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The last word Doc said echoed in Stones head as his mind crawled back to the ship,

 ‘frictionlessly’

back to the white leather captains chair,

‘frictionlessly’

back to the small porthole Stone was looking out,

‘frictionlessly’

back to the violent shaking and spinning of the stars in his eyes…and then he exhaled. 

“Holy crap…it worked.”

Stone let his titan’s grip of the armrests go and threw his hands out in front of himself letting his elbows give a loud * CRACK * before pulling up his vid screen.  On the screen was one green word in the center of a sea of black pixels. 

 

READY?

 

Stone watched the cursor below the word flash in a hypnotically metered fashion.  He began to sing the tune “Duke of Earl” in time with the cursor flashes which were incredibly slow and so the version of the song that began to infect his mind sounded more like a death march than doo-wop.  Boots with trousers tucked in, trousers with shirts tucked in, shirts with soldiers tucked in, soldiers with jaws tucked in, jaws with teeth tucked in, teeth slowly chattering to the dull beat of the ‘Duke of Earl’ death march as the President addresses the known universe via mega-satellite.  There were rows of teeth in rows of soldiers in rows of platoons in rows of armies in rows of nations in rows of planets in rows of galaxies all watching, all waiting, all fearing things they know they don’t know and wish they never had. 

“My fellow Universicans,” the President began his speech as he began all speeches.  He liked to exude an air of familiarity with the common man while still asserting his egocentric dominance over the inhabitants of the known universe.

“We are at a turning point in history.  A point where we must decide if we are going to roll over and take it like my… ahem… ’a’ cheap hooker, or if we will stand up and face what’s coming head on."  The President stared at his vid-prompter as the words, 'Hold for applause', flashed bright white through his thick glasses lenses, onto his tobacco stained corneas, through his optic lenses, flipped upside-down onto his corneas, relayed back to his angry and self-conscious brain only to be flipped back right-side-up.  There it was, large as the universe, and he couldn't help focusing on the word, 'Hold'.  Hold on, hold tight, hold yer horses.  Horses with long flowing manes and robust bosoms like a German bar maiden.  Horses running across a beach, wind blowing their hair, heaving breasts swaying in slow motion like his great grandmother President's angel food Jello mold.  Ahh grammie.  Then he continued.

"About a month ago our scientists began receiving untranslatable messages from what appears to be the heart of the Sun.  After gathering the worlds top scientists, linguists, and xenologists, we have a pretty good idea that these messages are declarations of war.  We will not sit idle by and allow some cretins from the Sun to come down to our sandbox and take all our toys!  If these Sunners want a war we are going to bring it to them.  We are at war with the UNKNOWN and we have just the guy to kick the UNKNOWN’s ass!  We are sending Stone to the heart of the Sun.”

The world erupted into blind excitement over the prospect of another epic battle for Stone, while Stone sat aboard the DVDA powered ship with his finger hovering over the ‘y’ key on the keyboard in front of his vid screen.   He had never been nervous about any battle or foe but something about this mission gave him pause.  He had never felt fear before, not like the kind the DVDA put him through and now he was about to press a button that would accelerate his and the ships atoms to the vibrational frequency of the Sun’s.  The DVDA was at half power at the moment and that force alone had almost ripped him into subatomic vapor.  Stone’s face was glowing white hot.  In fact, the entire inside of the ship was so bright it made Stone’s brain hum.  Stone’s pupils were microscopic as the giant, blurry Sun poured over his eyes through his ship’s porthole.

“If Doc’s device doesn’t kill me,” Stone thought, “I’m gunna kill every last living thing I find in there.”  Stone took one last deep breath…. “Fuck it”… and his finger depressed the ‘y’ key.