No Brave Nude World Pt. 03

"I know." I said regretfully. "I really hurt that guy last night. I didn't mean to. Even when I tried to be nice and help him up, I accidentally jerked his arm out of its socket. Jesus, if I'd have been mad, I could have torn his arm right off."

"Just be careful." Athena advised. "Try not to show off for now, and take the time to learn all of the customs here. The more we can appear to help them, the better. Got it?"

Yeah, I got it all right. And the more I got it, the more I was reminded of history back on Terra. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I'm sure that King Louis and Marie Antoinette felt pretty charitable to their subjects at the beginning too, but I seem to remember it ending rather badly for them.

We took the sky bridge over the street far below at the 50th floor, and got on the vertical ascender to take us skyward.

"Let's get cleaned up at my place, Darling." Athena cooed into my ear. "It's not like we have to worry about what to wear. I do want to put my face on though, and my favorite pair of high heels."

"I'm fine with that." I agreed.

We spent the next hour or so showering and getting ready, although it was mostly she who was getting ready. Despite not wearing any clothes, she was still dressed to kill, with a killer pair of shoes, a thin golden waist chain and makeup that made her a drop-dead gorgeous knockout. Damn, she'd be a prize back on Terra!

Athena and I arrived at the Skytop Lounge and were promptly seated for dinner. Once again, Cassiopeia was the server, and she smiled at me warmly.

"Well hello there, Jack." she greeted me. "So nice to see you again. And Athena, my goodness, you look absolutely stunning!"

"Thank you." my date replied with a coy smile. "I feel stunning too, for some reason."

She winced slightly, as I kicked her shin under the table. She glared at me, but said nothing.

"I'll be right back with your drinks." Cassie said with a smile.

"What the fuck did you do that for?!" Athena demanded.

"Stop overdoing it." I replied. "You may have some advice for me while I'm learning the customs, but you'd damned well better take mine as well when you overplay your hand. You want me to be the politician, fine. Then listen to what I tell you. Don't get cocky. A Hedon would never do that. Now be quiet and look pretty; Cassie's coming back with our drinks."

Athena pasted a phony smile on her face as our server returned.

"And what will you have tonight, Jack?" she inquired.

"Same as last night." I replied. "That roasted Lancelot or whatever it was, was delicious."

"The EXElot." she corrected, as she wrote it down. "I don't believe King Arthur would appreciate us roasting his favorite knight for dinner. And you, Athena, what would you like?"

"Spaghetti and meatballs." she replied, giving me a smirk.

"An unusual request, but I think the chef can prepare it." Cassie replied.

She turned and headed for the kitchen.

"You just had to push it!" I hissed. "What has gotten into you?"

Suddenly, my date turned pale and seemed contrite.

"I don't know." she responded. "I guess I was jealous or some-"

Her voice was suddenly cut off as a loud crash could be heard at one of the window grids near our table. A black object about the size of my fist punched through the clear polycarbonate pane and bounced wildly across the floor.

Since Hedon was such a small planet, the atmosphere at this height was akin to that of close to 70,000 feet on Terra. There was no terminal velocity to speak of to slow the meteoroid down to less than 600 miles per hour, much less the 120 we had back home, and the rock punched through the tough window material effortlessly. The relative lack of pressure outside compared to that inside the lounge created a gale force wind that began sucking everything toward the hole and expelling it out into the edge of space.

Napkins, plates and tablecloths flew past us like snowflakes, as we stood and fought our way toward the depressurized hole. We were just as weightless as the Hedons, but both Athena and I had the strength of Hercules compared to them. I was determined to get one of the tables across the breach to block it, but that twenty feet may as well have been twenty miles. One poor guy who lost his grip sailed through the air and landed against the hole, screaming in agony as his insides were sucked out into the partial vacuum outside.

Despite the tragedy, it gave me a quick respite to let go of the railing and head for the breach as his withering body provided a temporary block against the negative pressure outside. I desperately tried to get a table into position to take his place, but to my consternation, it was bolted to the effing floor!

Just then, the remainder of the guy was pushed through the hole and once again, the wind picked up, screaming past me in a deafening roar. I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye, and saw a young girl flying through the air. Determined she would not suffer the same fate, I let the wind pin me to the railing, and I caught her in my arms.

"Nice catch!" Athena called out.

To my surprise, she was right next to me.

"Take her!" I shouted, handing the child over to her.

I was still determined to find something to patch the hole, but suddenly the wind subsided. The atmosphere inside the restaurant was almost gone. Now, we were faced not with being sucked outside, but dying from decompression and extreme cold. Unlike in the movies, we would not explode or even swell to a grotesque size, but die we would, nonetheless.

The wind died to a gentle breeze, and suddenly a tremendous rush of cold air invaded the space. It had to be 70 degrees below zero, and with the lack of air pressure, I could feel the moisture on my tongue, lips and eyeballs boiling away. It was an odd sensation, like those fizzy candies we used to eat as kids; the way they felt on our tongues is exactly what I felt on my eyeballs, and it wasn't very pleasant! Neither was the extreme cold, and with no clothes on to protect me, I was certain to be hypothermic in a matter of seconds.

I was beginning to lose consciousness, yet I still fought on; determined to survive. I found a tablecloth that had gotten tangled in the railing, and poured a boiling pitcher of room temperature water onto it and shoved it into the hole. It instantly froze in place; acting like a fiberglass patch. The breach was temporarily fixed, but we all faced both the extreme cold and almost zero air pressure that had flooded the space.

With my vision rapidly fading and freezing cold, I leaped across the expanse in two jumps, to one of the ascenders and pushed the button for one of the cars. Miraculously there was one on our level, and as the doors opened, a rush of warm, sweet air flooded the lounge. Slowly, everyone began regaining consciousness, and the first sight to greet their eyes were both Athena and myself standing over them; Athena holding the little girl tightly in her arms.

"So you wanted us to be superheros to these people?" I inquired, as I took the child back. "Well now, Stargirl; this our opportunity to shine. We just exposed ourselves to the vacuum of space and saved close to five hundred people from dying. What are you going to tell them? By the way, your contacts flew out. You're an Emerald now too. Your cover's blown."