Prelude to the Planetary League

Private Johnson Asks More Questions

"Do you get it now, Johnson?" Asked Masterson.

"Sort of," responded Johnson. "You were sucked into some sort of portal that brought you and your aircraft to a planet on the other side of the galaxy."

"Or in a different galaxy... or in the next planetary system over from us. I don't know, exactly."

"Right," responded Johnson, "but the point is that you arrived on this other planet in the middle of a raging battle. They captured you and tortured you and did experiments on you."

"Yes."

"The guy that did the experiments calls himself the Body Builder, even though he himself is a skinny old man."

"Correct."

"And the Body Builder gave you a weird foot."

"It's not THAT weird," responded Masterson, " and don't forget I have eyes that can see in many different spectra in addition to visible light." 

"Right," answered Johnson. He took a deep breath, then continued, "and another 'Builder' was called in when you weren't able to control the new implants.  He called himself the Brain Builder. He looked like a musclebound strongman from the waist up, and a metallic spider robot from the waist down."

"Very good," confirmed Masterson.

"The Brain Builder's method of enhancing your brain power was to implant strange creatures called amygdalerians into your head. They enhance your cognitive capabilities. But they also allow him to control your mind. He did this with two brains in a fishbowl stacked on his shoulders that were attached to his head with tubes."

"So far, so good," confirmed Masterson.

"You also met two other people from earth. One was named Silvia da Silvia, from Brazil.  The other guy was Kenji Sato. He was from Japan. The Body Builder conducted the same experiments and torture on them that they did to you. Except, instead of a weird foot and a creepy eye, he implanted death-ray eyes on Silvia, and super strong robotic arms on Kenji."

"True. Don't forget about May."

"I was just getting to her." Johnson paused and looked at May. She smiled at him, and he smiled at her. Johnson returned his attention to Masters. "She was being controlled by the Brain Builder using his fishbowl brains and the amygdelarians and whatnot. He was presumably going to try to control you and your companions that way too. But in the process of implanting the amygdelarians, Sylvia accidentally obliterated the fishbowl brains, which released the Body Builder's power over May. So, she rescued you.  Y recaptured your airplane, and made it to a rebel camp. They call themselves the Soombar resistance. The planet is called Soombar."

"Soombar is a moon, but yes. Very good. Let's get back to the story. I was about to tell you about my heroic adventures with the Soombar resistance. Are you ready?"

"I guess," responded Johnson, "but can we continue this tomorrow? It's getting late, and I need to attend to some personal matters."

"Yes, of course. We will reconvene tomorrow at 0700 hours." With that, Colonel Masterson stood. Johnson also stood, saluted, and left the room. He was about to ask May what she thought, but she left before he could get a word out. He harrumphed to himself, and sat back down, pondering.