
Dale walked over to the figure which towered nearly 7 feet
above
him and looked up.
"Fancy meeting you here," he said and the figure grinned, sharp teeth
flashing in the sunlight. "Lose another bet?"
"No," came the thunderous reply, and Dale winced, "let my guard down."
"Tone it down will you," Dale said, rubbing his right ear. The figure
grinned broader, then looked around.
"What manner of place is this?" it asked, its voice still booming.
"Class 1, blue coded planet," Dale responded, "in the Gamma quadrant."
"Class 1..." the figure replied, as if the words were highly distasteful,
"oh how terribly thrilling."
"Yeah well, the Gorg are making it interesting," Dale responded dryly,
looking up and shading his eyes, "and I told you to tone it down."
"Fine!!", came the thundering reply, then the figure snapped it's fingers
and a dark cloud swirled around it. Blue and green lighting flashed out of
the cloud which shrank, then dissipated, leaving a normal looking man of
slightly less than Dale's height, standing in the road before him. He was
dressed in a jump suit nearly identical to the one Dale wore and he
crooked the corner of his mouth up into a lopsided grin.
"I was out of energy anyway," he said, straightening his sleeve slightly,
then flicking a bit of imaginary dust off his chest. "So now what?"