It was about an hour after takeoff that I felt the impact of the landing gears upon the hard surface of the runway. I felt being slightly pushed forward as the manta transport slowed down.
I saw the door at the side of the passenger cabin open. The guard beckoned for me to move out. I walked along the metal floor of the cabin, my footsteps echoing through the chamber. I looked out through the door, and the guard pushed me with his club.
The steps of the stairs leading from the dooor to the ground were made of metal, and I heard my shoes making this metallic sound as I descended.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I looked around.
I was in an outer taxiway on an air base. There was a transport truck parked a few feet away from the manta transport ship, and I also saw guards armed with rifles. In the distance I could see manta fighters and a control tower as well as hangars.
I also noticed trees beyond the boundaries of the air base. I noticed that the tree trunks extended far below the level of the runways, indicating that the air base was built on a platform on top of the trees!
One of the kromagg guards went up to me. "Welcome to Outpost 1," he said to me in English.
I was placed in the back of a van that was designed for prisoner transport. The doors were shut and I felt the van move.
The van ride was only five minutes. The guards opened the door, and led me into a building. I was photographed and fingerprinted in what appeared top be a prisoner processing center. I was then taken to a cell and locked. It looked the same as any other cell, as jail cells were an environment I was all too familiar with.
A few hours later, the guards shackled me and took me to another building in the air base. I was taken inside this building and led to this room with all sorts of equipment. There were kromaggs in there wearing white lab coats. They had me seated in front of this big complicated device which hummed as the kromagg scientists flipped switches and turned knobs. I saw one opf them go over to a color monitor screen. After an hour in the lab, I was taken back to my cell.
After a few hours, I was getting very hungry. I heard footsatep,s hoping someone was coming to feed me. But it was a guard with nothing but a billy club. I was taken out of my cell and put in a small room.
I saw someone enter the room. I noticed she was a human. After two seconds of looking st her, I recognized her.
She was Mary. I spent over a day with one of her duplicates, hiding from flesh-eating zombies.
"Hello," she said.
"Hello, Mary," I said.
"You know my name?"
"I've met another version of you," I said.
"Welcome to Outpost 1, the headquarters of the Kromagg Dynasty."
She put a tray on the table. On top was a plate with a mixture of vegetables and meat, and a glass of cold water.
Hungry as I was I quickly devoured the meal.
"Tell me about yourself."
So I did.
"So you came from their homeworld," she said.
"Yes, a war broke out there, and my parents hid me on an alternate Earth so I could survive. My brother built a sliding machine and thus found me. The kromaggs conquered the Earth he came from."
"They were driven out by the warlike humans."
"As I heard it, the kromaggs were the aggressors."
"the humans kept encroaching on their territory for centuries. They already dominated the eastern part of their world. They had every right to reclaim their birthright."
"Where did you come from, Mary?" I asked. "Were you born here?"
"No, I wasn't. It was thirteen years ago that they came to my world. They took me here to this world. They gave me food, water, shelter, a job."
"But you don't have freedom, Mary," I said. "You're their slave. I've seen what the kromaggs did on other worlds."
"And humans are any better? Humans never enslaved other humans, or kromaggs for that matter? My masters told me about human-domionated worlds, and the atrocities that humans commit."
I had to concede that point. The history of my adopted world contains atrocities rivaling those of the Kromagg Dynasty-and no kromaggs ever lived there, as far as I could tell.
"Mary," I said, "you have to realize that the kromaggs whom you serve are evil. They are conquering other worlds to acquire slaves and food. Listen, do you remember what your life was like before the kromaggs came?"
"I used to go to school," she said. "I had this bike I used to ride, and sometimes I would play with my Barbie dolls. I was watching My Little Pony when they came."
"What?" I asked.
"It was a TV show," she said. "about a bunch of talking ponies. It's amazing I could remember that. Anyway, the show was interrupted by a broadcast that the capital was destroyed. The next day, the kromaggs' tanks rolled into my city. They took me from my parents and my sister."
"Listen, Mary, there is hope. We'll find a way to destroy this evil empire."
"My family is gone. There's nothing left."
I could sense that she lost all hope, that she saw nothing of her life except a future of eternal servitude of the kromaggs. She believed the Dynasty's propoganda line without question.
The someblack-uniformed guards entered the room; I was taken from the room.
But I noticed I was not going back to the cell block. Instead, the guards took me to the building where I had been examined.
They led me through the white-tiled hallways and into a room with all sorts of equipment and a cage. I was placed inside the cage, which had a bed in it.
There was nothing to do but lay down. I looked at my watch to see how long I would be here.
The readout read twenty-six hours. But the watch was not counting down.
Then I realized that the equipment in this room was designed to anchor me to this dimension.
There was no escape.
I sat in that cage for God knows how long. Every now and then, scientists would come and take measurements of me with strange instruments. I guess it had something to do with the fact that I was unstuck, and they never had a chance to study someone who was unstuck. But then I would look at my watch, with the timer frozen at twenty-six hours, and I knew that I was at this moment stuck.
There was no clock on the wall, nor were there windows allowing me to see outside. I couldn't tell if it were night or day, rain or shine. I was just to become a specimen as the kromaggs figured out wehat had happened to me. I also knew that one of the goals of the Kromagg Dynasty was to bypass the slidecage, and they would not be keeping me alive in here if they thought that I did not have the key to cirumventing the slidecage and conquering my home world.
And it was clear that as soon as they found a way around the slidecage, or thought they could not get anything useful to me, that I would be killed.
I woke up at the sound of something making noise by striking the bars of the cage with some object. It was Mary, who came to serv e me some food. There was a slot in the cage where the plate was passed. that was also where the bedpan was passed.
"Mary," I whispered, "you've got to get me out of here."
"I can't disobey my masters; they will punish me," she protested.
"They took you from your family, destroyed your home. You're just going to submit. Listen, Mary, what's gonna happen to you if they decide they don't need you anymore? I have a feeling that their retirement plan consists of a swift execution."
"What can I do?" she asked.
"You can unlock the cage, give me a chance to escape."
One of the guards tapped Mary on the shoulder.
"I have to go now," she said.
I just decided to finish my meal.
There was nothing to do in the cage except look around the lab. Sometimes, scientists would come in, babble in an incomprehensible language while they operated the instruments and equipment, thud breaking the monotony. None of them bothered to speak to me.
I looked at the equipment I suspected was keeping me here. I hoped that there would be a twenty-six hour power outage so I could get out of this cage.
I saw someone enter the room; it was Rakakot, who questioned me in the previous world.
"Hello, Mr. Mallory," he said. "I hope you are comfortable in there."
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I had to make a report to the High Council on Outpost 1," he said. "They wanted to know about the affairs of the section of the world I was assigned to, and they wnated to know about you.
"You know, Mallory, you are about to become a hero. "Our scientists claim that your condition will allow us to bypass your slidecage. I don't understand how, but they sounded convincing to me and the High Council. You will be known as the one who made the repatriation of our home possible."
"My parents are on that world," I said. "I won't let you hurt them."
"And what are you going to do about it?" asked Rakakot. "You're just stuck there in that cage, and those scientists told me you can not slip to another dimension."
"Maybe their equipment is not working." I then looked intensely into Rakakot's eyes. "Why do you hate us? What did I ever do to you? Or those humans who were living on worlds where kromaggs never ventured?"
"Who said I hate you?" he asked. "Or humans, for that matter? I serve the Dynasty. I provide aid to its allies and destroy its enemies as the Dynasty directs.
"Eating the eyes of our slain enemies was a tradition among the kromagg peoples ever since they began their wars to repel the human invasions. Should the Dynasty decide that you should be killed, I shall have the privilege of eating your eyes."
"Hoiw lucky of you," I said.
"I must catch a flight back to Outpost 69, though it was nice to see my home away from home." Then Rakakot left the lab.
It must have been hours later than Mary came back with a shiny new bedpan.
"I don't need to go," I said.
"Yes, you do," she said. As she did, she unlocked the cage.
there was at least one guard posted in the lab at all times. Mary came to say something to the guard.
And that was when I sprung! Before the guard could react, I came in with my fists blazing, putting the power of my whole body into each punch. In less than a minute, the guard was down.
I left the lab. One glance at my watch indicated that it was counting down again. If I don't get caught or killed, I'd be gone tomorrow.
But this was not the time to think about the future, only about getting out of here.
I walked calmly. Maybe the kromaggs would think I am just a human servant. I heard footsteps, so I ducked into a door. As it turned out, it was a broom closet. There was a broom and a mop, wiith a plastic container filled with a strong-smelling solvent, possiblt for mopping floors. The solvent felt slippery.
I came out with the container of solvent, for it might be useful sometime. It became useful seconds later, when two guards spotted me. They ran after me, so I spilled the solvent on the floor. suddenly, the two kromaggs lost traction and fell right on their asses!
I had to make a quick, straight run for the exit. Suddenly, without warning, I felt a tight squeeze on my throat., I looked and saw a black-uniformed guard, and this guy was as big as they came! I tried pulling his arms away, but his arms muscles were strong and intent on squeezing the life out of me.
Then I remembered what to do. I quickly pried not at his arms, but his thumbsHis thumbs lost thewir grip on my neck an d with it, the rest of his hands. It left a wide opening, so I kneed him in the groin as hard as I could. then I delivered some swift, powerful punches to his face and then fled outside.
I was now on the platform where the base's buildings were built. There has to be a way off, maybe to ground level. I looekd around.
And then I saw a helicopter. I made a run for it, hopiong I did not get shot. Luck was with me, as the helicopter was not secure. I guessed the kromaggs did not count on anyone stealing the helicopter. I got into the seat and flipped the switches, hoping I did not hit the self-destruct switch. I heard the engine start and run. I pushed a lever, and then the helicopter rose into the air.
I operated the levers and stick, hoping to fly it. The helicopter was flying eratically, as I couild see looking out the cockpit window as well as the radar. I then saw a bright beam of light shine past me. I looked at the radar, and there was someone following me. My erratic flying made it difficult for the pilot in the other craft to hit me with the laser beam.
I knew I would not be safe in the clear sky, so I descended to the trees. I coild now see the massive tree trunks, which made redwoods look like matchsticks. I weaved and out of the trees, hoping that whatever was chasing me couldn't get a clear shot. I heard the impact of laser beams against the tree trunks mixed with the sound of the rotating propellor of the helicopter I borrowed. I looked at the instruments.
Suddenly, I was jolted, and then the whole world spun around me! They must have gottten the tail rotor. I did my best to maintain control,. hoping to make a safe landing on the ground. A few more beams were fired at me.
Then I heard an impact, and I felt as if I was in a free fall.
This would be a sucky way to die.
I saw the door at the side of the passenger cabin open. The guard beckoned for me to move out. I walked along the metal floor of the cabin, my footsteps echoing through the chamber. I looked out through the door, and the guard pushed me with his club.
The steps of the stairs leading from the dooor to the ground were made of metal, and I heard my shoes making this metallic sound as I descended.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I looked around.
I was in an outer taxiway on an air base. There was a transport truck parked a few feet away from the manta transport ship, and I also saw guards armed with rifles. In the distance I could see manta fighters and a control tower as well as hangars.
I also noticed trees beyond the boundaries of the air base. I noticed that the tree trunks extended far below the level of the runways, indicating that the air base was built on a platform on top of the trees!
One of the kromagg guards went up to me. "Welcome to Outpost 1," he said to me in English.
I was placed in the back of a van that was designed for prisoner transport. The doors were shut and I felt the van move.
The van ride was only five minutes. The guards opened the door, and led me into a building. I was photographed and fingerprinted in what appeared top be a prisoner processing center. I was then taken to a cell and locked. It looked the same as any other cell, as jail cells were an environment I was all too familiar with.
A few hours later, the guards shackled me and took me to another building in the air base. I was taken inside this building and led to this room with all sorts of equipment. There were kromaggs in there wearing white lab coats. They had me seated in front of this big complicated device which hummed as the kromagg scientists flipped switches and turned knobs. I saw one opf them go over to a color monitor screen. After an hour in the lab, I was taken back to my cell.
After a few hours, I was getting very hungry. I heard footsatep,s hoping someone was coming to feed me. But it was a guard with nothing but a billy club. I was taken out of my cell and put in a small room.
I saw someone enter the room. I noticed she was a human. After two seconds of looking st her, I recognized her.
She was Mary. I spent over a day with one of her duplicates, hiding from flesh-eating zombies.
"Hello," she said.
"Hello, Mary," I said.
"You know my name?"
"I've met another version of you," I said.
"Welcome to Outpost 1, the headquarters of the Kromagg Dynasty."
She put a tray on the table. On top was a plate with a mixture of vegetables and meat, and a glass of cold water.
Hungry as I was I quickly devoured the meal.
"Tell me about yourself."
So I did.
"So you came from their homeworld," she said.
"Yes, a war broke out there, and my parents hid me on an alternate Earth so I could survive. My brother built a sliding machine and thus found me. The kromaggs conquered the Earth he came from."
"They were driven out by the warlike humans."
"As I heard it, the kromaggs were the aggressors."
"the humans kept encroaching on their territory for centuries. They already dominated the eastern part of their world. They had every right to reclaim their birthright."
"Where did you come from, Mary?" I asked. "Were you born here?"
"No, I wasn't. It was thirteen years ago that they came to my world. They took me here to this world. They gave me food, water, shelter, a job."
"But you don't have freedom, Mary," I said. "You're their slave. I've seen what the kromaggs did on other worlds."
"And humans are any better? Humans never enslaved other humans, or kromaggs for that matter? My masters told me about human-domionated worlds, and the atrocities that humans commit."
I had to concede that point. The history of my adopted world contains atrocities rivaling those of the Kromagg Dynasty-and no kromaggs ever lived there, as far as I could tell.
"Mary," I said, "you have to realize that the kromaggs whom you serve are evil. They are conquering other worlds to acquire slaves and food. Listen, do you remember what your life was like before the kromaggs came?"
"I used to go to school," she said. "I had this bike I used to ride, and sometimes I would play with my Barbie dolls. I was watching My Little Pony when they came."
"What?" I asked.
"It was a TV show," she said. "about a bunch of talking ponies. It's amazing I could remember that. Anyway, the show was interrupted by a broadcast that the capital was destroyed. The next day, the kromaggs' tanks rolled into my city. They took me from my parents and my sister."
"Listen, Mary, there is hope. We'll find a way to destroy this evil empire."
"My family is gone. There's nothing left."
I could sense that she lost all hope, that she saw nothing of her life except a future of eternal servitude of the kromaggs. She believed the Dynasty's propoganda line without question.
The someblack-uniformed guards entered the room; I was taken from the room.
But I noticed I was not going back to the cell block. Instead, the guards took me to the building where I had been examined.
They led me through the white-tiled hallways and into a room with all sorts of equipment and a cage. I was placed inside the cage, which had a bed in it.
There was nothing to do but lay down. I looked at my watch to see how long I would be here.
The readout read twenty-six hours. But the watch was not counting down.
Then I realized that the equipment in this room was designed to anchor me to this dimension.
There was no escape.
I sat in that cage for God knows how long. Every now and then, scientists would come and take measurements of me with strange instruments. I guess it had something to do with the fact that I was unstuck, and they never had a chance to study someone who was unstuck. But then I would look at my watch, with the timer frozen at twenty-six hours, and I knew that I was at this moment stuck.
There was no clock on the wall, nor were there windows allowing me to see outside. I couldn't tell if it were night or day, rain or shine. I was just to become a specimen as the kromaggs figured out wehat had happened to me. I also knew that one of the goals of the Kromagg Dynasty was to bypass the slidecage, and they would not be keeping me alive in here if they thought that I did not have the key to cirumventing the slidecage and conquering my home world.
And it was clear that as soon as they found a way around the slidecage, or thought they could not get anything useful to me, that I would be killed.
I woke up at the sound of something making noise by striking the bars of the cage with some object. It was Mary, who came to serv e me some food. There was a slot in the cage where the plate was passed. that was also where the bedpan was passed.
"Mary," I whispered, "you've got to get me out of here."
"I can't disobey my masters; they will punish me," she protested.
"They took you from your family, destroyed your home. You're just going to submit. Listen, Mary, what's gonna happen to you if they decide they don't need you anymore? I have a feeling that their retirement plan consists of a swift execution."
"What can I do?" she asked.
"You can unlock the cage, give me a chance to escape."
One of the guards tapped Mary on the shoulder.
"I have to go now," she said.
I just decided to finish my meal.
There was nothing to do in the cage except look around the lab. Sometimes, scientists would come in, babble in an incomprehensible language while they operated the instruments and equipment, thud breaking the monotony. None of them bothered to speak to me.
I looked at the equipment I suspected was keeping me here. I hoped that there would be a twenty-six hour power outage so I could get out of this cage.
I saw someone enter the room; it was Rakakot, who questioned me in the previous world.
"Hello, Mr. Mallory," he said. "I hope you are comfortable in there."
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
"I had to make a report to the High Council on Outpost 1," he said. "They wanted to know about the affairs of the section of the world I was assigned to, and they wnated to know about you.
"You know, Mallory, you are about to become a hero. "Our scientists claim that your condition will allow us to bypass your slidecage. I don't understand how, but they sounded convincing to me and the High Council. You will be known as the one who made the repatriation of our home possible."
"My parents are on that world," I said. "I won't let you hurt them."
"And what are you going to do about it?" asked Rakakot. "You're just stuck there in that cage, and those scientists told me you can not slip to another dimension."
"Maybe their equipment is not working." I then looked intensely into Rakakot's eyes. "Why do you hate us? What did I ever do to you? Or those humans who were living on worlds where kromaggs never ventured?"
"Who said I hate you?" he asked. "Or humans, for that matter? I serve the Dynasty. I provide aid to its allies and destroy its enemies as the Dynasty directs.
"Eating the eyes of our slain enemies was a tradition among the kromagg peoples ever since they began their wars to repel the human invasions. Should the Dynasty decide that you should be killed, I shall have the privilege of eating your eyes."
"Hoiw lucky of you," I said.
"I must catch a flight back to Outpost 69, though it was nice to see my home away from home." Then Rakakot left the lab.
It must have been hours later than Mary came back with a shiny new bedpan.
"I don't need to go," I said.
"Yes, you do," she said. As she did, she unlocked the cage.
there was at least one guard posted in the lab at all times. Mary came to say something to the guard.
And that was when I sprung! Before the guard could react, I came in with my fists blazing, putting the power of my whole body into each punch. In less than a minute, the guard was down.
I left the lab. One glance at my watch indicated that it was counting down again. If I don't get caught or killed, I'd be gone tomorrow.
But this was not the time to think about the future, only about getting out of here.
I walked calmly. Maybe the kromaggs would think I am just a human servant. I heard footsteps, so I ducked into a door. As it turned out, it was a broom closet. There was a broom and a mop, wiith a plastic container filled with a strong-smelling solvent, possiblt for mopping floors. The solvent felt slippery.
I came out with the container of solvent, for it might be useful sometime. It became useful seconds later, when two guards spotted me. They ran after me, so I spilled the solvent on the floor. suddenly, the two kromaggs lost traction and fell right on their asses!
I had to make a quick, straight run for the exit. Suddenly, without warning, I felt a tight squeeze on my throat., I looked and saw a black-uniformed guard, and this guy was as big as they came! I tried pulling his arms away, but his arms muscles were strong and intent on squeezing the life out of me.
Then I remembered what to do. I quickly pried not at his arms, but his thumbsHis thumbs lost thewir grip on my neck an d with it, the rest of his hands. It left a wide opening, so I kneed him in the groin as hard as I could. then I delivered some swift, powerful punches to his face and then fled outside.
I was now on the platform where the base's buildings were built. There has to be a way off, maybe to ground level. I looekd around.
And then I saw a helicopter. I made a run for it, hopiong I did not get shot. Luck was with me, as the helicopter was not secure. I guessed the kromaggs did not count on anyone stealing the helicopter. I got into the seat and flipped the switches, hoping I did not hit the self-destruct switch. I heard the engine start and run. I pushed a lever, and then the helicopter rose into the air.
I operated the levers and stick, hoping to fly it. The helicopter was flying eratically, as I couild see looking out the cockpit window as well as the radar. I then saw a bright beam of light shine past me. I looked at the radar, and there was someone following me. My erratic flying made it difficult for the pilot in the other craft to hit me with the laser beam.
I knew I would not be safe in the clear sky, so I descended to the trees. I coild now see the massive tree trunks, which made redwoods look like matchsticks. I weaved and out of the trees, hoping that whatever was chasing me couldn't get a clear shot. I heard the impact of laser beams against the tree trunks mixed with the sound of the rotating propellor of the helicopter I borrowed. I looked at the instruments.
Suddenly, I was jolted, and then the whole world spun around me! They must have gottten the tail rotor. I did my best to maintain control,. hoping to make a safe landing on the ground. A few more beams were fired at me.
Then I heard an impact, and I felt as if I was in a free fall.
This would be a sucky way to die.