Heinlein Ficlet: "Adventure"
Apr. 27th, 2005 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alixtiiTitle: Adventure
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alixtii
Fandom: Robert A. Heinlein's World-as-Myth
Characters: Laz/Lor/Dora
All of the characters in this story belong to Robert A. Heinlein in our timeline, but pantheistic multiple-ego eschatological solipsism implies Laz and Lor are just as much mine as his. But I'd doubt the Philadelphia lawyers would buy that argument.
The only thing separating the captain and the commander of the starship Dora from the cold vacuum of outer space were the insignia stickums affixed to the flesh of their shoulders. Well, them and a million iso-watt forcefield, courtesy of Dora.
For a moment, the twins simply stared off into the vast expanse, not knowing which star belonged to Tertius, which to Secondus, or which to Terra. Then Lapus Lazuli Long turned to her sister Lorelei Lee Long, an expression on her face which was half mischief and half longing.
Laz and Lor were not telepathic with each other, or at least the twins didn't believe so. It was just that they knew each other so well that words were seldom necessary, their thought patterns so in synch with each other they could finish each others sentences—in fact, they found it difficult to speak with only one of their two mouths at a time.
Lor didn't need Laz to speak, then, to know what her sister was thinking: Let's have an adventure. "Be careful, Laz. You might attract the attention—"
"—of an Author? That's the point." It wasn't as if Lori's mischevious streak was any less pronounced that Lazi's, after all.
"Remember last time, when we attracted the attention of an Author with a fetish for underage redheaded lesbians?"
"Lor, that was Heinlein."
"No, not him. The pimply-faced fanfic writer."
"Oh, right. Him."
In unison, the twins shivered. What they had done to the teenage writer when the found him—after spending days searching the multiverse—had been satisfying, but gruesome.
"We're not even—"
"—really underage anyway. Or lesbians. Dora, how old are we?"
"Objectively," the disembodied voice of the computer-slash-ship answered, "you're both forty-nine years and six weeks old, standard. Subjectively, Laz is eighty-six and three months, and Lor is eighty-eight to the day, again standard. Happy birthday, Lor." A standard year was the time it took for Terra to make a full revolution around Sol. Laz and Lor had been to those green hills for Time Council missions, but never in this here-now. In this era, the hills of Terra were more brown than green, and any exposure would require that they sit for days in the Boondock clinic while Ishtar reversed the carcinogenic effects.
"Right, because Laz went on the Cabrini mission—"
"—while you were pregnant with Clotho."
"Atropos, you mean."
"She was named Lachesis," Dora corrected both of them.
"So?" asked Laz after a while.
"All right," Lor acquiesced. "Dora, an adventure."
"If you two go off on an adventure without telling anyone, you know, the Commodore is going to be rather upset."
"Well, you can tell our brother—"
"—when we get back, and not before—"
"—that we are grown girls now—"
"—and can do what we want."
"If Lazarus hasn't learned that lesson yet," answered Dora, "I rather doubt he's going to. But I wasn't talking about him, but Hilda."
"Oh," said Laz.
"She just wants us to tell so she can go along," complained Lor.
"Agreed," said Dora.
"But she's scarier than Lazarus is—"
"—and she's fun to be around—"
"—so we might as well take her."
THE END
Author:
alixtiiFandom: Robert A. Heinlein's World-as-Myth
Characters: Laz/Lor/Dora
All of the characters in this story belong to Robert A. Heinlein in our timeline, but pantheistic multiple-ego eschatological solipsism implies Laz and Lor are just as much mine as his. But I'd doubt the Philadelphia lawyers would buy that argument.
The only thing separating the captain and the commander of the starship Dora from the cold vacuum of outer space were the insignia stickums affixed to the flesh of their shoulders. Well, them and a million iso-watt forcefield, courtesy of Dora.
For a moment, the twins simply stared off into the vast expanse, not knowing which star belonged to Tertius, which to Secondus, or which to Terra. Then Lapus Lazuli Long turned to her sister Lorelei Lee Long, an expression on her face which was half mischief and half longing.
Laz and Lor were not telepathic with each other, or at least the twins didn't believe so. It was just that they knew each other so well that words were seldom necessary, their thought patterns so in synch with each other they could finish each others sentences—in fact, they found it difficult to speak with only one of their two mouths at a time.
Lor didn't need Laz to speak, then, to know what her sister was thinking: Let's have an adventure. "Be careful, Laz. You might attract the attention—"
"—of an Author? That's the point." It wasn't as if Lori's mischevious streak was any less pronounced that Lazi's, after all.
"Remember last time, when we attracted the attention of an Author with a fetish for underage redheaded lesbians?"
"Lor, that was Heinlein."
"No, not him. The pimply-faced fanfic writer."
"Oh, right. Him."
In unison, the twins shivered. What they had done to the teenage writer when the found him—after spending days searching the multiverse—had been satisfying, but gruesome.
"We're not even—"
"—really underage anyway. Or lesbians. Dora, how old are we?"
"Objectively," the disembodied voice of the computer-slash-ship answered, "you're both forty-nine years and six weeks old, standard. Subjectively, Laz is eighty-six and three months, and Lor is eighty-eight to the day, again standard. Happy birthday, Lor." A standard year was the time it took for Terra to make a full revolution around Sol. Laz and Lor had been to those green hills for Time Council missions, but never in this here-now. In this era, the hills of Terra were more brown than green, and any exposure would require that they sit for days in the Boondock clinic while Ishtar reversed the carcinogenic effects.
"Right, because Laz went on the Cabrini mission—"
"—while you were pregnant with Clotho."
"Atropos, you mean."
"She was named Lachesis," Dora corrected both of them.
"So?" asked Laz after a while.
"All right," Lor acquiesced. "Dora, an adventure."
"If you two go off on an adventure without telling anyone, you know, the Commodore is going to be rather upset."
"Well, you can tell our brother—"
"—when we get back, and not before—"
"—that we are grown girls now—"
"—and can do what we want."
"If Lazarus hasn't learned that lesson yet," answered Dora, "I rather doubt he's going to. But I wasn't talking about him, but Hilda."
"Oh," said Laz.
"She just wants us to tell so she can go along," complained Lor.
"Agreed," said Dora.
"But she's scarier than Lazarus is—"
"—and she's fun to be around—"
"—so we might as well take her."
THE END
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Hi
Date: 2005-07-21 09:39 pm (UTC)My email addy is zoe2507 [at] gmail [dot] com
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