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The Adventures of Lady Sherlock: The Report!
Postlude to the Summer of Discontent
Previous Episode: www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/discontent5.txt
June 22, 2011:
The waitress asked her friend, "Did you catch the guy who wrote the graffiti?"
"Nope, sorry. He ducked under the bushes. And you wanted us to not flaunt."
"Yep. Good call. But now I have to make a report."
"I think he dropped his joint, though. Maybe we could call the cops."
"Nope. They care about marijuana even less than graffiti."
"Can we at least keep the meat from the sandwich he left behind?"
"Yep. Cut the parts he ate. Bread too. Scraps go in the compost. Bread in the pancake batter."
... Yeesh. A flashback. Lady Sherlock remembered being a waitress at Denny's, and shuddered. Denny's was all she had for a while. She'd finally found a job away from there, to support her son. But here she was back in a kitchen. In a camp. As a counselor. And she still had to make a report. Incognito work sucked. At least she could get coffee before the campers come in. At least there was still coffee here.
While she waited for breakfast, she straightened out some of the log benches. The campers were adults; they were waiting outside, talking about Godzilla movies... Whatever. But it'd be worth it, if she could finally get answers. She just had to make it past breakfast with the campers.
Lady Sherlock was back on her home world. The one with the Denny's. She'd been on another Earth. That's where her real boss was. She'd moved there in January. Since then, the boss had raised a barricade against her original Earth. She'd only come back in June, piggy-backing on others who pierced the barricade. (www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/discontent3a.txt)
Later that morning, she asked her camp boss, "I have to report in. Can I borrow the office?"
"Uh, yeah, I suppose. With everything that happened yesterday, it must be important. You must have called in the strike, right?"
"Something like that." Lady Sherlock was a secret agent, but not for whom the camp staff thought.
When she had the office to herself, she set up a sonic jammer and an electronic jammer. Her conference would be as private as super-tech could manage. Then she set up her computer.
Her real boss's face appeared. "Hello, Lady."
"Hi, Chancellor. What don't you know about yesterday yet?"
"I haven't yet figured out who called in the strike against The Trillions."
"It was this old guy named Major Terry! He comes by the campground a lot. Last night he talked a lot. Ellipsis was hiding out inside him somehow!"
"Yeesh. One more power to put on my Ellipsis list... Okay. Your turn. Any questions for me?"
Lady Sherlock asked, "How did the Cyber-Strike part of the plan work?"
"Your old Earth actually had a Cyber-Strike force fighting other aliens four years ago! (www.eilertech.com/stories/2007/others.htm#cyberstrike ) Those aliens all fled when The Trillions came. But people figured the Plan might still work. Just dust it off, then recruit the world's two mightiest programmers to enhance it: Ellipsis, and Madfinger!
"Madfinger deserves some commentary. He's an unrepentant mercenary, usually working with villains, as in Nashville last year." (www.eilertech.com/stories/2010/cauldron2.htm)
Lady Sherlock interrupted. "Dammit! That was him in Nashville?"
"Uh, yeah. But he also stood in for your version of me who'd gone missing! Madfinger gave his name as Chang then. (www.eilertech.com/stories/2005/fergletter_may.htm) His skills are such that even Ellipsis defers to him. He probably designed the Cyber-Strike. It may be invading the whole Galaxy now.
"But on the other hand, the Cyber-Strike depends on The Trillions showing obedience to whoever commands their master ship. What if they learn disobedience?"
Lady Sherlock asked, "Well, you may be paranoid, but at least you're thinking ahead... Next question. What happened to the Earth in Ultimate Darkness?"
"The Bride of the Ultimate Darkness and her Best Man needed to pass the Earth through it to change its orbit. This itself is no discomfort to Ultimate Darkness. To it, any universe is like a bit of roughage in a high-fiber diet.
"But how to point Earth the right way? It basically required a supergenius in constant mental contact. Good thing for them Ellipsis was on the team - and had Madfinger to handle the Cyber-Strike."
Lady Sherlock asked, "Who can tell us the whole story? Especially what the Bride went through when she was shifting the Earth?"
The Chancellor hmm'ed thoughtfully. "I don't think Ms. Brown is talking to media about that. I have never said this before, and I hope never to say it again: Ask Ellipsis. He was everywhere during that strike. He broke through the alien barricades; he let Madfinger in the command ship; he mentally told the Bride where the Ultimate Darkness should spit out their Earth...
"Damnation. If Ellipsis wanted to conquer your Earth, he would have by now. He conquered mine once." (www.eilertech.com/stories/november.htm)
Lady Sherlock asked, "So why hasn't he, if it's so easy for him?"
"It's never easy. Every first superhuman has a nemesis. Ellipsis and Mighty Tim were first together for you. For both of them, there's Anvernacht. Since then, Ellipsis has made pretty much everyone hate him at one time or another."
"Okay. I'll skip talking to Ellipsis. Can I come home now?"
"I don't blame you. And I'm happy you call my home your home now."
"Don't flatter yourself. It's just because my son's there."
"Got it. So I'll put it this way... Mission accomplished. Come on back, Agent Morgan."
"Don't call me that!"
The Chancellor smirked. "Then you have dropped your old name. Like everything else from your old home."
"Not everything. Just ask Lady Holmes."
"Oh, is there something I don't know about your friend Ms. McGraw?"
"Yeah. I talked with her while I was back here. Now that your blockade is down, she's ready to sign on too. Maybe Denny's was better than Nashville, but she didn't like it any more than I did."
Chancellor Wyatt said, "Well, I promise it'll be exciting here." Summer Morgan knew he'd be right.
Author's Notes:
As ever, this story is online at www.eilertech.com/stories/2011/page.php?fn=sherlock.txt .
Here I simply try to tie up plot threads. It's almost nostalgic. And it works much better now that I've made it one story instead of two. I know my stories are short by most standards, but Episode One (The Flashback) could fit on a business card.
I got my last concept for the Summer of Discontent storyline six months ago. I guess it's only been two months since I wrote a story for it. But since then, I've taken up cartooning. So coming back to this storywriting stuff is actually kind of haaaard. 8{C>
I've actually been threatening to stop writing these stories for years - at least since 2006. (www.eilertech.com/stories/2006/me2006.htm#background ) But I kept getting more ideas for it... Not any more. I have just one plot thread waiting, and it just leads me deeper into the corner I've written myself into... Back in 2002, I declared the end of the Superhuman World to be 2022. (www.eilertech.com/stories/neverwas.htm#theend ) Since then, I've kept confirming it. So that's a dead end.
Lately all my ideas are going into cartoons. The Superhuman World 2011 story will eventually lead into those same cartoons. And it will change that world... somehow. Perhaps I'll take as much time as I feel like to figure out exactly how, while I get the cartoons ready to meet them. I think we'll all have more fun that way.
(signed) Scott Eiler, 16 December 2011. 8{D>
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