Twinks in Space: Destination Unknown - Part One - 24. Chapter 24 - Search and Rescue

Captain Suoki let out a shocked gasp. “My Ship!”

The wormhole was still a barely visible glimmer on the darkness of space, and the Ulaa-Lah was gone.

“What happened to my ship?!” The captain stood staring with his mouth agape.

Stawren asked Fonith, “Can I use your XG4 to call my aunt again? Since she was able to tap into the base’s systems before, maybe she can access some info about that jump.”

Fonith handed Stawren the device.

“Thanks.”

A moment later, Neptithia was on the screen. Stawren explained that they were trying to figure out where the Ulaa-Lah ended up, and Neptithia dove right into her searching tools to scour the base’s archives, but she mumbled to herself and made a frustrated face.

“What is it, auntie Thia?”

“Sorry, kid,” Neptithia replied, “they’ve blocked their entire system. Everything on their end is locked up tight. If you wanted to know where the ship went, you’d probably have to return to the base.”

“That’s the plan.”

Neptithia looked startled. “No! I didn’t mean you should go!”

Stawren shrugged. “We need to figure out where the Ulaa-Lah is.”

“Stawren, hunny,” Neptithia said in a voice full of concern, “whatever you lot did down on that dark planet set them on high alert. Their security is way up now. Please don’t go back.”

“Auntie, Thia, they’re doing something to children,” Stawren stated. “There are a bunch of kids in cells. We were already planning to go back to try and help them, but we were hoping to figure out some way to use the Ulaa-Lah. We’re going to have to do something else now, but we have to go back.”

Neptithia looked shocked. “What were they doing to the children?”

“They were using their brainwaves to input location destinations for the omni. We saw them kill that little girl who managed to call us. There was nothing we could do.”

“Oh gods…” Neptithia whispered. She then said, “I understand, kid. Do what you have to do for those children. I’ll jump back into my searches and see if I can help you in any way on my end. Their digital programs are all locked down, but maybe I can patch you into their network, or dig up some info.” Neptithia looked into the screen. “Be careful, kid.”

“Thanks, auntie Thia.”

Stawren disconnected the call.

The Cometskipper raced back to the dark planet. It landed, and the three warriors made their way through the low-gravity region again, leaving Phentrom and Captain Suoki with Froufrou locked in Fonith’s ship.

As the trio approached the base, it did not seem to have any new security deterrents in place, but the warriors saw quite a few more people running around with flashlights. The base

“Why don’t we kill some of them off?” Lyoth whispered.

Fonith peered through her rifle’s scope, and she nodded. “Exactly what I was thinking. It’s mostly scientists in lab coats, almost no guards of any kind.” She lowered her weapon and added, “Stawren, your aim is impeccable. I know your bow and arrows are your standard, but I think you should use my secondary ranged rifle. Position yourself between those boulders.” Fonith pointed. She removed a long barrel from the side of her bag, and she attached it to another blaster that was strapped on her back.

Lyoth was wearing a wicked smile. “Let me go attract their attention.”

“I’ll link our comms,” Fonith told him as he headed out and Stawren moved to her position. Fonith took aim. Through her scope, she watched Lyoth appear from around a building. He snatched an unsuspecting scientist and pulled him silently into the shadows. Fonith lost sight of Lyoth for a moment, and when he reappeared, his blades were shimmering crimson. He strode up behind another man, slit his throat, and dragged the bloody corpse away from the light.

A scientist appeared from around a corner, and he froze, staring at Lyoth. He opened his mouth, but his whole body convulsed. His eyes went unfocused, and a little spurt of red sprayed from a hole where one of Fonith’s projectiles punched through his left breast. He fell to the dark ground.

Someone opened a door, but neither Lyoth nor Fonith could see who was behind it. Then there was a gloppy bursting noise, followed by the person behind the door dropping to their knees and collapsing forward, headless.

Fonith looked over at Stawren and gave her an impressed nod.

Lyoth turned the corner of a building and disappeared into the shadows again.

Stawren and Fonith kept him covered.

Two technicians came into the light to one side of where Lyoth was hiding, but they were both struck down by deadly accurate blaster bolts. A guard appeared behind Lyoth and managed to get out the word, “Hey…” before a projectile pierced his throat.

As the women took out one after another of the base’s inhabitants, Lyoth squatted down and pulled up the map on his digital display. He studied the layout before heading toward the helicopter landing pads. Two more scientists and another guard met their ends at the edges of Lyoth’s blades before he reached his destination. He found what he sought at the helipad.

On each landing platform was anchored a starship.

“Fonith, can you hear me?” he whispered.

“Loud and clear,” she whispered back.

“I’m hijacking a military-grade cargo shuttle.”

Fonith allowed herself a quiet laugh, then she blasted another scientist’s head off, and replied, “Perfect, now we just need to get the kids onboard.”

“I’ll bring it to the prison. You two, set those children free.”

“Done!”

Fonith blew away two more technicians and rushed over to Stawren. “Nice shooting! Lyoth has commandeered a ship to take the kids out of here. We’ve gotta go break them out.”

Stawren smiled like a predator. “Piece of cake!”

“Give me the rifle,” Fonith said, “time to break out weapons for close-range combat.”

“Let’s make our way around the perimeter of the base and come at the prison from the other side,” Stawren suggested.

Fonith nodded, and the two warrior women began to make their way. They passed the ruins of the laboratory they destroyed, and they ducked behind a boulder that gave them cover, but still allowed a view of the prison building’s single door and the overhead lamp. Multiple guards now stood in front of the building.

Stawren put up her hand for Fonith to stop, and she smiled.

Fonith furrowed her brow.

Stawren nodded knowingly. She silently strung her bow, drew an arrow, and fixed one of her brand-new arrowheads to its end. She drew the string back, aimed, and let the missile fly.

The arrowhead struck one of the guards in his chest, but these unique arrowheads did not possess a pointed tip. Instead, when it impacted, the head exploded in a cloud of nanoparticles that engulfed the guards. Their next breath inhaled the chemical discharge that incapacitated them. All six soldiers fell unconscious, and Stawren whispered, “The box claims they last for eight hours.”

“Great,” Fonith replied through her teeth, “but now how do we get through that cloud?”

“We don’t.” Stawren pulled a device out of her pocket and pushed its button. The cloud began to take on mass, and it dropped as gritty sand around the bodies of the men. “Let’s go.”

“Fonith!” Lyoth’s voice said through her comm.

She and Stawren stepped up to the prison door, and they paused.

“Go ahead,” she whispered.

“The computer system has been destroyed. They bombed their own mainframe.”

“So we have no idea where the Ulaa-Lah has gone,” she finished for him. “Understood. Meet us at the prison with that ship.”

“On my way!”

Fonith nodded to Stawren, and she drew a shock-discharge disk from her pocket. All in a split second, Fonith opened the prison door a crack and threw in the disk. She slammed the door again and there was an enormous boom from the tiny weapon.

“Guns blazing,” she instructed, and both of them rushed in, pulling their triggers. There were only two men inside the door, and they had already been taken out by the shock discharge.

Stawren pointed one direction down the hallway, and the pair rushed together to the corner. They peered around and continued. They encountered no one as they arrived at the door that led into the room with the cells.

Fonith pulled it open, and it was as if nothing had changed since the last time they left. Outside the prison building, everything at the base was in the chaos caused by the three warriors, but the child prisoners had been ignored.

“You came back?” one of them squeaked. “I can’t believe it.”

“Are you going to get us out this time?” whispered another.

“We are,” Stawren replied, “but we’re going to need to work together.”

Several of the children started crying.

“We’re gonna bust you out,” Fonith informed the kids, “but you’ll need to help each other get out of here. I know that some of you are very weak, but we have a ship, and we’re going to take you away from this terrible place.”

“Step back away from the cage door,” Stawren instructed the children in the first cell. “I’m going to blast it.”

A single bolt from the weapon released the lock. In a matter of minutes, all the doors were open and the children were free. The group snuck out of the prison behind Fonith and Stawren.

“Quickly!” Fonith said in an intense whisper, as the children stepped over the unconscious guards.

“Are they dead?” one kid asked.

“No, we put them to sleep,” Fonith replied.

Stawren whispered into Fonith’s ear, “Glad we didn’t kill any of them and leave a bloody mess,”

Outside the prison was silent.

“Where’s Lyoth?!” Fonith hissed. “He said he would bring a cargo shuttle to us!”

“Well, we can’t stay in this light around these men,” Stawren replied, and she added to the children, “to the edge of the base, this way!”

As they rounded the corner of the building, the roar of a ship’s engines broke through the quiet darkness. A matte black vessel with sleek design landed right in the light of the door to the prison, and right on top of the six unconscious guards. A door slid open and Lyoth’s smiling face popped out.

“Get in!” he called. He stuck out an arm and waved for them to join him, and he disappeared back inside.

“Go, now!” Fonith yelled to the children.

All of them rushed onboard followed by Fonith and Stawren, and the doors sealed shut.

Once on board, in the open space used to house goods in the back portion of the ship, Fonith counted the children. “37,” she said in disbelief, and she repeated, “37, we got all 37 of them out of there.”

Stawren looked at her and said, “We left your guns.”

“Their sacrifice would be worth it,” she replied, looking over the children with awe, “but don’t worry, they’re close enough to the Cometskipper. I won’t be leaving them behind.”

“We’re almost there,” Lyoth called back. “Let’s make this fast!”

He landed the shuttle, opened the back hatch, and Stawren and Fonith leapt out. Fonith disengaged her ship’s security measures, and Stawren entered as Fonith rushed off into the darkness to collect her weapons.

“Phentrom! Suoki!” Stawren called. “We need you!”

The two men were already on their way to the doors when they heard the ship unlocking.

“Tell us what to do,” Captain Suoki replied without hesitation.

“Outside,” Stawren said quickly, “Lyoth is piloting a shuttle and it’s got the children.”

“Say no more,” Phentrom answered. He and the captain rushed out of one ship and onto the other.

“Lyoth!” Captain Suoki called over the children’s heads. “Seal the hatch and get us out of here!”

Lyoth did not need to be told twice. He took the ship up through the atmosphere, and a moment later, the scanners told him the Cometskipper was close behind.

A light indicated that they were being hailed and Lyoth opened the comm.

Fonith’s voice spoke over the shuttle’s speakers, “I’m transmitting you a location. Meet us there.”

“Received,” Lyoth replied, “see you soon.”

Both ships turned away from the raging space battle, and they disappeared into hyperspace.