Who Is Brian Quinn?

Who is Zylon Finn? - Kittle Boots - Edna St. James

"At this point, ladies and gentlemen, the most dangerous man in the known universe is Zylon Finn." The speaker, a gaunt looking elderly gentleman with wisps of white hair clinging to his temples stood in a sagging spacesuit, boots and a robe with the council's double eaglet crest across the front.

At these words a hush fell over the crowd gathered in the third floor conference room.

"A mutant from the Alpha sector, he has managed to perfect a method of travel previously unknown and frankly quite baffling."

The speaker paused to fiddle with some buttons on his presentation console. Several Imperial Guards stood at the ready near the exits, armed with standard issue zap-guns.

The audience shifted uneasily as the speaker brought up a new image on the central holo-screen floating in the middle of the room.

Echlon-5 sat at the back, a grim smile on his face, his twelve fingered hands folded in a complex pattern upon his lap. "Well Dack," he whispered to the humanoid seated next to him. "Zylon doesn't seem too popular these days. Just about worn out his welcome."

Dack Dirkley pulled his zap-gun out spinning it on his finger. "Not hardly," he said and pointed his laser gun at the speaker. The beam hit him in the throat sending up smoke accompanied by a sizzling sound. He dropped like a rock in mid-sentence. Dack dispatched the guards with as many shots from his zap-gun.

The crowd rose shrieking and running, a terrible chaos that engulfed the conference room as everyone scurried for cover.

Dack and Echlon had already jumped down a service port and were running in the dim light of the landing pod deck. "How did I not see that coming?" remarked Echlon between breaths.

"I couldn't have told you Ech, you know that. Your natural psi-waves would have subconsciously alerted the crowd and possibly the guards. I couldn't take that chance."

The two slowed to a stop. Echlon sighed. "All I'm asking is a little trust, Dack. Sometimes I just don't feel entirely appreciated. You understand."

"Of course, Ech. Here it is," Dack quickly shoved a decoder key into a slot on the speeder-pod and they hopped in. "That detonator should be going off about," he looked at his time-count.

"Detonator?" chirped Echlon.

"Now."

A deafening explosion shook the facility. "He wanted the whole bunch taken care of," replied Dack.

Their pod made the jump to hyper-fast as the great complex of floating modules and military bunkers came crashing down. Their exit accompanied by a wall of flames pushing outward behind them. Dack shouted. "Hang on."

They shot out of the hanger with flames licking at their heels. "I appreciate you Ech, I do. It's just that sometimes I can't take chances. You have powers that can at times be very hazardous."

"Hazardous," muttered Echlon. "I could have taken out the entire lot of them with one thought. Crushed their puny little minds in a single instant. You know that."

"Of course I know that," replied Dack. "But it's the spirit of the thing that counts. We needed something big. Something spectacular and dramatic for the galactic news-vids. You know the press loves a good show."

"And everyone suddenly dropping to the floor with their brains oozing out their ears isn't dramatic?"

"It's not the same, Ech. Really. I was acting on orders."