Episode 3 - Terror Of The Atom - By The Captain




JUNE 14, 2005 - 3:45 PM

The last few days had been a blur, and Ben still didn't understand why he was
helping an ex-Chinese gymnast move out of a condo in Henderson, Nevada. Lee
and Karla had tried to explain to him that Su-Ling was connected to whatever
secret operation that was being conducted out of the Luxor. The knowledge that
there were non-human installations seemed to be driving Lee insane, he was
spending a lot of time away from his converted missile-base. And for some
reason Lee needed the help of Karla, Lana and Nancy, which left only Patricia,
the over-sexed female gremlin to keep Ben company. And since it would hard for
Patricia to move around in public, Ben was stuck helping Su-Ling by himself.

They were alone in a mostly empty two bedroom condo, it was a quiet that
afternoon, warm with just a hint a traffic noise. Su-Ling wore a sleeveless
pale-green sun dress, complete with matching green and white knee-high socks.
Ben had her help move a few heavy boxes, and though Su-Ling was nearly half
his size she seemed to be lifting more than her share. After an hour he wanted
to take a break, but she seemed untired and ready to continue. So Ben sat down
and pointed to a stack of heavy boxes. As she started to move them he smiled,
for he knew that the one on the bottom contained several heavy metal weights
from an old bar-bell set.

Ben sat and watched as Su-Ling picked up each box in the stack, taking them to
the back porch. When she came to the box with the weight-set she seemed to
pause for a moment, but then continued. For a few seconds there was a flicker
of muscle play along her arms and legs, but this was her only reaction. When
she came back Ben had her sit down and carried the remaining three boxes to
the back porch. On his last trip he found the box that contained the metal
plates and tried to pick it up. Though Ben strained till he saw red he was
unable to lift it. Was Su-Ling that much stronger than he was?

This needed to be investigated. Ben went back to the front room and asked
Su-Ling if she would arm wrestle him. She smiled and went over to the big
table in the dining room. They gripped hands and without warning he pulled as
hard as he could. Su-Ling laughed as Ben nearly slammed her arm down, but she
stopped it a few inches above the table and smoothly pulled their arms back to
center. He reached out with his left hand and began to pull using both arms,
but her only reaction was to giggle and stick out her tongue. Ben then stood
up and put all of his weight into moving her arm. Though he managed to move
her arm a few inches, she seemed to grow a little stronger and pull him back.

How could this be happening? Not only was Ben much bigger than Su-Ling, but
she looked to him like she had the body of a twelve-years-old girl. He looked
down at her now visible biceps, which was good looking for a woman her size,
but should not have been as strong as he was feeling. One look at her bright
smile and he would have thought that he was giving Su-Ling a fantastic
birthday present. With little visible effort she pushed hers arms down to the
table. She stared directly into his eyes as she slowly stood up, forcing him
back and towards the wall. A thin layer of muscle, which he had never noticed
before, jumped into view as Su-Ling shoved him against the wall and began to
rub against him with a clearly sexual purpose. Was there something in the
Nevada air, Ben wondered.

The more he resisted her the more intense and insistent she became. As she
wrapped her slim arms around Ben he began to resist her with more of his
strength. He grabbed her upper arms and pushed down as hard as he could,
trying to lever himself free. Her muscles grew slightly larger and much harder
as she easily resisted his efforts to free himself. Slowly she forced Ben
closer to her, bringing his head down to hers, and her waiting lips. For a few
moments she held him there, he could feel the strength of both her hidden
passion and her unexpected muscles. Something must have pushed her over the
edge, for the next thing Ben knew was that he was in the other bed room, on
the bed, and Su-Ling was taking off her clothes.

"I like it when you try to stop me," she whispered.

He tried to push her away, his hands finding only rock hard muscle. For
several minutes Ben struggled against Su-Ling's body, now swollen with a thin
layer of rock hard muscles. The pressure from her passionate embrace increased
until he could barely breath. She seemed to know that he was now totally
helpless. Ben managed to force her face away from his and was horrified to
discover that her eyes had become totally white. What was going on here?
"Su-Ling! What's happening to you!" he strained to ask. He spotted a large
pipe, the remains of an ill-fated plumbing project, within reach on top of the
headboard. Using the remains of his fading strength Ben grabbed the pipe and
slammed it into Su-Ling's head. For a moment there was no reaction, and then
she folded onto the floor as if she had been unplugged.

Ben examined Su-Ling, but she seemed uninjured by his attack, only asleep. He
picked up her small form and dumped it on the bed. Looking around he found a
roll of heavy fiber-tape, "This stuff might give Nancy a hard time if I used
enough of it." He figured he might only have a few minutes until Su-Ling woke
up, so he quickly wrapped the tape around her wrists and ankles. When he was
finished he had added several loops around her knees and thighs. "I wish
someone would tell be what is going on!"

Ben could see that she was already straining to free herself, small muscles
exploded on her arms and legs twisted and flexed. Ben reached over to fell the
hardness of her straining muscles, they did not feel like the near-fantasy
muscles of Nancy or Patricia the gremlin. No, these felt real, just a lot
harder that what he was used to. After a moment he could hear her grunts and
growls. Her eyes were wide open, showing nothing by white. Faster she moved,
harder she pulled, louder she grunted, "Nothing . . . can . . . stop . . . me!
. . . Must . . . have . . . sex!". Suddenly Ben could hear things beginning to
rip and tear. Slowly Su-Ling stood up as the last of the heavy tape gave way
to her strong muscles.

In that instant of time the very last thing that Ben expected was to be
attacked. With a deadly grace, two female robots jumped through the open
windows on either side of the bed. They scanned the room, determined that
Su-Ling was the greatest threat, turned and attacked her. Ben spun around and
ran towards the front of the condo, and the weapon Lee had given him. As he
sprinted to the front room he snagged his anti-robot pistol and dived back
towards the bedroom. Ben stopped at the doorway and waited for a clear shot.

For several long moment the ninety-pound Su-Ling held back the two
two-hundred-pound robots, her small muscles bulging into view. Slowly they
pushed her back, until they had forced her flat on the floor. Su-Ling still
strained to break free, but she was clearly out-muscled by the robots.
Suddenly, she looked up and saw Ben watching her from the doorway. Her tiny
body started to tremble as she strained harder than before, Su-Ling's muscles
seemed to grow larger and harder. The silent battle began to shift as she
slowly forced her way off of the floor. The two female robots continued to
fight her, but Su-Ling was now clearly stronger than both of them combined.

With a high-pitched grunt that Ben could hear from the doorway Su-Ling tossed
the two robots away from her. As they landed several feet away from her she
raised her arms up and did a double biceps flex. Ben quickly fired two shots,
nailing each female robot in the head. The hand-made sabot-rounds chewed
through the heavy armor and scrapped the internal mechanism. Su-Ling relaxed
her muscles, looked up at Ben, and smiled, her eyes slowly returning to
normal. "Wow Ben! You sure know how to show a girl a good time! I haven't felt
my heart pumping this hard in a long time!" Su-Ling noticed the two robots
sprawled on the floor, "Ben, what does this mean?"

Ben put the gun in his pocket where it would be easy to pull out, "This means
that we load my van with what we got now and drive. If Lee is correct, these
things didn't have far to go. Another team may be here in a few minutes, so
playtime is over . . . for now."

JUNE 14, 2005 - 6:05 PM

Ben could hear Su-Ling and Patricia laughing and squealing in the other silo.
They sounded just like two school-girls talking about "boys" or some other
standard topic. He knew that they were actually having fun beating up several
ultra-muscular video-game women. In front of him were Lee's notes on their
newest recruit, most were too cryptic to understand, except for a yellowed
news story. Ben read the newspaper clipping:

BEIJING (AP) - A genetic mutation made a 5-year-old from West Hunan province
extra strong, but the Chinese doctor who has been studying the girl since just
after her birth says she's just a regular kid. The girl doesn't stand out
among her peers on the playground, but when she puts her mind to it, she can
perform amazing feats of strength, said Dr. Wang Minchun. "She's a normal
girl, you don't see it, you wouldn't recognize her" out of a crowd, Minchun
said. "She can just lift heavy things." Minchun started studying the
super-strong girl after she was brought to Bejing's Jinan University Hospital
shortly after birth because she was twitching. That turned out to be nothing,
but Minchun, a pediatric neurologist, found that even though the girl was well
within normal birth weight, she was particularly muscular. Minchun began
conducting tests and found over the course of eight years that the girl had a
genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth. It is the first human case where a
mutant DNA segment was found to block production of a protein called myostatin
that limits muscle growth, though researchers discovered in 1997 that they
could create mega-mice by "turning off" the gene that directs cells to produce
the protein. Dr. Minchun, who worked with researchers from the United States,
wrote about the case in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, where he
said the discovery could possibly help in the fight against muscle diseases,
like muscular dystrophy. The girl, whose name Dr. Minchun has promised not to
divulge, has muscles twice the size of other children her age and half their
body fat. She was born to a muscular mother, a former sprinter. Her brother
and three other relatives were also very strong, one a construction worker
with a talent for hefting curbstones. Dr. Minchun said scientists have no way
to tell how common the girl's ability is, or if a legion of super-strong tykes
will be discovered now that researchers have learned what to look for. "How
should we know?" Dr. Minchun said. "We have the first case so far."

The clipping was several years old, "This must explain Su-Ling, at least
there's no connection to atomic power," Ben muttered.

A metal orb appeared in front of Ben, "IT IS I, ZARDOZ. I HAVE THE REPORT YOU
REQUESTED."

Ben looked up, "So that is the name you picked? I could have been worse I
guess."

"WIDE-BAND PROBE OF LUXOR CONSTRUCTION HAS DETECTED AN AUTOMATED MANUFACTURING
SYSTEM HIDDEN UNDER THE PRIMARY BASEMENT. WHILE A HIGH-ENERGY ATTACK FROM
ORBIT MAY BE THE OPTIMAL CHOICE, A SMALL COMBAT TEAM MAY BE ABLE TO ENTER THE
FACTORY AND OVERRIDE THE CONTROL SYSTEM"

"Just like Command & Conquer, get an Engineer inside and their War Factory is
ours. I guess we need to do this ASAP, right?"

"CORRECT. THE ENEMY HAS BEEN SENDING OUT AN INCREASING NUMBER OF PATROLS. I
HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DESTROY A NUMBER OF THEM AT RANDOM LOCATIONS, BUT IT IS ONLY
A MATER OF TIME BEFORE I WILL NO LONGER BE ABLE TO HIDE OUR BASE. I WILL
CONSTRUCT AN OVERRIDE MODULE, BUT YOU MUST PLACE IT WITHIN NINE FEET OF THE
BASE CONTROLLER."

"Great. What do you think of our friend Su-Ling? What's with her eyes turning
white and her memory loss?"

"THE NEW RECRUIT APPEARS TO BE THE END PRODUCT OF GENETIC MANIPULATION. THIS
APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN GOING ON FOR SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS. THE MARKERS INDICATE
A POSSIBLE THIRD FORCE."

"Let's see, there are you guys, the ORBS, whoever is making the female robots,
and now there's a third batch of aliens working out of China doing
bioengineering. That last kinda fits what I know. From what I've heard, from
my hobby you understand, many of the strongest women in the world come from
China. Su-Ling would make a great combat monster, except for one small
problem. I don't think she can power-up at will. Not that I wouldn't mind
doing a little foreplay with her, but that could get a little dangerous in the
middle of a fight. That is, unless you can whip up some kind of stimulator or
something for her."

"SUCH A DEVICE IS POSSIBLE. I WILL CONTRUCT ONE."

"Sounds good. If it's possible, make it something she can wear, like jewelry,
so that she can have it with her all the time. Let the others know about the
mission, we'll leave after it get dark. In the mean time, how about some
entertainment?"

"ALL MISSION RELATED EQUIPMENT WILL BE PREPARED. RETURN TO YOUR QUARTERS FOR
SIMULATION."

JUNE 14, 2005 - 6:20 PM

The was a soft knock on the door and then Darla Crane walked into Ben's room,
the light from the hallway made her long red hair look like fire streaming
down. As she stood there smiling Ben punched her in her stomach as hard as he
could. His fist felt like he had hit hard rubber over steel. Darla smiled and
pulled her shoulders back, her large firm breasts strained against the thin
white tee-shirt she was wearing. "Perhaps you'd like something a little softer
to hit," she murmured in a smooth sexy voice. She pushed past Ben like he was
not even there. He closed the door behind her and waved towards the bed. Darla
smiled and sat down on the bed, clearly displaying her trademarks, long legs
and large breasts.

Everything was perfect, ZARDOZ had implanted the memories of thousands of
hours of gym workouts where Darla had sweated to maintain her sexy figure. As
far as she now acted, Ben was but one of many men who had tested her strength
and toughness. He sat down on the bed next to her as she pulled off her
tee-shirt and tossed it on the floor. Darla lay back and he rolled on top her.
Ben began to fondle her firm, full breasts and kiss her as she reached over to
the pillow and put one wrist on top of the other. Ben found a roll of black
duct tape in her purse and started to tie her wrists and ankles together.

"Do my knees and thighs, I feel like showing off", she whispered.

Ben smiled and applied several layers of tape to her slim legs. He returned
his attention to her firm breasts, Darla's entire body trembled with her
growing lust. Her legs became rock-hard as her muscles strained to break her
bonds. Ben was almost tossed off of the bed as Darla snapped her legs apart.
"Sorry lover, but nothing can stop my red steel when I get pumped. Next time
we'll use chains, though they won't hold me more than ten minutes." she
whispered, "Now show me what you've got and I'll try to give you something
hard to hold onto."

Ben stripped off his pants, pushed her short pleated skirt aside and thrust
himself into her. Every trick and secret any woman had every known, Darla
knew, plus she had super-human strength and endurance. She clamped down on him
with a grip that was just short of painful. Ben gripped Darla's slim arms and
squeezed as hard as he could. A lesser woman would have been screaming in
pain, but Darla only flexed her steel-cable biceps harder as she tried to
stimulate him. As they came closer to mutual climax her strength and muscles
grew, her biceps turned from mighty ropes of strength into hard softballs of
power.

"Wow, they was different.", whispered Ben, "I think I'm going to need a
shower." Darla looked at him and smiled, snapped the tape around her wrists as
if it were tissue-paper.

Soon they were both in the shower, covered in soap. No matter where Ben ran
his hands along her slim, strong body, she flexed her muscles. It became a
game, where he tried to catch her muscles relaxed. The more Darla flexed, the
larger her muscles seemed to be. "Were her arms now bigger than mine?",
wondered Ben, "They certainly showed much more muscle than her pictures."

"You've got really strong muscles Darla," said Ben.

Darla pressed her firm breasts against him, "They normally don't show this
much. I'm glad you can see them." She smiled and went into a pose called the
"crab". As Ben watched her muscles explode into view he couldn't hold back any
longer. Reaching out he pulled her towards him and kissed her full on the
lips. Darla responded eagerly and moved towards him, her hard, muscular body
pushing him helpless against the wall. For several minutes a red haze of
passion, or pressure washed over him.

Darla took a step back, breaking their connection, and stood there watching
him recover. As she began to wash herself her muscles slowly shrank back to
normal. When she was done with her shower she looked as she normally did.
Turning off the water, Darla smiled at Ben, and garbed one of his large blue
towels.

"Now that was fun. Call me anytime for a rematch." And with that she dried
herself off, got dressed, and walked out of Ben's room. He noticed a CD on the
bed. "Hey ZARDOZ, I don't remember this part of the simulation."

"I HAVE TAKEN THE LIBERTY TO MODIFY SEVERAL OF MISS CRANE'S MORE POPULAR
PHOTOS."

Ben smiled, "They'll like these on the web."

JUNE 14, 2005 - 10:30 PM

Ben looked at the pass ZARDOZ had created, "I wonder what the heck the Long
Way Club is, sound more like a travel agent that a secret sex club." He
glanced at the elevator controls, "Basement three? Great, that controller is
two levels below that. I hope those maps were right." Ben was alone in the
gold-and-blue elevator as it continued downward. After moment the doors opened
up to reveal a normal looking reception desk was a pretty blonde on duty. As
Ben walked up he noticed that she was over six feet tall and had perfect skin
and teeth.

"Ah, hello, I've got this pass. I was told to come here. Is this the way to .
. . " Ben started to ask. The blonde looked at the pass he held before him,
smiled even more and pointed to a plain door to his right. "It is always a
pleasure to meet a new member! Enjoy your visit!" she said in a voice as
smooth as silk.

Ben smiled back, put the pass back in his pocket, and marched to the door. He
found that it opened into a plain stairwell leading down. "I guess they ran
out of money for decorations, at least this is heading in the right direction.
Better turn on the transmitter so Su-Ling and Patricia can track me." The plan
was for the two females to navigate the maze of utility halls and shafts using
his homing beacon while he played for time inside the secret sex club ZARDOZ
had discovered.

The door at the bottom of the stairwell revealed a large room lined with many
doors. Around the room was a mixture of furniture that looked like it had been
stolen from several Los Vegas hotels. The concrete floor was covered by a
number of rugs that Ben assumed had also been liberated. But what stopped Ben
in his tracks were the large pictures that decorated the walls. Paintings and
photographs shared wall space, each showing a massively muscular woman in
dramatic poses. Ben whispered "You've come a long way. baby."

Ben noticed that there were large lights above nearly every door. Only the
door to the stairwell and a door on the other side of the room lacked the
signal lights. "I wonder where that door leads to?" He started to walk across
the room when curiosity brought him to one of the other doors. Close up, he
could see that each door had pictures and descriptions of women, each door
with a different woman. "Kate the Co-Ed? What kind of sex club is this?" Ben
opened the door and looked in. The room inside looked like a generic
university dorm-room, complete with piles of books and what Ben assumed were
unfinished term-papers. Some hidden sound system generated ambient sound to
match the room, complete with the murmured talking of passing students. It
even smelled like a dorm-room. Everything worked to create the illusion that
Ben was standing in a typical dorm-room somewhere in middle-America.

"Oh, it's that kind of sex club," Ben whispered to himself as he watched the
curvy co-ed in the fluffy pink turtle-neck sweater pump out arm curls with a
dumb-bell that look like it weighed over a hundred pounds. She turned to look
at Ben, smiled and said in a thick southern accent, "I'll be right with you
sugar, let me finish getting ready." He noticed that her breasts and her
biceps were almost exactly the same size. "I'll be right back . . . I've got
to drop a letter off at the . . . dean's office. Yeah, that's right!" Ben said
as he backed out of the room and closed the heavy door.

Ben walked over to a large black-leather couch, punched the signal button on
his transmitter, and dropped it behind the couch. "I don't know if she was a
robot or what, but if there's a woman like that behind all twenty of these
doors I'm in well over my head! Time to check door number two!" He crossed the
large room to the door he hoped led to another stairwell. "Who designed this
place? It's laid out like a map from DOOM. I hope these stairs take me to the
right place!"

At the bottom of the second stairwell Ben discovered that the exit door was
welded shut. The sound of footsteps made him look up. To his horror he saw six
slim oriental school-girls walking down the stairs towards him. "This does not
look good! I could use a little back-up here!" Ben screamed as he pulled out
his modified pistol that was loaded with Lee's hand-made sabot rounds. He
managed to down the first two female robots, but then the remaining ones
started to move at an impossible speed. Panicked, Ben pulled out and tossed
his one fragmentation grenade. The explosion caught three of the four
remaining robots, but the one in the lead easily jumped over the grenade. With
a lightning quick move she slapped the pistol out of his hand, grabbed him by
the throat and lifted him into the air. Ben's world exploded into a red haze
of pain as the robot school-girl began to crush his neck. In a moment all went
dark.

JUNE 15, 2005 - 1:25 AM

Ben felt cold, and every movement brought shock waves of bright white pain. He
opened his eyes, but everything was a blur to him. Suddenly a small female
shape come into view. Ben tried to move away, but felt small strong hands
restraining him. Long black hair cascaded over him as the oriental woman
leaned close to him, "It's OK Ben, it's me Su-Ling! Patricia saved you from
the robot, but you were already unconscious. We don't know what to do. You
were hurt and she went crazy. Now she's upstairs in the big room fighting
robots. Ben, I've never seen anyone as strong as her, but there's hundreds of
robots coming into the room. Once she took care of the ones in those small
rooms they started coming down the stairs. I tried to help, but I can't stay
strong all the time, I have to rest. Ben, please tell me, what do we do?"

He reached up to feel his neck, someone had wrapped surgical tape, giving him
support. Su-Ling smiled, "One of the rooms looked like a mad-scientists lab,
complete with a Bride of Frankenstein who had biceps bigger than you head.
There was a ton of medical supplies, props I guess, and after Patricia
demolished the robot she tossed a big pile of it to me. I really don't know
what to do!" Ben smiled and whispered, "You did good Su-Ling. Now, see if you
can get that door open, OK?"

Su-Ling looked at the door, reached up to squeeze a medallion, and transformed
into her super-strong mode. With one smooth motion she jumped up from the
concrete floor and kicked the metal door with her right foot. The impact
caused dust to shower down and made the ceiling light flicker. After three
more kicks the door had deformed enough for Su-Ling to grasp one edge and
pull. Watching the display of muscles ripple along Su-Ling's slim form revived
Ben, forcing him to focus on the now. He looked around, found his pistol, and
made sure that it was undamaged and ready to fire.

The door was ripped free from it's frame and tossed toward the stairs. Inside
the now-revealed control center Ben saw a collection of strange machines and
mounds of organic-looking cables. "Great, which one of these uber-tech gizmos
is the control module?" Ben mutters as he forced himself to stand up. He felt
Su-Ling at his side, "Sorry Ben, that's all I've got right now. Give me twenty
minutes and I can go super again for you." Ben stroked her now-slim arms and
whispered, "It's time for me to earn my pay."

As he started to walk into the him he noticed a large figure rise from the
floor. Ben stared in awe as the female robot stood up and slowly turned
towards him. "You've got to be kidding me! She's got to be eight feet tall!
That's not a woman, that's a walking fork-lift!" Ben looked down at his
pistol, "Can't wait twenty minutes, I hope Lee knew what he was doing!" He
reached down and moved a selector switch to a mode Lee had warned him to use
only in a dire emergency. Bracing himself against the distorted door-frame,
Ben placed the laser dot on the female robot's chest and pulled the trigger.
The resulting explosion knocked him back and onto the floor.

From inside the room came load crashing noises as the giant robot toppled
backward. Su-Ling helped Ben back to his feet. He tossed the now ruined pistol
aside and walked into the room. He looked down at the now-motionless robot, a
line of small holes led from her chest to her forehead. "So, that's what
full-auto on a gun that size feels like. I think I broke my wrist. However, I
can see why they hid this model from the public. Somehow I don't think that an
eight-foot-tall Dolly Parton would go unnoticed even in Los Vegas."

Su-Ling pointed at a tall crystal pillar, "This looks different from all of
the other junk in here, almost like it was built by someone else."

Ben smiled, "And I bet that someone else traveled a while before getting
here." He reached into a back pocket and pulled out a slim red metal plate and
placed it onto the side of the pillar. For a moment there was a series of tiny
red and green flashes, almost as if a small war was being waged inside of the
pillar. After a moment Ben noticed the silence. "Hey, sounds like the fighting
stopped!" The sound of footsteps made Ben and Su-Ling turn around, in the
door-war a weary looking female gremlin staggered in. "Lover do work good!
Tired I am, but not too tired hero to thank!" Patricia walked over to Ben,
leaped up and kissed him.

"Ouch! Hey Patricia, careful of the neck! That's going to take time to heal!"
Ben yelled. The female gremlin looked up at him and cooed, "Ready I am to
nurse you! You see! I take care of you!"

Suddenly a large metal ball appeared, floating in the air above the giant
robot. "THIS MISSION HAS BEEN A SUCCESS. WE NOW CONTROL ALL ENEMY RESOURCES
CONTAINED WITHIN THIS CITY. THOSE UNITS THAT WERE SEARCHING FOR OUR BASE WILL
NOW BE REORGANIZED TO PROTECT OUR BASE. WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS."

Ben sat down, "First thing, we've got to hide all signs of a battle. That club
has to be rebuilt exactly as it was, but use your simulations instead of
robots for the women. And we've got to beef up the security around this
center, we don't want them to retake it."

"EXCELLENT TACTICS, YOU MUST HAVE RECEIVED ADVANCED MILITARY TRAINING."

"Ha! Actually, I learned that from Command & Conquer. Su-Ling said something
about one of the rooms made up to be a lab, how about turning it into a fully
equipped emergency room. I know I could use some medical aid. How soon could
that be finished?"

"I WILL GIVE THAT A PRIORITY. IT SHOULD BE COMPLETED BY THE TIME YOU ARRIVE.
WILL A FEMALE DOCTOR AND NURSE BE ACCEPTABLE STAFF?"

Ben gasped as he stood up, "Oh yeah, anything will be fine, but it's OK if you
keep to the theme I guess."

JUNE 15, 2005 - 2:05 AM

Ben laid back on the hospital bed, the room around him looked like any modern
hospital. The ambient sound effects included conversations from the hallway
and road noise from the window. He was surprised at the size of the room, it
contained four beds and even had a hospital style bathroom. Around the walls
were several well-stocked cabinets. There was even a magic closet which seemed
to contain an endless amount of medical equipment. A portable x-ray machine
had shown no permanent damage to his neck, but he would require months of
physical therapy. A job that Patricia had instantly volunteered to help him
with.

Both the female doctor and nurse were totally professional and showed a high
degree of medical expertise. They also showed the high degree of muscular
development one would expect from Olympic-class athletes. The doctor
recommended that Ben rest in the "hospital" for at least three days, this
would give his neck time to heal and also give the nurse time to train
Patricia to properly help Ben with his therapy. He slept.

JUNE 18, 2005 - 9:30 AM

The door to Ben's hospital room opened, an amused Lee walked in and smiled
when he saw Ben, "Well, here's the conquering hero! Looks like you had more
luck than we did. We tried to break into six different facilities and got
stopped every time. Though, once I review the files in this system we might be
ready for a rematch. I'm here to take you home, but I'll understand if you
want to stay a while longer!"

"It's a nice place to visit, but I want to go someplace where I can wear
pants." Ben slid off of the hospital bed, grabbed his cloths and walked into
the bathroom to change. "Lee, has there been any reaction to them losing this
base? I keep expecting a massive counter-attack." Ben walked out of the
bathroom, tossed his hospital gown on the bed and joined Lee at the door. Lee
shock his head, "That's the weird thing Ben, we haven't seen a thing. ZARDOZ
is still searching for some central command base, but I'm thinking it's
located off-planet, maybe on the moon."

Ben stepped into the large room, gone were the hap-hazard decorations and
piles of damaged robots. Instead the entire room had been reborn as an
oriental temple with a red and gold theme. Everything matched, the furniture,
the rugs, even the ceiling. Paintings remained on the way, but they now showed
traditional drawings of oriental women at work and play. However, as Ben
looked closer he noticed that both the work and play involved lifting
extremely heavy objects or wrestling with men. He noticed a large number of
full-sized gold statues of athletic women in near-erotic poses.

"Those are a nice touch," Ben said as he pointed to one of the statues. "But
why so many? There must be fifty of these statues."

Su-Ling walked up, "There are sixty in this room and forty in the room above.
There are another hundred stashed in the stairwell that leads to the control
center and in the control center itself. All of them are modified so that even
if we lose the control center they will remain loyal to us."

"Wait, these aren't statues, they're robots? Hey! That's the giant Dolly
Parton robot! But what is she holding in her hand?" Ben took a closer look at
the six-inch figure, "Burt Reynolds? Now there's an obscure reference. So
these are the defense we set up?"

Lee looked up at the eight-foot-tall Dolly Parton, "They are one of the layers
Ben, the sim-girls in the rooms are another piece, and they're armed with
weapons. Really big gun that are way too heavy for you or me to pick up.
ZARDOZ helped with that. He seems to be really getting into this. He also
installed a bunch of laser turrets. See there, they look like smoke alarms and
stuff. He's also been putting in weapon pods all along the outside of the
Luxor. He says that he could convert the entire hotel into a spaceship if we
wanted."

"That would annoy the guests a little," Ben remarked as he walked over to one
of the doors. He noticed that the industrial style signal lights had been
replaced by dragons with red eyes, "I'll be a couple minutes, just keeping a
promise." With that he opened the door, walked in, and closed it behind him.

The dorm-room was exactly as he remembered it, and on the bed Kate-the-coed
continued to pump out arm curls. She smiled as he sat down next to her and
started to fondle her bicep. Under the soft pink sweater he could feel her
muscles swell and bulge. This was no robot, and ZARDOZ was getting better at
his simulations. Ben noticed that the dumb-bell she was using was labeled as
"only" eighty pounds, though he was sure he could see a two-hundred-pound one
peeking out from underneath a pile of very female underwear. A door Ben hadn't
noticed opened up, and a towel-clad co-ed walked in. From the steam and the
smell he was sure she had just walked out from a shower. She didn't look as
massive as Kate, but she was slightly taller and had a lean muscular look,
complete with long visible veins running down her arms and legs. She walked up
to Ben, licked her lips and said, "Hi! I'm Jackie, Kate's room mate. You must
be Ben!", she moved closer to him. He could feel the heat of her body as her
athletic form filled his view, "Just so you know," she purred, "We share
everything!"

JUNE 20, 2005 - 3:15 PM

"ATTENTION, ATTENTION! I HAVE DISCOVERED A CRASH SITE CONTAINED WITHIN THE
NATION-STATE CHINA. ENERGY SIGNATURE MATCHES SUSPENDED ANIMATION CHAMBER. IT
IS POSSIBLE THAT ONE OR MORE CREW MEMBERS HAVE SURVIVED. ADVISE ACTION TEAM
DEPLOYMENT."

Ben and Lee looked at each other, Ben smiled, "You know what this means, don't
you Lee? Road trip!"

NEXT EPISODE: TOMB OF THE ATOM!