Dining in the Lylat System

Sliders (Part 2)

DINING IN THE LYLAT SYSTEM

Episode 14: SLIDERS (PART 2) or CRISIS ON INFINITE KRYSTALS

Written by EDWIN A. RABBIT

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"Feedee's log, addendum. I was on Venom, and I chased an enemy soldier through a gateway called the Portable High-Accuracy Teleporter, or PHAT. I thought the PHAT would transmit me to Corneria.

"It did. But I don't see my enemy anywhere. Instead, I find myself at a picnic on a nice day. On top of that, I'm several months pregnant with no recollection of it. What did the PHAT do?"

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Fox McCloud smiled as he set a plate of miniature burgers on the table before Krystal. She sat on a bench. "Here you go. Hopefully you can enjoy these sandwiches!" Fox chuckled.

Krystal wasn't sure why that would be funny, but she forced a convincing laugh to fit in. "Positively," she said.

She put a hand to her belly. It had bloomed into a full globe, swollen with her and Fox's offspring. She wore a maternity shirt that buttoned tastefully along the rounded arc of her stomach. She'd left the top few buttons open so that her plump breasts had room to breathe. Their thick cleavage was pressed shut in her top. Below, her thighs were chunky handfuls, and her rump was bubbly, hanging just a tad off of the back of the bench.

Fox put a hand on her broad thigh and smooched her on the cheek. Arousal welled within her. He walked back to the grill.

Fox was chatting with Peppy Hare, an old combat buddy of Fox's. Krystal saw that she shared a table with Lucy Hare. The pink-furred hare was slender and dressed casually. In this reality, she had never packed on hundreds of pounds in a biology experiment.

"Lucy," Krystal started, "I've got an astrophysics question."

"Go ahead and shoot!" Lucy responded cheerfully. At least she was still the astrophysics PhD that Krystal knew.

Krystal said, "So we have the Beltino Orbital Gate for teleporting space ships vast distances instantly. Has anyone ever tried teleporting just a single person?"

Krystal bit into a burger. She'd always enjoyed a good meal, but this was something else--the juices and flavors overwhelmed her. She felt suddenly ravenous. She scarfed that down and a second one, wolfing them in two swift bites each.

Lucy replied, "No, that wouldn't really work. The orbital gate converts matter into energy and transmits it. The less mass something has, the less energy there is to transmit, meaning it's hard to maintain accuracy."

Krystal paused. "So what would happen if I just walked through the gate on my own?"

Krystal loved the burgers, but she had a deep need for something else. Her eyes scanned the table and saw a jar of pickles with tongs. Eureka, she thought. She plucked one and popped it whole into her mouth. The crisp, refreshing snap; the luxuriously salty taste; the cool but biting vinegar juice... Krystal was entranced.

Lucy considered Krystal's question. "I'm not sure. You might transmit your atoms to your destination, but I can't guarantee they would all get put back together correctly. My guess is that it would effectively disassemble you on a microscopic level."

Krystal gulped another pickle. It sounded grim. And yet, here she was. Luckily, the PHAT had not diassembled her. But it definitely had not been accurate when teleporting her.

Lucy continued, "You might be able to compensate for the lack of mass if you contributed some energy. Something like a catalytic explosion."

An explosion...? It clicked. That was how she'd teleported. Krystal said, "Like a burp."