Well, crap. Lookit this. All of those chapters have disappeared.
I could respost them ... and I have a few new chapters ... and maybe I will post.
Sure. If the posts are recovered, I can always edit this one to include only the new chapters.
*deep breath*
Here goes.
Chapter 52
I snuck back to Bung’s tent. I was slowly concocting a plan, and considering the blind commitment the sligs had for glukkons, I thought it would most likely work.
Once I had arrived, I contacted Druna again for the glukkon power. She was willing enough to lend a hand, and I was sure to thank her, as I still felt bad for forgetting her name before.
I transformed to find myself, once again, a naked glukkon. And, naturally, I had left Bung’s clothes with the mudokons.
No time to worry about that now. I didn’t need to be dressed like a glukkon to make an announcement over the PA; I just needed to sound like one.
I scanned the office and found the microphone to Bung’s PA system sitting on a table behind his desk.
I bent forward and pressed my face against the “on” switch, and heard a brief whine of feedback meaning the system was on.
I cleared my throat, and spoke into the microphone (probably louder than I needed to, as I had never used one of these before).
“Attention all… personnel! The … uh, the mudokon escapee has… um, he’s been captured, so, uh, leave your posts and … uh … go to dismantle the bridge, and … er, salvage the material. Uh … that is all….” I bent and switched the microphone off. I figured I hadn’t sounded too bad … I’d have to rely on the obedience of the sligs.
I reverted to my mudokon body and left the tent.
I snuck down the road and, sure enough, there were sligs gathering down at the bridge they had built to cross the river into Oblim.
And, wow, did they work fast! The far end of the bridge had already been taken down. They had dismantled nearly a quarter of the bridge already.
Time to rush. I contacted Nine, the mudokon who held my scrab power. I quickly morphed into the scrab body, and welcomed the confidence it afforded. I unleashed a massive HOWL and charged up THE SHREDDING POWER.
I could suddenly sense that the sligs were confused and terrified. They apparently (and rightfully so) believed that this area wasn’t a scrab nesting ground. But who cares? They had a job to do, and until they saw a scrab, they wouldn’t concern themselves with it.
Another advantage for me.
The scrab mind could tell that the INTERLOPERS were on a bridge that didn’t quite span the river, and if it were to charge them, and corner them … the sligs would have no where to run.
I pranced stealthily up to the bridge, so as not to attract undue attention. Being noticed this early could prove disastrous.
I reflected that while I was a glukkon, I probably should have told the sligs to leave their guns behind … but I soon noted that they had put them down in order to better dismantle the bridge. Yet another advantage for me.
I placed myself at the base of the bridge and screamed again. The sligs all turned to see where it came from. One slig had time to shout “Look out!” before I unleashed THE SHREDDING POWER.
The end of the bridge shattered and splintered, and boards of wood and splinters flew everywhere. The support beams underneath fell out of place with no bridge to hold up.
The sligs were screaming by now, terrified. And the bridge began to sway …
The remaining part of the bridge twisted on itself and collapsed. I think one slig had enough presence of mind to shoot at me, but the bullet went wild and struck the ground far to my left.
The slig quickly began drowning. Many struggled to keep afloat, but their pants weighed them down. I noticed several undid the latches on their pants in order to try and swim better, but the current of the river swept these away.
I breathed an inward sigh of relief. I had cleared the camp of slig guards.
Quickly returning to my mudokon body, I began shouting into the village. “Hey! All o’ ya! Hello! Follow me! Let’s go! Hurry up! Come here!”
And the mudokons swarmed me. They hoisted me on their shoulders, proclaiming me a champion. I was paraded up the road like this for a short while, and soon grew uncomfortable. I didn’t exactly relish the attention.
I asked to be let down, and as they put me on the ground, I began chanting.
A bird portal tore itself into the air, and the multitude of mudokons erupted in a cheer of pure joy. They leapt through by fours and fives, eager to see the new settlement that awaited them.
Sadly, even though I had probably just rescued better than thirty mudokons, no power of the shrykull was granted. I suppose it was because there was no danger here.
But I wasn’t worried.
Besides, I still had to find Tastee Treets.
Chapter 53
East, east, east … nothing to see or to report.
I trudged eastward … and didn’t see anything. It was probably the most boring thing ever. I shouldn’t even bother with the details. And I won’t.
Just know that after walking all through the night and into the morning, I did reach a small stream. It didn’t look at all natural, so I began following it towards its source. I had a hunch.
And as it turned out, yep. The stream did, in fact, lead back to Tastee Treets’ sewage deposit. And that means … I was back! At long last.
Now to get inside.
I took in the area. There was a high wall - roughly fifty feet up - that stretched off far in both directions. It looked impossible to scale. The wall had a sheer face made of large cement blocks. And it was showing no signs of wear, and thus no crumbling places for me to grip and climb up. Not even my intern morph would be able to do much with this wall.
Sticking out prominently from the wall about twenty feet up was the pipe I had
was it really only two days ago?
recently been shot in and fallen out of. The round opening was about eight feet in diameter, and a slow, steady stream of liquid was coursing out of it in a disgusting little display.
I sighed and contacted Bog.
{Bog! Hey!} It was getting to be that I felt my psychically-link friends were actually traveling with me, not in some far-off village living their own lives. So I felt like I could just announce myself to any of them at any time. This, I would reflect in a weeks time (several short days after this experience was over), probably didn’t generate feelings of admiration. But it was better than whispering and apologizing each time I needed to make contact.
He seemed a little distracted, but this I instantly chalked up to not quite knowing what was happening. {Huh? Was that Dante? I thought he was going back to Tastee Treets?}
I noticed with some dismay that he was thinking to himself, not quite noticing that I was telepathically contacting him.
{Yes, Bog,} I “sighed”. {It’s me. In your mind. I need you to give me the gabbit power, please.}
His feelings of understanding and relief etched themselves in my mind for a moment, and I knew he had figured it out. {Sure, Dante, sure. Sorry about that.}
{Thanks.}
Moments later I was hopping tentatively into the water, anticipating some sort of sludgy, gross texture.
But it was, for the most part, clean water. My sensitive gabbit nose detected occasional patches of feces-infested water, but I was able to navigate around these easily enough.
As I positioned myself under the water outflow pipe, I tried to judge if my gabbit body could leap up high enough to land inside the pipe.
I thought maybe, if I got enough of a swimming start upward.
I swam down to the bottom of the little stream, which, directly under the pipe, was considerably deeper. I touched the bottom, and was just about ready to launch myself up to the surface and out of the water when I caught sight of something ….
Curious to see what it was, I swam slowly closer.
It looked to be a body. It bluish skin and multiple discolorations across it, which could only have been bruises. Strings and strips of flesh had come loose on it, and a gaping wound on its stomach was clearly visible. It was only now that my gabbit nose picked up on the scent of blood, relatively fresh and now diluted throughout the water.
And the corpse was missing an arm.
I had a brief
[VISION]
There was a mudokon with its right arm missing staring up at the moon from the edge of a sewage pipe. There was the sound of a single gunshot.
The mudokon’s stomach exploded outward, but it only felt a throb in its back, and a stabbing pain. Its eyes glazed over.
The sound of laughter echoed out of the pipe.
The body of the mangled mudokon began to totter forward, and it fell.
As it spiraled toward the water, the sound of laughter and whirring machines filled the body’s failing senses.
When the body hit the water below, there was a dull and unimpressive splash.
Seconds later, eight raggedy birds struggled out of the water, feathers dripping wet, and fluttered off into the night.
[/VISION]
flashback to the night of my escape and knew instantly whose body this was.
It was mine.
I lost it about then. I couldn’t think. I floated there in my gabbit body, underwater, staring unbelievingly at this wretched marvel.
It didn’t scare me, or upset me, or really do anything except really rattle me. It helped me to realize the enormity of what I was doing. That I, humble and stupid Dante the mudokon, might hold the salvation of two hundred and fifty mudokons in my hands - and who knows how many others might be spared if I were to foil Vladimir’s plan to buy cheap mudokon meat?
Seeing my own dead body floating in the water put this all into perspective for me. If I was a smarter mudokon, I might have been convinced that what I was doing was unquestionably right, and that it had to be done in order to keep others from a terrible fate.
But being the somewhat dopey mud I was at the time, I simply thought I was crazy for thinking this would be a piece of cake.
After some time I shook out of it and began, tentatively at first, but then with growing confidence, to launch myself out of the water. Over and over … I kept falling a few feet short.
I must have tried a few dozen times. It became a repetitive exercise. To the bottom, ignore the corpse, pedal to the top, kick out and up, cascade into the water and do it again.
When it finally became clear that I wouldn’t be able to reach it, I swam ashore and made the quick change to my mudokon body.
I sat there and sorta wept for a while. How was I supposed to enter the Tastee Treets factory now?
I could go as a glukkon … but where would I find the clothes? And would they trust a gluk they weren’t expecting to see? And a Vykker without truncated legs might attract unwanted attention…
I felt hopeless.
It was here that whatever Guardian Angel watching over my plight took pity and provided me with a hint.
A somewhat soggy (and very dirty) scrap of paper fluttered out of the pipe. With nothing to really do, I reached into the water and plucked it out.
At first the symbols on the paper were foreign to me, but I soon realized that I could read them, thanks to the power of Inglish the enchanted earring provided me.
THE DAILY DECEPTION, read the top line in fancy text.
A GLOKSTAR IS BORN! was right below this. A picture of a nerdy-looking glukkon in a very expensive, shimmering purple suit and large, orange-tinted glasses was grinning up from the page. The caption read: Lulu: “I’m king of the world, Ma!”
Lulu? Who the hell was Lulu?
I checked the next headline: “Gluk Queen offers big, big, big, BIG moolah for gabbit lungs!”
No help there.
Next headline: “LULU TO ENTER VYKKER’S LABS TONIGHT!”
Vykker’s Labs?
That’s a place I know ….
Think, think …
Of course!
Vykker’s Labs was the place that picked up all the products we made at Tastee Treets and shipped them off.
Vykker’s Labs was also the place that arranged for new glukkon puds to find jobs.
So, since it was in no way safe to sneak in during a product transfer, I would find a way into Vykker’s Labs and get my glukkon self a “job” at Tastee Treets!
Then I’ll be sure to get in!
Chapter 54
It could’ve walked back to the settlement, but that would’ve taken far too long.
I summoned up a bird portal and warped myself to the new settlement.
I landed amidst several meditating mudokons, who lost concentration as I stumbled into their little space.
The mudokons stood and began greeting me, wishing me good fortune, and cheering me on.
“Where can I find Orion?” And then, remembering that both Oblim and Rotag were now one big village, I asked, “Or where can I find Patch?”
One of the mudokons pointed roughly northwest. “The two of them met last night and have become joint chiefs. They set up a small hut off in that direction.”
I turned and took in the view of the village for the first time. In such an amazingly short time - not even two days - many sturdy yet small huts had already been constructed. I was reminded again, as I had been when I had seen my drowned corpse, of how important it was that our race be set free. We were really an ingenuous race, and deserved to live freely, not under the merciless reign of the Magog Cartel.
I thanked the mudokons I had interrupted and trotted off in the direction I had been pointed.
I reached a hut that was slightly set off from the others, and a size or so bigger. It could only have been Orion and Patch’s place. I knocked loudly.
After a few moments I heard a whiny “Hold on, hold on, wait a sec …” that could only have been Patch.
He opened the door and looked at me, and for a moment didn’t recognize me.
And realization struck him like a brick.
“Dante!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here? Why haven’t you gone to Tastee Treets?”
I raised a hand to quiet him. “Hello to you, too. May I come in?”
He blinked hard and nodded. “Sure. Follow me.”
“Okay.”
He led me into the hut, not very large on the outside, but somehow roomier on the inside. After nearly tripping inside, I noticed that there were a few steps down into the hut, and that most of the living quarters were actually underground. Lowered tunnels - ones a full grown mudokon would have to stoop to enter - lined the far wall, leading (I presumed) to bedrooms and pantries. I stopped walking in my amazement. There was no way the mudokons could have done this all in a day.
Patch had noticed me stop moving. He observed how I was staring about the room and chuckled. “Yes, quite remarkable, isn’t it? We all helped each other to build these huts, making it a much faster job than if we each had done so ourselves.”
I considered this, and finally nodded. He was right, of course.
“Thirsty?” he asked, casually. I nodded again, still too awestruck at the glamorousness of this chamber. It was certainly a far cry up from the rooms I’d been forced to stay in overnight at Tastee Treets.
Patch turned and shouted. “Druna, honey! Can you bring me a few cups of tea?”
“Okay!” came back a chipper female voice. Of course. I had forgotten Druna was Patch’s mate.
Patch and I sat in a somewhat awkward silence for a few moments as we waited for the tea.
I finally ventured a question. “Is, uh … is Orion around?”
Patch shook his head, looking considerably more comfortable than I suspected he felt. “No, he’s fishing with some other mudokons.”
More silence.
“How long have you and Druna … you know …”
“Been together?” he finished for me. “A few weeks. It was pretty crummy at first, what with the depression that had befallen Oblim, but once you came to us …” He raised his hands in a there-you-have-it gesture that explained things.
Silence.
It was Patch’s turn to speak. “You ever have Spooce Tea?”
I shook my head. “Haven’t had much of a chance to experiment with eating plants out in the wild. I’ve been living off what meat I could kill in scrab form ….”
Patch seemed fascinated to hear about my scrab hunting skills, but just then Druna emerged from one of the back tunnels, carrying a tray with three earthen cups full of some steaming, fragrant liquid. I was instantly ravenous.
Druna handed Patch a cup gingerly, and then turned to look at me.
It occurred to me that the only time we had actually spoken to each other was a late night when she had come to offer her help with my glukkon morph. This was the first time I had gotten a good look at her.
And she was stunning.
Druna was, naturally, the only female mudokon I had ever seen, so maybe that influenced me in some way. But still … her hips were wide and sensual, her face somehow lighter and fairer than the mudokons I had seen every day. Her eyes were wide and a soft blue, a perfect contrast to her pale green skin. Her chest was very curvy, and covered by a cloth similar to the one that covered her loins. Her orange feathers were very long and grew most of the way down her back. Everything about her struck me as beautiful.
But still … there was no sexual attraction … I simply appreciated the beauty and grace this magnificent creature held. It would not occur to me until later, as I walked through the forests to find a way into Vykker’s Labs, that I was born as a worker class mudokon and was neither male nor female … and thus felt no lust for this gorgeous female.
And yet I took pleasure in noting she looked a little embarrassed when it came time to hand me my tea. She had a small smile on her lips that I could not interpret … except to say she wasn’t thinking me stupid. Maybe I read too much into it … but I think she may have been attracted to me. Which, of course, is absurd. At the time, I was quite wiry, but not without muscle. My eyes were likely bloodshot, and orange to begin with, giving me a manic look. And my feathers, red and black, stuck out in all imaginable directions. With lips stitched haphazardly shut, I was far from a picture of a mudokon Prince Charming.
Druna turned and walked over to sit next to her chosen mud, and tentatively sipped at the steaming tea in her mug.
I myself tried a bit … and was soon swallowing large mouthfuls. Never in life had I tasted anything so sweet! Not even the Expresso that I had chugged every morning of my life had this much sweetness in it.
Druna suppressed a smile, taking my enthusiasm as a sign that she had brewed a fine tea.
Patch, however, was looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell my story, no less.
“Erhm,” I coughed, a little embarrassed. I cleared my throat and began again. “I got to Tastee Treets a little while ago.”
Patch nodded. “And how did it go.”
I took a calculated breath, sipped the last of my tea, and said: “I couldn’t get in. So I came back.”
Patch spat out his tea in a streaming jet of hot, brown liquid. It was like you on Earth might see a surprised cartoon character do. Quite funny.
I nodded. “But I’ve thought of something. If I can find a way into Vykker’s Labs and arrange a meeting between the Tastee Treets CEO and a young glukkon ….” I stopped, letting Patch come to his own conclusion.
It took him a minute, and he finally spoke. “So you’ll go in and send a message to Tastee Treets that you’re sending some glukkon in? Where are you gonna get a glukkon to do your dirty work?”
I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to explain, but Druna beat me to it.
“Don’t you get it, sweetie? Dante is going to be the glukkon that goes into Tastee Treets …” She turned to me for verification.
She was sharp. “That’s right.”
Patch absorbed this, not at all put out by the fact that his mate had caught on where he had missed. And realization dawned visibly on his face.
“That … that’s pretty clever.” He was composing himself again. I learned then that Patch liked to maintain a very mature air about himself. I respected this.
“That’s why I’m here,” I continued. “I was hoping that you could tell me how to get into Vykker’s Labs from here.”
I knew this would be a feat, as Vykker’s Labs was a floating fortress in the sky.
But to my pleasure and surprise, Patch knew exactly what to do.
He spoke, and I listened very, very closely.
Chapter 55
I traveled northeast from the village and found the place Patch had mentioned. It was at the edge of the river at a spot where the water was shallow enough to wade safely across.
By the time I had reached the Spooceshrub Forest, it was late afternoon. I noticed with some humor that it wasn’t a true “forest;” it was likely named as it was because there were spooce shrubs growing in almost every available space on the ground.
At first I was afraid to touch the squishy-looking green plants, but I soon remembered what Patch had called Druna’s tea: Spooce Tea. I had reached down and plucked one, surprised at it’s near weightlessness. I took a tentative bite, decided it was okay, and munched it as I strolled through the “forest.”
I had to pass through several gates in order to reach Zap Henge. But as I explored the area, I found that the far gate was already opened. No need to activate the Zapper, then.
I strolled through the gate and into a small clearing surrounded on both edges by high cliff faces. Oh, yeah. Definitely a forest. The far end of the clearing had been filled up with some industrial-looking structure. A vendo machine dispensing Bounce was leaning unimportantly at the base.
I quickly knew what to do. Not to difficult a task in any respect. I jogged over to the bounce vendo and hit the button. There was a loud clang! and a can slid out of the chute. I picked it up, hoping it hadn’t been shook too much, and popped the tab.
A fizzy pink liquid bubbled out of the top, but quickly settled. I shrugged to myself and swallowed the drink in three quick gulps.
ENERGY! Wow! It surged through my body and into my legs. I’d better go before the buzz wore off.
I walked up to the wall, crouched for a second, and launched myself straight up and over the wall. I had easily just jumped twice as high as I might have done on my own.
I noticed some slog sitting around. Someone had likely set this spot up as a slog pit of some kind recently. Maybe as many as three days ago.
And there was a conveniently placed Expresso machine very near me. My mind quickly buckled, as I had been drinking little other than Expresso and water all my life, and I had become addicted without realizing it.
I popped out a can and swallowed the entire thing.
I nearly cried out. This was not a thing like the Expresso they served us in Tastee Treets. This was, for one thing, delicious. And the energy! I felt like I could dash a hundred meters in a heartbeat.
I noticed I had gotten a little antsy, as if my body wanted to use all this sudden excess energy. I turned upon the slog run, and sorta laughed. I would be across in less than two seconds. Hardly enough time for the slogs to catch me.
I hopped down from the ledge and sprinted across the way, leaping up onto the far platform and out of the reach of the slogs. No trouble at all. I turned and saw that hardly any of the slogs had turned to give chase. But now, out of their range, I was safe.
I spun again and saw a tunnel through the cliff wall. It reeked of industrial design. But if Patch had given me the proper directions … I would have to go through.
And I did. No big deal. Didn’t take too long …
And there it was. Floating above me like some disgusting sore. It was a large, round, slowly rotating airship. It had to be Vykker’s Labs.
I looked downward and noted I had stopped just short of a high cliff. I had nearly walked off of it and ended my story there.
But as I looked … I saw a giant, gaping hole that looked as though it led down into the fires of hell. Debris shot up and swirled in the air above and around it. It lay at the base of the cliff … It could only be the Big Well.
Showtime.
I took a deep breath to brace myself for the fall. And I put my fate in the Odd’s hands: I took a running leap off of the platform and over the edge.
I still don’t recall exactly how it happened, but when I fell into the well, I can only remember a brief sensation of being squeezed, and then, with a sound like a cannon being fired, I remember the underside of Vykker’s Labs launching towards me.
The clarity of the air had fooled me. It made Vykker’s Labs look a lot smaller than it really was. It quickly grew to mammoth proportions, and soon blocked out the entire sky as I flew up towards it.
I shot up past the edge of the giant ship and slowed down. I leaned towards the ship, and, as gravity took over, I fell loudly on a loading dock.
Okay. I’m there.
Now, to get inside.
I contacted Aaron briefly and was granted the slog power. I had a little trouble convincing him that I was way too busy to talk, but he eventually gave up.
I popped into the slog body and immediately began barking. Loud, angry, terrible barks. I went on like this for several minutes, and at last I noticed a floating security camera whirl around the corner (in actuality, it appeared to pop out from some vertical horizon at the edge of my senses) and flew towards me.
I barked at it, following my slog instincts now. It clicked and clacked, then floated over to the loading area’s door. I’m not sure what it did at the door - no eyes, couldn’t see - but the door opened a short time later. A strange smell came to me, and the slog brain didn’t recognize it.
But my ears picked up a faint, strange sound. Like shouting and guitars.
An intern had opened the door. It looked around and noticed me. A brief murmuring sound, and it began to herd me inside.
Chapter 56
The intern herded me in silence along several long corridors. At one point we took a teleported I had never encountered in Tastee Treets, and the smell of water filled my nose. I whimpered, and the intern gave me a little kick.
I did not like this. And the slog sure didn’t enjoy it, either. So I mauled him and messily devoured his guts. A little gruesome, sure, but he pissed me off.
After a quick sniff of the area, I determined there to be no one else around, slog or otherwise. So I popped into my mudokon body and contacted little Fix, the four year old mudokon who held the key to my Vykker transformation.
{Hi, Fix,} I said. {It’s me, Dante.}
Silence. Then, {Mr. Dante? The nice mud who asked for my help and gave me the cool tattoo?}
{Yep. I need the power to turn into a Vykker, please.}
The little mud seemed a trifle nervous, and I understood he had forgotten how to do it.
{Hey, Fix, all you need to do is …} Come to think of it, I didn’t even know how the others gave me the power to morph. They pretty much just told me okay, and then I had it.
{Mr. Dante?} Fix sounded alarmed, as if I had left him.
{I’m here.} What to say? {Just … Fix, just say, “You’ve got it, Dante!” Maybe that will work.}
He seemed unsure, but said it anyway. {You got it, Dante …}
And I did. {You did it! Thanks, Fix!}
I was filled with his emotions, and felt like I had just saved the world. Little kids have really strong emotions, don’t they?
I thanked him, promised to visit as soon as my quest was over, and said goodbye.
A few minutes later, I was a nasty and irritated Vykker, looking very out of place with natural Vykker feet and an intern’s standard issue snuzi. But it was something.
I noted with some dismay that I was in a large room, flooded with water, spooce growing in erratic patterns in the water, and water-bound explosives peppered through the room.
I looked around for some kind of directory or information kiosk … and found an Info Pole.
I pressed one of my right claws onto the screen and a holographic display popped up. FLOURIDE TANKS, read the screen. “The vykkers conduct experiments on slogs down here, and harvest spooce shrubs for medicinal purposes.”
Hm. But how to get out? I turned and saw a small blue pad with a glowing rim. A yellow and black wire stuck out from its side and traveled off the edge of the platform I stood on and into the water.
Was this one of those fancy teleporters?
One way to find out.
I trotted over to it and took a step on it. It buzzed gently, and didn’t hurt. I decided it was safe, and shifted the rest of my weight onto it.
BLUE! EVERYTHING IS BLUE!
But only for a second. I found myself standing atop a high platform near a remote control station labeled “Snoozer.” Behind me I noted a small hallway leading to a tall, triangular door. While I was tempted to fool around with the snoozer, I had a mission to accomplish.
I headed for the door, and pressed a panel set into the wall next to it. The door slid open, and I stepped through.
Two mudokons were scrubbing the floor directly in front of me. A hall in front of me lead to a door marked “Loading Dock J.” To my left was a slight incline leading to a locked door and …
Was that … a rescue portal?
No. I must be seeing things. And to confirm it, I had a brief
[VISION]
A tall blue mudokon, followed closely by a gabbit, is speaking.
“Heya, chumps.”
The mudokons turn and see him. They quickly stand.
“Hey, what’s happening, Abe?”
“Hey, look, it’s Abe!”
Abe grins. “Let’s get going.”
He turns and leads them to the bird portal…
[/VISION]
Abe and Munch! Here?
No, not yet. The mudokons before me were in my vision. So it must not have happened yet. But it would be soon. I wanted to wait … but no. There were more important things to do right now.
I walked over and puzzled over the door. I found a little console that likely would have been overlooked by any mudokon - it was at a Vykker’s line of sight, anyway, and mudokons tended to do a lot of looking down.
I played around and found the door settings. It was strange, but there was an option to open the door if the mudokons working in the area were to leave the sector. I suppose it was so that other mudokons could quickly be brought in to this hall way.
I found a command to open the door, and set it to this strange setting. When Abe came along and saved these guys, the door would open for him. I felt proud to help.
The little hallway I emerged into was separated from the main room by a high fence. Great. How was I gonna jump that without being seen?
An intern on patrol strolled up around the corner and saw me immediately. He came over and, since his mouth had been sewn shut, he simply stood there, awaiting an order.
“Hey!” I barked at the intern. He straightened up. “Refresh my memory. Is there another way over this fence?”
The intern appeared to think, and then nodded. He stepped to the side and started playing with a control panel I couldn’t see. I heard a whirring, chugging sound overhead, and realized a moment too late that a crane was coming down to snag me.
Up! Up! Up!
I was suspended eighty feet above the floor. Terrified. The Vykker in me was trying to scream out.
But I was in control. I looked around and saw another teleport machine, big enough for two, and not as far below as the floor. It sat on an iron grating, underneath an employee status board and a remote control for the crane holding me up.
I called down to the intern. “Hey! Move me over to those teleporters. And let me down carefully!”
The intern turned indifferently back to the control he used, and steered me over to the teleport. He dropped me directly on it, and I had a chance to see him walking away for a second before everything went
BLUE! WHY IS EVERYTHING SO PAINFULLY BLUE!?
I was in a small bedroom. The door opened up onto a wide catwalk over a room with numerous interns on patrol. I a faint, quiet whining sound. Didn’t recognize it at all, but my Vykker mind instinctively knew it was small and helpless. Go figure.
I followed the catwalk around, quickly passing any vykkers I saw, hoping they wouldn’t notice my non-operated-upon legs.
The catwalk eventually led down to the ground floor. There was a ring of levers around a large steel door. They probably had to be pulled in tandem to open it.
But an intern had approached me, and was, like the first one, awaiting an order.
“Hey!” I muttered… had to make this sound like a test. “Tell me … how do you get to a communications department from here?” Hoping my tone sounded like I knew, but wanted to check and see if the intern knew.
The intern thought for a while, and I was about to give up on him when he pointed through the large steel door. Of course.
I nodded. “Good. Round up some others to help me open this thing.”
The intern shrugged and walked off.
This was going too slowly. I had to be out of here soon … the urge to get back to Tastee Treets was overwhelming.
A sudden thought occurred to me. Why hadn’t I used the barking slog trick I had used to get into Vykker’s Labs outside of Tastee Treets? The answer came to me just as sharp: because the front gates only open for glukkons, and no glukkon would deign to opening a door for a slog.
The interns had returned, and were gathering at the levers.
“Do it!” I shouted, and they all pulled.
The door clanged open very slowly. It was too big to slide away very fast.
I stepped through. “Close that door! We don’t need anyone coming in here who doesn’t belong!”
I turned and walked down this new hallway. I was growing quite comfortable in this Vykker body.
As I faintly heard the doors closing at the back of the hall, I emerged into a large room. Crates with large, bluish things were arranged on the floor. The legend on each crate read LABOR EGGS.
Mudokon eggs!
Oh man. I would have tried to move them, if not for more pressing matters. Like the two armed and armored vykkers chatting nearby. They stood in front of a door that likely led to communications.
I cautiously walked up to them. “Hey …” I began.
The vykkers turned upon me. “What?”
What to say? Something Vykker-ish. “Ew, you’ve got poo-face!”
The vykkers snorted. One spoke: “Why don’t you get a life, s*-head?”
I was only encouraged. “You moron!” I lunged out my crotch. “Hold this!” And started laughing.
The other Vykker grunted, and, not to be out-insulted, responded with: “Yeah, that’s what your mother said when I … heh heh, never mind.”
I was having fun. At least, the Vykker in me enjoyed the challenge. But it was time to end it. “Eat dookie!”
The vykkers were confused. “What?”
I raised the snuzi I was still holding and unloaded several rounds into their faces. They flew back, unconscious. They would be out of it for a while yet. I could feel their pain … and almost swore I saw little birds flying circles around their heads.
“Nighty night,” I cooed, and laughed again.
I went and unlocked the door. Another teleport sent me through the
WILD BLUE YONDER! AGH!
and into a room that could only have been Communications.
There were numerous vykkers, interns, and glukkons stumbling around, talking, shouting, chatting, arguing … it was quite loud.
A large digital display board was suspended over the far wall. The message “GABBIAR AUCTION TONIGHT!” scrolled across repeatedly.
Gabbiar? What the hell?
Not important right now. I had a fone call to make.
I marched forward, looking very important, trying to ignore the sounds of voices in the air.
“Humphrey! Where is the podium? We need the ….”
“Headly …. Has anybody seen Headley?”
“Did anyone set up the welcome lights for Lulu?”
“Irwin, you putz! Don’t put that there ….”
“Isn’t Swift coming up from Tastee Treets in a few hours?”
That caught my attention. Swift … he was a Big Cheese Glukkon at Tastee Treets. Accounting or something. I might have to pay him a visit later.
I sought out and found a fone station. It was a clear blue video display with a keyboard. I typed in “Tastee Treets” and was greeted by a screen with a list of all offices in the building.
I scrolled down the list and found Icarus, the CEO and owner of the factory.
I pressed Enter, and listened to the ring….
Long enough chapters, do you think?
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It's finally here-Dante's Exoddus! Great beginning for it-I really enjoyed reading it and I can't wait to see more of it. 
