Geron Kees

Well, there's always take-out from irvings! "Hi, is this Irving's Old-Style Italian Pizzeria? Yes. This is Kip Lawson. Yep. I'd like to order forty-four large pizzas, please..." The Madracorn called the world Bobby Felsen was imprisoned upon Meergris. I considered their names to simply be World One, World Two, World Three, and so on. The 'gris' suffix is 'world', while what comes before is a number in the Madracorn convention. Meergris, Lyrgris, Engris... Will knew Meergis by the name the Markites called their dark world, Kanthakos. Kontus may or may not have been back to the discworld. I'll, um, ask him next time I see him! Ronyx Travers? SERIOUSLY?!? Ricky's family hasn't really been a part of the story other than Uncle Bob. There are already a LOT of characters now. But...I've had an idea for short stories that are set in the CB universe, and involve one or two of the support characters, but not Charlie and Kip directly. So we'll see what happens.

See!

Thanks. Would be kind of nice to have a vacuum that only sucked up dirt and dust, and not socks and keys!

You're just a whirlwind of quips, aren't you?

Yep. The ammonia was so strong that the paint peeled off the walls!

See!

Thank you. Happy to have you along again!

Good question! But to answer would be telling!

Maybe. But it is sort of more fun to enjoy things bursting and exploding when you know they're not aimed at YOU!

Thank you. Every journey works best with company!

It was shattering!

Can you imagine having to glue all this stuff back together?

Chapter 7 -- Misola and his men had been standing by their craft when the accident with D'eerth's transport occurred. In a single moment the tunnel opening had appeared, the borer had come out, and immediately moved to the side to make room. But then some amazing power had found it and pushed it backwards, even against the full driving force of its motivators. Misola's inner senses had simply pulsed alarmingly at the amount of energy involved in the drive backwards. In the blink of a

If every day was smooth as silk, life would be dull, huh?

The last chapter will post Sunday morning. It's not so long!

!

Aw, come on! ME, write a SHORT story!?! One of the interesting things I once read about command is that the brass often pick up on the fears and uncertainties of the troops. How leaders respond to that is largely a matter of individual personality. But there is something to be gained from the observation that, if you stomp on the toe, the head is what yells 'ouch!'.

That's very true. The English language looks like one designed by aliens with a hangover. You don't SUPPOSE...?

No, you were funny. Here... 😁

Nah. I spend my vacation in the Adirondacks, strictly low-tech. Except for the nucleonic black fly swatter. Comes in handy!

Me, too!

The Moth don't know exactly what sort of technology they have been trying to steal from Lyrgris. Their foreign technology people know the things they are taking are machines, but not exactly what they are or what they do. They have, actually, been dismantling and moving to the surface some of the components of the defense and shielding system. Though they have scanned the planet thoroughly and have found many of the machines spaces, what those machines do in those spaces is a mystery to them, So, no, the Moth simply know the planet is inactive, and that its machines are up for grabs. But what those machines do? Nope. So the movements of Charlie and company beneath the surface have no immediate meaning to the Moth. They suspect that whatever is going on will not be good for them, but that's all they have, a suspicion. Consider this: if our people, in 1950, say, with your basic WWII-era tech, stumbled on a place full of 2020 human electronics technology, they might suspect what some of it does, but they really would be guessing about everything. A technician versed in the vacuum-tube technology of 1950 would be LOST looking at today's integrated microelectronics. It would take years of study for them to catch up and understand what they had. And this is only a 70-year gap between the one era and the other! Now let's change that to the Moth finding all this stuff on Lyrgris that are the products of a technology thousands of years ahead of theirs. The difference in knowledge levels is so extreme as to make the Madracorn's devices unrecognizable in function.

Perhaps a lesson that's needed?

The Moth are people. Takes all kind to make a world!

Chapter 6 -- "That went over well," Max decided, closing his eyes a moment, and then smiling. "They've started up that car following us again, but they're staying well back." They had found that, by touching and concentrating, they could all participate in the recent experience. It had been largely Casper's game, with Max supplying a little muscle to bounce their foe's transport around a little, but everyone had felt as if they were there in person, even Sefton. "Amazing, t