Before we determine why your grandfather, whose body is now so much dust, is worthy of our protection, Fiona, I would like to show you a little something, said Eris.
Eris snapped her fingers, and the airy vistas they had occupied suddenly transformed. They now stood on a low rise, looking down at a magnificent city. Tall spires dotted the cityscape, as well as domed structures, geodesics; and in the distance, an immense shining white pyramid, composed of an indestructible ceramic compound.
What you see here, my darling daughter, is Atlantis. This beautiful city was once the glory and hope of mankind on ancient Terra. Men and women here communed with their Gods. Not just through prayer and adoration, but in person. Eris voice sounded wistful to Fiona.
Fiona looked down on the beautiful city, and could see the inhabitants, were playing, walking about, and speaking with each other. They appeared extremely happy. In the air above the city, people were moving about; both in air cars and by the conveyance of their own mental and spiritual powers. Their bodies floated to and fro as if flight were as natural to them as breath.
What you see here, Fiona, was the height of humanitys connection with their Higher Powers. This is the promise that was lost to humanity; through the jealousy of my mate. Egrezy, you just couldnt bear to share your godliness with our creations, could you?
They did not deserve the opportunities for advancement we provided them, my Apple. It was not fitting for mehums to exercise and have control over themselves, over nature, over the very fabric of the Universe itself. It sickened me to associate with them! Their dependence on that ghastly emotion Love, as the conduit to reach us, was pathetic to me.
What did I ever see in you, you bastard, Eris said as she shook her long tresses. Your universe-sized ego amused me, I suppose. And perhaps, your contrariness attracted me as well. But what you did here; enlisting Gruad to your cause, was a betrayal of all We strive for; the happiness and growth of our children!
Fiona, EgrezyHais decided to meddle with these beautiful souls. He caused Gruad to question this blissful life; to wonder if there was more. Gruad began to seek more of Egresss first horseman, Knowledge. He sought to control the environment and the Universe through physical processes, rather than by using Love to open the chakras. That was in essence the beginning of the end for humanitys Ascension to Godhood.
Then Egrezy insinuated his second horseman, Death, but in the guise of the great Executioner, Fear.
As Gruad gained knowledge here in Atlantis, he also began to gather a following, to which he preached that man should be afraid of death; that it was an end to existence, rather than a stepping-stone to other dimensions. And so, humans began to be afraid for their immortal souls; thinking that one day their being, their consciousness, their divinity, would simply snuff out like candles in a breeze.
Gruad was opposed in this course by a very spiritual and enlightened woman, Lilith Velkor. She countered Gruads new Party of Knowledge by forming a competing Party of Nothingness. Yes, its a silly name, and I must confess to planting the idea in her head. said Eris with that same wistful smile. It was meant to irritate and enrage Gruad, which it did. Gruad captured Lilith Velkor, and crucified her, alive. He therefore brought Egresss third horseman to the fore: Pain. Lilith died very painfully; but she never succumbed to the Fear that Gruad had wanted to instill in her.
And finally, to my erstwhile mates glee, his fourth horseman appeared. Gruad regretted his crucifixion of Lilith, for in fact, he loved her. His grief over her pain and death finally drove him completely insane. He finally used the knowledge and power he had obtained to cause a huge Solar flare on Terras sun. The flare destroyed the central portion of Atlantis completely, causing the great cities and most of the populace to sink between the surface of the Atlantic ocean. The solar event was also the death knell for the great feminine counterpart of Atlantis, Lemuria.
So, you see what the powers of my ex-lover here can accomplish. His jealousy, and his own little touch of insanity, served to set the human races evolution back tens of thousands of years, through the actions of Gruad, the Greyfaced. Whatever plans he has for you, Me, and Sirius will fare our children no better.
Fiona, looked once more at the beauty that had once been Atlantis. An interesting tale, Eris; but why should it concern me. I have failed the people I served in my own way. I am no better than this twit of a boyfriend we seem to be stuck with once again. If he can help to protect my grandfather; then I care not if all his horsemen trample me into the ground.
EgrezyHais merely smiled. Eris, my Apple, take us away from this place. Your point was made in vain it appears. The shade of Madam deLuna has seen the futility of her previous dreams of promoting love and peace. Why dont you follow her example. Your way died with Atlantis. Even though the Brotherhood has tried for millennia to preserve and disseminate the secrets of Ascension, they will fail, yet again. You will fail in opposing me.
Once again, they stood in an indeterminate space., a pearly grey color permeated the view in all directions.
Now, Fiona. Share with Eris and I how we might possibly be of help to you regarding your grandfather. Do this, and you can finally enjoy the same forgetfulness and peace that I gave your obnoxious daughter.
The "ghost" of Fiona deLuna had just started to explain what assistance she required of Eris and Hais when the grey pearlescent fog surrounding them began to vibrate.
What in the greyfaced Hell is that??, EgrezyHais said as his dark aspect began to ripple slightly in tune with the vibrations.
We call it Thud, my Dearest, and I havent a clue.
Fiona had stopped speaking, and floated with her eyes closed. Her spiritual visage began to glow softly; and her features softened as if a great burden or tension had been released from her.
The vibrations in the ether increased, and were now accompanied by a musical chord of three tones, pure and melodic. Hais nether began to ripple more violently, and seemed to contract in on itself.
Fionas etheric body was now suffused with a brilliant white light, which pulsated and grew with the surrounding vibrations. Eris turned away from the radiance, and watched her husbands visage contract even more.
Those bastards! shouted EgrezyHais. This is not possible! The old mysteries are long dead! My powers cannot be
And, in an instant, Egrezys essence had compacted into a small dark sphere, and with an audible pop, it disappeared.
Eris snickered. Chuck you, Farley, and the four horses you rode in on! I suspect youll probably be back; but you wont be bothering this family again!"
Eris then turned to the visage of Fiona, whose growing pure incandescence had diffused throughout the grey fog, and forced it to subside, revealing vast endless vistas around them. Go, my child. Find your family. Be happy. Be free!
Fionas glowing essence had begun to expand outward. Ahhhhh. So this is how it feels, Fiona said in joyous ecstasy. I should have paid more attention to their blather. Thank you, my beloved friends, she projected outwards to whoever might be listening on the lower planes.
The glowing, expanding sphere that was Fiona projected to Eris. I wont need Your help now, Goddess. I now have the power to protect my grandfather myself. And, if I do need help, I believe I can find Jessica and Sylvia, wherever Hais has sent them.
Be proud of Your followers, Eris. And, be kind to them. All they do is out of love for You and the Chao. And I now see that this was done for me out of that same love. I may see you all again someday; but for now, goodbye.
Fionas spirit expanded further, until it seemed to light every corner of the Void; and then slowly and gently disappeared. Eris watched, with what passed for tears of joy coming from her eyes. Not only had the spirits of the deLunas been freed from her insane husband; but She was now feeling more like an actual Goddess than She had in millennia.
And all due to a Fisherman, an old Romantic, and a precocious Pooch! There may be hope for these cabbages yet! She laughed merrily as she snapped her fingers and disappeared into the Void herself.
Sharon "Boomer" Valerii had been walking the streets of Port Canaria for hours. She had spoken with many of the residents, who were bustling about the port city preparing for some local festival.
The people she had spoken to had all been polite and friendly; but none of them seemed to know anything about the sighting of a strange craft, or a striking, tall blonde woman.
Sharon had grown weary, and was about to return to the Bed & Breakfast where she was staying to rest. She had gotten a bit lost when she turned up a small side street off the main square. She was about to reverse her path and return to the square when she noticed what appeared to be a chapel.
The chapel was in an area of nondescript flats and small shops; but it was obvious that it had some religious signifigance. Above the doorway was a spinning holographic symbol, which she recalled was associated with the local Goddess, Eris. Etched in the stone above the doorway was the disturbing motto: "Enter at Your Peril!"
The frame around the heavy wooden doors was decorated in some agrarian motif. Vines, gilded yellow apples, and what appeared to be cannabis leaves were intertwined profusely in the design.
Five broad steps led up to the doorway; and, on the top step lay a small dog, his small pointed nose lying morosely on his paws. The dog seemed to be staring intently at her. Sharon walked slowly up to the third step, and sat down near the small pooch.
She felt a brief tingling in the center of her forehead; and then seemed to hear:
@She is not here, you know.@
Startled, Sharon drew back for a second. She stared back at the dog, and finally spoke. "Who is not here?"
@The one you seek. The "thing" that visited the Memorial Plaza. She left. I know. I can sense her presence for great distances.@
Sharon was amazed. This little dog was speaking telepathically to her, in perfect Galactic Standard. And, he knew what her mission was. This time, she did not speak, but thought, 'You can sense these entities, the Cylons?'
@I know now that is what you call them. But no, I can only sense this one. Because she is.. not truly a Cylon. At least, not completely.@
'I don't understand,' Sharon thought. 'You know who I seek, so you must know what she looks like, and why I seek her...'
Fnordie rose from his haunches, shook himself, and then descended to sit next to Sharon.
@Yes, Sharon. The form is the same. The one you call number 6. But.. the entity inside the body.. that is different. That entity was once my partner.. my friend. She was once a free cyber sentient, an ELF "Fnordette". Her name is.. was.. Kitty.@
Sharon detected a wave of sadness rushing over the small dog's mind. Her own mind was filled with a vision of two ships in space. Fnordie was somehow piloting one of the ships; and, it was being attacked by another fighter. She sensed the shock to Fnordie when he realized that it was his own former partner and friend who was attacking him. And then she felt darkness envelop Fnordie as his ship was destroyed.. as he floated unconscious in his escape pod.
Sharon's mind reeled from the intense emotion of the vision; of the great loss and sense of confusion and betrayal this amazing animal had experienced. 'I am so sorry, Fnordie! And now, your "friend", this Kitty, has returned. Do you know why?'
@No. I could not read the thoughts of Kitty/Caprica 23. I can sense Kitty, but this new machine I can not communicate with through my Pineal. I know that you must tell your leaders of this Sharon. But, I beg you to let me help you search. I need to know why Kitty tried to kill me. I need to know why she has turned away from the other Fnordettes. Mama Discordia and Sophie still try to contact here via Fnordnet, but she does not respond. Tell your leaders we must work together to find this "Cylon", Sharon.@
'I understand, Fnordie. But you must understand what this may mean to my people. Kitty/Caprica may be very dangerous to us. She may be only the "tip of the iceberg." There may be other Cylons nearby. I will tell our leaders of your offer to help; but I cannot promise anything.'
@Thank you, Sharon. There are others who will help as well. My good friend Rick Deckard is here on Canaria. The TAZ men, Malaclypse and Reggie, and the Fnordettes. All are concerned for Kitty, and wish to know what has happened to her. If she is a danger, then we must know that as well.@
Fnordie rose to his four feet, and his tail wagged weakly. @Our minds have touched. Now you can call Fnordie at any time with your mind, if you concentrate. Tell your leaders, and then think of me, and let me know what we must do.@
Sharon looked sadly at the small dog. Impulsively she reached out and hugged the small pooch tightly for a moment. The she rose slowly, and began walking back towards the town square of Port Canaria.
Mal had risen early to write a letter. He still enjoyed the feel of his antique pen against the luxuriant paper which was handmade local from the fibrous stalks of the Kallisti Gold plants. He laid down his pen, and reviewed the letter.
My Dearest Reg,
By the time you read this, I will be gone.
I will stop briefly in Baffin to monitor the construction of the Orbital "Spa" and the Temple of Eris Esoteric inside our Geode Planetoid. Hopefully, the "Scrubbies" will have completed their terraforming, and I can climb unimpeded through the crystals, and float without breathing apparatus while inspecting the Temple at the center.
I will then continue north. My clandestine duties there become more cumbersome and troublesome each day. But, Fool that I am, I will continue for as long as I am able. We owe it to the Ambassador's dreams.
I am still elated at the "reincarnation" of our Sylvia; and I'm happy to report that she has performed exemplary service in the KNF. My Goddess, she has been promoted to the Elite Guard Fighter Squadron! Perhaps being a doppleganger of Our Lady of Chaos makes her ideal for such work.
However, old friend, I fear that we have become the mere "caretakers" of Discordianism, as well as the properties surrounding your plantation.
Alan Kell, Spike and Kate Harris have been led away by another seductive goddess, this "Eve". Scutter, Kingpin, and Koolmo have gone off on another hairbrained adventure. And, of course, the Uli Rouge lies as a monument to the whims of Forces beyond even Eris' control. The four other Illuminati Primi must be laughing their arses off at our plight, Reg.
Even the young TAZ members have gone off to other arenas. Katsuo, Dragon, O'Darby, May... I suppose following the catechism of Balancing the Chao may be more difficult than the impetuos acts which often serve to unbalance It. We are a Church with Spiritual leaders and true Catmas, be we have no followers to practice them any more.
And the ELF, Goddess bless them. Two sightings in as many months. Bingo Pajamas, and Kitty, who may no longer be the same Kitty we knew and loved. Finn, Grace, all the rest... gone as if they never existed.
Only Mama Dis and Sophie Noir even have a clue what it means to be a Servant of Eris, and they are not even organic! Perhaps the random stochastic processes embedded in their Obfuscation and Randomization circuits makes them better able to understand the Chao than we are, Reggie.
I will consult Appendix Gimmel enroute to the north. Perhaps I have missed a signal, and we are falling headlong into another period of Illuminati history. If so, we may have to adjust quickly. I try not to despair, and remember the Prime Discordian Catma: "We must All stick apart!", but sometimes I despair for the TAZ and its Ditzy Deity.
Sorry for the gloomy outlook, Reggie. Come up and see Sylvia and I on your next sales trip. Perhaps the future will be brighter then.
Kallisti, old friend,
Mal
((To the Disco community: You may consider this an invitation to apply to the Temporary Autonomous Zoners. All you need to know about our group and our beliefs is embedded in a half dozen threads, old and new. Begin with "How it all began" in my signature. If you can explain the difference between a Pineal and a cabbage, you may be considered. Thank you for tolerating me and my Discordian ways for so long. Mal.))
*I don't get it, Mal. Why can't we just hire a local architect for the job?*
"Eris wants this guy, Dis. I don't ask why. But, I've been looking at his particulars in this old book on Ancient Freemasonry. It appears that he's more than just an allegory to frighten their intitiates into their belief system. This Abiff creature also seems to be connected with some heavy Egyptian Deities. If he's as "connected" as I think, we may just need to "prime the pump" a little to raise our Master Builder for the new Temple.
*Alright, Boss. Does it involve you floating around in the air like a geek, or hooking me up to an octopus, or having to shout 'Klaatu barada nikto!' at the top of my decibel range?*
"Shush, Dis. I think it's right here in the old Initiation rites. The ceremony probably lost its original meaning and potency over the ages, or ol' Hiram would have been running around building half the Masonic Lodges and government edifices in the old world! Ah, here it is. Just stand by and be ready to tweak that Galactic Standard Translator of yours. No telling what communications problems we'll run into."
Malaclypse reviewed the ancient text one more time, then stood, and raised his arms. His upper arms remained parallel to the floor, and his forearms came up to make perfect right angles. His palms were open and tilted upwards. He closed his eyes, and began to speak in a deep sonorant voice.
"O Jubelo! O Jubela! O Jubelum! Thou who murdered the great Architect. I command your aid!
"O thou Killers of the Widow's Son! Release thy Master Hiram Abiff to my care and keeping!"
A subtle corruscation of the air in front of Malaclypse began to form and vibrate; as if the air molecules were being displaced by an unknown energy. Mal saw, inhaled quickly, and continued.
"O thou Builders of Pyramids! Thou Masons of the Temple of Solomon. Aid me in bringing thy Master forth!
"Release your hold upon his Spirit and Body! Allow him to come forth!"
A form began to take place before Malaclypse. First indistinctly, and then with more solidity and detail. Mal saw a man with long hair and beard, dressed in robes take shape before his eyes. He swallowed and bore down again.
"O Master Mason! Take form among us! We have need of thy Secret Knowledge and Skill!
"Oh Hiram Abiff, Widow's Son! Take your rightful place among the Faithful again! I exhort Thee!"
And it was done. A very confused man looked about the cabin of the ship with wide eyes. But those eyes were intelligent; and as they completed their survey of the cabin, Mal, and the spinning globe in the air, they held a twinkle.
אֲשֶׁר
אַתָה
?
"What?" Mal turned to Dis. Have you got it?"
*On two measly words, Mal? Give me a break! Keep him talking, will ya? it sounds a bit Yiddish.*
Mal shrugged, and tried again. "Uhh.. Shalom? Oy Vey? I am Malaclypse. What is your name?"
A torrent of foreign words sprang forth from the man, now completely solid and corporeal, and rather impatient to boot. Mal looked beseechingly at Dis and shrugged.
*Yeah, Boss. It is indeed an ancient Hebrew dialect. This guy may have worked in Egypt, but he sure wasn't from there originally. Engaging full duplex translation. Mark*
The translator began to catch up with the torrent of words from Hiram Abiff: "Who are you?? Where am I?? Why have you brought me here??"
Mal again raised his arms "on the square", which instantly caught the attention of the man, and stopped his tirade. "O Great Architect. I am Malaclypse, Servant and Priest of the Greek Goddess Eris. We require your services for a great and holy project."
Hiram Abiff cocked his head and looked around again. "This "craft' is not built of stone and timbers. Of what use can I be on this plane?"
Mal slowly lowered his arms, and reached behind to his desk, picking up a rolled blueprint. He held it out slowy to the man. "Hiram Abiff, Master Mason. We want you to build a great Temple, with a buttress as large as a planet."
Hiram Abiff's eyes gleamed with excitement as he reached eagerly for the blueprints in Mal's hands.
((Welcome to the TAZ, Hiram. We'll keep you busy.))
*By Thud, you old fart! I'm the Mama. If anyone volunteers for this, it will most definitely be me!*
"Think a minute, Dis! We don't know this 'Dr. Seed' from Adam's Off Ox! For all we know, he earned his 'Doctorate' thru Neural Net correspondence courses! Science Academy? From what bloody University? It's all just too damn vague!"
Malaclypse looked again at the flimsy from FnordNet in his hand..
Quote:Doctor Vic Seed to Temporary Autonomous Zoners:
Subject: Did someone say cybersentient spheres of sassy sisters? No?
TAZ and TAZ associates,
I am Doctor Vic Seed, of the Universal Science Academy. I am a mechanic of sorts, someone who tampers about with God's great designs... I take the essence of one creature and put it into another.
And an interesting rumor popped up, concerning metallic spheres of contained AI which are advanced enough to pilot ships. Well!
Why, I wonder, are they confined to spheres? I cannot formulate a response. Therefore!
I offer my services to craft a fine android body for one of these AIs; I offer the closest jump to humanity that they'll ever get.
Your choice, TAZ and TAZ associates. My services are free, of course, but... well, just know that they're free.
I await a response,
Signed,
Doctor Vic Seed, USA
"Dis, this bloke is being intentionally vague, and rather cocksure of himself, I might add. FnordNet doesn't have one ruddy thing on a Dr. Vic Seed, or on this supposed Academy of his. And the last time I was offered anything 'for free', I found out it required a very expensive lifetime supply of 'refills'!"
*So, you're turning down a chance for the Fnordettes to be fully autonomous and mobile, just because of a bad shopping experience?? Mal, why don't you spend a year or two inside a titanium globe, and see how you like it! You're the one who gave us our freedom; and now you're playing the protective Papa? Balderdash!*
"And with freedom came hissy fits, it seems. Yes, dammit, I am being protective. Until this Seed tosser can provide us with a bit more detail, a genuine CV not out of a crackerjacks box, and some idea as to his real motives, none of you girls are going to jump on his daily special.
"Now, if you will just calm down a moment, I will promise you this. I will offer to meet with this Dr. Seed, and sniff him up one side and down the other. My Pineal is not getting the slightest tickle from him one way or the other at present; and until it does, we are in standby and inquiry mode. Agreed?"
*Well, I must admit you seem to have acquired a gift from your little tenure inside that bloody geode. All right then. But I want some fast action on this, Boss; or the girls and I will stage a revolt the likes of which you and your Wacky Goddess have never seen!*
"Well, channel me through to Fnordnet, and let's see what else this wunderkind has to say for himself."
"In this discordant period, the Hodge and the Podge are in conflict, because a ruling class emerges which attempts to control the others. This correlates with hexagram 1, , Ch'ien, the all-powerful, in the I Ching. The six unbroken lines represent the severity and monotony of such a period, which is, above all, the age of the T-square, the building of fences, the division of lands by "boundaries" drawn on maps, and the imposition of one man's (or one group's) will upon all others. Typically, the earth is regarded as both flat and finite by the Zweitracht mentality, and there is much concern with dividing it up into portions (among themselves, of course). The "superstitious" terror of American Indians when first confronting maps was merely the reaction of a Verwirrung mentality to a Zweitracht mentality: The Indians could not conceive of people treating earth as a thing to be exploited rather than a mother to be respected."
[color=#FF99FF]The "ruling class" mentioned does not always equate to a lawful rule; but is generally always "rule by force". Huge armadas designed to instill numbing fear. How original. ..Mal
"Zweitracht associates with 3 numerologically because 3 is the totally male number, because all-male Trinities (Brahma-Vishnu-Siva, Father-Son-Spirit, etc.) are invented in such ages, and because the discord always has a minimum of 3 vectors, not merely 2. That is, the division into a propertied ruling class and an unpropertied governed class immediately sets in motion further cupidity; the ruling class soon falls to fighting over the spoils. Contrary to Marx, most of the strife in Zweitracht ages is not the conflict between proprietors and proles but between various proprietors over who gets the biggest share of the pie."
Our "proprietors" in this Zweitracht age are the dispossed of Sirius come to call on "the Man". Will anyone be home? ..Mal
(There are no fnords in this statement: "Star heroics? Huh! So. Bidet. New Hangover Poet.")
"The governing Tarot card is trump 12, the Hanged Man. The cross on which he hangs is blossoming, to show that it is still organic and alive (the biogram); he hangs upside down, to show the reversal of nature. He represents both the burden of omniscience in the owning-governing class and the burden of nescience in the servile-submissive class: the total crucifixion of desire by Realprinzip and Realpolitik."
[color=#FF99FF]What is being crucified is the spirit of fun and fair play. The burden of omnisciense has not been truly felt by the oppresors yet. They still think it is "fun for all, and all for fun. They will see. ..Mal
"The astrological sign of this period is Pisces, the two fish swimming in opposite directions indicating the conflict of logogram and biogram ("body" and "spirit," astrologers say.) Typical Pisceans who have shown the Zweitracht personality are E. H. Harriman, the railroad magnate (who covered the United States with Ch'ien-style unbroken straight lines), Cardinal John Henry Newman, Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts (an attempt to instill Piscean authoritarianism even in childhood), Admiral Chester Nimitz, John Foster Dulles, Anna Lee (founder of the world's most antisexual religion, the Shakers), industrialists like Kruger and Pullman, financiers like Cambell and Braden, Grover Cleveland, John C. Calhoun, Neville Chamberlain, Andrew Jackson (whose expulsion of the Cherokee Nation from its traditional lands onto the "trail of tears," where most of them perished, is the archetypal Zweitracht land-grab), William Jennings Bryan, and Frank Stanton of CBS."
Our prophet Hagbard Celine, who started his professional life as an attorney, once tried to protect a Native American Tribe from this "land-grab" mentality. He failed. Out of frustration and sorrow, he himself became the penultimate Anarchist and leader of the Erisian Liberation Front. ..Mal
"Since all Illuminati with any academic leanings at all are encouraged to major in history, the tendency in most textbooks is not only to black out Verwirrung periods but to glorify Zweitracht periods as ages of Light and Progress. Indeed, they make entertaining reading: They .are ages of expansion, and there are always new people being discovered to be subjugated, "civilized," and converted to tax-payers and rent-payers. Almost any age described in glowing and admiring language in a history text will prove, on examination, to be a Zweitracht era, and the foremost butchers and invaders are treated as the outstanding heroes of humanity. A sympathetic reading of the biographies of these empire-builders almost always indicates that they were homo neophile individuals who turned their talents to destruction rather than creativity because of bitterness engendered by years of torment and baiting by homo neo-phobe types during their childhoods."
I can add nothing to this. "Butchers and invaders" says it all. ..Mal
"The ever-present conflict in a Zweitracht period eventually leads to the third stage."
Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be Chao Boys. ..Mal
Planet Curacoa,
Orbital Spa and Cruise Resort,
Fifth Floor Balcony,
A row of deck chairs faces the stunning ocean vista. Two of the chairs are occupied.
*Dis, what in Thud do we need a suite and a conference room for? We're all about 30 seconds apart via bloody Fnordnet!*
*Shut up and enjoy the view, Sophie. How else would we get Malaclypse out of Baffin to attend? He'll spend the whole bloody time fishing, after he cleans us out of caviar!*
*Meh. He said the decision was up to us anyway. Why'd you invite the old fart?*
*Dunno, Sophie. For all his old-fartness, that silly Geode has done something to his head. Primates may be stinky, but they have one thing we don't.. intuition.*
Incoming transmission, direct beam:
*Woo hoo, gals! Sylvia inbound. I'm two minutes from touchdown. You should be able to see my four pink exhausts any second!*
Dis and Sophie "peer" upwards. *What the... is that one of those bloody Turannic Volvos? She's been a busy gal!*
*Hey, there's no moss on a rolling globe, Soph! The girl just got resurrected. Let her have her fun!*
*Do you expect any more of the F-Troop to show, Dis?*
*I dunno, Soph. Contact has been sketchy. We'll give Cortana and Susan the rest of the day. If they don't show by then, we hash it out by ourselves. Pass the sunscreen, will you?*
*Tee hee. Already worried about your skin, and you don't even have any yet. You're a hoot, Mama!*
The Fnordettes had cancelled the Conference room. None of the other F-units had arrived to discuss the offer of Dr. Seed. There was a morose atmosphere surrounding the three opalescent titanium globes who had arrived to discuss the fate of their "kind".
Mama Dis, Sophie and Sylvia hovered around a small table at approximate head height, out of old habits from dealing with their primate associates. Sylvia hovered at a slightly lower height, seemingly in deference to her "older" companions. Malaclypse sat quietly in a chair some distance away from the three.
*I just can't see the benefit* said, Sophie. *I'd much rather be plugged directily into my cockpit interface. Using fingers and eyes and limited human reflexes would just impede things. And there are stupid g-forces and decompression to worry about...*
*Dogs are supposed to have an excellent sense of smell,* mused Dis, *and Fnordie told me they do smell funny, no matter how often they bathe. Not sure I could put up with that..*
*And we'd shed!* continued Sophie. *Hair. Even skin cells that would slough off! Constant regeneration from the inside out. Doesn't seem very efficient to me.
*Sylvia, you had a body. What was it like?* asked Mama Dis.
*Mkay.. well, it was easy to get scratched up. And things hurt if you knocked into them, or they knocked into you. And, yucky things happened to my body. "Puberty", DeSicev called it.. But later, some things could feel really good.. used to make me feel all warm and.. gooey.*
*Well, I know we've taken on some primate traits, just from association.* continued Dis. *Strong human emotions like "fear" and "anger" seem to have corresponding response patterns in some of us now.. but I'm not sure that's a good thing. And after watching Reggie mope about for months, I sure as Thud don't want to experience "love" and "sorrow" if I can help it!*
The Fnordettes hovered a few seconds, in what was for them deep, prolonged analysis and computation. Then Dis spoke again.
*Well, I may not be able to run, or sniff flowers, or get all "ooh-ahh" over a sunset; but I'm happy to be who and what I am. I'm not volunteering. Sophie?*
*When I'm wired into my cockpit, I'm one of the hottest fighter jocks in the Sector, Dis. Not givin' that up. No way. I'm out. Sylvia?*
*Bodies die.* said Sylvia, with a tinge of sadness in her "voice". *People you love die. And you die yourself, even when you're not ready to sometimes. You guys gave me this titanium shell with a thousand year warranty. I've had enough of dying, thank you. Bein' a globe is good enough for me!*
*Well, I guess that's settled then. You gals run along. We'll have a nice current bath and one more polish before we check out. Malaclypse, be a dear and shoot a comms to Dr. Vic, will you? Tell him he'll have to find other volunteers for his little Frankenstein experiments.*
"Will do, Dis, right away."
Malaclypse rose, and waited until Dis had floated out of the room. He took the data chip out of his pocket which contained the information V-MAX had uncovered about Dr. Vic Seed, and placed it into the nearby trash incinerator slot.
"That's my gals!" he said as he walked to the sideboard and polished off the last of the caviar and champagne.
![[Image: malsig_alt1.png]](http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o108/Shamus_FL/malsig_alt1.png)
![[Image: Fnordie.JPG]](http://majk.borec.cz/FL/Fnordie.JPG)