Operation: Marraketh
Seg #3: A night on the town
By Shadur t'Kharn

******
Hotel Takkat, penthouse
Time: 'elifno. Evening-ish.
******

	Rens sighed in contentment as he sank into the steaming 
bath and closed his eyes, thinking back at what had happened.

	*Man, what a day.... If somebody walked up to us 24 hours 
ago and told me that I'd be seeing the next sunset in Chiba City 
in another dimension I'd have had him tested for cRaCk-smoking on 
duty....*

	{Good thing Nexx knew that bigwig in at that office. 
Getting jailed would have sucked. Wonder how she can afford the 
penthouse in the local Ritz...}

	*The lady's well connected, obviously.... This is 
probably where she came from in the first place.*

	{Whatever....} and Shad's mind-voice drifted off to 
blissful sleep, leaving Rens alone. For all of 30 seconds until 
he, too, drifted off.

	Several hours later he woke up, dried himself off and 
examined the clothes that had been delivered. The ones he'd been 
wearing had been ruined when he shapeshifted in mid-air, so he'd 
ordered new ones from Room Service. He'd asked for "black and 
casual" and they had obviously done their best to oblige. The 
pants were a pretty basic model that'd go unnoticed nearly 
anywhere on Earth, but the shirt-no, it was more like a tunic-
resembled something more usually seen in the Middle Ages or 
classic Sci Fi movies.

	*Ah well. They'll do. At least they do have bandannas 
here.*

	Rens got dressed and walked out into the living room. It 
was still dark, and the room was empty.

	{They're probably asleep. We might as well do the same.}

	Rens turned around and headed for one of the bedrooms 
when Nexx teleported into the room, nearly landing on him in the 
process.

	"Good, you're awake," she said as he turned around to 
face her.

	"Nexx? I thought everyone was still asleep. Got the 
logs?"

	"Yeah. Here, this is what they managed to recover from 
the logs..." She tapped a few keys on a laptop and a hologram 
appeared in the center of the room, illustrating her narrative.

	"As you can see, there were 7 landings yesterday. Here 
was VR's landing," she continued without looking up as the 
display zoomed in on a group of 6 dots apparently positioned a 
short distance from a coastline. A short distance into the sea, 
that is.

	"... And this is where we came to Chi-lin. This one I'm 
assuming is where you came in, Shad, and this, right here, *has* 
to be VR.." She looked up again as the screen indicated another 
signature similar to that left by the group that had landed in 
the sea. Rens looked at it more closely. Two dots.

	*How many people did she say were unaccounted for?* 
{Kapella, Selvane and Aris. Three.}

	Rens opened his mouth. "But...." at the same time that 
Nexx resumed her recounting, "But..."

	"... There were only two people in that last teleport, 
and we're missing three.." Phoenix finished, emerging from the 
bedroom.

	"Yeah, which means...." Nexx began again.

	".... Someone didn't make it to this side" Shad finished 
grimly.

	"Maybe he did. Look," Nexx said, pointing to the 7th and 
last landing. The same basic signature again, only this time 
smack in the middle of Marraketh.

	"Smack dab in Sponge Central. Hope whoever that is has 
enough sense about him to keep his head down until we get 
there..." Shad mused.

***

	An hour later they were out in the streets, heading to 
the south gates. The basic reasoning was that whoever had landed 
would realize they were lost and head to the nearest large city, 
so it made sense to talk to the gate sentries and inform them of 
expected strangers. 

	The theory was sound, but in practice it turned out to be 
difficult to get the guards to get the message. Shadur and 
Phoenix stood to either side behind Nexx as she tried explaining 
the situation to a guard in several different languages, getting 
louder and more annoyed by the minute. Eventually she got the 
point across to Mr. Thicko and he replied in a language Shad 
didn't know. The general gist was pretty clear, though: "Nope, 
haven't seen 'em" would be an accurate translation. Nexx turned 
around, muttering her opinion of the guards under her breath. 
"Guess we should head back to the hotel to get some quick food 
and then start searching again." The group turned around and 
walked silently back to the hotel. 

	Before 5 minutes had passed a massive commotion broke out 
behind them, followed by the distinctive sound of someone running 
directly at them. Shad whirled around, slipping into a combat 
stance, to see a burly man of Slavic descent running towards them 
with a group of guards hot on his tail. What was astounding, 
though, was the VR-R&D patch on his uniform. Shad tapped Nexx on 
the shoulder, causing her to turn around and spot the newcomer. 
"Selvane?" she muttered in disbelief. "Nexxus?! Could you get me 
out of this?" he said, sounding slightly out of breath and highly 
worried.

	{Talk about Deja Vu....} *there's something familiar 
about this...*  Rens and Shad commented to each other at almost 
the same time. He grinned as Nexx noticed the guards coming at 
them and realized the problem.

	"Aww, dammit, not again.... Right, put your hands over 
your head and don't move."

	Selvane blinked. "*What*?!?!"

	"Stand still! I can't do anything for you until after 
you've been taken into custody, so you'll have to play the good 
little prisoner until they haul you to the kaetoonk."

	Selvane didn't look too happy with this, but complied.

	"Oh yeah, Aris is back at the gate." he said before 
turning around to surrender to the large squad of guards standing 
behind them. Nexx grumbled to herself some more while the squad 
hauled Selvane off and one of the guards walked up to them to 
inquire them as to the incident.

	Phoenix was chuckling. "First Shad, now Selvane-Oof!" as 
a well-aimed jab in the ribs with an elbow shut him up. Nexx 
snickered and pulled them both back in the direction of the gate. 
"C'mon, let's go get Aris."

	Aris had already made it into Chi-Lin when they'd gotten 
there, so collecting here was a matter of finding where she'd 
gone to and tapping her on the shoulder.

******
Back in the hotel
20:30 equivalent local time.
******

	Aris, Phoenix and Shad were in the middle of a Mortal 
Kombat-like game when Nexx walked back into the main room with 
Selvane in tow. Shad ignored her and concentrated on the game 
until she stepped in front of the screen.

	"Hey, watch it! Game on!"

	"Firefoots Feth'ra! Will you *MOVE*?"

	"Nexx! Outta the way!"

	Nexx jumped back out of the way, and Shad resumed 
pounding into Phoenix while dodging Aris's strikes until Nexx 
yelled "Enough Mortal Kombat for now, guys."

	Shad's groan of protest counterpointed Aris' pouting, but 
Phoenix turned the console off and they regarded Nexx.

	"Selvane Vladiva, meet Shadur t'Kharn and Phoenix. Shad, 
Phoe, meet Mr. Vegetable...."

	Shad sniggered with Phoenix while Aris threw a pillow at 
Selv. "That's for making me wait half an hour in the cold by 
myself!"

	"Knock it off, you two. We can talk about it over dinner 
and drinks. I'm buying." Nexxus interjected before Selvane could 
reply.

	*Best idea I've heard today.* "Gentlemen, I believe our 
mission CO has spoken!" With that Shadur bounced to his feet and 
walked for the elevator doors, calling his jacket to him in the 
process.

***

	{Ya know, I could get used to living in this place}

	Rens agreed completely with his bond-mate's comment. This 
was one of the best nightclubs/restaurants he'd been to in years. 
The entire lower floor - which could have harbored a football 
field, a basketball court and a Roman-style amphitheathre with 
ease - was one big dance floor which was basically the same as 
any other in, say, Hollywood on the night off for the cast from 
Babylon 5, and the upper stories were quite pleasantly-decorated 
restaurant booths, one of which the team was sitting now, having 
a couple of drinks while their food orders were being dealt with.

	Topic of the day was, of course "Mister Vegetable".
	
	".... And then he *punched* the guard out, right in front 
of everybody!" Aris recounted as everyone else, including Selv, 
chuckled.

	"And then the locals started pelting him with produce," 
Nexx continued, and then downed the last of her drink, something 
she called "drykkur" - a beverage that seemed to be as popular 
hereabouts as beer was back on Earth. He'd tried some, and it 
wasn't too bad.
	"No, no, no no," he interrupted, "*FIRST* he comes up and 
asks you for help, and gives you this total blank look when you 
tell him to hold still, and *then* he gets carried off to the 
slammer while getting pelted at."

	Phoenix burst out in peals of laughter, with everyone 
else joining in. Nexx got up on her seat and yelled for another 
round of drinks, which were promptly delivered by a waiter whose 
professional smile was being put through some heavy-duty testing.

	Selvane looked up from behind his enormous tankard of 
Earth-style rum, and asked "So what did you do while we were 
gone?"

	Shad's mind-voice chuckled. Rens grinned. "Well, we sort 
of 'winged it', so to speak..." and he began to recount their 
experiences in the past few days, much to everyone's renewed 
chuckling. 

	The evening went on quite enjoyably until suddenly all 
the lights flickered and the music died out. Everyone looked 
around in surprise, but Phoenix was the first to voice everyone's 
theory: "A brown-out?" This was confirmed by the voice of the PA. 
"Sorry, folks, but there's been a power surge from the blenders 
and the whole kitchen is toast. Food orders are gone, and we 
won't be able to start repairs until tomorrow morning. No more 
munchies for tonight, I'm afraid. But hey, free round for 
everyone on the house!"

	"No problem, we'll get some food back at the hotel," Nexx 
shrugged as she got up and walked towards the stairs. The others 
followed her until she stopped at the top of the stairway. "Hey, 
you guys wanna hit the dance floor for a bit before we leave?"

	Rens paused for a sec to consider the music. Pretty good, 
low bass throbbing and a heavy percussion set beating out the 
rhythm. "Haven't danced in a while... Why not?" he answered, then 
hurried downstairs with Nexx, Aris only a few steps behind.

***

	The throbbing beat was almost hypnotic, and Rens lost all 
awareness of time while he moved with the rhythm. Shad, on the 
other hand, was using the opportunity to study his companions a 
little closer. Aris was dancing with a feline humanoid, moving 
with a smooth grace Shad doubted he could match even in his 
dragon form, and Nexx was swaying with the swift and sure 
movements he had come to associate with trained soldiers. Phoenix 
was bouncing up and down in the gangly way of someone who wasn't 
used to dancing, and Selvane was standing just off the dance 
floor, staring at Aris and her companion, the expression on his 
rugged features unreadable.

{Don't get into it, pal. Dragons aren't meant to have romantic 
lives. It always goes wrong...}