SB033: Independence Day As Dino flopped around like a rag doll over Jerhevon's shoulder, he and X were leaping through the twisted organic wreckage of the alien spacecraft, making their way to the exit. "I'm positive it's right around this bend!" X cried with elation. They sprinted around said bend, to come face to face with one of the alien queens. Her engorged brain case shimmered; mucus dripped from her dual maws. "Ah...er...aw, shit. Let's just run." Jerhevon resigned. X and Jerhevon ran on either side of the queen, a bit surprised that neither was stopped as they cleared the exit. When they heard the hull of the craft hiss closed behind them, though, they turned in utter surprise, wondering why the alien had not pursued. It was then that Jerhevon noticed his load had lightened. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dino awoke to the strong smell of freshly baked donuts. Blinking his eyes open, he noticed that he was no longer wearing a respirator. In fact, he wasn't wearing anything at all. He looked a bit to either side of him, and saw that he was reclining comfortably in a large lounge chair, with a cup of coffee and a small stack of donuts on a table to his right. As his eyes focused into the dim light before him, he saw several aliens reclining in similar chairs. "Ah...hello?" he stuttered. One of the aliens before him pressed a button on the side of his recliner, and it hummed and folded to an upright position. "Salutations, stranger. How are you feeling?" the creature chittered. Dino looked down at his naked human body momentarily, then looked at the alien again. "Um...I'm...fine, apparently. Where am I?" Another of the aliens responded. "Why, you're inside our spacecraft, human. And we're quite pleased to see you." "You are?" Dino took the liberty of reaching for a donut and nibbling on it. "Quite," the first alien spoke again, and ambled over to Dino's side. "You see, we've been stranded on this planet for quite some time now. Some bizarre power source on this planet affected our ship's systems, and we were forced to make a crash landing." Dino tried not to wince in disgust too much as the drool from the alien's maw slowly dripped onto the arm of his easy chair. "Oh, I see. I wonder if that's the segment of the Device we've been looking for." He sipped his coffee, and suddenly realized how calm and collected everyone was acting, including himself. The alien sat casually beside Dino. "Oh, pardon me for not introducing myself. I am N'Jorl. And also excuse our enthusiasm, but we are eager to solicit your help." Dino stifled a belch, and set his cup of coffee aside. "Oh, certainly, N'Jorl. What's the problem?" "Well, it's that pesky power source, just a few meters beneath the ship. None of us can get anywhere near it. We were wondering if you could try and remove it for us." Dino smiled. "Well, as long as it doesn't mess me up, I certainly don't see why not. Especially if I would be killing two birds with one stone...helping you nice chaps, and retrieving another segment of the Device as well. But...what about Cera? And my friends?" The alien paused for a moment. "The others with you in the rookery? Well, I'm afraid I have sad news on all accounts. One was impregnated by one of our young. She's in a stasis chamber now. The ones that followed her left through some sort of dimensional portal. There were two with you when I intercepted you, but they seemed to be in a hurry, so I didn't have a chance to invite them here." Dino waited a moment, recounting in his mind what had happened. The main detail he fixed upon was that X had shredded the Origin Inducer weapon; the thought of him remaining a human sank in. "Well, that's okay. Let me just radio my friends, and they can help you as well." He looked for his communicator wristwatch, and seeing it absent, he asked, "Um...can I have my stuff back?" "Most certainly," the alien grinned.or at least, Dino thought N'Jorl did. He handed Dino the three segments of the Device, which Dino eagerly placed around his neck with a comforted sigh, and then handed him the communications device, which was now much too large to remain around his wrist, no matter how much he adjusted it. He pressed a few buttons on it and held it before him. "X? Can you read me, X?" he asked with a sheepish grin on his face as N'Jorl leaned close to study him. X's image faded in from the static on the display. "Well, you're not a book, you know. What happened? Are you all right?" "Everything's fine," he grinned. "It turns out the aliens here are friendly, and they need our help. And no, they don't have a knife to my back or anything making me say this. And get this...they impregnated Cera! But just come on back inside...this segment of the Device is going to be the easiest yet." A few minutes later, N'Jorl led Dino to the outer hatchway, and Dino held the respirator to his face again as he opened the outer hull of the ship. Jerhevon and X sprang inside, ready for battle, but Dino quickly eased their concerns, and explained what had happened. "Apparently, Cera's goon-a-saurs took off when Cera got that face- hugger on 'er," Dino chuckled. "Say, N'Jorl...can we see Cera?" "Most certainly. Just follow me." N'Jorl clicked down one of the adjacent hallways. As X and Jerhevon took off their respirators as the outer door closed...N'Jorl had increased the oxygen content inside the ship to accommodate Dino...X grabbed Dino by the shoulders roughly. "Are you nuts? Can we really trust these aliens?" Dino smiled. "Relax. These guys are really civilized. They actually *want* us to take the segment, because it's screwing up their systems. We can get it, get out, and leave Cera to rot." "Don't you feel a draft, Dino?" Jerhevon mused. Dino looked at him, irritated. "Yes, I *have* noticed that I'm buck naked now, but I don't really have a choice, do I?" He turned to X, and was going to say something, but just grimaced a bit, and strode after N'Jorl. N'Jorl led them to some sort of research facility, and they saw Cera...or what she was becoming...suspended inside a clear cylinder of some sort of viscous green liquid. Her frill had expanded to resemble the alien's kidney-bean noggins; her skin was now more of a carapace. And she was developing real breasts. "Holy moly!" Jerhevon exclaimed. "What's happening to her?" "She's being infused with our DNA," N'Jorl explained. "I'm terribly sorry about all this, but you all should not have wandered into our rookery." Dino smiled, chuckling. "Oh, don't be, N'Jorl. She's not really a friend of ours. How long is this process going to take?" "Just a few more hours," he replied. "Then she'll be--" N'Jorl's words were stifled, as Cera's bulk shifted violently inside the capsule. Her eyes flickered open, revealing dark, pupilless orbs. Her gaze fixed on Dino, and she began to tear off the tendrils supporting her in the fluid. "Shit!" X cried. "I thought you said--" N'Jorl was beside himself as alienesque alarms sounded around them. "I...don't understand!" Cera let out a muted, more demonic sounding "Heeeeee!" as she glided free, to the bottom of the cylinder. Dino cried, "Let's just get the fuck out of here!" he shouted as Jerhevon hoisted him over a shoulder again, and they sprinted out of the lab. N'Jorl still stood gazing at the cylinder, as Cera retracted a clawhand and smashed it open, the fluid oozing out across the floor of the lab. She thumped towards the shocked N'Jorl, and extended a clawpalm before his chittering maw. Her eyes flared, and a tendril shot out from her palm, passing through N'Jorl's skull and out the other side, speeding through the hallway. X noticed the tendril zip past them as they reached the hallway nexus near the exit bay. They didn't care to wonder why it had left them untouched; Jerhevon slammed open the bay doors, not bothering to don their respirators, as they heard tendril after tendril whip through the corridors behind them. Jerhevon stumbled onto the barren surface of LV-426 as Dino covered his mouth, holding his breath. X radioed to the TURDIS on the communicator located on her gun, and in a few moments the all-too-familiar port-a-potty appeared a short distance from them. X eagerly swung the outer door open, and held it such for Jerhevon and Dino to slip in. Glancing back at the alien craft behind them, X saw that it was aglow with activity as she finally dashed inside the climate-controlled TURDIS. Dino gasped and panted, breathing in the April-fresh air as Jerhevon put him down on his feet. Benjamin wondered aloud, "What's so funny?" as Red, Orelious, Stormfront, and WolfWings tried in vain to stifle their laughter, seeing the naked human before them. "What the hell is happening in there?" X spat, as she dashed to the TURDIS controls. Images of the craft appeared on the viewscreens, and suddenly Cera's modified muzzle appeared on the large, central one. Everyone stood in silence as her obsidian orbs gazed inside the TURDIS control room, and they flared upon seeing Dino's jewelry again. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the pitiful opposition," she sneered. "What have you done, Cera?" Jerhevon shouted. "Oh, nothing much. Just taking control of my new servants. You can call me Ceralien from now on. I think that has a nice, superior ring to it," she beamed. X turned her attention from the viewscreen to the weapons controls of the TURDIS. "Oh, they won't do you any good," Ceralien chuckled, watching the raptoress' movements with delight. "None of the weapons systems are functioning!" X cursed, slamming the controls, which sparked a little in response. Darwin appeared on a screen above her. "Hey! Watch it, toots! I'm a delicate mechanism!" "Of course they're not functioning," Ceralien snickered, leaning back to show off her newly acquired breasts, which she was fondling idly. "I now have control of the segment of the Device. It's a neat little gadget; it has the ability to disable just about any form of technological apparatus in its vicinity. It had been tuned to interfere with the workings of these poor creatures, but now that I'm in control..." "Get to the point, Cera...lien!" Dino shouted. "Oh, I most certainly will, my pathetic little human," she retorted. "I want you to hand over all your segments, or else I'm going to completely disable your TURDIS and let you slowly suffocate. Either way, I'm going to get the segments. But I'd much rather let you all rot here for the rest of your lives, knowing that you failed utterly. You've got ten minutes to decide." Just before she turned off her viewscreen, Ceralien squeezed a breast at the irate Dino. "I wouldn't give you milk if you were the last male in the universe. HEEEEEEE!" Her image was replaced by a countdown timer. Dino slumped, looking down at the segments around his neck. X was in a frenzy. "We have to do something! Don't we have any weapons, Darwin?" The dolphin on the viewscreen stopped tumbling momentarily to reply, "Nope. You're up shit's creek without a paddle." Dino muttered, "I'm going to get some clothes on, and tell Ceralien she can have her stinking segments," as he shuffled down a hall. Red flitted sorrowfully after him. "Can't we just take off, Darwin?" Stormfront asked. "Nope," he replied. "Ceralien's disabled that too." ~Don't we have anything we can use againssst her?~ Orelious hissed. Darwin stopped tumbling on the screen again. "Well, you didn't ask me that," he grinned. X looked up. "What? What do you mean?" Darwin explained, "Well, all our weapons systems are disabled, but there's something else we can use to attack Ceralien's ship." X slammed the control panel again. "Then tell us...now! We don't have time to play games, you stupid computer!" "Okay, okay! Sheesh!" Darwin replied. "I'm referring to our fireworks. Yes, the TURDIS does have quite an impressive array of fireworks that we can launch at Ceralien's ship." "Then do it...now!" X demanded. Darwin twirled a few more times, and the group looked up to see a huge barrage of fireworks explode on the hull of Ceralien's ship. Cera appeared on the monitor for a few moments again, briefly. "What...what are you--" she stammered, as her image faded to static. "Now, get us out of here, Darwin!" Jerhevon shouted. "Wait...wait...okay! We're free!" Darwin squeaked as the TURDIS dematerialized and re-entered the Circuits of Time(tm). A few moments later, Dino strode back inside, wearing one of his tunics again that he had reduced in size a bit with the 4-D Lens segment, and holding all the segments in his hands. Red was riding on his shoulder...heavily...as he asked, "What's happening?" Benjamin stopped petting Livingstone momentarily to say, "We just narrowly escaped from Ceralien, and we're back in the Circuits of Time(tm) again." Dino smirked, then chuckled to Red. "Well, I guess we don't get to try your plan after all," he mused. X, however, was not amused at all. "Well, we're just going to have to figure out some way to get back there undetected! Ceralien's got a segment, and we have to get it back!" Dino stared at X, his vision narrowing. "Have you got a screw loose?" he spat, as Red fluttered off his shoulder. "I'm not going to risk my neck against that...that Ceralien any more!" "Don't be a fool, Dinosorceror," X spat, placing her gun on the control panel. "We can do it; we'll just have to use melee weapons and..." "We're not going back," Dino insisted softly. X blinked, and looked up at him. "I'm sick of chasing after these segments. I don't even know why the hell I'm doing it! Do any of you?" His gaze shot around the room, and was returned with nothing but somber stares. "As far as I'm concerned, our little Device quest is over." "Oh, is that so?" X sneered. "Damned right," Dino responded. "Look what happened to me. Anyone else here want to look like me?" The others grimaced, and made ill-sounding noises. "Human? Blech!" Red chortled. "Then I think it's unanimous, X," Dino said, puffing out his chest. "Oh...is...that...so?" X sneered, hunching over. "Yep," Dino stated, and shot a gaze to Red, smirking. "But you know, Ceralien will still be after us, as long as we have these segments. And to keep her from assembling the Device..." Dino looked X straight in the eyes, and threw the three segments of the Device to the floor, shattering them into crystalline dust. X's eyes flared, and she roared with anger, lunging towards Dino, who just smirked with disgust as she floored him, knocking him unconscious. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dino jerked into consciousness as Jerhevon gave him a shot of stimulant. "Ahhh..." he gurgled. Dino saw that he was laying on the central table in the medical suite. "What...happened?" he said softly. Jerhevon, wearing a sterile white apron spattered lightly with blood, leaned over him. "Well, X chewed you open pretty bad there," he whispered. "Am I gonna live?" "Oh, I don't think you're going to be doing the Watusi anytime soon, but..." "That lousy bitch," Dino spat softly, trying to sit upright. "She never cared about us. All she wanted was to assemble the Device for her damned Patriarch..." Jerhevon pushed him gently back down on the table. "Relax, relax. We've got X locked up in Pyrite's Gym until we can figure out what to do. Personally, I think we should just find a way out of the Circuits of Time(tm) so she can just leave and report back to her Patriarch that the Device can never be assembled." A smile crossed Dino's face. "Well, that's not entirely true." Jerhevon smiled a bit as well. "What do you mean?" "Those weren't the segments I destroyed...they were cheap imitations. Red came up with the idea to hand them over to Ceralien, to satiate her long enough to get away," he gurgled. Jerhevon massaged his shoulders. "Okay, shhhh. Relax." "I...I still want to do it, Jerhevon. I still think we should get all the segments of the Device, and assemble it ourselves," Dino whispered as he began to fade into unconsciousness. "Then we can...deal with...Ceralien...and...the...Patriarch." Jerhevon continued to comfort him. "Okay, Dino, okay. Just rest for now. We can save the universe in the morning." Dino collapsed back onto the table with a smile on his face, knowing that from this moment on, the TURDIS was independent of both forces which sought to assemble the Device. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- )> The Dinosorceror of Lava Dome III /\ My heart and soul long for the <{ }> Herpetophile and Macrophile \/ most important love of my life, <( )> http://www.voicenet.com/~dino /\ Jenn the Ice Raptoress! <{ }> dino@voicenet.com \/ Soon we will be together... <( "I'm at work! Gotta look busy!" -- Phil "Got no time! Gotta go lootin'!" -- Dino