilings and ample lighting were obviously required to experiment. ?What's your name?? I said to the Nollock who had let us in. ?Fizzel, Lord,? he answered, his suspicious eyes never leaving mine. ?Is there anyone else here? Someone I can't see?? ?Yes, Lord.? ?You will instruct them to come out now, to where I can see them.? ?Very good, Lord.? Without taking his eyes off of me, he called out, ?Come on out.? A second Nollock appeared from behind a large wooden box, identical to Fizzel apart from a lack of eyeglasses. ?Where do they get wood without trees?? said Kelly. ?What's your name?? I asked the new one. ?Guff, Lord.? Guff, like his companion, never took his eyes off of me for an instant. ?What is this place?? I asked Fizzel. ?Your workshop, Lord.? ?And what do you work on?? ?Science, Lord.? ?What sort of science? What do you study?? ?Everything, Lord.? ?Such as?? He pointed at a group of jugs on a table, of various sizes. ?Chemistry, Lord.? ?I need water. Bring me some.? The Nollocks didn't move. Guff blinked and Fizzel cocked his head to one side. ?Well? Where's the water?? ?The water is yours to command, Lord. Tell us where you want it and we will provide.? ?I want it here,? I said, pointing to the chemistry table. ?In this bucket.? Guff glanced at the bucket for a moment, then back at me. ?How can we put water in a bucket, Lord?? I motioned for Kelly to close the door. When she did, I said, ?Fizzel, what is water?? ?Water is the dark light that sustains us, Lord.? I tried to let that one sink in. No good. ?Where does the dark light come from?? ?From the center of the world, Lord.? ?And what is at the center of the world.? ?The Dark Sun, Lord.? The Dark Sun. A sun that is black... ?You mean a black hole?? Fizzel narrowed his eyes at me. ?I don't know this word, Lord.? I began to pace. ?Very well. Put the water in this corner,? I said, pointing to a shadowy corner of the room. Fizzel and Guff exchanged a quick glance. ?Yes, Lord.? Kelly and I watched as they got to work, first opening up a trunk and removing what looked like a black cable, thick as a firehose. Every since inches of it had a metal joint, and they moved it very carefully, as if dropping it would break something inside. They then nailed metal rings into the wall, along the corner that I had pointed out, and installed glass lenses into them. The hose was attached to the bottommost lens. The other end was hooked up to a distributor on the floor that looked like a cross between a lantern and a hydrant. Fizzel climbed a ladder and attached the final cable to a metal cylinder that came down from the ceiling and hung four feet above our heads. ?Where do they get the glass?? asked Kelly. ?Good question. Where do the lenses come from?? I asked Fizzel. ?We made them, Lord.? ?Made them out of what?? ?Grinded them, Lord. From the bones.? ?What bones?? ?Nollock bones.? ?If they're living off of the energy that comes out of a black hole, then their bodies must be extremely dense, compared to ours.? I said to Kelly. ?Their bones have more in common with minerals than with organic matter.? Kelly made a face. ?We live off energy from the sun. That's pretty dense, isn't it?? I was impressed. ?That's true. But they're in much closer proximity to their energy source. Perhaps their atomic structures are strengthened by millions of years of radiation.? ?Radiation?? said Kelly, her voice going up in alarm. ?We're being exposed to radiation right now?? ?I expect so,? I said. ?How do you think these plants generate so much light and heat? Why aren't we freezing to death without a sun to warm us?? ?Oh, god,? said Kelly, and shivered despite the warm temperature that I had just pointed out. Guff and Fizzel had the apparatus set up, and opened a valve. It was as if all of the light was sucked out of the corner, but at the same time, the surrounding vegetation gave off an even brighter glow. ?Don't touch those shadows,? I told Kelly. ?Keep in mind what our light does to them.? ?Is this fucking radiation?? said Kelly. ?Stop it!? She was right. ?That's enough,? I told Fizzel. ?Shut it off now.? ?That is dangerous, Lord,? said Fizzel with a grin. ?To stop the flow of water so suddenly-? ?Now, damn it!? I closed the valve on the distributor, which immediately burst apart. Wood and metal shrapnel went flying. ?You alright?? I asked Kelly, looking her over for damage. ?Um,? she said, pointing at my hand. There was a deep gash in my palm, and my fingers were covered in blood. ?Oh, shit!? I said. ?Not the Boss,? said Guff, staring at the bloody digits. ?The Boss cannot be pierced,? said Fizzel, hopping off his ladder. ?Stop right there,? I said, pointing with my good hand. ?Come no closer. That's an order.? ?You are not the Boss,? said Fizzel, stepping closer in defiance of the command. ?You are pierced,? said Guff. ?The Boss may not be pierced.? He stepped toward Kelly, clutching a heavy hook in one hand. Fizzel drew a large knife from his table. ?Not the Boss, but you have Sweet Meats.? I raised the flashlight that was still clutched in my hand and hit the switch. Nothing happened. ?What?? I looked in the business end and saw that was cracked. Must have happened when the distributor burst apart. ?Oh, shit,? I said. Kelly backed into Guff's work station and raised her flashlight. Guff swung his hook and knocked it into a corner with ease. ?Sweet Meats are the best eats,? said Guff, and he licking his chops as he advanced on Kelly. ?Scream now, pretty pretties,? said Fizzel. ?Be afraid. The glands will give your meat a good seasoning.?