Episode 28 - Man Was She Hot

"You see doc, I told you she was up to something crazy."

"Derrick, I don't think it's like that. You don't know Katie like I do."

"Well doc, it wouldn't appear that you know her all too well either. Who is that guy she is talking with, and what the hell are they talking about? And did you see what happened to your best buddy Fogweet? I thought you two were attached at the hip? I'm surprised you didn't get the bump on your head from him being hit."

The doctor and I crouched behind one of the loaders at the entrance of the terminal. Across the floor, at the other end of the terminal we could see Fogweet unconscious on the ground by the lift and Katie sitting at a table with some guy who looked vaguely familiar. I couldn't quite place his face, but I felt like I knew him from somewhere. Regardless of who he was, I had work to do and this guy would not stand in my way.

"I admit, the man knocking out poor little Fogweet pisses me off a bit."

"'Pisses you off' huh? Wow, that's the most emotion I've heard out of you yet. Maybe you wanna' waltz on over there and do something about it? Maybe take that guy out back and show him a thing or two?" 

"Uh... Well, I mean... There's no need to resort to" I was running out of patience and quickly cut the Jerry off, "Yeah, doc, I get it. No need to resort to violence, but we are at a time and place where violence is probably the first, second and third option for dealing with these traders and getting the fusion device back. We've been standing pat for way too long hoping that these Rogarians would simply stumble their way out of the tunnels and into our hands, and time is not on our side."

I looked over at the Jerry and he looked as if he might pass out at any moment, "Listen Jerry, if you need to sit this one out maybe you can go hang out with your girlfriend over there and you guys can work out whatever idiotic plan she has cooked up. But I need to get going and pretty soon at that. I don't know what nonsense she has planned with that guy over there but the device and this mission are far too important to risk on wild cards like these."

"No, no. I'm okay. I promise. While I definitely trust Katie, I too am not sure what this guy has to do with our mission and I think you could use my assistance as well. Your arm has only just healed from the last meeting we had with those traders, and should you get injured again I could be of great service."

I smirked a bit at the idea that I could or would ever need the doc's help especially in an encounter with the traders, but I wasn't going in the mood to argue anymore. I didn't know what the hell Katie was up to and I needed to get down in those tunnels before she could do anything stupid to jeopardize this mission. If she was working against us, well that would be a damn shame. Man was she hot. I really hoped I didn't have to kill her when this was all done.

I grabbed Jerry by his arm and we made our way to the emergency access portal just to our right. I hacked the electronic lock and we entered the doorway. As the door closed behind us I could smell the stench of what must be several of those Rogarians upwind of us. The doc let out a slight whimper and I pushed him forward down the corridor, this was going to get ugly I imagined but we continued on.

(Read the rest of the Episodic Saga here at TTiS)

Episode 22 - "Noodlier Dive"

"Marshall! Get your ass over here and help me with this Big Head! You know we need that chip!" Officer Marshall looked like hammered hell but his addictions were the least of my concerns.

Marshall leaned in and grabbed Fogweet by the neck. He was a a man a some size, and lifted the Big Head with ease. I climbed off of the doctor and got to my feet. "Hey, hold him up in front of me" I told Marshall and slugged Fogweet hard in the gut.

"Hey Derrick, what the hell man! You can't just go punching...", the doctor stopped short as I picked up the shiny gold chip off of the ground. 

"Doc, I'm pretty patient with you and your freak Martian buddy over here 'cause I know you're not really a military man, but you have no clue how important this chip is. It is no toy, nor candy, nor anything else to be played with. I've been through hell and high-water to acquire this from that agent, to keep it hidden from those wild Big Heads, and to keep its location secret from those monstrous traders. I've been beaten quite severely, chained like an animal with no hope of escape, and bitten by what you tell me is probably some rabid alien trader, all with the intent of reacquiring this chip and completing my mission, so if you think that your sensitivities or the sweet tooth of this little Martian is going to stand in my way, you are sorely and sadly mistaken. Are we clear?" 

I hadn't even noticed but I had my good arm across Jerry's chest and had him pinned against the far wall of the conduit. My anger subsided a bit and I took my arm off of the doctor. His eyes were glassy behind his glasses. A tear streamed down his face, but I could tell this was not a tear from fear, but more from adrenaline and his own anger. He collected himself and put his finger in my face; "You listen here you obnoxious brute. I may not be a cold-hearted, violent, murderous soldier like you, but I am a military man and I have made plenty of my own sacrifices just to find and help you on this bullshit quest of yours. So remember that next time you lay hands on me or my freak friend over there. Now, if you don't mind... Tell your massive minion over there to release Fogweet before he chokes him to death and explain what the hell is so important about this chip of yours, because your secrets are getting boring and old."

Officer Marshall put Fogweet down and the two surrounded Jerry and I. They were as interested in an explanation of the chip as the doc was.

There was complete silence in the conduit as the two men's faces wore the gravity of the information I had presented to them. "What is Noodlier dive?" the little Big Head asked. "It's Nuclear Drive genius!" I corrected him. Jerry rubbed his eyes under his glasses trying to process everything he had just heard; "So you're telling me that there is some sort of fusion device in this spaceport that has the capability of creating a nuclear explosion that could globally decimate the Earth?"

"That is exactly what I am telling you doc! The device was scheduled to be shipped to some technologically backwards colony somewhere in star system-Alpha but we got word that is was going to be hijacked by those traders we ran into. I was sent here to try and stop them, but by the time I arrived on this freakin' rock it was already too late. The device had been stolen and stashed somewhere secret. The one saving grace was that we had other agents working on our behalf. That old lady in the lift from earlier is a Martian agent working to ensure that the device does not get off this planet in the traders' possession and so she removed the chip from the device before it was stolen. She knew that the device would not work without it and that the alien traders would not be able to leave without it, so it was her best effort at stalling until I could get here to help. And now that I'm here, and finally have a hold of the chip it is imperative that I keep it out of their hands."

"But you're saying that these traders want to take the device to Earth? And then what, set it off? Why?" Officer Marshall asked, his voice trembling.

"That information is classified Officer, sorry I can't share that with you."

"Damnit Derrick, what is wrong with you people? You government spooks don't ever think in the world of reality. That device is on the loose somewhere you have not located yet, those traders are apparently all over the place with one intent: killing us all for that chip, and once they get it they will transport a nuclear device to our home planet with the intent of detonating it and probably wiping out life as we know it, and you're still concerned about your damn secrets? Classified? Seriously? Don't you think it's about time to give us all of the information we need to help you?"

"Help me? So you're sticking around a little longer then doc?"

"I don't see that I even have a choice now Derrick, do I?"

Episode 20 - Derrick's Escape

The trader and his minion continued shoving me forward down the conduit. I was getting fed up with being pushed around but I knew that this was not the time to try and protest. The head trader was at least eight feet tall and probably at least four hundred pounds. Combine his stature with the weapons around his belt and the sharpness of his fangs and I was certainly at a slight disadvantage. I knew in order to escape I'd have to find or create a moment but this was not it, not yet.

"Stalling is making me angered. Show me chip now or die to death."

As if their foul breathe and pushing wasn't bad enough, their blatant butchering of the English language was grating on my nerves. 

I scanned the area ahead of me, continuing to count the steps we took in my head. It was four hundred feet between emergency beacons and I was nearly at the next one. Through the darkness, dragging my feet, I came up on the next beacon. I pretending to trip again, and as I fell to the ground I initiated the next one. 

"What you do? What that light?" I heard over my shoulder as a mammoth foot came crashing down on my back. The weight of the blow knocked the air out of my lungs. I regained my senses and turned over; "It's a marker I placed to show me the way to the chip I hid." It was a blatant bluff, but it was all I could come up with at the minute. The head trader leaned down over me, his vile breathe making me nauseous. He seethed over me for several moments before he acquiesced. 

"You get up now and find chip, or you find your head under foot next time."

I got to my feet and continued to stumble forward. All I could do was pray that somewhere, someone was monitoring the feed from the emergency beacons and was alerted to the distress signal, because I was certainly in plenty of distress.

Another four hundred feet forward and I was able to convince the traders to allow me to initiate another beacon. A flimsy plan at best, but it was working, and it was all I had to go on, until...

"Fogweet find another one, see; there are many, many lights for Fogweet to play with" I heard approaching from behind us. There was a small glimmer of light approaching from where we had come from. The two traders turned towards the voice and my moment had arrived.

The light from my plasma blade illuminated the entire conduit in a blink of an eye. There was a loud howl as the thick muscular arm of the trader in front of me came off with almost no effort. He spun around and clubbed me with his armored hand in my chest. I was lifted off my feet and fell backward onto my back. I tried to recover from the fall and find the blade which had slipped from my hand, but suddenly I had several hundred pounds of beast on top of me. I threw my forearm up over my face and could feel the sharp fangs of the trader pressing into my flesh. I wailed in pain, feeling his teeth against my bone. 

I was briefly blinded by the sudden light of Fogweet's large head as he jumped on the trader's back and sank his own sharp teeth into his neck. Again the beast wailed out in pain, but in the process he released my arm from his jaws and lifted his weight off of my body. Adrenaline drove me backward toward my blade and with all the energy in my body I ran forward plunging the blade into the abdomen of the trader. The smell of searing flesh wafted throughout the air; "Mmmm, smell like dinner" Fogweet said as he unclamped  his teeth from the neck of the dead villain.

"Fogweet! Fogweet! Where the hell did you go Big Head?" I heard approaching from the far end of the conduit. 

"Sgt. Thomas? Oh my God, it is you!" 

I could make out the voice of officer Marshall, and as he came over and placed an arm around my waist to help me up I could see his face. 

"If I may say so, you look like shit sir..." he said, lifting me off the ground. 

"You don't look too hot yourself Marshall, you must be jonesing right about now, huh?" The look in his eyes and the smell of rubbing alcohol on his breathe confirmed my suspicions.


"What happened to the head trader? Did you guys take him out?"


"Head who? We didn't see anyone else besides this dismembered thing you killed over here, phew, what a stench by the way..."


The reality that the main trader had somehow escaped the conduit and was still out there searching for the chip was troubling, but I was bleeding and did not have the energy to go in pursuit right this minute. He would have to wait, for now...

Another familiar voice addressed me; "Well, I never thought I'd say this but it's good to see you again Derrick."

"Yeah, the feeling is mutual doc. What the fuck took you so long anyway?"

(TTiS is an interactive Episodic Saga, from the minds of: J. Naomi Ay & Ahmad Taylor. Follow the whole tale here and the individual stories at: J. Naomi Ay & Ahmad Darkside Musings)