#only a fraction of their prey escapes that powerful vacuum....

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

the snoorfer

I just don’t get it. How can our society act so goddamned normal about seahorses. How can anybody so casually accept that that’s a fish???

This is one of nature’s most anatomically perverse of all beasts. A FISH, like a carp or a bass or a beta is a fish, but it bent its body straight up only to bend its head permanently back down. It stretched its skull into a pipe. It tapered its tail like a lizard, specifically like a chameleon. It can also move its eyes independently by the way, you know, like a chameleon. Fun fact, it can change color to express its mood, like you know whatever does that. It doesn’t properly swim anymore. It buzzes its few remaining fins like an insect’s wings to float itself around at a snail’s pace. It lives its whole life clinging to coral branches or seaweed, which means it decided to become a “tree dweller” in an environment where gravity didn’t even matter anyway. The males get pregnant. They make noises at each other by rubbing some of their neck bones together. Every day, EVERY DAY a mated pair does a little dance and a little neck bone song so they remember which two seahorses they were. They’re a beautiful precious obscenity. Nothing so adorable ever made such a strong case against a logical creator.

They have as little skin and meat as they could get away with. Their skeleton is almost all they are.

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (91/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

Previous chapters conveniently available here.

[25 May, 234 Before Age.  Planet Pflaume.]

For all intents and purposes, Pflaume City was a space station.   The only real difference was that it was designed to float in the upper atmosphere of an ice giant planet, instead of the vacuum of space.   From a combat perspective, the tactical problem was the same.  Luffa had to be careful about when and how she used her power.    A careless energy blast in the wrong direction could breach the city's outer hull.   This was undoubtedly why King Rehval had lured her here in the first place.   On Planet Saiya she was unstoppable, but here, she was constrained by the structural integrity of the city.  

"Katem, we need to be figuring out a way to get out of this place!" Luffa shouted.  It was glorious and horrifying to speak to her son this way.   He was barely fifteen, and far too arrogant for Luffa's liking, but to see him so strong and capable was a dream come true.   No, not even a dream.   Luffa's subconscious had never dared to imagine that this could be possible.  

Xibuyas punched her in the face, knocking her through a support beam that kept the twelfth level of the city from collapsing onto the eleventh.   "Stop calling me that, woman!" he shouted back.   "You’re not my mother!  My mother was a Saiyan!  A real Saiyan, and not an alien trickster who pretends to be one of us!"

She smashed her way through the debris and fired on him with ki blasts, taking care to aim toward the center of the station, in case he dodged.    When he did, she intercepted him and landed several blows of her own.   To her surprise, he managed to block several of them.  

"What do you know about your mother, kid?" Luffa asked.   "I'm curious."

"I only know what matters!" Xibuyas replied haughtily.   "That she was a lowly subject of the great King Rehval, and her only noteworthy deed was conceivving the mighty Xibuyas to serve the glory of his regime!"

Luffa snorted with contempt.   "Is that a fact?   Well, I owe you a story..."

"You owe me your death!" Xibuyas shouted.   He rushed Luffa, and seemed to be throwing a kick, but when Luffa tried to block it, he vanished and reappeared behind her, and tagged her from behind with an energy blast.    Luffa fell like a stone, landing in the middle of an confection parlor.  

She was genuinely impressed.    The boy was not only standing up to her Super Saiyan form, but he seemed to be improving as they fought.   Even so, she knew the only reason he was doing so well was because she was emotionally compromised.    Rehval's treachery, followed by this shocking reunion, and all the unpleasant memories that came with it, were too great a distraction for her to ignore.   In times like these, Luffa normally centered herself by thinking back to her childhood training, and the lessons handed down by her own mother.    Now, those memories only reminded her of the relationship that had been taken away from her own son.    She was fighting sloppy, unable to focus on a singular objective.   At times, she wanted to let her son hit her to see just what he could do.   Other times, she hoped to defeat him without hurting him, so that she could find a way to escape together.   But above all, Luffa wasn't fighting to save her own life.  Her superior strength and experience was the only reason she hadn't been killed already.

She could sense Xibuyas searching for her to continue his assault.   He had done something with his ki to prevent her from pinpointing his exact location, but he undermined this technique with his constant gloating.  It frustrated her to see her own son carrying on like a spoiled regent, but she had no one to blame but herself.  With newfound rage, she blindsided him, and caught him in a headlock.

"Let me tell you where you came from, boy," she said as she dragged him into the air.    Xibuyas struggled against her grip, so she smashed through several decks to calm him down a little.  

"I met your father when I was fifteen.    We didn't get married right away.   Your grandfather had taken on a contract to defend a planet from the Tikosi, and I was too weak to be of much help on the battlefield, so he hired a Saiyan named Kandai to help out.   Huh.  It doesn't seem that long ago, but the two of us were about your age when we met."

She could feel him trying to summon enough ki to push against her own flight path, so she used her own power to push herself in the opposite direction, allowing the net force to hold them motionless in the air.  It pained her to relive all of this, and she was grateful that he couldn't see the look on her face as she spoke, but she was determined to tell him everything.   Even if he didn't believe her, he still deserved to hear it.  

"You father and I didn't have much to do with our downtime, so we fell in love.   Or... that's what I thought, anyway.  Meanwhile, your grandpa was plotting to sell our clients out to the Tikosi.   He ordered us off the planet, but I decided to go back when the Tikosi invaded.    I had managed to become a lot stronger than I'd ever been, and I thought I could defend their planet by myself.   Zatte-- Well, I guess she's your stepmother now-- she begged me to save her people.   At first, I thought it'd be easy.    But the Tikosi were stronger than I expected, and they just kept coming.  I fought until I couldn't fight anymore, but it wasn't enough.   They... they defeated me.    And then they..."

"Let GO of me!" Xibuyas shouted.  

She was so caught up in her story that her grip on Xibuyas wavered, and he managed to break free.  

"I've heard enough of your ravings, you lunatic!" he screamed.  He threw back his hands, and when they began to glow, he brought them forward again, firing dozens of blasts of concentrated ki at her.  Xibuyas's attack was relentless.   He just kept firing, even when his assault destroyed most of the city level surrounding Luffa.   The deck above her began to weaken from the intensity of the bombardment, and after a few minutes it collapsed, dumping several tons' worth of infrastructure and residential property on Luffa.  

Xibuyas kept firing.  

"I won't hear any more of your lies!" he howled.  "You are an enemy of the state and it is my duty to destroy you, do you hear me?!  You're an abomination!  You're are mockery of all things Saiyan and--!"

Without warning Luffa flew directly through the path of his ki blasts.  Xibuyas was so amazed by the directness of her attack that he failed to react until she was too close for him to avoid.  The blasts simply slipped around her like water, and she reached out for him with her fingers curled like the claws of some giant bird of prey.   Her face was twisted with rage.

"I!  Wasn't!  Finished!" she screeched as she struck him in the face.  Xibuyas recoiled from the blow, and she followed up by driving her knee into his solarplexus.  Then a double axehandle between his shoulder blades.  

"You're good, Katem," she shouted.  "For your age, you're phenomenal, but don't think for one!  Second!  That you can underestimate me!  Galick Gun!"

Before Xibuyas could even try to recover, she had drawn back her hands to her left side and gathered enough power to launch at him.  The beam of purple light crashed into him and forced him down to the deck below.   Luffa began to cackle wildly.  

"No!" he cried.  He was caught between her energy and the deck, struggling to push back against the titanic pressure.   Luffa couldn’t see him from her vantage, but she could imagine him planting his hands onto the wavefront of her Galick Gun, and straining to halt its advance.    She increased it’s power to see just how much more he could handle.

"Push it back, you big baby!" Luffa screamed.   "Or was all that high and mighty crap you were saying before just a bunch of talk?"

She could hear him grunt and groan against the brunt of her attack, and she started to feel tears in her eyes again.  Whatever Rehval had done to the boy, he had grown up strong and proud, and he was fighting back against his mother.  How she had longed for a chance to do this!    

"Put your back into it, you ungrateful brat!" she shouted.  "I'm not even using a fraction of my full power!   Your great-grandmother could handle this kind of pressure!"

That was an exaggeration, actually, but Luffa's own mother used to say it to her as a child, and it warmed her heart to be able to say it to her own son.  

At last, Xibuyas managed to resist the power of Luffa's Galick Gun, and with a tremendous burst of power he deflected it away from himself.   Luffa flew after the errant energy blast and intercepted it several hundred yards away, where she dispersed it into something relatively harmless.  

"You idiot!" she shouted.  "We're on board a space station!  You can't just deflect energy blasts like you're on a planet's surface!"

"Shut up!" Xibuyas shouted back.  "I didn't come here for a lesson, and I don't need advice from the likes of you!"

He was flying after her, but Luffa closed the distance between them and caught him in a hammerlock before he could react.  

"As I was saying...!" Luffa growled.  "Your mother is telling you a bloody tale of the old heroes."

"Let go...!"

"You would do well to listen, Katem!"

"Shut up!"

"Granted, I'm not much of a hero, and I'm not very old, but you'd sit still for a story about Chanisp or Old Darbock, right?   Well, guess what?   Your dear old mother can whip both of them."

"That's ridiculous!" Xibuyas insisted.   "No mere woman could--"

Luffa applied more pressure to the hold, and Xibuyas cried out in pain.  

"See?  If you'd listened to the story I was trying to tell you, then you'd know better than to say stupid things like that," Luffa scolded.  

Xibuyas threw back his head, driving the back of his skull into Luffa's nose.  This surprised her enough that she released him, and he spun around and caught her with a kick to the ribs.  

Luffa clutched at her face, but instead of fighting back or crying out in pain, she began to laugh.  When she removed her hand, there was a trickle of blood running from her nostrils.   Thanks to her smile, Xibuyas could see that some of it had gotten onto her teeth.  

"I'm proud of you, son," she said.   "You're kind of a creep, and I'm betting that fool Rehval filled your head with a bunch of royalist crap, but you're a treat to fight, and you don't back down from anybody, not even the Legendary Super Saiyan.   I can tell you're afraid of me, but you're not about to quit."

Xibuyas shuddered as she wiped the blood from her face with her right arm.  Her eyes were wide with... what?  Even Luffa herself wasn't sure.   Excitement, fear, regret, sorrow, joy?  Perhaps all of these and more.  She couldn't blame the boy for being frightened.  

"I just want you to know," Luffa said.  "If this fight is all you and I ever have together, I mean.   I want you to know that you've impressed me.   I never got a chance to tag my own mother, not the way you just did.   That was a clean hit, by the way.   I let you have some of the others, but you really surprised me with that one."

Xibuyas was stunned by her words.   For a split second, Luffa wondered if she had actually gotten through to him.  Then he turned his head and spit.

"That's what I think of your praise!" he sneered.  

In spite of his insult, Luffa couldn't help but smile.  

*******

[25 May, 234 Before Age.   Interstellar Space.]

Zatte thought she had prepared herself for anything, but as she fled through the corridors of the ship, she realized just how poor her defenses truly were.

Pozet didn't need to breathe.  Zatte had considered the possibility on its own.  She had depressurized entire sections of the ship, and re-pressurized some with pure nitrogen.  This was meant to foil any intruders who did breathe, but it was also a misdirection.  In theory, Pozet would assume that Zatte would seek out the sections of the ship that still contained breathable air.  In fact, Zatte had a portable air supply on her belt, and she had stashed others air tanks in various locations on board.  This would allow her to move more freely than Pozet would expect.  As things turned out, Pozet now knew about this, and so that advantage was mostly neutralized.

Zatte had also considered the possibility that her enemy might attempt to take control of the ship's computer.  Zatte had tried that herself once, only to learn that Luffa had a master override.  So there was no way to completely take over the computer without Luffa's permission.  Knowing this, Zatte had asked Luffa to authorize certain programs that would keep Zatte alive in the event of a hijacking.  So an intruder might find a way to access certain ship functions, but she wouldn't be able to cause a self-destruct or depressurize the entire ship.   But, Pozet's voice was a perfect match for Zatte's which allowed the intruder greater access to the computer than Zatte had anticipated.

On some level, Zatte had also prepared for the possibility of an enemy with similar powers to her own.  Dorlun powers were thought to be unique to the individual, but Zatte figured there had to be a few repeats throughout Dorlun history.  But Pozet was more than just a set of abilities.  She was some sort of unliving monster, which meant she could take chances that Zatte couldn't.

Worse, Pozet seemed to have at least some intuitive understanding of how Zatte fought.  The creature claimed to lack Zatte's memories, but she seemed to anticipate Zatte's attacks, which made a direct confrontation risky at best.  Against a true Dorlun, Zatte had hoped that her superior strength would be her ace-in-the-hole.   Pozet, however, didn't have ki energy, so Zatte couldn't even tell for sure how strong she was.

Worst of all, Pozet had been planning this confrontation all along, while Zatte had been operating under a faulty premise.   Her plan was to lure Pozet onto the ship.  Zatte was supposed to be the bait.  Zatte was supposed to be Luffa's secret weapon to surprise and overwhelm the killer.   Instead, Zatte turned out to be the quarry.  Pozet had left a trail of dead Saiyans across the galaxy, just to get at Luffa.  Pozet's master had anticipated Zatte's involvement, and created a seemingly perfect countermeasure.

She forced herself to remain detached from the situation.  Over countless centuries, her people had perfected the art of survival, refining it into a sacred liturgy.  Even as her heart raced, even as she fought the urge to panic, she heard the words of the Dorlun Holybook, reminding  her to assess the problem, but also warning her not to let that assessment lead to despair or self-recrimination.  There were lessons to be learned from this catastrophe, tactical errors she could identify and correct, but those would have to wait until the threat was resolved.  Somehow, Pozet's master had learned enough about Zatte to use against herself and Luffa.  How it happened wasn't important.  What mattered now was finding out what Pozet knew and how to defeat her.

"Where are you headed, babe?"

Zatte perked up at the sound of her own voice over the intercom system.  Pozet had apparently chosen to access the ship's computer instead of chasing after her.  She was likely still on the bridge, though she could be almost anywhere else on board.   Zatte made a mental checklist of where Pozet was likely to have gone, but she needed a way to narrow it down.  If only--

"I'm in the gym," Pozet said.  "Figured I'd save you the trouble of guessing.  I mean, the intercom system lets me talk to you from almost anywhere on the ship, right?  Except the parts you depressurized, since there's not enough gas to carry the sound of my voice to the audio receptor.  That's what you're probably thinking right now."

Zatte quickly considered what was in the gym, and what Pozet might have there to use--

"I thought about going to your cabin, and I'll get around to it eventually, but this is where Luffa sleeps most of the time, isn't it?   The computer showed me security logs, and the logs show a lot of traffic in and out of this room, and it's not hard to guess who spends a lot of time in here."

Zatte continued making her way to her destination.  She had shut off the lifts as a precaution, but the access ports  would allow her to go to the deck below.  As she opened the hatch, Zatte considered what Pozet was saying.  She apparently didn't possess much of Zatte's memory if she needed the computer to find Luffa's quarters, but why admit that?

"The pile of mats on the floor is how I know she sleeps here.  And they're pretty worn out.  Lot of rips and tears too.  Our lover doesn't sleep well does she?  Poor baby."

Zatte hurried down the access port and found Pozet's voice waiting for her when she emerged into the lower deck.  "Maybe she just needs some company.  Someone to cuddle up with and say reassuring things to her whenever the nightmares start.    'It's okay, Luffa, I'm here.  I'm here.'  You ever try that?  The security logs don't put a second person in this room very often, so I'm thinking no."

Zatte shook her head as she continued on her way.  So it was psychological warfare.  Pozet was trying to anger Zatte and provoke her into making a mistake.  Did that creature really think she'd be stupid enough to come running to the gym for a fight?  Or was she playing at something else?

"I can smell her on these towels," Pozet went on.  Our noses aren't as sharp as a Saiyan's, but at this range, it doesn't need to be.   Wow.  She smells so... Well, I don't know what to call it.   I guess she smells... safe."

Zatte set her jaw and stiffened her upper lip as she proceeded down the corridor.

"I mean, she's a hot mess, let's not kid ourselves.  There's nothing safe about her, but her scent is so intoxicatingly secure.    No wonder we're so attracted to her, right?"

Zatte refused to dignify that with an answer.  

"Only this is the first time I've gotten to take a sniff.  I've had to admire her from afar.  The curves of her arms, the small of her back, that savage gleam in her eyes.  Sometimes, after I'd killed a Saiyan I would run my hands through the victim's hair, and imagine it was her, you know?"

Zatte was finding it more and more difficult not to respond to this.  

"Nothing to say?  That's what it says in the Holybook, doesn't it?  Well, not explicitly, I mean.  There isn't a chapter about what to do when your undead duplicate talks dirty about your wife, but it's common sense, really.  Don't waste time arguing with me, that's the smart play.  You'll only be giving me control of the situation."

Zatte winced.  Pozet seemed to lack her memories, but somehow she had access to the Dorlun Holybook.  The very thought of it disgusted her, but she kept listening, in case the creature decided to reveal anything else.

"The thing is-- I'm stepping out of the gym by the way-- I'm not really trying to provoke a reaction here.  For all I know, you slipped on a deckplate and broke your neck, or you ran out of oxygen somewhere and suffocated.  I've already got you where I want you, Zattie.  I can finish you off at my leisure."

Zatte didn't believe that for a second.  Pozet might have been reckless, but she was no fool.  Whatever the creature had planned, she wouldn't hesitate to carry it out.

"I just wanted to talk to you for a while.  My homuncular matrix was patterned after you, so you're a very important person to me, Zattie.  I wanted to make the most of the time we have.  And you know Luffa better than anyone, so I want to learn as much as I can from you and this ship while you're still here."

Zatte smirked at her choice of words: "while you're still here."  Pozet's mission was to kill her after all.   That meant the ship was safe, since Pozet would need it to return to her master.  And since the ship was already en route to Rehval's current location, there was no need to worry about Pozet tampering with the navigation system.  Pozet's plan was suddenly very obvious: she needed to kill Zatte before they arrived in the Pflaume system.  

So all Zatte had to do was stay alive for a few more hours.   It was no wonder, then, that Pozet was goading her over the intercom system.  If Zatte took the bait and rushed headlong into a confrontation, it made Pozet's job easier.  

"I'm heading over to your cabin now," Pozet said.  "Let me ask you something.   Where do you two lovebirds keep your laundry?  It's a big ship and all, and I couldn't find much in the gym."

"Your master didn't send you here to find my clothes," Zatte replied.   "You've got bigger things to worry about."

"Oh-ho," Pozet replied.  "Someone's feeling confident all of a sudden.  I guess you've figured out some way to beat me, is that it?"

"I don't have to beat you," Zatte said.  "You have to beat me, and you're running out of time."

"Really?" Pozet asked.   "I was planning to take my time and poke around for a while.   It's a big ship.  Must be kind of weird with only two of you on board most of the time."

"Keep talking," Zatte said.  "I'll swing by later and give you the grand tour."

"Great!" Pozet said.  "You know if I were you-- and I guess I am, sort of-- I'd just strut around this ship nude all day.  Yeah, that's probably why I'm not finding much in the way of laundry.   You and Luffa just throw it all in the wash when you're done with it, and hang out together, wearing nothing but a smile."

Zatte let out a contemptuous snort as she moved down the corridor and arrived at her destination.

Before the ship was rechristened Emerald Eye, it had once been a star-yacht owned by some rich alien.  That being had given the ship to Luffa in a desperate bid to get her to leave him unharmed.  The cabin she now entered had, at one time, been an art gallery, boasting various sculptures and paintings from across the galaxy.   After taking possession of the ship, Luffa had converted it into a sort of trophy room, although most of the souvenirs she brought back from her adventures turned out to be exotic alien weapons that her enemies had used against her.   It was more like an armory, then, although Luffa had no use for the weapons herself, and she had kept a few objects that couldn't be used to kill someone.  Luffa and Zatte's marriage paperwork was mounted on one of the walls in a modest frame, alongside a few of the paintings Luffa had decided to keep from the original art collection.

To Luffa, the weapons stored here were little more than toys, but Zatte had studied them all carefully, just in case she ever needed to use any of them in an emergency.  She preferred handheld plasma firearms, but now that she had gotten an idea of Pozet's abilities and tactics, she would have to use something more substantial.   Zatte knew little about alchemy, or how a homunculus like Pozet could be destroyed, but she was willing to bet that there was some delicate balance that maintained Pozet's ability to walk and talk.   A large enough dose of ionizing radiation would surely upset that balance, and several of the weapons in this room could make that happen.  

"If I were you," Zatte said as she picked out a weapon to use, "I'd find out how much longer I have until we reach the Pflaume System."

"Oooh, that's a good point," Pozet said.  "Hey, I just found the bathroom in your quarters.  This is nice.  There's parts of master's castle that don't look this good.  I don't even need to use a toilet, but looking at this one makes me wish I did."

Zatte selected a Hythoonian disruptor and checked the power supply.   Satisfied that it was fully charged, she checked the safety and held it in her hands to get used to the feel of it.  "Take a shower if you want," she said to Pozet.  "Every minute you screw around is to my advantage."

"Oh, pshaw," Pozet said.  "We've got plenty of time!  Computer, estimated time of arrival to Pflaume system?"

"Five minutes, eleven seconds," the computer replied.

"What?" Zatte gasped.   When she had last looked, the Emerald Eye wasn't supposed to reach Pflaume for another two hours.  "Computer, report any changes to our original course and speed!"

"No changes have been made," the computer announced.   "Original course and speed have been maintained."

Zatte's left eye went wide with fear.   What did she do to the ship? she wondered.  

"Computer," she asked tentatively, "How long would it take to return to Planet Saiya at our current speed?"

"Four point six billion years," the computer replied, completely unaware of the magnitude of its answer.

"That's impossible--!" Zatte started to say, and then she heard Pozet's laughter from the intercom.

"You organisms are all alike," she chuckled.  "I was wondering if you might be different, since I was based on your mind and body, but I guess not."

"What have you done?" Zatte demanded.  

"You were expecting me to sneak aboard your ship," Pozet said, "but you act like I've never done it before.  Yeah, you took some decent precautions, making sure to secure the ship's major systems from sabotage, but you still think like a living being, and I don't make that mistake."

"What are you talking about?" Zatte shouted.  

"Oh, you sound beautiful when you're angry," Pozet said.   "Honey, I've been on this ship since it left Saiya.   You were holed up in the bridge, waiting for me to come attack you, but what do you think I was up to before that, huh?   I'll tell you: I was installing programs onto the ship's navigational computer."

"But... but the ship is still on course!" Zatte protested.  "And you wouldn't have had the authorization to order a change in heading, even if--"

"Of course I couldn't change course," Pozet said with a laugh.  "Everyone who flies around in spaceships knows to protect the navigational controls.  My voice sounds like yours, but you probably set it up so I'd need a handprint and some unique energy signature to get access.  I might be able to duplicate that eventually, but it would take a long time to guess the right energy pattern."

"Then how--?"

"Like I said, everyone safeguards the helm control, but they don't think about how it works.   The ship uses a database of star charts and sensor data to figure out where it is in the universe.  It uses an algorithm to interpret that information and apply it to the real world.   All I did was replace that algorithm with one of my own.   The ship thinks it's flying in a straight line, but it's actually going around in circles.   Computer, how long until we reach the Pflaume System?"

"Two minutes, twenty-three seconds," the computer said.  

"In a few minutes," Pozet explained, "the ship will complete a single revolution, and when it doesn't find the Pflaume System, it'll fly around in another circle to try to reach it again.  The countdown to arrival will reset, and it'll keep going around and around until we run out of fuel.   The beauty of this is that you can try to alter course, but the ship will just end up flying in a different circle.   And I made sure to fix it so you won't be able to restore the computer's spatial awareness back to the way it was before."

It took a moment for Zatte to make sense of what she was hearing.   "But.. you're trapped here along with me!" she finally said.  

"Am I?" Pozet asked?  "Like I keep telling you, I'm not alive.   If the ship runs out of power, if the life support fails, if we're adrift in space for a hundred million years, it makes no difference to me.   My master won't even miss me.  He'll just make a new homunculus that looks just like me to take my place.  It doesn't matter to me.  All that matters is making sure you don't reach Pflaume until his business with Luffa is finished."

Zatte looked down at her weapon, and suddenly realized how useless it was.   Even if she destroyed Pozet, that wouldn't put the ship right again.

"Face it, babe, you were so focused on protecting your own life that you never imagined I'd maroon us out in the middle of nowhere.    That's the advantage of having no life to protect.  Now, I'm gonna take that shower.   If you want to come join me, I wouldn't mind the company, but if you want to be a sore loser about it all, that's fine too."

Zatte didn't know what to say.  She thought about asking the computer for another ETA, but she already knew it's answers would meaningless.  She could try to undo Pozet's tampering, but she had no idea how to do that.  What else did that leave?

Then, over the intercom, she heard the sound of running water, and her own voice singing off-key.

NEXT: The Road Goes On Forever