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.EFLOTG Rescue	By : keithcompany Category: G through L > Land of the Giants Views: 1299 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Land of the Giants show, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Amnesia is SUCH a cheap plot device...
- 2-Take Me To The Rescue
- 1
- 2
Tophett held the door for the stretcher bearers, then hurried ahead to unlock the cell door. The other prisoners watched as they carefully carried the still form through the doors of the cell room and the cell itself, then unceremoniously dumped the body onto the floor.
The bearers stomped out. Tophett locked up the cell, glanced at the other prisoners, then started to leave.
"Who's he then, Tophett?" one man asked, leaning against the bars.
"Don't know," Tophett asked. "Some stranger skulking around, asking questions, poking into things.
The prisoners looked down. The guy on the floor was badly beaten, clothes torn and bloody. His breath rasped through his open mouth and his nose bubbled blood.
"You do that for asking questions?" one man asked.
"No," Tophett said. "We do that when you ask a man to come talk to the magistrate, and he doesn't want to cooperate, and it takes twelve men to arrest him and two of them may never walk again."
He spat on the floor, shifted his belt and the scabbard of his shortsword and stormed out.
"Ah," the first prisoner said. "Resisting arrest." The other nodded.
No one had glanced out the window where a strange, small bird circled the field behind the jail. It's one eye tracked the jail window the whole time it flew.
Miles overhead, a group of people stared at a monitor that displayed the probe's view.
The building's style resembled the Tudor design popular throughout the island's villages. The technology was consistent with the architecture, with slight improvements.
It appeared that some part of England had been transported here by the Wormhole, and they'd never had contact with any of the more advanced Giant nations.
General Perez leaned back in her chair. "And now we gotta bust Vertag out of jail."
"Should be simple enough," Captain Styles said. "Climb up the cell drain, slip him some shrinking potion, take our exit."
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Roth said. "Not until we know more about his injuries and what the potion might do because of them."
"Well, what's the option, Doc?" Styles asked. "Get a giant to carry him out?"
"No," Perez said. "The Giant Oversight Committee still won't let more than one giant off Earth at any given time."
"We could call Dordell?" Major Brown suggested/asked.
"Vertag made it clear," Perez said. "Dordell is off limits unless and until at least one whole planet is threatened."
"Then I guess we have to wait and see if he asks for help," Brown said. The others nodded.
"Now," Styles said, "who's going to tell the Lessala and the Crane sisters that he got hurt?"
Perez winced.
--------
Vertag woke slowly, hesitantly. Painfully. "Ow," he said. He squinted against the powerful light of the room and peered around him.
"Water?" he croaked.
"There's a pan next to your foot," someone shrieked. Vertag winced and covered his ears. "Sorry."
"Just...quiet, please," Vertag whispered. He felt along the floor and found the water pan. He managed a few sips and sat up. Then he lay back down to avoid the dizzying height of that position.
"They really whaled on him, didn't they?" a second voice screamed.
"Hush!" the first hissed. "Be of good cheer."
"Hey!" second voice said. "'Least ya ain't dead! Are ya?"
"I'm not so sure," Vertag replied. "Where am I?"
"Well," the first voice said, "the irony inherent in the situation is that you're in a jail in a city called Liberty."
Vertag blinked. "That means nothing to me."
"I'm sure you'll recollect all once you get on your feet," the man said. The screaming was becoming more tolerable, or maybe they were talking softer. Vertag grunted and rolled over to his side. He cushioned his head on his arm.
The man with the 'not dead' philosophy asked, "Friend, could we be knowing your name?"
Vertag blinked. "Um... No."
"No? Not feeling like sharing that information?"
"No," Vertag said. He tried to relax. "It's because I don't know it."
---------
He was in a slightly better mood when he woke up again. The pain was less though his body was noticeably stiff and sore.
A desperate grip on the edge of the cot was needed to lift himself to a sitting position. He looked around, taking stock.
It was a one-person cell in a room with three other similar cells. He was alone in the room. He thought he remembered voices from fellow prisoners but none were in evidence.
The dim light from a burning lantern offered little illumination but he could see no figures on the bare cots or standing against the walls.
He barely glanced at the tiny windows of each cell. The circling probe watched as he pulled himself against the bars and rose to his feet.
"What's he doing?" Styles asked. She was in the conference room again, watching Vertag's progress.
Brown sat next to her. He finished reporting to the general that Vertag was awake, then shook his head. "Looks like he's measuring the distance between the bars."
"Does he think he can slip out?" she asked.
"Don't know," he admitted. They watched the giant test his cage at various points, limping around and sitting to rest often. He also probed his wounds now and then, gauging the damage.
A few times he lunged for the empty bucket by the water pan and vomited into it. Once, he didn't quite make it to the pan.
Janet and Perez entered the room. Perez took her seat at the head of the table. Janet walked to the monitor and put her hand next to Vertag's image.
"Is he okay?" she asked.
"Roth's looked over some scans," Perez reported. "He's worried about one of the blows to his head. But," and she gestured towards the screen, "he woke up. That was Roth's biggest worry."
"What are we doing to get him out of there?" Janet asked.
"What can we do?" Brown asked.
"And how bad would it piss him off to be rescued?" Styles asked.
"Has he made any attempt at contact?" Perez asked.
"No, ma'am," Brown said. "He's been around the cell six times. He didn't really look at the window and hasn't seen the microphone the probe positioned there."
Just then the door of the cell room opened. Janet stepped back so everyone could see the screen clearly.
Vertag looked up quickly as the door opened, then winced and touched a tender spot on the back of his head.
Three men entered. The guard, Tophett, returned along with another man similarly dressed and armed.
The third wore long red robes and a squarish red hat. He carried a woven basket. Clearly in charge, he stepped to the cell door while the other two flanked him.
"Yes?" Vertag asked.
"Who are you and what were you doing in Liberty?"
"Where's Liberty?" Vertag asked.
"This is Liberty!" he was told. Vertag gently shrugged.
"Couldn't tell you," he said.
"Who sent you?"
"Don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"Jesskie robably scrambled his brains," Tophett muttered.
"He was about to hit you with the cauldron!" Jesskie, the other guard, protested.
"Not saying it was unnecessary force," Tophett said.
"Will you two shut up?" the robed man snapped. "Is that your claim? Amnesia?"
"I don't remember having amnesia," Vertag said. Jesskie snorted.
"Do you remember what an Inquisitor does?" the man asked.
"He...quisits?" Vertag guessed.
"I am the Inquisitor for Liberty," he was told. "I have the authority to detain you until I get the answers I want. I have the authority to take steps to ensure you answer my questions."
"You can cure amnesia?" Vertag asked. "Because that would be a real important step to take. Otherwise we'll just be screaming at each other for no good reason."
"We'll see," Inquisitor said ominously. Vertag flinched a little bit.
The Inquisitor lifted the basket. "What about these things." He lifted a small plastic box from the basket. "What is this?"
"You tell me," Vertag said. He made no move to recover his communication box or to remotely activate it.
He also made no reaction when asked about his gun, compass, demolition kit or anything else that had been in his pockets.
"Uh oh," Perez said softly.
"What?" Janet asked.
"That guy's standing in arm's reach of the cell," Perez explained. "If Vertag wanted to, he could have his gun, kill the guards, blow the cage lock and then call for pickup."
"Or kill one guard and hold the inquisitor hostage," Brown said.
"I think anything Vertag would plan would start with getting his weapon," Styles said.
"Maybe he's biding his time?" Janet asked.
Styles shook her head. "Vertag waiting until the right time to become an armed Vertag? There's no right time to be an UNarmed Vertag."
"No, I suppose not," Janet said with a sad shake of her head.
The Inquisitor continued to question Vertag but never entered the cell. Vertag never moved from the cot. He also professed ignorance about everything.
They finally left him alone, promising further investigation. When they were gone, he just sat in place, staring out into space.
An hour later, the two guards came back, escorting a young woman. The closed the outer door behind them and faced Vertag's cell.
Jesskie had some folded clothing in his hand. "Change of clothes for you, stranger." He turned and put them on the cot in an empty cell.
"It's a little inconvenient there," Vertag said.
"Ckarees," Tophett said with a gesture at the woman, "is going to clean your cell and empty the bucket. She won't do that with you in the cell. So we're going to move you over here.
"Strip once you're in and she'll take your bloody clothes, too." Ckarees blushed and turned away from Vertag for the moment.
"Janet, wake up," Perez said. The diplomat had fallen into a doze in her chair. The officers had continued watching Vertag in shifts but Crane hadn't left the conference room since she arrived.
They watched as the guards drew their weapons, then opened Vertag's cell. The prisoner stood stiffly, then shuffled out the door. He took a step to the new cell, then lunged.
He covered the distance to the guards in an instant, pushing to crack Jesskie's head against the brick wall. During the moment the guard was off balance and stunned, Vertag slapped Tophett's sword to the side, grabbed the man's shirt and yanked.
He tripped Tophett's foot and shoved him head first into the bars. The guard's head squeezed through and he was trapped like a beast in a slaughterhouse.
Tophett shouted in pain and surprise and tried to push himself free. Vertag ignored him to turn and assault Jesskie. That man was down on the floor and unconscious in moments.
Ckarees finally figured out what was happening and started to scream. Vertag pointed Jesskie's sword at her face and she silenced.
Vertag smiled. "Enlightened self interest," he said. Janet gasped.
"Wha- what?" Ckarees asked softly.
"Just shut up, you'll be fine," he said just as softly. If I have no reason to hurt you, I won't. Okay?"
"O- o-o-okay," the girl stammered out. Vertag nodded to one of the cells. She moved quickly in, shutting the door behind her.
He lowered the weapon and dragged Jesskie into his former cell. Tophett had quieted and watched as Vertag took the belt off the man.
When he came back out, he grabbed Tophett's hands and bound them with the belt.
The guard's punches were wild. When he tried to kick, Vertag punched him soundly in the ribs. Tophett stopped trying to fight him off.
When he was tightly trussed, Vertag grabbed one foot and lifted it. Tophett balanced precariously on his remaining leg.
"Okay," Vertag said in a conversational tone, "if I kick that leg out from under you, you'll fall onto the crossbar and choke to death. Right?"
"Right," his prisoner spat.
"Who am I?" Vertag asked. "Tell me everything you know about where I was before I woke up in here. Who beat me up and why. And was all that stuff really out of my pockets?"
"Oh, God," Perez muttered. "He really does have amnesia."
"But he's still in there!" Janet said excitedly. On screen, Vertag was interrogating the guard about the city and the watch and how he'd been arrested.
Every time Tophett said 'I don't know' Vertag raised his foot another couple of inches. The guard started shading his responses with 'I would guess...'
"What do you mean, Janet?" Perez asked.
"He saw the girl and said 'Enlightened self interest.' That's me. I mean, mine! I taught him that phrase!"
"Okay..." Perez said carefully.
"The girl, she looks like me, too!" Janet said urgently.
"She's blonde," Perez acknowledged.
"She looks like me and he quoted me! That means he'll recognize me!"
"I'm not letting you down on the planet," Perez said, finally using a tone of certainty.
"I'm the only person he'll recognize!" Janet insisted.
"We don't know that."
"I do!"
"You just want to go rescue the big lug that rescued your sister," Perez said, not unkindly. "You're only here because you think you owe him."
"I do owe him, Damerae. Which is why I'm willing-"
"Hold on." The general nodded at the monitor. Vertag was changing into the fresh clothes and edging towards the exit. She pulled a comm. unit out of her pocket. "Ready?" she asked it.
"Yes, ma'am," Brown's voice came back.
"What?" Janet asked.
"A shortcut. Hopefully." They watched silently as Vertag untied Tophett, made sure the other two were locked soundly and made his way out of the cell room.
The probe switched to infra red and left the programmed holding pattern. They saw Vertag walk through the back halls of the jail cell and a few rooms.
The giants he passed paid no attention to him. Perez shook her head as he walked calmly past, no hurry, no alarm.
He exited through a side door and walked confidently down the street. He went through the city gate and out onto the open road.
The watch at the gate merely nodded sleepily as he walked out.
There were no travelers at this time of night. In a few paces he was effectively alone on the road. He maintained a steady gait.
"Okay," Perez said.
The view changed as the probe descended to the giant's level. As it approached from behind his shoulder, Perez smiled.
"We'll make contact and tell him where to meet an assault craft, without anyone spending a minute more on the planet than necessary."
"Your lips to God's ears," Janet said quietly.
Vertag's head angled as the view closed in. He must have heard the probe's fans. He was looking for the source when Brown's voice came from the monitor.
"Vertag, you need to-"
The giant spun and swung his shortsword at the sound. The probe's fans cut instantly and the view winked out. There was still sound coming from the dark monitor and they heard the probe's wreckage crash.
"Talking birds?" Vertag muttered. "I don't remember much, but I know that's now how things work." There was more crunching and then silence.
Perez put her face in the palms of her hands. Janet turned to open her mouth. "No," Perez said without looking up. "No. No, no, no."
---------
Perez was in a different room, a small alcove off of the Control Room. A monitor showed Lessala looking back at her.
"So," Perez was saying, "I'm just trying to figure out what he'll be doing?"
"He'll be getting as far from whatever went wrong as he can," Lessala said. "SID training uses some sort of chemical learning enhancement. Amnesia won't wipe that out.
"It's why mind control doesn't work on SID agents."
"Good to know," Perez muttered. "Not that we have any sort of mind control...?"
"Third Nation used to," Lessala said. "But that's beside the point. He's going to travel. No real destination. But he'll be looking for things he recognizes."
"He cut the probe in half. He didn't recognize his gear. Lessala, he didn't recognize his own gun!"
"Oooh. That's pretty bad." She chewed her lip for a moment. "It's going to be things he associates with his job as an agent."
"A job he doesn't have any more."
"Right, right, but the training was driven in when he started. So most everything he learned after joining the Exchange will be foreign.
"So he won't recognize Janet," Perez said, happily relieved.
"Oh, he'll recognize Janet," Lessala corrected. "He spent a lot of time with her, assessing her every action for SID's and the Directorate's goals and policies. Real basic Agent stuff.
"So he won't remember the cage, or anything she's ever said to him, but he'll remember her. Especially since she's a Little Person. SID is very paranoid about the Little People. Always has been. So after all that time evaluating her, she'll be driven nicely into his memory."
"Crap," Perez moaned. "Wait. Wait, he remembered... 'Enlightened self interest.' He knew that."
"A phrase he probably spent even more time on than when Janet talked about freedom of speech," Lessala nodded.
Perez stared at the screen. "I hate this planet," she finally said. "You people are insane, and even when you're insane you do it crazy."
"Yep," Lessala nodded.
"Okay. We're going to try to make contact again. Try to help him hide from the authorities until he's healed enough to transport."
"What? You can't just shoot him with a shrinking potion and load him into an assault craft?"
Perez shook her head. "No, Roth's worried about what shrinking might do to his wounds. Drive a bone shard into his brain or squeeze a concussion."
"Fun..." Lessala shook her head. "Wish I could come out there, but Senator Poopie-pants is being a real slug puppy."
"Senator Popanov thinks he's defending humanity," Perez said dutifully. "And as the civilian authority in this matter, his wishes will be followed.   Slug puppy though he may be."
She signed off and went to see how the second probe was faring.
Part of her mind wondered why Lessala hadn't closed with a private message for her boyfriend like she usually did. But the crashing sounds from the technician's station focused her mind elsewhere.
--------
Perez stood at an observation window along the Excelsior's keel. The giants' planet rotated slowly before her. A few lights winked in the space around the ship. Something the Fleet was doing, she didn't know the details.
Fleet wasn't about to offer them and a Marine wouldn't deign to show interest.
She shook her head and stared. One fairly small island below was veiled with cloud cover. A friend of hers was wandering around it.
Out of his mind, in danger, wounded and alone. She'd throw herself on a grenade for Vertag, but she couldn't go down to rescue the big lug.
If Lessala was right, there was no telling how he'd react to the sight of the former Intel officer at the Exchange. He'd identified her as the command spy, so he'd spent time evaluating her in terms of threat to the Directorate and their goals.
She imagined his response to the sight of a small black Little Person female would be quick and lethal.
She wasn't sure if Janet wouldn't also be in as much danger. The woman had certainly done her best to topple the Directorate's stranglehold on Earthling Technology.
If SID was still calling the shots in Vertag's head, he'd see Crane as even more dangerous than herself.
But if SID was calling the shots, Vertag wouldn't have left anyone alive in those cells.
She'd thought about a certain giant veterinarian that owed them favors. But when Vertag had met her, she'd been on the side of the rebels. And he'd identified her preparations to kill him. She winced and cast about for anyone, anyone at all to send out as a living life line.
Janet seemed to be about the best chance they had without Lessala. A wide smile crossed her face when she realized she thought of the Oversight in terms of the Honorable Poopie Pants.
His former pet, Sandy, might have a chance, and might even be willing. But the law that forbade people with certain knowledges from traveling to the giant planet was named after her.
"Damerae?"
The general turned to the door to see Janet enter the observation lounge. "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes," Perez said. "And you could try not to look so damned smug."
In a flash the other woman looked sympathetic. "It really is the only option," she said.
"You go with Styles," Perez said firmly. "Styles is in charge. If she says 'too dangerous' you obey her."
"Sure," Janet said, much too quickly. Perez watched the civilian through squinty eyes.
"You think Styles likes the big guy enough to let you take risks?"
"Nooooo," Janet said. "I think she likes Vertag, and wants him happy and healthy and home. But she fears you even more." She walked over and took the officer's hands in her own. "Damerae, I'm not out to take crazy risks. If I get killed, Vertag's lost.
"But I am willing to take some risks. For his sake." She looked down at the planet. "For all our sakes."
"He does come in useful," Perez mused.
---------
Vertag was walking down a dirt road. There were a few other travelers going in the opposite direction. He nodded at them, they nodded back.
About mid-morning he passed a spot where four men were lounging at the roadside.
He paused and stared at them. They stared back. "Why," he said aloud, "am I feeling suspiciously like picking a fight with you guys?"
They stood without surprise and fanned out around him. "Maybe you're psychic," one man muttered.
"Figured we were just talking about needing to rob someone," another said.
"You are criminals?" Vertag asked, apparently surprised. "Huh. Wonder how I knew that." He made no move of defense as the men ringed him. "And why I felt it was something I had to take care of."
When they were in position, the four men waited a moment, readying their weapons. Vertag didn't move. They made eye contact, the man in charge nodded, and they rushed him.
The lone man spun and shoved the sword, still in the scabbard, point first into one man's mouth. He started to choke and fell, clawing at the sheath.
Vertag left that in place and yanked the sword free in a sweeping arc that lightly cut a second man's face. He flinched back. Vertag skipped back between the choking assailant and the bleeding one.
The other two just barely managed to avoid a collision, swinging to chase after their prey.
The one to Vertag's right bumped into his first victim and both went down. The fourth man maintained his feet by shoving against the cut man, knocking him down.
Vertag skipped a little bit more, then stopped and waited. The attacker waved his knife and came quickly. He handled his knife like he was comfortable with it, and with the prospect of killing.
He looked very surprised as he was disarmed and decapitated in a smooth flowing motion.
The others were still preparing to continue the fight when Vertag waded in and killed them.
He picked up his bloody scabbard and wiped it with a dead man's shirt.   Then he looked around the road in confusion. "You're all... Um.   Under arrest?"
--------
Some time later, Vertag was some distance off the road. He had found a small pond and was gazing at his surface reflection.
"Whatcha thinkin' about?" a voice called. He drew his sword and spun around. No one was visible.
He stepped along the edge of the pond, headed back to the road. His eyes constantly scanned the forest around him, even looking up and checking the water on each circle.
"Hello?" Janet's voice called. He couldn't quite place the source.
"Talking birds, now, what, talking trees?"
"I'm not a tree," she replied. Was it from up in the branches? He stopped and moved to his side, trying to triangulate her location.
"I am curious about what you're thoughts were." He spun around, the voice had moved to another tree, one behind him.
"I wonder where you are?" he replied.
"Now you do. But you weren't. What was in the reflection?"
"A guy on the run from the law, who feels a need to enforce the law."
"Yeah, that sounds about right," Janet said. The sound hopped to yet another tree, back towards the pond. He continued working his way to the road.
"Great," he muttered. "My imaginary friend agrees with me. I feel so much better."
"I can tell you there's no contradiction," she replied. He gave up trying to find her and just walked towards the road. The voice hopped along after him. He started to wonder if it was a talking squirrel.
Or if he was imagining that the forest itself was talking through one or another tree.
"Well, if I'm hallucinating, you can't tell me anything I don't already know." He got to the road and turned to walk along it.
"I know you are almost brainwashed to defend the law, but not the law of the Isle."
He paused in mid-step. "What other law is there?"
There was no answer. He waited for a few moments, then started walking again, but more slowly. Had to give the squirrels a chance to catch up.
A few yards up the road he saw a wooden bridge over a fairly straight canal. As he got close, there was a whistling sound. Off to his right, upstream, there was a sandbar or rock or something in the water.
And a tiny person stood on it, waving to him. He leaned on the railing and watched her. She held something to her mouth and spoke into it.
A voice came from under the bridge, far more noise than such a tiny being could have made.
"I can tell you all about it. If it's safe?"
He stared. "There are no Little People on the Isle," he finally said with firm certainty.
"Then how do you know what Little People are?"
"I appear to have forgotten that."
"You appear to have amnesia. Do I look familiar?"
"You look like a woman I saw back in Liberty..." he said quietly. She still appeared to hear him.
"It would be in your self interest to hear me out. I can help you. Keep you alive until we can get you someplace safe."
Vertag didn't respond overtly to her statement, but she thought she saw a twinkle in his eyes when she said 'self interest.'
"What is someplace safe?" he asked.
"Off the Isle. We just... we can't take you there right away." She waved at the side of her head. "Our doctor thinks there might be some risk."
Vertag shook his head. "That's a very kind offer, Little Person. But it's a little...   Well, if I told someone that the Little People were going to carry me off to someplace safe and heal my wounds and keep me alive...
"They would think that blow to my head had scrambled my brains." He pushed off the bridge railing and turned to continue walking. "Have a nice swim, little lady. Be careful flying through the trees."
He was two steps down the dirt road when the probe rose out from under the bridge. He heard it coming and drew his sword, lazily lifting it to cut yet another talking bird thing in half.
Janet's voice called out from the device, "You miserable BASTARD!" He paused. His eyes blinked. He lowered the sword and walked back to the bridge.
The little woman was still on the sandbar. It was too far for him to jump to capture her. He could swim but that would give her time to escape.
He wasn't sure where she'd escape to, but if she could command the flying birds, there was no telling what she could do.
"I'm...strangely happy to hear you insult me, Little Person," he said. "Tell me more about what you could do for me?"
She said something into her hand that wasn't repeated by the bird thing over his head. The sandbar rose.
A large blocky structure rose out of the water. The sandbar collapsed. It had just been a lot of sand piled on the back of a...building?
More Little People climbed up out of hatches that had been underwater. They surrounded the one who'd been talking and steadied her as the blocky object rose higher and higher.
It rose until the Little People were on a level with Vertag's eyes. Then it started to move upstream.
Vertag looked down for some sign of rowers or whatever was pushing it. The waters swirled but not violently. He realized that the box was completely out of the water.
He ducked and looked. There were no legs sticking out of the box, either. The Little People were waving at him, beckoning him to come after.
Vertag looked up at the probe, then towards the box. He shrugged and walked to the canal bank and followed.
----------
Vertag caught up with the floating box in a small clearing beside the water. It pulled over to the edge of the trees and lowered to the ground.
He walked closely and stood at the side. The Little People were at about the level of his chest.
They looked at him with more than a little anxiety. "This is weird," he said. "I'm happy to see you and afraid of what you're going to do."
"He's afraid?" Styles asked.
"Yeah," Vertag said softly. "You're all going to destabilize my government, aren't you?"
"Your government's not on the Isle," Janet pointed out. "So we can't be here to destabilize it."
"Oh." He looked thoughtful, then shrugged. "Alright, then."
The rear hatch lowered. He followed the noise to see it extend. Dr. Roth stepped down. A few Hummers carried medical equipment down the ramp beside him.
"Vertag, if you would stretch out on the ground, please."
"Vertag?"
"That's your name!" Janet called
"I'm Vertag?"
"Yes."
"Are you Vertag?"
"No, I'm Janet."
"Janet," he said in an experimental tone.   Styles giggled. Janet looked over at her.
"I'm sorry, but his expression? Looks like he's about to break out into song."
A sergeant next to Styles hummed a few bars of 'They Call the Wind Maria.' Janet, realizing there were going to be personalized lyrics to the song by morning, covered her face briefly with her hands.
"Why do I need to lay down?" Vertag was asking Roth.
"So I can see what we need to do about your skull." Vertag cooperated. He lay down and allowed Roth to climb up on his shoulder. There the doctor directed the placement of instruments between asking questions.
Vertag was clear about the pain he felt but cautious about any other symptoms. "I don't know. What does double vision look like?"
"Ah, well, it's..."
"I think he's joking with you, Doctor." Janet had walked over to stand beside Vertag's shoulder. He started to reach for her to lift her, then paused.
"What?" she asked. "Afraid being tiny is catching?"
"Is it?" he asked. After a moment, she decided he was very likely joking. Maybe. "I was just wondering the etiquette of lifting Little People up is."
"Usually, you grab me and I explode and we spend half an hour looking for what's left of your hand to glue it back on."
Vertag stared. "Really?" Janet nodded.
Roth snorted. "She has a Hell of a poker face, doesn't she?"
"Poker...?" Vertag asked, still staring. She raised her hands up in their old signal to be lifted. He found himself holding her before he knew what he was doing. He lowered her by Roth and lay back.
"What do we know, Doc?" she asked.
"Don't get your hopes up. This is just slightly better that guesswork. We won't KNOW anything until I can get a CAT scan. And the only thing big enough for his head is on Earth."
"Earth..." Vertag's voice rumbled. "I've had Earth before, haven't I? It tastes like...blue."
"You've been TO Earth," Janet corrected. "It's a planet. A big blue planet. Like the Isle, but lots and lots and lots bigger."
"Ah." He was quiet for a while. "Are there Little People on Earth Isle?"
"Billions," she said absently. She was looking over Roth's shoulders at his readouts. "What's that? His brain? Or the injury?"
"That's the battery test," he said, about as snappish as the older man ever got with someone that wasn't a nurse. "I will tell you EVERYTHING I learn, Janet. Now go over there and keep the patient calm, will you?"
She apologized and walked over to Vertag's chin.
----------
"I think this is the first time I've ever seen you this much in need of a shave." She ran a hand over his whiskers, stubby cylinders that barely bent under her touch.
"I seem to have left my razor in Liberty," he said. "Hey, can we go back and get that stuff?"
"No," Janet said, even as Styles' voice said the same thing in her earpiece.
"We're.... We're under a pretty important mandate not to be seen by the giants."
"Giants?" he asked. "I'm a giant?"
"Yes."
"And I see you?"
"You've already met me. Some of our leaders are very worried about what the giants might do or think if they knew we existed."
"Well, the guard said they beat me bloody for asking questions. You guys would probably get stomped."
"Probably," she said with a nod. Vertag swallowed, his windpipe lifting her up in the air and tossing her against his beard. The follicles poked into her Marine fatigues. She cried out, more in surprise than pain.
His hand swept up to catch and steady her before she rolled off to the ground. She pat at his thumb. "Thanks," she said. "I always feel safe around you."
"And I think...." he replied, then paused. "Are we.... Are you my girlfriend, Janet?"
Roth snorted. "Nearly," Styles said over the earpiece circuit. A few Marines on the ground turned away from the giant and covered their smiles.
Janet blushed. "Not... Really. "I'm your friend. We're close friends. Your girlfriend, though, she's on Earth."
"So Earth is where girlfriends come from?" he asked.
"Your girlfriend is Lessala and she came from THIS planet. Like you did."
"Lessala," he repeated. He tried it a few times. "I... Like Lessala," he finally concluded.
But his thumb was stroking Janet's hair.
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A few hours later, Roth finished his scans and consulting with doctors up on the Excelsior.
Vertag sat against a tree, talking with Janet who was perched on his knee. They stopped as Roth sent the Hummer's back into the assault craft.
"It's not as bad as we feared," he said.   "No bone damage. No internal bleeding that we can find." His tone seemed that of a worried man.
"That's....good news?" Vertag guessed.
"Oh, yes, of course. Thing is, we don't know the reason for the amnesia, now. It could be something we missed. Or something new. Giant brains are similar to human versions but the structure-"
"Doc," Janet said, interrupting the coming neurological lecture. "Can we shrink Vertag or not?"
"Does Vertag get a vote?" Vertag asked.
"Shut up," she said.
"Yes, madam," he replied.
"Well, we still don’t fully understand the potion. Or where the excess mass goes. And there are some neurological side effects that have been noticed...."
"Did... Did I know about those the last time you shrank me?" Vertag asked.
"Shut up," Janet repeated.
"Like Hell," Vertag said. "Or was it by shrinking me that you discovered these side effects?"
"You're SUCH a suspicious bastard," Janet said.
"And right," Roth said.
"What?" Janet and Vertag said together. But Janet's voice didn't nearly rock Roth over.
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.EFLOTG Rescue