Tales Between the Lines

V.4 Privacy Shields

Amber squints her eyes* and reads the haiku aloud.** Ashley swoons.

"How romantic. I wish someone would dedicate something as beautiful to me."

Marth checks her out from head to toe. "Well, for a human, you're not bad looking. But of course, your species can't compete with us Capellians."

Amber frowns. "But Edward said you were a Rigellian?"

"Who's Edward?"

The sisters turn to point towards Bnata, where officer Edwalds still fights for entry into the unruly 327.

Bnata ignores Edward's efforts, a dreamy fog clouding it's windshield.

Edward gives up with a disgusted snort when a smartly uniformed police woman pulls up on her motorcycle and hands him a lunchbox.

"Hey Eddie, here's your 372. Well, I actually brought two of them. What's the trouble?"

Edward rubs his chin, contemplates the possible answers for a moment, and decides to call it a day.

"Know what, Millie, I think these doughnuts go down better with a latte. Care to join me?"

The female officer sends a triumphant smile in the twins' direction while Edward hops on her pillion. With howling engine Millie pulls away, leaving Marth and his fan club coughing in the exhausts.

Meanwhile, Spaceship reaches a spot directly in front of Bnata, who shows a definite coy blush of the frontal armour plates.

Time, realising the next request for a time-out is only a matter of time, decides to hit the road and to go searching for his old friend Destiny instead. Maybe she's ready to share a cup of tea or a decent dinner and a chat about the good old times.***

———

* For reasons of fashion and vanity, she left her glasses at home. And her fingernails are simply too long and pointy to allow her to put contacts into her eyes without serious injury.

** Yes, contrary to common belief, Amber mastered the fine art of reading at some point during third grade.

*** Time and Destiny share a few obscure adventures of their own, as some of you might know.

~~~

With Time unavailable for a timeout, the further events unfold without delay. Such unfolding is two-fold, one being the developments around Spaceship and Bnata, the other the proceedings involving Marth and the girls. Even though the two are, in the greater scheme of things, deeply entwined and entangled, common writer's reason dictates to view them separately.

As to Spaceship and Bnata, the latter's tube, which is still directed at the former's center of mass and now nearly touches its red lips, starts to quiver and glow, and some observers will later report a distinct swelling taking place there. But such matters remain unconfirmed because, right at that moment, a rippling and flickering sets in, enclosing the two machines in a sphere of mind-boggling strangeness, distorting them, dimming them. The strange apparition grows in substance and darkness until all that remains is a house-sized ball of black something, shimmering like polished obsidian under the afternoon sun.

The obnoxious bird's chirping is the only sound interrupting the astonished awe of Amber and Ashley as well as Marth' scowl. That is, until Amber finds words to process what she's seeing.

"Oh em gee, what's that?"

"Who's Owen Gee?" Marth still scowls and scans the surroundings for something Owen-shaped.

"No..." Amber giggles. "What I meant is, oh em gee as in oh my God."

Knowing that Gods are a sensitive topic for many of the multiverse's races, Marth avoids the divine aspects of her statement and addresses her question instead, pointing his chin at the black sphere. "That's a privacy shield."

"And what does it do?"

"It keeps stuff private."

The sphere starts to move in a slow, rhythmic back-and-forth motion.

"And what are they doing in there now?" Ashley chimes in, her voice husky, her thoughts too.

"That's private."

They watch. Huskiness spreads.

Amber and Ashley take a step closer to Marth, sandwiching him between them.

He looks first at one of the women, and then at the other. "You know... that can take quite a long time. And it's kind of boring... just standing here and watching the shield." A hormonal grin plays on his lips.

"So..." Amber squeezes Marth's arm, tentatively, probing alien muscle. "What do you suggest we do?"

The man nonchalantly digs into his pocket to retrieve an iGadget. "If you want, I could set up a privacy shield of our own... It comes with all amenities, such as two bathrooms, a triplet-sized bed, free WiFi, a beer fountain,* you name it."

"That..." Amber's hands now explore alien hip structure. "... sounds intriguing, I'd—"

"Wait!" Ashley takes a step forward and turns to face her two companions, arms on hips, brows a-glower. "Girls such as us are not wooed so easily."

Marth crosses his arms. "And what, pretty creature, would it take to woo you?"

Ashley nods at the sphere. "You've seen what that police contraption did. It did poetry at your Spaceship."

Amber disentangles herself from Marth and joins her half-sister. "She's right. I want a Hi Q as well. Or some other artsy stuff describing me."

"A haiku?" Marth expected these backwater girls to be uncomplicated, instinct-driven, easy-to-be-had specimen of the female persuasion. But Truth has just smacked him right into his face—there is no such thing as uncomplicated females.**

———

* On my way to Munich right now—otherwise, this would be a hot chocolate fountain

** At this point, Rainer must have felt some mental smacking from the direction of his co-writer.