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November 2, 2006

11.02.06

What's going on here?

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Tanya: The Inside Back Cover, Oct 1971

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Stacy: Uniform Angst

I don’t want to look in the mirror...

Christ, why can’t they actually make these damned things to fit. I’m a girl, dammit, I have hips and tits!

I know this thing is sagging in the crotch, I just know it. Won’t look.

And this helmet, what in the hell is that even for? This is a cheese factory for fuck’s sake… I can’t just wear a hairnet?

Stupid bureaucracy. I bet this is all because of that jerk over in Wrapping. Some idiot gets their crank folded into the gruyere and we all have to pay the price. Typical.

Read more from Stacy's .

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David: Dave's Not Here, Man

I could handle the computer trying to kill me. You come to expect that sort of thing. I could deal with getting sucked into the thing orbiting Jupiter. It wasn’t my plan, but I survived, sort of, so, okay. I coped with the psychedelic trip through time and space. I came to grips with finding myself in the white rooms. Literally, finding myself, dying of old age in a bed. Then the damn thing showed up again and turned me into a space baby.

But turning me into a woman? What the hell, man? I’m not even hot.

Fucking monolith.

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Jim: Accessorizing

In her mind, Grace played the conversation over and over again:

“How long have you been here at NASA, Grace?”

“Fourteen years, Director Fields.”

“And what have you done all that time?”

“I work in Payload Assembly. Right now I’m assigned to the Europa project. The robot is nearing completion”

“And where, precisely, is the robot being built?”

"Here in the Clean Room, Director.”

“And do you know why we are building it in the Clean Room, Grace?”

“Because we cannot risk germ contamination on Europa.”

“So tell me, Grace,” the director sighed. “Why aren’t you wearing your damn gloves?”

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Ted: Shipping out for New Perth

She looked at herself in the mirror, assaulted by what she saw. She was faced with the harsh truth, under flourescent lights which seemed to make it more cruel: she was being transported.

Her crime had been one of need, not malice. But the judge decreed that her former profession was perfect for a billet on the new colony. IN the new colony she reminded herself.

She went on to the next room and picked up the rest of her gear; her gloves and tanks. The two pounds of personal items she was allowed to bring were already being stowed.

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From The Comments: Laieanna

She barely escaped last time…all those creatures with their weird smiles and awful sayings. Who acts that way? Nothing about it was sane. And now look at her! The idea of going back was already making her feel crazy. Well, she did leave her favorite headband in there somewhere and mother would be terribly cross if she didn’t find it. So she was committed to making the trip across one final time. This time she would be protected from the infection that seemed to spread throughout that land.

Alice adjusted her helmet and, once again, stepped through the looking glass.

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