Chapter One - The Boy Named Sue.txt         He was big and bent, gray and old yet the tall stranger with a scar down one cheek and one glass eye stood out among the frontier villagers like a god among men. All of the men deferred to him, and the women tittered and giggled at anything he said, or didn't say. By and large, he was silent, simply observing the work around him with a wry grin. Nobody was sure exactly who he was and where he was from, although there were some whispers that he was a wealthy merchant from far away San Francisco. So far in his time in this small frontier town he had done nothing but sit all day in the saloon playing poker, smoking cigarettes and sipping whiskey. Although he had a canny way with the cards, nobody could say whether he won more than he lost; only that he was obviously not a greenhorn and obviously not hurting for money. What everyone agreed upon, although nobody actually would have voiced was that he was terribly frightening. Even the local toughs who were wont to harass anyone new in town until they had proved either unentertaining or dangerous had given him a wide berth, even tipping their hats politely as he passed. There was a solemn coldness about him that gave no doubt but that whatever the townspeople or life in general could throw at him he could handle, and most likely had done so before. He carried no guns or any other weapons that were easily apparent, and truly needed none. His freezing glare alone was generally sufficient to make any man have sudden thoughts of his own mortality.     Nobody had invited him to the barn-raising, but he showed up nonetheless. He seemed to be amused by the activities going on around him, but with no apparent desire to join in. Normally, anyone who showed up at a barn-raising event was expected to work as hard as everyone else before joining in the festivities afterwards, but Elijah Graves seemed to be the exception to that rule. He watched the men as they worked together to raise the four walls of the barn, watched as they fastened the roof joists in place, watched as they cleaned up and prepared for the pot luck supper. Only then did he move from his place to get a plate of food and return to his seat.     Charity Austin was in a foul mood to begin with, and had no expectation that an evening surrounded by local townsfolk would improve it.     "Mother, I really do not feel well. Might I go home and go to bed early?" she asked plaintively, averting her eyes.     "Charity, we have discussed this. It would not be proper for a young lady of your status to be traipsing through town at this time of night all alone. You will be patient and leave when your father and I are ready to go." Her mother answered her request without even glancing at her. Her eyes were full of her husband, sitting on a rocking chair next to the mayor and sharing a laugh at something the man had said. Charity breathed a deep sigh, and resigned herself to her fate. Her father was pushing hard to be selected to the town council when the next position came open, and her dislike of these primitive frontier gatherings was nothing but an obstacle to such aspirations. The lump in her stomach only got heavier when she spotted the group of girls standing behind the plank tables serving food to the townsfolks. The were all chatting gaily with each other, looking sideways at a group of young men who also did their best to pretend that they young women did not exist. Charity quickly looked away before any of them made eye contact with her. The last thing she needed was another confrontation with them like last week. Her mother seemed to be oblivious to her status among the girls in town, and was constantly pushing her to be more sociable.     "Dear, isn't that little Jenny Cushman over there?" Her mother indicated the apparent leader of the group of girls; a stunning petite blond with piercing blue eyes and a laugh that had apparently captivated any man within hearing distance.     "Yes mother, that is the girl who embarrassed me in front of the entire school last week." Charity replied bitterly, refusing to look in the direction indicating. Her mother either ignored the remark or didn't care.     "You should go see if you can help her with the serving. She seems like such a sweet thing. Perhaps you two could become friends?" Her mother asked pointedly. Charity was under no such illusion, either as to the possibility of befriending the mayor's daughter, or the reasoning behind her mother's question.     "Mother, she made me look like a fool in front of the entire school last week. Don't you remember the note that Miss Johnson sent home about it? After you suggested that I ask to be her study partner, she gave me the wrong book to read and when I stood to read lines from it I found out that this book was nearly pornographic! I thought that the teacher was going to have a heart attack!" Charity could still feel the heat of the stares of her classmates as she stammered through an apology to the class for what Jenny had insisted had been a practical joke that Charity had tried to get her to participate in.     "Yes dear, but that wasn't her fault. You really should get to know her better." She grasped Charity's shoulder and pushed her gently in that direction.     "Go ahead. I am sure she would welcome your help."     "Mother, I will not!" Charity hissed, trying to keep her voice low. "That girl is a snake!"     "Charity Austin! I cannot believe the words that I am hearing coming from your mouth." Her mother's wide eyes expressed her apparent shock. "Then we shall go speak to her together. And you can apologize to her for being so uncharitable." Rising to her feet, Mother grabbed Charity's hand with an iron grip and set off towards the serving tables. Charity resisted, but her mother was unstoppable when she had her mind set, and she certainly did not want to attract any further attention to herself by causing a scene.     Elijah Graves was beginning to bore of this party. It had definitely been interesting to see the primitive building techniques used to construct the agricultural structure earlier in the day, but as soon as the social activities began his interest began waning. He had finished the food on his plate and was finishing a very satisfying after dinner cigarette. The hard cider that had been served with his meal was just beginning to give him that mellow, relaxed feeling that he so enjoyed and he didn't want to waste it on these strange, petty people and their confusing social antics. He handed his plate to a passing girl who blushed and nearly dropped her load of dirty dishes by trying to execute an extravagant curtsy with her hands full. Standing up, he wandered off towards town, barely acknowledging any of the people he passed with a slight nod of his gray head.     "All right miss city girl. We will show you how you can help us all right. Get in there, or we will all throw you in!" Jenny Cushman snarled, her blue eyes snapping with anger. Charity struggled to free her arms, but the two burly farm girls twisting them up behind her back had a significant advantage over her. This was even worse than she had imagined when her mother had brightly informed Jenny that Charity really wanted to assist them with the serving but was simply too shy to ask. Jenny's smile was broad and genuine, and she happily agreed to have Charity join them and help out with dinner. As soon as her mother's back was turned however, the radiant smile turned instantly to a vicious snarl. The Thompson twins responded immediately without any verbal cues and Charity was quickly escorted around the corner of the farmhouse and back into the farmyard. Terrified by the sudden violence with which the executed their flanking movements, Charity was unable to make any noise at all until they came to the pig sty.     "Why? What did I do to you to deserve treatment like this?" Charity pleaded; panic quickly crowding out rational thought. Jenny responded with a curt nod to the twins, and Charity felt her feet leave the ground.     "What are you girls up to back here?" a deep, velvety voice asked calmly from the twilight shadows of a giant elm tree next to the row of stinking pens. All four girls immediately froze, and Elijah Graves stepped out of the shadows and approached the group. Nonchalantly strolling forward, he walked past them and leaned his forearms on the wooden pen and appeared to be contemplating the enormous hog that had come up to the fence, grunting in anticipation of something to eat. He said nothing else, simply inhaled a long pull from his cigarette and blew the smoke out towards the hog. The girls remained frozen, unsure of where this mysterious stranger stood in relation to their conflict. Charity's feet dangled inches above the ground and her arms had both gone numb for lack of circulation. In desperation, she reached out, not entirely sure that it was at all wise to do so but having no other apparent recourse.     "Help me please! They are going to throw me in with the hog!" I don't even know…" her plea was cut off by a sharp snarl from Jenny.     "Shut up you worthless whelp, we were'nt doing anything of the kind. Just having a bit of fun is all. Patty, Matty, let her go if she can't take a joke. Just goes to show what kind of…" Elijah interrupted her tirade with the same quiet voice, "Don't look much like fun to me neither. Not sure I would find any humor in the situation at all, were it me being held above a pig pen by two oxen in dresses and a rabid weasel." The insult was spoken quietly, almost respectfully enough that the girls very nearly missed it. When it finally sunk in, Jenny's sharp intake of breath was the most satisfying and terrifying thing that Charity had heard in her life. The twins were much slower, and responded with nervous guffaws not unlike the grunting of the hog in the pen.     "Put her down girls, joke's over. Go back to your serving tables and leave the girl in peace." In all this, Elijah never once looked away from his study of the hungry pig. The twins set Charity down roughly and released her arms, which immediately began to tingle. Jenny looked defiantly at the stranger, and looked as if she was about to say something else, when Elijah silently turned his gray eyes on her. A dowsing of icy water could not have chilled her heart any more than what she read in those ancient eyes. Her mouth snapped shut with an audible click, and she turned and flounced away, a little more quickly than she intended. The twins scuttled after her, whispered questions hissing through the air at her. Charity turned to Elijah to say thanks, and found him turned back to the hog, one hand scratching the sandpaper skin behind its ears. Charity wanted to voice her gratitude, but was not really sure how to begin. To try to explain the hatred that the local girls felt towards her since her arrival six months ago was beyond her. From the moment she had walked into the schoolhouse there had been a constant stream of abuse, insults, and outright persecution. Never in her seventeen years had she endured such abuse from anyone, and her parents seemed to be oblivious to her suffering. Indeed, their social and political aspirations in this town seemed to further numb them to the miserable existence of their only daughter. Charity stood there in the gathering darkness, listening to the sound of the band playing another song while the caller called another square dance. She was torn between her need to express her gratitude and the disquiet she felt at being alone with such a man. Much to her surprise, she found that instead of being afraid or embarrassed, she felt much more comfortable than she had since leaving Boston so long ago. Something about this man made her feel safe, and gave her an assurance that the universe was not nearly as small as this back country town made it feel. Finally, it was Elijah who broke the silence.     "So you going back to the party? Or do you prefer the company of an old man and a dumb animal?" Charity thought she detected the slightest hint of humor in the question, and was not in the least offended by the implications.     "To tell the truth sir, I believe I would indeed rather spend the rest of the evening with this hog than anyone in the front yard right now." She paused before completing her thoughts, then plowed ahead recklessly, surprising herself with her forwardness.     "And for some reason I feel more at ease with you than anyone else in this horrible place," she paused to ponder the meaning of her next words, "including my parents." She finished softly, somewhat horrified at what she had just confessed. Elijah grunted softly and turned to look at her.     "Not entirely surprised. This place is about the most primitive civilization I have ever experienced. You do seem a bit out of place. Probably what inspires the predatory instincts of that other girl." His voice was contemplative, yet kind. Charity was not sure she understood exactly what he was trying to say, but was beginning to really believe that she did not indeed care. Elijah flicked the glowing butt of his cigarette into the trough at the feet of the hog, who immediately dived his face into the water to retrieve it.     "Well, I was just fixing to head back into town. Care to walk with me?" he asked, his face impassive. Charity was inwardly shocked at the very idea. What would her mother think of her walking alone in the dark with a man like this? What would the townspeople say about a girl that spent time with an unrelated man of such questionable background? Although she knew the exact answer, she suddenly made up her mind that she didn't give a damn. In fact, she hoped to create some scandal and embarrassment for her parents. It would serve them right for being so selfish and uncaring she decided.     "I would be honored if you would escort me home sir," she answered brightly, feeling a rush of warmth in her chest that exhilarated and thrilled her. "And to hell with this filthy little town!" she exclaimed, her cheeks burning with surprise at her daring use of such a word. Elijah considered her briefly, then tipped his head back and laughed out loud. The sound cascaded over Charity like a warm spring rain, causing tingles of pleasure she had never imagined could exist. He held out his arm, and she stepped forward to take it, her eyes fastened firmly on his, the one dead eye causing not fear, or disgust but an exciting sense of admiration. So many stories to hear about the wide world, things that this man had seen and things that he had experienced. Charity realized suddenly that she could spend forever gazing into the crystal ball of that one living and one dead eye to read their secrets and plumb the depths of their experience. As they strolled off, away from the house and the party, Charity had a momentary premonition that this was the last time she would see this place, and the thought inspired no terror in her heart at all.                   San Francisco.txt         Charity woke to the screaming of the prostitute in the next apartment. Terrified that she was witnessing yet another murder, she snapped awake and fumbled for the derringer pistol under her pillow. It was then that she realized that the screams were not of terror or pain, but of anger. Apparently her customer had refused to pay, and their financial dispute was being carried on at the top of their lungs all down the hallway. Collapsing back on the bed, Charity tried to regain the thread of the dream she had been having when she was awoken. She had been back in Boston, before her parents got the foolish notion that their fortune was to be found on the frontier. The dissonance between that vision and the reality of her current situation was wrenching and painful. As were the cramps that had started late last night. Worse than any others she had experienced during her pregnancy, they had subsided enough in the early morning to allow her to drift off into the fitful sleep from which she had just been so rudely awakened. Now they were back, and with a worse than ever. Surrendering to reality, she decided that the attempt to return to sleep would be innefectual and she struggled to sit up again. It was then that she noticed that the bedsheets between her legs were soaking wet. Gasping in shock, she tried to roll out of the bed, but her body was suddenly racked with another set of cramps that bent her double in pain. After a few seconds, the pain subsided and she was able to wriggle herself to the edge of the filthy mattress where she collapsed quivering to the floor. After gathering her strength for a few seconds, she attempted to pull herself to her feet. As soon as she was upright, the cramps shot through her again and she let out an involuntary scream of pain as she doubled over and collapsed to the floor again. As she lay there on the floor someone began pounding on the door.     "Hey Sweety, is everything all right in there? What is going on?" a familiar voice called from the hallway. It was Rose, the working girl who had been arguing a few minutes ago in the hallway. She had been the one and only person who seemed to take an interest in the young pregnant girl who had showed up a little less than a year ago. Despite being a hardened veteran of her trade, she took pity on the girl and Charity had come to depend on her for advice and help in this confusing world so different from anything she had ever known. Charity tried to answer, but her teeth were clenched tight as another bout of cramps racked her body. Another scream was ripped from her lungs as the pain crescendoed to a peak and finally subsided. The pounding at the door stopped momentarily, and then Charity heard a key turning in the lock. She lay her head down on the cold wooden floor and gasped for breath. Terrified now that something horrible was happening to her or her unborn child, she felt a tear run down her cheek to the dusty floor. The door swung open, and Rose ran in, her face a mask of concern and fear. Charity tried to sit up to meet her, but darkness overtook her.         The doctor was a typical frontier doctor. He had as much experience birthing horses and cows as human patients, and his bedside manner was the same in both situations. All business, no empathy or kindness he was ultimately efficient and competent, but expended no energy worrying about the mental state of his patients. Fortunately for Charity, Rose was there to provide at least a little bit of companionship throughout the labor and delivery. Also fortunate for Charity, the labor went quickly, and a healthy boy was born only a couple of hours later. In his usual, efficient but enemotional way, the doctor presented Charity with a bill for services rendered and demanded that she promptly complete the proper documents for a certificate of birth as she was drifting off to sleep with her newborn son clasped to her chest. Having no energy to plead her indigent circumstances, or even to comprehend his instructions she simply nodded and lay the sheaf of papers on the table next to the bed and went to sleep. The doctor looked at her disapprovingly, then picking p the papers turned and left.         Elijah was sitting in his favorite chair at his favorite card table at his favority saloon. His favorite mark was there also, doing his best to simultaneously win back the money he had lost the night before and drown his brain in the cheap whiskey that the bartender made sure his glass stayed full of. Elijah was fascinated with the tenacity this man had demonstrated over the past week. After noticing that his skill at cards declined sharply once the drinking started, Elijah had assured the bartender that he would pay for anything the man drank and to ensure that the bottom of his glass never showed. Accordingly, the man had achieved a new level of drunkeness and was mere minutes away from slipping into a coma. Nevertheless, he continued to place his bets and play his cards. His current hand held nothing more promising than a single ace, but his drunken mind had seized upon this single card as the key to winning back all of his money. Unfortunately for Elijah, he passed out face down on the table in the middle of committing the deed to his farm to the pot and was unable to complete the bet. Elijah pushed back from the table and lit a fresh cigarette while the other players carried him out of the bar and dumped him unceremoniously on the sidewalk outside and reset the table for the next game.     The doctor sidestepped the snoring body on the sidewalk and pushed through the batwing doors into the smoky saloon. He was unaccustomed to such an environment, and he coughed uncomfortably several times before squinting around the bar looking for the man he sought. Finally he spotted him at the table in the corner, where the next hand was just now being dealt. He walked over briskly, and ignoring the glares of the other men at the table, plonked two sheets of paper down on the table in front of Elijah.     "Congratulations sir, you are a father. You owe me twenty dollars for services rendered, and I need your signature on this certificate of live birth. Your...uh... wife was unable to properly complete the required forms."     Elijah considered the doctor carefully for a few seconds, his cold eyes probing the doctor's nervous face.     "Is she dead?" he asked unemotionally. The doctor's eyes widened momentarily, then he realized that he had phrased his announcement poorly.     "No sir, she is fine as is the boy. They are both sleeping. I tried to present her with the paperwork, but she fell asleep while I was trying to explain it." the doctor was beginning to sweat. Unused to the saloon atmosphere, and unnerved by Elijah's unblinking stare, he was beginning to wonder if this particular delivery really needed such meticulous attention to details such as payment and documentation.     "How much?" Elijah said, reaching towards a stack of coins and banknotes in front of him. He picked up a handful and handed them nonchalantly to the doctor. "Will that cover it?" he asked. The doctor quickly counted the money in his hand and nodded gratefully.     "And all I need now is a name for the boy." the doctor said nervously, hoping he hadn't gone one step too far.     "Didn't the girl name him?" Elijah asked, annoyance creeping into his even voice. The doctor detected the annoyance and felt panic rising in his throat. There was something about this man who terrified him more than he knew how to describe.     "Uh... no she... like I said... she was..." he stammered, wishing he had the courage to just turn around and leave. But the power of those eyes held him fast, and he stood there sweating in the smoky air waiting for death or mercy. His heart stopped beating when a sudden smile flashed across Elijah's face.     "His name is Sue." he said, and turned back to his cards. The doctor stood there, not really sure if he was being made fun or what. His mouth opened and shut several times as he made several false starts at attempts to ask for clarification. After a few very painful seconds, Elijah looked back up at him, and asked in an annoyed tone of voice, "What are you doing here still? Don't you have something to amputate somewhere?" The doctor finally managed to choke out his question, "Sue? did you say Sue?" Elijah's smile flashed across his face again. "Yep, I said Sue. The boy's name is Sue. Do you know how to spell that?" The doctor nodded frantically and scrabbling for the sheaf of papers on the table, nearly sprinted for the door. Elijah watched him leave, then returned to the card game as if nothing had happened.     "Gentlemen, the game is five card stud. Who is in?"                   Sue Leaves Home.txt         "Kid, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?" the bartender's pinched face was skeptical as he sneered at Sue. Sue assumed an air of cool nonchalance and began gathering up the money he had placed on the bar.     "I guess if my money ain't no good in here I can always take it down the street to the Bonanza. They never worry about if I am a schoolboy or not." The bartender pondered this for a second, then laid his hand on top of Sue's.     "Aww forget about it kid. A bottle of whiskey it is. But you better not be lying to me. I'll have you thrown..." Sue interrupted. "Shut up old man, and get me that bottle or I'm leavin'" The bartender quickly gathered up the coins and bills and dropping them in the cash box grabbed a bottle and a smeared glass and slapped them on the bar in front of Sue.     "Better go sit back in the corner kid, the sheriff sometimes pokes his head in here to check on things. I would hate to have a 'valued customer' harassed by John Law." the bartender sneered as Sue turned away with his purchase, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Sue was not about to take a challenge like that unanswered, and immediately sat down at the table nearest the door,, ensuring that he was facing directly out the doors.     "Let John Law come, I really could care less. Maybe you should spend more time washing your glasses and less time harassing the paying customers." Sue shot back, popping the cork on the bottle and pouring his glass full of the amber liquid. He then pulled out the fixins he had lifted along with the money from an unsuspecting drifter earlier in the day and lit up a cigarette before lifting his glass to the bartender and tipping the glass to his lips. The whiskey burned its way down his throat and into his gut and the satisfying numbness began almost immediately. Sue was angry; angry at his mother, the schoolteacher who had expelled him this morning, at the world at large. Most of all, Sue was angry at that mysterious person who his mother refused to discuss. The tall stranger who was the source of his greatest misery. The man who had given him his awful name. All his life he had been fighting those who found humor in it, even up until that very morning. The boys at school had found a girl's bonnet and a tattered pink shawl somewhere, and when he arrived at school this morning, he had found them hanging over the back of his chair. Not knowing exactly who to attack in retribution, he had simply thrown them on the floor and sat down at his desk. A few minutes later, Bill Perry had come in and sat down at his seat in front of Sue. Turning slightly, he addressed a friend of his across the room.     "Looks like that pretty girl Sue dropped her things on the floor again. Think I ought to pick them up for him?" his friend guffawed in response, and Sue felt his face turn red as the familiar anger rose again in his throat. Bill turned and looked directly at Sue and sneered: "Din't your momma teach you to pick your things up off the floor little girl" he leaned closer and added the final insult "If you wasn't so ugly, I would pick them up for yeh." and began braying horsey laughter at his own cleverness. Sue didn't even stand up, his right fist shot out and smashed right into the boy's nose like lightning, followed very quickly by the other one which landed right over his eye. As the boy reeled from the sudden attack Sue leapt over his desk fully intending to land on his chest and stomp the life out of him. He was intercepted by two other boys who had been waiting for exactly this to happen. One grabbead each arm, and propelled him back to the wall of the schoolhouse where they pinned him there. Snarling with anger he flailed with his feet trying to land a boot anywhere on his tormentors but they had planned well and held his arms tight and kept their bodies too close to get a good angle with a kick. One boy made the mistake of getting his head too close, and Sue lashed out with a wicked head butt that blackened one eye. To his credit the boy hung on to the arm, perhaps more in fear of what would happen if he let go than anything else, nevertheless Sue followed up on the head butt by grabbing the boys ear with his teet and doing his level best to seperate it from his head.     A sound like a gunshot rang through the classroom, and all four boys froze. The teacher was standing at the end of the row of desks holding a bullwhip. His arm was poised for another strike but seeing that he had their attention he stopped.     "All right boys. You know the deal. Let him go and take you usual places at the back of the room." The two boys immediately dropped Sue's arms, but the fight was still raging through his body, and we was not about to let it go that easily. As soon as his arms were free he punched outwards simultaneously with both arms, connecting with each boy just below their ears. With nearly identical grunts they both dropped unconscious to the floor and Sue charged Bill, who was just getting up from where he had been laid out on the floor. He managed to get in a kick to the groin and two quick punches to Bill's head before the bullwhip cracked and Sue's shirt ripped open on his back just below the collar. He turned to see the teacher coiling the whip for another strike, and the anger boiling through his system turned on him. Grabbing a textbook off of the desk he hurled it at the teacher whose swing with the whip was interrupted. Charging across the classroom Sue was determined to strangle the teacher with the whip. However, the teacher, hardened by years of breaking up fights between Sue and nearly every other boy in town (and some of the girls) was prepared for this eventuality. Dropping the whip he reached inside his coat and pulled out a revolver and pointed it at the enraged boy. Sue skidded to a halt just inches from the end of the gaping barrel, and stood there panting. The teacher said nothing, simply stood there unflinching waiting for Sue to make his move. After a few seconds, Sue decided that he had been outmaneuvered, and he stepped back. The teacher, relieved at this apparent victory lowered the pistol.     "Young man, while I understand that life has not been fair to you, I can no longer tolerate your temper in my classroom. It is simply much too dangerous to the other students to have you in our school. You are hereby expelled. Never come back to this school." He stood before Sue, the pistol lowered but his finger remained tense on the trigger nonetheless. Sue smiled unexpectedly, and shot back at the teacher defiantly "If I'd a known that all I had to do to get kicked out of school was to take after you I would have licked you long ago." The teacher, nonplussed answered calmly "Well I am glad to be of some assistance to you in this regard. I wish you well, and I hope that some day you will overcome this anger at the world before it destroys you." He sincerely felt for this poor fatherless boy, but despite years of efforts to help him overcome his temper he still flew into a violent rage at the slightest provocation. As a child, his rages had been more self destructive than anything else, but now that he was a young man his rages were more likely to endanger the other children in class. He had heard the other boys whispering and giggling about their planned prank yesterday, and so had come to class prepared today.         Sue was about halfway through the bottle of whiskey when Mama Lisa and her girls came in. Residents of the local house of ill repute, they were on the prowl for customers and they quickly fanned out through the bar. One perky redhead fixed her interest on the scowling young man drinking intently near the doors.     "Hey there, care to buy a girl a drink?" she flounced down on a chair and latched on to one of Sue's arms. He looked sideways at her, his impaired brain working out a response. He decided to be surly, and instead of responding, slid his glass in front of her and sloshed some whiskey in it. Undeterred by the unfriendly response, she giggled, a high pitched laugh that rippled throughout the bar.     "What kind of a girl do you think I am? I don't drink whiskey, at least not this early!" She snuggled up against him, and spoke quietly in his ear. "How about a nice glass of wine? Wine always makes me feel friendly..." she left the implication hanging there in the air, hoping this young boy was not already too far gone to catch her meaning.     "Don't seem as though you need much help in that area." Sue snapped, reaching across and recovering his glass. He tipped it back and drained it in a gulp and did his level best to ignore her. She decided to take another tack.     "I don't remember seeing you around here before, what's your name?" she trilled at him, one hand twirling his hair idly. Sue started at this question, and quickly checked to see if she was trying to make a joke. Apparently deciding she wasn't, he answered with the same surly tone.     "I don't have a name." The girl's eyebrows raised in curiosity, and she decided to pursue this line of questioning further.     "Aww come on cowboy. Everybody has a name. What does your Mama call you?" now more interested in this apparent mystery than in her pseudo romance she had pulled back slightly and was looking intently into Sue's face. However at the mention of his mother, Sue's face darkened even further, and he decided he had had enough of this game.     "Never mind my mama. I think you need to find someone else to harass." he snapped and scooping up his glass and bottle disentangled himself and moved away to another table. The girl, being a professional could tell when a man was not interested in what she was selling, and instead of wasting her time trying to change his mind she moved on to more fertile pastures. Two miners just off shift at the local gold mine were competing for the attentions of another of Mama Lisa's girls at a nearby table and she determined to help them resolve the conflict by offering herself as a consolation to the loser. One of the miners was immediately more than happy to abandon the battle and turned to the redhead.     "Decided you want a real man tonight instead of a boy?" The miner laughed, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and pulling her close against him.     "He didn't really seem to be in the mood for company tonight." she shrugged. Then added "and he wasn't too sure what his name was. Poor little guy..." she giggled and snuggled up closer to the miner. The other man at the table laughed out loud and said in a voice purposely loud enough to carry to the other table.     "I know why he's so shy about his name. I would be too if I had his name..." and then leaning towards Sue's table to ensure that he caught the next few words, "...or should I say 'her' name?" he guffawed at his clever humor, and the two girls, well trained by Mama Lisa tittered out of habit although they didn't really get the joke.     Sue, on the other hand knew exactly what the man was getting at, and felt that familiar rage rising in his chest, felt his face and neck turning red.     "I hear tell his daddy was a big man, but when he was born he couldn't stand that his little boy was such a girly little thing, so he named him Sue and then left town before he had to face the shame of having thrown such a disappointing little whelp." the miner was on a roll now, and the girls were still giggling uncertainly, although they had begun to sense that this conversation was quickly passing from harmless fun into something dangerous and ugly.     "Aww, forget about him. How about that drink you were going to buy us? Let me go get a bottle of wine for us all to share." the redhead tried vainly to redirect the conversation, adding her trademark lamely "wine always makes me feel friendly, if you know what I mean..." she pushed herself up against the miner, hoping that her advances would distract him from his apparent aim of picking a fight.     "Besides, he's just a kid. I don't care what his name is. Let's go back to my place and have that wine." Her attempts were futile. The miner had seen the reaction his words had caused in Sue, and had decided that it would be good fun to release some energy by pounding on this apparently soused teenager for a little while.     "Yea, its a good thing you didn't take him back to your place Sally, you might have been embarrassed when he asked to try on some of your frilly things. I hear she likes that kind of..." the miner's insult was interrupted by a whiskey bottle at high velocity that impacted his head directly between his eyes. It shattered and splattered all four occupants of the table with shattered glass and whiskey. The girls screamed and instinctively deserted the table and made a beeline for the doorway. This wasn't the first bar brawl they had encountered, and they knew that once drunk men started swinging, it was no place for a lady, even if she was a working lady.     To his credit, the miner took the whiskey bottle to the head rather well. He was of course stunned, and the alcohol and blood dripping into his eyes stiung and blinded him but nonetheless, he had the presence of mind to grab the edge of the table and fling it up in front of him as he rolled out of his chair onto the floor. This unthinking reaction served to save him from Sue's follow up attack as the chair he had been sitting on impacted the table where the miner had been split seconds before. The miner scrabbled at his face trying to regain his vision while rolling away from the table and trying to get to his feet. For a split second he remembered the rest of the story that had been related to him about this kid named Sue, the part that warned that he was a powder keg when provoked. But more pressing matters than reccolections of ignored warnings were at hand. He had regained his feet just in time to meet Sue's flailing attack. Fists windmilling and feet kicking wildly he waded in to the miner to exact vengeance for the earlier insults. However in his blind anger, he forgot the miner's companion who had rolled to the side and recovered much more quickly. As Sue flailed at his partner, he picked up a chair and swung it at Sue's back. Fortunately for Sue, the swing was badly aimed and timed and he had bent to aim an uppercut as the chair struck. Still, it knocked Sue off his feet and the miner quickly followed his surprise attack with an attempt to plant both of his hobnailed boots in the middle of Sue's chest. Sue rolled out from under his attack and lashed up and scored a hit on the man's groin with one foot. He groaned and hunched over, giving Sue an open attack on his face, which he took immediate advantage of, windmilling both feet in a lashing attack on the man's face. One kick landed squarely on his jaw and broke the bone with a soft crunch. He collapsed uncouscious to the floor. Sue struggled to his feet, only to be met immediately with a flying tackle by the first miner. He was driven to the plank floor and his breath was knocked from his lungs. Feeling his advantage, the miner's hands found Sue's throat and he quickly got a grip and began squeezing. Sue panicked, feeling consciousness quickly slipping away and his hands scrabbled at the iron grip of the miner while his feet tried to inflict damage where they could. The miner had too much of an advantage however, and black spots began appearing in his vision and his flailings weakened until blackness overtook him.         As Sue’s body went limp, the miner dropped him to the floor and stood up, looking around nervously.     ‘You all saw that he attacked me first right? I was just defending myself. He was trying to…” seeing that his protestations of innocence were failing to change the hard stares of the crowd, he began backing towards the door. His companion on the floor moaned and tried to roll over, but apparently, the fear of what he had just done was stronger than any loyalty he might have felt. Continuing to edge towards the door, he was suddenly brought up short by the cold steel of a pistol barrel in the middle of his back.     “Going somewhere Tom?” the sherriff’s cold voice demanded. Tom’s arms raised slowly and he shook his head.     “Sheriff, this kid attacked me, I had to do something to protect myself. I think he killed Kenny over there.” He indicated his fallen partner. The sheriff shoved Tom forwards, back towards the center of the circle that had formed around their brawl. Pointing at one of the working girls nearby, he barked an order.     “Hey, you there. Is the kid dead?” the woman knelt gingerly next to Sue and felt his chest.     “No, he is breathing. Pretty softly though. I can’t tell if…” she was interrupted by a moan that escaped Sue’s blue lips. “Yeah, I think he’ll be OK Sheriff.”     “You are pretty lucky Tom. No hangin’ tonight for murder at least.” The sheriff nudged Tom forward some more, and then indicating his partner on the floor.     “Pick him up, you guys come with me. You,” he said pointing to another burly miner nearby “bring the kid. I think he needs to spend some quality time back at my office with these two knuckleheads.” Then, more to himself than anyone else, he muttered: “I been warning that kid for years that his temper would get him killed someday. I guess this wasn’t the day.” Then, indicating the woman kneeling next to Sue “Go fetch Doc Williams. These three need some looking after.”         The Sheriff followed Tom carrying his friend, and the other miner carrying Sue out the door and down the street to the Sheriff’s office. Inside, he opened up both cells and directed Tom to lay the unconscious Kenny on one bunk, and locked the door behind them both. Sue was carried into the other cell and laid on the bunk there. After locking the door behind him as well, the Sheriff holstered his gun and walked behind his desk where he fell back into his chair with a deep sigh. Tom was standing at the door of his cell, watching these proceedings and finally worked up the courage to speak.     “Hey Sheriff, this kid attacked me and Kenny. We was just…” the Sheriff interrupted with a wave of his had. “You needn’t tell me anything about it. I can guess. You probably said something about his name, didn’t you?” Tom was unsure how to answer, and just stood there with his mouth gaping open.]\     “I been saving this kid from scraps with folks bigger than him since he learned how to walk. His Pa off and left him with that stupid name, and his Ma fell into a bottle and was never able to properly raise him. He is little more than a wild animal himself, although half the town has done what they could to tame him. Schoolteacher had to pull iron on him this morning to keep him from doing the same thing he done to you and your friend. You should just consider yourself lucky that he is still a kid and not full grown yet.” Tom took all this in, and asked: “So if you know he is such a hothead, how come I am in here? Don’t that mean that you believe that I was acting in self defense? I mean, he ain’t dead or nothin’…” the Sheriff interrupted again.     “Sure he ain’t dead, but that ain’t for lack of tryin’ on your part! And you knew just what you was doing in making fun of his name. Even if you dint know the whole story, you was mean enough to make fun of im. Serve you right to spend a day or two in the hoosegow and lose your wages to teach you a lesson about keeping your mouth shut.” The Sheriff fished out a half-smoke cigar from his desk, and lighting it up, propped his feet up on his desk and took a satisfying drag. Just then, the doctor arrived.     “Hey Doc, got a couple of knuckleheads here tried to tackle your favorite wildcat tonight. Wanna check ‘em out and make sure there ain’t no permanent damage?” The Sheriff grinned at the old doctor. Doc Hansen’s eyes traveled over Tom’s cut and bloody face, his companion now snoring loudly in the bunk and then to the spare cell where Sue slept quietly. When his eyes recognized the boy, his face took on a sour scowl as if he had smelled something unpleasant.     “Tell the truth Sheriff, I could care less if that kid is hurt. I want nothing to do with him. I’ll check out your other prisoners, but let the kid bleed to death for all I care.” He turned and spat on the floor, as if to rid himself of a bad taste. Turning to the other cell, he addressed Tom.     “Don’t you know better than to leave wild critters alone? You wouldn’t go poking a stick at a badger would you? How many times do folks have to provoke this kid before he gits hisself or someone else kilt?” he scolded the miner like a schoolboy. Nevertheless, as he scolded he walked over to the cell and placing his bag on the floor, began examining the gash on the miner’s forehead. The Sheriff walked over and opened the cell door, with a look at Tom that let him know that there was no need to try anything stupid while the door was unsecured. Doc Hansen took a few minutes to clean the wounds, and pressing a wad of rags against the cut wrapped a strip of cloth around his head to hold it in place.     “Whiskey bottle eh?” he said as he moved his bag over by the bunk where Kenny slept. “Sheriff, you gonna say something to that nast Slim about servin’ alcohol to kids again? Especially that one?” the doctor asked over his shoulder as he brought out some smelling salts. The Sheriff laughed out loud as Doc waved them under Kenny’s nose.     “Slim would go out of business if I told him he couldn’t serve whiskey to youngsters, and they would just lie about their age anyway. I just round ‘em up after they get out of hand and make sure they don’t hurt nobody.”     Kenny snorted and then sat up, shaking his head. The action made the broken bones in his jaw grate, and he screamed in pain and recoiled from the Doctor.     “Calm down young man! I can’t patch you up with you hollerin like a little girl. Hold still so I can see how bad it is.” He scolded again, reaching a hand out to restrain his confused patient. Drawing his face close, he poked at the swollen cheek, until he elicited another scream of pain from his hapless patient.     “Yep, broke pretty bad. I will have to set it, but I can’t do it proper here. Sheriff, can I take this ‘un back to my office to take care of him?” the doctor asked, already packing up his bag to go.     “Sure Doc, just as soon as you are done seeing to that kid. Tom here like to have strangled him. I need you to make sure that Tom spends time for attempted murder instead of hanging when that kid dies.” The sheriff was firm, and the doctor knew better than to argue with that tone. Grumbling his dislike of Sue nonetheless, he moved over to the other cell and got his smelling salts out again. Waving them beneath Sue’s nose, he was concerned when it took a few seconds for his eyelids to begin fluttering. A few seconds later, Sue shook his head and tried to sit up. The doctor pushed him back to the bunk, and for a second, fire flashed in his eyes at the resistance. The doctors already grim face hardened even further, and he scolded Sue as he had the miner a few minutes ago.     “Why is it that your first instinct is always to fight boy? You want to beat me up I will just leave you here and be damned with yeh!” Sue finally recognized the old doctor, and relaxed against the thin mattress. His mouth formed some words, but nothing more than faint squeaks came out. Sue grimaced in pain and reached a hand towards his throat.     “Yep, you are gonna find that your throat is gonna be pretty sore for a day or two. Considering those bruises on yore neck it’s a surprise that youre here to feel it at all.” The doctor looked into Sue’s eyes and felt his pulse while watching an antique silver pocket watch.     “You’ll live kid. Unfortunately. Maybe next time you pick a fight with a couple of roughnecks they’ll do the job right and I won’t have to patch you up anymore.” The doctor snarled at Sue, his distaste quite obvious. The sheriff laughed out loud at this, leaning against the doorpost of the cell.     “Sue, I know that life has handed you a few bad strokes of luck, but if you could turn that energy you have towards something productive, you might make something of yourself.”     The doctor had packed up his bag and was walking briskly towards the door.     “Have the other miner come see me in my office. I’ll have the surgery ready when he gets there.” And he was gone out the door. The Sheriff stood where he was, watching Sue explore his tender throat with his hands. Shaking his head, he turned around and locking the cell door again, went back to his desk to finish his cigar.         Sue awoke the next morning with a screaming headache and a throat that felt as if it was full of prickly pears. Sitting up, he reached for a tin cup and water pitcher that was set on the table next to the bed. Pouring a cup of the warm water, he sipped it carefully, relishing the feel of it on his damaged throat. After emptying the cup a time or two, he looked around. The Sherrif's office was empty, including the adjacent cell where the miners had been. The sunlight streaming in through the windows told him that he had slept in rather late, and he wondered briefly if his mother was worried about him. Shrugging his shoulders he decided he didn't care; and in fact was pretty sure that she would not have even noticed his absence yet. She probably spent last night the same way she always did: drunk and gloomy, whining about how life was before she met that horrible man who drug her away from her perfect life. Laying back on the bunk, he stared at the ceiling and pondered the events of the previous day. The Doc and the Sheriff were probably right, If he kept up the way he had been doing, he would be dead before long. On the one hand, the idea of death was not altogether unpleasant. His life to this point had been less than wonderful, and he had no expectations of it becoming so any time soon. On the other hand, he had the nagging suspicion that this universe was much bigger than it seemed from his point of view here in this cruddy town. Then he thought of the dream he had had since the first time he realized how horribly he had been named. The dream of confronting that stranger with the scarred face and evil eyes that stared out at him from the old yellow tintype his mother had shown him. The dream of pounding that face with his fists until those eyes closed, and he finally felt some semblance of the pain he had caused his son to feel by giving him that awful name.         Snapping his eyes open, he realized that he had drifted off for a second there, and that his heart beat had quickened in response to his fantasy. He sat up and was surprised to see a brown dog sitting at the open door of his cell, wagging its tail amiably and tilting its head at him as if to ask what was                   The Sheriff Tells a Story.txt         The next morning, Sue was awakened by an enthusiastic and overly slobbery tongue licking his face. Pushing away the friendly dog, Sue sat up and squinted in the bright daylight streaming in through the windows of the Sherriff's office.     "Payton, back off buddy, I am awake." Sue grumbled, but his voice only set the dog off on another round of joyous welcome and he jumped up on the bunk and planted himself squarely in the middle of Sue's chest and resumed his moist oblations. Only when the boy finally sat up did the dog cease its licking, and instead sat in the middle of the cell looking up at Sue in anticipation.     "What do you want stupid dog?" Sue grumbled again, reaching out a hand to scratch the soft brown ears. The obvious pleasure the dog derived from this simple action brought a small smile to Sue's lips. However the throbbing in his head and the prickly pear forest growing in his throat and mouth prevented him from feeling completely at peace with the world.         That and thoughts of the previous night's events. Anger rose in him again as he thought of the miner's sneering laugh at his name. That awful name! How many times had he had to bust somebody's head when they laughed at it? How many times had he been ridiculed, put down, made fun of for no other reason than some stranger he had never met thought it would be funny to give him a girl's name? Someday he would find that man, and he would make him pay. He would make him pay. He would make him apologise, just before he died for the life of misery that he had bequeathed on his son. Not just the name, but the life without a father, a life that began in a tenement apartment, that began with a prostitute for a nanny and a mother lost in the hopeless fantasy that his father would return any day. A life spent drifting from one town to another with his mother in a quest for the tall stranger who had bewitched her, fathered her child, and then disappeared. Finally to end up in this squallid mining town where his mother finally abandoned her hopes, and surrendered to the bottle as her only source of solace. The respectable folks in town did what they could to help, ensuring that her son attended school and had food to eat. But they could do nothing about the temper and proclivity for violence that the boy developed. Neither could they do anything to keep the mother from pining away and finally dying of consumption. Thereafter, the boy was taken in by the Sherriff, who seemed to be the only person able to control his terrible rages. However, as the boy grew into a young man, the rages became more and more dangerous, and the consequences of the violence more and more serious. To top it off, Sue had recently discovered the numbing effects of alcohol and was set to begin down the same path his mother had traveled.         Not that Sue was aware of the precipitous position he was in. All he knew was that he was miserable, that he had always been miserable, and that the apparent cause of his misery was that dark stranger that was only referred to in whispers when folks thought he couldn't hear.         Standing up, the boy walked out of the cell where he had spent the night, and across the room to where a battered tin cup hung on a hook next to a wooden bucket full of water. The water was warm, and tasted slightly of the dust of a small town but felt like heaven trickling down his tortured throat. Payton sat at his feet watching hopefully, and after Sue had slaked his thirst, he tipped a cupful into a dish on the floor beneath the bucket. While the dog drank, Sue wandered back across the room to where the Sherriff's desk sat empty. Going directly to the cabinet on the wall behind it, he tried the door. Naturally, the liquor cabinet was locked. Sue cursed the Sherriff under his breath and he turned around to the desk to find the key, or something with which to pick the lock.     "Bit early for a drink don't you think kid?" The Sherriff's voice made Sue jump, and he jumped back away from the desk. The surprise made his head pound, and he winced in pain.     "I was... umm well you see... I uhh..." Sue stammered.     "Don't bother making up a lie kid, I saw what you were up to, I been standing here for a little while." The Sherriff came through the doorway and into the office. He was carrying a guitar case and an oddly shaped bottle made of blue glass. Sue backed away from the desk, edging towards the doorway.     "Have a seat kid. You and me need to have a talk." The Sherriff indicated a wooden bench against the wall near his desk. Sue considered his chances of escaping for a second, then shrugging he assumed an air of nonchalance and sat on the bench.     "Guess its time for another lecture about the dangers of drinking and fighting eh?" he snapped defiantly at the Sherriff.     "Not really." The sherriff answered. "I am going to tell you a thing or two about your daddy." Setting the guitar case and the bottle on his desk, he sat down and produced a cigar. He took his time cutting the end and locating a match to light it, all the while ignoring the shocked look on the boy's face. When he was finally satisfied with the cigar, he put his boots up on the desk and finally turned his attention to the boy.     "What do you know about your daddy boy? What have the townspeople told you?" he laughed ironically "or should I say what have they tried NOT to tell you?" Sue stared blankly at the sherriff, unsure of what to think about this line of questioning.     "All I know is that he is a yellow dog that couldn't face his responsibilities and run off instead." Sue snapped bitterly.     "Did you know that he lived here for a time? Before he disappeared I mean?" the sherriff asked, his eyes showing amusement. Sue nodded, his lips pursed in surpressed anger.     "I reckon that's why my momma brought us here. She was follering him around trying to find him again and make him take care of us. Had she spent half the energy just doing it herself that she spent hunting him life might have been halfway decent." He answered bitterly.     "You got that just about right." The sheriff agreed. "But give her a little slack, she was a spoilt little girl with a broken heart. She had no better idear how to raise a son than you would right now. She was clinging to the one thing in her life that she thought had been good and wonderful and when she finally found out that it was gone forever she lost her will to live." Sue's attention was grabbed by this last sentence, he had never before heard any discussion of why his mother's quest had ended.     "Do you mean he died here?" Sue asked with mixed emotions. He couldn't decide whether he was happier that the boogeyman of his childhood was possibly dead, or disappointed that he would never get the chance to face him.     "Nah, he didn't die. What he did was even stranger, and before I tell you, you gotta promise to think carefully about your next course of action before your rush off." The sheriff's good humor was gone, and he was staring intently at the boy's face, trying to read the play of emotions that he saw there. Sue's heart leapt as he realized that the sheriff had information that could lead to him finding his father and fulfilling his lifelong dream of revenge.     "Yeah, I promise. Where is he? How do I get there?" Sue was leaning forward, his face animated with excitement. The sheriff, seeing this shook his head sadly.     "Son, you just promised me you would ponder careful, yet you already making plans before I told you anything. In my book, that ain't pondering careful. Calm down and listen to what I am trying to tell you." He watched the expression on the boy's face change from hopefulness and excitement to anger in the blink of an eye.     "Are you gonna tell me where he is or not? What do you care about what I do about it? It ain't none of your concern what I do anyway. I am a grown man now, and I will go where I want to go and do what I want..." the sheriff's dusty boots hit the floor as he suddenly switched from easygoing and friendly to stern and forceful.     "Kid you ain't nearly as growed up as you think, and you don't know nearly as much about this world as you think. What I am about to tell you is going to change your perception of the entire universe, and if you don't get that temper under control you are going to find yourself in a place where getting beat up by a couple of half drunk miners is paradise compared with the punishment you can receive." Crushing the cigar out on the ashtray on his desk, the sheriff pointed a finger at Sue and in a level, quiet voice warned him again,     "Are you going to promise me to think carefully about what I am telling you, and ponder on it for a time before you do something? Or am I just gonna send you up to the state pen and let you rot for the rest of your miserable existence?" his tone softened slightly, and he continued,     "This is your chance to break free from the chains which are holding you down. But you gotta go into it with a clear head. Can you think clearly without getting pissed off for one time in your life?" the sheriff seemed to be almost pleading now, a note of worry creeping into his voice. Sue was suddenly frightened. The sheriff was a hard man, and not easily scared. He had seen him face down more than one belligerent drunk or hotheaded criminal without the slightest sign of fear. Violence was a part of his life, and in his line of work, death was never more than a single misstep away. Nevertheless, Sue saw that the sheriff was worried about something, and the realization snapped him out of his anger. He stared at the sheriff for a few seconds, pondering this new development, then replied in a quiet voice.     "Sure, I promise. I will think carefully on anything you say to me." The sheriff seemed relieved at this, and leaning back in his chair, he put his feet up on the desk again.     "It was just over ten years ago when your pa showed up in town, and even though he said less than anyone else I ever met, he made quite a stir. Folks didn't quite know how to take him. Men were instantly afraid of him, and women were instantly infatuated with him. He seemed to be nothing more than the usual drifting gambler on the outside, but when he met your eyes with his, you got the impression that he was something more. Something ancient and dangerous, something out of a nightmare. He would sit down there in Slim's saloon dealing stud poker and drinking all hours of the day. Naturally I was curious about him, but I didn't dare confront him. I questioned a lot of folks about him, but nobody seemed to know where he come from or where he was headed. Nobody complained about him sharkin cards or anything, it didn't seem like he won or lost more than anyone else, but he never ran out of money. Slim was the only guy that claimed to have more than a passing conversation with him, outside of a poker game anyway. He said the guy told him that it would be worth his while to let him know immediately if a young lady and her boy came into town looking for him." The sheriff paused to re light his cigar, and Sue fidgeted impatiently for him to continue.     "So that was my pa? The tall stranger that scared everyone?" Sue felt an odd feeling growing in his breast. He was not sure at first, but it felt like a small flicker of pride. No sooner had he realized this than he remembered all of the misery and pain this man had brought to his life, and the feeling was quickly extinguished.     "Yep, that was yer pa. But I ain't told you the oddest part just yet. After watching him around town for a while, I decided that I didn't really like him much, and wanted to know more. I tried to ask him some questions directly, but he either parried them or ignored me altogether. I'll tell ya son, there ain't many men on this earth that has ever made me feel as small as that pa of yours. Problem is, he never threatened, never said anything that implied he wanted to do me harm, it was just those evil eyes boring into your soul that made you feel like a kid got caught with his hand in the cookie jar." The sheriff paused here, his eyes staring off into space as he recalled the cold chill that stole across his heart when that man turned his ponderous gray head towards him in response to his questioning. Sue cleared his throat, and the sheriff returned to the present.     "Anyway, I decided I wasn't about to find anything out that way, so I started tailing him. I think most times he knew I was there, no matter how slick I was trying to be. But every once in a while I think he forgot about me or missed me. It was one of those times that I saw something that made me doubt my sanity." The sheriff's voice trailed off and his eyes wandered off to some unseen place just over the kid's shoulder again. Sue felt a chill go down his spine as he saw this hard old man who he had thought knew no fear suddenly go pale with remembered fear. He wanted to break the old man's reverie, but didn't dare; lest by some chance he be brought to feel that same fear. After a few seconds, the sheriff shook his head again, and crushing his cigar out once again, turned to the locked liquor cabinet and fetched out two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a glass and downed it immediately, before refilling it and pouring a couple of swallows for Sue.     "A fellow sometimes needs some reinforcement before he goes into something that terrifies him." The sheriff told Sue cryptically as he handed him the glass. "Drink up, we are getting now to the part I have avoided telling you all these years." Sue did as he was told, instantly regretting it as the warm burn he was expecting down his throat was replaced by a stinging ache as the alcohol slid over the injured tissue. Nevertheless, the warmth hit his stomach as expected, and he set the glass on the desk and looked the sheriff in the eyes and nodded for him to continue.     "You have a bit of your father in your eyes son, the way you looked at me just now. Not the crazy mad kid that I have raised for all these years, I figger that comes from your ma. But the cold hardness of a man who has faced his fears and found himself stronger for it. You got that in you, you know?" Sue was not so sure he did, but not wanting to contradict the sheriff now, simply nodded.     "Alright, enough beating around the bush. I was following your pa one night just before you and your ma drifted into town, he had left the saloon early and headed for the hills. I think I was able to catch him unawares because I didn't follow him directly. I watched which direction he rode and made a guess as to where he would end up in the pine bluffs just north of town. He was taking the trail, which goes all the way around the bluff, so I just cut across and went straight up and over, cutting the distance in half. Even so it was a close thing. Had I come upon that clearing thirty seconds later, I would have just ran into a scary old man in the darkening evening." The sheriff took off his hat and rubbed his bald skull with a handkerchief. Sue was surprised to see beads of sweat forming all over the man's head. Once again he was impressed with the great weight of dread this man inspired in people.     "I rode over the top of that bluff and down into a wooded valley just off the trail. I tied my horse to a tree and set off on foot towards the trail, hoping that I would be able to see him as he passed so I could get an idea where he was headed. But then I saw a flash of light off to my left, and..." here, words seemed to fail him. He appeared to struggle with himself for a moment, then continued in a shaky voice, as if he disbelieved the words coming from his own mouth.     "Kid, I tell ya', that light was not like any light you have ever seen. It wasn't from a campfire, or a candle, or a lamp. I even traveled to the city once and saw some guy light one of them new 'lectric lights, and it was nothing like this. This was a cold white light that seemed to come from the sky, like a star was leaking light down on just this one spot. And in the spot where this light hit the ground stood your pa." He shook his head, but continued nonetheless, his eyes boring into Sue's with an intensity that excited and alarmed him in equal measure.     "He was standing in that light, and talking to someone, just like I am talking to you right now. Then he reached out his hand and made a little gesture, and the light was gone. I was so dumbstruck by what I had just seen that I must of made some kind of a noise, and his head snapped around and found me hiding in the brush at the edge of the clearing. At first, he looked mad, and I figgered that my time on this earth had reached its logical conclusion. I thought of reaching for my gun, but my arms wouldn't move. After a second, he smiled, that grim humorless smile of his, and waved me over to him. Just like I couldn't draw my gun, I couldn't resist his invitation. I walked over there, and he laughed, and held out his hand as if to shake it. I was still too scared to move, so I didn't shake his hand. Then he spoke to me." The sheriff shook his head, and a nervous laugh escaped him. "Just like we were old pals and I hadn't seen him just talking to a strange light from the stars. Asked me how my family was doing. What do you think of that?" Sue shook his head, not quite sure what to think. The sheriff continued: "I couldn't really answer any of his questions, just sat there like a fool with my mouth hanging open, and then, out of nowhere he asked me if I ever met an alien before. I wasn't even sure what that word meant, and I told him so. He laughed again, and asked me if I had ever met anyone from another planet. I was still pretty perplexed, so he pointed to the sky, and said 'from the stars, up there; you ever meet someone from the stars before?' Well, to tell the truth, I still had no idea what he was talking about, and I guess he could tell that by looking at me. He laughed again at my confusion, and then he reached out and clapped his hand on my shoulder. 'Sherriff, I think you may be the first man I have met on this planet who has had the guts to even try to figure out who or what I was, let alone follow me off into the darkness. I want to tell you a few things, and it is important that you try to remember them word for word, since you ain't gonna understand most of what I gotta say. Pretty soon I am gonna disappear. Shortly after that, a lady and her boy are gonna show up in town looking for me. When they do, I want you to make sure that they stay in this town. When that boy becomes a man, he is going to be a lot different from his peers, and he will need a little nudge in the right direction. I need you to give him that nudge. Bring him to this spot, and give him this guitar. If he is the person I think he will be, the rest will come natural to him. Can you remember all of that?' he asked me, and I stood there with my mouth gaping open until he laughed again, and slapped me on the back. 'I knew you could. I guess there is no reason for me to stick around here. You remember what I told you and make sure that boy gets here when he is ready. Don't bring him too soon, or too late. I think you are the kind of man that understands what I am trying to say. Have a good evening!' he smiled friendly-like at me, and then walked back to the center of the clearing. He pulled something small and silvery out of his pocket, and poked at it with his finger a few times. Then the light came back, shining right out of the sky just like before. He turned around, tipped his hat at me, and then dissapeared." sue stared at the Sheriff, trying to guess the meaning of his words. Was he putting him on? Of all the folks in town, only the Sheriff had never ridiculed him for his station in life, for his name, or for the strange things he did or said. Was he finally joining them in creating some hugely extravagant joke to ridicule him? Yet watching the play of emotion across this hard frontier lawman's face he didn't think so. This was a hard man, one of the hardest he had ever known, and yet he was scared to the core at the memeories he had just spilled. Not scared for his life, not scared for his soul, but scared like a person who just realizes how small they are in the grand scheme of things. The way a man will feel who has been raised in a city when he is first confronted with the wide openness of the prairies, or a towering rock tower in the desert. The feeling a man gets looking down from a great height. It is not fear of death, it is fear of the unknown, fear that forces exist in this universe much greater and more powerful than anything our pitiful intellect can imagine. As Sue pondered this, another thought entered his mind. While the fear in the eyes of this man he had known for so long was strange and discomfitting, none of the things he had told him in themselves caused him any fear at all. Quite the opposite in fact, as he pondered the thought of people who came from the stars, or who called down starlight from the night sky and then disappeared into it, he felt a twinge of familiarity, as of a forgotten dream suddenly remembered. Excitement rose in him as he realized that this crappy town, and the hundreds like it that he had wandered through with his mother were as small and insignificant as he had always thought them to be. Suddenly the universe had promise, and the future held hope. Suddenly he was on his feet. "Let's go! Take me there now!" The sheriff nodded, as if this was exactly what he had expected. Tossing back the rest of the whiskey in his glass, he pushed back from the desk and stood up. "Alright son, let's go and see what it is your pa left for you."             It took most of the day to get ready to go. Sue suspected the Sherriff was deliberately taking his time but he knew better than to push the old man. The excitement inside him was tangible and flavored everything he saw and heard that day. It seemed that the sun had come up for the first time in his life, and he was seeing the world for the beautiful place that it really was. He also noticed that oddly enough, every man he met treated him deferentially, even those who had once persecuted him. Not sure what had changed, he liked it anyway.         By the time they made it out to the far side of the bluff, the sun was setting behind the distant mountains. The Sherriff guided them through the trees, til they came to a small clearing. Here, they dismounted and walked over to the center of the clearing. The Sherriff stood there for a few moments, just looking around and then turning to Sue and pointing at the ground.     "This is where he was. I remember it just like yesterday. I don't know if it has to be in the same place or not, but it feels like it should be." Sue nodded in agreement. The sheriff took a few steps to where a boulder thrust up from the ground and sat down on it. He laid the battered guitar case across his knees and with a nervous sigh opened it up. Sue greedily scanned the contents of the case, but all that he saw was a battered guitar.     "That's it? The miraculous artifact my dear old dad left for me is a guitar?" he snapped bitterly. The sheriff looked up at him with that look that told him it was time to shut up and listen, so he did.     "Son, I understand you are anxious, but you got just a bit more listening to do before you get the final picture." He pulled the guitar out and laid the case on the ground next to him. Holding the guitar across his body, he grasped the neck and positioned his fingers over the strings, as if about to begin a song. nodding towards the cleared circle on the ground, he told Sue.     "Step back just a bit kid. I don't think you want to be standing just there when I do this." Sue nervously took two steps to the right, well clear of the bare circle of earth. Nodding approval, the sheriff carefull placed the fingers of his right hand on the strings to form a C chord. Then, with his left he gently strummed the strings. At once a sound both harmonious and terrible emanated from the battered instrument. Sue felt his blood run cold, and yet as if called by some ancient instinct he felt a stirring of anticipation. Although the air had been deathly still, a small breeze blew through the clearing and swirled around the bare earth. A rushing sound was heard overhead, and Sue looked up in time to see a column of light descending from the sky until it came to rest on the bare patch of ground. Sue stared mesmerized as the light played across the earth, and he strained to see its source in the     sky. However, just as the sheriff had described, it seemed to come directly from the stars and rested on the ground.                   Save this text for later.txt         **This section needs to happen later in the story, when Sue confronts his father. It is too much information right now.**Although I really have a hard time feeling guilty for anything that happens to a race as primitive as yours, these two people represent the only thing I have done on this planet that I regret at all. In a moment of weakness, I allowed that lady to conceive my offspring. I guess to put it in your way of speaking, he is my son, and that was a pretty big mistake for me to make. Because of that, he is only halfway of this world. There will always be a part of him that is too big for this planet, and while he is still small and weak, your kind are always going to be irresistibly tempted to take advantage of that. Now if I stuck around to coddle and protec**End**                   Ace and The Tinker find Sue.txt         "Alright The Tinker, give me the juice!" Ace shouted from underneath the hovercar. The Tinker however, was staring off into space with that blank look he sometimes got when Ace swore that he was communicating with the mother ship. Ace waited a few seconds, and repeated his request. The Tinker never moved. Finally, mumbling curses and throwing tools out of the way, Ace scooted himself out from under the decrepit vehicle and stood up glaring at The Tinker.     "What are you waiting for? Spacer's Day Eve? I need you to turn the power on so I can see if this motivator is any good. If it isn't..." Ace finally noticed that The Tinker was not listening, but was instead staring intently off at a point just over the horizon. He squinted off into the distance but was not surprised that there was nothing to see.     "What is it? Are you getting another crazy idea in your head? Or do you just have gas?" Ace prodded him. The Tinker finally acknowledged his presence, and pointing his finger at the sky, remarked in a matter of fact voice: "Dimension traveler coming. Let's go get him." Ace stared at him for a few seconds, trying to tell if he was being put on. One never knew with The Tinker, since his communication skills bordered on nonexistent. He could ramble on forever about cheese, gravity generators, warp fields, or his socks without saying anything that remotely resembled a complete thought. But every once in a while, he could surprise you.     "OK, I will play your game. What in the universe is a dimension traveler and how can you tell one is coming here?" Ace asked skeptically. The Tinker shrugged his shoulders and answered nonchalantly.     "I saw the warpies gathering and by cheese I didn't call them!" his eyes wandered back to the horizon. "He's here now. He will be thirsty enough to drink cheese I think. We should go get him now." Ace shook his head. "The Tinker, I do not know how to tell you this, but this here hovercar is not going anywhere until we get a good motivator installed, and until Nochonis gets back from town with the new one, we got no transportation besides what grows at the end of our legs." Gesturing at the heat waves rising from the ground outside the open shelter, he continued, "And unless you want to get scorched, you ain't gonna want to go walking around out there right now." The Tinker nodded assent, and reaching down to the control panel flipped a switch. The anti grav hover pads whined briefly and then shut down with a snap. Ave grinned and shook his head.     "That's what I have been trying to tell you all morning. The motivator is fried, and I been swapping out spares all morning. That was the last one I had, and it sounds like it is bad too. We ain't going nowhere until we get a new one in, that's all." The Tinker looked into his face quizically for a moment, and then stood up and exited the vehicle. Wiggling his way beneath it, he started fiddling with things and asking Ace for tools. Ace was more than happy to stand back and watch, knowing that if anyone in the galaxy could resurrect a fried motivator, it was The Tinker.         Dismissed as feeble by his parents early on, he was abandoned to an orphanage. However, as he became a teenager it became easily apparent that although he had the social skills and common sense of a three year old, he had a knack for machines and technology that bordered on miraculous. His technological innovations had earned him both fame and infamy. As Ace's trusty sidekick, he had rebuilt an old mining tug into a space racer and together they had won The Great Sub-Light Space Race while at the same time defeating Nikk-Oll the Terrible, supreme leader of the Emmdean empire. On the other hand, one greedy scientist had stolen a device built by The Tinker to project an anti gravity field through warp tunnels. Not understanding how to operate it properly, the scientist had inadvertently formed a gravitational disturbance which destroyed the entire galaxy. Most people preferred to think of him as a menace, and he was more than happy to live a low profile life on the desert moon of Ruco-Su with Ace, his family and Nochonis, the owner of the spacecraft graveyard where they worked.         After a few seconds of handing tools to The Tinker, he wiggled out again and hopping in the passenger seat, gestured for Ace to get in the driver's spot.     "do not you want to check and make sure it works first?" Ace asked, knowing as he did the likely answer.     "Nope! Got the cheese back in the moty' socks. She'll motor for yeh!" The Tinker replied cheerfully, and sure enough, when Ace flipped the main switch the anti grav hover pads all hummed smoothly and the hover car lifted off the ground a few inches and sat there in the air waiting for further commands. Shaking his head with a grin, Ace shrugged his shoulders.     "One of these days I am going to learn to stop doubting you I guess." Throwing the directional controls into forwards, he steered the craft out of the shelter.     "Now where is this dimension traveler you keep talking about?"             Sue was still not used to the feeling of being disembodied and traveling as pure energy. Although the passage was almost instantaneous, its effects lingered for hours after arrival. He had more than once had to look closely at his hands to reassure himself that they had arrived intact, as it was common for the extremities to experience tingling and numbness after dimension traveling. And this hop seemed to have been even more unfortunate than most. In fact, he was not sure this miserable place was even inhabited. The heat boiled off the ground in waves, and in every direction, as far as he could see were the wrecked hulks of space ships. Some were visibly damaged, while others appeared to be undisturbed. But it was obvious that they had lain undisturbed for some time. Feeling slightly light headed, he sought some shade beside a nearby hulk. Unfortunately, it was near mid day on this forsaken rock, and the sun shone almost directly down and there was little shade to be found. Opening the guitar case, he replaced the dimension portal in its place and withdrew a flask of silver liquid. Sipping conservatively, he leaned back against the metal skin of the ship and pulled his hat low over his eyes. After a few minutes, he began to doze off as the usual weariness of dimension travel and the anesthetic effects of the drink began to take effect.         Ace and The Tinker meandered their way through the wrecks, moving towards some distant point that The Tinker had marked in his own curious mind and which Ace seriously hoped they would soon reach. Suddenly. as they rounded a particularly large wreck of an ancient garbage scow The Tinker suddenly jumped up and out of the moving hover car. Ace slammed the brakes on the hovercar and turned around just in time to see him hit the blazing sands and roll over and over until he fetched up against the hull of the old scow. Ace leaped out of the hover car and sprinted over to where The Tinker lay. By the time he got there, The Tinker had found his feet and was shuffling around the corner away from Ace. Ace followed, relieved to see that there was apparently no serious consequences of The Tinker's derring do but still a little concerned at the headlong way he was running across the sand. As he rounded the corner, he saw The Tinker had stopped a few meters away where a sliver of shade was cast by the smashed conn tower of the ship. It took him a few seconds to reconcile what he saw with what his brain told him was there.         As a child, Ace had spent many an idle day in front of the holovision watching various shows. One of his favorites had been called "Hopalong Cassidy, City Marshall". The show portrayed the life of a handsome, fearless lawman in an ancient frontier town. Although Ace was not sure if it was historical or simple legend, instead of hover cars and planetary shuttles and space ships all of the characters seemed to travel by sitting on the back of a large four legged creature. They were called "cowboys" and at least once per episode they found a reason to try killing each other using very primitive kinetic energy weapons.         The young man sitting on the ground leaning his back against the garbage scow looked exactly like the cowboys he had seen in the shows. He wore a battered wide brimmed hat which was pulled down low to cover his eyes. He wore a patched and worn shirt of what appeared to be organic fibers, and pants of a similar material. His boots were oddly pointed at the toes and were also appeared to be made of real leather. The Tinker stood there in front of him as if in awe, not saying anything, just looking at the prostrate form. Ace came up next to him, and stood there, waiting for The Tinker to say something. He was not surprised at all that The TInker had been right about there being a strange person appearing in the junk yard. The Tinker had some really strange abilities, and Ace was discovering new ones all the time.     "So, you gonna wake him up The Tinker? Or just stand here staring at him." Ace asked. The Tinker just stared, his mouth gaped open in a half smile. Ace decided it was up to him to do anything, so he stepped closer, and squatting down a few feet away, called to the sleeping traveler.     "Hey there! Wake up! You are going to fry sleeping out here." Sue twitched, then snapped awake, startled. His hand reached for his waist, and for a second, Ace had a sudden memory of the cowboys from the ancient west had carried their weapons around their waist.     "Whoa buddy! Relax, we are friendly here. No need to get antsy!" Ace said, tensing for a quick retreat. He needn't have worried, as Sue was reaching not for a gun, but for the bottle of silvery liquid.     "Wha... who are you? Where am I?" Sue stammered, his mind still fuzzy from sleep. "Why is it so hot?" he uncapped the bottle and took a quick drink, but immediately spat it out down the front of his shirt. Sitting in the sun it had been heated to a scalding temperature, and had burned his mouth. Spouting curses, he still re capped the bottle carefully, as if it was precious before scrambling to his feet.     "Do you have anything to drink? Anything cool I mean?" he appealed to Ace and The Tinker. Ace had anticipated this need, having been caught in the sun on Ruco-Su before. He handed the man an insulated container filled with water, which he downed in one long, grateful draught.     "C'mon kid, let's get you out of the sun. Name's Ace, this is by friend The Tinker. What's your name?" Ace extended his hand to the boy who looked at it briefly and then tenatively he took it and answered.     "How do you do? My name is Sue." His face winced as he said it, and he watched Ace and The Tinker's faces intently as he guaged their reaction to his hated name. Naturally, Ace had met plenty of lifeforms in his time with much more unusual names than this, and was nonplussed.     "Alright Sue, nice to meet you. Let's get inside and then we can talk about how in the universe you got here!" Ace shook his hand warmly and then bent to pick up the battered guitar case.         "Where are you from?" Ace asked incredulously, staring at Sue with an obvious look of disbelief in his eyes. Sue smiled, and repeated what his answer.     "From the planet Earth. A little town near the Mexican border where I lived with..." Ace interrupted him. "That's impossible. The planet Earth was abandoned centuries ago when it was deemed uninhabitable after a global nuclear war. You can not be from Earth, unless you are thousands of years old!" Sue seemed unimpressed, and slightly amused by the pilot's consternation. He shrugged his shoulders, and took another swig of water from his glass.     "Still, that's where I am from. I do not really understand it myself, I have learned a whole lot in the last few years but I still have yet to figure out how it works. I just punch the buttons on the controller, the beam of light comes from the sky, and I kind of black out. When I wake up, I am standing on a new world." He pushed his glass across the table to The Tinker for a refill. "If you are having a hard time believing it, just think how hard it is for me to wrap my mind around it. When I left earth, electricity was something new that scientists were just starting to understand. Now you have electricity in everything, you generate it in the palm of your hand." Shrugging again, he continued. "I just want to find my father, and who I am."                   Sue makes a Hop.txt         As Sue's vision cleared he thought for a moment that the Sheriff had played a sick joke on him. For an instant he thought he was back in Slim's Saloon, back in the crummy town he hated so badly. The same stale smell of beer and tobacco smoke, tinny music coming from a badly tuned piano somewhere and the same dim atmosphere full of tortured souls looking to drown their sorrows in alcoholic numbness.     His first clue that he was no longer in Podunk Arizona was the bartender. His flat scaly face had no external nasal structure, only diagonal slits between almond shaped eyes and a mouth full of very filthy, but very sharp teeth.     He acknowledged Sue's appearance without any semblance of surprise, just continued wiping a filthy glass with a filthier rag and chewing on something brown and juicy. Looking around, Sue quickly discovered that he was just about the only person in the bar who looked like him. Creatures of all description and color populated the dingy tables and none of them seemed to be at all surprised when Sue popped into existence before their eyes. One or two glanced his way, then went back to their own business as if he had just walked in the door.     Sue tried to take a step towards the bar, but his legs were quivery and numb and refused to respond to his commands. He looked wildly about for somewhere to sit, fearing that he was about to collapse in front of all of these frightening creatures. There was a table nearby with several vacant chairs scattered around it and he changed his course for them instead. His legs finally responded sluggishly and he stumbled the short distance to the chairs where he collapsed into the rackety chair.     His mind whirled as he attempted to make some sense of what had just happened. He remembered stepping into the column of light, he remembered the feeling of being torn painlessly into millions of tiny pieces and then all was darkness and flashes of light for a single terrifying instant until he found himself standing here in this alien honky tonk.         "What'll it be sugar?" a silky voice surprised him from just over his shoulder, and he jerked around to find its source. What appeared to be a normal human woman stood there holding what appeared to be a board and a pencil. She was chewing on something and made a continual snapping sound as she stood there waiting for Sue's response. As his eyes met hers, they glimmered faintly with recognition.     "Hey, do I know you kid? You been through here before?" she asked, her voice tinged with excitement. Sue numbly shook his head, finding his throat was still too tight for speech. She looked closer and a bit of concern appeared on her face.     "You alright kid? You look a little bit sick. Did you have a bad trip?" Sue pondered her question for a moment, then managed to nod his head weakly. He opened his mouth a couple of times, trying to speak but each time he realized that he had no words to describe what had just happened. That, and his tounge was as numb and tingly as his legs. In fact his entire body seemed to be buzzing with strange insectile twitches as if his skin was filled with creeping bugs crawling around on the inside. The waitress nodded her head, and with authority pronounced: "I know just what you need. Set your stuff down and relax, I will be right back."     Sue realized that he was still clutching his small knapsack and the guitar case tightly in his hands, and after a second or two of battling with uncooperative hands he managed to set them on the table in front of him. The waitress returned with a tall round glass containing a viscous silvery liquid that made him slightly queasy just to look at. She set it down in front of him, and sat down.     "Drink up kid, it's a Golembian mash with a splash of Earth vodka thrown in for kick. It'll clear up those dimension jitters right away. That and knock you out for a few hours. You got a place to crash kid?" She peered intently at Sue's face, real concern evident there. Sue stared at the drink, his stomach turning flip flops as he pondered the prospect of downing the liquid that seemed to ooze and churn of its own accord. His mouth gaped open and shut a few more times as his befuddled brain made some more attempts at communication, and finally he managed in a strangled voice: "Where am I?" The waitress smiled, her even white teeth a relief to Sue after the bartenders vicious grinders.     "Why you're at Slim's Saloon kid! Where did you expect to be?" The revelation clashed with Sue's perception of reality, and he had to turn around and look at the bartender again to reassure himself that he was indeed in the strange place he had been a few minutes ago. The reptilian bartender was now involved in some sort of conversation with some sort of large furry creature carrying a silvery globe with wires protruding from it at irregular intervals. The waitress reached out a soft hand and gently turned Sue's face back to her, and in a quiet voice warned him.     "do not stare at Slogoth, he has a temper anyway, and his ship has a bad degenetizer so he is stranded here until the part arrives. It would not do to have him see you gawping at him." Sue nodded again, fear rising up in him. He had been in this place for at least ten minutes now, and his brain was no nearer comprehending what had happened than it had been when he took the guitar case and knapsack from the Sheriff in the clearing and stepped into the column of light. Perhaps he was dreaming, and would wake up soon. Perhaps he had died in the saloon that night when the miner choked the life out of him. Maybe this was Purgatory, and he had been consigned to eternal torment here in the land of lizard bartenders, furry sailors and beautiful waitresses bearing strange drinks.     "Hey, kid! Snap out of it! You're beginning to worry me. You act like you have never hopped before. To look at your face you'd think this was your first..." suddenly a light appeared to come on in her eyes, and her concern seemed to peak.     "Are you a first timer? Where is your coach? do not you know how dangerous it is to hop without proper training? A person could lose their mind that way. She looked away, off towards the place where Sue had been standing when he appeared, as if she expected to see someone else there.     "do not tell me you came all by yourself on your first hop. do not you know..." then realizing she was repeating herself, she stopped abruptly.     "Seriously, I should report you to the Sheriff! This is dangerous stuff kid! You can not just go around playing with stuff you do not understand! What if you had landed on an uninhabitable planet? Or even out in the middle of space? You would be dead now and would not even know it!" Her nervous scolding did nothing to help Sue feel better about his situation. In fact, he was getting more and more scared as she went on describing the effects of "hopping" into open space. He wasn't sure what she even meant by space, but it certainly didn't sound good.     "Give me one good reason not to turn you in right now. Why shouldn't I? What if..." Sue finally managed to think of a coherent thought, and although it was somewhat unrelated to her question he was so happy to have thought of something intelligent to say that he blurted it out nonetheless.     "I'm looking for my pa. He left me this guitar case and wanted me to come find him when I got big enough. Do you know where I can find him?" The waitress' eyes widened, and she seemed to see the guitar case on the table for the first time. Her mouth formed into a tight little 'O' and she sat back in her chair.     "And who, pray tell is this 'pa' of whom you speak?" she asked, although Sue had the feeling that she already thought that she knew the answer.     "I was told that his name is Elijah Graves ma'am. I have a tintype of him that my ma gave me. It's kind of blurry, but she assured me that its him." The name had no noticeable effect on the woman, she continued to eye Sue suspiciously.     "Elijah Graves? That was his name then? What exactly is a 'pa', and what system are you from?" she asked, the skepticism in her voice obvious.     "System? Umm.... I come here from Podunk Arizona, but I do not know anything about a system." Sue was feeling that confused feeling in his head again, he thought he was getting somewhere mentioning his pa, but that seemed to just sprout more stuff that he just plain didn't understand. The woman was getting even more skeptical as Sue went on vainly trying to explain himself. If she was going to just spout nonsense at him, then perhaps he would just spout some right back.     "See he left my ma just after I was born, and I never met him. Then ma died, and the sheriff raised me, and when I got in a fight with some miners he told me that my pa left me this guitar case and an empty bottle and wanted me to come find him. And I figure to find him too, and I am gonna look him in the face and say to him: "My name is Sue! How do you do? Now you gonna die!" and then I am gonna take him by the throat and squeeze and squeeze until he pays for every last time that someone made fun of my name, every last time that he wasn't there to be my pa, every last time my ma drunk herself to sleep cause he off and left her." The old familiar anger was beginning to replace the fear and confusion, and Sue welcomed it and the strength it brought with it. He leaned towards the woman and continued, his voice rising in volume and intensity as he continued.     "What is a pa? You ask me what a pa is? I'll tell you, a pa is supposed to be the guy that sticks around and helps raise the kids he makes. A pa is the guy that takes you fishing and teaches you to shoot and work and drink and live. A pa is there for you when folks make fun and treat you bad, and a pa fights with you when you got to fight. A pa gives a damn, and as far as that goes, a pa do not give his kid a horrible name and then disappear. So I guess he ain't a pa after all, since he ain't NEVER done none of those things for me. So I am going to hunt him down, and I am going to wring his old evil neck and I do not care what I have to do or where I have to go to do it I will find him and I will make him hurt the way my mama hurt, the way he made me hurt." The adrenaline pumping through his blood felt good, it gave him strength and drove away the crawling tingling sensation he had felt ever since appearing in this greasy bar.     "So you can sit there and you can babble on with your nonsense about hopping and systems and slogoths and degen a whatsits all you want, but all I want to know from you is are you gonna help me find this dirtbag and exact my revenge, or are you gonna get outta my way? Cause you can not have it both ways sister!" Feeling emboldened, he reached over to the table and picked up the glass. As his hand contacted the glass, the liquid inside swirled violently, as if in response to his agitated state. Before the waitress could react, Sue swept the glass to his mouth, and leaning his head back emptied it in a single gulp. The silvery liquid slid coolly through his mouth and down his throat, blazing an icy trail to his stomach. Slamming the glass back on the table, he stood up and picking up his knapsack and the guitar case, turned back to the waitress and opened his mouth to add one final, triumphant declaration, when blackness overtook him and he collapsed to the floor.         "Yeah, he has the guitar case, but he doesn't act much like a dimension hopper. Do you know anyone named Elijah Graves?"     The voices came to Sue through a thick fog. At first, he thought it was just the continuation of the strange dreams he had been having, until he realized that at last he could feel the soft mattress beneath his body and smell the feminine fragrance they radiated. He felt so relaxed and calm that he tried to ignore the voice and go back to sleep but whatever wonderful drug had induced this coma was wearing off and his body was ready to wake. His mind struggled to reccolect the events that had brought him here, but there was something big and ugly and confusing that his brain was currently refusing to consider. Feeling much to relaxed to worry about it much he simply turned to analyzing what his senses were currently experiencing. The first voice, a soft feminine voice was now being answered by a lower voice that sounded smooth and hard.     "And you brought him to your own flat? Not knowing who or what he is? That's not like you Emily. You are usually much more cautious. Did he say anything about how he came to have Goturu's dimkey?" Sue had the vague impression that they were discussing him, although much of what they said was just plain nonsense to him.     "No, he wasn't making much sense about anything. At first he acted completely baffled by everything around him, and then all of a sudden he goes off on a rant about something called 'pa' that seemed to get him pretty worked up. Then he snarfed the entire glass of mash without a breath, I though he would fade away into the nothingness completely." The female voice was tinged with worry at this point, and Sue felt his own emotions beginning to follow her. But the warmth and relaxation that he felt prevented him from dwelling on it too much.     "Well, if he wakes up he has some explaining to do. Goturu is not the kind of guy to just leave his stuff laying around, and whether this kid took it by stealth or by strength, the creature that can do that is not the one I want hanging out anywhere near me."     "Well, the mash should have him down for another few hours yet. I'l keep trying to reach Goturu in the meantime. Do you still have that electrolaser pistol?"     "Yeah, I will go get it for you now. Be careful with it, I still havent figure out how to adjust the wavelenght yet and I am not sure what this kids molecular density is. You would not want to decorate your place with his insides."     Sue was finally feeling mostly conscious, and he decided to have a go at sitting up. He found that it was much easier than he would have thought, although his head spun lazily as his brain tried to regain control of his various muscular systems. Finally feeling as if the ground was firmly under his feet once again he looked around the room. It was dimly lit, but from what he could see it was obvious that he was in a woman's bedroom. Although there were plenty of things he recognized such as clothes and shoes there were a great many things that were strange and alien looking. Some looked like mechanical devices of some sort, while others were beyond his comprehension to describe. The light in the room spilled in through the doorway, which oddly enough was round instead of rectangular. As he placed his feet against the floor in preparation for an attempt at standing, he noticed that a faint vibration could be felt. A low throbbing sound that he had up till now assumed was part of the drowsiness in his head seemed to be synchronized with the vibration and he realized that they must be emanating from the same source. Just as he was summoning the will to stand, he heard footsteps approaching the doorway. Relaxing, he maintained his sitting position and awaited whatever or whoever was coming. As the footsteps reached the doorway, they slowed and softened. A head stuck slowly through the round passage, as if trying to peek in at him unseen.     "Its all right. I am awake. Although I am having one heck of a time remembering where I am." Sue called out, trying to use a soft voice to avoid startling the person. The gasp of breath and hasty withdrawal of the head let him know that he had failed, and before the person could retreat, he called out again.     "No! do not go! I really need to figure out what is going on here. I have no idea..." as he spoke, suddenly memories began flooding his mind. Although they filled in some blanks, they were so full of mysteries themselves that they really created more confusion than they solved. The dark shape slowly reappeared, and the soft feminine voice answered him.     "How do you feel? You really shouldn't gulp down Golembian mash like that! It has to be sipped slowly, allowing time..." Sue interrupted.     "See? Stuff like that. I have to tell you that I have no idea what you are going on about. Can you please slow down and use small words?" The woman in the doorway was still for a few minutes, and then he saw her nod.     "Okay, no problem. Come out in the front room and I will let you tell me your story first. Then I will lecture you on your drinking habits."         Sue was seated at a small round table in what appeared to be the only other room in whatever it was that constituted the waitress Emily's quarters. She had brought him another glass of clear liquid to drink, and then had to convince him that it was just ordinary water and that it would have no effects on him other than the normal one of hydrating his body. Still, he sipped it slowly, waiting for any hint of sleepiness or grogginess to occur. She watched him with a mixed expression on her face, Sue could not decide if she was aprehensive or curious or both. She did keep glancing at another of the strange round doorways in the wall opposite the one leading to her bedroom, and he assumed that this was the door that lead outside, although it was closed right now.     "So, I am ready to listen to you and try to understand what you are confused about. Perhaps when I know more about you, I can tailor my words so that you can better understand them." Emily said with a smile, hoping to convey her utter harmlessness to him while concealing the nervousness she felt.     "Thanks, I do appreciate it ma'am." Sue responded.     "Oh, my name is not Ma'am, you can call me Emily."     "Uhh, I wasn't..." Sue started to explain, then shook his head realizing the futility. "Nice to meet you, my name is Sue." He watched her eyes as he said it, waiting for the usual flare of amusement that usually accompanied telling people his real name, but this woman seemed unfased by it.     "It is nice to meet you too Sue." She smiled, and he felt some of the genuine warmth that might be behind that smile in less uncertain times. He decided that he wanted to see more of that smile, wanted to know more about the woman behind it.     "Well, I am not really sure where to start telling you about me, since I seem to confuse you as much as you confuse me. So I will just start with yesterday, since that seems to be about the time my life got really confusing." Emily nodded encouragingly, and Sue began. He related all of the events that had happened beginning with the fight at school, continuing with the fight in the bar, and ending with stepping into the column of light in the clearing. He glossed over the reasons for the fight, and skipped many of the details of the Sheriff's fantastic story, figuring that he was already telling this poor girl too many things that were completely unbelievable.     "So basically, I found out that my pa left me this guitar so that I could follow after him someday, but he didn't explain much about where I would end up or how I was getting there. So I guess it was kind of stupid just jumping into that light not really knowing what would happen, but I really didn't care about anything but finding that snake so I jumped." He paused and emptied the glass of water, feeling brave enough to take the last couple of swallows all at once. Handing the glass to Emily for a refill, he continued.     "So I guess you think I am a bit insane, and ought to be locked up in the nut house right?" Emily didn't respond right away, just took the glass and stood up to refill it. When she returned, she set it in front of Sue and smiled that warm smile again that made something comfortable happen in his chest.     "No, although jumping into an open dimension tube without having any idea what it was even does definitely border on insane. What confuses me is where you say you are from. I have never heard of the planet Podunk or the system Arizona for that matter. It must be a pretty obscure place. Is it even part of the known universe? Or is it somewhere out on the frontier? Sue gaped at her for a second, then shook his head.     "No, Podunk is just the town. Arizona is the state. What do you mean by planet, and system?" he tried to keep the irritation out of his voice, knowing that the angrier he got the harder it would be to concentrate and the more nervous she would be around him.     "What do you mean what planet and system? You lived on a planet right? Hopefully it orbited around a star, unless you lived on a space station but you talk of forests and hills and night skies so of course that couldn't be the case. do not you know the name of the world you lived on?" Emily's mind was racing trying to penetrate this apparent display of ignorance. In her world, intergalactic travel was something that was as common as a horse and buggy was to Sue and her mind was having a devil of a time conceiving of what he was confused about. Sue thought on her question for a moment, sipping the water slowly.     "Do you mean Earth? I guess that is what the world is called. Although why would you ask me the name of my world unless..." sudden terror gripped Sue's chest as a possibility appeared in his consciousness that had never before existed. Was it possible that when his father and himself had stepped into the column of light they were somehow taken off of the earth? However, as his mind was wrestling with this new concept, Emily was also fighting her own battle with incredulity.     "Earth? In the Solaris system? What time were you there?" Her look of nervousness was back, and Sue wondered what she could possibly mean.     "I told you, it was in the evening time. The sun had just gone down when I..." Emily interrupted abruptly.     "No! Not what time of day was it, what TIME. What century? What year was it?" She was leaning forward, waiting intently for his response, and Sue felt a wave of apprehension sweep over him.     "Uhhh... it was 1876 I think, yeah it was after all of the centennial celebrations were over..." Emily rolled her eyes and gasped in exasperation.     "What do you mean 1876? Is that in galactic standard years, or are you reckoning by the old Arbitrarion calendar?" Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down.     "It is really important that you tell me what year you were on Solarian Earth. That is a very important dimension, and if you came from the correct when..." she let her voice trailing off and Sue got the feeling that she had just given him more information than she had intended to. Unfortunately for him, he was still far too ignorant to take advantage of it.     "I am sorry, I have no idea what any of those things mean that you are saying. All I know is that it was the year 1876, in the month of September. It may have been a Monday, but to tell the truth it is all a bit hazy right now." It was becoming clearer by the second that Emily suspected something, but did not dare to say it.     "Emily, I am just a small town kid who has never even been to the big city. All of a sudden you are talking to me about planets and systems and centuries and calendars and I am just getting a little bit frustrated again. Unless you have another glass of that silver stuff to knock me out you are going to have to start explaining some stuff to me so that I can talk to you in anything like an intelligent fashion." Sue was having a hard time restraining his temper, but the fear of losing his cool again gave him the traction he needed to hang on. Emily seemed to come to a decision, and releasing her breath in a long sigh, she finally voiced the thought on her mind.     "An... acquaintance of mine was on Earth for a while, and we are wondering if you were there in the same when as him." Sue shook his head. "I am not sure I get what you mean by 'the same when'." He shook his head. Emily sighed again, and explained.                       Sue becomes a Hopper.txt         Emily handed him a mettalic flask and his guitar case. Sue was still not quite sure he was happy about what he was doing, but the picture of his father's face was still burned into his memory and the hatred for that evil face drove him onward. The dimension gate was open, and its pearly white light pulsated and throbbed a few feet away. After a crash course in the basics of dimension hopping, he was off on his quest to find his father, and exact revenge. He looked back at Emily, and realized that he already missed her. Her companionship while he learned about the method his father used to travel across space and time had become pleasant, and he sincerely wished he had conviced her to follow him.     "Sure you do not want to come?" Sue grinned, hoping that she would say yes and yet making sure he could play it off as humor if she refused. Just as he expected, she smiled that beautiful smile that made his heart ache and shook her head.     "Nah, Slim won't be able to handle the place alone. He looks tough but he gets overwhelmed easily. Besides, being a passenger on a revenge trip is not exactly my cup of tea. Perhaps you should just stick around for a while..." she tilted her head coyly, but Sue responded just as firmly.     "Nope, after sixteen years, I have some idea where that horrible man is. No way I am wasting another day before I go after him." Emily shook her head. "I do not think it is going to be as easy as you think it will. That man is pure poison, and he has been around for longer than anyone really knows. I think if you ever do find him, it will be much more difficult to kill him than you think. Stay here, learn a bit more about hopping before you start bouncing through the cosmos with no apparent direction. We can find you a good coach who can show you how it should be done. I can show you..." she stopped before finishing the sentence, and Sue noticed the color appearing in her cheeks. For a moment, he wondered what her sudden speechlessness could mean, but before he could ponder much further, she stepped forward and kissed him on the lips.     "Well, if you are going to go you had better get going. Be safe, and come back this way if you can." Sue was shocked, both by the unexpected kiss and by the sudden emotion in her voice. Nevertheless, he decided that she was right and it was indeed time to go. Turning to the column of pulsating light, he stepped confidently into its warmth. He was instantly surrounded by the same bizaare colors as the first time, and he felt the same crawly, tingling sensation in his skin for the instant it took to step from the world of Slim's Innerspace Honky Tonk to the next.         When his eyes focused on the new world, he was not surprised to find himself in another dingy tavern. It seemed to be the kind of place that the dimension hopper tended to place folks. The inhabitants of this tavern, much like those of Slim's were also not surprised to see Sue materialize out of nowhere. He was, after all, standing in the spot in the back of the bar designated for the appearance and disappearance of the dimension hoppers who frequented the establishment. And after his last experience, Sue was not even too surprised to see a large baboon serving drinks at the bar. Doing his best to look nonchalant, despite the tingling and crawling in his skin, he approached the bar and sat down on a stool. The baboon approached, and Sue was finally surprised to hear a deep and cultured voice.     "What can I get for you, distinguished dimension traveler?" the baboon smiled in what Sue guessed was meant to be a friendly expression, but due to the overabundance of teeth in the primate's mouth was in fact somewhat menacing.     "Do you have some Gondorean Mash?" Sue managed to say without gasping or wheezing at the continuing crawly feeling of his skin. The baboon nodded solemnly.     "Naturally, most travelers desire the same after their hop. I assume you would like that with a splash of Earth vodka?" Sue nodded gratefully, then struggled to still his skaking hands while he surveyed the bar. Just as the last one, the varieties of life inhabiting the various tables was inumerable. Some almost looked human, while others were completely strange. The baboon returned with his drink, and placing it carefully on a doily in front of him, smiled his toothy smile again.     "That will be twenty three credits my good sir. Do you have an account I can debit, or are you carrying your credit with you today?" Sue took out the small card that Emily had given him, and handed it to the baboon. "Ahh, carrying credit. Naturally. Have you been traveling long sir?" The baboon took the card and swiped it through a slot on a box fastened to the wall behind the bar before handing it back to Sue. Sue picked up his drink and took a careful sip before answering.     "For a while. Still a relative beginner though I suppose." He didn't think it would do to let the bartender know that this was only his second hop, or that he had never had a coach or been given a hopping certification. The baboon seemed to be unconcerned, and was obviously just making small talk.     "Very good sir. My name is Narsai, and if I can be of any further service, please let me know. We do have decompression cells available for dimension hoppers at a very reasonable rate, just let me know when you are ready and I will have one made up for you." Narsai the baboon was already polishing away at the bar with a crisp white cloth as he finished the sentence, and had turned to walk away. Before he got too far, Sue called him back.     "Say, Narsai. Have you seen a man passing through here lately by the name of Egwenaulaur Goturu?" The baboon froze in mid step, and allowed fully twenty seconds to elapse before turning around. When he finally did, Sue reconsidered how he felt about the baboon's customer relations smile. It was in no way intimidating compared to the face the animal was now making. Narsai edged slowly towards Sue, his teeth bared in an angry snarl. When he spoke, he spoke with a growl in his voice, and without unclenching his teeth.     "How do you know this monster? Are you a friend of his?" Sue suddenly wished he had remained silent, the adrenaline rush of fear at the animal's sudden change of demeanor was amplifying the feeling of creeping crawling insects beneath his skin. He could feel his heartbeat pounding in his ears.     "No! I hate him, he is my sworn enemy! He has made my life a living hell, and I am seeking him to..." he realized he was starting to ramble, and stopped himself before the entire story spilled out of him then and there. Thankfully, at his insistence that he was not a friend of Goturu, the baboon relaxed slightly, although the hair on his back remained stiff his jaw relaxed, and at least some of the sharp teeth slipped back behind the lips.     "That name is not to be spoken in this establishment. He is an evil and horrible monster, and would not be welcome here." Narsai stepped close to Sue, and in a lower voice, filled with venom and menace continued. "And any associate of his will receive the same welcome. We want nothing to do with him, or his kind. You claim to be his adversary, but perhaps that is a lie to obtain our confidence. It would be wise of you to forget that name, and if you are truly his enemy, to simply forget your argument and go your way."     Narsai stared into Sue's eyes intently for a few moments, as if trying to read his true intentions there. Then, straightening himself, he stepped back.     "If what you say is true, then you are welcome here. But speak not again the name of that thing. Otherwise, I will forget myself and you may find that these teeth are not simply decoration." Turning away sharply, Narsai walked away, leaving Sue sweating and trembling. Taking a longer sip of the metallic liquid, he tried to calm his quivering nerves. What had he gotten himself into here? Was it really worth chasing this thing around the universe just for some silly idea of revenge? As he sat there pondering, he realized that the drink was beginning to take effect. He finished it and signaled to the now surly Narsai that he was read for a room. The baboon responded by tossing a small card much like the one he had used to pay for his drink down the bar at him without a word. Sue stared at it stupidly for a second, then the baboon pointed silently at a staircase at the back of the room. Sue collected his things and walked through the bar and up the stairs. At the top he found a long narrow corridor with small doors on either side. Each door had a number, and a slot about the size of the card he had been given. Sue walked down the hallway until he found the door with the same number as his card, and inserted the card. It took him a couple of tries to get it facing the right direction, but when he did there was a pleasant beep and the door swung inwards. He pushed it open, and entered the room. The drowsiness he felt was now nearly overpowering, and he had just enough time to push the door closed behind him and collapse on the thin mattress that was the rooms only furnishing before he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.         When Sue awoke a few hours later, he was terrified to find himself in some sort of metal closet, and for a moment panic gripped him as his drowsy mind tried to figure out where he was. After a moment, he remembered dimly staggering down the narrow corridor and finally getting the door open. His mouth was dry and his throat ached for a drop of water. He looked around the cramped cell and saw a stack of what appeared to be cups made of paper in a cylindrical container on the wall. Next to them was a square opening in the wall, with what appeared to be a drain at the bottom and some sort of a nozzle at the top. Hoping that this was what he thought it was he yanked one of the paper cups from the bottom of its container and held it expectantly under the nozzle. Nothing happened, and he spent several minutes holding the cup in different postures hoping for water before he noticed the lever at the back of the opening and pushing the cup against it he received a stream of ice cold water into the cup. Gulping it hungrily he refilled and emptied the cup several times before his thirst was slaked. As soon as he was able to feel anything but the aching thirst he realized that he also needed a bathroom in the worst way. The tiny cubicle he had slept in contained nothing but his gear, the narrow pallet and the water dispenser. Standing up, he smacked his head on the low ceiling and realized that the room was tiny in every dimension. He found a round protuberance on the door that when pushed caused the door to open, but then he began to wonder about his gear. Not wanting to leave it unsecured, yet not wanting to lug everything to the bathroom either he was torn with indecision. Finally, he drug the two bags out into the corridor, and then shut the door. There was no handle or button on the outside of the door, only the number and the slot for the card. He inserted the card, and was happy to see that the door opened once again for him. Stowing his stuff back inside he turned and hurried down the hall back towards the bar. He was unsure of how long he had slept, but the bar seemed quite a bit emptier than when he had been there earlier. He went directly to the bar where a slightly smaller baboon was now polishing the bar's perfectly clean surface, apparently for lack of anything else to do.     "Umm, excuse me, umm, sir?" Sue was quite unsure of how one addressed talking animals, and certainly didn't wish to give any offense. The baboon looked up and smiled the friendly smile full of teeth very similar to the one its larger counterpart had given earlier.     "How may I be of service to you Exalted Traveller?" The baboon bowed elaborately and Sue had the feeling that there was more than a little sarcasm in the ultra respectful response.     "Umm, where can I umm... I need to use the uhh... out house?" Sue was not at all sure what a privy would be called in this strange world, and sure enough he had chosen the wrong word.     "My most humble apologies Exalted Traveller. I am not familiar with that house. Are you completely certain that it is located in this dimension? After all, you travellers do get around and perhaps you are slightly confused about your current location. This is Terabo Six, in the Aserian sector. We are famed for our..." Sue cut him off, his condition limiting his patience for a description of the more famous parts of Terabo Six.     "I am sorry, I don't know what you call it here. I need the neccesary, uhh the privy. I need to heed the call of nature." Sue was beginning to feel very uncomfortable, and was very nearly certain that he was only seconds away from embarrasing himself even worse. The baboon still seemed to be confused, and shook his head.     "Unfortunately you will need to travel quite a ways to be free of the city if nature is what you wish to experience. Terabo Six has been highly industrialized for many centuries, and there is frankly not much nature left on this planet. Although there is a pleasant park not many kilometers from here, I could call you a cab..." Sue lost his patience and decided that offending the poor creature was preferable to making a puddle on his floor.     "No! I need to pee! To let my water out! Where does a guy empty his bladder around here!" Sue was nearly yelling now, and the small baboon looked decidedly hurt.     "Well, there is no need to be quite so angry, if you will forgive my saying so Exalted One. There is a restroom directly across the room from where you stand. All you had to do was..." But Sue didn't stick around to hear the rest of his complaint, he was already sprinting across the room. He instantly spotted the two doors and with only a moment's hesitation chose the one underneath the childish drawing of a round headed person without a dress on. The room had no door, only several turns at right angles to shield the occupants from public view. Once inside, Sue looked for the privy, but saw only a long narrow trough mounted just below waist height on one wall. The smell of the place let him know he had at last found what he was looking for, and he quickly relieved himself with a sigh of relief.         Back at the bar, Sue waved to the bartending baboon who hurried over with his customer service smile shining from ear to ear.     "Ahh, now that you have taken care of your more urgent needs, what refreshment may I procure for an Esteemed Traveller such as yourself?" Sue decided that although he was still somewhat leery of the many sharp teeth in evidence, that he kind of liked this baboon.     "Do you have a name?" he asked, making small talk. The baboon took half a step back and bowed graciously. "I am called Guiallume. I am a native of another dimension but my older sister and I have decided to make our homes here in the Aserian system. We rather like the people here, although it would be nice to see a tree once in a while." Sue raised an eyebrow. "Is your older sister Narsai?" he asked somewhat nervously. The baboon nodded proudly. "She is rather handsome isn't she? Did you meet her already?" Sue nodded. "She got a little upset with me I am afraid, seems she was offended at something that I said." Guiallume laughed, which was a rather frightening thing to see a baboon do. "Yes, she does have a temper!" Reaching one well groomed but hairy hand across the bar he patted Sue affectionately on the shoulder. "But worry not. She has forgiveness to match her temper. I am certain she will have forgotten all about it next time she sees you. Unless you are a Bureaucrat that is. She has sworn to never forgive them, and for good reason too!" Sue felt a cold shiver, as he remembered the Emily had called his father a Bureacrat. Apparently this explained more about the strange reaction he had received to the mention of his name last night.     "I am not too familiar with the Bureacrats. Why does everyone seem to hate them so badly? What did they do to your sister? If you don't mind my asking, that is." Guiallume's eyes narrowed, and he leaned across the bar and spoke in a low voice. "I must insist, Esteemed Traveller, that you keep such opinions to yourself. If you don't hate them, then you are not welcome in this establishment." Moving close enough that Sue could smell something minty on his breath, the baboon bared his teeth and asked in a conspiratorial whisper. "You do hate them, don't you?" Sue was unsure how to respond. If his father was indeed one of these horrible persons, then of course he hated them, and most likely as vehemently as these two animated animals. At the same time, he didn't want them probing too hard into his reason for hating them, since he was not sure that having one for a father would be reason to sympathize, or suspect dishonesty. On the other hand, perhaps these baboons were on the wrong side, and the Bureacrats were the good guys and he should be standing up for them instead of being a coward. Of course, with the razor sharp incisors just inches from his face he chose the better part of valor and decided to take the middle road.     "Honestly, how can I hate someone I have never heard of? If you will just fill me in on how horrible these people are, I might just decide to hate them as bad as you do. On the other hand, it seems kind of fishy to me that you would chase paying customers out of your bar simply because they had never heard of your most hated enemy and refused to denounce someone they had never heard of." He forced himself to look the baboon in the eyes, hoping that this would signal a lack of fear rather than a sign of aggression. The baboon stared back intently for a few moments, then sniffed loudly.     "I can smell the fear on you, yet you insist on that you cannot hate my enemies. That takes a bit of courage, in my book." Sitting back suddenly, the customer service smile returned as if it had never left. "Please forgive my sister and I for our suspicious natures. If you would like to order something to drink, I would be happy to serve it to you compliments of the house while I tell you the tale of the Bureacrats and why the very mention of their names in our establishment brings out the animal natures we hide so carefully in our everyday lives." Sue breathed a sigh of relief, and he relaxed visibly.     "OK, how about a cup of coffee. And thank you for your hospitality." Guillaume seemed pleased with this, and returned in a very short time with two large steaming cups of strong black coffee. Pulling up a chair, he leaned his elbows on the bar and began his tale.                   Sue Meets Elijah.txt         Sue had become accustomed to the constant hum of the anti grav engines, so when they were suddenly cut off he came to sudden wakefulness at the screaming silence. Sitting up carefully so as not to smack his head on the bulkhead above the bunk, he swung his legs to the floor and tried to stand up to go forward and see what was going on. No sooner had his feet hit the floor than the entire ship was rocked by a massive impact that hurled Sue violently to the floor. He heard The Tinker's maniacal laughter drifting back to the quarters from the main cabin and felt fear strike his heart. In the short time that he had known the strange person he had learned that this type of laughter never boded well. He seemed to have an inability to respond properly to fear or nervousness and would instead blare his donkey like laughter.         Sue scrambled to his feet and hurried up the narrow corridor to the front of the ship. The Tinker, as usual was belted in place near the dining area. Having had a near death experience in the past while flying unrestrained he rarely unbelted himself from that chair while The Piglet was underway. Sue now heard muttered curses coming from the cockpit area and felt relief that at least Ace was awake and on the case. He started in that direction when another shock hit the small ship. The inertial dampeners whined with effort as they tried to compensate for the massive wave of kinetic energy being absorbed by the shields, but the ship was batted sideways nonetheless and Sue once again found himself on the floor listening to the braying laughter of The Tinker.     "What is going on?" He screamed, much louder and more nervously than he had intended at the wide eyed The Tinker.     "Found your friends by cheese!" The Tinker yelled in response. "And they aren't very glad to see you!" Braying laughter The Tinker yanked at one of his seat belts to ensure it was still tight enough and pointed towards the cockpit.     "Acey probably needs your help. He can get pretty busy when folks start shootin at us!"     Sue was not sure what he could do to help, having only recently resolved the idea of outer space as a place where man could exist in his mind, but not liking the idea of dying much either he was anxious to do what he could. Scrambling again to his feet, he quickly stepped to the cockpit opening and stuck his head in. Ace was staring intently at a display in front of him while his hands flew over the dizzying array of controls before him. The main view screen that covered the entire front wall seemed to be on the fritz, displaying nothing but a flat gray color interspersed with occasional round dots.     "Can I help? What is happening?" Sue asked nervously, not sure that interrupting Ace was the right thing to do. His head snapped around suddenly and his eyes widened. Gesturing madly at the co pilots chair, he screamed wildly.     "Get in and belt yourself down before we get hit again and you go flying around the cabin." Sue nodded and obeyed instantly, fumbling with the buckles in his nervousness. Meanwhile, Ace continued his frantic manipulations of controls at a speed that baffled Sue's mind to try to follow. He glanced up at the main view screen again, and was terrified to realize that the screen was not malfunctioning, it was working perfectly. The flat gray color he had assumed was an error was in fact the broad surface of something so much larger than the small craft he was in that he got dizzy looking at it. It filled the entire view screen and was growing quickly, terrifyingly closer each second.     "Look out! We are going to hit!" He screamed involuntarily, throwing both hands up over his face, as if he could shield himself from the impact. Aside from an annoyed glance in his direction, Ace ignored him and stared intently at the smaller display to his left.     "We won't hit, but we have to get close. Then they will have to send interceptors out to get us because we will be too close to hit with the disruptor beams." Ace mumbled almost to himself, his concentration completely on the small display. Sue only vaguely got the idea that Ace was intentionally trying to get closer to the gigantic object and decided not to question him anymore. Instead, he sat back in the seat and tried not to imagine how fast they were getting closer to the gigantic thing. The details of its surface were becoming clearer now, the small round features appeared to be windows of some sort, and the sureface was far from smooth, in fact it looked like a tiny city with thousands of buildings of differing heights thrusting upwards to the sky. Ace suddenly loosed a string of cursewords and mumbled sideways at Sue, "Hang on kid, here we go again..." The crazy gray colored city suddenly spun crazily as Ace put The Piglet through some evasive maneuvers. Sue's eyes widened as he watched two clouds of smoke blossom from the gray city and twin streaks of fire racing towards them. As The Piglet spun and twirled in an effort to avoid them, the speeding objects also spun and twirled. Finally, Ace pulled the ship in line with their path and accelerated directly towards them.     "What are you..." Sue stammered, but Ace hissed him to silence with a string of curse words that Sue was grateful he did not understand. The twin objects were growing larger and larger now, and Ace sat still, his hand poised over a control before him. Suddenly, his hand punched down and the ship seemed to lurch upwards, whining with the effort. Simultaneously, light erupted from all around them, and a stream of plasma bolts arced off towards the incoming missiles. Sue groaned as the weight of inertia pressed on his chest making it hard to breath. Suddenly the view screen was obscured by blinding light until the compensators kicked in to filter the light. An instant later the small ship was rocked by another shock wave that made Sue grateful to be strapped into his seat. The Tinker's nervous laughter brayed from the crew cabin behind them as Ace fought to compensate his trajectory back towards the ship.     "They won't fall for that trick again. I have to get inside that damn disruptor beam or else we are through." Ace muttered, knowing that Sue had no clue what he was saying. The humungous object was once again centered in the view screen and was now so near that Sue could make out moving shapes through the transparent round windows on the deck. Still completely unsure about what was happening, but wanting to be helpful, Sue asked hesitantly,     "Is there anything I can do to help? Can't we shoot back or something?" Ace glanced briefly sideways at him, then returned his concentration to the screen to his side.     "Just be quiet. This is not as easy as it looks. I told The Tinker we should have replaced this old analog control bank for a virtual reality one, but no! Since he can't understand it he will not build it. I should just learn myself..." At that moment, the familiar hum of the anti grav engines leapt back to life. Ace pumped one arm in the air triumphantly.     "Yes! We made it! Now I can really drive this thing." Sue was very relieved to see Ace happy, although he still had a hard time understanding what was going on around him.     "So we are safe now? They can't shoot anymore?" Sue asked hesitantly. Ace shook his head.     "Nope, they can shoot even better than before and we have less reaction time. The difference is that now I have anti grav to maneuver with instead of just maneuvering jets. Their disruptor beam is what shut down the engines a minute ago. Now I can..." Ace broke off as a warning siren sounded in the cockpit.     "Alright you coxpits, we shall see what your missiles can do now..." Ace pulled on the control yoke violently and the entire universe seemed to spin as the giant object on the view screen suddenly flipped over and instead of being dead ahead was now beneath them. Ace kept the ship close, even flying below the tops of some of the taller towers of the city but never stopped moving. Streams of energy occasionally shot out from the city, some missing, some seeming to dissolve just before hitting the ship. No more missles pursued them however, apparently they were too close for that kind of attack as well. Ace was scanning the surface of the ship intently as he maneuvered around and through the various protuberances.     "What are you looking for?" Sue asked, although he was pretty sure he would not understand the answer.     "A hiding place." Ace answered briskly, "Like that one there..." he said, without pointing it out to Sue. He punched a few buttons on the console, then turned and yelled over his shoulder.     "Hey The Tinker! If you are not too paralyzed by fear to help, I could use a warpy tunnel in a few seconds." Sue heard The Tinker's braying laughter stop suddenly and his goofy nasaly voice answered.     "No problemo Acey. Give me numbers and I will make it for you." Ace grinned.     "Those Bureaucrats will never know what happened to us." He punched a few more buttons and yelled back again.     "The coords are on your screen. Let me know when to punch through." The Tinker grunted a response, and Sue felt incredulous that Ace would depend so much on such an obviously impaired individual. He was just working up the courage to question him when The Tinker shouted from the cabin,     "Alright Acey, by cheese! The warpys are ready for us. Punch through whenever you are ready!" Ace grinned wider and twisted the control yoke harshly to the right and back to his chest. Sue felt suddenly sick to his stomach as the city below him first rolled to one side and then dropped away with sickening speed. The view screen went completely black for an instant, and then the distant pinpricks of stars began to appear, reeling crazily as Ace pulled the ship around hard to find the entrance to the warp tunnel that The Tinker had created. The distant shape of a planet drifted across their view and then Sue saw a round, swirling vortex dead ahead that vaguely resembled his own dimension hopping portals. The Piglet accelerated towards the center of the swirling light, even as alarm sirens began sounding through the cockpit.     "Ahah!" Ace screamed. "Too late to send interceptors now! We are home free!" Slamming a lever forward, Sue felt the ship shudder as it accelerated and the inertial dampeners struggled to keep them from being crushed by the inertia.     "Make sure you slam the door behind us The Tinker!" Ace shouted over his shoulder, never taking his eyes off the navi computer. "We don't want them following us through!" The Tinker's laughter brayed again, this time genuine laughter, not masking any nervousness.     "No problem Acey. These are my warpies by cheese! They won't let anyone else through!" Ace grinned again and relaxed as the ship entered the pulsating whirlpool of light.     "Atta boy The Tinker!"     The light enveloped them and Ace suddenly slammed a lever all the way forward and twisted the control yoke simultaneously. The dampeners screamed in protest as he took the ship from escape speed to full stop in the space of an instant. Despite their valiant efforts, Sue felt his body snatched forward by the invisible power of inertia and his neck snapped forward like a rag doll. The dampeners caught up with the inertial wave in time to prevent his head from whipping back, but nevertheless Sue's neck was sore for days afterwards.     The ship skidded to a halt just past the end of the tunnel of light, which had been so brief that Sue's brain barely had time to grasp the fact of its shape or dimensions. The ship sat now in complete darkness, but Sue could sense that they were surrounded by massive objects that his eyes simply could not focus on in the gloom.     "Where are we?" he asked in a whisper, not sure if his voice could be heard by their pursuers but unable to speak in a normal voice nonetheless.     "About one hundred yards from where we were a second ago. I hope the fell for it or we might be in serious trouble here in a second. " Looking back over his shoulder, he yelled to The Tinker, "Get us an escape tunnel ready, just in case The Tinker. Just make it the reverse of what we just did, but don't power it on unless I say." In response The Tinker guffawed loudly and Sue wondered how much he really understood.     "Do you really trust that guy to do something as complex as creating warp tunnels?" Sue whispered quietly, nodding his head in the direction of The Tinker. Ace turned slowly towards Sue with an odd look on his face.     "I would trust The Tinker with the keys to the destruction of the universe if called upon to do so. That man has more sense than ten quantum physics scientists put together. Just because he has a hard time remembering how to tie his shoes in the morning has no bearing on his ability to read and understand the bahaviour or warp and gravity fields. He may not be able to explain it to you, but he can make magic happen when it comes to faster than light travel." Ace leaned in closer to Sue, the expression on his face now plainly insulted.     "And he is my friend. That alone means that you need to be careful how you talk about him to me." Ace stared into Sue's face for a few seconds, then went back to his instruments.     "looks like we lost 'em." He remarked cheerfully, as if nothing had happened. Sue felt relief that the tense moment had passed. Although he was still unsure of The Tinker's abilities, he had no wish to offend Ace.     "OK, so I know that we are only a few hundred meters from where we entered the tunnel, but where does that make us now?" Sue asked, hoping his voice did not betray his nervousness.     "We are sitting on the surface of the Bureacrat's ship. Inside the doorway of an airlock that I hope isn't used very often. It looks like an emergency hatch, so we shouldn't have much to worry about." Sue felt his hackles rise.     "So we opened a warp tunnel, traveled through it just to appear back on the surface of the ship we were running from?" Sue asked incredulously. Ace grinned. "You got it kid. Now, do you want to get on board that ship or not?" Ace laughed out loud at the look of confusion on Sue's face.     "You mean... He is on this ship?" Sue felt the fear and uncertainty flow away. He had not realized until now the reason why Ace had approached the gigantic ship. Being concerned only with actual survival, he had not even considered the reason why the ship had attacked, or why Ace didn't simply turn and fly away. Ace shrugged his shoulders.     "Could be. This is the flagship of his fleet of planet recyclers, the one he uses as a headquarters. Of course, as you well know he could be anywhere in the known universe, or anywhen for that matter." Sue felt the old anger rise in his gut, and he knew without a doubt that his father was indeed aboard the ship. He had no idea how he knew, but somehow he sensed that his journey was almost at an end.     "So how do we get inside? Do we make another warp tunnel?" Ace shook his head. "Not through their hull we don't. They would be sure to detect the warp energy and know immediately that they had been breached. You wouldn't be onboard five minutes before you were captured, and from what I have heard of these bureaucrats, they have a very efficient criminal trial and execution system. It takes about as long as it takes them to drag you to the nearest airlock and stuff you in it and then open the door." Sue's knowledge of space travel was still very rudimentary, but even he understood the ramifications of being shoved out an airlock into space.     "So what do we do? Sit here until they find us?" Sue asked, feeling anxious to be on his way to seeking the revenge he had lived for for so long.     "I think your dim hopper is the best bet we have for getting in undetected. All you have to do is configure it to put you on board in their dimension traveler decomp lounge and make your way from there." Sue felt his hopes falling.     "But I have no idea how to configure anything with that thing. I just make the thing appear and step into it. It somehow knows where I need to go and takes me there. I just..." he stopped as he saw the look on Ace;'s face.     "You mean to tell me you are just randomly hopping around the universe madly hoping to find this guy who happens to be one of the most feared and hated men in the known universe and you have no idea how you get from place to place?" Ace was starting to sound a little bit peeved.     "I mean, don't you realize that that thing could drop you in the middle of space, or a planet, or a star? Don't you realize how many different worlds there are out there?" Ace shook his head. "What kind of an idiot just starts hopping around space-time with no clue of where he is coming or going?"     Sue shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I just never thought of anything but finding him and making him pay." Sue said, feeling frustrated and angry. "And when you said you would help I thought you meant you would help, not just stand around and make fun of me. Just like everyone else, you think it is just fun to make fun of poor little Sue, the boy with a girl's name. Pick on him, never let him be happy. Never let him feel successful. Never give him a momen't rest. Just cause his dad went and left him and his mom drunk herself to death. I don't give a rip what you think mister space pilot. You just get me on that ship and you and your half wit friend can just head on back to that miserable junk yard you call home and feel better about yourself because you were the last ones to make fun of the boy named Sue." Sue was really feeling his temper now, and it felt good, after such a long time of uncertainty and fear facing all of these new and frightening things that he had never thought were possible. It felt good to get the old anger out and shake it up. He enjoyed the look on Ace's face as he unbuckled his seat belts and stood up, shaking a fist in his face.     "In fact, I don't even need your help. I can just bet that my dim hopper knows right where I need to be and will take me there without your help at all. So all I need from you now is to get the hell out of the way and watch me. I will take out that dirty bastard, and he will regret the day he gave me this awful name!" Sue had the mistaken impression that like many others in his life his anger was intimidating Ace, and that he would soon get what he wanted. On the contrary, Ace had faced down plenty of creatures much bigger and fiercer than a sixteen year old kid. Smiling, he stepped aside to allow Sue to stomp past him out of the cockpit. He followed him as far as the main cabin where The Tinker sat still belted in his chair and watched him storm down the corridor to the sleeping area. The Tinker brayed his laughter out loud when he heard the tell tale thump of Sue smacking his head on the curving bulkhead over the bunk, but had sense enough to cut it off as soon as he reappeared in the cabin. He had the knapsack flung over his back, and the guitar case in one hand and the guitar in the other. Setting it down between his feet, he threw the guitar strap over his shoulder and quickly formed a C chord on the strings with his left hand. Hovering his right hand over the strings for an instant, he glared defiantly at Ace.     "Just try to stop me. I don't know where I will end up, but it can't be any worse than this place!" Ace shook his head sadly.     "I am not sure I agree with you on that point kid. I have seen the salt mines of Moira and they are a pretty rotten place. Perhaps if you get lucky enough to end up on that ship they will be in a generous mood and send you out the airlock in stead of a life sentence in the mines." There was a twinkle in Ace's eye, and he continued nonchalantly, "Besides, I ain't too familiar with how those dim hoppers work but I am not sure it will work here." Sue shook his head. "Too late now old timer. You had your chance to help me out, and now I am on my own." Saying this, Sue swung his fingers downwards and strummed the note on the guitar. A discordant sound emanated from it, and all three winced as the sound sliced through their hearing. However, nothing else happened, and all three sat there listening to the vibration of the strings trailing off into nothingness without the usual appearance of the pulsating column of light. Angrily, Sue hit the strings again, and the screeching howl arising from the strings forced The Tinker to cover his ears and moan. Ace seemed to be the only one in the room who was non plussed, and he even seemed to be surpressing a grin.     "What did you do to it?" Sue screamed, his fists clenching in rage. He took a single step towards Ace, but Ace held his ground.     "Nothing. If you knew anything about dimension hopping besides how to turn the dang thing on it would be easy to see why its not working." Ace shook his head. "When you calm down a bit, I can tell you and maybe I can have my friend The Tinker take a look at it, but only after you apologise for calling him a half wit." Ace finished pointedly. Sue glared at Ace for several minutes, trembling in rage. Finally, he saw the futility of further anger, and turning stiffly to The Tinker he held out a hand.     "Sorry for insulting you." His tone of voice obviously carried no regret whatsoever, and The Tinker looked at him with a look of confusion.     "Sorry for what the kid? Did you eat my cheese or something?" The Tinker asked earnestly, his forehead creased with concern. Sue was completely taken off guard by the cheese reference, and stammered uncomfortably.     "uhh... for calling you... I mean I called you... well, I am just sorry, that's all." Sue finished lamely. The Tinker smiled his broadest smile, and deliberately reached down to un buckle his seat belts. Standing up, he walked across the floor to Sue and clasped him in an energetic bear hug.     "The Tinker has no clue what you did, but you are an alright guy. By cheese, I think you are my friend!" Sue was taken aback by the absolute lack of malice in The Tinker's forgiveness. In the tight confines of the ship it was impossible for him not to have heard Sue call him a half wit, and yet The Tinker acted as if nothing had happened, and even further embraced him and called him friend. He had no idea how to respond, so just stood there until The Tinker was finished with his enthusiastic hug.     "You want me to fix your hopper now? The big ugly is not letting it play its song, so that they can have their gravies behave the way they want. You just have to teach the warpies how to play anyway, so that they can sing louder than the gravies can scream." The Tinker looked at him as if the gibberish he was uttering was common sense to any reasonable person and took the guitar from Sue and walked back to his seat. Pushing his warp control console away and pulling out the table they used for eating he set the guitar down and started fiddling with the tuning keys and the knobs along its side.     "What he means is that the artificial gravity of the Recycler is interfering with the warp field generator that your dim hopper uses to create its dimensional tunnel. Anyone knows that artificial gravity can play hell with warp fields, unless you can harmonize the frequencies so that they complement each other rather than conflicting." Sue scowled angrily. "Well at least anyone who knows what the hell artificial gravity and warp fields and frequencies and harmonize is." Ace shrugged. "Like I said, its not my fault that you decided to go randomly jumping around the universe without any clue what you are doing." Sue had to admit that Ace had a point.     "All ready, by cheese!" The Tinker shouted merrily. He held the guitar up and strummed the strings without even worrying about making a chord with the strings. A beautiful tone filled the tiny cabin, and Sue and Ace both stood transfixed as the sound reverberated around them. However, though the tone of the guitar was much improved, still no shimmering column appeared.     "What's wrong The Tinker? How come the doorway has not opened?" Sue inquired. The Tinker grinned, and shook his head. "This hoppy is personalized just for you. I can play the song, but it only lets you work it." He handed the guitar to Sue, who took it almost reverently and slipped the strap over his head.     "How does it work? How does it know who is playing it?" Sue asked, speaking in a quiet tone. The Tinker smiled, and shrugged his shoulders. "It just knows by cheese!" Ace chuckled. "That is about all the explanation you are likely to get from The Tinker. His knowledge is on a much different level than you or me. He doesn't do mathmatical calculations or use formulas or evaluate patterns. He sees these things as entities that behave in a certain way in response to certain stimuli. When he tries to explain, people think he is being silly or childish, so he generally just doesn't explain." He gestured to the guitar. "It just works. Don't question it." Sue nodded, and reached his left hand towards the neck of the guitar to begin forming the chord that summoned the dimensional tunnel. Ace placed his hand on his, and shook his head.     "You don't want to just drop in unannounced. Like I said, there are no appeals once you are convicted by a bureaucratic security officer." Sue nodded. "So what do we do? How do we get in there?" Ace grinned. "We need a distraction..."             Sue strummed his hand across the string and the beautiful tone filled the cabin once again. This time however, the golden column of pulsating, liquid light appeared as always before, originating at the top of the cabin and ending on the floor at his feet. He looked across the cabin at Ace, who looked at The Tinker. The Tinker looked up from his warp control panel and gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. Then, he tapped the controls and gave another thumbs up. Suddenly, the decks beneath their feet vibrated with a series of muffled bumps. Sue knew that this was the distraction he had been waiting for. The Tinker had used his talent for combining warp technology with gravity generation to create some havoc aboard the ship. He had also assured Sue that the dim hopper knew exactly where to deposit him inside the ship. Something about hoppers always going to the closest home. Anyway, having seen the results of The Tinker's unique brand of genius a couple of times now, he was beginning to understand why Ace put so much trust in him. Bending over, he placed the guitar back in the guitar case and fastened the buckles. Then, standing up he shifted the knapsack on his back, tightened his grip on the guitar case and stepped into the light.         As his vision cleared, he found himself as usual in a smoky, dim honky tonk bar. The difference this time was the obnoxious wail of horns and the flashing of red bars that ran along the walls next to the ceiling. A few of the occupants of the bar were rushing this way and that in an apparent panic while others looked annoyed at the panicers and continued drinking, smoking, and or playing cards. Nobody really took notice of his arrival right away, so he walked away from the dim hopper arrival stage as quickly as possible. Not wanting to draw attention to the fact that he had just completed a hop, and likewise leery of passing out for two hours while the usual jitters ran their course he quickly found an empty table in a dark corner and sat down to evaluate his position. The havoc of the sirens and flashing lights seemed to have done their job, and he had managed to slip on board the ship unseen. However, he was completely at a loss to know what to do next.     "When did you get here? I don't remember seeing you before." The voice from behind him startled him, and set off a thousand angry bees buzzing in his ears as his heart pounded and aggravated the dimension hop jitters. He turned to see who stood there and saw an old man who would not have been much out of place back in the town of Whatever. He wore a faded western style shirt and a cracked and stained leather vest. The preacher hat he wore had likewise seen better days, the brim drooping and the flat crown wrinkled and torn. Sue began to breathe a sigh of relief until he saw the tarnished tin star pinned on the man's shirt. Was he really a law man? Or just a bad caricature that someone had dressed up as a bad joke?     "I hopped in a while ago. I just been sitting here decompressing when all this hubub started up. What is going on?" Sue asked in what he hoped was a nonchalant voice. Fortunately, the old man appeared to accept his story without a thought.     "I don't know. They don't tell me much down here. I guess as long as the hoppers stay in here and don't go wanderin about the ship causing trouble they reckon I'm doing my job." He pulled up a chair and sat down with a heavy sigh. "Feller over at the bar said there was some sort of gravitational disruption that ruptured some bulkheads. Whatever that means." He rolled his eyes. "These dang spacers always spouting them big words at you expectin you ter understand what they're sayin. I never pay them no mind myself." Then, noticing that Sue had no drink in front of him, he gestured to the bar where an ancient crone stood leaning against the bar apparently half asleep. "Want a drink? I can have Martha bring you some mash with vodka if you want. I know how you hoppers like that stuff when you get in." Sue shook his head emphatically. "No, I don't feel like crashing right now. How about a cup of coffee?" he asked, hoping madly that they knew what that was here. Apparently they did, because the old man nodded and turned to watch the slow and painful progress of the old woman as she weaved her way through the bar to where they sat. While they waited, the old man continued, "Any slower and she'd be walking backwards that Martha. Tell the truth I don't know why she keeps getting out of bed in the morning. I guess she ain't ready to throw in the towell just yet." Cupping his hands he yelled good naturedly at the woman, "Hurry up yeh old bat! We'll all die of thirst before you get here!" he laughed wheezily, and eventually broke down into a wet fit of coughing. The old woman finally arrived at the table, and leaning against a chair she slapped weakly at the old man's back.     "Serves ye right for insultin me ye old crab. I tole ye to stop smoking and find another job but do ye lissen? Course not. Who is this                   The Bureaucrats.txt         In the beginning, the Bureaucrats were much like any advanced race. Their civilization had passed that point in history where national boundaries and ethnic conflict had been eliminated. Technology erased political boundaries, and their homeworld of Burach was ruled by a single, democratic government. In the first few years following the global conflict that he erased the last remnants of nationalistic despotism, the global rulers were strict, sometimes harsh in their style of goverment. Citizens who had been ruled by representative governments chafed under the strict discipline, but for those who had so recently been freed from the rule of tyrannical dictators celebrated a new found freedom and in many cases being unused to such liberty had to be strictly controlled for their own good. Unfortunately for all, the tendency of all governments seems to be that powers that are taken in the name of expediency are rarely given up once the crisis has passed. And the Burachian Global Council was no exception. In the name of controlling the many different groups of peoples on the planet who had come from so many different forms of government, the council limited much personal freedom. And in order to enforce such limitations, they had to maintain an enourmous organization. As anyone who has studied government in any form can tell you, large governmental organizations must make use of the form of organization known as Bureaucracy in order to function. To avoid a lengthy and boring explanation, what it amounts to is this. Each department, or bureau in a bureaucracy is very specialized in its function, authority, and resources. It almost always reports upwards to a larger bureacracy, whose main purpose in life is managing the mini bureacracies below it.