Date: Mon, 5 Jul 93 03:35:28 MDT From: tperreau@banshee.VLA.NRAO.EDU (Tonster) Message-Id: <9307050935.AA10116@banshee.vla.nrao.edu> To: alt-ql-creative@cisco.com Subject: Once A King...Part 3 Once A King... Part III Meagan dropped the handlink on the console in front of Tina. "It glitched again. Fix it." Tina looked at the clipboard sized computer while she snapped her gum. "Can't. Interference from the holography system. We've been through this before with Al. Sorry." Meagan frowned at Tina. "You are the pulse communications technician. You helped design the handlink interface. I expect you to fix it so that the data transfer does not freeze up again." She turned and walked out of the control room. Tina waited until the doors slid shut. "Bitch," she and Ziggy said in unison. *** The door unlocked, and Al pushed it open with his foot, carrying two suitcases and a small briefcase. He shuffled through the door, then shut it with his foot. He dropped the suitcases there in the living room, and the briefcase went onto the couch with a flop. He made his way to the kitchen where he pulled out a cold drink from the 'fridge. "Damn, sure is hot out there;" he commented to no one in particular. He frowned as he made his way back to the living room; he had been talking to himself more and more lately. He needed to hear a voice, even if it was his own. He walked by the grandfather clock and looked at his reflection in the glass. The years had added wrinkles around his eyes and silver hair to his temples, but otherwise he really hadn't changed that much. The cotton shirt was way too loud and colorful, or so Sam would think. Sam. Al sighed and felt a twinge of pain. Over seven years had passed since Sam had vanished into the mound. Al wondered for the thousandth time what had happened to his friend. He walked into his bedroom, turning on the swamp cooler as he went by. Adobe homes were nice, he thought, for they retained coolness in the summer. Al saw that his message center light was blinking. He pressed the playback button and went about unpacking as the messages were read. "Hi, Al. This is Verbena," Al looked up at the message. The visual display was blank with the exception of the time / date stamp. "Just a quick message, we're not allowed a whole lot of time. Mars is...Lord, I don't know how to describe it! The dust is as bad as on the lunar colony. Most of the ship would be coated now if not for the vacuums. Gotta run, my nickel is almost up. Say hi to everyone at the Project for me. Let me know when, or if, Sam returns. Love." The message ended with a double beep. "Save," Al said. The message went onto a micro CD-ROM. The center then played back the other messages one at a time, which Al told it to skip. He was through the first suitcase and into the second when he heard a familiar voice. "Admiral," Ziggy's voice, hesitant, came from the speakers. "This is Ziggy. I know that you are no longer connected with the Project, but...oh, hell. Fathers' back! He's leaped! I don't have the coordernates yet, but come back to the Project. I already took care of the forms! Hurry, Al. Bye." Then the double beep. Al felt his eyes misting. The time / date stamp was only a couple of days old. "Save. Save it!" The center beeped in acknowledgement. "Skip playback. Dial Project." Al commanded. The center dialed one of the private numbers to the Project. Al pulled out a special cigar and lit it up while the phone rang. "Pulse communications. Tina." "Tina, this is Al." "AL!" Tina squeaked. "God! You've got to come back as the Observer! This bitc..." "Now, Tina. I've been retired, remember?" Al puffed on the cigar. "Ziggy called me. Sam's leaped?" "Yeah," he heard the gum pop. "Phoenix, 1987. He's some guy named Ron Stevenson." Al frowned. "Not Dr. Ronald Stevenson?" "Hold on." Tina put the phone on MUTE. She came back on a couple of seconds later. "Yeah? How did you know?" "He won the Nobel in '97 for the high temperature superconductors that made the imaging chamber possible. I know that he used to go to Phoenix when he was in college, and '87 would have been his next to final year." Al paced. "What happened?" "He dies of a spider bite. Can you believe that?" Tina lowered her voice. "Al, you've got to come back! The Meagan from Hell here is making everyone's life a torment! Because the handlink glitched, she had me tearing it apart." "Just like the old ones?" "Yeah. Though we had the data transfer link fixed with the new PCM modules, but I guess not." Tina sighed. "Please, Al. I'm beggin' ya. Come back." Al blew a smoke ring at the ceiling. "I am, kiddo. Ziggy fixed up some paperwork so I can come back at least for a visit." "Hurry. Gotta run. The Meagan going back in and she wants the handlink. Bye." Tina hung up. Al squinted at his uniform, looking for lint. "Dial Senator Lopez." Al instructed the center as he brushed off invisible dust from his admiral's braid. "Move over, Major Pain. Calavicci's back in the saddle again."