Newbie Galactic Combat II - Story Thread

[tbontob]

THE LOCATION: JUST OUTSIDE OF THE ENTRANCE TO ELSTONILE CASTLE.

The trip to Estonile castle was uneventful but somewhat subdued. Each member of the party knew the importance of effecting a reconciliation between Zaxxon and his beloved Zaxxoness.

They had just arrived. The drawbridge over the moat to Elstonile Castle was down over the moat which was a good sign.

But the portcullis was also down and it barred their way into the castle. But this was not necessarily a good or a bad sign.

Eston requested admittance to Estonile Castle.

After a short wait, the Zaxxoness appeared high up in the tower over the entranceway and wailed, "Where is my husband?"

Eston replied with "He is not here, my lady. But I have some very important Messages from him which he wishes I convey only to you and personally."

The Zaxxoness's hand flew to her cheek as she exclaimed "Oh!". Eston then observed her rushing towards the stairs of the tower.

Eston sat down to await the appearance of the Zaxxoness. His heart was filled with joy as he contemplated, "The lovebirds miss each other terribly. Now all he had to do was effect a reconciliation between Zaxxon and his Zaxxoness and then he could go home to his own family."

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THE LOCATION: THE SEMI-OVAL OFFICE OF ZAX CENTRE

Zaxxon was energized. Knowing that he would soon be reconciled with his Zaxxoness, he was able to pour his energies into state affairs.

A courtier came in to inform Zaxxon of the acting Research Director request for an audience.

"Acting?"

"Well, the head of the department has suffered a stroke and is in the hospital. Shall I show him in."

"Yes, yes"

The acting head had a somewhat strange appearance. He was fat, being somewhat rolly-polly and seemed to lean backwards from the waist as he approached Zaxxon.

"What is your name?"

"R2D2"

"That is an ususual name?"

"Yes, apparently, my parents saw a foreign movie and thought the name fit me."

"How so"

"They never outright told me. But they seemed secretly amused whenever I asked them. At times it almost appeared as if they could hardly contain themselves from laughing."

R2D2 continued with "But I know they only wanted the best for me! My father was a Research Director level 3/security clearance 3. They shortened 'Research''2nd level''Director''2nd level clearance' to R2D2. That is one explanation. But sometimes they said it was a contraction of 'Research & Development'. It was terribly confusing to me. They assured me this was their way of encouraging me to not be satified with Research Director level 3/security clearance 3."

"Interesting! So what did you want to see me about?"

"Well, my superior focused on propulsion but we seem to be going nowhere with it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he wanted to research reverse speed so that if a battle seemed lost, our ships could 'get out of Dodge' fast."

"But don't all our ships have inertial dampeners?"

"Yes"

"And doesn't this mean that they can turn on a dime?"

"Yes, and thereby speed away instantly."

"So he wanted to have our ships 'back out' rather than 'turn about' to leave?"

"Yes sir. We probably would have propulsion 7 or 8 by now if we hadn't invested so heavily into reverse propulsion."

Zaxxon color was rapidly turning red "So, change it!"

"Well, being only 'acting' head of the R & D department, I don't have the authority to change research projects."

Zaxxon's countenance started to turn purple at the incredible stupidity of things. Only seeing the court physician surreptitiously pulling out a hyperdermic needle, gave him cause to restrain himself.

Tightlipped with stress, Zaxxon could barely whisper "The acting head of R & D has all the rights and privileges as the head of R & D."

"Oh! May I take my leave to make some changes?"

Barely containing himself, Zaxxon whispered "Yes"

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THE LOCATION: THE SEMI-OVAL OFFICE OF ZAX CENTRE
THE TIME: SOME HOURS LATER

After some hours of rest, Zaxxon was able to function again.

"Spiii wishes to see you, sir."

"Send him in"

Spiii rushes in to report on the reorganization of the espionage department.

"Good news, sir! We only have 1,138,297 operatives with the device in Ruatha's empire."

"What! 1,138 thousand?"

"And 297, sir"

Zaxxon groaned. If Ruatha should find out about this, they would most certainly be at war.

"And you are sure the device is completely undetectable?"

"Yes sir! And not only that, but the emmissions are broadband and radiate out in all directions, so there is nothing at all that will connect us to them."

"Thank God!" However, in spite of the reassurances, Zaxxon was uneasy for Ruatha was a mighty ruler and only the foolhardy dared to anger him.

"There is something that we cannot make sense of, sir."

"Yes"

"Well, you know the person must be 'emotionally charged' for the device to receive enough energy to work. In the past we would receive information on a mixture of 'unhappy' events and 'happy' events. The death of a wife, discovering a son has cancer, being fired from a job, being charged with a criminal offense are just a few examples of 'unhappy' events we would receive."

Spiii continued "Happy events would be things like winning the state lottery, the birth of a son, getting a contract for 100,000 widgets, an ugly spinster getting married are some 'happy' events we get."

"Yes, yes, go on"

"Well, recently, we are only getting massive numbers of unhappy events. There are no happy events at all! And not just the regular unhappy events, strange ones, like a son or daughter starving to death, indiscriminate arrests in the middle of the night, babies dying because they cannot get medical attention because of some curfew in effect, executions without due process of law, just to name a few."

Zaxxon exclaimed "Thank God for some good news!"

"Pardon" exclaimed Spiii as he tried to comprehend how Zaxxon could be so happy over the sufferings of others.

"Since we had nothing to do with the crisis in Ruatha's empire, he cannot blame us it!"

Zaxxon was actually jubilant!

Zaxxon continued, "And furthermore, he will be so distracted by the terrible events happening in his empire, that even if he should somehow happen to stumble upon the device...I know, I know you claim it is undetectable...but even if he should somehow stumble onto one of the devices, he is unlikely to notice or pay much attention to it because of the crises which requires his attention."

Zaxxon was so happy he didn't notice Spiii quietly leave the room.

EDIT============================================
Apparently Ruatha didn't post his update to his empire. As my update to the workings of the Zax empire is dependant upon the workings of the Ruatha's, I give his update here...
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Posted by RUATHA

The Exploration Committe was in session.

"-We have been ordered by the Divine Intelligence Service to turn back V'ger.
And as the domestic state of the empire is at right now I concurr. We can't really fight any war now, the empire is shutting down.
Furthermore, if the CCCP has such advanced technology that the mind-control device implies, we do not want to fight them.
And not to forget, so far the CCCP has been honourable towards us, wich is more than we've been against them!"

"-But to turn back a exploration ship on the demand of aliens! This will set a dangerous example. Who nows what we might find if we jump through the wormhole that V'ger is parked at?
Are we such cowards that we are afraid of mere aliens?"

"-Nothing we can find there will solve our current crisis, we cannot risk to enrage the CCCP anymore.
V'ger will turn back.
We will explore that part of the universe, but not now, not with V'ger!
It's not about courage, well not so much about courage as about survival!"

[ December 15, 2002, 19:48: Message edited by: tbontob ]