Chapter 15

"Oh ... very funny, Ricky," Stevie didn't laugh.

""Nope," agreed Ricky/HAL. "Not funny at all. There's brains all over the wall."

"Shit!"

"That too," said HAL/Rick.

Stevie hip checked Ricky into the boards. She looked down at the screen. She turned light green.

Let me tell you about Stevie ... she had no trouble at all with macerating ancient gigamungus sharks ... she was making the mess. Other peoples messes? Not so pretty awful good. This was brain blood ... and brains ... sliding down the speckled wall ... they were NOT going to get rid of that evidence ... they being the military ... by washing the wall.

Nope, the only way this was going away was by torching a little 300 bed hospital in Podunk Junction. Half to three quarters of those beds being occupied. Ninety five percent of those occupants were planning to get better. Today just wasn't going to be a good day in the neighborhood. Mr. Green uniform with the MP armband was going to make sure about that.

All over the hospital, men with white armbands over green sleeves were drawing knives, or garrotes, or pistols. In the air, the helicopter pilots were flipping red covers off firing buttons ... it was figuring to get nasty...

"Well?" questioned Ricky/HAL.

For as much computing power as Stevie had, Alpha Nx 9637 ... subparticle 3n926 ... The Ship ... had more. Stevie Nx9637subparticle 3n926 was running at a minuscule, teeny ... teeny-weeny, teensy ... teensy-weensy ... itsy-bitsy ... portion of that power. It don't get no smaller!!

Instant communication between the Ship and Stevie. The screen cleared of green uniforms, blood, brains and corpuses, Apaches, Blackhawks, men in white jackets ... and David.

David ... his bed, pumps, monitors, and attendant ... had I mentioned she was cute? Probably not ... I should have ... she really was. David and his paraphernalia appeared in the hangar. David didn't panic ... the attendant did.

Everybody and everything else? Ever read Stranger in a Strange Land? No? You should. The rest of the military were at 90 degrees to everything else. Barring a miracle ... that's where they were staying until they died of old age.

The helicopters would never run out of fuel ... the guns would never run out of bullets ... belt buckles would never rust ... who knows? It might be fun.

In this particular instance, 90 degrees from everything else was Loris and Morg Chapter Fourteen.