Pool Area and Trophy Display

[Boikat]

Boikat's eyes went wide. "Hold it!" he reached out and flipped up the dark visor of the TED helmet. "Marvin!"

"You were expecting C3-PO, perhaps?" Marvin droned, "Of course you would have, what with a Star Destroyer lurking about..."

"Marvin, how did you get here? You were inside the Black Pearl just a few hours ago..."

"Your little buddy, Gunphur. He was looking through some database from somewhere, decided that something was wrong with the time line, and grabbed me and went back in time, 3427 years ago to be exact, to prevent the Toomeckian invasion of Phalata.."

"The who? Say what?"

"Exactly. See, if the Toomeckians had invaded Phalata, the Toomeckians would have felt emboldened to wage a campaign to take over this part of the galaxy, and under the iron fisted rule of the Toomeckians, a period of unparalleled peace would have followed..." explained Marvin.

"Hold it! Isn't peace a 'Good Thing'?" asked Merle.

"Not under the iron fisted rule of the Toomeckians" said Marvin.

Nomad shook his head, "So how come we've never heard of them?"

"Gunphur and I altered the time lines. The Toomeckians found it was more profitable to stay on their home world, until they snuffed themselves. Better them that half the inhabited planets in the surrounding 500 light year sphere of Toomeckian rule."

Boikat began to feel a head ache building. "I thought there were rules against temporal tampering, the Time Cops..."

"Oh, that's the really nifty part.." Marvin said with a slight hint of glee. "After we stopped the war, Gunphur took another time jump to about 5,000 years ago and started the Temporal Cosmic Operations Police...."

Boikat let out a groan. "You mean the Time Cops. Meaning, also, that he got to set up the rules."

"Precisely." said Marvin.

Boikat looked like his head was about to explode. Instead, he took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Okay, okay, what's done is done...Unless you're Gunphur, apparently. Now, can I have my ship back?"

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

Meanwhile, pim and Qray were giving each other a head ache.

"Computer, ahead 1/2, clear the docking ring..." said Qray.

"Computer, belay that order. Ahead 1/2, clear the docking ring." said pim.

"Computer, belay that belay order! Ahead 1/2, clear the docking ring" Qray said as he rubbed his left temple.

Veneno leaned over and said to Q, "Are you sure this is worth it?"

"Belay the order to belay the order to belay. Move out, 1/2, and clear the docking ring" said pim.

"Belay the order to belay belayed orders!" said Q, then to Veneno he said, "I figured out why this ship is here, and..."

He was interrupted as the deck lurched and the sound of docking hatches detaching echoed through the vast ship. Q looked at pim and grinned, "Glad you saw it my way.."

The young woman stuck her tongue out at the rogue. "Computer, once clear of the docking ring, set course Azimuth, 35 degrees, negative 15 degrees elevation, 3/4 light speed until we clear the Mall Space.." she said.

Computer, belay that!" said Qray.

"Computer, belay that belay order!!" said pim.

[who me]

christen the valet looked at the two squabbling on the bridge.
"are you two married" he asked.
"NO!" the bath said at once.
"sounds like you are" christen said.
"IT does not." bath Q and PIm said at once.
christen looked at them and shook his head, "well neither of you are going any were in this ship.
see you are drawing your power form the mall right now, before that you were powering your shields form your back up power."
he pointed to a very old corroded 9 volt battery.
"that does not have much life left in it."
at that moment the battery died and fell to dust.
"well." christen said "if you detach form the intergalactic mall your force shield collapse and your atmosphere wanderers off into space. you should probably find some space suite's before that happens."

in the mean time Q and pim had started squabbling over who had to clean up the 9 volt battery dust.
are you sure you are not married?" christen said.
"YES!" they bath said
"SHE" Q said pointing " measures her food out, have you ever watched some one count the scoops of muesli and banana slices!?
"HE" pim said smokes! and it stinks!
"She" Q said "runs around in her fluffy bunny slippers and robe while listening to her MP3 player and you say something to her and she can't hear you."
"HE" said pim "uses foul language, all the time."
"SHE" leave little yellow sticky notes all over everything.

after some time christen interrupted, well you are going to have to fix the ship before you go any place.

[Merle]

"I heard that Cloney's so lonely, he's having a special on Stoli. And if anyone shows up in the next 24 hours, he's wiping out their bar tabs," Merle remarked casually, before beating everone else out the hatch on the way to the Black Pearl.

[Boikat]

Marvin tapped the center star on his TED badge, and almost instantly, two 8 foot tall members of the Mall Goon Squad appeared, and escorted Merle back to where the rest stood.

"But what about wiping out the bar tab thing..?" protested Merle.

"If you pay the fine, fifty thousand Pudackain Pubbles, now, you might just make it there in time." Marvin said.

"Yes," said Boikat, "But you've never told us what that was in QUID."

"Oh, in QUID? 35 QUID." replied Marvin.

Boikat winced. "35 QUID? Is that all? Ptth! You guys wait here. I remember we passed a curio shop along the way.." Clenching the Casino token in his paw, he nodded to Tipper to follow. The two hurried off.

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

The sign on the window said "Curios, Oddities and Pawn" in seventeen alien languages. When Boikat and Tipper walked in, the looked around a bit and saw objects of art, paintings, tools, and obvious junk in the form of empty beverage cans, scrap metal, and junk with a capital J U N K, as in "worthless pieces of junk". Even so, the price tags were marked with high prices. What looked like a broken headlight from some ancient ground vehicle had a price tag of 3,000 QUID. A lamp shade with torn and tattered cloth was marked at a mere 700 QUID.

On the other hand, an alabaster statuette, that was labeled "Sun Goddess of the Eastern Mountains, Boon's Planet" had a price of well over 50,000 QUID. As Tipper and Boikat were looking at it, they heard someone clearing their throat behind them. They turned.

"May I help you?" asked a short alien with three eyes.

"I hope so. I have a rare coin, an I'd like to sell it." said Boikat.

The alien nodded and said "Follow me to the coin department."

The two followed, and the alien went behind the counter, which had a glass top over rows and rows of coinage from dozens of planets.

The alien held out his hand. Boikat made a big show of holding his out, and pretending to not really want to part with the casino token, then dropped in in the alien's hand. The alien picked up a magnifying lens and took turns looking at the coin with each of his three eyes. "Nice condition, I do not recognize it's markings." He looked up, "Where did you get it?"

"Er, I found it on At-choo, in the Gadzundheit system..." said Boikat. The alien looked puzzled. "I didn't steal if, if that's what you're thinking!" said Boikat.

The alien looked like it was thinking. "I believe you, but with no documentation, for all I know, this could be a token for some gaming parlor or illegal casino..."

Boikat held out his paw, "Okay. Give it back."

The alien clutched it towards himself, "Now, now, I did not say it was a game or casino token.. How about ... 50 QUID?"

"50? I guess you've never heard of At-choo! Beastly planet full of beastly beasts that would eat you as easy as they'd look at you as they wonder how you would taste!" Boikat held out his paw again, as if to insist upon the coin's return.

The alien only clutched the coin closer, "Okay, how about 100 QUID?"

"Ah Hah! So you have heard of At-choo! So you also know about the horrendous weather, the extreme temperature swings, and the Swamp of the Sunken City!!" Again, he held out his paw.

"500 QUID, and that's my final offer!" said the alien as he clutched the coin tightly against his chest.

Boikat narrowed his eyes, "500? Seems not worth the effort. My partner here, " he nodded at Tipper, "Almost got killed by Mopbucket Beast. Show him your scar.."

Boikat stepped aside, and Tipper stepped in front of the alien, and opened the front of her bodice. The alien's eyes opened wide.

"The scar between the... ahem..." said Boikat as Tipper closed her top.

"Okay, 1,000 QUID...." the alien said, his eyes still fixed on Tipper's chest area.

Boikat cleared his throat, "Ahem!" and Tipper stepped aside. "I guess that will have to do." Boikat said in mock resignation.

"I'll make out a sales receipt.." the alien said, still fixated.

Taking Tipper's arm, Boikat said, "Fine, we'll browse..." and led Tipper down one of the isles.

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

Qray pulled a power module out of the casing of a sweeper droid, which gave out a death squeal, "This ought to do the trick!"

"Will you stop pulling batteries out of the maintenance droids?" asked pim.

"Do you happen to have a nine volt battery?" asked Q.

"But that's the seventh battery pack you've pulled out, and like the rest, it will not work either!" said pim.

In confirmation, as soon as Q hooked the wires up, the lights dimmed, the battery pack sizzled, and disintegrated.

"WildCard, catch another droid!" said the rogue.

"Save it," said Veneno, "I just called Batteries-R-Us, and they are sending over a fresh battery. They deliver."

Qray said, "Huh. Who'd have thought? Any-who, WildCard, catch another droid, just in case the battery they are sending over is bad!"

"Aaaaargh!" said pim. "No wonder everyone around you is insane or psychotic!"

"Neurotic, maybe, but insane? Nah!" said Q with a dismissive wave.

WildCard and Veneno looked at Q.

"Present company excluded. Speaking of psychotic, insane or neurotic, where's the fur-ball and the others? I'd have thought they would have wandered back by not, if for no other reason, boredom."

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

"Tipper, look at this..." said Boikat as he pointed tat the spine of a book. "Lost ships of the Orion Arm" the title read. Pulling it off the shelf, he paged through it.

"What's so special about it?" asked Tipper.

"Early days of space flight in the Orion sector. Lots of ship were lost when the planets in that sector started exploring their neck of the Galaxy." The Felid looked at the back cover where the price tag was stuck. He blinked in surprise. "Only 10 QUID. Based on some of the junk in here, this is a good price.." He paged through the book, stopped at one point, looked up, around and then he quickly tucked the book under his arm. "The proprietor should have the sales receipt and money by now, let's go..." he said with a hint of urgency.

"Why? I was looking at this lovely Pandoran dagger. It's only 350 QUID.." she said as she held out a hooked blade that looked like it was made of the claw of some fierce predator.

"350?" Boikat asked and grabbed it, "Sold! Let's go!" he said and went towards the counter.

The alien was waiting and looked pleased when Boikat put the dagger and book on the counter. "It's so rewarding to see someone who comes in here to sell something, also buy something." he said with a smile.

"What's fair is fair!" said Boikat.

The alien slid several QUID across the counter to Boikat, and a sheet of paper. Boikat looked at it, saw it was nothing but a receipt, and put his paw print on the paper.

The lien looked at the dagger and book's price tags, and rang them up, 350, 10, tax, 396 QUID."

Boikat slid 4 100 quid disks to the alien, "Keep the change, pleasure doing business, yadda, yadda, gotta go!" with that, he grabbed the book and dagger, then grabbed Tipper, and walked very quickly towards the exit to the promenade.

Once in the passage, Tipper said, "What's the rush?"

Boikat held up the book, "Pay dirt!!"

[Qray]

"Hmmm," Q muttered as he looked at the ever growing piles of dust that were the disintegrated batteries. "Maybe I should've been connecting positive to positive..."

"I'm not cleaning that up either," Pim informed the man. "That's on your side of the ship."

"That was always your problem. Never cleaning up after yourself."

"Excuse me?"

Q crouched down by the corner of a bulkhead and waited. "Do I need to mention your bookbag?"

"No, but you probably will."

"I mean, you walk in, prop your bike against the wall right in the way, drop your bookbag on the middle of the floor, shoes fall where they may..."

"I strategically placed that stuff to draw people's attention away from the ugly picture frame you put up on the wall," Pim countered.

"And your desk with all the half finished pewter figures," Q soldiered on as he pulled his lobster hammer out from a hidden inner pocket of his battered longcoat. Hefting the weighty weapon in his hand as he peered around the corner. "When was the last time you even dusted it? It looks like a cross between a battlefield frozen in time and a mad scientist's lab abandoned in mid-experiment."

"Well...you're anal retentive!"

"And you jump on the bed!"

Bear scratched his chin. "Are you two sure you two aren't married?"

"Yes!" they both said in unison once more. Right before Q sprung around the corner as another maintenance droid came into view.

"AH HA! Hey! Don't run away! It'll only hurt for a bit!"

[Merle]

Merle was still in a funk over the lack of progress toward getting his bar tab wiped out. And he could only imagine how peeved Q was gonna be. Then again, since Q never paid his bar tab, let alone anything else, with his own money, maybe not.

And, to make matters worse, Merle was stuck with Marvin. "And then, just when I thought life could get no worse, an Andokian junk dealer mistook me, with a brain the size of the universe, for a mere 'service bot.' Imagine!"

"Can't imagine you as a service bot, no doubt," growled Merle, looking around, praying for BK's return.

"Exactly," droned Marvin. "But what was I to do? I was sold to a Yavokkian casino owner, who forced me to serve drinks to the patrons at his casino. Fortunately for me, but unfortunatly for him, the casino soon went broke. Really, I did my best to help. I even went so far as to advise the gamblers against the advisability of consuming alcohol while gambling, what with it dulling the intellect and reducing inhibitions and all. Oh, I was most helpful! How many patrons did I save from gambling away their lives on games they could not hope to win?"

"So the Yavokkian going out of business certainly wasn't a surprise. I would imagine the suicide rate went up in the casino, as well?"

"How did you know? Yes! And of course, rumors started and then people stopped coming, and, well, a casino with no gamblers...."

"Why didn't the Yavokkian get rid of you?"

"I'm afraid he didn't know where my shut down swich is."

"Um, shut down switch? You have a shut down switch?"

"Why yes, right here, just on my left shoulder bl-"

Marvin slumped as Merle punched the hidden switch. Marvin's attendants slumped as well. It seemed they had no independent will.

"Yeehaw! Everyone on board!" Yelled Merle, and they piled into the Black Pearl. "Boikat, where ya be, son?" Shouted Merle into the com.

[Boikat]

There as a burst of static in Boikat's Comm-cricket as he and Tipper hurried back towards the impound lot. Unfortunately, there was a shoe sale and the crowd was rather thick. This was especially true since a group of aliens with twelve legs were dead set on taking advantage of the sale. After forcing their way through the throng of shoppers, the pair made better time, but when they reached the office of the TED, they found two things. Marvin slumped over, and the Black Pearl III was missing. Boikat looked around and saw the small black ship accelerating away, then make a hyperspace jump and disappear.

"Spwark!?" exclaimed Boikat. Looking at Marvin, he saw that someone had turned Marvin's power switch off.

"Now what?" asked Tipper'G.

Boikat looked at Marvin, and was about to reach out an flip his power switch back on, but stopped an looked at the impound yard instead.

"We can go back to the Star Destroyer or we can get another ship.." said the felid as he surveyed likely prospects. "Let's go shopping."

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

The sound of a wrench hitting thin metal echoed down the corridor. "This should do.." said the rogue as he removed another power pack from a maintenance droid.

"You need to stop doing that or we'll run out of Maintenance Droids" said pim.

"Meh." said Qray with a shrug. "I'll manage."

Pim sat back down in the command chair and crossed her arms as Q hooked the power pack up. Somewhere the sound of generators spinning up filtered into the command center, and the lights brightened.

"There. See?" said Q in triumph.

There was a frying noise, the odor of ozone, and the power pack disintegrated with a whimpering noise and a pop, and the sound of generators performing emergency stops with a screeching noises filtered into the command center, and the bridge was plunged into total darkness. The sounds of emergency hatches closing could also be heard.

"Oh, yes. I can see perfectly well now. Thank-you-very-much." said Pim.

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

"What about that one?" asked Tipper pointing at a sleek-hulled yacht.

"No shield emitters, no weapon ports..." said Boikat as he shook his head.

"We're running out of ships" said Tipper.

"This is only the 'A' level impound lot, there are still two more to go." said Boikat as he looked at the impound log he had taken from Marvin's TED office. "Hey! According to this, they have an old Federation ship here. On 'C' level...."

It didn't take long to find the elevators, and the two "shoppers" got in and poked the "C" button. When the elevator stopped and the doors opened, Boikat said, "Now that's just not right."



Tipper looked at the craft. "What's wrong with it?"

"Unless it's got something 'under the hood', that's not a space craft. How'd it get here?"

Further questions had to be deferred as an alarm sounded, along with an audio announcement in ten alien tongues. Finally, one of the languages was understandable, "... imminent collision. All shoppers move to air-tight shelters....."

Boikat looked around. "Air-tight shelter?" The two felt the mall deck shudder.

"What air-tight shelter?" asked Tipper.

Boikat pointed at the "ship". "That 'air-tight shelter'!" he said, then grabbed Tipper by the arm and the two ran towards the aircraft.

The felid had to jump up and grab the hatch release levers, and pulling out and turning it, pulled the hatch open by bracing his feet against the fuselage. Swinging into the aircraft, he lay flat in the hatch-way and held his had down for Tipper, "Jump!"

Just as Tipper jumped, the Mall shook again. The Mall warning changed to a shrill shriek, "Collision! Collision! Please finalize any purchases as soon as possible!" Tipper and the felid's hands met, and Boikat pulled the woman into the aircraft. Not stopping, he rolled to his feet and pulled and latched the hatch. "Cockpit!" he yelled to Tipper.

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

Pim's voice came out of the darkness, "Did you feel that? I think something hit us."

There was a flare of light from Qray's lighter as he lit a cig. "Or we hit something..." he said nonchalantly.

"No smoking on the bridge!" said pim.

"It's my bridge too!" said Q.

"Shouldn't we be doing something about it being all dark?" asked the bear.

"And the 'running into things' thing?" asked WildCard.

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

"Great! She still has battery power!" said Boikat as he flipped on the battery switch. The two could still feel the mall shuddering beneath them. "APU... Where's the APU... Ah!" Spotting the APU starter switch, Boikat poked the switch and was rewarded with a low whine that built in frequency, then steadied. "Master Power...Here!" He flipped the switch and lights and instruments came to life. "Main engines... Ah! Right next to the APU..." toggling the switch for the Number One engine, he was relieved to hear it begin to spin up. A quick glance showed the fuel switches were all set too. The number one engine caught and Boikat flipped the start switch for the number two engine, which also began to spin up.

Outside, the Mall alert said, "Ejecting life pods. All sales are final. Have a nice day!"

Another shudder ran through the Mall, and Boikat and Tipper watched as the conning tower of the Star Destroyer cut through the decking of the mall in front of them like the conning tower of a submarine cutting through a layer of thin Arctic ice. But scale-wise, it looked more like a sky-scraper out for a stroll.

The two looked at each other.

"Well who else?" asked Boikat.

[PureTeen Lard]

A small, orange clad figure was led into the courtroom. Pure stood up and waved, "Hi, Hilary", he said, "Long time no see"
"Still not talking to you"
"The handcuffs suit you . . .", said Pure cheerfully.
"Shut up"
" . . . and orange coveralls show your figure off surprisingly well"
"Shut up!"
"I got you a lawyer", said Pure, "best I could afford"
Hilary drooped in her cuffs, "I'm doomed . . ."
"Well if you hadn't stolen that ship from Christine"
"Stolen", Hilary's voice rose three octaves, "She GAVE us that ship"
"That's not what the prosecuting lawyer says"
Hilary responded with a magnificent volley of abuse against lawyers. "Now hold on, Hil, he's only doing his job"
"If a man is paid to slaughter puppies and is found knee deep in
puppy entrails and juggling their little doggy heads then it could be
said that he is just doing his job but does that make it any the less vile?"
"I don't think that's a real job, Hilary"
"It probably is in france"

[Qray]

"I think somethings running into us again," Veneno muttered as the ship shuddered to port and the woman tried to adopt Q's lackadaisical attitude to life threatening events.

"No," WildCard shouted above the growing din the sound of scraping Space Mall against Star Destroyer was creating on the bridge. "Definitely us running into something."

Popping a Chem-Light, Q leaned over the Navcom. "Sounds like a Banana Republic," the man said absently. "Maybe a Pier 1. So no great loss."

"Pair 1 carries Papasan Chairs," Pim pointed out.

"True," the rogue said as he worked on the Navcom. "So let's hope it's a Banana Republic or Hot Topic."

"You're officially half owner of this tub now, Wonko," WildCard reminded him. "Remember? So you're gonna have to pay for half of whatever is being wrecked."

Q held up the disconnected Navcom memory core. "Actually, you can have the whole thing, kiddo," Q said to pim as a grin spread along his lips. "I just want this."

"Hey!" pim countered. "You can't take that. I need that."

"It was on my side of the ship," Q counter-countered as he pocketed the navigation memory inside his battered longcoat. "Veneno, broadwave Central Space Salvage as soon as we're off this boat and tell them I relinquish my claim. WildCard, which way to the nearest escape pod?"

"Uh, Wonko...the only escape pods still in place are on her side of the ship."

Pim grinned.

[Boikat]

By the light of his glowstick, Q grinned back, stuck his finger in his ear, and said, "Boikat, need extraction. Just blow a hole in the hull somewhere, we'll find you... Over."

Pim crossed her arms, "If that cat so much as blinks in the general direction of this ship, I'll have him blown out of the sky!"

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

In the 737 Vanity Federation ship, Boikat heard Q's request for extraction. So did Tipper.

"How..?" asked Tipper.

Boikat looked puzzled, then looked excited. "Federation ship! Come with me!" he said as he hopped out of the pilot's seat. Exiting the cockpit, he opened a folding door on the left of the small hallway behind the cockpit door. "Galley." he said, turning, he opened a folding door to the right side, "Ah-Hah!" Sticking a finger in his ear, he tickled his com-cricket, "Hold your position..." then activated the control panel for a four person transport platform. "Scanning....Locking on..."

Meanwhile, on the command deck, Q was frowning. "Scanning...? Locking on...? His eyes went wide and he started to say, "Noooo!" as he, Veneno and WildCard desolved in a twinkling, swirling cloud of particles that faded away.

Pim said, "Finally! Maintenence droids, all hands, repair this ship, at once! Ship computer, bypass main nave-comp, switch to back-up." No sooner than she finished issuing her orders, the lights and power returned.

Bare looked puzzled, "Umm... how...?"

"Not important bare, I knew they would eventually find something they wanted then leave." said pim.

"Now what?" asked bare.

"You'll see..." siaid pim with a mischievious smile.

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

"Nooooo... Stop wait!" said Q as he materialized out of a sparkling swirling cloud of atomic particles.

"What's the big..." WildCard started to say, the stifled a chuckle.

Veneno looked at Q and almost started to chuckle, too, then stopped, looked down, looked back up at Boikat.

Q looked down, and looked at Boikat. "Fix it. Now."

Boikat tilted his head sideways, "Are those "C'" or "D" sized?"

"Fix it now." said Veneno.

"Let's not be too hasty. Think about it..." said Wildcard. Q suddenly looked like he'd gotten lost in a dream of some sort, and managed to shout, "Noooooo!" as the trio desolved in the shimmering cloud of atoms, only to reappear a second later, whole, intact, and all the "naughty bits" where they should have been, and part of the whom they belonged to.

"Sorry!" said Boikat. "New ship and all that."

Q smiled that "One of these days" smiles.

In return, Boikat held up the old book from the curio shop. "Lost Ships of the Orion Arm" he said with a smile.

Q held up the Nav Comp Core. "Star Destroyer Nav Comp Core."

Boikat opened the book to a page he had marked by folding the corner of the page. "Cyclops 12, 500 metric tones of Unobtainium from Pandora!" He flipped a few more pages, "The Clearwater, the last of the super mega liners, with enough gold trim to... Why are you still smiling and waiving that memory core?"

[lastone]

It’s the Dragons. They are always the first to know. They do not just listen to those they are linked to they also listen to those that they love. It was with stunned silence that Lastone reacted to the first bugle of dismay from Rodanth and Romena, it was with sheer shock that he heard the other dragons join in. As they did the image of his beloved Aglaranna flashed in his mind as Romena unable to continue on without her rider screamed once more and disappeared between.

[align=center][/align]

It is with extreme sadness that I have to let you know that Aglaranna (Gail) Has joined those that went before us, Beyond the Rim.

Take care all

I will talk to you later

[Boikat]