Derek shifted to the edge of his seat and quickly asked Muriel, "You said your daughter picked up a few things before she left. What did she take?"
Muriel set down her teacup on a side table and went to retrieve something from a nearby room.
She soon returned and held it out before us and said, "She took the other one of these, dear."
What rested in the palm of her wrinkled hand was a small, and rather plain looking, silver cube. Overall, it looked like something that you might find at a flea market.
It was now Derek who gaped while I asked, "I mean no offense, but it looks a bit plain. Why would she want to come 'round for one of those?"
Before Muriel could answer, Derek recovered and stared at me as if I was a complete simpleton as he said, "That's how she's going to get her ship through the wormhole, Thomas." He then turned to Muriel and asked, "Where's she going, Muriel?"
"I already told you, dear, she said she was going to Earth."
"Oh, no, she couldn't be..." the king said before trailing off.
"Couldn't be what?" I asked.
"I mean, it has to be, because it wasn't there," the king mumbled almost imperceptibly.
"Couldn't be what?" I asked the king again before a thought suddenly struck me. "You don't mean to say--"
"Yes, I'm afraid so," the king interrupted soberly. "She must have taken the nuclear bomb with her on the ship."
"Excuse me, dear?" Muriel said, flopping back down into her chair, a look of dread spilling across her features.
She searched his face for answers before she finally shook her head, smiled, and said, "She couldn't possibly have put a nuclear explosive on her ship. She knew nothing of that sort of technology, and certainly, no one would have been foolish enough to give her..."
Muriel stared at the king, her eyes growing as wide as the saucer under her teacup when the king shrugged and looked down.
Then he looked back up and said, "I was just trying to please her, Muriel, and it started out as a bit of a lark really. But then it all happened so fast! How was I to know that the wise men were going to catch on to nuclear physics? It was never supposed to get this far, Muriel."
"Oh, my word, what have you done, dear? What have you done?"
YOU ARE READING
The Ill-mannered Door (humorous sci-fi)
Science FictionWhat would you do if you woke to find a door in your room? No, not an ordinary, well-behaved door that stays in the wall where it belongs, but one standing near the side of your bed that leads to another world. That is precisely what happens to Thom...
