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Stories from the Verse
In Version
Chapter 120: Brown 275
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Beam 190
Derek had found something to drink, sweet, a bit fruity, and fizzy, plus something like small sandwiches made with something like liverwurst. Liverwurst was not his favorite coldcut, but it complimented this savory alien bread very nicely. He had used his frying pan to carry a few sandwiches, and setting it on a small table stood next to it, drink in one hand, sandwich in the other.
Two green scaly aliens approached. It was obvious that they were coming to him, so he addressed them as they approached, stifling his instinctive aversion to giant lizards.
“Good evening, gentlemen. How may I help you?”
They glanced at each other before one of them responded, “Where is the other human?”
“Bob Slade? I don’t know. We arrived at the same time, but we came directly here and his wife detoured them to a ladies room or something, I think. I haven’t seen him since--have you, love?”
Before Vashti could answer, the speaker reached toward Derek with a quick hand open to grab and a growl on its face. Instinctively Derek knocked the arm aside with his good left forearm, and seeing the startled face delivered a solid kick to its right knee. That was almost always a weak spot in creatures, simply because there weren’t many ways to create external body joints that weren’t vulnerable. It didn’t exactly scream--more bellowed in pain.
Its companion reached for Vashti, which was a mistake as she grabbed its arm and pulled, and it stumbled a good six or seven feet and crashed into a pole. The pole seemed to get very offended, and hit back knocking out its attacker, which surprised Derek--but not enough to throw him off his stride. He kicked the alien’s other knee, and it fell on those injured knees with another bellow, and went over sideways.
“Come, dear, I don’t think I’m enjoying this party anymore,” he said.
“No. Who would have thought that such riff-raff would be in attendance at the Emperor’s party?”
Taking his frying pan and leaving his spilled drink glass behind, he offered Vashti his arm and another sandwich, both of which she accepted as they strolled toward the stairs with quite a few eyes on them.
He wondered whether this would impact his ranking. He fully expected it would make a difference to his reputation.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #494: Warring Worlds. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
