New Story- Reflex and Seth
If you spend enough time skirting the rules, dodging authorities and generally getting into mischief, your concept of fun becomes permanently altered. You start to engage in risky behavior. You might even be willing, if not eager, to bend a few local laws, in order to relax. You might, for instance, stow away on an interstellar cruise liner bound for who knows where because you’re bored and the guy you’re hanging out with wants to find out if the food’s any good.
This is how Reflex, a human from the Sol system, found himself aboard the cruise ship Flargnoogle of the Crunwold Royal Luxury Line unable to present the large security officer with proper identification. Seth, his traveling companion, an escaped ‘demon’ from some dimensional analog of Lucifer’s Hell, was at the buffet, unaware of the impending doom he would soon encounter.
“Mrphle?” Reflex said, around a mouthful of the best food he’d had in weeks.
“Your passenger card, sir. I don’t see it and it’s required to be on display while in the dining compartment.”
“Orgle, plfn mrtn,” replied Reflex, raising the index finger of his right hand while doing a fairly convincing pantomime of checking his pockets with his left. He continued to chew and it was becoming increasingly hard not to swallow. He stood, as if to check his back pockets, which were actually nonexistent and saw Seth approaching the table warily, eyeing the security officer. Over Seth’s shoulder he saw two more officers enter the compartment and knew what had to be done.
He threw his hands to his throat and put a look of terror on his face, pretending to be choking, as it were. The security officer was a seasoned professional and was thus unimpressed by this display of amateur theater. Seeing that the officer wasn’t buying it, Reflex reverted to Plan B, which was spewing the well-chewed contents of his mouth into the poor man’s face, leaping upon the table and then dashing across the room, jumping from tabletop to tabletop like a frog crossing a pond covered in lily pads. Diners screamed and exclaimed, some of them rising to their feet indignantly, but this was exactly the distraction he had intended and he was out of the room before the officers we halfway across it.
Seth looked down at his tray of food, then at the chaos left in the wake of his friend’s departure, then sat at an unoccupied table and proceeded to gorge himself. It seemed the only sensible thing to do.
This is how Reflex, a human from the Sol system, found himself aboard the cruise ship Flargnoogle of the Crunwold Royal Luxury Line unable to present the large security officer with proper identification. Seth, his traveling companion, an escaped ‘demon’ from some dimensional analog of Lucifer’s Hell, was at the buffet, unaware of the impending doom he would soon encounter.
“Mrphle?” Reflex said, around a mouthful of the best food he’d had in weeks.
“Your passenger card, sir. I don’t see it and it’s required to be on display while in the dining compartment.”
“Orgle, plfn mrtn,” replied Reflex, raising the index finger of his right hand while doing a fairly convincing pantomime of checking his pockets with his left. He continued to chew and it was becoming increasingly hard not to swallow. He stood, as if to check his back pockets, which were actually nonexistent and saw Seth approaching the table warily, eyeing the security officer. Over Seth’s shoulder he saw two more officers enter the compartment and knew what had to be done.
He threw his hands to his throat and put a look of terror on his face, pretending to be choking, as it were. The security officer was a seasoned professional and was thus unimpressed by this display of amateur theater. Seeing that the officer wasn’t buying it, Reflex reverted to Plan B, which was spewing the well-chewed contents of his mouth into the poor man’s face, leaping upon the table and then dashing across the room, jumping from tabletop to tabletop like a frog crossing a pond covered in lily pads. Diners screamed and exclaimed, some of them rising to their feet indignantly, but this was exactly the distraction he had intended and he was out of the room before the officers we halfway across it.
Seth looked down at his tray of food, then at the chaos left in the wake of his friend’s departure, then sat at an unoccupied table and proceeded to gorge himself. It seemed the only sensible thing to do.