Nice as five million dollars is, it's a little bit hard to spend it when you're six feet under. You know that Mr. R. will accept your surrender, not so much because he's a sweetheart, but because a man who sells arms to two sides of planetary wars doesn't need a reputation of brutality. And you can't help thinking that a few more years in jail can't be too much worse than another few minutes with that simpering brat Mr. R. calls a daughter.
Barely a few minutes later, you find yourself held by a force-field in a cell. You're in a ship piloted by a single person, which was the largest that Mr. R. could land on the planet without being noticed.
Your companion is a patrolwoman by the name of Julie. You can't help noticing that she's rather pretty, with short brown hair that fits with her face and well-formed body. Under different circumstances, you might try making a move. Unfortunately, these are not different circumstances.
You are just getting reconciled to spending a while in jail when something odd happens. The ship is suddenly surrounded by a humming. Seconds later, multi-colored lights start flashing all over the ship. Instantly, you realize what's happening, because it's something you've heard of before. Every so often, a ship can hit and be engulfed in a practically undetectable hole in space-time, a sort of semi-wormhole that will drop it off completely randomly. It's been known to go as far as several lightyears.
And then, you get a really lucky break. The stress of the flight starts to overload devices. And one of the first ones it overloads is the field holding you in the cell.
Acting on instinct, you rush out and leap on Julie, using five years of experience to pin her to the ground. The lights cease.
"You idiot!" she screams. "I could have gotten us out of that thing!"
"Well, so much the better that you didn't, wouldn't you say?"
"Hardly!" she replies. "That fissure just took us into unexplored territory. We're now in space where the word human has never been uttered!"
You look up at the directional controls. To your surprise, she's telling the truth.
"Now let me up," she continues. "I promise I won't do anything to you. This far out, I need you as much as you need me." |