Read Online The VMR Theory (v1.1) by Robert Frezza - Free Book Online
Authors: Robert Frezza
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction, adventure, Man-Woman Relationships, Interplanetary voyages, Space and Time
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steel and concrete.
“Quite a place you have here,” I commented. “It reminds of the DMV back home.”
“Bare concrete is so reassuring to tee eye,” Wipo quipped. “How do you like our sign, ‘Abandon hope all you who enter here’?”
“Yup, it’s the DMV.”
“I understand you play bridge.”
“On occasion.”
“An exquisite game. I often play when my duties permit.” In the dim light his eyes glowed. “Perhaps we will have time to play a few hands. Do you know, I once had a partner who declared on weak red suits? I eventually had him shot, of course.”
He led me downstairs to the lower dungeon level, where he pointed to a square hole in the floor and a ladder leading down. “Our VIP suite. Tee ladder is mounted on a cantilever to allow us to pull it up after you descend, and tee trapdoor has a one-way mirror to enable us to observe your movements.”
I peered down the hole and saw a sleeping pallet in one comer, a sink and Turkish toilet in another, and dust bunnies everywhere. “I’d hate to see the two-star accommodations.”
Wipo smiled. “In you go!”
In I went. Several hours later six or seven guards prodded me awake. “It is time. Take off your clothing. Come with .us,” one of them said.
“This is how people catch colds,” I mumbled. “Can I keep my shorts?”
The guards looked at each other and apparently decided that was all right. They took me down the corridor to a small room, strapped me to a chair, and took up positions on either side.
While I waited for the whips and rubber hoses to appear, I snarled, “All right, coppers, you got me, but you’ll never make me talk!”
Privately, I decided to give Catarina time to make it back to the ship before spilling my guts, and to faint a lot if the circumstances warranted.
A cheery voice behind me said, “How melodramatic!” A perky little female Macdonald with large oval eyes and a slightly silver cast to her skin leaned over my left shoulder. “Hello, Mr. MacKay. May I call you Ken?”
She was wearing a flimsy pink robe and had the kind of personality you associate with aerobics instructors, which aroused my suspicions. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
“My name is Xuexue,” she trilled. “But you may call me ‘Trixie.’ “
For some reason, this did not sound promising. “Ah, excuse me for not getting up.”
She held her hand to her mouth and tittered, “I quite understand.” Then she turned to the officer in charge. “Please leave us.”
The officer bowed, and he and the guards departed. Gracefully hopping up on my lap, she tapped me on the nose. “T’ey would just be in tee way.”
“Now that they’re gone, you wouldn’t consider turning me loose as a gesture of universal galactic friendship?”
“No.” She pushed a button on the control panel beside the chair, which stretched me out flat. Then she planted an elbow in the middle of my chest and leaned over to contemplate my predicament. “How are you feeling?”
“Like the cockroach at a chicken dance, although I can think of several people who would pay serious money to switch places with me right now. You wouldn’t, by chance, have some extra clothes that one of the two of us could wear, would you?”
“Sorry.”
“Your English is very good.”
“ ‘Tee Spain, in main, stays plainly in tee rain.’ “
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“I am to obtain information from you.” She stretched and switched elbows. “You see, I read minds.”
I tried to look impressed. “I can’t say that I’ve ever met a mind reader before, I wouldn’t think there would be much call for your specialty. Most of the folks I run into don’t have a heck of a lot to read.”
“Tee Special Secret Police have use for me, unfortunately. ft makes me dangerous. And so I will be married off as secondary wife to some minor nobleman to preserve my genes and will spend my days and nights eating kumquats and growing
“Quite a place you have here,” I commented. “It reminds of the DMV back home.”
“Bare concrete is so reassuring to tee eye,” Wipo quipped. “How do you like our sign, ‘Abandon hope all you who enter here’?”
“Yup, it’s the DMV.”
“I understand you play bridge.”
“On occasion.”
“An exquisite game. I often play when my duties permit.” In the dim light his eyes glowed. “Perhaps we will have time to play a few hands. Do you know, I once had a partner who declared on weak red suits? I eventually had him shot, of course.”
He led me downstairs to the lower dungeon level, where he pointed to a square hole in the floor and a ladder leading down. “Our VIP suite. Tee ladder is mounted on a cantilever to allow us to pull it up after you descend, and tee trapdoor has a one-way mirror to enable us to observe your movements.”
I peered down the hole and saw a sleeping pallet in one comer, a sink and Turkish toilet in another, and dust bunnies everywhere. “I’d hate to see the two-star accommodations.”
Wipo smiled. “In you go!”
In I went. Several hours later six or seven guards prodded me awake. “It is time. Take off your clothing. Come with .us,” one of them said.
“This is how people catch colds,” I mumbled. “Can I keep my shorts?”
The guards looked at each other and apparently decided that was all right. They took me down the corridor to a small room, strapped me to a chair, and took up positions on either side.
While I waited for the whips and rubber hoses to appear, I snarled, “All right, coppers, you got me, but you’ll never make me talk!”
Privately, I decided to give Catarina time to make it back to the ship before spilling my guts, and to faint a lot if the circumstances warranted.
A cheery voice behind me said, “How melodramatic!” A perky little female Macdonald with large oval eyes and a slightly silver cast to her skin leaned over my left shoulder. “Hello, Mr. MacKay. May I call you Ken?”
She was wearing a flimsy pink robe and had the kind of personality you associate with aerobics instructors, which aroused my suspicions. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.”
“My name is Xuexue,” she trilled. “But you may call me ‘Trixie.’ “
For some reason, this did not sound promising. “Ah, excuse me for not getting up.”
She held her hand to her mouth and tittered, “I quite understand.” Then she turned to the officer in charge. “Please leave us.”
The officer bowed, and he and the guards departed. Gracefully hopping up on my lap, she tapped me on the nose. “T’ey would just be in tee way.”
“Now that they’re gone, you wouldn’t consider turning me loose as a gesture of universal galactic friendship?”
“No.” She pushed a button on the control panel beside the chair, which stretched me out flat. Then she planted an elbow in the middle of my chest and leaned over to contemplate my predicament. “How are you feeling?”
“Like the cockroach at a chicken dance, although I can think of several people who would pay serious money to switch places with me right now. You wouldn’t, by chance, have some extra clothes that one of the two of us could wear, would you?”
“Sorry.”
“Your English is very good.”
“ ‘Tee Spain, in main, stays plainly in tee rain.’ “
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“I am to obtain information from you.” She stretched and switched elbows. “You see, I read minds.”
I tried to look impressed. “I can’t say that I’ve ever met a mind reader before, I wouldn’t think there would be much call for your specialty. Most of the folks I run into don’t have a heck of a lot to read.”
“Tee Special Secret Police have use for me, unfortunately. ft makes me dangerous. And so I will be married off as secondary wife to some minor nobleman to preserve my genes and will spend my days and nights eating kumquats and growing
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