I Am Lesion, Part 1

Date: 06/04/2001
From: ThomasMalthus

Quinn Mallory and Rembrandt Brown sat uncomfortably as the torture seemed to continue indefinitely.

"You ready to try this, QBall?" Remmy whispered over to him, trying not to draw the attention of their captor.

The physics genius tried to be equally discreet. "Anything to get out of this, Remmy."

"On the count of three," Rembrandt said, maneuvering himself into position. Quinn nodded back, preparing himself as well. "One...two..." The nervous look on the two men's face said they were ready to get this over with. "Three."

Turning quickly, Quinn and Rembrandt made themselves face toward Professor Maximilian Arturo and said with one voice, "We have to go to the bathroom."

Turning himself away from the aria being sung by the latest tenor to take the stage for just a second, Arturo grumbled, "Oh, very well." The two of them thought they heard him hurl some sort of insult their way, but they were too busy fleeing and covering their ears to truly discern what it was.

Rembrandt shook his head once they left the balcony. "Man, I know it was Arturo's turn to pick our night's activity, but he could have at least picked something where the people speak English."

Quinn shared Remmy's pain. "I never got opera. People in gaudy costumes singing as few words and as badly as possible in a language nobody understands."

Remmy grinned. "How long til we slide out of here?"

Quinn took the timer out of his pocket to make sure. "15 minutes. I couldn't take that much more of Das Rheingold."

Quinn and Rembrandt hung around outside the balcony, waiting for the other sliders to emerge. Quinn had really gotten to like Rembrandt over the last few weeks. He tended to go with the flow, as opposed to the other sliders who took things far too seriously. After about seven minutes, Professor Arturo and Wade Welles emerged from the balcony and supposedly the best seats in the Florence Foster Jenkins Opera House. "Another five minutes wouldn't have killed you, you know," Wade scolded the two of them.

"Tell that to my ear drums," Rembrandt replied with a chuckle. "Besides, I thought you didn't like opera."

"It's actually not that bad," Wade commented. "Wagner may be a bit much, and he's certainly not as talented as Mozart, but the music itself is very uplifting."

Remmy and Quinn shared a bemused look. Arturo was genuinely pleased. "I'm glad to see I share your opinion of both opera and Wagner. Unfortunately, it was the only opera being performed tonight."

Quinn wanted out of this conversation and now. "Let's just find an out of the way place to slide and get out of this world."

***

The sliding tunnel wound on, pushing the foursome further down and around its pathways than it ever had before. "What's going on?" Wade called out to the others, hoping that one of them could hear her in the tunnel.

"I don't know," Arturo answered honestly. "It's never done anything like this before."

"Brace yourself," Quinn added. "This could turn into a very bumpy ride."

Eventually, after minutes of harsh twisting and turning in the vortex, the four sliders were deposited in very unfamiliar surroundings. They landed on a cushioned moving walkway, escorting them past several different video screens that were within arm's reach. As the quartet stood up to dust themselves off, they took a gander at the new world they'd entered and marvelled.

"Must be some kinda futuristic world," Remmy commented. "This stuff makes NASA look like Legoland." To prove that Rembrandt wasn't exaggerating, a small flying vehicle with a flaming tail whizzed through the streets past the windows on the left side of the sliders, while some sort of teleportation device that emitted a large blue light was in use on the other side.

"Unreal," Quinn remarked, equally amazed. Taking a look at their more immediate surroundings, they saw that the video screens were attached to individual rooms. When Wade tried to open the door to one of them she received an electric shock for her troubles. The screens themselves spoke in languages none of the group understood. (Well, Wade thought that she could understand most of the Chinese language one and Arturo swore that one of them was almost exactly like Latin, but it was nothing that was entirely helpful to the group getting oriented here.)

Finally, they heard a familiar sound. "Welcome, English-speaking transdimensional travellers, to the Mek Homeworld. We hope your stay here is a pleasant one. If you are understanding my voice, please say 'Yes'."

"Yes," Rembrandt spoke. Arturo looked at him sharply. At the word 'Mek' he had registered an expression of displeasure that was soon mirrored on the faces of Quinn and Wade. Nevertheless, he could say nothing to Remmy. The man knew nothing of the Mek, nor what they were capable of.

The four of them were escorted into the room next to the English language screen. The door opened and the conveyor itself carried them inside.

***
Foreign Minister Jermaches Molaudian sat apprehensively at his desk, looking at the reports coming over the closed webwire. 'The war on another world nears success,' he mentally sighed. 'But the war back here fares considerably poorer.' Unfortunately for him, his duties did not concern the war, but dealing with the domestic fallout and the reaction of other interdimensional powers. The last ambassador from a human world had packed her bags and left only a few days before. Now the Cerellian ambassador was threatening to do the same.

Molaudian stopped thinking about that for a moment as an important message scrolled across the vidscreen. 'New human arrivals at Human Embassy. Requesting orders on how to proceed.' Molaudian grinned. He spoke rapidly in Gayars to the screen. "Give them the works."

***

"OK, where are we and what are we doing here?" Wade asked confusedly, as the four of them now sat in padded metal chairs facing a viewscreen like the ones they had seen outside.

"We shall soon see, Miss Welles," the Professor replied. Speaking lower, he continued. "But if these Mek are anything like the ones that invaded Azure Gate Bridge world, we're in for something gruesome. Psychological torture, some sort of brainwashing." As the screen started to spark to life, he finished, "Whatever it is, I open we can survive it with some semblance of our sanity."

A yellowish, thin hairless humanoid appeared in the center of the screen. "As visitors to the Mek Homeworld, we want to make sure you know everything we have to offer." The image disassembled itself, and a long beach with a green ocean showed itself. "Pristine beaches, untouched by the ravages of pollution." Another image then flashed across the screen. "Visit Colonial Wang'athawasan, and experience the rich history of the Mek nation." The image of orange disks falling onto a metal table followed. "But we suspect what really brought you here is cold hard credit. The Mek Homeworld's reputation for banking, gambling and other sound commercial enterprises is second to none in the multiverse."

The little man was back again, exposing his little sucker of a mouth in what might be a grin. "There are literally googols of reasons to visit the Mek Homeworld. But what will bring you back is the friendly atmosphere and the wonderful hospitality. But, of course, you'll see all those things in your grand tour package. Tell them all about it, Gaharabeban!!"

The slightly deeper voice explained further, while the sliders were flabbergasted. "You'll stay in beautiful downtown Habalinez, the postpostpostmodern capital of the Mek Empire and enjoy complimentary universal breakfast as well as one hundred creds towards gambling in our many plush casinos. When you reach the Hotel Mekalech, the most 'heaven'ly accomodations in the Empire, you'll even be greeted personally by Mek-Larnani Foreign Minister Jermaches Molaudian!!"

The "man" himself came on screen. "Welcome to the Mek Homeworld, the happiest planet in the multiverse!" A quick voice followed with, "Excluding the opiate mines of Earth 59682."

Arturo leaned over to Wade. "Well, I have been known to be wrong before." The screen pulled itself out of sight. Their seats started to move themselves down a track, as they made their way towards a large metal door. The door tried to open itself, but did not seem to be able to. Blue sparks shot from it, and eventually it stopped trying.

"This is getting weirder by the minute," Quinn said anxiously.

"Let's see if we can get out of these hotseats," Rembrandt said, unfastening himself from the contraption. "I want to find out what's going on around here without being given the grand tour by the people in charge."

"Perhaps that's not such a good idea, Mr. Brown," Arturo commented. "We know nothing of this place. It could be dangerous to..." The Professor was interrupted by some sort of blast from the other side of the door. Then multiple blasts.

"I'd say it's more dangerous to stay here," Wade remarked.

Professor Arturo nodded grimly in the affirmative. "Agreed. Let's see what sort of shelter we can find in this place."

***

As Molaudian prepared to leave his office for the Human Embassy, he got another message, this time from his holocom. "What is it, Arkalesh?" he said snappily to his assistant.

"You might want to take a look at this," he replied tentatively. "It seems as though a group of protesters are trying to destroy the Human Embassy."

The Foreign Minister inhaled sharply, the Mek version of a sigh. "That is already my destination, Arkalesh. The Prime Minister's office has surely dispatched a phalanx to protect me, as it was under their orders I have been sent."

"Well, yes, but..." Arkalesh paused, considering his options. "I worry for your safety."

"You need not. I will be fine." Jermaches Molaudian walked out of his doorway and immediately requested teleportation to a place not far from the Embassy. 'If this warrants my personal presence, it must be dire,' Molaudian thought grimly. 'The humans themselves may be in grave danger.'

ThomasMalthus

You know,

Date: 06/04/2001
From: EustiSlider

No matter how many 'episodes' you do in this series, you still manage to come up with something fresh. Looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

E

Excellent...

Date: 06/04/2001
From: IamBoris2001

I can't wait for Part 2.

--IamBoris2001
http://iamboris.topcities.com

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