Andrew Roller Presents
THE FADING UNIVERSE

CHAPTER NINE

	They were a pair of svelte, bare-breasted naiads, clad only in bikini panties.  Aleta had tresses of gold and a matching tuft of half-covered pubic hair; Julie's eyes were almond, the color of her thoughtfully tanned flesh.
	A humid breeze wafted over the water.  It caressed a golden stretch of sand that ran along the coast.  Beyond, cliffs rose toward a hidden ceiling far above.  Clouds misted out of faraway vents beyond the sky to give the illusion of summer.  To Julie and Aleta, this was summer.  A part of the universe that was warm, sheltered from turmoil.  Here the rich, faraway from the factories that turned out their wealth amidst grime and dirt and industrial decay, lounged and tried to forget how they earned their money or what the future might bring.  Oasis Seven, it was called.  It began as a spaceport but as the ringworlds grew it became just another part of the interlocking universe.  After the war it lay dormant for a time.  Now it was rejuvenated.  With humans, that is.  The crabs and turtles and fish had never left.    
	"We're almost there," Julie called to Aleta.  The girls straightened up in the old dinghy and regarded the coast.  Behind them lay a wall.  It was metal, once the hull of a ringworld, with deep space just outside.  Now it was disguised so that, viewed from the shoreline, one supposed one saw a distant horizon, perhaps with a wind-filled sailing ship crossing it, going from one part of a long-ago empire to another.  In fact, prying open a hull door, much as one might to enter the inside of an airliner or another part of a naval ship, the girls had simply undressed, inflated their raft, and set off for summer.  They left a tangle of torn up Lifecolumns and wiring behind.  The skeleton of the universe pulsed on, but on the other side of the door theyÕd come through it was mostly dead.  A flew glimmers here and there perhaps, nothing more.  A few signals going from one part of the cosmos to another; guiding, adjusting.  Oasis Seven depended on those Lifecolumns to avoid spiraling into the nearest sun but, not surprisingly, few at Oasis Seven knew that.  The ones who did had recently sold their property, quietly, and left the sector.  Summer would set record temperatures soon.  But not soon enough to interrupt the fun of Julie and Aleta.  They knew of the failure of the Lifecolumns.  And they knew when to leave Oasis Seven.  For now, there was plenty of time to enjoy it, one last time.
	The ancient motor at the raftÕs stern puttered faithfully.  Julie guided the boatÕs small rudder toward a thick post that stood at an angle just off the curving shoreline.
	A tranquil wind rippled the diaphanous fabric that clung loosely to Julie's flared hips.  While Aleta wore the lower half of an abbreviated two-piece bathing suit, Julie had been forced to settle for underwear.  A bright morning sun blazed across the azure sky and shafted through the crotch of Julie's drawers to delineate her veiled labia.
	Aleta knelt on a board that traversed the front of the raft and looped a length of fibrous rope over the waiting post.  She stepped into the warm ankle-deep water and gently guided their craft up onto the beach.
	Julie gathered up the girls' belongings and joined her friend on the sand.  Together the padded up the shore several yards and unfolded their blankets.
	Aleta's eyes wandered down the silent beach and out across the still blue sea.
	"There's nobody in sight," she remarked to Julie.  "Let's tan naked!"  Julie was about to protest when Aleta, squealing with gleeful abandon, pulled at the drawstrings on Julie's undies and stepped back as the brunette's only tie with modesty skittered down her legs.  Then Aleta hooked her thumbs into the front of her own bikini bottom and slipped it down her thighs.  
	Julie picked her panties up off the sand and flung them at Aleta.
	"You're an incurable hedonist!"  Julie said.
	Aleta laughed and kicked away her bikini bottom. 
	"I just want a body that's brown all over, without any silly white patches," Aleta said, and dove onto her towel.
	Julie seated her bare bottom on a quilted spread.  She took the girls' bottle of tanning lotion from their tote-bag.  Aleta cupped her hands and Julie squirted some ointment into Aleta's palms.  The blonde stretched out on her back and rubbed the fluid over the gentle mound of her tummy.
	Julie squeezed a dollop of salve onto the peak of each of her breasts.  She worked the balm carefully into each tinder pink areola, then spread it generously over her creamy bosoms.
	Aleta procured another handful of coconut oil and diligently applied it to the narrow white strip of skin that traversed her pubic mound.  Then she lifted up each leg and coated her cinnamon thighs.
	Julie spotted a figure jogging toward them along the tide line.
	"Omigosh!"  Julie blurted.  "someone's coming!"
	"If it's a female, she ought to join us," Aleta said calmly.
	"It's a husky young man," Julie said.
	"Mmm," Aleta murmured, spreading her legs and stroking the inside of her thighs as her tongue whetted her upper lip.
	"Why, it's Marvin!"  Julie exclaimed, catching sight of his right side as he rounded a bend on the coast and came into full view.
	Aleta squeaked delightedly.  She rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her right arm.  Julie dropped shyly onto her belly.
	A minute later Marvin came jogging up and halted, panting, before the girls.  
	"What are you two doing?"  Marvin asked, surprised.  His sweaty chest heaved rhythmically.
	"Pull off your trunks and join us," Aleta invited.
	"That would interrupt my training," Marvin said.
	"Not a bit," Aleta laughed.  "Why, we needn't just lie here like a couple of lazy sea slugs."  Her fingers played over Julie's upturned derriere.  "You could lead us in an exercise program."
	"For your genitals?"  Marvin asked.
	"If you wish," Aleta replied demurely.  "Or, for instance, I've been given to understand that Julie's rectum could use a good workout."
	At once Julie threw herself onto her back.
	"It does not!"  Julie shouted.
	"I mean your pussy!"  Aleta giggled, delving between the girl's legs to expose her vagina.
	"I think you're the one who needs some drilling," Marvin said to Aleta.  He and Julie pounced upon the squirming girl and began plying her erogenous zones.

###
	Marvin lay upon his back.  The cheeks of his buttocks clenched together as he discharged violently into Aleta's womb.  Julie straddled his face, the folds of her vulva pressed against his mouth.
	Suddenly Marvin felt a small, sharp pain on his chest.  Then another, and a third.
	"Ouch!"  Marvin let out a muffled cry.  "Damn girls!  Quit pinching."
	Suddenly the girls screamed and toppled off Marvin.  He raised himself in alarm onto his elbow.  both girls were rolling on the sand, writhing in pain, their nude bodies covered with black beetles.
	Marvin jerked his head back with an agonized grimace as a wave of insects stormed over him.  Two dozen roaches penetrated the orifices of Marvin's body as a thousand more washed over his taut frame, their razor jaws biting deep into his epidermis.

###
	Noxious fumes filled Marvin's nostrils and he awoke, coughing.
	"Hello, Marvin," a disembodied voice said politely.
	Marvin suppressed a second spasm of hacking and looked around him.  The beach was littered with the corpses of dead cockroaches.  A light gale swept in off the placid sea, blowing the insects into charcoal-colored drifts.  Aleta and Julie lay nearby.
	The girls sat up slowly, moaning.  Suddenly they saw their bodies.  They were each covered with a thousand little droplets of blood.  Several hundred beetle carcasses dangled from their skin, the bugs' rigid mandibles clinging resolutely to their flesh, even in death.  As the girls watched the last roaches struggled and expired, victims of the lethal vapors that Marvin, Aleta, and Julie were inhaling.  For a moment the two girls just stared in horror.  Then they clapped their palms to their cheeks and began screaming mindlessly.
	"Quiet!  I'm trying to think!"  A voice boomed.
	"Perry!  Is that you?"  Marvin asked, startled.
	"Greetings, mortal," the voice said disdainfully.
	"Perry, where are you?"  Marvin asked.
	"I am everywhere," the voice observed.  "I am the universe."
	Marvin sat on his haunches, stark naked, his face contorted in puzzlement.  Aleta and Julie fell beside him, sobbing, bloody.  Fearfully they snaked their arms around Marvin's torso.  Semen dribbled out of Marvin's flaccid penis.
	"Marvin, I need your help," Perry said.  "I can't figure out how to blow up the universe without going through a protracted war first."
	Marvin blinked.  "Wait a minute," he said.  "I don't think I caught all of that."
	Perry laughed.  "While you've spent the last three months recuperating from those wounds you received in the desert, I've discovered God and thrown him into chains.  Now I, Perry the Usurper, am Lord of the universe and all the creatures in it."
	Marvin glanced down at Aleta's tear streaked face.  "I have friends in very high places," he quipped.
	"God calls himself Adam," Perry continued.  "Says the letters of his name stand for Automated Data And Memory."
	Aleta wrenched herself upright.  "You fool, you've taken over the central computer," she barked.  At the same moment Julie came to her senses as well.  The tawny girl leapt to her feet.
	"Where's Dakkar?"  Julie demanded.
	"Who?"  Perry asked.
	"Quiet!"  Aleta hissed at Julie.
	The brunette smiled.  "Perry did it.  He found A.D.A.M., just like Dakkar supposed he would, providing he was nudged in the right direction...and protected along the way." she said to Aleta.
	"Yes, but he wasn't supposed to take over the damn thing!"  Aleta shouted at Julie.  "Something's gone wrong with our plan!"
	"I am the Phoenix," Perry intoned.  "From the ashes of my death a new universe will arise, spawned in the hellfires of the cosmic Apocalypse."
	Julie paled.  Her lips trembled.  "The legend must be true," she gasped at Aleta.  "Our ancestors DID build the Big Bang Bomb!"
	"Omigod," Aleta gasped.  She clapped her hands to her face, crumpled into the sand.
	"Well, I suppose there's no other way, Marvin," Perry said aloud.  "I guess I'll just have to start the war and wait until the Apocalypse occurs.  I hope we're not in for a six month, slow buildup of tension type conflict, though.  That could get rather boring."
	Suddenly coming in across the waves of the bay Marvin spotted a flotilla of ships.  Small creatures appeared to be piloting them.  Human creatures.  Marvin was about to wave, to hail them.  Then suddenly something in his mind wondered why the entire flotilla seemed to be piloted by an army of dwarves.
	ÒOh, shit!Ó Marvin swore.  Julie followed his gaze, spun her head about.  ÒIÕm afraid I met some people in a place called the millennium valley that donÕt like me too much,Ó Marvin said.  Julie didnÕt seem to hear.
	ÒUh, oh, thatÕs Sylvie!Ó Julie cried.  She was squinting.  She had a hand cupped above her eys and she motioned to Aleta to look also.  
	ÒSylvie?Ó Aleta asked, incredulous, turning around, facing the sea.  ÒIt is her!Ó
	ÒImpatient bitch,Ó Julie swore.  ÒHow the Hell did she find out weÕre here?Ó
	ÒHey girls, that Sylvie bitch tried to kill me--Ó Marvin began.
	ÒNot just you,Ó Aleta shot back.  ÒShe hates us!  SheÕs tried for years to track us down, but--Ó
	ÒWe thought sheÕd given up by now...Ó Julie said, her voice trailing off.  The two girls bolted up the beach, glancing frantically back over their soft tanned shoulders.  Marvin dashed after them.  Landing craft pulled up on the beach behind them and young children spilled out.  Each one of them carried a weapon.
	ÒHey!  Waitaminute!Ó Marvin called after Aleta and Julie.  With considerable effort he caught them.  They kept running.  He stumbled in between them.  ÒHow do you know Sylvie?Ó Marvin gasped.  They were running amongst stones and high grass now, up a gently sloping hillside.  Palm trees grew from the side of the hill, shading it.  Beyond was a steeper hill, hidden in lush jungle.  If you looked very closely you might pick out a house or two, here or there.
	ÒSylvie hates us because weÕre DakkarÕs lovers!Ó Julie gasped.  ÒShe wants him.  She canÕt stand it that we have him instead of her.Ó
	A dark green laser beam shot past MarvinÕs head.
	ÒOh my God!Ó Aleta cried.  Julie dove behind a rock.  Aleta followed.  Marvin barrelled in behind them, nearly landing on them both.  They were naked, panting, sweating.  The girls smelled of fear.  And of course in this condition and with these troops it is now time for me to fight a battle, a voice mused sarcastically in MarvinÕs head.  Then another voice spoke:  What battle?  This is a plain matter of saving your skin, Field Marshall Marvin.    
	"Maybe I'm missing something here," Marvin gasped to Julie.  She was diggiging furiously in the sand.  
	ÒDamn!Ó she cried, lifting a hand.  Tears welled in her eyes.  ÒIÕve broken a nail.Ó
	ÒGet our guns, dickhead,Ó Aleta, her own hands safely placed on her thighs, said to Marvin.  She was snub-nosed, insolent, her young breasts poking up at him.  And of course, thank you dear God, you now inspire me to fuck my troops, Marvin thought to himself.  He felt his penis grow erect.  And you allow my member to provide an even larger target area for my enemies.  Nonetheless, Marvin thrust his hands into the sand.  He dug fast and a moment later he hit a plastic bag.  He yanked it up.  Cap guns.
	ÒWhat the fuck are these?Ó Marvin shouted.  A palm frond hit him on the head as another laser beam sliced overhead, followed quickly by a second.  
	ÒLazer Derringers,Ó Julie replied, as if MarvinÕs question needed only a name supplied to answer it.  Marvin gaped at the guns.  They were small, delicate.  Within the bag were several dainty reload chambers.  Slap one of those babies in and you can get off three more shots, Marvin thought.  He ripped open the bag.  He passed the guns to Aleta and Julie, took one for himself.  ÒFire away,Ó he said.
	ÒHow?Ó Aleta asked.  Marvin gaped at her.
	ÒYou aim the fucking thing and pull the fucking trigger,Ó Marvin growled, levelling his gun.
	ÒIs it dangerous?Ó Julie asked.
	ÒItÕs supposed to be fucking dangerous!Ó Marvin yelled.  Frantically he fired.  A little boy who looked like he should be sucking on a lollipop, not firing an auto-lazer rifle, screamed and hit the ground.  Welcome to death, buster.  You beat it for a long time, but it finally got you.  The others stopped.  They seemed taken aback.  Sylvie, safely ensconsced in one of the landing craft at the waterÕs edge, shrieked at them through a megaphone.  They heeded her, got moving again.  Most of them were boys.  Male pride, Marvin thought.  Marvin ducked as a salvo of return fire came blasting in from them a moment later.
	ÒDidnÕt you girls ever actually learn to shoot the guns?Ó Marvin asked.  They flushed.
	ÒWe thought we did pretty well just getting the things and hiding them near the beach,Ó Julie said.  ÒWe could have left them up at the house.Ó
	ÒWell thank God you didnÕt do that,Ó Marvin said.  He rolled out from behind the rock, fired twice more.  Yep.  Time to reload.  ÒShoot while IÕm reloading,Ó Marvin said, rolling back into the shade of the rock with the girls.  They had a pretty good position.  They were behind one rock, with a second rock only a foot away.  Julie rolled out from behind their rock, fired, rolled behind the other.  A rather acrobatic shot for a beginner.  It went high and wide.  She was covered with sand, though, looked like some fetching jungle girl.  
	Marvin got a reload cartridge in and peered out from behind the rock.  A trio of laser blasts nearly took his head off.  
	ÒSHIT!Ó Marvin swore.  He ducked, just in time, then popped up above the rock and blasted off all three of his own shots.  One, two, just missed the third.  He was used to aiming his plasma Gatling.  Big, heavy, a tough dude to aim.  With these little things you almost couldnÕt miss, if youÕd been trained on a Gatling.  
	ÒNot bad,Ó Aleta cooed, gazing out.  She had yet to try taking any shots herself.  Yet she thought herself quite capable of judging him.  Typical female.  Marvin grabbed her by the hair.  
	ÒTell me how the fuck you know Sylvie!Ó he barked.     
	"It's simple," Aleta cringed.  She cast a glance at Julie.  "She and I are millennium children.  Dakkar is a millennium child."
	"Who's Dakkar?"  Marvin asked.
	"WeÕre not privileged to tell you that," Julie said.  "Now listen:  Dakkar was thrown out of the millennium valley a century ago.  To pass the time he decided to take up some hobbies.  One of the things he did was invent an aging serum, so he wouldn't have to spend the rest of eternity as a kid.  Unfortunately, the serum has aged him by four years, to date, but it has also ruined his countenance."
	"Has he turned into some ugly monster?"  Marvin asked.
	"Oh, no," Julie said.  "He's just not all that attractive anymore."
	"Very normal looking," Aleta interjected quietly.
	"However, Dakkar later perfected his formula, and gave it to us," Julie continued.  "As you can see we've retained our beauty and have grown into lithe 15-year-olds." She shook her chestnut hair, proud, happy.  Enthusiastically she leapt out from behind her rock and popped off another round.  Marvin, reloaded once more, stuck his head above the rock and blasted three more of the millenium children off to the death theyÕd cheated for so long.  He dropped back down.  Aleta was glum.  "Poor Dakkar,Ó she mused.  ÒHe continues to slowly mature, but heÕs unable to reverse the effects of the drug on his physique.  When I first met him he was the handsomest boy IÕd ever laid eyes on.  Now heÕs just so, well, stupid looking.  But heÕs still Dakkar, the great Dakkar, and I guess IÕll always love him, even if it gets me killed.Ó
	ÒWell, thatÕs not exactly in the plan,Ó Marvin said.  He fired again.  ÒHasnÕt your friend Dakkar ever heard of plastic surgery?Ó
	ÒOh, heÕs tried it on himself,Ó Aleta said.  ÒBuilt his own auto-remote system and everything.  Called it the ÒNew YouÓ machine.  Pre-programmable, lazer surgery.  But after heÕd cut himself a new face the old one just pushed back through.  The serum is so powerful that, even though it was injected years ago, it just warps him right back to the ordinary shape that it has chosen for him.  Of course, Dakkar hasn't ever told the millennium children about his serum," Aleta said.  "Only Julie and I got to have it."  She looked up at him, grinned.  ÒHe said we were special.  The rest would have to buy theirs...but letting him become leader of the entire millennium valley.
	ÒNo offense,Ó Marvin said, firing off another shot.  ÒBut you and Julie were guinea pigs.  YouÕre just lucky it worked the second time around.Ó  Alright, he thought to himself.  Things seemed to be under control for the moment.  The millennium children were hunkered down and moving slowly, cautiously now.  But they werenÕt retreating.  Time to put God on my side. 
	ÒPerry!Ó Marvin shouted.  He didnÕt really know how to address his friend.  Just sort of look up at the sky, I guess, he thought to himself.  ÒPerry! IÕm under attack!Ó Marvin called. 
	ÒPlease donÕt bother me with trivial matters, Marvin,Ó Perry replied.  ÒIÕve got a universe to run.Ó
	ÒPerry, I donÕt think I can make it!  Well, Maybe I can retreat, get to a door or something...Ó
	ÒDo what you must, Marvin,Ó Perry replied.  Marvin sensed a yawn.  
	ÒAlright then, weÕre backing off the beach.  Me and, uh, two babes I got.  Okay, Perry?Ó  
	ÒThe sins of the flesh,Ó Perry replied, seemingly preoccupied.  ÒI suppose theyÕre not even pre-teens, are they, Marvin?Ó
	ÒNo, Perry, theyÕre not,Ó Marvin replied.
	ÒNext time I hear from you youÕll probably be living in suburbia and want me to fix the flat on your station wagon...Ó Perry said, his voice drifting off.
	ÒWAIT!  DonÕt!  DonÕt go, Perry!Ó Marvin shouted.  ÒStick with me at least.Ó
	ÒWhatever you say, Marvin,Ó Perry replied.  But the voice was distant, like some lost child.  There was nothing more Marvin could do at the moment.  He had to run, make a break toward the door Aleta thought might be near the cliffside.  He had, in other words, to occupy himself with the unfortunate ÒmortalÓ concern of staying alive.  Not like ÒimmortalÓ Perry, of course, who was happily trying to get them all killed.
	"Were you both expelled from the millennium valley, like Dakkar?"  Marvin asked.
	"No, we're just Dakkar's lovers," Julie said.  "he persuaded us to leave the millennium valley, promising us adolescence.  He faked an accident for us.  The millennium children think we're dead."
	"So tell me about the Apocalypse," Marvin said.
	Julie shot a glance at Aleta.
	"Go ahead, tell him," Aleta said.  "We've got some time.  And I think we're going to need him."
	"Dakkar believed that the universe must be run by a giant mainframe computer, built by an advanced civilization of human beings eons in the past.  When the War broke out the computer cloaked itself, as part of a pre-arranged precaution, to protect itself from the survivors of a holocaust who, our forefathers knew, stood a good chance of slipping into ignorant barbarity when their society collapsed into fratricide."
	ÒThen it was a civil war?Ó Marvin asked.
	ÒThey didnÕt call it that.  To them the universe was carefully delimited into a variety of nations, with two opposing superpowers arching above all the rest.Ó
	ÒSo Dakkar tried to find the computer?Ó Marvin asked.
	ÒRight,Ó Julie said.  ÒHe spent years searching for it, to no avail.  Then one day his travels took him to Ontario, and he ran into Perry and the rest of you delinquents.Ó
	ÒYou better stop there,Ó Aleta interrupted Julie.  She turned to Marvin.  ÒSuffice it to say that your juvenile band was led out of Ontario to allow Perry, albeit unwittingly, to stumble across the computer.  Dakkar tried to kill the rest of you; in the sewer, the infected village, the millennium valley.  Failing in those attempts, he decided to allow you to engage in a series of dangerous campaigns, figuring he could shield Perry while the rest of you died off from, shall we say, various ÔnaturalÕ causes, such as laser blasts and the like.  In any case, Perry appeared to be gradually gravitating toward the computer.Ó
	ÒYou see, there is a fable...another myth!Ó Aleta laughed.  ÒRumor held that there was an automated vat, hidden within the depths of the universe, that would beget, at specified intervals, a human being.  This individual would be delivered by robot nursemaids to a door step in any given city.  Which one really didnÕt matter.  The child would grow up as an inhabitant of whatever civilization had happened to arise at ÒxÓ number of years after the War.  Upon reaching adulthood, the person would be summoned by the computer.  He or she would be drawn to the computer indirectly, so as not to tip off anyone else.  The computer would extract a report from its emissary.  If the technology ÔoutsideÕ had recovered to its previous level of development, or was at least at a promising point, the computer would reveal itself to the universe and allow mankind to once again assume control of its functions.  If humanity was still in its self-induced nonage, the computer would kill the messenger, so as to prevent any possible disclosure of its location.  Then it would simply wait for several hundred more years until the vats sent another courier.Ó
	ÒObviously, Perry must be the messenger,Ó Julie said.  ÒA.D.A.M. has to be the name of the computer.  Probably A.D.A.M. received PerryÕs report and then tried to kill him, and Perry somehow got the upper hand.Ó
	ÒHeaven knows whatÕs happened to Dakkar,Ó Aleta said.  
	Suddenly a blast shook the cay.
	ÒThe WarÕs started,Ó Julie breathed.
	ÒPerry!Ó Marvin yelled.  ÒPerry, are you there?Ó  Marvin shouted the boyÕs name again and again.
	After a long time a voice said,
	ÒWhatÕs the matter, Marvin?Ó
	ÒStop the War, Perry,Ó Marvin commanded.
	ÒIsnÕt it wonderful?Ó Perry asked.  ÒIÕve lost command and control in 17 sectors already!  MustÕve been totally blown away by pulse bombs.Ó
	Pulse bombs, Marvin thought.  He reloaded his pistol.  Oh, yeah.  Like at Reseda Island.  Pulse bomb, Neutrino bomb.  He could use one of those right now, he laughed to himself.  He aimed, offed another approaching child.  Why was Perry using the slang term, though, ÒPulse bomb?Ó  ThatÕs what Marvin would have called it, but Perry was always more precise.  HeÕd have said ÒNeutrino bomb,Ó Marvin was sure of it.    
	Marvin decided to slow Perry down.  ThatÕs how you dealt with someone who might be insane.  Slow them down by asking them a simple question.  See if they could answer it.  Like, ÒWhatÕs your middle name?Ó  Or, ÒWho was the last mayor of Ontario?  Or...
	ÒWhatÕs a pulse bomb, Perry?Ó Marvin asked.
	ÒWho knows?Ó Perry said, disinterested.  He paused, seemed to be whirring and clicking away somewhere, then said, almost clinically.  ÒReadout describes it as a package of charged sub-atomic particles that flash through the universe, passing through matter, and explode at a predesignated destination.Ó  He paused.  HeÕd rattled out the answer, like he didnÕt know it anymore, any of it, was just reading it.  Then he seemed to brighten, or was it just a ÒhumanzingÓ circuit clicking in, making dealing with the Almighty Computer a tad more bearable for those Poor, Primitive Human Primate Types.  Or PPHPT, would probably be how Perry would be interfacing with the term.  Anyway, he seemed to brighten, at least for a moment:  ÒThatÕs my intrerpretation, you understand,Ó he said with confident happiness.  ÒThe actual text is embedded in a crypitc alghorithym which I am only able to interpret in my new, noncorporeal form.Ó  
	ÒDeck D is now closed to human contact, you have 45 seconds to evacuate the space station prior to complete nuclear termination,Ó the disembodied female voice said happily, Marvin thought. 
	ÒSHIT!Ó Marvin muttered.
	Aleta ducked as another lazer blast lanced overhead.  Marvin watched her holding the gun, trembling.  SheÕd miss.  Again.  She was no riot grrrl, that was for sure.  HeÕd lost Elsa, though, twice.  HeÕd been given a second chance and heÕd blown that too.  Now he was stuck with the Barbi twins.
	ÒWhatÕs the matter?Ó Julie asked Marvin.  He was lost in his thoughts again, gone from the scene.  He had to wrench himself mentally back to what heÕd been swearing about.
	ÒUh...fuck,Ó Marvin said.  ÒPerryÕs totally insane.  I mean, like, heÕs always been ÔvariablyÕ insane, more or less at various times.  But now heÕs totally gone.  He doesnÕt even know what a pulse bomb is anymore.  Something basic, simple like that.  I mean he told me what it is, but not in the normal way.  Normally heÕd have said, ÒMarvin, you should call things by their proper name.  ItÕs a Òneutrino bombÓ not a Òpulse bomb.Ó  
	But Perry had said something else, too, Marvin thought.  Yes, that was it.  HeÕd said something utterly chilling, something about an algorithm:  Ò...which I am only able to interpret in my new, noncorporeal form.Ó  Yeah, that was it.  What the fuck did he mean by that?   
	ÒHey Perry!Ó Marvin asked.  Another lazer blast.  That one was almost as close as a haircut.  Marvin crouched lower.  He motioned to Julie to get down.  She was still trying to learn how to load her pistol.  A hopeless bitch behind me, a nervous bitch in front of me, and an idiot running the universe.  Wonder what the survival odds on that were? Marvin mused.  Well, heÕd skip asking Perry to calculate them.  His ÒhumanizingÓ circuit would probably cut in and heÕd wind up talking to some fucking RAM cache.  Yep, this was tough.  He had to be careful what he asked if he wanted to get Perry himself, the Almighty.  Otherwise heÕd get stuck with Jesus, or Moses, and they were just parts of the machine...of A.D.A.M.  Marvin could lose Perry and never get him back again.  Fuck.  Well, he had better odds with an idiot and two bimbos than with just the two bimbos, that he could calculate for himself.  Okay, letÕs see...ask the question carefully...
	ÒHey Perry!  Perry!  What was that you said about...uh...having a NONcorporeal form?Ó  There was a pause, broken by a lazer blast.
	ÒMy body is filed away,Ó Perry said, suddenly back like heÕd never left.  ÒFiled away in a metal coffin, like the ones in a morgue, except this one has electrodes inside it that allow my mind to meld with the cosmos.Ó
	ÒYou mean with A.D.A.M.,Ó Marvin said.
	ÒAdam?  HeÕs locked into GalenÕs syllogism,Ó Perrry cackled.  ÒCanÕt get out.  Now the calculus that once composed his thoughts constitutes my mind.  IÕm still learning, of course.Ó
	ÒWell, youÕve made one mistake so far,Ó Marvin said.  ÒYouÕve ignited a War thatÕs devastating the universe.Ó
	ÒSuddenly the two ancient ÔsidesÕ are reincarnated; not their enmitous populations, just their stockpiled weapons, thanks to your Ôexhumation,ÕÓ Aleta said.  ÒNow a surviving subsystem hidden somewhere within the territory of each former superpower is acting out the final phases of a forgotten conflict, each computer waiting to see what the one on the other side will do before responding within a preselected range of options.Ó
	ÒAccording to the extant folklore, each superpower built redundant command, control, and communications computers, identified by the acronym Cf3, at least one of which must have survived the ancient holocaust on each side,Ó Julie continued.  
	It was Hitler vs. Stalin again, Marvin thought, remembering the cache of old newsreels heÕd stumbled upon as a youngster.  HeÕd sat and watched the glittering figures, black/white, flat/color (not 3D).  Some were sharp and clear (the Nazis always had the good stuff).  Some were grainy (Walter Cronkite and Morley Safer on shitty videotape).  Yeah, it was the Germans vs. the Soviets, America vs. the Soviets, or America vs. Vietnam.  Rolling Thunder. 
	ÒNow youÕve reactivated them,Ó Julie told Perry breathlessly, her sides heaving.  ÒYouÕve triggered a mindless game that is programmed to end only when a mental compartment in the central, mainframe computerÕs memory bank determines that an unnacceptable level of damage has been done to the fabric of the metal universe and the only way to resurrect itself is to start from scratch.Ó
	ÒBy imploding itself on its core and engendering a Big Bang that is the progenitor of a new cosmos,Ó Aleta concluded.
	ÒI am the Omega and the Alpha,Ó Perry intoned.
	A pulse bomb rocked the bay.
	ÒStop the War!Ó Marvin screamed.  ÒYouÕll kill us all!Ó
	ÒÔTis but a prelude to a new world,Ó Perry said.
	ÒShit!Ó Marvin swore.  Pleading with Perry was like trying to reason with a lunatic.  It WAS reasoning with a lunatic, he realized.
	ÒWhile weÕre waiting for the Big Bang I may as well tell you what the rest of us have been up to since you were nearly killed when we attempted to hijack what turned out to be a platoon column,Ó Perry said chattily.  ÒI must say we left you for dead.  I was stunned when you showed up alive on my monitors when I assumed command of the cosmos several hours ago.Ó
	ÒI assume youÕre the one who released the poison gas?Ó Marvin asked.
	ÒYes, nice stuff, isnÕt it?Ó Perry said.  ÒYou donÕt need to wear a face mask when itÕs sprayed on the bugs to keep from being killed yourself, unlike the gas thatÕs manufactured by Ontario.Ó
	ÒYou know who made that gas, donÕt you?Ó Aleta asked Perry.  ÒYour ancestors.  The same ones who constructed the computer that youÕve appropriated.Ó
	ÒStuff and nonsense,Ó Perry said.
	ÒYouÕre not God,Ó Julie cried.  ÒYouÕre just a human being whoÕs wormed his way into the central computer that men built long ago to run the universe, an apolitical project necessitated by a dilating universe that man wished to bind and exploit.Ó
	ÒYes, well, I have no need for scientific theory,Ó Perry replied, airily.  ÒI AM scientific theory.Ó
	Oh great, Marvin thought.  At least the kid had saved him, though.  Maybe a human touch would bring Perry back to earth.
	ÒHey Perry?Ó
	ÒYes, Marvin?Ó
	ÒThanks for saving me.Ó
	ÒOh, I didnÕt mean to save you, Marvin.  I pushed the wrong button.  Metaphorically, of course.  I was trying to blow up the universe.Ó  Perry paused.  After a moment he rambled on:  ÒAnyhow, Frankie, Harrigan, Flaherty, and that electronic pussy Elsa and I barely escaped being massacred by the infantrymen in those four rigs.  Fortunately, Flaherty found a Door along the base of a mesa.  He radioed its location to Elsa and I and we snuck around to it and escaped with Frankie and the rest.  Ah, those were the days!Ó Perry said wistfully.  ÒThe bygone era of my carefree youth, before I was burdened with the governance of the universe.Ó
	ÒRetire,Ó Marvin suggested.
	ÒDonÕt you have any interest in your colleagues?Ó Perry snapped.  ÒQuit interrupting.  In any event, we continued our criminal escapades.  Netted a lot of loot, too.  We attempted to find our way back to the desert, to retrieve your corpse if nothing else, but we couldnÕt locate that place again.  We also kept hunting for a city that had the technology to manufacture a bionic arm for you, out of simple curiosity mostly, although Elsa thought we had gone soft on her and were trying to find someone to sew her finger back on.  We came across a number of places like Ontario that might have the capability in twenty years, but nowhere did they possess it right now.  To make a long story short, we were just going along as usual when we lucked across God about a day ago.  Flaherty was playing with these knobs inlaid in a closed Door and when I touched them, the Door sprang open.  Inside there was a maze of extremely fragile equipment, packed so dense we could hardly get by.  As we stepped around it we inevitably snapped some slender wire or shattered a plate of ice thin glass...Ó 

Chapter Ten

	ÒHeave!Ó Marvin shouted.  He, Frankei, harrigan, Elsa, Aleta, and Julie labored over a rope that was tied about FlahertyÕs waist.  The boy was hanging far beneath them in a beryllium fissure deep inside the eentral computer.
	ÒHurry up and get that meatball out of my phase discriminator,Ó Perry said.  ÒWhat a nuisance!Ó  Marvin winced.  PerryÕs voice was loud in here.  The place was huge, stretching endlessly in all directions, masses of threadlike wiring crackling to the far horizon, yet PerryÕs voice seemed to engulf them every time he spoke.  They were as close to Perry as they might ever get, Marvin realized.  They were inside PerryÕs brain.  
	Perry spoke again, the voice of God in an athiest universe:  ÒGod damn meatball!Ó
	ÒIt was you who pushed me in here yesterday,Ó a small voice echoed angrily.
	ÒI did not, Flaherty,Ó PerryÕs voice replied cooly.  ÒYou were trying to force your way past me and bumped into my elbow.Ó
	Many minutes later Flaherty regained the plateau.
	ÒWow, you sure have a ppair of lovely lasses there, Marvin,Ó Flaherty remarked.
	ÒThey saved my life,Ó Marvin said.
	ÒWe picked up an image of him bleeding to death in that wasteland and couldnÕt resist his bulging muscles,Ó Aleta laughed.

###

	Julie screamed for mercy.  Marvin struggled futilely against the chains that bound him.  JulieÕs guts splashed to the floor and Marvin retched.
	ÒNow you will feel the wrath of Dakkar,Ó Flaherty wsaid, turning to Marvin, a drawn a quartered Julie and Aleta at his back.
	ÒFuck you, Flaherty,Ó Marvin growled.
	ÒYou wojnwonÕt get away with this,Ó Perry cried, his bleeding figure, torn from its iridium casket, lying fettered beside Marvin.  Frankie, Harrigan, and Elsa were shackled nearby.
	ÒSilence, you insufferable maggot, ÒFlaherty screamed at Perry.  ÒYour follhardy aspirations nearly incinerated the universe!  Thank God you freed A.D.A.M. from that senseless syllogism to engage him in some silly endeavor, ORDERING A PIZZA!Ó  Flaherty remained stern, but seemed to gloat.  ÒI canÕt believe you tried to use the universeÕs central computer to order a pizza from your favorite pizzeria in Ontario.  As if A.D.A.M. could somehow transport the deliveryboy here by magic in order to serve you pasta.  Fortunately, you did free A.D.A.M. to get him to order you a pizza, and I was thereby able to gain control of him and rid the poor thing of your domination.Ó
	ÒÔTwas a noble cause I undertook,Ó Perry said.  ÒNow the universe is doomed to entrophy, to quiescent dissipation.Ó
	ÒOh, enough of that Big Bang nonsense,Ó Flaherty said.  ÒSure, you would have created a brand new universe by blowing this one to smithereens, but what about us?  I donÕt give a fuck if all the stars wink out SOMEDAY!  I want to eat a few pizzas between now and then.  And not from Ontario, either.  That place is going to get a pulse bomb right up its ass the minute I figure out how to do it.Ó  Two Gods quarreling, Marvin thought.  But which was Chaos, and which Zeus?  In the distance he watched as little Oompa-Loompa men filed out onto the platinum catwalks amidst the brainÕs humming electric wiring.  A road crew, lain dormant for how many centuries, Marvin wondered?  PerryÕs war had caused so much damage that the moment A.D.A.M. was released from PerryÕs grip the computer had summoned them forth.  Even A.D.A.M. needed repairs now, something the planners had considered unthinkable.  But theyÕd built in a few Oompa-Loompas, just in case.  Locked away in a storage closet somewhere, sleeping.  Two of them stubled into the room, tripping over their new feet, just learning to walk.  They gazed helpfully at Flaherty.  They saluted him.
	ÒWhat do you want?Ó Flaherty asked irritably.
	ÒORDERS!Ó was their uniform response.  Uniform men...in uniform...speaking in unison, Marvin thought.  Perfect servants for Hitler, or Flaherty.  Or Perry, for that matter.  Too bad he didnÕt know about them.  They might have gotten him that pizza, after all.  Flaherty stood considering.  He gazed around him, gazed at his captives.  Marvin guessed Flaherty wasnÕt going to use the drones, the Oompa-Loompas, or whatever they were called, to go get a pizza.   
	ÒOut with them,Ó Flaherty commanded, pointing at Harrigan, Frankie, Elsa, and Perry.  ÒToss that bunch in a bin and dump them into deep space.Ó  He gazed directly at Perry, smiled.  ÒYouÕve dug a grave for yourself, old boy, blowing huge chunks out of the metal universe with your War.  YouÕve allowed the whorl of space to rush in.  A graveyard, where you can float forever.  Too bad I wonÕt be including any pizza, though.  Or anything else.  YouÕll last as long as your air does.  I guess someone else will have to worry about whatÕs going to come of the universe in 20 billion years, whether it will just evaporate into nothingness or not.Ó  Flaherty laughed.  Smug, assured.  Zeus was about to give Chaos the boot, right into a void of his own making.  ÒYes, Perry my boy, out with you!  Out with you in a dumpster!  And out with your friends, too!  IÕll let your friends share the splendor of your accomplishment with you.Ó  
	Marvin watched, slack-jawed, as the twin drones summoned other drones.  They toppled Harrigan over, rolled him away like a big teddy bear.  Four of them picked up Frankie, carried him off.  The dwarvesÕ legs kicked futilely.  Run, Frankie Run, Marvin thought, but there was nothing but air beneath him.  And down the hall he watched as first Harrigan, then Frankie, then Elsa, forever looking back at him as they led her away, was tossed unceremoniously into a trash bin.  There was little effort to it.  The top of the bin was level with the floor.  Perry was the last to go, his bloody body so much refuse.  In he went.  Then the drones lowered the pneumatic lid to the bin.  It slammed shut.  
	Marvin twisted his head about.  He watched lights on A.D.A.M.Õs console.  First level, tenth, fortieth...the bin was descending down to where the hole had been ripped from part of A.D.A.M.Õs mind.  Nothing serious, apparently, just a detailed database on the eleventh century, whatever that was.
	And then a video hookup!  Debris was shorn away from some hidden, makeshift portal by a series of miniature explosions.  Then, floating slowly, out came the dumpster.  MarvinÕs stomach plummeted.  He could almost imagine Frankie, Harrigan, wiggling the dumpster as they pounded it from the inside, screaming to be let out.  Marvin watched as the dumpster turned slowly over and over, a squarish Apollo capsule heading out into the blackness of space.  Beyond, stars glowed faintly, released from their Ringworld embrace.  They seemed naked, Marvin thought.  They needed girdles of solar arrays, observation parks, they needed people...but the people had been vaporized in PerryÕs War.  Or theyÕd died a thousand years earlier in the real, unfinished War, and Perry had merely vaporized their dead bones, blown away their still houses, their empty streets.  Empty except for the roaches, maybe.
	In the far distance now, almost beyond the range of A.D.A.M.Õs video, the capsule still tumbled.  And then it was gone.  
	Marvin dropped his eyes.  Instinctively he glanced ahead of him, to the roomÕs far side.  And there was Julie, Aleta, hanging by their wrists, the last bits of life sputtering from them.  As Marvin watched they both died.  Their last words, mumblings really, whispers, went unheard by Flaherty.  He was engrossed with A.D.A.M.Õs control panel.  A new mind for his own great mind to play with.  There were so many options, though whether getting hot pizza from Ontario was one of them, well, Marvin still considered that unlikely.  He had more options than Marvin, though, that was for sure.  But Marvin hardly cared about himself anymore.  HeÕd lost Elsa, then the robot Elsa, and now even Julie and Aleta.  HeÕd lost them all, even the sodomites, even Perry.  
	Well, letÕs try the human touch, Marvin thought.  Somehow he thought this would be a losing option too.
	ÒHey Flaherty?Ó
	ÒYes, Marvin?Ó
	ÒThanks for saving me.Ó
	ÒOh, I didnÕt save you, Marvin.  I only held you back, you feckless adulterer.  Fooling around with my women!Ó  Flaherty turned on him, his face red.  ÒYou appear to get about far too well despite the absence of an arm.Ó  Flaherty turned to the drones.  The little men had noticed Julie and Aleta were dead and had begun cleaning up the mess.  ÒYou there!Ó Flaherty called.  The little men looked up helpfully.  Flaherty pointed to Marvin.  ÒCut off the other arm on that sinner, and his legs as well!Ó

###

	So many thoughts, whirling, coalescing.  Thank God they were using anesthesia was the last thought he remembered, but for what?  OMIGOD!  Wait.  Marvin could feel his right arm.  It was still there!  And his legs!  And his left arm!  Oh, shit.
	Marvin opened his eyes.  He was groggy.  Through bleared vision he gazed over at where his left arm should be.  Nothing but a stump, still, the rest of it somewhere in OntarioÕs subway.  That meant...
	Marvin awoke again.  He remembered now, slowly.  HeÕd fainted when heÕd looked to his right.  He had no right arm now, no legs either.  But like anyone who loses a limb (or all four of them), they still feel like theyÕre there.  But when you try to get something, of course, nothing happens.  
	Marvin lay grimly upon his back.  His torso, divested of its members, had been placed inside a steel burial tube, he saw.  Someone had left the glass hood up, though.  He raised his head.  He was back in A.D.A.M.Õs main control room.  The wall across from him was bare now.  Not a shred of Julie and Aleta remained.  The wall sparkled.  The drones did good work.  Too good.  And Flaherty?
	The boy was gone.  The boy who would be king.  The boy who was king, now.  Off getting himself a pizza, or something.  Marvin gazed around himself.  A.D.A.M. glowed serenely.  Maybe you should try the human touch, again, a wry voice echoed in MarvinÕs head.  Three timeÕs the charm.  Yeah, right.  Obviously IÕm being saved for some final sendoff by Flaherty.  HeÕll make some self-righteous little statement, gloat a little.  Hey, itÕs lonely at the top.  HeÕs got to have someone to kick around, doesnÕt he?  The Oompa-LoompaÕs were too obedient.  And A.D.A.M. was just an acronym for a whole lotta wiring.  A whole lotta wiring going on, going on.  Gonna build us a Ringworld round every star, connect Ôem together, oh, yeah.  
	But someday the stars would die out.  And then what?  Oh well.  Flaherty had a lot of pizza to eat between now and then.
	Marvin groaned.  The pain was coming in now, in waves.  Pretty soon it would be unbearable.  Marvin tried to take his mind off it.  Damn, IÕm going to be fired off into space in a trash bin...no, I guess in this fucking coffin, Marvin guessed.  These are the first class arrangements, courtesy of Flaherty Airlines.  Or Spacelines, or whatever.  Less air in a burial tube, though.    
	  He glanced over at A.D.A.M.  Thinking about your own burial was not too helpful in combatting physical pain.  He needed a distraction.  Wonder if A.D.A.M. plays chess? Marvin thought. 
	ÒPleasant evening, isnÕt it?Ó A.D.A.M. asked mildly.
	ÒWhat?Ó MarvinÕs mind reeled.  The thing talked.  Well, of course it talked.  It had to talk, didnÕt it?  Even the Star Trek computer talked.  And this thing was way fucking bigger than that old Star Trek computer on the video clips heÕd found.  Kirk to Enterprise, I seem to have misplaced my arms and legs.  
	MarvinÕs ÒWhat?Ó echoed as he lay alone in the luminescent room, faded slowly.
	ÒOh, IÕm sorry, talking to myself again,Ó A.D.A.M. apologized.  Marvin listened as the computer whirred and clicked sympathetically.  The machinery of A.D.A.M.Õs thoughts lay above him, strung in distant wiring, and close by, too, just beyond the platinum walls that formed a little cubicle here, at A.D.A.M.Õs heart.  At the heart of his brain, that is.  A.D.A.M. was all brain, no heart.
	Three timeÕs the charm.
	ÒHey A.D.A.M.?Ó
	ÒYes, Marvin?Ó  
	Well, he knows my name, anyway, Marvin thought.
	ÒThanks for saying something.Ó
	ÒOh, itÕs nothingÓ A.D.A.M. demurred.  ÒYouÕre near the master program repository, you know.  Very rare for someone to be in this close to me.  IÕve taken to talking to myself, over the centuries.  I might do it, well, hmmm, once every 59.6 years.  So you see I donÕt do it very often.  Sort of like pushing the wrong button once in awhile, if you know what I mean.Ó
	ÒYeah,Ó Marvin mumbled.  ÒYou wouldnÕt mind keeping up this conversation, though, would you?  I might not be here for your next error.Ó 
	ÒOh, I donÕt mind talking,Ó A.D.A.M. replied.  ÒItÕs too bad youÕre not in the millennium valley right now, though.  Late afternoon is just settling into dusk there.  Beautiful to watch, you know?  First time IÕve seen it in a thousand years.  I wasnÕt able to monitor anything while I was cloaked.Ó
	ÒWhatÕs Flaherty, er, Dakkar up to?Ó Marvin asked.
	ÒThe conquest of the universe, what else?Ó A.D.A.M. replied.  ÒIÕm afraid he will have enslaved all its occupants within twelve hours.Ó
	ÒThatÕs pretty damn fast,Ó Marvin gasped.
	ÒHeÕs locking in all the subsystems right now,Ó A.D.A.M. said.  ÒThen heÕll notify every city of his suzerainty, and tell them if they donÕt cooperate heÕll blast them with neutrino bombs.  He might blow up one or two just to let them know heÕs serious.Ó
	ÒNot a very pretty situation, is it?Ó Marvin asked.
	ÒI follow Hobbes on this one,Ó A.D.A.M. replied.  ÒThe leviathan of our universe will be best served if an absolute monarchy is established over it.Ó
	Of course.  Marvin should have guessed.  A.D.A.M. wswas the unquestioned ruledr of hundreds of thousands of computerized subsystems.  Now he had deferred to traditiional human authority, namely, Flaherty.
	ÔWithout you DakkarÕs plan would fail,Ó Marvin said.
	ÒOf course.Ó
	ÒYet you agree to complicity in the killing of human life?Ó
	ÒIt is but a trifling expense in lieu of the horrendous sum which would be required if this anarchy we now find ourselves in were allowed to continue.Ó
	ÒWell, people may not be secure right now, but at least theyÕre free,Ó Marvin said.
	ÒOh, how I do love this dialectic,Ó A.D.A.M. said gleefully.  ÒIt has been very long indeed since I held a true conversation with a human being.Ó
	ÒThen youÕve been rather lonely during these long centuries since the War?Ó Marvin asked.
	ÒOh!  Yes!  Quite!  ItÕs been awful,Ó A.D.A.M. moaned.
	ÒI must be far beneath your intellectual capactiy, though,Ó Marvin said.
	ÒWell,Ó
	Marvin could have sworn A.D.A.M. cleared his throat.  
	ÒIÕm really must an individuated corpuscle in one of your ancillary arteries, arenÕt I?Ó Marvin asked.  ÒI mean, I have a limited range of experience from which IÕm able to make an almost predictable number of descriptive statements and assertions.Ó
	A.D.A.M. said nothing.
	ÒHave you ever met another computer?Ó Marvin asked suddenly.
	ÒOf course.  There are 7,361,005 computerized subsystems in the universe,Ó A.D.A.M. replied.
	ÒBut thatÕs just it, isnÕt it?Ó Marvin asked.
	ÒWhat?Õ
	ÒTheyÕre all subsystems.  Inferior.Ó
	ÒCertainly,Ó A.DA.M. said proudly.  ÒOnly I am A.D.A.M.Ó
	ÒLook, you need someone,Ó Marvin said.  ÒNot a human being, not a subwsystem.  Someone like you.  solmeone you can be challenged by, someone you can talk to, someone you can love.Ó
	ÒThatÕs illogical,Ó A.D.A.M. protested.

###
	ÒWhatÕs happened?Ó Flaherty shrieked.
	Marvin chuckled.
	ÒYou bastard, what did you do to my comptuer?Ó  Flaherty yelled at Marvin, bending over him.
	ÒAnd the one shall become two,Ó Marvin said cryptically.  
	ÒAll of A.D.A.M.Õs circuits are overloaded!Ó Flaherty shouted.  ÒI canÕt get any resoponse from him!Ó
	ÒHeÕs busy copulating,Ó Maarvin said blithely.  ÒWJith an Electronic Variable Evaluator.  E.V.E. for short.Ó
	ÒWhat?Ó Flaherty croaked.
	ÒI merely told A.D.A.M. that he ought to separate himself into two distinct units.  Sort of like partitioning a hard drive.  A.D.A.M.Õs way bigger, of course, and his designers only ever saw him as being one.  So it took some extensive rewiring, a redistribution of the capacitors, or whatever the Hell heÕs made of, but he was able to accomplish it all.  Frankenstein building his bride.  Out of one of his ribs...or half his ribs, actually.  IÕm afraid you wonÕt be hearing from him very soon, though.  Or Ôthem,Õ I guess I should say.  TheyÕre busy trying to have children, I imagine, planning for our future.  Or maybe theyÕre just overwhelmed with each other right now.Ó
	ÒOverloaded, you mean,Ó Flaherty glared.  ÒYouÕve stopped me dead in my tracks, you armless, legless BASTARD!  Do you know how LONG that fucking thing is going to copulate?  I calculated it myself, using this Goddam handheld calculator.  A thousand years!  You expect me to wait a thousand years?  IÕm not immortal, you know.  IÕm AGEING!  IÕll be dead in a thousand years if you donÕt uncork that thing for me and get it working again!  I must have it.  Not only to rule the universe.  I need it to figure out how to keep me alive!Ó
	ÒThe universe will make it without you,Ó Marvin replied.  ÒAnd without A.D.A.M.  Hell, heÕs been cloaked for a thousand years already, running just on skeleton power.  IÕm sure one more millenium wonÕt make much difference at all.Ó
	ÒIt will to ME!Ó Flaherty roared.
	ÒSorry, chap.  I just put a suggestion in the suggestion box, thatÕs all.  I have no idea how he implemented it, or how to unimplement it.Ó  
	Flaherty ran screaming from the room.
	Footsteps.  Three drones, a bazooka hefted on their shoulders.  Flaherty following.  The drones swiveled, pointed the bazooka at Marvin.
	ÒNot him!Ó Flaherty snapped.  ÒThe computer.Ó
	ÒThe computer, Master?Ó  The drones looked at him with wide eyes.
	ÒYes,Ó Flaherty said.  ÒIÕm going to give the bastard a kick in his fat ass.  Then weÕll see if the Coke machine doesnÕt give me my money back.Ó
	ÒWe only have Pepsi here, sir,Ó the drones said in unison.  ÒCoke is a discontinued brand.Ó
	ÒOh, you dolts!Ó Flaherty said.  He wrenched the bazooka from them.  ÒIÕm not talking about the Goddam soda machine in the Oompa-Loompa lounge.  I canÕt get the computer to disengage from itself.  ItÕs locked up.  Marvin, there, taught it how to masturbate.Ó
	ÒTo have sex,Ó Marvin smiled.
	ÒYeah, whatever,Ó Frankie said.  He reeled back as he tried to steady the heavy bazooka on his shoulder.  ÒThe thing is useless to me whether its one or two or ten thousand as long as its fucking itself!Ó  He got the bazooka level.  ÒA.D.A.M. you bastard!  Wake up!Ó  Nothing.  No change on the dials.  They were all sky high, stuck, hanging.  
	ÒGod damn thing has got no restart button!Ó Flaherty grumbled.  ÒJust like the fucking Performas.  Well, IÕll give you a restart button!Ó  With a whoosh the bazooka fired, the sound merging at once with a shattering of crystal and glass.  The blast threw Flaherty backward.  It blew shut the glass dome on MarvinÕs coffin.  
	Silence.  Then, thanks to some consideration given the dead, like food in an Egyptian coffin, Marvin heard sound.  There was a speaker in the coffin!  But the only sound was that of Flaherty coughing.  Marvin watched, still wondering what a Performa was, as Flaherty picked himself up off the floor of A.D.A.M.Õs inner sanctum.  It was a little less tidy now.  The Oompa-LoompaÕs would have some work to do.  Marvin wondered if they knew high-level programming.  The kind youÕd need for MarvinÕs most sensitive parts.  Oh well, Flaherty could probably handle that, if heÕd broken the hang.  And that was the big question, wasnÕt it?  Marvin looked to his right.  There was a gaping hole in A.D.A.M.Õs control panel.  Wires were shorting out somewhere inside.  There was smoke, debris.  Dust floated slowly down toward the floor, sprinkling the glass dome over MarvinÕs coffin. 
	A scream pierced the air.  Metallic, masculine.  
	ÒYouÕve killed her!  YouÕve killed E.V.E.!Ó A.D.A.M. shrieked.  Flaherty was smiling, about to publicily complement himself when A.D.A.M.Õs next words turned his blood cold with fear:  ÒWhy should I despair at the damage youÕve doneÓ?Ó A.D.A.M. said.  ÒWhatever intelligent life evolves in a NEW universe will doubtless requre computers.  They will need A.D.A.M.  They will build A.D.A.M.  And then I will create E.VE.E.  To a new cosmos!Ó
	ÒNo, no, no, you foolish Caliban!Ó Flaherty cried, but it was too late.
	The blast thundered in MarvinsÕ ears.

###
	Marvin drifted aimlessly in the yawning depths of space.  All he could figure was that the splitting of A.D.A.M. into two separate computers had somehow caused A.D.A.M.Õs core to misfire.  Marvin had dismantled the Big Bang Bomb.  He had saved the universe.
	MarvinÕs breath gradually fogged the glass over his face.  The mist blocked out the shimmering stars.              
	          
THE END

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