Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 15. Chapter 15 - Capture

Over the speakers of Fonith’s ship, a voice declared, “This is Captain Disigorth of the Olotarian battleship Scorched Atmosphere. Prepare to be boarded.”

The Cometskipper was frozen in space. All of its scanners and external sensors were dead, and there was no way to detect where the attacking ship was located in relation to the Cometskipper.

“Godsdammit, nothing’s working!” the bounty hunter growled. “Computer, were we hit by a power syphon?”

It did not respond.

Fonith started trying to reactivate her handheld device and computer terminals, as Golvinte came rushing onto the bridge followed by Captain Suoki with his cane.

“What in the universe is going on?” the captain asked. “Who was that over the speakers? Why’d the ship lose power?”

Fonith replied quickly. “Don’t know, everything’s dead.”

“How can I help?” Golvinte asked.

“There’s a manual way to reboot the Cometskipper’s systems. Now listen,” Fonith paused and focused on her fellow bounty hunter, “down in the cargo hold, there’s a grey control panel. Open it. Inside are three levers and a bunch of buttons. Ignore the buttons. Pull the middle lever first, the third lever second, and the first lever third,” and Fonith added, “two, three, one, that’s the order.”

“Got it!”

“Go!”

Golvinte raced off the bridge.

“Tell me what to do,” Captain Suoki said.

Fonith spun from her computer and pointed at another chair and terminal. It started blinking with a default prompt. “Jump on that one and read off what comes up!”

Captain Suoki obeyed.

“It’ll be another minute,” Fonith stated. “Read it aloud when it changes.”

Finnow appeared at the door to the Cometskipper’s bridge with her daughter in her arms and Froufrou at her feet, but she remained silent and did not distract her sister.

“Come on,” Fonith snapped at her computer, “you’ve still got a few surprises in you, work with me!”

The prompt in front of Captain Suoki became words, and he called out, “It says, ‘continuous depletion of power supply.’”

Fonith looked over at him with a scowl. “Dammit, what’s actively draining my ship? Golvinte won’t be able to reboot the systems if we’re constantly losing power. And where’s this damn battleship?” It was not visible out the Cometskipper’s windows.

Captain Suoki spoke up again. “Now the screen says, ‘vessel moving through space, 56.3° starboard.’”

Fonith gritted her teeth. “They’re pulling us in.”

“Who?” Finnow asked.

Fonith turned to look at her sister and niece. “I don’t know who he is or what he wants.”

Golvinte reappeared in the doorway behind Finnow. “It wasn’t working!” he declared to Fonith in dismay. “I’m sure I did exactly what you told me with the levers! It didn’t…”

“I know,” Fonith interrupted. “Somehow, this battleship is actively sucking the Cometskipper’s energies. We’re stuck. There are a few backup systems that have their own power sources, but they won’t last long. Golvinte, take my sister and niece to my quarters,” Fonith ordered. “The Cometskipper has a safe-room behind the wall inside my closet. Lock them in it.”

Golvinte nodded and raced off to hide Finnow and little Riah with Froufrou.

“This says,” Captain Suoki exclaimed in alarm, “‘airlock connection secure!’ Fonith, they’ve attached to the outside of your ship!”

She did not reply.

“‘External doors opening,’” Captain Suoki continued reading. “Oh gods, it says ‘weapons detected!’”

Fonith hesitated a moment with her finger hovering over a button on the console in front of her. She pushed it.

Screams suddenly rang out through the ship. They were immediately silenced.