Chip drove G-girl's hot-rod Chevy Impala down the 101 freeway, which was surprisingly uncrowded.

"Now that Raleigh shrunk ninety percent of the human race," said Chip, "there's less traffic on the freeways. I guess some good came out of it."

"Oh, how convenient for you!" said Jasmine, from the backseat.

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded!" said Chip. "I just mean there's some good to go with the bad."

"We just passed Ventura," said Ashleigh, "we're almost there. Do you have the directions to the professor's house?"

"Yeah," Chip replied, "G-girl is holding onto it. We should be in Pasadena within an hour."

Meanwhile, back at Pearl's house, Susan, Crystal Mae, Hayley, Hannah, Taz, Polly, and Pearl were sitting in the living room.

"I miss TV!" said Polly. "I wish Raleigh would give it back to us!"

Pearl whipped out her cell phone. "I'll call my brother and make sure he tells Ivan Quaid to ask Raleigh to give us television back!"

While Pearl was on the phone, Crystal Mae came up with an idea. "I know a game we can play!"

"What?" Susan asked.

Crystal Mae turned her head toward Pearl, who was on the phone. "Pearl, do you have any string?"

"Hold on," said Pearl, who resumed her conversation over the phone with Chip. When she hung up, she said, "My brother is going to ask Ivan Quaid about giving us television back. Crystal Mae, what did you want?"

"Some string!"

Pearl went to a drawer in the kitchen and got out a spindle of string, and handed it to Crystal Mae, who tied one end of the string around a vase on the top of a shelf. She uncoiled the string, and pulled the string around another vase on a shelf on the other side of the living room. She used a pocket knife to cut the string, then tightened up the slack until the string was taut, and tied the end. When that was done, she began cutting off pieces of string about a foot long with her pocket knife, then tied the pieces of string about a foot apart from each other on the string that was stretched between the two shelves.

"We can play a game!" said Crystal Mae, as she opened several cartridges and dumped out Chinese captives into her palm. She began positioning the captives on the pieces of string, and they held on for dear life, although they were glad to be out of their cartridges. Crystal Mae emptied ten cartridges, until there were ten pieces of string with ten captives holding onto each strand.

"Pearl," said Crystal Mae, "do you have a stopwatch?"

"Yeah," Pearl replied, and went into the kitchen. She came back a moment later with a digital stopwatch. "I think I know what you're gonna do."

"Now we need a bandanna!" said Crystal Mae. "Whoever can swallow the most captives blindfolded in thirty seconds wins! Do you have a straw broom? We need to draw straws to see who goes first!"

"Yeah," said Pearl, "in the kitchen."

Crystal Mae went into the kitchen, and came back with seven pieces of straw in her fist. "Okay, everybody draw a straw! Whatever straw is left is the one I'm left with, I don't get to choose mine."

Six hands reached out simultaneously, and in moments, the girls had their straws. Pearl's was shortest, followed by Polly, Hannah, and Crystal Mae. Taz had the longest straw, and Susan and Hayley had the second and third longest straws.

"Taz, you go first," said Crystal Mae, "then it's Susan, followed by Hayley!"

Pearl got a bandanna from the living room closet, and gave it to Crystal Mae, who folded it and wrapped it around Taz's eyes and tied it behind her head. Crystal Mae spun her around three times, and said, "Okay, go! Pearl, click the stopwatch and stop it at thirty seconds!"

Taz wandered around the room, trying to make her way toward the dangling string. She wandered toward the kitchen, realized she was going in the wrong direction, and corrected herself, only to wander between two strings to the opposite side of the living room.

Susan looked at the captives dangling from the string, and turned to Hayley. "I wonder what's going through their minds right now?" Hayley laughed at this comment.

"Times up!" said Pearl, as she clicked the stop button on the stopwatch.

"Oh, man!" said Taz as she pulled off the bandanna. "I didn't even get one!"

"It's Susan's turn!" said Crystal Mae. "Then it's Hayley's turn." She wrapped the bandanna around Susan's head, and spun her around three times. Susan walked between two of the strings, but was able to correct herself and managed to steer herself right into the midst of one of the strings. She could feel the string on her cheek as she opened her mouth, seeking the end of the string. She forced the end of the string under her tongue, and sucked on the string like a piece of spaghetti, her lips slightly parted. One by one, the captives tumbled into her open mouth. Once they were all contained within Susan's mouth, she worked them toward the back of her mouth, and swallowed them all in one gulp as easily as if they had been insects.

"Time's up!" said Pearl, and Susan threw her arms up in victory while she was still blindfolded.

"You conquered ten of them!" said Crystal Mae. "Now let's see what Hayley can do!"

Crystal Mae dumped another cartridge of captives into her palm and positioned them on the strands of string while Susan tied the bandanna around Hayley's eyes.

Crystal Mae spun Hayley around three times, then clicked the stopwatch and said "Go!"

Hayley reached out with her hands until she found the main line of string, then worked her mouth around the strand hanging closest to her end. She quickly dispatched all ten captives, sending them crashing to the depths of her belly, then she worked her way to the next strand of string. She quickly pulled the entire strand into her mouth with her tongue, and those ten captives were efficiently dispatched down her gullet, like the others.

Hayley made her way to the next strand and did the same. She had swallowed thirty captives by the time Crystal Mae clicked the thirty second mark on the stopwatch.

"Time!" said Crystal Mae. "You got thirty, Hayley, it looks like you're the winner!"

Meanwhile, about two-hundred miles south of Pearl's house, Chip turned onto the street the professor lived on.

"This is it! The professor lives on this street! He said there are some scoutships parked around his house!"

"There's a few scoutships!" said Ashleigh.

"That's his house!" said Chip, and he pulled into the driveway of Professor Quaid's house. Chip, G-Girl, Jasmine, and Ashleigh piled out of the car and went to the front door.

After knocking, the door was opened by a fembot that looked like an exact replica of Raleigh, but dressed in a red and black uniform that was different from Raleigh's black SS uniform. She let them in, and led them to the dining room. Professor Ivan Quaid was seated there looking at a set of schematics. He shook hands with Chip, and Chip introduced himself.

"So you're the one who wants the miniature tools made out of that gold alloy, eh?"

"Yes, professor," Chip answered. "We have some blocks of marble in my backyard, and I want our captives to construct statues. One of my sister, and two of her friends. Is that possible?"

"I've already taken the liberty of having the tools replicated for you. Fembots, can one of you retrieve the tools for me?"

One of the identically dressed fembots left and came back with a tool pouch and set it in front of Chip. He opened it and took a look inside. There were dozens of transparent titanium cartridges filled with the gold-alloy tools the captives would need to build the statues, and an electronic device. Chip took out the electronic device.

"Profesor, what's this?"

"It's a device that will allow you to know if all of the tools have been returned. Each tool is fitted with a transponder, and that device keeps track of each individual signal transmitted by each tool."

"Cool!" said Chip.

"Professor," said Ashleigh, "is there any way you could hook us up so we could meet Raleigh?"

"I could take you up to her star-cruiser right now!" said the professor.

"Are you serious?" Chip asked. "We can actually go on board?"

"Yes, I'll have a fembot pilot a scoutship and take you up there. Raleigh will know I sent you up there, so it will be okay. In fact, I'll use my communication console to inform her of your arrival right now."

Professor Quaid got up and went to the living room, where a sophisticated apparatus dominated one corner of the room. It had a main view-screen, and several smaller screens on either side. When the professor keyed in a sequence of numbers, Raleigh's face appeared on the screen. She could be identified because her black SS uniform was of a different design than the identical red and black uniforms worn by the fembots.

"Greetings, professor. How are you doing?"

"Fine, Raleigh, fine. I have some visitors who are interested in visiting you on the mother ship. I was about to send them up there!"

"How many of them?" Raleigh asked.

"A young man, and two teenage girls."

"Send them up in a scoutship with one of my fembots."

"Over and out," said the professor, and the transmission was cut off from Raleigh's end. The professor returned to the table, where Chip and the girls were seated.

"Raleigh is willing to have you as her guests, but Jasmine, I think it would be best if you stayed behind. Raleigh is from a world of neo-Nazis, and I don't know how she would react to someone who's half-black."

"That's all right, professor, I'm not interested in visiting that bitch anyway. If I ever did see her in person, I'd probably try to strangle her."

"A fembot will escort the three of you to a scoutship," said the professor, and one of the numerous fembots showed up at Chip's side to guide them out.

Chip, G-Girl, and Ashleigh boarded the scoutship nearest the house, and buckled themselves into their seats. A fembot piloted the ship upwards into the sky, and Chip was amazed at how fast the blue sky gave way to the blackness of space. He knew it took several minutes for a space shuttle to escape Earth's atmosphere, but these scoutships possessed an alien technology that allowed them to pierce the upper stratosphere in a mater of moments without any sense of inertia.

The mother-ship was just ahead of them. Swastikas were emblazoned at every conceivable location. A hangar bay door opened up, and the scoutship Chip and the girls were riding in cruised in and landed with mechanical precision. The bay door slid closed, and the bay became pressurized in a matter of seconds. The ramp slid down as Chip, G-Girl, and Ashleigh unbuckled their seatbelts and disembarked.

"I will show you to Raleigh," said a fembot. "Follow me."

The group was led to a chamber where there were multiple seats. G-Girl and Ashleigh sat down. There was only one fembot in the room, and she asked if any of them wanted a drink.

"I'll take a beer," said G-Girl. The fembot walked to a console and spoke into it. A moment later, a door hatch slid open, revealing a Stein of beer. The fembot retrieved it and brought it over to G-Girl.

"Wow, what do you call that nifty little device?" G-Girl asked.

"That is a replicator. It can replicate any compound, and responds to voice command. It is one of the many devices Raleigh plans on introducing to your world. She will be with you shortly. If you need anything, just ask the replicator. Bathrooms are located through that door." The fembot pointed at a door, then exited through a different door, leaving G-Girl, Ashleigh, and Chip alone in the chamber.

Ashleigh approached the replicator. "I'll have a Dr. Pepper, please." The door hatch slid open again, revealing another Stein. Ashleigh picked it up and took a sip. "It's Dr. Pepper!"

Chip approached the replicator. "Dr. Pepper has been around since the 1880's. It shouldn't be surprising that they still have it on Raleigh's world. When the Nazis came into existence in the 1920s, that soft drink already existed." Chip looked at the monitor. "I'm interested in some of this technology! Computer, show me the schematics for the propulsion system of this vessel!"

The computer replied in German.

"I took a year of German last year," said Ashleigh. "Let me try!" Ashleigh spoke in German and asked the computer to speak English. "It should work now. Try it again!"

Chip asked the same question again. The computer monitor was filled with schematics and text. Chip looked it over. "This is amazing! Computer, can you use the replicator to print this out?"

The computer complied, and the door hatch slid open, revealing dozens of sheets of paper, bound like a notebook.

"Chip, are you sure this is a good idea?" Ashleigh asked.

Just then, Raleigh entered through a sliding door that opened automatically. She was dressed in her black SS uniform, complete with Swastika armband, officer's cap, black leather miniskirt, and black leather jackboots. Raleigh held up a device she was wearing on her left wrist and said, "My on-board computer informs me you tried to access privileged information. Would you mind giving me an explanation?"

To Be Continued!