[LD4SB #053  "Nothing To See Here"]


"...and will continue in aiding in negotiations on Klaxxix IV-A.  Now,
moving on...."

The ten members of the Dinosorceror Council Reviewer's Board, sub
committee 42, sat at a long table in a slightly darkened meeting room. 
The Reviewer's Board's job was to look over the records of each
Dinosorceror and decide if that one had progressed enough for more
advanced assignments.  Due to the excessive amount of Dinosorcerors,
several hundred sub committees were formed to cope.  This particular
committee was in the last bit of a ten hour session.  They looked
weary are tired, doughnut crumbs, torn napkins, and used crushed
styrofoam cups littered about the table.  At this point, asking them
for a promotion was similar to asking for a raise after your boss had a
root canal.  At least there was only ten minutes to go until the session
ended, and they could start their two day break.

A tannish raptoress, Kyran, stood and opened the next
surprisingly thin folder.  "Dinosorceror 3263827, inducted
independently into the Order by the dying Dinosorceror 2379962 roughly
two years on the now-destroyed planet Earth.  The Order officially
instated him three weeks ago, he passed the biannual test at the DTF, and
was given his assignment....he is observing the FD-120a Spatial Anomaly
in the Andromeda Galaxy."

The sub committee chief frowned.  "What was he doing during those two
years?  And why the hell do we have a Dinosorceror watching over a
wormhole?  It's a complete waste of funds."

Kyran flipped through the few sheets in the folder, and raised her
eyeridges.  All of this one's history was missing, the records starting
from when Dino was first taken to the DTF.  She scratched her elegant
muzzle with the backside of a claw.  "That's odd...this one's information
has been removed.  I wonder why..."

The committee chief smiled a little, glancing at the clock.  "Well, I'd
like to know as well...and since it's your file, it's your job to find
out.  I can't make a decent judgment without knowing what this one has
done, after all."

Kyran sputtered slightly.  She had a nice long weekend of nothing
planned, and sure as hell didn't want to spend it researching.  "But..."

The chief waggled a claw.  "Nah, ah...just do it.  The file's probably
just misplaced, you'll be done in twenty minutes."  He stood up, the
other reviewers in suit, then started moving for the door.  "Have a good
weekend, everyone..."

The various scales chatted on the way out of the room, a cleaning crew
immediately moving in to attack the trashed table.  Kyran still stood
near her seat, holding the open folder in one claw, staring at the
doorway.
"Well...damn."


****


"Oh, look, it's the Three Stooges!", came Darwin's snide greeting as
Dino, Helvetica, and Astor walked onto the bridge of the Apotheosis,
Dino's little son skittering about their feet.

Dino glared at Darwin.

Helvetica ignored Darwin.

Astor spun in a half circle, exclaiming, "Really?  Where?"
The little velocilophus squeaked as a big clawed apato-foot thumped down
next to him.

The AI dolphin snickered as Astor dejectedly walked over and took up a
seat next to the one Helvetica had ploddled to.  Dino sighed.  "Well,
what's today's report, Darwin?"

Darwin cleared his electronic throat as Dino's son scampered to
Helvetica, hopping onto a foot and landing neatly with a foof-cushioned
*foff* sound.  The virtual dolphin was sure to make his sarcasm evident.
"Oh, you'll love this...the wormhole fluctuated three times today, I
recorded slightly higher levels of space dust particles, and a comet
passed within three light years.  They give you all the good stuff, don't
they?"

Helv twinkled his toes, making the wee hatchling wriggle about like a
thing possessed.  "Why are we here, anyways?"

"Yeah, I'm getting bored out of my mind.", Astor whined, tapping his tail
on the floor.

"No kidding, you don't even know anything about wormholes."

Astor harumphed, bobbing his neck.  "Neither do you...you couldn't tell a
wormhole from a Pop-Tart!"

Helvetica shook his head floofily.  "Nuh, huh!  Pop-Tarts are frosted."

Dino sulked in his chair while his two companions bantered.  He had had a
bit of time to think about his situation, and was confused as to why he
had been assigned to watch a wormhole.  He had been through some really
tough situations, tangoed with beings of extreme power and came out of
it with only a few scrapes and bruises, and even scored a few stomps here
and there to boot.  He should have something at least a little more
challenging than this...anything was better than watching this cosmic
toilet of a space rift.

He found his thoughts drifting back to the Patriarch.  He still had his
daughter, and he would be damned if he was going to let that smug power-
monger keep her for long.  Of course, the things he had said did make
some sense...He couldn't challenge the ruler of the omniverse and expect
to come out of it in one piece.  Well, not at the current time,
anyways...he was sure an opportunity would arise.

He glanced down at his son and could not help but grin as he hopped from
Helvetica's foot to Astor's and back and forth.  At least this was a
chance to spend some quality time...Dino suddenly slapped his crest
and honked. "D'oh!  I almost forgot!"

Dino jumped up and scooped his hatchling up, then headed for the door.
"C'mon, boy, time to introduce you to Godzilla flicks."

The second the door swished shut, Darwin twirled on the screen.  "Hey,
Vet!  Wanna help me out for a minute?"

Helvetica listened to his stomach rumble, then stood up.  "Nope, the
galley is calling me."  He headed for the door, Darwin's requests
floating after him.

Astor kicked back in his chair, making it creak under him.  He reached
forward and started flipping through the still-accessible Earth cable
channels on a viewscreen.
"*Are you pondering what I'm pondering?  *click*  You moronadon!  *click*
Suck gas, evil doer!....*"


******


The door to the file room slid open silently and Kyran stepped in.  To
call it a "room" was like calling steel girders Tinker Toys; the huge
warehouse-like room stretched off for hundreds of yards, the high exposed
rafter ceiling dotted with harsh quartz lights, only a few illuminated,
casting the room with it's dim bluish glow.  The place had been locked
down and cleared out for the weekend, and she had spent the last twenty
minutes locating someone to give her a security passcard.

Kyran sighed quietly, not bothering to turn on the other lights, and
began walking down the wide center isle, towering shelves loaded with the
recent records of the Dinosorcerors on either side.  There were backup
copies for Dinosorceror 3263827 in here, all she wanted to do was get the
papers and get out.  After slaving away all week, it was all she could
stand to spend an extra half hour here...

A quiet noise made her stop.  She tilted her head to one side, holding
her breath to listen...papers shuffling.  She furrowed her eyeridges

slightly...the place was supposed to be empty.  She stealthily crept
forward until she neared the row the noise was coming from...the one
where 3263827's record happened to be located.  She began to stalk down
the row parallel to it, stopping where she could hear whoever was also in
the room, directly on the other side of the high shelves of records.

A deep voice suddenly whispered out.  "I can't believe you let these get
filed."  Kyran had to close her jaw a little tighter, even at a whisper
the voice made her teeth rattle.

"At least I got the records out of primary files before the Reviewer's
Board saw them."  This voice sounded feminine, yet almost as deeply
powerful as the first voice...as if this one was speaking through a
length of pipe.  There was more paper shuffling on one of the upper
shelves on the other side of the isle, then the sound of a filebox
being closed.  "It's not like you can blame this on me, anyways.

Kyran tried to peer in between the shelves to see through to the other
side, but with only a tiny crack of open space with the densely stacked
files it was nearly impossible to see anything, the very dim light in the
room not helping the matter.

"All right, let's go.", came the first voice.  The floor started to
quiver, accented thumping footsteps echoing slightly off the cavernous
room as the two obviously large unknowns on the other side of the shelves
walked.  Kyran began to follow parallel stealthily.  She heard them reach
the end of the row and turn away from her, the quivering footfalls
receding away down the center aisle.

The two reached the opposite end of the file depot, a passcard being
scratchily slid through a electronic lock sounding quietly after that. 
"We'll take these down to to SL6-7 as soon as they're certified."  The
door opened, and the two thumped on through.

Finally daring to lean forward enough to peer down the center aisle, she
squinted at the shadows by the far door as it automatically slid
shut...an imposing silhouette in the large doorframe...the gleam of
gold...and the door closed completely.

Kyran stepped out of her row, puzzled.  She went down the next row, to
approximately where the two were messing around, and moved a convenient
roller-ladder to get at the high shelf.  Dinosorceror 3263827's files
were one of the many on this shelf, she felt the thin metal box...it was
still warm from being handled.  She opened it, and was greeted by the
same thing she found in her folder at the Reviewer's meeting...a few
recent papers and no past history.

She snapped the filebox shut irritably.  Something was going on here,
something wrong.  She sighed and tapped her sickle claws on the metal
ladder platform...she could just go home, and forget about all this
crap...

Kyran smiled a little, then quietly whispered to herself, "But where's
the fun in that?"


******


Dino quivered.  "Murr...claws."  He walked back down a corridor towards
the bridge, his wee hatchling skittering about next to him, obviously
euphoric and squeaking happily.  Dino chuckled as he reached the bridge
door, grinning at the velocilophus.  "Quality programming, eh?"

The door slid open to the bridge, and Dino stepped in.  Everything looked
normal; Astor and Helvetica were thumbclaw-wrestling over the last pack
of gummy snacks, the viewscreens showed twenty different views of the
wormhole, all of which were dreadfully boring, and Darwin twirled about
overhead.

"Overhead?"  Dino blinked, then double-taked at Darwin.  He definitely
wasn't a computer image anymore, instead taking up residence in what
looked to be a realistic rubber/latex skinned miniature bottle-nosed
dolphin robot, roughly two feet long.  He "swam" through the air as if it
were water, a quiet hum belying the hidden anti-grav generator that kept
him afloat.

"Oh, it's Big-D and Wee-D!", came Darwin's greeting as he twirled and
spun down to barrel-loop around Astor's neck several times, allowing Helv
to pin his thumbclaw and snatch up the snackies in one fell swoop.

Dino sputtered, and shook his head, pointing at Darwin.  "How the hell
did *that* happen?"

Darwin twirled and rolled.  "Oh, this robot kit's been waiting to be put
together, but I knew you wouldn't be too hot on the idea, so I had
Foofers here do it."

Dino glared at Helvetica while he twiddled his thumbs and tried to look
innocent.  "Well...he locked down the galley and wouldn't open the door
until I put that together!  Besides, isn't this an improvement, or
something?"

Astor cocked an eyeridge.  "It's almost as if the author of this chapter
is catering to someone who really likes realistic looking AI controlled
robots."

Everyone replied in unison.  "Fancy that."


*******


Kyran walked down a narrow hallway deep under the DTF.  It was obviously
one of the less traveled areas of the facility, the exposed piping and
electrical conduit covered in grime, the sparse bare light bulbs lighting
the concrete tunnel in a Stephen King-ish manner.  She bobbed down under
a spray of steam from a neglected heating pipe on the wall, and continued
on towards the end of section five.

It had occurred to her earlier what the two had said on their exit from
the main file room.  "SL6-7" referred to Sub-Level six under the DTF,
each level broken down into sections.  But, as far as she knew, there was
no section seven.  There were only six.  So, here she was, searching
through the widely forgotten archive storerooms on the lowest level of
the DTF, searching for a supposed section seven.


She came to the door for section six and slid the passcard through it.
The door squeakily slid open immediately.  The passcard security had
given to her to get into the main file room was of level four, the
highest clearance, and she should have been accompanied by a guard at all
times while she had it in the File Room.  She was friends with the guard
who gave it to her, however, so he had entrusted it to her.  This abuse
of free access could get them both in very deep trouble...but curiosity

was getting the better of her.  She was intrigued even more when she went
to the door in the main file room the two mystery persons had disappeared
into and attempted to open it, surprised that her highest level passcard
was denied, the lock asking for a level five passcard, which should not
exist.

She stepped through the storage archive, wrinkling her nostrils at the
musty smell.  The room was overflowing with boxes dating back fifty,
sixty years, haphazardly stacked on rickety shelves and partially in the
aisles.  She continued along the dark room, until coming to the steel
wall that marked the end of the room, and of section six.

She squinted along the soiled wall...there was a door in the corner.
Upon closer inspection, the thick metal red door had "Authorized
Personnel Only" printed on it with fading white paint.  She blew the dust
off the passcard lock, then slid her card through it.  After a moment,
the lock beeped and the door slid open, allowing her to step in.

Stairs.  A long case of stairs, spotlessly clean compared to the store
room she stood in, stretching off downwards, dimly lit by bare light
bulbs.  She tipped her head curiously and started down them.  It seemed
as if she had descended sixty feet or so when she came to another door,
this one with no locking mechanism on it.  She twisted the knob and
pushed the door open...and boggled.

It was a file room.  So immense that it put the main file room on the
ground floor of the DTF to shame.  Spookily lit with narrow incandescent
area lighting, casting circles of light on the floors on the aisles in
between the huge filing shelves, the room was mostly immersed in shadows.
She started down one of the aisles, looking up at the wooden file drawers
towering above her.  Each drawer had a number on it...a Dinosorceror's
number.

Somewhere in this antiquated filing system laid her answer...


*******


Our three heros sat at a small round table in the galley of the
Apotheosis, glaring at each other over hands of cards, Dino's little son
skittering about their feet like some claw-oriented playground.
Helvetica sneered at Astor, then triumphantly announced, "Go fish!"

Astor growled and reached for the top card off the pile on the table.
Dino dropped his cards to the floor, leaned back in his chair, and
clasped his hands over his face, sighing heavily.  "This is pathetic!"

Astor bobbed his neck, nodding.  "Yeah, I thought for sure he had an
ace."

Dino's mouth fell agape, and he cocked his head to look at Astor,
wondering if all that neck was cutting down the blood circulation to his
brain.  "No, I meant watching the wormhole..."

Dino probably would have continued on the matter, but was stopped by the
sudden jarring of the ship and the sounding of alarm klaxxons, tossing
them all to the floor in a rough-and-tumble manner.

Astor groaned and rubbed his head, sitting up.  "What was that?"

"That...", Darwin stated, "swimming" in through the galley door, which
slid closed behind him.  "...is the wormhole collapsing on itself.  Seems
as though something is coming through it, and whatever it is is making
the wormhole unstable."

The ship shuddered slightly as the wormhole finally relented to the abuse
and disappeared from the omniverse with an anti-climatic cork-popping
sound.  Within the galley, everyone looked at each other through the dim
reddish emergency lights and flashing alarm lights.  There was much lip-
biting and head scratching, Helvetica making *scroff scroff* noises.
"Wait a minute...something came through the wormhole?

The metal door of the galley suddenly sliding open answered that.
Everyone spun and looked at the doorway as a spookily dense haze of fog
rolled in, the pitch black hallway hiding whoever was onboard.  Dino's
son squeaked and leapt into his father's arms.  Helv's floof stood out
slightly and he wringed his tail.  Astor stuttered as a shadowy figure
started to approach.  "Oh, my God, it's...it's..."

Dino blinked as the figure finally came into view.  "Hello Kitty?"

The little white toon cat stood motionless, little bow, blue and yellow
clothes, and all, staring at everyone.  She tilted her head cutely and
trademark-waved to everyone.  Darwin laughed at how fearful everyone was,
and threw himself into Astor's arms, snickering sarcastically.  "Oh, save
me big boy!"

Astor humphed and threw Darwin away, the robotic dolphin laughing and
spinning in midair, finally stopping next to Hello Kitty.  "Excuse these
dolts here...I'm sure that all together, they almost have half a brain."

H'Kitty reached behind her back, and in a toonish manner, whipped out a
large mallet, then ruthlessly bashed Darwin to pieces with it, the
rubbery "flesh" shredding, hydraulic hoses spewing liquid and abused
internal circuitry sputtering and sizzling in a bright array of sparks
and grey smoke.  Mangled and with wires and scorched latex hanging off of
its metal structure, the robotic dolphin fell to the floor with a clamor.

But, she was just the ky00test little thing while she did this.

Everyone stood agape at her, Astor finally stepping forward and waving a
fist at her.  "Oh, my God!  They killed Darwin!  You bastard!"

Darwin's image flickered, then appeared on a monitor on the wall.  "Damn,
back in the main computer.  I was just getting used to that robot body,
too."

Helvetica wringed his tail.  "Hey, I thought she was an ambassador of
good will, or something!"

Darwin trilled and twirled.  "Well, it stands to reason that in some
dimension out there, there would be a "dark" Hello Kitty."

H'Kitty, in one quick motion, donned a hockey mask and whipped out a
chainsaw, gunning the engine.  Helvetica's floof stood on end, and they
all simultaneously *eeeeek!*ed, turning and running away.

"Y'know...", Helvetica huffed, "I'm beginning to think that she's not so
nice."


******


Kyran worked her jaw nervously, a bad feeling creeping up her spine.  The
things she was finding in this cavernous room were very disturbing.  She
had discovered not only files on all Dinosorcerors, but on everyone that
worked for the DTF, not to mention many other powerful beings throughout
the omniverse.  Finding her own file, she found they had intimate
personal information and extensive records on everything she'd done with
the DTF, and a few other disturbing things...a small plastic biocontainer
in a small plastic baggy, apparently holding a DNA sample of herself.

Dinosorceror 3263827's file took up two whole drawers, thick folders
overflowing with records.  What she found out was very surprising...being
manipulated by the Patriarch to collect pieces of an ultimately powerful
Device to better his control over the omniverse, all the skirmishes he'd
been in...everything.  She had never heard of a Dinosorceror being
unwittingly controlled like this before...

The distant sound of a slamming door made her suddenly jerk her muzzle up
from the drawer.  Someone had just entered from the opposite end of the
room that she had entered from.  Thumping footsteps, two pair's worth,
followed close after...she quickly slid the papers she had back into the
drawer and closed it quietly.  The latching mechanism on the drawer
click-clacked loudly.  Kyran froze, as did the walking footfalls, the
silence broken in another second by the heavily thudding sounds of
running.  The two burst around the corner twenty yards up the wide aisle,
and the three regarded each other for a moment.

One was a massively muscled anthro Dragon, standing bipedally fifteen
feet tall, gold scales gleaming in the pool of light he stood in, a wild
black mane starting in between his twin white horns on the top of his
head, disappearing down the back of his neck.  The other was an
Apatosaurian morph, obviously female from her reddish-brown colored
scales (not to mention other things, but the author refrains from going
into that.  Use your imagination), standing to equal the Dragon's height,
although most of it was neck.  They both wore black suits and black ties,
white shirts contrasting brightly, both shoeless.

The Dragon's swirling eyes flared red briefly, and he pointed a taloned
finger at Kyran.  "Hold it!"

Of course, Kyran wasn't about to just let them take her.  She turned and
sprinted away, her ears almost immediately assaulted by the Dragon's
angry bellow, and the ground-quivering thumps of the two as they gave
chase.

Kyran hit the latch for the doorway she had come through and bounded up
the stairs eight at a time.  Raptors had never really been a hunted
species, and she wasn't liking the feeling.  Upon reaching the top of the
stairs she slammed her passcard through the lock as soon as it was within
reach.  The two black-clad persuers bounded up the stairs after her as
the door slid open.  They were fast for their size.

Kyran ran through the crowded archivial storeroom, an adrenal feeling
racing throughout her.  She knocked against as many stacks of crates and
rickety shelves as she could while she ran, the sound of the stacks
crashing down into the aisles and the angry growls of her hunters
stumbling through the debris rewarding her after that.  She put a good
bit of distance between herself and them, reaching the next subsection
door and frantically opened it, leaping through, and with a high kick of
her leg, slashed her sickle-claw expertly through the electronic passcard
box.  The door immediately slid shut just in front of the two charging
herps, a heavy clunk signaled the locks thrown.

Kyran panted heavily, hearing the frustrated growls on the other side of
the thick metal door as their passcards failed to work.  A sudden *THOOM*
against the door made her shriek and leap back a foot, a deep bowl in the
center of the steel appearing, then another, and another, the two
apparently punching the door repeatedly, the frame creaking in its
concrete supports.  She quickly looked for a place to hide...there was no
way she'd make it to and open the next door in time.  She spotted it; a
large exhaust air vent on the wall at floor level, its cover grate
missing.  She leaped at it, managing to wriggle and squirm uncomfortably
into it just as the door crashed off it's guides with a loud clang, heavy
growling pants entering as the Dragon and dinosaur stepped in.  Kyran
held stock-still, even while feeling little buggish things, disturbed by
the intruding raptoress, crawling over her...she looked out of her dark
hiding spot to see cockroaches skittering out.

She almost gasped as a large golden Dragon hindpaw came down right in
front of the grate, crushing the cockroaches messily with a sickening
potato chip-crunching sound, the other foot following in suit amidst the
squishing.  She watched the white talons flex, scraping at the concrete
floor...nothing for several moments.  She held her breath, waiting for
the Dragon to move on...

Kyran gasped as a large golden hand suddenly lunged into the opening,
grabbing at her, fully encircling her neck.  She was hauled out roughly
and lifted clean off the floor, brought up to the great golden creature's
eye level, her feet kicking at the air.

The Dragon grinned wickedly, displaying its many rows of sharp teeth and
fangs, chuckling as he tipped his muzzle forward until he almost touched
her, then whispered at her, "Peek-a-boo...I see you."

Kyran suddenly felt him grip her neck much tighter, she gurgling as her
world faded to darkness...


************


Dino, Helvetica, and Astor stood in a little huddle in a hallway of the
Apotheosis.  Dino's son skittered about as usual, jittering.  He'd
probably develop a phobia of cats later on from this.  They'd been
chasing and been chased by Hello Demon-Kitty for the last thirty minutes,
and were trying to figure out a plan.  For some reason, Dino's LensRing
wasn't functioning properly, forcing them to come up with some kind of
trap.

"Any ideas?", Dino asked.

Astor shook his head.  "Not me...I'm flabbergasted."

Helvetica scowled and tail-fwaped the Apatosaur.  "Flab?  Oh, har har! 
Another fat joke!  That's not funny!"

Dino rolled his eyes.  "Okay, here's what we do...", Dino stated, tracing
imaginary outlines on the floor.  "We simply lure Hell'Kitty into that
airlock over there, and blast her out.  Easy."

Astor cocked an eyeridge.  "Yeah, but how do we get her in there?  She's
the one with the chainsaw, remember?  Who knew something so ky00te would
act like this."

Dino humphed and scratched his chin, while Helvetica suddenly smiled,
chortling floofily.  "Hey, you know the difference between cute and
ky00te, don't you?"

Blanks stares met him.  Well, mostly blank, Dino was wondering about how
he was going to get stomped if his LensRing wasn't working, and Astor was
wondering if he'd properly set the ship's VCR to tape some afternoon
cartoons.

"The K-Y!"  With that, Helvetica produced, from a hidden pocket, what
looked like an oversized tube of toothpaste.  He went down the hall a
little ways, and started squirting out the goopy jelly on the floor,
making a little swath to the open inner door of the airlock.  "Ta-da!"


They were rudely interrupted by Hello Kitty as she leaped around the
corner up the hallway, wearing a Freddy Kruger red and grey striped
sweater and wielding metal glove-claws.  They regarded each other
coldly...well, Helvetica was suddenly reminded of stripes, and his
thoughts went elsewhere.

They decided the best thing to do was to just get her to run at them.
Astor grabbed his crotch with one hand and honked it rudely at Hello
Kitty, while flipping her the bird with the other hand and raspberrying. 
Dino mooned her, slapping his butt cheeks and waggling his tail.
Helvetica did something else rudely, which immediately made Astor and
Dino crinkle their nostrils.  "Oh, man, that stinks, Helv!  Jeez, what
have you been eating?"

The banter was cut short as Hell'Kitty ran at them, claw raised high
above her head.  She hit the jellied floor and immediately slid on one
foot, arms flailing, into the airlock, bouncing painfully off the outer
door.  Astor tapped the button next to the inner door, making it slide
shut.  They all blew kisses and waved through the teeny window in the
door, then opened the airlock, the evil little cat sucked out into the
vast recesses of space.

There was much rejoicing.  "Yaaah."

Darwin's twirling image appeared on the screen.  "Well, now what?"

Dino took off his LensRing and headed down the hall.  "Gotta fix this
thing..."


*****

Kyran groaned, moving to lift her hand to her head...only to find that
she couldn't.  She opened her eyes to see she was in a dark room a bright
light aimed at her face in a third-degreeish manner.  The hulking black
suited forms of her Dragon and Apatosaurian captors loomed on either side
of her...she looked down to see why she couldn't move.  She was
thoroughly tied to a chair with leather straps.  She smirked up at the
two.  "I didn't take you as the types that were into bondage."

The Dragon growled lowly and the Apatosaur scowled, but a new voice
interrupted.  "Amusing, Kyran...but I'd bite my tongue if I were you." 
The Dragon stepped out of the way dutifully to allow this new figure to
step up.  She gasped at the realization as to who it was...Dinosorceror
0000001.  Highest rank, head of the Dinosorceror Council.  The old
saurian chuckled quietly at her, adjusting the cuffs on his regally
designed tunic.

"Wha...", she sputtered, confused.

1 smiled and re-aimed the light away from her face, then raised a hand to
silence her.  "Shush, shush...after all you went through, the least you
should get is an explanation.  So ask away."

Kyran glanced warily around, collecting her thoughts.  "Well...what is
going on?"

1 nodded, clasping his clawed hands behind his back.  "I thought you
would ask that.  Tell me, Kyran, did you find out anything odd about
number 3263827 while poking around our little subterranean file room?"

Kyran thought for a moment.  "He was manipulated by the Patriarch to
collect segments of the Device."

1 nodded.  "That's right.  Have you ever heard of such a thing happening

with any other Dinosorceror?"

Kyran shook her head.

"What if I were to tell you that it has happened thousands of times in
the history of this organization?"

Kyran tipped her head slightly, and cocked an eyeridge at her highest
superior curiously.  "What?"

1 chuckled, beginning to pace back and forth.  "Well, not being used by
the Patriarch...I meant just a Dinosorceror doing something that he would
never be thought to do.  You see, the organization of the Dinosorcerors
has been around for an extremely long time, and in that time many things
have changed.  What started as a few hundred people gathering together to
provide relief aid for a planet here ravaged by wars or a planet there
affected by some disease eventually turned into what it is today, an
unwavering helping hand to the omniverse in its time of need.  At least,
that is what the public sees us as.  You see, nothing is perfect in this
omniverse, including the image of the Dinosorcerors.  While with good
intentions, some Dinosorcerors in the past have, on occasion,
accidentally caused chaos where they were trying to help, and even rarely
the destruction of whole species.  After an entire planet was
accidentally destroyed, we realized that there were problems with the
Dinosorcerors.  So, many years ago, we went about a change of governing,
quietly and out of the public eye."

Kyran blinked.  "How so?"

1 licked his lips.  "Well, we didn't want the image of the Dinosorcerors
tainted, it had to remain flawless.  Accidentally causing the destruction
of whole species and such does look bad.  So, a second, secret, level was
created within the Dinosorcerors..."  1 motioned to the two suited
scalies standing nearby.  "The several thousand members of the Herps In
Black here take care of what the public sees in relation to the
Dinosorcerors.  If a Dinosorceror does something that might be looked on
unfavorably, the situation is discreetly dealt with to ensure the public
will not know about it.  Oh, I see the look on your snout...it isn't as
bad as it seems at first.  Granted, Dinosorcerors do have a tendency to
cause a little bit of chaos where ever they go, but that is easily dealt
with.  We really do help a lot the majority of the time, and quite
successfully, too.  We are all the 'Saints and Saviors' of the omniverse,
after all.  People look up to us."  1 chuckled.

Kyran flexed her arms idly, testing the straps, which held tight.  "Why
all the concern with image?"

1 nodded, smiling.  "Well...when it comes right down to it, money."

Kyran again blinked while she repeated the word.  "Money?"

"Yes, money.  Because the Dinosorcerors are the perfect saviors of the
omniverse in the public eye, they want us all to stay around.  And it
isn't cheap to keep an organization this large running...so we depend on
the donations of the trillions of corporations and private sources
throughout the omniverse to fund all this.  And they gladly do it, too,
because of our perfect image.  We're the 'good guys', there to defend
them from the evils out to get them.  If they knew about the occasional
mess up, such as a Dinosorceror being puppeted by the Patriarch to
further his already powerful omniversal control, we might not get the
generous funding that we do.  And we need that money to stay running."

Kyran shook her head slightly.  "So...all the cover-ups are just to keep
the image of the Dinosorcerors perfect to the public so you don't go
broke?  And that underground storeroom is where all the real files are
kept?"

1 nodded.  "Basically, yes.  Only myself, the other five members of the
High Council, and the HIB organization know about what really goes on. 
Everyone else has no clue, including the Dinosorcerors.  Take
3263827...he has had no idea the HIB are cleaning up after him.  Every
place he's been, we've fixed up again, if possible.  Personally, I think
he's happier not knowing.  You know what they say...ignorance is bliss. 
So the Dinosorcerors will unwittingly continue on, the public will feed
us funds, and we continue on with our noble tasks.  We really do mean
well in the end."

Kyran clicked her teeth as another thought popped into mind.  "Why stick
3263827 over a wormhole?  It's not a trouble area, not worth a
Dinosorceror's attentions."

"Well, my dear, that one's history was a...unique one.  The Patriarch's
direct manipulation over him isn't commonplace at all."  1 sighed
heavily.  "Ever since the Patriarch broke free of our organization and
elevated to the status that he holds, we have been very wary about our
Dinosorcerors becoming too powerful.  Number 3263827, for example, spent
two years dealing with extremely tough situations, and with no training
at all, I might add.  He had a loyal following, and basically came out
victorious.  That is the kind of situation we watch out for...we've had
experts looking over his records, and it seems as though that one could
be very powerful one day.  It makes us nervous."

Kyran furrowed her eyeridges.  "So you stick him out in the middle of
nowhere to keep him quiet."

1 smiled.  "Not exactly.  We thought he was moving forward too quickly,
is all...we want to slow his acclimation of power a bit.  Get him used to
the fact that he is part of a much larger power-structure, not solo.  It
can be a little bit of a shock to some."

Kyran scowled slightly.  "So what if he doesn't like it and tries to quit
out of the Dinosorcerors or ignore your orders?  Are you just going to
send out your lackeys here to bump him off?"

1 was taken aback, and looked insulted.  "Kyran, please!  We may pull the
wool over everyone's eyes, but we do have our morals!  If he chooses to
leave or ignore us, then so be it.  He's on his own."  1 checked his
wristwatch, and sighed.  "Well, it's been fun, Kyran, but I'm afraid our
time is up."

The two black-suited agents smiled in a way that makes your spine shiver.
Kyran hid her apprehension.  "So...what's going to happen to me?  You
told me all of this secret info...now what?"

1 nodded slightly, pacing.  "Well, I felt you deserved the whole story as
almost a reward for the crap you went through, but I'm afraid you won't
remember any of this.  You see, you had an accident in the main file
room...a box fell off the top shelf and struck you in the head.  You
remained unconscious there all weekend.  You will go back to your sub-
committee chief and inform him that 3263827 has no previous records and
he has to make a decision based on what's available."

Kyran cocked an eyeridge.  "You really expect me to forget everything and
tell that bullshit story?"

1 smiled as the female Apatosaur pulled what looked like an oversized
chromed pen out of an inside pocket.  "Yes, we do."

Kyran opened her mouth to speak, but a blinding flash filled her
vision...she found herself on the floor of the file room.  She rubbed her
bruised head and stood up, irritably thinking that the maintenance crews
needed to stack the fileboxes better...


**************


Dino walked happily onto the bridge, a small humming metal sphere
hovering about in the air behind him.  Astor was sitting before a
viewscreen eating microwave popcorn, the little male velocilphus
scurrying about his ankles pouncing at dropped kernels with little
squeak-rarrs.  Helvetica was nowhere to be seen.

Astor swiveled his neck around and nodded at the sphere.  "What is that?"

"Oh, I was tired of that LensRing, so I integrated the ring technology
into this...the LenSphere!  'aint it cool?"

The door slid open again, and surprisingly, Darwin swam in, the robotic
body apparently fully repaired by Helvetica, who entered in behind him. 
Probably under threat of no toaster pastries for a week.

"So, what do you want to do now, blue-boy?", Darwin trilled, twirling in
his usual manner.  "Now that the wormhole's been destroyed, I mean.  Gee,
what a cryin' shame."  Darwin tittered sarcastically.

Dino smiled.  "Well, I'll just put a little thought in on the
matter...I'll be in my thinking spot if anyone needs me."  And with that,
the LenSphere shot a blue beam at Dino, shrinking him down to a teeny
speck.

<END>


Okay, a few things...I don't know how many herps out there have seen
South Park, but lets treat Darwin's robot body like Kenny.  He has to get
damaged in every chapter (repaired by the end, of course), just to keep
Gonard happy.  Of course, the "Oh, my God...they killed Darwin!..." line
has to be used.  :)

Sorry everything got so lengthy, but I went off on that side-plot after
watching the X-Files season premier.  Had to stick a conspiracy-type
thing in there.  :)

And for all that text...nothing really happens!  It's just lengthy
explanation, and doesn't relate directly to Dino and crew in any way!  It
does leave it wide open for the next author, though.

I pity whoever that is. *chortle*  :)