Twinks in Space: Destination Unknown - Part One - 23. Chapter 23 - Back on the Ulaa-Lah

No one else came to Captain Suoki’s quarters after Penqui had his rooms searched. The captain spent several hours trying to get his trans-satellite receiver to reconnect to Phentrom, but he had no success connecting to the heavily encoded device the mandroid had used to call him. The following few days were uneventful.

Captain Suoki was cooking himself a little dinner. He was wearing his floral apron, and some of his favorite tunes were cranked up to try and distract him from the fact that he was a prisoner. Seated at his feet was his pug, Froufrou, who was on high alert for any tasty morsels that might accidentally drop to the floor. Sausages were sizzling in a pan; spicy sweet veggies were roasting in the oven, and a buttery sauce was simmering and reducing nicely.

He heard his door open.

Captain Suoki rolled his eyes and didn’t bother to greet whoever was there, but Froufrou went racing off, as a casual voice the captain was not expecting said, “Smells good.”

Captain Suoki’s gaze flashed to the door. “Lyoth!” he cried out, unable to stop the tears that suddenly welled in his eyes. “What? But… how? What’s…”

“Suoki,” Phentrom said with a smile, stepping around Lyoth.

“Phentrom!” Captain Suoki rushed over and wrapped his arms around the mandroid, kissing his cheeks.

Froufrou was hopping and bouncing in delight, grunting and huffing for Lyoth and Phentrom’s attention.

“Let’s get you two out of here,” Lyoth urged as Phentrom scooped up the dog, who licked his face over and over.

Captain Suoki was shocked. “How did you do this?”

Lyoth nodded to the women who were behind him and the mandroid. “Captain, this is Stawren and Fonith; they’re the ones who made this possible. Fonith’s ship is docked at one of the Ulaa-Lah’s airlocks, and Stawren’s aunt was able to remotely disable this ships security measures. We came to rescue you and try to gain control of the Ulaa-Lah. Penqui wants a newly discovered wormhole that can teleport anything anywhere in the universe.”

“Why would he want that?” Captain Suoki asked.

“It’s got something to do with the Giblox Authority.”

Captain Suoki looked concerned. “When Penqui joined my crew, he told me he had cut all his ties with Giblox.”

Stawren spoke up, “Well, I think he lied to you, because the Giblox Authority are in the middle of a massive space battle, and this ship is just floating at the edge, like this Penqui is watching what happens and waiting for the outcome.”

“Captain, we were able to sneak on board,” Lyoth explained, “and we want to sneak you off.”

“But I could help!”

“I know,” Lyoth replied, “but the three of us already have a plan,” and he nodded to Stawren and Fonith.

“Most of the ship is distracted either by the battle or the festivities,” Stawren commented.

Captain Suoki looked curious. “Festivities?”

Lyoth smirked, and Phentrom said, “We have an inside man.”

“And what a man he is,” Lyoth added. “Now, come on, Captain, let’s get you out of here!”

As they made their way toward the Cometskipper, Captain Suoki asked Lyoth, “What are you going to do about Penqui?”

“He’s dug in with the Giblox Authority,” Lyoth replied. “and anyone who wants to stay with him probably doesn’t belong with us, but there are people onboard the Ulaa-Lah who are loyal to you and have no interest in the war.”

Fonith suddenly held up her palm for everyone to stop walking.

Voices were coming from a side hallway.

Lyoth stepped right out as the talkers rounded the corner, and he grabbed what turned out to be a pair of guards, shoving them against a wall.

“Boss?” one of them said in surprise.

“What are you doing here, sir?” asked the other.

“Whose side are you on?!” Lyoth growled.

The two guards looked at each other.

“Side, sir?”

Neither had drawn a weapon when he pushed them against the wall.

“We are on the side of the Ulaa-Lah, if anything, sir.”

Lyoth stepped back. “How do you feel about Penqui uniting the Ulaa-Lah with the Giblox Authority?”

The guards were confused. “We don’t know anything about that, sir.”

Captain Suoki stepped up behind Lyoth

“Captain?!” the two men blurted out together. They were dumbfounded. “Sir, we were told you left the ship!”

Captain Suoki scowled. “I’ve been locked in my room.”

“I don’t understand, sir.”

“Locked in your room, sir?”

Captain Suoki drew one of Lyoth’s daggers and stepped up to the two men. “Some of your fellow guards were in on this mutiny.”

The two men were obviously hurt by his accusation.

“No, captain, sir,” one replied. “We love you, captain!”

The other man nodded. “You were my role model at flight academy, sir. It was a dream come true, when I got the position I wanted on the Ulaa-Lah, under you, sir!”

Captain Suoki lowered the blade. “All right, lads, you’re okay. Maybe you can help cover our escape.”

“Anything you need, sir!”

Stawren let out a little laugh. “I think we’ve already got that covered.”

Captain Suoki looked over at her with a curious expression. “What do you mean?”

“Well, that party we mentioned, everyone on the ship was invited.”

“Yeah, we just came from it,” one of the guards replied. “It was fabulous!”

“It’s still going on,” the other added. “A bunch of the restaurants and clubs down below the harem are hosting it.”

At the mention of his harem, Captain Suoki let out a sigh that was filled with longing. Then he scrunched up his face in concentration. “You know, lads, I think it would just be best if you do exactly what you were planning on doing before you ran into us, as if this encounter never happened.”

“Yes, sir, we can do that.”

One guard grabbed the other’s hand and added, “Captain, if you’re leaving for real this time, we would go with you, sir, and be part of your new crew.”

“Stay here for the time being, lads, and I’ll reach out to you when we’ve solidified a plan.”

“Oh, captain, one more thing,” the guard added. “There’s some sort of scheduled spaceflight that’s about to happen,” he looked at his handheld communication device, “any minute now. It’s some sort of formal journey, and it was the excuse for the party on the lower levels. I don’t know where the ship’s going or why, but if you’re leaving, you probably better get off the Ulaa-Lah soon.”

Stawren spoke up, “We’ve lingered long enough.”

“Agreed,” Fonith replied.

The two guards each petted Froufrou, still held in Phentrom’s arms, before heading on their way.

Lyoth continued to lead the others back through the ship’s halls toward the Cometskipper, but Fonith received an alert on her wrist-mounted comm. She was alarmed by what it told her.

“The Cometskipper says we’re moving!” she hissed. “The Ulaa-Lah is going somewhere, and we need to get off this ship before it jumps into hyperspace. Move it!”

They rushed the last stretch, boarded the Cometskipper, which disembarked from the Ulaa-Lah.

Phentrom, Lyoth, Fonith, Stawren, and Captain Suoki watched as the Ulaa-Lah headed away from the battle and straight toward the anomalous wormhole.

Fonith gasped. “It’s going in!”

“And it could be going anywhere,” Lyoth whispered.

Stawren grabbed his arm. “Was our attack on the base a mistake? After blowing up the lab, is there still the equipment to conduct one of those terrible brainwave experiments on a kid?”

“What kids?” Captain Suoki asked.

“They were using children’s brainwaves to input coordinates for the wormhole,” Fonith replied.

“Is the Ulaa-Lah about to go on a one-way journey,” Stawren asked, and she paused before concluding, “destination unknown?”

The group fell silent as the gargantuan, city-sized spacecraft the Ulaa-Lah, vanished!