LOOP THE LOOP

Mij Slochin lay down quietly in his compartment; safe from the hustle and bustle of running a starship. He sneakily reached underneath his bunk and pulled out an object approximately the shape of a small bread box. He slowly turned a small dial on the front of it, once right, then left, then right again until a lid popped open on the top. He closed the lid and again tried the combination; again the lid popped open. This time he placed the box on the floor and took out a gas mask from inside a cupboard, then locked his compartment door. He pushed a small button on the center of the dial and a strange pink smoke began to fill the room. Quickly he reached his hand into the box, and pushed on something. He stepped back and, after hearing a loud "boom" come from within, pulled out a very similar box. This time he talked into a small receiver on the cover. "Mij Slochin."

"Voice pattern matched."

A small hand came out of nowhere; it sort of melted out of the side of the box. Mij put his palm flat against the hand.

"Fingerprint pattern matched."

The hand went back in and came out again, only this time it toted a small book. Mij took off the mask, smelling the air and noting that the strange pink gas had faded to nothing. He lay back down on his bed and began to read.

The book, of course, was the famed Diary of Wisdym; he had read the thing back and front many times; yet, somehow, he always enjoyed it more and more each time; perhaps it was the fact that he always hoped he could find out more about the past, and, most importantly, about Taft's death. He knew that the Tiara of Phumos could solve many of the questions, but Taft II refused to let anyone use it, because, "My father used it to kill himself."

Mij approached the end of the book; and again he found out nothing. He sighed in exhaustion as he read the last entry; "Oh, well," he muttered.

And then his fingernail caught on something. Four or Five pages at the very end had somehow gotten stuck together, and he frantically tried to carefully unstick them. Finally they came:

May 17, 1994

Dear Diary,

Tomorrow is the day that Ozino has chosen for the combination of the Power; so this will be my last entry. I will, however, end this fantastic book with a most fantastic entry; the history that Aven and I made this day.

You see, Diary, today Aven and I met in a far distant place in the forest; far from Ozino's watchful eye. Aven's two sons, Alyne and Suaet were there too. I was surprised to see them, for I thought that this was to be Aven and my last time to be together: but it turned out that he had a lot more planned than just a few kisses. He had created a plan that would continue his genetic line after Ozino's plan had destroyed us. Founded underwater, just off the coast of Brazil, Alyne had built a place that he called "The Room without doors." Powered by technology beyond my knowledge, the primary brain of the entire complex was a computer known as PUTR. Even before I knew the purpose of the computer, however, I was horrified by it; because, you see, PUTR was not just a machine. It was a machine run by the power of two human minds. Suaet and his wife, Ayne, were its first victims: They had agreed to dispose of their bodies to become the mind of PUTR.

The purpose of the complex was to keep Alyne's body alive throughout untold centuries, and, to let it live once more only when it was needed by the world. I will get to a few details, later, but first I have to brag: You see, I too was given a job. And I was asked to do quite an impressive thing: To create two holograms to protect the Room. At first I disagreed with the entire idea: I didn't want anything to do with a machine that needed people to die before it could operate! Oh, but you do know how persuasive Aven is. Oh, I love that man!

I decided to make the holograms quite powerful, to protect the room from strong strangers; quite ugly, to scare away the unwanted and quite out of the norm, to accentuate the Power of Aven and me.

The final product matched my original hopes exactly. The holograms I created were huge creatures, roughly eight feet tall and two and a half feet wide; they were tinted in an odd, brownish-orange color, and had strange green moss seeping out as fur. Their body structure was proportionate to that of a human's; however, their huge, gaudy mouths were located deep within their necks, giving the appearance of strange moving ho1es where their chins should have been. Their sickly yellow teeth moved in an accordian-like fashion, going in and out, in and out. Their noses were flat: They wouldn't even have been called noses except for the fact that there were two holes cutting at an angle from underneath them. The only speck of color in the gigantic monsters were their large, blue eyes; but they were so huge that they appeared to be connected only by the optic nerves. Their hands had five fingers, much like a man's, but each one also contained a huge pointed spike in the middle of each palm. Aven loved the creatures, and he made them real in the Mystic Wind. The end result was absolutely perfect; my holograms had all the powers and weaknesses of men except for one: They could not be destroyed. After all, what can you do to a hologram? And they made the perfect guards. They would fool anyone, anytime; for they looked so real: They were indestructable and no one would ever know why. One of them, which we named Bindletime, was teleported to the Euphrates River. Bindletime would be awakened from a constant sleep if ever Alyne's body was awakened. The other we named Gibbenhide. He was placed in the Mississippi River, to awake and seek revenge if ever, parish the thought, Alyne's body died. You see, (now we get to the details) the room was set up so that, if required, Alyne's body could last an eternity. The soul of Alyne, though, could not be affected by PUTR, and would have to die after a certain allotment of time. The idea was set up, then, that other souls would exist in his body after his soul died; sort of children of the mind. Each one would serve their alloted lifetime in Alyne's body, then they would give way to their own children. Names were even picked for these mental descendents: Alyne's first descendent was to be named Ledic, after the original descendent; the second Inev, after Aven's brother; the third Avin, after my cousin; the fourth Suaet after the son that gave his life to be a computer; the fifth Iven, after my uncle; the sixth Grogi, after Aven's great grandfather; the seventh Mimben, after Aven's other brother; the seventh Ralph, after my father; the eighth Onizo, a name I put in that Aven reversed; the ninth Biffin, after Aven's first son, who died at birth; the tenth Archimedes, after my pet dog; the eleventh Frigzip, after my pet name for Aven; and the twelfth Excho, after my husband's good friend. After the twelfth descendent the cycle of names would be repeated.

As it grew closer to nighttime, Aven finally gave the word for PUTR to begin operation, and thus he ended the lives of Ayne and Suaet. We then returned to the motel and talked about tomorrow: He told me of his decision of a Key; A beautiful multi-studded harmonica would hold his powers. Personally, I prefer my idea: A beautiful Amulet to be worn around the neck. Oh, well. Each to his own.

Well, Diary, I guess its time to say goodbye forever. I have made my Amulet, and tomorrow I will... well... I wonder what will happen to us after our essense has left into our Key. Who knows... maybe....

No. This is the end. My only regret of this life is that I couldn't have held faithful...

Mij Slochin slowly closed the book. That answered a whole heck of a lot of questions. He put the book back into the still outstretched arm of the box. It took the book, returned into the box, and somehow, magnetically perhaps, slid into the bigger box. A small red light near the dial was proof that all defense systems were functioning.

Mij slowly lied down on his nice soft pillow, and began to fall asleep. "Pet dog indeed."