Dabbler opened his eyes to find Landis looming over him. Landis appeared quite sane now, the trauma of what he had experienced in the previous setting seemingly forgotten.
Dabbler looked around. "Where's Lizzie?" he murmured, remembering how they had fallen in company with her.
"Good, you're awake," said Landis. "And ... semi-coherant, I guess. Who's this Lizzie you're talking about?"
"Dragon girl... fell with us through the black pit... isn't she here?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. We haven't fallen anywhere, certainly not through a black pit with a dragon girl. Though we certainly do not appear to be where we started out from."
Now Dabbler took in more of their surroundings. Clean metal walls. Futuristic devices. A window or viewscreen showing Saturn and its rings looming close and immensely vast at hand. "Whoa, Star Trek city!" Dabbler exclaimed. "We on a movie set, or what?"
"No, I, um, think we might actually be in outer space," said Landis seriously. "The scene outside, if that's what the screen is showing, has been shifting slightly as time goes on, indicating that we're moving. And occasionally a space ship or two has appeared on the periphery of the screen, moving in the same direction we seem to be going. I think we might be in a space ship ourselves, part of a fleet or a convoy or something."
While Dabbler was taking that in, there was a pinging sound behind them -- they looked back just in time to see a section of wall slide away, revealing a woman.
There was a sharp intake of breath from both men. The woman was stunning, composed entirely of improbable but breathtaking curves, and had very little on. Unfortunately, what little it was that she did have on was a skimpy but very definitely military uniform, and she had a quite nasty and business-like weapon in her hand. It was pointed at them. Her voice, too, was all business, as she said "Up, prisoners. The Empress will see you now."
The confusion Dabbler felt was echoed on Landis' face. "W-who are you?" the stage magician demanded. "You appear ... oddly familiar, but -- not quite right, somehow."
"In your dreams, perhaps, prisoner," said the woman in a manner both bored and dismissive, as if she had heard every line any man might ever hand a woman. "If you must have a name, you can call me Zero. Now on your feet, both of you, and get moving. The Empress does not appreciate being kept waiting."
The motion of the weapon was emphatic. Meekly, the two men got to their feet as Zero stood aside from the doorway to let them pass and then fell in step behind them, the air of the weapon never stirring from their backs.
"Down to the end of the corridor, and then turn right," she commanded. "You will obey my every word to the letter, or you're both dead, understand?"
Dabbler and Landis both muttered their agreement, while the former wondered what might be in store for them this time.
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Sun Sep 18 10:32:14 2005
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