CHAPTER TWO
Old Friends Meet Again.



Opera Vectra. Tetragene by birth. Daughter to a high ranking official. To be exact, the Grand Duke,
high advisor to the King. Which would make her a Grand Duchess. Or something to that effect, she
was rarely home enough these days to remember. And even if she was home, there wasn't like there
was much to her title. It was truly just that, a title. It would have been different if she had
some responsibilities, but she didn't. She was a figure head, and all she had to do was show up
for a few royal cerimonies once or twice a year. Leaving her to roam the galaxy as she saw fit,
as she often did. It wasn't that she was searching for something, not anymore. She was just bored.


She sauntered back to her space ship, which she had left near the outside of the bar, cloaked.
She was amazed at this planet. By the instruments that worked on her ship, this WAS the Earth.
But it was underdeveloped. There should have been a space port, but there was none. There should
have been a lot of things, but there wasn't. She didn't feel like worrying about it, however. She
needed to get to a REAL space port, and get her ship checked out. She thought back to what happened.

* * *

"All systems operating within proper paramaters," stated the metallic voice of the ship's computer.

"I can tell that, puter. You don't travel the galaxy as much as I do with out knowing your star
clusters. We're right outside of the Sol system, right?"

"If you know, why do you keep me on?" asked the metallic voice.

"Cause it would be stupid not to. Now don't ask questions. If I had wanted to carry on a convorsation,
I would have sprung for the ship with the interactive brain. As it was, I bought you. Now hush."

"Yes ma'am. Oh, there is a slight static near pluto. We may want to avoid it."

"What is it? New star cluster forming?"

"It is uncertain what it is, exactly. It could cause some system problems."

"Well, then, let's be sure to avoid it."

* * *

But they hadn't been able to. It was as tho the damn thing had searched them out. There had been
a blinding flash, and then, nothing. None of the placement or navigation systems worked. The thrusters
had been shot, as had Fred, the main computer system. There had been nothing to tell her exactly
where she was. After about a day's worth of work, she had managed to get the thrusters working.
She had hoped to get to earth, and find some place that could fix navigation computer, which was
a good bet, since earth was a developed planet. However, upon arriving at earth, she saw that it
WASN'T the earth she had been to previously. It was an under-developed world. She had quickly
dropped a cloak shield over her ship, which was a nifty little doo-dad she had bought at an auction
on Betelgeuse seven, and parked her ship near an establishment. When she discovered that luck had
placed her at a bar, she figured she deserved a drink.

Which brought her to where she was now. About to get on a barely working ship, in the hopes that
she could get to a place that had a real space port. As she boarded, she remembered that there
was one on alpha centuri, a mere fifty thousand light years away. At full power, only a days flight
with her ship, but as damaged as it's systems were, she would have to go slowly, and on manual.
It added another three days to her flight. With a sigh, she started up her ship, and lifted off

* * *

No Onion sat in the cot for a little while longer. He didn't quite know what to think about what
had happened last night, and this morning. Well, afternoon. He had done something stupid, and
woken up next to a very beautiful girl. Who also happened to have a third eye. Ok, third eye
aside, it was an amazing night. Mainly on account of the fact that he had passed out from drinking.
He had been drinking since he was seventeen, when his mom died. He had passed out a total of twice,
last night included.

No Onion stood up, and grabbed his hat, which was laid by the side of the cot. He laughed at himself,
cause he hadn't even changed out of his sonic uniform when he had came here. He vowed to make sure
he changed from now on. Not that it had mattered.

He felt lucky that he didn't have to work today. Very lucky. He decided to go home, and see if
maybe his dad was around. Between him working, his dad working, and both of them going out on the
town almost constantly, he almost never saw him.

"Hey, Brian!" said the bartender, who was now simply cleaning up.

"Yeah? What can I do for ya?"

"I need an extra bar tender for tonight. Debbie called in sick. Can ya do it?"

"Frank, you KNOW I can only mix about five different kinda drinks. I'm not that good of a bar tender!
In fact, I'm not a good one at all! I'm a fast food cookie, and a shift manager."

"Nah, your good. And plus, I need the help. And I trust ya, and I don't want anyone back here I
don't trust. So, see ya at eight?"

No Onion rolled his eyes with a sigh. Break up one bar fight, and ya got a friend for life.

"Alright. See ya at eight."

No Onion went outside, and got in his car. He sat there for a little while, wondering why on earth
he had agreed to bar tend tonight. He wasn't all that good at it, but he knew what he was doing.
The tips are good, he told himself, but he knew that wasn't it. The chicks would often tell a bar
.tender a lot of personal things. But that, too, wasn't it. He knew what it was. He was hoping that
that woman showed back up. He shook his head at how sad he was acting, and drove home.

* * *

"Right outside Neptune," thought Opera to herself. Soon, she would be passing Pluto, and hoping
that whatever it was that caused her problems in the first place was gone.

"Alright,"she said, looking out the veiw port, "coming up on Pluto. Here goes nothing"

As she passed Pluto, however, the same blinding flash covered her entire ship.

"AHHH, SHIT, NOOOO!!!"

But as suddenly as it began, it was over. Opera looked at her instruments, expecting the worst.
To her surprise, every one of her systems worked.

"Fred, status report. NOW!"

"All systems operating within proper perameters, ma'am" spoke the metallic voice.

"But, how..why..Oh, forget it. Fred, set a course for Alpha Centuri. I'd STILL better get this
thing checked out."

"Get what checked out?" asked Fred.

"Just a moment ago, everything was offline. Tell me, whats the last thing in your memory bank?"

A mettalic whirring sound was heard as Fred checked his memory banks. "Checking..checking..checking
*BEEP* The last recorded piece of information was passing by the planet designated 'Pluto' at the
outer edge of the Sol system."

Opera shook her head in counfusion. She just didn't understand it. Sure, odd things happened in
space, and there was still a lot of unknown things, but the sol system was pretty well documented,
and she had never heard of anything of this nature happening.

She let out a big sigh, and said "Fred, get us to Alpha Centuri." Thankfully, now that her ship
seemed to work, it would only take a day to get there. She sat back, watching her insturments
carefully.

* * *

No onion pulled up to the bar in his old V.W. beetle. He was dressed in black slacks, white dress
shirt, and of course, the mandatory black bow tie. He had slicked his hair back, in an almost
vain attempt to look dignified. As his dad had told him for the brief five minutes he saw him,

"You can't look dignified with blue hair."

No onion had rolled his eyes at that remark, but his dad had been right. Ah, well, he thought,
Frank knew that I had blue hair. He still wanted me. He got out of his car, and walked in. Frank
noticed, and smiled.

"Get yer butt behind the bar, Brian." He said. No onion smiled, and walked behind the bar. He noticed
some glasses that needed to be cleaned, so he got to doing that, as he waited for actual customers
to come in. Soon, several people walked in, and No Onion got to making and serving drinks.

* * *

"This is Opera Vectra, ship designation Excelsior. Permission to dock."

"Please be advised that dock wait time estimated twenty minutes, Excelsior. Are you in need of
immediate service?"

Opera looked at her insturments. She decided that, despite the problems she had had back in the
Sol system, her ship was currently alright. Certainly the old rust bucket could handle another
twenty minutes.

"Nah, I think she can handle it. I will need a diagnostics team on this thing for a tune up when
I dock, though, if its at all possible."

"Sure, not a problem."

After a twenty minute wait, she was allowed to begin docking precedures. After another ten minutes,
she was fully docked, and looking for a decent bar around the space port. She also wanted to do a
little bit of shopping, but first, the bar. She deserved it. And at least at THIS bar, there wouldn't
be some weird blue haired weirdo trying to hit on her.

Walking down the walkway, she found that she had quite a selection. She found herself chuckling
at the names of some of these places. Jonah's cup o' java, which appeared to be a combination
café and sushi bar. Pan Galatic Gargle Palace, which apparently specialized in Pan Galatic Gargle
Blasters, a specialty of Ursa Minor group of stars. She finally settled on a place that was simply
named Bob's Bar.

"Simple, clean-cut. I'm sure I can get decent drink here."

She sat down at the bar, and ordered a zanganese zipper. She was happy that she was at a place
where she had the opportunity to order a drink that was from places other than centralized. Whatever
type of Earth she had been on had disappointed her in the ways of liquor. In a quick amount of
time, a tall glass of blue-green, foamy liquid was slid in front of her. She tilted her head back,
and in one gulp, downed half of it. It was firey to the taste, and almost reminded her of the
liqour the blue haired guy had gotten her, with a fruity twist. She suddenly heard a familiar voice
from behind her.

"Opera? Is that you?"

Opera turned around, wishing that space port rules hadn't forced her to go without her gun.
However, that thought quickly left her as she realized who had called her name.

"Chisato! What are you doing here?"

"Got a job that has me travel a lot."

"Sit down, let me buy you a drink."

Chisato gave kind of a half shrug, sat down, and ordered a gin and tonic.

"You know," said Chisato, as she sipped her drink, "the odd thing I've discovered about gin and
tonic, is that every single culture in the galaxy has some form of it. The name is spelled diffrently,
such as Betelgeuse's jin n tonix, or the Ursa Beta's jinian toinik, and often times, the drink can
range from mildly alcoholic, to near fatal poison, but every single culture has a version of it."

Opera looked at Chisato with a confused look on her face. All three eyes squinted, as she tried
to figure out what Chisato was talking about. Finally, she asked.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Just trying to make small talk. So, are you gonna ask what I do for a living now?"

Opera merely shook her head. That was Chisato, still as ditzy as ever. But, she was still happy
to run into a friend, even by such an odd coincidence.

"What do you do, Chisato?"

"I write for a travel guide. I hitch hike around, and send in info about different stuff in the
galaxy."

"Ok, sounds interesting, and right up your alley," said Opera, ordering another drink. "And, what
brings you to THIS backwater place?"

"This is where my last ride could drop me off. I was hoping to be able pick up a ride to the
Zaranian system. You wouldn't be able to take me there, would you?"

Opera thought for a while to herself. She didn't have anything else to do. And, with her ship,
the Zaranian system was only a week away. Ah, what the hell, she figured.

"Yeah, Chisa, I'll take you there. Ain't got anything else to do for a while anyways." Suddenly,
a thought struck her. If Chisato was travling around space, then she might know somthing about that
thing by Pluto.

"Hey, Chisa, question. Have you heard about any..er..odd phenomenom just outside the Sol system?"

Chisato sipped at her drink, looking thoughtful.

"Hummmummmm...hmmmmmm. An odd phenomenom. You mean like the odd orbit of the planet they call
Uranus? Or the fact that three of the moons of Jupiter have an orbit thats too wide for their size?
Or, maybe the fact that..."

"A more RECENT odd phenomenom, Chisa," said Opera with a sigh. "Close to along the lines of somthing
that would register as static on the sensors. Almost the same kinda static that a new star cluster
forming would cause."

Chisato went back into her humming mode, thinking as hard as she could. She didn't have a whole lot
of information to go on, but Opera was a good friend, and she was gonna do her best to help. After
a minute more of thought, she finally had somthing.

"Well, when I was on Serrelius Seven, you know, that sciency planet?, anyways, when I was there,
I heard some of the people talking about the possiblity of a dimensional rift near the Sol system.
Most of them considered it impossible, tho, because there was no normal thing in space that would
cause such a rift. A few stated the possiblity of an outside force causing it, as in a man made
object, but since they couldn't prove that it WAS a dimensional rift, they didn't dwell on that
too long. Thats about all I could tell you. That help?"

Opera tilted her head to the side. A dimensional rift? That would actually explain the oddness of
the Earth that she had visited. Opera downed the rest of her drink, and said her thank you.

"Hey," exclaimed Chisato, "That information cost me a few dates with a rather ugly looking scientist.
The least you can do is buy me another drink."

Opera chuckled, and shook her head...

* * *

"Sir, the machine is still going strong."

"How far is it's range?"

"Fifty light year circumfrence from the Sol system. Any ship that passes within that distance is
zapped into the other dimension."

"Good. Increase the power to ten per cent, and keep me updated."

"Aye, sir."

* * *

It was rounding eleven thirty, and No Onion was as bored as he had ever been. Sure, he had picked
up about fifty dollars in tips that night, but short of that, he had wasted sevral hours of his
life. The only decent girls were the usual bunch of rejects, and as much as he loved to hang out
with them all, he had always told himself he would never date that kind of girl. But, he couldn't
even dance with them right now, because he was working.

Of course, the male "rejects" weren't much better. They seemed to miss the fine line between at
work No Onion, and goofing off No Onion.

"Ok, Bobby, let's run over this again. Hair slicked back, at work. Hair under a Sonic hat, goofing
off. Can you repeat after me? Hair slicked back, at work, hair under a..."

Just then, the doors to the bar flew open. In stumbled an obviously drunk man. In fact, the word
stumbled was an understatment. It was a wonder that the man could even stay on his feet. Every
one moved out of the way for the man, afraid that he would vomit everywhere and drop at any second.

No Onion shook his head, as the man stumbled up to the bar, and slapped his big hand down on it
sevral times.

"Brian, shwhere sha HELL hash you been? I'ssah been shlookin' EBERYWHERE fer sha!"

"Dad, first, you're drunk, and second, how the hell'd you get here?"

"Iya drove! I ain't SHAT drunchk! Now....looky shere. Immah shick and TIRED of shupporting yer
ash!! Yoush needsh ta go outsh and gets a REAL job!! A fasht food cook ain't a jobferno Wellsh!!"

"Dad, listen, let's go to the back, you can sleep it off there, alright? I don't need you scaring
away the customers." No Onion was trying hard not to offend his dad at the moment, as it would have
been quite easy to remind him that as an assistant manager at sonic, he made more than his dad
did at the brick yard.

"DAMNIT, BRIAN! Immah yer FASHER! Don't chu talk ta me like shat! And, anosher shing..."

No Onion stepped over to the grill, and grabbed the clean spatula. He stepped over to his still
rambaling father, and with one deft swing, knocked him unconcious. He placed the spatula back on
the grill, and then picked his father up.

"Come on, dad. I'm gonna put you in the back, you can sleep it off there."

With that, No Onion dragged his father to the back room.

* * *

One thirty, the bar was closed and cleaned up, and No Onion went to the back to wake his father.
He shook his head at the sight of the sleeping man. He cared for his father, which was why he
had stuck around this long. He wished his father had a little bit of sense, however, and didn't
get so sloppy drunk.

"Can't blame him, tho. He took it really hard when mom died. Then when sis went off and married that
guy he hated, well. Ah, well."

He bent over his father, and began to shake him. After about ten minutes, the man finally woke up.

"What! What do you want!!?"

"Come on, dad. It's time to go home."

No Onion half helped, half drug his father out of the bar, and placed him in the passenger seat of
his V.W. beetle. He got in the driver side, and began driving.

"Hmm, those clouds are dark. Looks like rain."

As if on cue, a clap of thunder broke the silence of the night, and a bolt of lightning shot thru
the darkness. This lightening caught No Onion's attention, however, as it was purple.

"Lightening isn't supposed to be purple..."

"And hair ishn't shupposed ta be blue." came a mumbled response from his father. No Onion ignored
it, and continued to drive.


TO BE CONTINUED