//Epsilon, an unfinished work by Dave Menendez

It was a pleasant evening in the town of Chattawora on planet Alebbora,
known for its pleasant evenings.  The village elders sat on back
porches, trading stories and sipping their bourbon, whiskey, or the
occasional can of Dr Ploodux.  The village adults were listening or
dancing to soft music on the radio or discovering exciting new uses for
re-sealable plastic containers.  The children were playing quietly or
doing homework or had gone to sleep, bored out of their minds.
     Young Sestabila Kan was out back, staring at the stars.  He had
heard a tale about the heroic exploits of the space heroes some months
back, and since then he wanted nothing more than to travel in space and
meet them.  He wanted to see daring do and heroic adventure in exoctic
locations full of unimaginable danger.  In his heart, he knew it wasn't
likely to happen, but tonight he had felt the dream calling.  His
parents had declared it past his bed time, but he paid them no heed. 
Adventure was in the air.  He could feel it.  All he had to do was be
ready.
     So he waited, and when the aliens came and kidnapped his neighbors
he was initially quite put out.

     Deep within the moderately mighty ship _Luxury Condominium_ which
hovered high over Chattawora, a sinister villain sneered at his
captives, idly twisting one end of his nefarious mustache.  His three
prisoners stood shackled to the walls, half-asleep except for the
father.  He was quite awake and quite concerned about his family's fate,
and of those fates, he was most conerned with the one awaiting his
beautiful teenaged daughter.  She was out on a date that night and would
be returning with her boyfriend to an empty house.
     "Nya ha ha ha ha!" laughed the villain, whose name was Steeve. 
"Now, my prisoners, you will tell me what I wish to know."
     "Do what you want to me," cried the father, whose name was
Essechat Sen, "but spare my wife and son!"
     "Yeah!" chimed in little Kassechat.  "Spare us!"
     "I don't think so," sneered sinister Steeve.  "Now... tell me
where you buy your shoes!"
     "Never!" roared Essechat defiantly.  "You won't get that from us!"
     "Oh I won't, will I?" Steeve hissed.  "We shall see."  He turned
to his assistant, who stood threateningly by the door.  "Fetch the Barry
Manilow CD!"
     "You got it, boss," replied the thug, whose name was unimportant.
     Steeve laughed some more, twisting his mustache and buffing his
nails on his overcoat.  In the midst of his villainous amusement, he
noticed that Essechat's wife, Sokatep, had gone from half asleep back to
fully asleep.  "This will not do," he muttered, drawing closer.  "Hey,"
he called, "wake up!  HEY!"  Frowning at the lack of response, he
shouted into her ear: "WAKE UP!"
     Having grown up with three brothers, Sokatep was unfazed.
     Steeve moved to strike her from her somnolence, but was
interrupted by the return of his assistant, who was carefully holding
the Manilow CD with a long pair of tongs.  At a signal from his boss, he
gingerly placed the CD into a nearby stereo.
     "Now," Steeve said, "where do you buy your shoes?"  Essechat
looked away, Kassechat looked confused, Sokatep remained asleep.  "Still
won't talk?  So be it!"  With a sinister grin, he sinisterly reached
forward and pressed PLAY.
     Soft piano music filled the air.
     "AAAAGGHH!" screamed Essechat and Kassechat.  Sokatep remained
asleep.  Steeve laughed, his nefarious brain evidently finding the whole
situation amusing.  His thug put his fingers in his ears.  The music
continued.  
     "I'll talk!" cried Kassechat.
     "No, Son!"
     "Well?" demanded Steeve, leaning over the boy menacingly. 
Kassechat shrank into himself, cast a fearful look at his father, and
began to speak in a fearful voice.
     "We buy them... at the shoe store," he explained.
     "Of course!" Steeve said, slamming fist into palm.  "I should have
realized that myself.  Come, to the shoe store!"  He turned and strode
purposefully from the room.  His thug mercifully took a moment to press
STOP before he too left the room, closing the door behind him.
     The Sen family was once again alone.
     "Son, I'm very dissapointed in you."
     "Sorry, Dad."
     "Zzzzzz."

     Chattawora's shoe store had been about to close when a final
customer burst through the door.  "Young man," said Steeve as he
approached the counter, "I wish to purchase six thousand pairs of
shoes."
     "What size?" asked the slack-jawed youth behind the counter.
     The dastardly villain blinked.  "I had not considered that," he
admitted, scratching his chin.

//Copyright 1998 Dave Menendez <http://www.eyrie.org/~zednenem/>
//This is a work in progress, so please do not redistribute