JULIE
TOLBERT’S WORST NIGHTMARE….
A Short Cross-Universe Tale
written by Frederick P. “Freddo” Kopetz based upon some of the characters and
situations from “Onward With Love” by “
The character of Julie Tolbert is
© 2010 by “
All other Star Blazers/Yamato
characters herein are © 2010 by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, Leiji Matsumoto, and
Voyager International.
Thnaks again to
(Note: this tale was wriiten by me, Freddo, as a tribute
(??) to Yuki’s story “Onward With Love” and the evil Julie Tolbert written for
grins and giggles…but it is…a very trippy dream…for all of those involved…)
I. MIDNIGHT MUNCHIES
The Wildstar Residence
April 18, 2208
0120 Hours
“Nova, when are you
getting to bed?” Derek Wildstar asked.
“I can’t put this
book down, Derek,” Nova said as she sat up in their bed, quite naked, grabbing
Pepperoni and Monterey Jack cheese off a little plate she had set on the
bedside table. She and Derek had dropped into bed at around midnight, made
love, and then Nova slept. For maybe twenty minutes. Then, fuelled by caffiene
and anxiety, she got up, checked on Alex and Ariel (who were asleep in their
cribs) and went into the kitchen and got Ms. Eloise to help her make up a tray
of food. The robot, on 24-hour call, did not mind helping her mistress,
although she did ask the kimono-clad woman if she was cold. Nova had said she
was hot, and she stripped as soon as she was back in the bedroom.
Then, she continued
to read a new novel about the Star Force that had recently been released; it
was called Onward With
Love, and it described their adventures in a universe quite different from
what she and Derek were used to. It was a gripping book, and the villains of
the piece were one Bolar General Hindelman, and an evil little woman named
Julie Tolbert.
Julie was a woman who
was a former girlfriend of Derek’s. In the worst way, she wanted to get Derek
back, and she schemed against Nova and constantly threw monkey wrenches in
their marriage. Finally, she had committed treason so that a vessel that Nova
was aboard would be attacked and Nova captured by the Bolars. After Nova had
been subjected to severe torture by the Bolars and almost killed, she was
rescued and taken back to Earth. Julie was also arrested, and…
After eating her
tenth piece of pepperoni, Nova Wildstar of 2208 was just beginning to nod off. She
put a bookmark that said Cats are a Curious Kind of Folk into the book, turned
off the light, and cuddled up to her Derek, whispering a goodnight into his
ear.
Then, Nova fell into
sleep, and she began to dream a very, very weird dream….
IT IS THE YEAR 2205, SOME TIME IN JULY, AND….
Shortly after those three strangers showed up in her cell in jail, Julie Tolbert had something like a dream…a dream that was an utter nightmare.
Or was it a dream at all?
In this…dream…Julie was lying in her cell thinking of ways to make Derek Wildstar look bad in court when her cell door opened.
“Who are you?” demanded Julie.
She turned around and saw what looked like a tall (maybe 5’9”) woman in black appearing out of nowhere in her cell. Her sudden appearance, without even bothering to open the cell door, was downright weird. At first, she had a start because she thought she was looking right at Nova. However, this stranger had a face similar to hers, but had long dark-blond hair that went down to the middle of her back, and eyes that seemed to just burn with some hidden menace.
Julie’s guard was up; someone had come into her cell a few days ago, asked how she was doing, and then she had a blanket over her head and was experiencing a beating. Still, this lady had appeared out of nowhere…and…
No, Julie thought. Could this be Princess Devina? Could
Desslok have sent her to come and get me? They say the little bitch has
powers…but…
“Good evening, Miss Tolbert,” said the stranger. She had an odd, musical-sounding voice that almost sounded British. “I’ve never had the utter displeasure of making your acquaintance. Until recently, when I picked up a book of a certain author’s and I was thus able to read…some of your adventures. I became rather appalled at your behavior, and I discussed the matter with two girlfriends of mine….would you like to meet them?”
Julie got up and said, “Whoever the fuck you are, BITCH, you’re gonna have to take me down this time in a fair fight! I’m not falling for that Goddamn blanket party trick again!” she yelled, blustering because, after all, it is not every day that a tall blonde woman dressed in black like a Ninja (down to the split-toed boots) appears our of nowhere in your cell. “You…”
Then, Julie Tolbert fell down limp on the bunk in her cell. She tried to move. But she found she couldn’t move anything.
The stranger just grinned at her with that demented grin with one hand up in the air. “Nice. I believe I have you effectively…paralyzed….”
“Who…are..you…you…crazy…BITCH?” demanded Julie.
“I’m from Planet Pellias in the Blackeye Galaxy. That was before Ekogaru and I moved the planet to our Galaxy and started a big-ass war. My name’s Aliscea Rosstowski, and I’m your worst nightmare!”
“Where…what…is Planet Pellias?”
Aliscea raised a hand, pointed a finger at Julie
Tolbert….and fire came out of it. The fireball whizzed through the air, whipped
past Julie’s head, and impacted against the cell wall.
“You’re…you’re…crazy!” said Julie. “Get out of here! Get out of my cell! Get out of my dream! Get out of my life!”
“I’m your worst nightmare, true,” said Aliscea as she came up to Julie and caressed her chin before she spat right into her face. “Two of my friends also got to read about you, and we got together and decided to give you another party. Too bad you’re paralyzed. It might be fun fighting with you, “ said Aliscea as Julie was convinced she was dealing with an alien space chick who was just as sadistic as Desslock….even though, maybe..she was worse. “Ladies?” called Aliscea as she snapped her fingers.
Then, two more women appeared out of nowhere in the room. One was about the height of Aliscea…and was someone that Julie Tolbert had only seen pictures of…for she was long-dead in her world. But, Sasha of Iscandar, with her long blonde hair, was unmistakable. “Hullo, Julie,” she said in something that sounded to Tolbert like an Australian accent. Charming, but utterly demented. “Pleased to meet me?”
“You..damnit…you…you have to be a ghost…or I have to be on drugs…you’re DEAD! You don’t even exist!”
“Oh, I’m sure not dead, and I do most certainly exist,” Sasha purred. “It doesn’t matter whether you believe in me or not. You’ll find out how real I am when I give you a knuckle sandwich, Julie, you skank!”
Then, Julie looked to the left of the other two women, and met the worst one of all.
Standing there, holding a boom-box in one hand, and a lead pipe in the other, was Nova Wildstar (the Nova of 2208 from the universe where Rikasha existed, not the one of 2205), who was also in the same weird black Ninja getup the others were in.
“You bitch!” she yelled at her. “I’ll have you up on so many charges that it’s not even funny! You set this up and hired actresses! You’re crazy! And what are you doing with your hair dyed honey-blond, anyway?”
“It’s not dyed, Miss Tolbert,” Nova replied in a voice that somehow sounded just a little harder and blunter than her usual speaking voice. To Julie, she seemed to carry herself a little differently…with a slightly feline walk that reminded Julie of a stalking panther toying with its prey. Something about Nova’s demeanor here told Julie that this was not quite the Nova she knew, and, if anything, this was a slightly more dangerous version of her with a frightening, burning light in her eyes that reminded her more of Derek than of the strong little brown-haired woman she knew.
“Oh, by the way,” Nova added. “Teasing people about miscarriages is NOT funny. I could have had one several times over when I was pregnant with my twins. But I’m not here to talk with you. I’m here to break your jaw, Julie. Are we ready for that yet?”
Sasha came up to the paralyzed Julie and sent electricity through her. “Gladly, Auntie. Let’s torture this skank!”
Sasha then threw her against the wall as Julie perceived Nova turning on the boombox. A voice that sounded like John Lennon came out of the boombox playing some deranged, echoing version of a Chuck Berry song called “You Can’t Catch Me”. Then, she leaped over Sasha’s legs with her lead pipe in hand…
….and she started swinging the lead pipe….
….right against Julie Tolbert’s head.
Then, Aliscea kicked Julie to the floor. A moment later, Sasha pulled her up by her prison jumpsuit and threw her against the wall, punching her in the throat, and throwing her to Nova, who had thrown away the lead pipe. Nova pulled her up and began to “dance” with her, stomping on her toes with every dance step. Then, Julie got one of Nova’s knees in her crotch, and she was thrown in a daze to Aliscea, who punched her in the shoulder hard enough to break her collarbone.
Julie was thrown to the floor and kicked in the ribs by Sasha, who then levitated her up and smacked her against the wall in this increasingly hellish nightmare.
Then, Nova waded back in, pulling her up by her prison jumpsuit. Nova whipped her against the wall and said, “You know, Julie, you really have a very pretty face. It’s too bad I have to make it look ugly. Remember, the point here is to make you suffer. Just like you made me suffer in this universe. Oh, I know what it’s like to be hit with a whip. The Rikashan Empire made me suffer like that in one of their dungeons. So, this one is for me, you demented, sub-human piece of garbage from a Dumpster!”
Then, Nova punched her in the jaw with a martial-arts move. Julie felt her jaw breaking, and then felt herself being thrown around, and flipped by this deranged young woman.
Then, the three of them were advancing slowly upon her as she lay on the cell floor in a pool of her own blood. All of them were laughing at her, and Julie guessed that, maybe, just maybe, they were going to finish this off by killing her…
Julie Tolbert then woke up in a cold sweat.
“What kind of weird damn dream was that?” she said out loud. “What happened? I have to tell my lawyer….now that bitch is haunting my dreams, her, that dead Iscandarian, and their weird space chick friend with the sick powers! I…”
Then, Julie looked at her blanket. She picked a very long strand of strawberry-blond hair off of it.
The hair didn’t belong to her.
Julie Tolbert began to laugh, scream, and and cry all at once.
She was still screaming when the guards came into her cell….
II. RE-ENTRY (??)
The Wildstar Residence
April 18, 2208
0210 Hours
Nova Wildstar awoke
with Julie Tolbert’s screams ringing in her head. She sat up and began to punch
her pillow.
That woke Derek up.
He was slightly annoyed, but he held Nova when she got done hitting the pillow.
He knew he sometimes woke her up with his various nightmares, especially the
one about the death of his parents, which still haunted him even after many
years. He was patient with the nightmares that Nova had, many of them about her
evil Aunt Yvona, and many of them about Princess Invidia…or about
However, this was the first time Derek ever heard Nova screaming, “JULIE! I’m
coming for your ass again, bitch! I’m going to GET
you! You are going to die! I hope you burn to death in a fire! I hope you fall
into a trash masher! I hate you, Julie! YOU HEAR ME?”
“Nova, who’s
Julie?” Derek said.
“Lond story,” Nova
replied. “Thanksfully…she…doesn’t…exist…”
Then, Nova kicked her
toes out from under the blanket. Near her partly covered foot, something was
resting against the blanket.
Nova lifted it up and
almost wanted to scream again.
It was a long strand
of hair.
The strand of hair
was a strange light blond.
Exactly the way one
of those illustrations of Julie Tolbert appeared….
Derek Wildstar never
received an explanation as to why Nova cuddled against him all night…and lay
there looking out the window at the night until well past 3 AM.
Nor did he figure out
why Nova was muttering, “Tolbert, Tolbert, Tolbert”
in her sleep….
END.