DELTA BLUE BREW, IT'S GONNA GET 'CHU by Maddog "Keep your head down, they'll see us," wailed Vila, softly though, so they wouldn't be overheard. "Oh, stop whining, they'll never see us. They're much too busy," replied Dabbie, shaking her head in exasperation. "That's true." Vila peered through the grating at the scene below them. The two of them had snuck into the Gamma Dome's main pleasure house and were currently hiding in the air ducts above what the people below them called the "Oh, oh, red room of pleas ure". "You know it doesn't seem much like what they tell us in health education class," commented Dabbie at the appearance of yet another mysterious item. "They never tell us children what's really going on anyway," said Vila, "At least nobody ever tells me what's really going on. And anyway what is the fruit for?" "How would I know? Maybe they get hungry." Vila glanced down at the scene below him and thought carefully. No, he didn't think that was it, if it was, why get it all messy? His mother had always told him not to stick strange things in his mouth. Maybe she didn't know about this thing you could do with fruit. He didn't think he should ask her though. Adults did such silly things, kind of gross really, but very interesting. "Come on, we should get back before we're missed." Dabbie looked at the scene again, shrugged and started worming her way back out the shaft. After they'd managed to get out of the pleasure house they headed back to the access tunnel they'd come through. Dabbie paused for a moment outside a large building. "Hey Vila, isn't this Gamma Low School Six?" "Yes, I think so." "The same Gamma Low School Six who stole the Delta Low School Three's Mascot the Delta Demolisher?" "Yes. Come on Dabbie, we're standing in the middle of the street." Vila shifted nervously from foot to foot. These excur sions always made him have to go to the bathroom. Dabbie looked at him, Vila was the smartest person she'd ever met and he was great fun when you could convince him to do what you wanted. Right now she wanted the Gamma Gladiator, but how to convince him? Maybe she should offer him fruit. "We should steal it, Vila." "No way, are you crazy? The thing must weigh a ton! How would we get it back to the dome?" 1 "Can't you think of a way?" Dabbie folded her arms and looked expectantly at him. She planted her feet, hoping that the threat of not moving until she got an answer would provoke one. Vila sighed and went over to look carefully at the small statue. There seemed only to be a low level alarm on it to prevent random vandalism. He'd figured out how to get around one of those last year when Balen, the biggest bully on the block had wanted to rearrange his face. Balen simply hadn't understood when Vila had called him a big, dumb ninny. Vila had since stopped calling people big, dumb ninnies since he didn't think his luck would hold again. It would be easy to disconnect the alarm but he didn't see how he and Dabbie could move it after that, unless of course... Yes, that was it, get one of the little hand movers to do it. Should work, but he wasn't going to do it. "Yes, I can think of a way but it's too much trouble and..." Dabbie suddenly looked over Vila's shoulder. Her eyes went wide and she grabbed his arm. There was a security guard coming around the corner. It was definitely time to run. "You're not afraid, are you, Restal?" Cline sneered. "I thought I heard you say you could steal Gamma Low School Six's mascot without anybody knowin'" "Well, I could if I wanted to," Vila retorted. He was a short, thin boy just past his eleventh birthday with brown hair that needed a trim. His eyes darted around the playground, judging the group. Cline was a newcomer so he had an advantage that way. He wished he hadn't shot his mouth off about the dumb Gamma mascot. He and Dabbie had nearly gotten caught yesterday and he wanted to lay low for a while. "Why don't you want to? They stole our mascot, so we should steal theirs. I say you can't do it." Cline nodded wisely. "I can too do it," Vila said positively. The situation was look ing bad, he was too small and no good in a fight. Nobody picked on him mainly because he found ways to get around things and that was useful. Being useful was the way to keep safe, he'd decided. If they needed you, they didn't kill you. "Prove it." Cline's words were echoed around the grounds. "All right, I will." Vila said with all the boldness he could muster. "But I'm going to need a few items before I go." The claxon sounded and the children lined up to go back to class. Back at home, Vila's mother was chatting in her usual straight forward manner to herself. "And I said to her, Deltas never act like that. Gammas, Betas are always doing things like that, but not Deltas. Then Clair stopped by, she's having a lot of trouble with her youngest. Such a silly girl, always, and then I gave her a good piece of advice. Never do today what can be put off 2 on somebody else, I mean really why .... Vila stop slouching in your chair, you'll freeze that way. Then the vidcast came on and they showed one of the old nuclear horror films, terrible really, they shouldn't show things like that during the day. Terrible, really, I don't understand what they've done to the fried protein slabs this week, they taste strangely. Vila, eat your protein. But then the news came out that they're increasing the allowance on Strifeaway for all Deltas. Isn't that wonder ful, we'll all feel much better now." "Mother, I'm going out for a little while to play with Dabbie." Vila had thrown his meal under the table. She was right, the protein was terrible. "Although I hear rumors that they might start distributing soma, but then they always say that near election time. Then Clair stopped by, she's having.." Vila grabbed his jacket and closed the door behind him. In the eleven years he'd been alive, never once had he gotten a word in edgewise. He hurried off to the rendezvous point. "Did you get the stuff?" Vila could already feel the need to go to the bathroom starting and wanted to get going as quickly as possible. "Sure did," replied Dabbie, "also got something that should make this even more fun." She reached into the large satchel she was carrying and produced several cans of the infamous, Delta Brew Blue, whose slogan was, 'Delta Blue Brew. We wouldn't hurt you but this brew might'. She handed her friend one. Vila took it reluctantly, he wasn't too sure this was a good idea. Dabbie popped the lid on hers and waited for him to do the same. They raised their Blue Brews and toasted each other. Then Vila Restal took a big gulp, he had to protect his masculine pride, after all. At first it tasted awful, after another few seconds it still tasted awful. The beverage slipped down his throat towards his stomach leaving a warm trail all the way down. It felt good. Vila took another gulp. He belched. It felt good. The alcohol hit his brain very fast, it felt real good. Tossing back the rest of the brew, Vila looked at Dabbie. She was staring at her drink. "You know," she said, "it tastes even worse then it smells. Why on earth does everybody drink it?" "Finish it and you'll find out." Vila reached into the satchel and got another one. Everything seemed to be getting better now. Dabbie had gotten the other children to round them up the tools and the hand mover that they would need to steal the Gamma Gladi ator. "Let's go then." Dabbie nodded and they made their way to the access corridor to the Gamma Dome. The, by this time, not-so-dynamic twosome made 3 their way to Gamma Low School Six. The coast appeared to be clear and Vila started dismantling the low level alarm. "Dabbie, do we have any more Delta Brew?" "You've already had two of your own and most of one of mine! How can you keep drinking it? It tastes awful." "I kind of like the taste." Vila's words were starting to become a little slurred. There was a warmness around him that he'd never felt before and he loved it. Nothing could really bother him inside of it. "Do we have another one? I've got the alarm off." "About time." Dabbie got the hand mover and pointed it at the Gladiator statue. It rose off its base and towards her. She steadied the beam about half of a meter from her. "Do we have another one?" asked Vila again. "Yes, it's in the bag. Here, hold the statue. I'll get it." She handed the mover over to him. "Hold it right there." A loud, authoritative voice broke through the artificial night of the dome. It was a security guard dressed in the traditional black and black of his office. "Exactly what do you two think you are doing?" "We're stealing the Gamma Gladiator because they stole our Delta Demolisher," answered Vila. "It's only fair, don't you think?. I think so, after all, tit for tat and all that. The guard glared down on them. Little Deltas, just what he wanted to deal with tonight. Why did the children always seem to want to play jokes on each other in his section? "All right put the statue down. I'm placing you both under arrest." "Arrest!" Dabbie's voice squeaked into a new octave range. "Arrest!" Vila's voice went even higher than her's. If they got arrested they might find out that he'd been cheating on all his placement tests. They might send him to someplace horrible like they showed on the vid. They might do terrible things to his mind. They might tell his mother. She might talk to him, for a long time. He swung the hand mover in one smooth motion and flung the statue into the guards knees. He toppled over scream ing. Vila stared at him. He'd never hurt anyone before. Dabbie grabbed his hand. "Come on, we've got to get out of here." They started running, but not until Vila had picked up the satch el, however. Unfortunately, neither paid much attention to where they were running and the no longer so dynamic duo found them selves lost in the access corridors. "Dabbie," 4 "Hmmm?" "I've got to go to the bathroom." Vila's voice quavered. They were resting in a small cul-de-sac and he'd had another Blue Delta Brew. "Now?" Dabbie's voice sounded irritated. "Yes." "Well go over..." Dabbie's voice cut off suddenly. They heard voices approaching them. Official sounding voices. She peeked around the corner. There were several large figures approaching their hiding place. "We've got to get out of here." she whispered. Vila glanced around, there didn't seem to be any way to run back into the corridor without the figures seeing them. He looked at the object they'd been leaning against. It was a door. "It's locked," he whispered. "Well open it up! Do you want them to catch us?" Vila was afraid now. Even though everything was still warm and far away, he was afraid. He grabbed the last Delta Blue Brew and took another sip. Things got a little farther away and he got a little more terrified as the footsteps got closer. "Do we have any small pointed objects in that satchel?" "Yeah." Dabbie rummaged through the bottom of the bag and came up with an object about the size of a bobby pin. She handed it to him. Vila remembered seeing a very interesting vid a few weeks back about the old times. They'd shown how two good guys had escaped some bad guys by sticking a small object into a door. He insert ed the pin into the locking mechanism and started jiggling it back and forth. The footsteps got closer, he got more scared and then the door was open. The two children leaped through it and closed the door behind them. It was a maintenance room, filled with various bits of machinery and equipment. Vila looked at Dabbie. Dabbie looked at Vila. They both sighed with immense relief. "Uh, I still have to go to the bathroom." "Well go already. I'll try and figure out where we are." Dabbie slipped down to the floor and tried to recall all the twists and turns they'd made. Vila sidled over to a nearby corner and relieved himself of all the Delta Blue Brew. Glancing around the near area they had found themselves in, he noticed two more doors. Trying them he found them to be locked but more jiggling of the pin opened them up. "Come on Dabbie, let's get out of here." 5 "Great idea, Restal, only one problem." "What now?" Vila moaned. "I think we're in the Alpha Dome," said Dabbie in a loud whis pering voice. They both looked at the door Vila had opened the lock on. Slowly and very, very carefully, they opened it. Then they closed it. Somehow they had managed to get near the top of the curve of a dome, several thousand meters up in the air. Dabbie managed to get her voice back first. "I think that was a maintenance corri dor we went through." "How nice," replied Vila, who was starting to turn green. "How do we get down?" Dabbie approached the door cautiously and opened it. "I think we're going to have to climb down a ladder." "Oh, why do these things always happen to me?" Vila hated lad ders, hated physical exertion in general, for that matter. "What good will it do us to get down? They'll just arrest us for being here!" "Calm down, Vila," Dabbie said with all the assurance she could muster. "I'm sure you'll think of something by the time we climb down." "Ohh wonderful, just wonderful," whimpered Vila. He watched as Dabbie slipped the rucksack over her shoulders and started the climb down. Sighing and wishing for another brew, for inspira tional purposes only, he joined her. The climb down was long and the pair frequently had to rest. Not only were they tired, but the rather noxious effects of the Delta Blue Brew were getting to them. "How much further?" Vila blurted out between gulps of air. He'd been looking up the entire climb because looking down didn't do a lot for him and he didn't want to get his friend messy. "Uh, Dabbie, how much more? I'm getting really tired." "Go back up Restal, now!" Dabbie yelped and pushed him none too gently from underneath. She was trying to get back up the lad der. "Why?" Vila finally worked up enough guts, figuratively that is, to look down. There was a team of security guards at the bottom of the ladder pointing guns at them. "Oh, no, please, no." "Come on Vila, climb." Dabbie's voice was urging him on. "No way, what's the point. They'll only climb up and get us and maybe push us off or something," he replied. "Besides, I don't feel good." 6 "But they'll arrest us!" "I'm sure you'll think of something by the time we get down," Vila said as calmly as he could muster. He really didn't care if he was arrested, all he wanted to do was sit down. Everything was starting to spin in an unhealthy manner, especially for a person on a ladder. By the time they had made their way to the bottom, the security guards had put away their guns and were shaking their heads in suppressed mirth. The squad leader yelled out at the children, "All right you two, come down slowly and put your hands above your heads." Dabbie complied immediately as she stepped off the ladder, Vila responded a bit more slowly. When she saw that Vila didn't appear to have any ideas on how to handle the situation, she decided to handle it. These guards appeared to be the kind that might be interested in where they could buy some fruit. "Have you guys ever seen the marvelous things you can do with fruit?" she asked in a soft voice. "Fruit? Look you two, you're both under arrest for breaking and entering. That's a very serious charge. You know that, don't you?" a shorter guard told them in a hard tone. Dabbie nodded and wondered why the suggestion of fruit wasn't working as well as it did in the Pleasure Dome. Adults, she decided, were very confusing. "You could be shipped off planet, and there are horrible aliens out there that would think nothing of eating two small Deltas for lunch," the guard's harsh voice continued. "And they are going to have the chance if the two of you don't tell us how you got into the dome." The lead guard's more rea sonable tone interjected. Security in this section of the domed city was very tight. It should have been impossible for two children to be in the center of it climbing down a maintenance ladder. The two budding juvenile delinquents looked at each other. There didn't appear to be much choice in the matter. Vila decided that he should make one point very clear to the guards though, "We'll show you, sure, for a price." "A price, huh," the guard said sardonically. "I don't think you're in a very good bargaining position right now, young man." "A price," Vila replied firmly, "we take an elevator, no more climbing." The guards agreed. They didn't relish a long climb any more than the children did. A service elevator deposited them at the top of the dome in short order and Vila pointed out the door to the maintenance corridor that they had come through to get to the ladder. He then showed them one of the other two doors in the 7 room and indicated that they had originally come through it. "That shouldn't have been open at all." The guards began check ing the various maintenance devices in the area. "Dabbie," Vila whispered. The two had been told to stand off in a corner and not move, or else. "I think I know a way we can escape." "How?" she replied, glancing around them. "The second door wasn't the one we came through." "I see, we can open the door back to the Gamma Dome and close it." "Yeah, right." Vila belched out. The initial fright of being captured was wearing off and rising nausea had returned. "Cover me." Vila and Dabbie sidled over to the other door. Vila slipped down to his knees and leaned against the door lock. One of the guards glanced over at them, but Vila groaned loudly. "He doesn't feel very well," Dabbie told no one in particular. Vila backed this statement up by losing the majority of his Delta Blue Brew. The guards that weren't occupied in searching the area moved back slightly and stopped watching so closely. After all, they were only human and nobody likes to be near somebody being violently ill. Seconds later there were no signs of the children, except what Vila had left behind. The guards were startled momentarily and looked underneath some of the bulkier equipment. They tried the third door in the room but it was locked. It didn't seem too important though. After all it was more important to secure the area, the occupants of the Alpha Dome being very particular about their safety, than to worry about two Delta children who were wandering around. Vila managed to walk all the way to the end of the maintenance corridor that led them back to the Gamma Dome, then he sat down. "Come on Vila, those other guards might be wandering around," Dabbie urged. "No way, if I get up, I'll die," the boy mumbled. "You're a really fun drunk, you know that Restal?" Dabbie sighed and looked around. There had been a small moving cart at the end corridor. She went back and got it. Helping her friend into it, she began pushing him in what she hoped was the direction of the Delta Dome. Sticking strictly to the shadows, after passing a neon blue beer sign proclaiming "Get Chu Some", they went for ward. 8 Several hours later they had nearly made it back to their often used air ducts. "Uh, Dabbie, we've forgotten something." "What?" "We've got to steal something to prove we were here." "You're kidding? Haven't we gotten into enough trouble for one night? If we don't get home soon, we're really going to get it!" she nearly shrieked at him. It was hours after her bedtime, after all. "I'm not joking. If we go in to school tomorrow without any thing to show, the others will never stop teasing us. Especially since they arranged for the mover and everything." Vila sat up in the cart and looked at his friend. "I don't want to have my face mashed in the floor." "Why not? You should be used to it by now," the girl replied. She didn't want to face the other children empty handed either. She'd talked the caper up so much that everybody knew about it. Noticing the crushed look on Vila's face, she continued, "Oh, mutoid breath, you're right. But what are we going to take? There's no way I'm going back to get that dumb Gamma Gladiator." "No, the guards are probably watching it." Vila screwed up his face in concentration. "I've got it. It'd be perfect and every body will want to see it, even more than that dumb mascot," He started climbing out of the cart. "We'll go and take the sign from the front of that pleasure house. It's got some real inter esting pictures on it. And they move! " "Yeah, that's great!" Dabbie agreed readily. She went over and punched his arm, "Way to go, cutie." Vila wasn't sure how to respond to that, or even if he should since the punch had jarred his head. They wound their way to the front of the pleasure house. The customers had long since gone home, it was nearly morning and those things usually finish up by then. The pair managed to pry the sign off the wall using one of the tools still left in the rucksack Dabbie had managed to hold on to. They slipped it in to the bag and reentered the Delta section via the air ducts. Agreeing to meet in front of the school in an hour, which was when class was going to start any way, they went to their respective homes. Vila slipped into the apartment quietly and took a quick shower. He left the water running and inspected his mother's collection of various pain and mood medications and selected one which, according to the picture on the bottle, should alleviate the pounding in his head. Downing the medicine, he finished washing and got dressed. His mother was no where in sight and his hopes of getting out again without being seen were rising. But like a lot of things in his life, his luck didn't hold. "Oh, Vila, there you are. Are you ready for school, good. I've been up all night, really I have, pick your self up some break fast at the dispensary will you. I really must call Clair and 9 find out how her youngest is doing, make sure you get something nutritional. Wonder what the vidcast is going on about now? And it really should be..." Dabbie paced nervously in front of the school with the bag con taining the pleasure house sign. The other children wanted to see what they had gotten but she refused to show it until Vila got there. Vila's thin form rounded the corner and she yelled out to him, "About time, what took you so long?" "Maybe he fell in the toilet," one of the older girls giggled. "Did you get it?" Cline pushed his way to the front off the gathering crowd. "Well, not exactly," Vila replied. "Not exactly." A smile split the bully's face. "You probably didn't even go over to the Gamma Dome, I bet." "We did too, only we didn't quite manage to get the Gamma Gladia tor." Dabbie interjected. "What did you manage to get?" "This," Vila pulled the sign out from the bag and held it up to the others, "A lot more interesting than any dumb old mascot. At least to those of us who understand what it's about," he said wisely. "What is it?" Cline asked and was echoed by several others. "Don't you know? I'm shocked, Cline. Really I am, figured a big fellow like you would know the score." Vila kept a completely innocent look on his face as he looked around. "Hey, what's the fruit for in this sign?" one of the smaller children asked. "Maybe Dabbie and I could be persuaded to explain it to you," Vila said quietly. "For a price that is." The claxon rang. Dabbie shoved the sign back into the sack and the children lined up to go into the school. 10