Back Where I Started From

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

04/20/96:

Sipping at my coffee, I watched out the windows as the
second, smaller, sun of Prid slowly kissed the horizon. My
tail flicked behind me and under the legs of the chair.

I sighed a bit, finding my drink had cooled down hours
before. I set the cup down next to a pile of papers and
picked up the top sheet.

Reading over it, I set it back down in disgust. It was the
same paper I had read over and over again for the past few
hours.

Running my paws through my hair I sighed. The papers covered
the charter and rules of the HammerHeads. I was desperately
searching for some kind of legal loophole, something,
*anything* to get me out of their grasp.

"Damn it," I muttered to myself, "I need some sleep."

I made a passing glance at my watch, and eeped, "Thirty-
seven hours! I _really_ need some sleep." I normally didn't
stay up so long--maybe a bit of Fox was rubbing off on me.

I collected all the different documents and hugged them to
my breasts. I dumped my coffee into the sink and headed to
my bedroom. When I was inside I pulled off my shirt to crawl
into bed (I don't bother with clothing in bed, and
considering my career choice, it's very odd) when there was
buzz from the mail system.

Sighing, I grabbed a robe and ran downstairs to check the
computer. I was surprised that there was nothing new, just
some ship information Fox had gotten a few days before.
Shaking my head, I looked around. Beside the terminal was a
small fax machine, as Fox called it, that was hooked up to a
teletype network system. It was spitting out the second page
of the mail.

Scooping it up, I read the header. I got the idea that I
should not read it, and was about to set it back in the bin
when the front door open.

Glancing over, I saw Fox silhouetted by the shimmering light
produced by the teleport curtain. Stepping in he closed the
door and flipped on a light. "Hello, Oria."

I smiled at him and adjusted my robe a bit. "Hi Fox, great
timing, you just got a message."

He made a bit of a face, "That's strange, who would actually
fax me, here?"

I handed it over, "The brothers."

He nodded, "Ah... that could be about my moving the fold
again."

"Oh, you got an apartment?"

He shook his head, looking down at the fax, "No... I moved
it back home."

"What?!"

He looked up, and I saw some dried blood in the corner of
his eye, a sure sign that he had been crying, in his limited
way. "To long of a story, I got fired and a lot of extra
shit came along with it." He glanced back down at the fax.

Reading over it, he muttered to himself as he went. Looking
back up he said, "This is... well not bad... but not good
either."

"Oh?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"Well... it appears that just seconds before I moved the
fold, there was a supernova about 2000 light years away, in
my universe, core-wards."

I nodded, that's one thing that was in the advanced classes.
While it takes years for the light and energy from a
supernova to travel, the effect on the folds are
instantaneous. One could rearrange the folds in a clusters
of folds, and sometimes even move groups of megafolds. In
short, it was not a good thing.

Fox continued, "The brothers said to watch out for any
strange side effects, and made a note about finding some
kind of complex on Luna."

I blinked, that was a sudden change of mental track, "Um...
Isn't that generally a bad thing, someone living on your
moon?"

He shook his head, "Nope, just means all the nuts are right
about someone else being on the moon before we got there. I
mean, it's not like there's somebody from Earth living there
right now!" he chuckled at his joke. "Just two platypi, who
are leaving for the megafold as we speak."

I nodded, and tightened my robe, "Ok. I'm heading to bed."

He nodded and sat down on the couch, looking over a piece of
folded paper he pulled from his pocket, "No problem, I'll
hit the sack myself, after I finish going over the list of
stuff that got stolen."

"What?"

He sighed, "That's another long story. Go to bed Oriana. I
mean, the bags under your eyes have bags under them."

I nodded, "Good night."

"Night," he muttered, not really paying attention

I shook my head, I could have done a strip show right then,
and he wouldn't have noticed.

Heading back up to my room I threw my robe off. The passing
edge of the robe caught the edge of a small porcelain box on
the dresser, sending it to the floor. The fall knocked the
top off, and let the contents fall free.

I sighed, and picked up what fell out, setting it back in
the small box. Setting the lid back on I reactivated a
stasis field that kept the contents of the box from aging.

Setting it back on the dresser, I shook my head. "Not yet...
a few more months, when I get the last pieces. Then..." I
grinned; plans made months ago were starting to come
together.

Stripping the rest of the way, I crawled into bed. Fox was
hiding something from me, I could tell that easily. But I
was hiding something from him, something I had many plans
for. The second dose of Bliss....

-----

This story (AFiW #117) is copyright 1996, 2005 by Fox
Cutter. Hardcopy reprints limited to one per person, all
other rights reserved. This story may not be distributed for
a fee except by permission of the author, and this copyright
notice may not be removed.