FM managed to catch up with the group of
people staring out to the lake expentantly. He had seen
the parachute falling from his office in the Palace
Rotunda, and had come as fast as he could to where
everyone else was.
"Okay, what did I miss and how
can I help?" He said, looking at Grizz and
Nica.
FrontMullet Team Bahro
Investigative Researcher. The Palace Rotunda D'ni
Cavern
Uh, shouldn't
their be a suspenseful station break here to identify
the sponsers. You know, the D'ni Internal Supply Company, If they
don't have it, "You don't need it!" and HEEK INC. Purveyor of all the fine
Myst series, URU and XP packs! And CYAN, without whom
this programming would not have been possible, and UBI
and UBISOFT major backer and sponser of the continueing
URU saga.
And CorediaG, for all your Brolly
needs!
Don't go away folks, the story is not
over. After all the "End has not yet been
written"..
You know, something like that only
with more pictures, links, etc.
Elkae, still coughing and sputtering,
attempted to stand on the little submarine but wet
Reeboks made it impossible. The resulting fall, like all
her others, was comical to watch. "Let go of the
baggage," shouted RW as his hand slipped and she slid
back into the water. "No!" came the stubborn
gasp.
"Then at least hand the bags to me," begged
RW. Elkae, struggling to stay afloat, handed off first
one saddle bag then the other. RW turned and dropped the
heavy, soggy bags down into the submarine. "Now the
black bag, quickly!" he shouted. "Elkae! Elkae? Where
did you go?"
Elkae had spotted the brightly
colored beach ball bobbing up and down in the orange
lake some thirty yards from her position. Without the
weight of the saddle bags, and with a sudden surge of
adrenaline, she swam with great speed to her beloved
Eddie. It wasn't until she reached him that she saw the
Professor clinging for dear life on the other side. He
must have seen her at the same moment because he let go
of Eddie and jumped up onto Elkae's head. Elkae passed
Eddie up to him.
The boat of Barry Bahro pulled
up beside the pair, gently took the beach ball from
Thietris then extended a furry hand to Elkae. She
hesitated a moment, only a moment, and then grabbed it
with both her own hands. As if lifting a feather, the
kindly Bahro extracted the friends from the lake and
deposited them in his boat. As Barry rowed back to
shore, Thietris and Elkae sat huddled in the back in
silence.
Elkae was the first to break the silence. "I have
something to show you later, Professor," she said in a
hushed tone.
"I have something to show you, too,
Elkae," said the little squirrel. He pulled a mirror out
of his pocket and handed it to Elkae. "You look like
something the Bahro dragged in."
"What's happening!" FM asked, jumping up
and down trying to see what was going on in the lake. In
the end he politely nudged Nica aside and looked through
the telescope.
"It's alright, they're okay...or I
hope they're okay. I mean, they were in the water for a
long time and there's all that Algae and stuff in there,
maybe it's infected their brains and is controlling
them! Maybe Elkae is being controlled by Algae!
Or what about the water?! The DRC warned up not
to drink the water from the lake, what if one of them
went underwater and swallowed something! The bacteria
could be forming a civilisation and discovering flight
inside them as we speak!
Quick, someone get the
doctors and the scientists and some sort of
Algae-detecting machine! To the Ferry Terminal! Someone
bring a bunch of barriers, we may have to put them in
quarantine!" FM said, running towards the Nexus
terminal, and linking to the Ferry Terminal - via his
office so he could get his cone launcher, just in case a
mutated Algae-Squirrel was on that boat, or Eddie was
being colonised by
bacteria.
FrontMullet Team Bahro
Investigative Researcher. The Palace Rotunda D'ni
Cavern
"I think maybe he had a sip of that water
himself." he said. "I sure hope he gets home safe
tonight! Didn't know he was that excitable. Well the
excitement is over here, seems like, (for now at least).
Anybody needin' a little pick-me-up can find strong
coffee and Fig Newtons at the srore, and
welcome."
And Grizz walks off and down the stairs
to the lower
level.
_______________________________ Prop.
D'ni Internal Supply Co. "If we don't have it, you
don't need it!"
Thietris Professor Thietris Squirrel, CEO,
President and Managing Director, Institution of Advanced Exploration
of Myst Worlds
posted
Professor T gazes at Elkae through
strands of orange algae. She had been saved! Against all
the odds. He could hardly believe it. The boat reaches
the dockside. Elkae walks slowly up the metal ladder,
helped by the Bahro boatman. The professor has rather
more difficulty, and doesn't seem to have the strength
to haul himself up. Maybe if someone could help him out
of the parachute ...
FM gazed at the docks from behind a pile
of rocks, his cone launcher out and the scope fully
zoomed in on the people departing the boat. He saw Elkae
get out of the boat - she appeared fine, the Algae
hadn't gotten her.
He then saw Thietris getting
out of the boat, and realised he was too late to save
the poor squirrel, who was a huge bloated monster of
orange algae and a wierd second skin that was big and
white and trailer behind him.
FM knew what he had
to do, and pulled the trigger of his cone laucher,
sending a rocket-propelled cone aimed at the
monster/squirrel.
Of course FMs aim was out of
practice after not using his cone launcher for many
weeks, and so the cone sailed harmlessly into the lagoon
several hundred metres from where Thietris was standing.
At least it would hopefully kill some of the
Algae...
FrontMullet Team Bahro
Investigative Researcher. The Palace Rotunda D'ni
Cavern
FM watched in relief as Elkae plucked
the parachute off Thietris, revealing a slightly orange
squirrel who was thankfully not a monster of any sort
(like a chipmunk). As he heard Elkae's request for
coffee he reached down beside him to his thermus of
coffee and a blanket he had brought with him, hid his
cone launcher behind some rocks and wandered out to
where Elkae and Thietris were.
"You guys are
safe!" He said, trying to give the impression that he
would hug them if they were drier. "Here, I bring
blankets and warm coffee. Fresh from Grizz about an hour
ago...you should both try it it's very good. And the
semi-boiling water should kill off any lake-bacteria
just as their civilization is discovering the wheel." He
handed them the thermus. "Here's a blanket too, should
keep you guys warm until someone get's here with a
towel, just hangon and I'll ask for one."
He
turned around, cupped his hands and faced the
Institution Neighbourhood. "HEY GUYS! CAN WE GET A TOWEL
AND SOME MORE COFFEEE DOWN HERE!!" The echo carried his
request across the cavern...he then turned back to the
trepid explorers. "It'll just be a few minutes while
someone links over.."
FrontMullet Team
Bahro Investigative Researcher. The Palace
Rotunda D'ni Cavern
"Veronica taps FM on the shoulder...what
side of the lake are you on anyway?"
"Grizz asked
me to bring these to you." She hands a large towel to
Elkae and a hand towel to the Professor. "I'm Veronica
Fairchild." She puts out her hand to Elkae, sees the
lake water still dripping there and pulls back her
hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm no longer a
danger to
society. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She starts to hug FM for the coffee and
the blanket, but then she remembers the image in the
mirror.
"FM, maybe we should all just link back
to the Institution." Then she remembers she has no idea
how to get there.
"Hello, Veronica. Thank you."
She takes the towel and mops her face and hair. "I'm
Elkae Knutsson. I'm pleased to meet you. You must be new
around here." ________________ There's no place
like home.
"No Thietris, I didn't see where that
cone came from... " FM said, very
carefully avoiding eye contact. "Maybe we should
invesigate it later on. In fact, I'll do it personally,
I'm sure the perpetrator left some clues lying about..By
the way professor its FrontMullet,I'd appreciate it if
you could get half of it right?
So anyway, I know
it's probably a bad time to talk about this, what with
you nearly drowning to death and all...but I think we
should look into this Algae
situation.."
FrontMullet Team Bahro
Investigative Researcher. The Palace Rotunda D'ni
Cavern
Thietris Professor Thietris Squirrel, CEO,
President and Managing Director, Institution of Advanced Exploration
of Myst Worlds
posted
Hmmm. In that case I'll have it
deconissioned. We can't have dangerous objects like that
going off on a whim. Now, let's all get back to the
Institution and get dried off. And then, Back- er,
FrontMullet, we'll discuss the algae
question.
Experimental Program
1
Elkae was the first to break the silence. "I have
something to show you later, Professor," she said in a
hushed tone.
" FM said, very
carefully avoiding eye contact. "Maybe we should
invesigate it later on. In fact, I'll do it personally,
I'm sure the perpetrator left some clues lying about..By
the way professor its FrontMullet,I'd appreciate it if
you could get half of it right?