Welcome to Percotran -Part XLI

By Richard Davidson

“That monkey looks like he’s got a burnt metal head,” gasped Swig, who was pretty sharp today.

“You’re crazy,” said Kasheeba, focusing her vision on the monkey, “no, you’re right.”

“And it appears to be winning,” Swig added, as Alexander took a nasty cut to his ankle, and stumbled just a bit.

Suddenly, the burnt metal head monkey stopped fighting, and Alexander advanced with a mighty “Hah!” and rammed his sword right through the spot the monkey had been, but it moved, and looked up, beyond Alexander, with some kind of blinking red light that must have once been an eye.

Kasheeba had just started her sprint towards the man and monkey, but what she saw made her stop dead in her tracks.

“My God, it’s an Autrioselon,” said the monkey man, and as that amazing thought slapped Kasheeba, so did the one about the monkey being Captain Pearson.

“Ouch,” she said, as her brain absorbed the blow.

The nubile warrior had never said that before, but that really hurt.

“You will stop at once,” said a voice in all of their heads, and then added, “we’re here.”

And there, across the lagoon, was the shoreline of Percotran International.

“Try that door,” the whale told Alexander, and he taped his ankle and ran, as he had taken to carrying a small medical kit with him lately.

“DON’T anybody try to follow him,” he thundered, as Swig, Kasheeba, the Captain Pearson/monkey thing and two Puali Lizards started heading that way.

Swig and Kasheeba looked at each other. There was another way. They headed for the sub, and Leviticus swam their direction, and Captain Pearson of the Monkey Brigade decided this was his chance.

“I’m going for it,” he thought, and with simian precision swung through the trees to the edge of the island, and ran full speed towards the door.

It was the door to a maintenance corridor, that ran through the basement, Alexander discovered. He ran through a maze of dark hallways, until he came to a dead end. He went back to the last door he’d seen, and stepped out into a beautiful, sunlit hallway, emerging from the side of a mountain. On a small, Birilulite plaque, it said “2NN17-4AAB.”

“Hallway 2NN17-4AAB...” Alexander mused, “what was the name of that hallway I emerged in again...”

and then, down the hallway a bit, where another hallway angled off to the right, in Hallway 2NN17-4AAA , he saw a blinding flash, and then he saw himself arriving in this strange world, looking truly bewildered.

He trotted just a bit, trying not to attract too much attention, trying to reach himself before he jumped down an air shaft.

“Holy crap,” he thought, “did I used to be that much of a dork?” His former self did look quite pathetic, blinking his eyes, and turning his head this way and that.

“Who are you?” demanded a Security Worker, who seemingly came out of nowhere, but had probably been behind him all the time.

“Commander Richter’s new assistant, Sparky,” Alexander said glibly, speeding up just a touch, “you’re not supposed to be in this hallway, and if you don’t stop bothering me, I’ll report you.”

It was just about the wildest bluff anyone could ever imagine, but what the hell.

“Sparky?” thought the Security Worker, stopping and scratching his head. He didn’t like the sound of that.

“I HOPE they’re not bringing back the EHZ55,” he thought, trembling just a bit over the legendary ancient torture device, that had been banned back in the 97th Century. EHZ stood for “Electric Head Zapper,” and that’s about what it did, too. The sparks were just for show. The thing wouldn’t have sparked at all if they’d taken Gaul the Destroyer’s advice, and buried the electrodes a couple of inches into the skull.

“That usually results in the victim, er, criminal dying before the power is ever turned on, which sort of ruins the whole point, if you see what I mean,” argued General Killl of the Third Brigade, right before giving the order to have Gaul the Destroyer himself “zapped.”

The guard also got to thinking, “we’re going to have a harder time getting new recruits,” for just a second.

Alexander had almost reached his former self, who was now talking to Worker 2567A, and about to go into the Map Room, when a ceiling grate swung open, and the Captain Pearson/monkey thing jumped out, and landed on Alexander’s head.

Alexander ran at the wall head first, so as to crush the little monkey’s body, but the Captain Pearson/monkey thing was too quick for that, jumped off, and laughed as Alexander rammed his own head into the wall.

“You’re not Commander Richter’s assistant,” bellowed the enraged Security Worker, who’d just been on the phone circuits in his brain to the Commander himself, and an Electronic Transport Window was opening next to him.

Alexander was happy to see Kasheeba running towards him from the other direction, with Swig bounding and panting behind her, just as a wave of Percotran Security Troopers began pouring through the square of light.

He told Kasheeba to take a quick left with his eyes, and as they headed towards the hallway he monkey thing had just ran down, bullets and handcuffs started raining all around them.

“I’ve been hit,” cried Swig, as his feet were bound together by a small circular band of energy fired from a 499b-11 Restraint Pistol.

Instead of falling, he started hopping madly towards the others, just as Alexander’s former self launched himself into the air duct, followed by the present Alexander, the monkey thing, and Kasheeba.

“Wait for...” he started to say, but a heart-penetrating round hit its mark, and he was dead before he hit the floor.

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