Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 3. Chapter 3 - The Aergoroth Nebula

“What do you mean Phentrom’s been taken?!” Lyoth asked Neptithia in dismay.

“I just disconnected from Fonith, and she told me what happened. A bounty hunter attacked Phentrom and Suoki in the streets of Boullia Bay. Suoki was shot, and the bounty hunter took Phentrom.”

“We need to meet up with Fonith,” Lyoth declared to Stawren. “We need to rescue Phentrom!”

Neptithia continued with the details. “Fonith told me she knew the other hunter, and she’s going after him. She said she’ll update you when she has more information. Give me the contact for your new ship, and I’ll pass it on to Fonith when she reconnects with me.”

Lyoth pulled up the Galaxy Surfer’s communication code and sent it to Neptithia.

“Auntie Thia, did Fonith tell you the other bounty hunter’s name?” Stawren asked.

“She didn’t,” Neptithia answered. “You’ll have to ask her when she gets in touch with you. Fonith was in a state of what seemed to be forced calm, but underneath I think she was furious.”

“Lyoth,” Stawren said, turning to him, “what do you want to do? Should we go back and join Fonith to rescue Phentrom?”

He sighed. “There’s no telling where she’s headed, and we’re already almost eight hours away from Allthrin. Maybe for the time being we should let Fonith focus on finding Phentrom, and we should proceed with our plans.” Lyoth looked at Neptithia’s face on the screen. “This ship has an Ultra Nexus shield. When we activate it, the protective powers are so strong they will block all communication. We’ll lose you while we’re traveling through the…” he paused and looked out the Galaxy Surfer’s window at the stellar object that was not a nebula... “through whatever it is.”

“And there’s no telling if we’ll be able to reconnect once you get to the planet at the center,” Neptithia added.

Stawren spoke up, “Did you learn anything else important in those communications since we’ve been gone?”

Neptithia nodded and said, “Yes, lots, there’s a bunch of discussion about technology and the hyperspace dimension, but one of the more surprising revelations was that this conversation happened almost twenty years ago. I’m surprised my old friend who was a member of the science counsel never mentioned it to me.”

“The information must have been suppressed,” Lyoth replied.

“Alright, auntie Thia,” Stawren concluded, “we’ll reach out and try to get in touch with you once this ship’s shields are down again.”

“Sounds good, bye, kid.”

The connection ended and Lyoth activated the Ultra Nexus.

Stawren flew the Galaxy Surfer up to the Aergoroth Nebula so the image of it filled the view screen. She looked at Lyoth. “Well, it’s definitely not solid. You can see it swirling, like water. Does this ship have any type of scanner? Maybe we can take a reading of the matter before going into it.”

“It does,” Lyoth replied. He pulled up a menu on the console in front of him and entered a command. He was surprised by the results. “Well, it’s a nebula,” he declared, looking over at Stawren. “The readout is dust and gas, like every other nebula in the universe.”

“But why is it holding in a sphere and not spread out in an amorphous cloud? I’ve never seen one that looked like this.”

Stawren and Lyoth’s eyes met. “This is it.”

“Let’s do it!”

The Galaxy Surfer entered the Aergoroth Nebula, and the entire vessel began to vibrate as the Ultra Nexus shield protected the ship from the thick layer of charged particles and volatile gases that would have eaten through the hull.

“The shields are holding,” Stawren stated. “They’re at one-hundred percent. Oh, ninety-nine percent.”

“Should we push the ship a little harder?” Lyoth asked. “Go faster?”

Stawren nodded and increased the Galaxy Surfer’s velocity.

The vibrating became an intense rocking and jolting as the ship carved its way through the thick layer of corrosive matter.

“Ninety-two percent,” Stawren read from the screen in front of her. She urged the ship faster still, and a low rumble began reverberating through the Galaxy Surfer.

“I’m altering the positioning of the shield,” Lyoth informed her, “for extra support at the front of the ship.”

The chaotic rocking subsided to a subtler vibration again, and the single percentage on Stawren’s screen was replaced by a different pair of numbers. One of them was red and blinking.

“Forward shields are back to ninety-nine percent, but the rear shield has dropped to forty-eight percent; now forty-seven percent!”

“The forward shield is holding, right?” Lyoth asked.

“It is,” Stawren conceded, “but the rear shield is already down to forty-six percent.”

Lyoth nodded. “Is the forward shield dropping as quickly?”

“No, it’s still at ninety-nine.”

Lyoth smiled. “That’s better, and the rear shields won’t reach zero. When they hit fifteen percent, the Ultra Nexus will automatically redistribute power from the other shields. The front was just taking too much of a beating. We’re in better shape now.” He winced and brought his free hand to his injured shoulder. “I think I was tensing up and bracing myself with all the rocking. My arm is killing me.” He pulled the bottle of painkillers out of a bag Neptithia packed, and Lyoth swallowed two capsules. He was glad Neptithia insisted he take them.

The two warriors fell silent as the ship flew blindly through the thick soup of cosmic dust and gases.

Stawren eventually informed Lyoth, “Rear shields are down to twenty percent.”

There was no sign of the Galaxy Surfer getting close to the interior edge of the cloud as the ship continued to rattle forward, but all of a sudden the entire vessel lurched, and the engines went dead. Through the windows, the view before them was unchanged; the dense swirling matter looked no different. The shields were still active, however, they were no longer being affected by the particles and gas. The percentages on the screen in front of Stawren were no longer dropping.

The Galaxy Surfer’s communication light on the console suddenly started to blink.

“Someone is hailing us,” Stawren said.

“Through the Ultra Nexus,” Lyoth added. He pushed the button.

He and Stawren were very surprised by who greeted them. On the other end of the call was an older Blue-skinned Allarei man.

“Hello there, visitors,” he said in a singsong voice. “Welcome to the Aergoroth Nebula planetary system! I am Ilial. Are you lost?”

“No, we’re not lost,” Stawren replied. “We came here looking for help.”

“How wonderful that you made it,” Ilial exclaimed, “and how did you hear about our little secret pocket of the universe?”

Stawren asked a question of her own in response. “Are you part of the Consortium of Light and Darkness?”

“I am, indeed,” Ilial replied. “May I please have your names?”

Stawren and Lyoth looked at each other and he shrugged, squinting in pain as a fresh wave radiated from his shoulder. He sucked air in a hissing breath as Stawren answered Ilial.

“My name is Stawren, named after the star wrens of Allthrin. Is that where you’re from? My father is a Blue Allarei.”

“Ah, star wrens!” Ilial proclaimed. “When I was a child, my parents grew all sorts of flowers on our property. The star wrens were always buzzing around. And yes, I’m originally from Allthrin.”

Lyoth also told Ilial his name, but the pain from his shoulder was distracting. He grabbed the bottle of pills again and it rattled as he popped the top.

“Oh, dear, are you injured?” Ilial asked.

“Yes,” Lyoth said through his teeth before swallowing another capsule.

Ilial looked very concerned. “I’m so sorry to hear that. I’ll have the electro-grav-mag bring your ship to the physiological rejuvenation center on Pilia before meeting up with you on Xecot.”

Lyoth and Stawren did not know what Ilial was talking about, but the cloud in front of them dissipated, and they found themselves at the edge of a tiny solar system. Three planets with a bright star at their center lay before the Galaxy Surfer. With the engines dead, Lyoth and Stawren did not know how they were still moving through space, but their ship was approaching the largest of the three planets.

“Welcome to the Aergoroth Nebula planetary system!” Ilial repeated.

Lyoth did a double-take and focused on the nearest celestial body. “Is that planet unnatural? It looks like a machine.”

Ilial was surprised. “What did you two know about Aergoroth before coming here?”

“Almost nothing,” Lyoth admitted freely.

“We just heard about this system a day ago,” Stawren added, “but the initial info we found about this place seemed to fit the criteria of what we’ve been looking for.”

Ilial was intrigued. “You’ll have to tell me more after Lyoth’s treatment. I’ll meet up with you both when his wound has been mended. I look forward to meeting you both in person. You’ll be arriving at the physiological rejuvenation center in two minutes. We’ll talk soon.” Ilial disconnected without another word.

The Galaxy Surfer was automatically docked, and a medical team entered the ship to escort Lyoth into a treatment suite.

A nurse stepped up to Stawren and asked, “Would you like to accompany him while he undergoes the procedure, or would you prefer to wait in our eatery?”

Stawren turned to Lyoth. “Want me to stay with you?”

He looked at the medics. “What will you be doing to me?”

One of them smiled and answered, “The Medusozoa will consume your damaged tissue and excrete a healthy matrix of organic matter over your wound.”

“I’m sorry,” Stawren replied in confusion, “the what is going to do what to him?!”

Another medic added to Lyoth, “The process will speed your healing time by ninety-six percent.”

“But what is the Medusozoa?” he asked.

He and Stawren were told the answer just as the doors to the medical suite opened, and the two warriors were startled by what they saw.

In the middle of the room hovered something that was part animal and part machine. A delicate ring of intricate digital components encircled a bulbous mound of rippling translucent flesh, and Lyoth and Stawren could see the fuzzy shapes of other medics through it. Draping beneath the biomechanical creature was a skirt of thin wispy tendrils that gently swayed even though there was no breeze in the room.

“This is the Medusozoa,” the medic declared. “It is a techno-organic jellyfish.”