Aldo flipped.
They'd been walking for what seemed like a very long time now, though it was hard to tell as they didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Royce looked up. It was white. He looked down. More white. He looked across at his companion. It came to something when Aldo was the most interesting thing to look at. It also came to something when Aldo was the most interesting thing to talk to as well.
"Heads," Aldo said.
"Right. That way then." He pointed in a direction.
"I suppose so."
"Unless you think better."
"No, no ... that's as good a way as any." He put the coin back in his pocket and they carried on walking. After a while:
"Aldo ... how come you knew about that ..." he pulled the leaf of paper he'd found in the pod from his pocket and read: "'Multiphase Positronic Warp Jump Life Capsule' ... and not me?"
Aldo tapped his nose. "Ah! That's because I erased it from the manifest."
"Ah! Was that about the same time that everything else on the manifest was erased?" He recalled that Captain Rorvik was especially furious to learn that his entire cargo manifest had been wiped from the database overnight, but only his first officer Packard had his suspicions about who did it - though nothing came of it. It never did, really.
"A slip of the finger. Anyway, it wouldn't have done for everyone to know about the only working lifeboat on the ship. You saw for yourself there was only room for two."
"And very good of you to let me share it, Aldo. I appreciate that." He folded the paper and put it back in his pocket. His stomach gurgled suddenly and he rubbed it with a frown. "You sure there wasn't any rations in that pod? I'm starving."
Aldo shifted his body so that the bulge of the food pack didn't show beneath his coverall. "Errr ... no. Checked thoroughly. No sign at all." There wouldn't be once Royce went to sleep, anyway.
"Why are we going this way?"
Aldo considered for a moment. "Intuition."
"Which tells you what?"
He considered some more. "Which tells me ..." He stopped and looked at Royce. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a coin.
"Tell you what, toss for it again."
"Okay." He flipped the coin up & caught it.
"Heads again."
Royce looked defeated. "Oh. Right then. On we go."
"I wish I knew where we were."
Aldo paused, squinting into the distance. "I think I do."
"Really? Where?"
"In deep lumber. Look!" He pointed at something approaching them from the distance.
"What is it?"
"Looks like a person."
"A person?"
"Or a something."
"A something? That could be anything. Don't like the sound of that."
"Me neither." It was getting closer. Aldo tugged Royce's sleeve. "Gimme the gun."
"What gun?"
"The gun from the pod."
"There was a gun in the pod?"
"Yes. It was next to ..." he trailed off. It was on the shelf next to the food pack. Which Royce hadn't seen. "Oh, forget it."
Royce peered at the figure. "Wonder who it is?"
"Tharil?"
"Could be. Hey ..." he grabbed Aldo's arm. "You don't suppose it could be ... Rorvik or someone."
"What? How would he have survived that backblast?"
"Maybe he had a multitronic warp doobry hidden away too. Wouldn't put it past him. He is the Captain."
"So?"
"You know. Captain's first to leave the sinking ship."
"No. That's wrong. They're last to leave the sinking ship."
"Not Rorvik."
"Wanna bet?"
"Naw."
"What do we do? Run?"
Aldo looked around. "Where?"
"Good point. What do we do then?
He shrugged. "We wait."
The figure came closer ... closer. They could make it out now.
Royce crouched down, pulling Aldo with him. "It is a Tharil ... we're for it now."
"Aye. Best surrender then." They stayed on their knees, arms raised. But the creature didn't even look at them. It just strode past, imperiously, head high.
They craned their necks to watch it pass.
"There's a thing ... didn't even see us."
Aldo suddenly leapt to his feet and started hurrying after it.
"Where you going?" Royce called.
"Come on. It's going somewhere, which is more than we are."
"Oh yeah ... right." Royce leapt to his feet and hurried after his friend.
***
The rubble of the Gateway was scattered around them. To their left was the blackened and twisted frame of what was left of the Privateer. Royce looked up at it.
"Cor ... what a mess. No one else could have got out of that then."
"Nope. Rorvik, Packard, Lane, Sagan, Kilroy ..." he stopped, chuckling to himself. "Hey, you remember that graffiti ..."
"What?"
"You know, 'Kilroy was here'. Well now ..." he gestured all around him and chuckled "... Kilroy is everywhere!"
Royce looked appalled. "Your jokes get worse." He pointed over the rubble. "Come on - it went that way."
***
The mirror stood intact in what remained of the great hall. They stood looking at it.
"What do we do?"
"Walk through. That other feller did it."
"Can we?"
"Soon find out." Aldo stepped through it. He vanished. Royce gaped. After a second, he reappeared. "Come on!" He pulled his friend through.
***
"Cor. Look at all this." He waved an arm around the garden they'd emerged into.
"Yeah, Don't like the colour much."
Two Tharils stepped from behind a hedge and seized them. They were frog-marched away before either one of them could say "We surrender".
They were taken to another great hall and led before another Tharil who glowered at them malevolently.
"He looks familiar," muttered Aldo.
"Yeah ... it's that Biroc, isn't it? The one who started this ..."
"I reckon we're for the chop. Don't think we're flavour of the month."
"Nope. Ah well ..." Royce sighed.
"You're accepting the end very well."
Royce shrugged. "Que serra serra. Whatever will be, will be ..."
Aldo joined in "... the future's not ours to see ..." they both sang "Que serra, serra!"
"Silence!" Biroc shouted. They silenced.
"Ah! Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I presume."
A cultured female voice from behind them. A slim, attractive blonde girl appeared through an arch on the other side of the room and came over to them.
"Hey! I know you ..." Aldo exclaimed.
"Yeah! The Time Sensitive ... the one with that bloke."
She smiled and nodded. "All right, Biroc. I don't think they're hostile." Biroc nodded to the guards, who released them.
Aldo rubbed his arms where the guard had held him. "Thanks very much."
"Yeah, likewise," said Royce.
"My pleasure." She sat down at the table and beamed at them. "Now then ..."
Aldo broke in. "Yes, well, thanks very much, but if you could put us on the next flight out of here ..."
Royce joined in: "Anywhere will do. Doesn't have to be anywhere too impressive. We're not choosy." He exchanged a glance with Aldo. "Well, not much."
The girl shook her head. "Sorry, gentlemen. I regret to say that you won't be leaving this place for a very long time. My friends ..." and she glanced at Biroc - "Will insist. However ..." She leapt up and came over to them. She leaned forward conspiratorially. "What do you know about Time Mechanics?"
"You mean like ... clocks and watches?"
"No. I mean like Gugenheim's Theory of Co-Related Chronomatics, and Zanardy's Multi-Spatial Warp State Equation ... you know."
"Errr ... no," said Royce, bemused.
Biroc growled, his eyes glowing. "Possibly!" said Aldo quickly.
"Yeah ... yeah! We're fast learners."
"Excellent!" She clapped them both on the shoulders. "Biroc, meet my two new assistants. Come with me ... I'm sure K-9 can find you something useful to do."
***
Royce sank down on a box beside Aldo, who looked up from his clipboard.
"I dunno, Aldo ... it's all go." He looked up at the pile of boxes and crates they were shifting from over there ... to over there.
"Aye ... it is." He shook his pen. "Mine's not working. Can I borrow yours?"
Royce took the pen from him and studied it. "That is mine. I lent it to you last week."
"No it isn't."
Royce showed him the name on the pen in tiny gold lettering: ROYCE. "See."
"Oh yeah ... got another one?"
"No."
"That's it then." He tossed the clipboard down and folded his arms.
Royce jerked a thumb over at the Tharil gaurds, who had been eyeing them like a lion eyed a herd of antelope. "You tell them that."
He shot a glance at them. He shuddered. He picked the clipboard up, rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a pencil stub. "Right then. Off you go."
"Hold on. I've been humping these boxes all morning. Let's swap."
"They gave the clipboard to me. Wouldn't want to upset them would you?"
Royce squared his shoulders, trying to look tough. "What about upsetting me?"
Aldo considered. Royce was bigger than him. "Oh." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin.
"Let's toss for it."
"Okay."
"Heads I tick the clipboard, tails you don't."
"That doesn't sound right."
"Okay ... Heads you shift the boxes, tails I don't."
Royce pondered. "Okay then."
Aldo flipped.
