Chaos Theory

Zhevoon, or Joe, frowned at the parchment. He began to laugh. He cried out to the stone walls around him, "You can't contain me you superstitious King!"

The Guard yelled through the bars, "Shut up you unworthy miscreant!"

Joe ignored the Guard, "King Steve III, if you think you can keep me behind these bars, why don't you come here and guard me personally!"

As if hearing the summons King Steve III thundered down the hall, "Joe, speak now! Where are you from? What is your mission?"

"My Uncle sent me. He wants me to get a loaf of bread."

The King frowned, "Quit playing games Joe. I can have you killed right here. Tell me the truth!"

"I was only repairing some damage. I'm done know."

The King shrugged, "Well, doesn't matter, the lad said that Joe would lie. Just kill him."

"What? Kill? Me?" Joe looked around; he glanced at the wizard's hat he held. He pulled out a small handheld phasing device. He punched a button and phased out.

The King stared at the space that Joe had occupied, "Hmm… it seems that he was a wizard after all, but he has destroyed himself, sparing us the duty."

As soon as Joe had gotten back to his spaceship (his phasing device connected to the ships powerful Phase Computer) he took a shower and cleaned himself of the Dungeon filth he had acquired. Then he went straight to the Order Corporation headquarters. The man he was looking for worked on the third floor in a fairly large office.

"Jack, quit cheating! You have to follow the Rules! I can't keep pulling your… heh-heh… fat out of the fire."

Jack swiveled his chair to face Joe. Even ...

Corporate Angst

Klaff Kulban was enraged. He was always enraged, at something, or nothing, or maybe neither. Being Director of Unreasonable Questioning had its perks, but Klaff was the kind of guy who didn't let power go to his head because power was already in his head. He stamped into the boardroom¹ and was surprised to find the board members already in session.

"How dare you meet without one of the Directors!" shouted Klaff, his anger intensifying like a sun in a magnification lens.

The Director of Unreasonable Questioning was very good at his job. His last statement qualified as being an unreasonable question by the "How" that fronted it. Of course, the board was ready for Unreasonable Questioning and had drawn numbers as to who would confront Klaff. The intern, Gim, who happened to be handing out sodas at the time, as luck would have it, got the low number.

"Umm… Mr. Kulban… sir… the other guys said that they would have invited you…"

Klaff focused his anger beam at the poor intern, "Would have invited me?"

Gim began to sweat under the Unreasonable Questioning, "Sir, they needed to… you know… get things finished. Dr. Scrimly said that your Unreasonable nature would slow matters down and… The Director of Indirectness said you were a bad metaphor waiting to happen or some such thing… after all, he is very Indirect…"

Klaff turned to the Director of Indirectness, "A bad metaphor waiting to happen? Why you ugly little indirect piece of…."

Gal Pomposity, the Pointed Director² interrupted, "Sit down Mr. Kulban. What would Bob think if he found his board members arguing like this? We should get down to business ...

Chapter 3

"Rojer Bursh-Thornis-Eurk!" growled the figure shrouded by the darkness of the middle conference room; "May he choke on his own ego!"

A young intern glances in the direction of the CEO, and then back at his notepad. The only legible scribbles reading "d-on@frex.ish.net."

Thrice a mechanical clock chimes, and then thrice a gavel hits the ornamental table of the middle conference room. A figure emerges from the door, his face illuminated by the open door, "Sir, a report has, c-c-come in from our s-s-server at Kemnix. The prospects do not look g-g-good, it seems that S-S-…"

The CEO growls, "SpaceDep!"

"Yes, sir. They are stopping us at all c-c-corners sir," the guest said hesitantly.

"You have failed me once again Frexlem. May your tree be filled with maggots. Guards, seize him and put him where Kem will never find him!" the CEO shrieked.

Two gigantic burly forms seem to materialize behind the CEO, their tails seeming to be almost a yard high, and grabbed the ex-Frexlem. Shoving his body out kicking and screaming the guards chuckled, a very inhuman sounding rasp.

The CEO sighed, "I am the controller of the Internut, and yet I can not even get two stupid pests out of the way of my plans."

The intern looked at the other members of the board and noticed how they all had a look of mild indifference on their cheeks. That frightened her, as did the surreal dark surroundings.

The CEO turned to face the intern although it was almost imperceptible in the dark of the middle conference room, "Grefni, forgive me my manners, I am sorry about letting you see such bloody details of business life on your first day."

Feeling a bit scratchy in ...