R.S.V.P.
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Slimeworld & Galaxy Magazine -- All rights reserved -- |
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Chapter XXVII
by General (Uncle Claude) Xxaxx
& General (E.J. Gold) Nunan PFC 1st Class Ret.
Waiting for reconnect.
Still waiting for the connection to be activated, Woo recalled with vivid detail the many occasions when Ja Mere had rendered help invaluable to her. In spite of the shared conspiracy against the bubblers to commit xpearimints, the eggheads were not by nature cooperative. Only under duress, and then only for limited periods of time, would they pull together as a team. With the exception of Ja Mere, Woo could not count on assistance from any quarter. Much of what Woo has accomplished would either have been made extremely difficult or just plain not possible — leastwise not without risk of exposing more of her abilities than was wise. The cownsil was aware of dragon magic. They even taught classes in it and sponsored graduate studies in it. But those were supposed to be scholarly undertakings. It didn’t actually occur to the Counsil or the University that anyone would learn more than a few simple tricks. Most scholastic students didn’t have the aptitude to learn the dragon magic and any student that did penetrate into the “real McCoy” made special efforts to only reveal the same degree of relative incompetence as each of the normal students. It did not serve the dragon’s purposes to have a few talented eggheads using dragon magic to interfere in issues that the dragons wished left to develop under their own conditions. The end result was one the administrators could handle a nice history and social study of dragons without the threat of the inexplicable — other than the few dragon tricks use for entertainment at parties and bar mitzvahs.
Contact established
Woo pressed the
“Ja Mere, this is myself, just returned from China.”
“Who’s this yellow visage I see before me?”
“It’s only been a month or two.”
“Actually more like three months. But one loses track of time without outside stimulis such as postcards to keep one in contact.”
“I wrote you plenty of postcards. Almost once a week. In fact,” fishing with a surprised — hand — “I have them right here in my pocket, even as we speak.”
“In these aforesaid postcards, unblemished by being transferred through the mail systems, is there any reference to the current status of affairs concerning our being crushed under the tyranny of gravity? You remember, Earth slowing, all life on the planet coming to a rather flat end. It was rather the topic of the day for awhile — somewhat of a weighty subject.”
“Oh, please. Is this my punishment?”
“Are you saying the my puns leave you flat?”
“Ouch.”
“Do you think my concerns add too much gravity to the conversation?”
“No, no. I give. No more. I’ll tell. I’ll tell all. Just spare me the puns.”
“Speaking of not wanting a conversation to drag on, what did your four-footed friends have to say?”
“Well, there’s good news, bad news and worse news.”
“What’s the good news?”
“They can’t help.”
“And the bad news?”
“They wouldn’t help if they could.”
“Dare I ask?”
“Oh, sure; dare.”
“Okay — what’s the worse news?”
“There is a way to stop the slow-down process and reverse its effects on gravity.”
“This? This is the worse news?”
“Well, it requires the complete cooperation of every egghead, goober and Citizin on the planet to make it happen.”
“Aargh, why couldn’t it just be impossible? That we would have a chance to accomplish! But this — this is more than just impossible.”
“I told you it was the worse news.”
“Well — any other news?”
“Let’s see: went to China; went shopping; looked up my dragon buddies — as you call them; went shopping; remembered a thousand years worth of training that was blocked from my memory; went shopping; collapsed in a heap on the floor a couple of times; went shopping; had the pleasure of recalling several incidences from our college days; went shopping; tried unsuccessfully to determine why Drak, my dragon mage-teacher interviewed Little Roy; went shopping . . . “
“Wait a minute. what was that last part?”
“Went shopping?”
“No, just before that.”
“Oh, you mean the part about Drak interviewing Little Roy?”
“Yes, that would be the part. Tell me something about that.”
“Well, not much to tell. I came back from my final jungle-interview with Drak. I found Little Roy climbing out of an air-conditioning duct. Apparently he felt that was the proper place to be after visiting the Gronkomatic factory with Drak.”
“Visiting what?”
“The Gronkomatic factory. Apparantly that’s the “in” place for a dragon and goober to hang out.”
“How is it that a dragon and goober can walk around downtown and tour the Gronkomatic factory without causing a major stir?”
“He was voguing as a human — naturally.”
“Naturally.”
“Where did I leave off?”
“Little Roy was climbing down from the air-conditioning duct.”
“Right. Watching Little Roy extricate himself from the air-conditioning I figured that something unusual was up. One doesn’t usually catch their goober guard climbing down from a room vent. I gave him the ol’ psychic once over and found that Drak had spent a few hundred years with him sometime between eleven-fifty and twelve o’clock. We went to dinner and rode the boat back here. If you’d like I could catch you up to date on our immigration policies. I learned a great deal about that.”
“About that?”
“Yes, about that. I almost had to annihilate the eastern sector of town to get back into the states.”
At this point, the visage of Ja Mere was literally vibrating with excitement in the Vid-Com display, “Woo, how ‘bout you and I get together at the club? There are a few things I’d like to go over with you.”
Connection disengaged by receiving party. Shall connection be reestablished?
“No. Execute shut down procedure 4-A.”
Procedure complete. All RAM traces scrambled and unit entering sleep mode.
Packing the Vid-Com unit into its storage case-line, Woo thought to herself, “Well, now that I have Ja Mere’s complete attention, perhaps we can get down to some serious business.”
In theory ‘the club’ was any secure location where one could talk in the open. In theory — in practice, there were few, if any, locations that were secure enough that one could talk in the clear. Woo would have to call Ja Mere later to set the time and place. They’d probably settle for the sports auditorium. That was usually a good bet.
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R.S.V.P.
|
Slimeworld & Galaxy Magazine -- All rights reserved -- |
|