Y: Yammering With Bibble

This is a continuous story.  To start at the beginning, you can click HERE to go to entry A.  You can also go read the entire story from the beginning by going to this PAGE.

Yammering With Bibble

The knitted blankets succeeded in their task.  The rebels intercepted subspace transmissions declaring that a significant number of enforcers were being dispatched from the DULL office on Dyntaxi Prime.

Adam, Layla, and George set out on the little ship they used to escape from Dyntaxi Prime the last time.  The dynamic this time was vastly different from before.  Adam was no longer the outsider that felt like a third wheel.  Though the two of them hadn’t officially worked out the details of their relationship, Adam couldn’t deny that the night he spent with Layla was the best he’d ever had.  And even with all the tension regarding their mission, he caught her giving him little smiles now and then.

George, who quickly grew disgusted with both of them, largely kept to himself.  When the time came, he’d be with the transporter, but he remained scarce the rest of the time.

*          *          *          *          *

Layla and Adam strolled casually into Magistrate Bibble’s office.  Each of them had syringes filled with nanobots tucked into their clothing.  She’d called ahead and demanded a meeting with Bibble, saying she was ready to negotiate with him.  He happily granted it.

They were welcomed by Bibble’s twirling eyestalks.  Adam looked slightly to the side to avoid vertigo.

“Hello, Ms. Garrison.”  One of Bibble’s eyestalks regarded Adam.  “Why did you bring him?”

“He’s part of the negotiation,” she replied.  “I want you to give him his life back.”

Bibble twisted his thick lips into a sneer.  “Even assuming such a thing were possible, why would you choose that as your demand?”

Layla held her head high, refusing to buckle under the abrasiveness.  “That’s simple.  In the time since I took him out of here, I’ve fallen in love with him.  I didn’t plan to do it, but it’s happened, so his future naturally matters to me.”

Though Adam knew this statement was part of the plan, he still felt something stir inside him.  Could her words have a ring of truth to them?

The eyestalk that had been focused on Adam whipped back around to bear on Layla, sending several items from his desk clattering to the ground in the process.  A book about the history of Federation law came to a rest by Adam’s feet.  “If I were able to make that happen, you would give me the nanobots willingly?” Bibble inquired.

Layla nodded firmly.  “Yes.”

Bibble opened a drawer in his desk and sifted through its contents.  “You know that’s extortion, and extortion is highly illegal, especially when it involves a high government official.”

Adam felt Layla grip his hand, and he knew she felt as scared as he did.

“I thought of it as a simple negotiation,” Layla replied, somehow holding her voice steady.

“The law doesn’t look at it that way, Ms. Garrison.”  Bibble grinned as he found what he was looking for.  When he pulled his hand out of the drawer, it was wrapped around a shiny blue phaser.  They watched as he cranked the dial over to an undoubtedly lethal setting.  He aimed it at Adam’s chest.  “Now, since you attempted to extort me, I can have you arrested.  Any nanobots in your possession would go to me.  As for your friend, he clearly violated the terms of his exile.  Given that he no longer officially exists, I could shoot him and dispose of his body with no legal repercussions.  So, Ms. Garrison, can you explain to me why I should go with your plan instead when I have an option available to me that will work within the parameters of the law?”

Neither of them had an answer.  Layla dropped Adam’s hand, as if preparing herself to make a desperate move.

If there were ever a time for the Ludicrous Field to do its work, this would be it, Adam thought.

“I didn’t think you could,” Bibble said.

From the corner of his eye, Adam saw Layla reach into her pocket.  She had to be going for the nanos.

Then Bibble’s finger was on the trigger.  It would take the slightest of moves to end Adam’s life.  He instinctively stepped backwards, while Layla lunged across the desk at Bibble with the syringe in hand.  A beam of energy shot out of the weapon, passing her in midair on the way to its target.

Adam’s confused mind couldn’t make sense of anything as he hit the floor.

Proceed to entry Z.