Episode 14 Super Nova

It took some quick thinking, some fast talking and an instant link-up to my old friend Captain Rickey at the NSFPD to convince the policebot that I wasn't crazy and/or a menace to society. After much cajoling and convincing the 'bot's central processing unit decided that, okay, it was possible that my car had tried to kill me. So the 'bot, with the complete backing of its superiors, let me go with only a warning for high concept incendiary littering so long as I agreed to pay for the clean up, which I did.

"Should I net you some public transportation?" HARV asked as I left the scene of my near demise.

"No, I think I'll use manual power to get back to the office. I could use the walk."

"As you wish," HARV complied.

"I just want to get out of here before the press shows up," I said, looking around fearfully. "Actually, I'm kind of surprised none of them are here yet."

"Not to worry, oh carbon one," HARV stated proudly. "I have taken care of that."

"May I ask how?"

"I planted a rumor that Madonna and Johnny Depp were secretly getting married today in a subterranean cave at Grand Canyon World Park. Stories don't come any larger than two one hundred year old super icons getting hitched."

"Nicely done, HARV."

"I learned to create the truth from the best," HARV said (offering me a rare compliment). "I mean the time you had me leak the story that Randy had discovered entire cities of sentient life in the sub-atomic particles of his dryer lint, that was a classic. And like you always say, for all I know it 'could' be true."

"It's nice to know you were paying attention."

"I pay attention to several million things at any one moment. That is what makes me so useful," he said. "Speaking of useful, I am also altering your appearance with a holo-mask."

"Get out of here!"

"I computed that it would be best if you were not recognized. So take a look -- I am using a new holo program that reflects."

I checked my reflection in a nearby store window. Sure enough, the face peering back at me had a mustache, a dirty beard and was wearing dark glasses . My nose was also a bit smaller and those dark circles beneath my eyes had vanished (nice touch). Between the new look and the fact that my clothes were tattered and torn from the car attack, I could easily pass for a semi-professional drifter (a rare but not totally forgotten occupation). If I hadn't known it was me I wouldn't have, well, known it was me and, thanks to HARV's quick thinking, I reached my office with little problem.

"Que pasa, Tio?" Carol asked the moment I set foot in the reception area.

"Didn't you tell her?" I asked HARV.

"I thought it would sound better coming from you," HARV snickered.

"My car tried to kill me," I said.

Carol rolled her eyes. "Fine, don't tell me." Then she stared at me the way psi folks do when they're reading your mind. "Dios mio, you're telling the truth."

"I going to my office to clean up a bit," I said. "After that can I borrow your hover?"

"You hate hovers!" Carol reminded me (as if I needed reminding).

"I'll keep it low to the ground and let HARV do the driving."

"Fine," she reluctantly agreed and tossed me the ignition chip. I started towards my office but then stopped and turned back to Carol. "Any word from Electra?"

"She called to say she hates you," Carol said.

"Well, at least she's talking about me."

After a quick change, I was out of the office and heading towards Carol's hover. It was an older model, a Mazda ZX-7 convertible, well actually "unconvertible" since it didn't have a working top (a particularly significant design flaw, if you ask me).

I climbed in with a little trepidation, and got as comfortable as I could considering my apprehension about hovers and the fact that this particular hover needed new seats. Maybe Carol was right, she really did need a raise. I reluctantly slid the ignition chip into the CPU and the hover blinked on with far less fanfare than I expected.

"HARV, take the com," I said.

"With pleasure," HARV replied as his digital face popped into a small computer window on the dash. "Carol has given me access to override the hover's computer. She is much better about that than you are. What exactly is our destination?"

"Before my car trouble you mentioned Nova Powers. Do you know where we can find her now?"

"There were recent reports of her destroying a pair of pressbots who were attempting to video her in a shower at Arnold and Maria's Gym. And after examining the remnants of those pressbots I must say that there most certainly are places where cameras should not go, or be shoved, if you get my data flow."

"Loud and clear, buddy." I paused to remove the mental image from my mind.

"Okay, take me to Arnold and Maria's. Medium speed three meters high."

"Three meters?" HARV protested. "This hover is rated for up to three hundred."

"Maybe so. But I'm not."

"Fine," HARV reluctantly agreed. "We shall make the trip via the old lady and acrophobe expressway."

We lifted off the ground started towards the gym. "And don't speed," I said. "Keep it to one fifty-five."

"Life in the slow lane," HARV sighed. "I assume that you feel Ms. Powers is involved in this?"

"I'm not sure at this point but I know that there's more to this case than simply finding a killer android."

"My thoughts exactly," HARV agreed.

"Then again, this may all be subterfuge and somebody may be trying to get me to think too much," I said.

"I sincerely doubt that you will fall into that trap," HARV said. Compliment or backhanded insult? HARV kept me wondering for the rest of the trip.

When we landed at the gym I was incredibly underwhelmed. Arnold and Maria's was supposedly the gym where the rich and famous passed their time working up a sweat and working out their eyes, but from the outside it just looked, well, like a gym.

We went in and were met by more of the same old, same old. It was a gym. They had all the latest and most fashionable gravity control weights and holo-sim work out machines. There was also a large selection of old-fashioned free weights (which I doubt most of today's rich and famous fitness buffs would recognize). But a gym is just a gym and this one was no different, no matter how high the membership fee.

"Do you see Nova?" I asked HARV.

A cursor appeared before my eyes and scanned the room until it locked onto a woman standing in the middle of a boxing ring across the room. The cursor flashed bright red.

"A simple, 'yes' would have sufficed," I said, making my way towards the ring.

"True, but this is way more cool!" HARV said.

Nova was more beautiful in person than in hologram. Her self-confidence and strength were clearly evident in the way she moved about the ring. Her wiry muscles rippled and her delicate Asian features were somehow simultaneously alluring and fearsome (go figure).

"What's her background?" I asked.

"Her parents are from the Province of Malaysia," HARV said. "I have no confirmation but I am guessing that Nova Powers is her stage name."

"Logical," I said in my most computer-like voice. "She's attractive but, honestly, she doesn't look that tough."

"Her physical stature is deceiving," HARV lectured. "Or to quote an archaic twen-cen colloquialism, as you are so fond of doing, 'you cannot judge a CD-ROM by its cover.' I suggest you watch her next display very closely."

So, while I was tempted to argue with HARV (you usually can judge a good CD-ROM by its cover -- more often than not, a lousy cover means a lousy CD), I instead decided to push my mute button and watch.

I reached Nova just as the action was starting. Four big burly men had entered the ring and were now circling her like sharks around a fat swimmer.

"Come on guys," she taunted. "I won't hurt you too much!" As if on cue, the men attacked. One leapt from behind her and slung his tree trunk arms around her in a bear hug. At the same time, another of the men lowered his shoulder and rushed her in a headlong charge. It seemed like good strategy to me.

I was wrong.

Nova broke the first man's grip like a hot laser knife through soy butter and flipped him head on into the other attacker. Their heads met with the sound of stones shattering and the impact sent both men over the ring's force field simulated ropes and crashing to the hard plastic of the gym floor, where two medbots awaited their arrival.

"Sorry about that," Nova giggled. "Don't know my own strength."

The two remaining sparring partners, obviously thinking that Nova was off-guard, rushed her full steam from opposite sides. Now, even though I'd seen Nova in action for only ten seconds, I could immediately spot the mistakes that these poor guys were making.

Mistake One: Nova is never "off-guard."

Mistake Two: As the previous two attackers proved only seconds before, a two directional attack doesn't work against her.

Nova proved me right on both counts because, as the men charged, she spun like a cat and flung her arms out ramrod straight. The men crashed full force into her open hands and you could almost see the stars yourself. The guy on the left fell to the ground on contact, out colder than a fish in a freezer. The guy on the right managed to remain standing but was wobbling like a single rotor hovercraft in a windstorm. Nova blew him a kiss and he toppled -- out for the count (no, out for the day).

I applauded.

Nova turned towards me. "If it isn't Zachary Nixion Johnson!" she smiled.

"If it isn't then I'm wearing the wrong clothes," I said as I watched the medbots carry the last of her sparring partners away.

"Great line," HARV whispered inside my head. "I am glad that computers cannot barf."

Nova walked to the edge of the ring, leaned towards me and smiled again. "I see you're witty even without your writers."

"First of all," I said (regrettably, with more anger than I would have liked), "I don't use writers." I paused for a moment and tried to make my tone a little more pleasant. "Second, that is if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a question or two."

"I love questions," she said with a smile that worried me. "But I hate giving answers."

"That sort of makes it difficult then," I offered.

Nova gently grabbed my wrist and casually lifted me over the ropes and into the ring. "I'll make you a deal, Mr. Johnson," she smiled. "I'll answer any questions you may have for me if you can last two minutes in the ring with me."

"Gee, Nova, I'd love to," I said as I backed away. "But I have this strict policy about not fighting women. It's bad for the good guy image if I win and bad for the macho image if I lose."

She ignored me as she removed the HARV communicator from my wrist. "You will time two minutes for us won't you?" she said into the communicator.

"Of course," HARV replied cheerily. "Especially since, only a few moments ago Zach was assessing your fighting prowess thusly." The sound of a tape rewinding emanated from the communicator.

I didn't like where this was going.

"...she doesn't look that tough, " my recorded voice said from the wrist communicator (it's times like this when I really wish HARV had a plug).

"On second thought, let's make it three minutes," Nova said as she hung the HARV communicator gently on an energy rope.

"Gladly" HARV toned. "I love to serve!"

Nova turned back towards me. "I understand that you hold blackbelts in all major forms of the martial arts."

"That's just a PR ploy from my agent," I said as I backed away. "I prefer to think my way out of trouble."

"That's too bad," Nova said as she closed the gap between us. "There's not much room in this ring for thinking."

"Tell me when I should begin timing!" HARV called.

"If I live, HARV, I'm trading you in for an older model." Nova began our brutal ballet with a right cross. The punch was a probing one, at far less than full speed. She was feeling me out, ascertaining my style.

I slipped off the ropes and managed to avoid the punch but Nova had expected as much. Her first move set me up for the next and as I twisted away from her right, I nearly fell headlong into her lightning quick left jab. I ducked at the last moment and her fist sailed over my head, sending an icy breeze down my back.

I had the impression that Nova was toying with me. She confirmed this when her right uppercut made a painful impression on my jaw. I was trampled once by an electronic bull during the PETA-endorsed Humane Running of the Bulls in New Pamplona. Nova's punch made me wax nostalgic for that time. The force of the blow sent me flying across the ring and into the ropes. Against my better judgment, I staggered to my feet and shook the stars off.

"That was a love tap," Nova said as she closed in on me again. "I don't want you laying helpless at my feet just yet."

"Listen Zach," HARV whispered inside my head. "I have analyzed Nova's fights and I predict that her next move will be to put your head in a reverse standing leg lock."

"Whose side are you on, HARV?" I said a bit louder than I should have.

"No use calling to your computer now," Nova told me, shaking a finger at me.

"In the ring it's just you and me."

She somersaulted across the ring like a gymnast, grabbed my head with her legs and yanked me down hard to the mat. The move brought us both to the ground (although I was in a considerably more vulnerable position).

"I call this my pleasure and pain hold," she said. "I just put some pressure on your jugular," her legs tightened around my neck, "and in a few seconds, you're sleeping like a baby."

Under different circumstances this might have been enjoyable but the suffocation aspect here was a definite turn-off. This was the second time in two days that someone had tried closing off my airway and I didn't want this to become a habit. Thankfully, though, my connection to HARV was still operational

"Shock her," I mumbled, hoping he'd catch on.

"Shock her?" HARV answered inside my head. "Mumble twice if that means you would like me to utilize the natural electricity in your body to create a concentrated burst strong enough to cause Ms. Nova discomfort."

"Mphh Mphh."

"A fine idea," HARV whispered. "I suggest however that you bite her simultaneously so she does not suspect that I am helping you. On my mark now. One...two...two-point five. Just trying to break the tension a bit. Three!"

I chomped down on Nova's thigh and felt HARV shoot a charge of my body's electricity into her at the same time. My teeth tingled a bit from the electrical backlash but Nova clearly got the bulk of the charge.

"Yow!" she exclaimed, half in pain, half in surprise. "Did you just bite me?" She loosened her leg lock just enough for me to wriggle free. I squeezed out and popped to my feet with the aid of one of ropes. Nova got up and slowly pursued me, rubbing her leg as she moved. "Nice teeth. I like that in a man. Drop me an e-note if Electra ever dumps you. We could have some fun."

She lashed out at me with the speed of a viper on caffeine, grabbed me with her left arm and lifted me off the ground. She rolled the fingers of her right hand into a fist and the lithe muscles in her arm tensed like a pound of plastique with a lit fuse. I had the feeling that I'd worn out my welcome.

"Say good night!" she said.

"You're going to thump me after just asking me out?" I asked.

"Isn't love strange?"

"I just hope my medical coverage is up to date," I said.

"You really are a funny guy," she smiled. "Let's do lunch after you recover."

Nova cocked her right hand for a thunder punch. I closed my eyes and prepared to board the big blue bus to the netherworld (as I mentioned earlier, I tend to be overly metaphoric when facing death). But instead of the sound of a bone crushing right cross to my face, I instead heard that of a bell (a computerized sonic imitation of a bell, anyway) coming from HARV.

"Time is up!" HARV shouted. Nova sighed, a little disappointed and then gently put me down. "You actually did it," she said. "You had to cheat and play dirty some, but I respect that in a man."

"As far as I'm concerned all's fair in love and war," I said as I put the wrist communicator back on my wrist, "and frankly, with you, Nova, it's hard to tell the difference."

Her laugh was more melodic than I would have guessed. "Now what are those questions you have for me?"

"I understand that you used to date Dr. Ben Pierce?" I stated very calmly.

A rush of emotion flooded Nova's face as her calm exterior gave way to a raging interior. I could literally feel the heat her anger, no hatred, was generating.

Nova screamed and she lashed out at me with a wild open-handed swing. She caught me with only a glancing blow but it was powerful enough to send me flying over the ropes and crashing to the floor.

Enraged now, Nova leaped over the ropes and came after me.

HARV was right, I really did have a way with people.