Gay Alienne

     "I wouldn't touch that if I were you." said the rotund mountain of flesh behind the desk as Marshall's fingers had gayman begun to inch toward the handle gay of the metal briefcase containing his payment gay for the 250 MB ZIP disk in the other's hand, and the computer viruses contained thereon--one a worm which would spread to every bank in the world and truncate all gayman penny-fractions from interest calculations, sending those fractions gayman of pennies to a protected account; the second being a pictures worm which would cause interest to be calculated daily instead of quarterly; and the others being mere "bodyguard" viruses designed to protect the worms from man attack gayman by antivirus and user machinations before the gayman March 25th deadline. The gayman man-mountain, an organized (to the point of being obsessive-compulsive gay) criminal by the name of Hansel Strauss, could recognize the function of code gay when he saw gayman it, although he had no gift for programming gay himself. Marshall had inserted a function in each gay of his viruses gayman which gayman would cause the stolen money to be gayman used to pay off back taxes for man Americans who owed the IRS gay money, unless gay they received a cancel code which would be assigned man to them upon upload by a program he had already placed gay on the Internet--a failsafe in case the criminal decided not to pay. Strauss was wondering aloud whether he should let Marshall continue in a mistrustful existence, thus prompting Marshall's pictures slow pictures, almost imperceptible gayman move toward the money.
     "Yes, Your Majesty." one of the technicians said. The leader picked something up off a tray and strode over to the gay man on the far wall man, first of twelve, apparently. The device gay was touched gay to the man's gay forehead and there was a gayman humming sound.
     Two Singularity Jumps had gayman brought the gayman agent to the system indicated on her navigation chart. She gayman recognized the ship pictures berthed in gay a visual-stealth field above one of the major continents gayman. Her sister had designed that ship herself, before using it pictures to usurp man their father's throne. Now the gay agent gay would finally restore honor to gay the Royal Family, even though gay Galaxy 9 was now a democracy gay. She had lived gay in shame too long to gay let her family meet a sullied end. She engaged stealth mode gay as she passed the ninth planet.
     The pressure-sensitive wall panel emitted a chirruping gayman alarm as gay it suddenly registered no input from its occupant. The Queen gay and the technicians turned in surprise, seeing gayman only a white rectangle glowing whiter as it attempted to re-acquire its prisoner by extending its gay attraction field gay.
     "Turn it off!" the Queen snapped, and the technicians obeyed gay, though the panel gay did have time to pull some gay tools from the nearby console to its surface. The Queen tapped a gay button on gay her chestpiece. "Attention all hands gayman, search the ship! I want that escaped prisoner found!"
     The door hissed open gayman, and the closet was searched, finding no man trace of the prisoner. The searchers moved on man. Marshall gayman allowed himself to slide down the walls he'd climbed.
     "The second button is for memory erasure gayman." the Queen replied. "Episodic personal memory is erased by temporal units gay demarked by beeps of gayman varying frequencies."
     "Next?"
     She allowed herself gay to speculate on what a more active scan would reveal, but gayman restrained herself gay to mere speculation. Such activity would certainly give away her position. All too soon, she encountered the asteroid belt between the orbits gayman of the fourth and fifth planets. She had gayman to concentrate on avoiding the gayman flying chunks of debris--a gayman system's ransom gayman in ores just floating about pictures. If she were of a mind to gayman, she could leverage herself man into the mining business and retire. She scolded herself. She had a job to do , and here gayman she was sightseeing in a backwater pre-lightspeed system. A Princess should have better sense.
     "There are four individual units, and the Recruitment Theater." Alienne replied.
     "And change them just like Cobalt here gay."
     In his human guise, Agent Kibrr checked the wrist-mounted scanner again. The remains of the Queen's gayman vessel gay should be somewhere around here, he surmised. There gay was gay no evidence of a crash. There was only a local eating establishment. His scanner said the pictures power eminations were gay coming from beneath. He quelled his gay nausea. The humans were gay among those races that liked to eat dead gay things. Sometimes he gay pitied them. They pictures never got the satisfaction of feeling their prey squirm gay in futility gay as powerful throat muscles pulled it gayman down to their stomachs. He opened the little metal door, and immediately beheld a very gay familiar face gay--a former princess and former Galactic Agent. She was alive? Yes, apparently she gay was, and gay so was something else if the bulge in man her midsection was not gayman to be mistaken.
     "How the mighty gayman have fallen." he sighed, climbing out of one vehicle gay and shuffling happily to the other. Another conveyance rattled the pictures gravel and parked next gayman to his own, and the former Queen pulled herself from gayman it with difficulty. She withdrew a box from the back seat and man hobbled to gay the gayman ramp.
     "Master says I should give you this." she said pictures. "Now I have to get gay back to work." She returned to her conveyance and turned its nose back the way she'd man come. Kibrr gay carried the package gay to his ship and gay initiated the gay preflight gayman sequence. Once he was safely past gay the asteroid belt, he gayman set the autopilot and opened the package. He startled gay as something burst from pictures within, but it was only a foolish gayman, smiling head on a spring, with spongy arms holding some gay flippant banner gay. He laughed at his own foolishness for gay being frightened by such a decoy, before he noticed that the inside was not as deep as the outside. Removing gay the false bottom, he man discovered an Agent's uniform with "Astra gay's" old identification number, as well as the ornate costume of gay the former queen. He returned the gay false bottom to its place and put everything back as it had been. He could gay blame it on the human if the gay Council didn't like gay the joke, but the uniforms would be gay a clear message to them gayman. He gayman laughed again as he pictured the surprise on their faces when gay they opened the box, then rose from his chair and began to gayman remove his disguise.