.006, .005, .004, .003, .002, .001...................
Spacial Anomolies are disturbing things. You can never tell when one might happen to show up. Consequently, you can't count on them for anything.
Todd had long ago (.003 seconds, to be precise) decided that this was the end. His only regret was that he would never know the answer to the ultimate question. Why did Wal-Mart Galactic Control want Greg to die so badly?
At .0000001 seconds before Todd's brain would be past the point of know return, a large envelope of what can best be described as marmelade jelly mixed with white sand and a swirling pool of Strawberry Snapple© opened in front of Todd's feet and swallowed him whole.
Within microseconds, he found himself standing on a hill, with the warmth of a binary sun on his back. The cart was gone, and his hands and feet were no longer tied. In fact, he had no wounds or injuries of any kind. You can never count on spacial anomolies, but it's nice when one happens along, just the same.
Todd realized that he was also now equipped with a tricorder and communicator from what appeared to be the old classic Star Trek series. Somehow, he understood their functions and put them to use. Within minutes, he located a ship in orbit and found that it was the ship he started out in, when this whole crazy adventure began. Further, the high speed crew was back aboard, happy to co-exist with him... as long as he only used the bathroom in his quarters and stayed out of the rest of the areas of the ship they now called "home". He was allowed access to any of the major ship areas, such as engineering, sickbay, the bridge, transporter room, shuttle bay, and the mess hall. They would assist him in times of need, and keep the ship running smoothly.
Todd beamed back to the ship, went to the bridge and determined that he was in orbit around the planet known locally as Wal-Mart Galactic Control. He'd beaten Greg here by more than 5 days. Todd grinned and began to laugh. Then, he set to work.
---------------
Greg warped into orbit, dropping to subspace at the last possible moment. He loved doing that.
"This is Wal-Mart Galactic Control, you are in violation of several codes of orbital conduct. Please lower your shields and prepare to be boarded."
Greg, feeling arogant, decided to act that way. "NO!"
There was deadly silence on the other end.
Greg snickered. There was nothing they could do to him anyway. Todd was dead, and now that they had accomplished their silly plans, they had no reason to bother Greg anymore. He could go home. But first, he would know why Todd needed to die.
"Orbiting ship, we regret the action we are now taking, but you leave us little choice."
Greg targeted the transmission source and locked Photon torpedoes, poising his hand over the fire button at tactical. "Oh, really? Well, if you don't stand down, I'll blow you to pieces."
The tactical station beamed away from beneath Gregs hand, causing him to lose his ballance and fall to the floor. "Hey! You can't do that!"
"Oh, yes we can." Wal-Mart Galactic Control replied. "We have to. It's our job."
"What? I thought your job was to kidnap people from their lives and make them kill each other!"
No answer came, instead parts of the ship beamed away, one piece at a time. Within minutes, Greg was standing in the middle of a large empty shell. 'This must be what Jonah would have felt like, a very long time ago,' Greg thought to himself. Then, the shell began to beam away.
Before the explosive decompression could take him, Greg found that he was also beamed away.
-----------------------
It had been two days. Greg was very hungry. "I demand to be taken to the leadership of this place! I want some answers!"
The guard stared at him blankly.
Picking up the metal cup he had been issued, Greg dragged it over the bars of his cell, like he had seen people do in the movies. "I want to speak to your leader!"
The guard stared at him blankly.
Two new people that Greg hadn't seen before came around the corner. One unlocked the cell. "That's better!" Greg smiled. "See ya later, guard!"
The guard stared at him blankly.
Greg was escorted away from his home of the last few days.
He was taken to a scanning room, where the two people removed all weapons and implants from Greg's person. They even removed the Tooth-Mounted Surgical Weapons Array Control. Greg was defenseless.
Greg was asked to wait in a bare room. He checked the door, it was locked. All that he could find was a magazine. Sports Illustrated, Swimsuit edition, 1994. He sat down and skimmed through the pages.
---------------
Greg stood before a large banister. What he guessed was the baliff came in and asked all to rise. All rose. Greg turned his head when the door opened. Todd walked in wearing robes and a white wig. "Please, be seated."
"But....but.... I saw you DIE!" Greg demanded.
"Did you?" Todd replied. "Silence. Or I'll hold you in comtempt!" Todd shouted. "You are in serious trouble. Have you any idea what you have done to this planets atmosphere, with your high speed orbital antics?"
"um......no?"
"Balif?" Todd motioned.
The balif spend 30 minutes explaining how the Byserthian Swarm Birds, native to this planet, had high altitude floating cloud nests and all current offspring were now in danger of extinction due to the sudden ionization of the upper stratosphere. It was all Gregs fault. If he'd simply used a normal orbital approach pattern, none of this would have happened.
"If you had disturbed the living enviornment of the people of this planet, that would be one thing... but this! It's inexcusable!" Todd's face was flushed with rage. "I sentence you to death by drowning, as is mandated by enviornmental crimes such as yours. Does the jury agree?"
The jury stood. Each of the 16 jurors (this planet found 16 to be more fair than 12) answered "aye", one at a time.
"Don't I get a say in this?"
"NO!" The entire court room chorused at once.
"But, will someone at least tell me:
One, why am I here? Two, why is he (he gestured at Todd) here? Three, why does he want to kill me so bad? And finally, Four, how can I get home?"
"NO!" the entire court room chorused again.
"Well, I tried." Greg sighed. His last sight of Todd was two important gentlemen shaking hands with him and giving him some kind of small box. After that, the court room doors shut and blocked his view. Guards dragged him away.
------------
Greg's feet and hands were encased in solid steel. The technology of these people was such, that they had found a way to poor molten steel into moldings around ones extremities without burning the person being encased. In fact, the proceedure might even be pleasant, if one weren't about to be killed.
Greg was tossed over a cliff, and into the planets ocean. He quickly sunk to the bottom, due to the added weight of his imprisioned hands and feet. Greg figured he had sunk more than 10 leagues when he found the ocean floor. It felt like his eardrums had ruptured, and he had a terrible headache. He also was out of air. As darkness closed in from the sides of his vision, he could see several other enviornmental offender's dead bodies bobbing along the bottom of the sea floor, each of them with steel moldings binding their hands and feet. 'At least I'm not alone' Greg thought to himself as he blacked out.
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