Posted by PK on November 07, 2003 at 17:47:26:
"Mnemonic scrambler?" Sam guessed.
"Got it in one," the spook said.
"Doesn't work on me."
"I got that."
"Swords always work," Sam pointed out.
"Your point being?" the spook asked, pretending not to view Sam's tempered steel Saxon
blade with extreme trepidation.
"The girl goes free. The Toad gets the marmalade and buggers off. The Prof deals with the
temporal infraction.You back away and forget this ever happened. Alternatively..." She made
a minimal twitch with her sword hand that adequately communicated the concept 'I cut your
heads off'.
Albert would have liked to say that he'd prefer to resume his relationship with Alysande where
it left off, but he couldn't quite remember where that had been, and he certainly didn't want to
deal with a really serious pointy thing wielded by an expert. He'd seen what a human could
do with a pointed stick.
"It is a nexus and we can unhalfbrick it, to coin a phrase" The Professor said ascending the
cellar steps. At least, that's what Alysande thought he said. The pipe he was smoking
distorted his voice.
"You mean?" Sam said.
"Buffy's recalibrated the frammistat again," the Prof muttered. "We must all become warbs. It
will still be loose. I'm sorry my dear," he said to Alysande. "There may be a residual
dimensional nexus in your basement."
Alysande considered saying "I can live with that."
Sam looked disgruntled. "Just for once, can't you say 'Kill them all'?"
"Just to the left of the jars with the golliwogs on," the Prof continued.
"This works for us," the spook said. He produced a small device from his pocket which
flashed briefly.
"They're outside the inner time loop," the Prof continued. "Move."
Still here, Albert thought, not halfway through Jupiter. Bloody hell, this stuff really worked.
Back again. What the frell was happening? Hadn't he already?
Albert woke up.
It had all happened yesterday. He'd got his marmalade from that nice young lady. Nobody
had seen him, he was sure of that. All that stuff about Avengers and Time machines...just a
dream. This stuff was really good. He'd almost believed in the hallucinations. He prowled
around the ship . Nothing much to do. Hyperpace was boring, just grey murk and
occasionally disturbing visions. Alysande's toes, dripping with..
Fantasy. That hadn't happened. Munchies. Um....
He did have a nice little salesgirl in the stasis locker. Emergency rations.