Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 21. Chapter 21 - Eleithon

“What’s a vampire ship?” Phentrom asked Quigley.

The mandroid and bounty hunter were together on the Burn Throne.

“The ship’s inventor could explain it better than I can,” Quigley replied. “We need to borrow it.” He turned to his computer monitor, activated his ship’s engines, and the vehicle lifted off the docking station in Boullia Bay. Above the atmosphere, Quigley engaged the cavitation engine, and the Burn Throne entered hyperspace.

Phentrom looked over at him and asked, “Where are we going?”

Quigley shifted his monitor to face the mandroid. “We’re going to Eleithon.”

There was a star map coordinate on the screen, but the word meant nothing to Phentrom.

“Is that a planet?”

Quigley smiled. “Eleithon is a person.”

“Another bounty hunter?”

“No, she’s an engineer.”

The Burn Throne was only in hyperspace for a little over an hour, and it exited above a huge ringed planet.

“This engineer lives on a gas giant?” Phentrom asked.

“She’s got a station on one of the moons.” Quigley hailed Eleithon, and when she answered, he said, “Eleithon, this is…”

“I can see who it is,” Eleithon replied with a laugh. “Haven’t had the pleasure of seeing you in a while, Quigley. Who’s your friend?”

“Hello, Madam Eleithon,” Phentrom replied. “My name is Phentrom.”

“A pleasure,” she replied and added, “drop the Madam. What can I do for you both?”

Quigley explained. “We need to sneak aboard a juggernaut-class destroyer while it’s in hyperspace.”

“Ah-ha! You’re hoping to use one of my vampire ships. Come on down to my workshop and we’ll talk.” Eleithon disconnected the call.

“I guess we’re in luck,” Quigley said to Phentrom. He activated the Burn Throne’s landing sequence and the ship descended.

It docked, and Eleithon was waiting outside of its airlock. She stepped up and wrapped Quigley in a friendly hug. She then shook Phentrom’s hand and rhymed, “Right this way, bois; let’s go see my toys!”

In a gargantuan hanger, a trio of very unique starships sat in a row. The nearest one was smaller than the Cometskipper. It was painted with accents of green, and it was equipped with a pair of oversized cavitation engines.

Eleithon stepped up in front of it and declared, “All three of these ships are capable of exceeding 30 light speed, and all three ships are enhanced with hyperspace trackers that are able to determine the extended course another ship has taken through hyperspace. This one’s the God Hunter! What’s special about the God Hunter is its energy-draining capabilities. The ships are enhanced to be undetectable above 10 light speed, but check this out!” She led Quigley and Phentrom around to the opposite side, between the first and second ships. “The God Hunter has the ability to absorb power from other vessels in its vicinity through this radiant syphon, even while traveling through hyperspace.” Eleithon indicated the component, and she beamed at Quigley and Phentrom.

“But first,” she continued, “let me tell you about the other two.” She stepped up to the second ship that was painted with accents of red and purple. It was slightly larger than the God Hunter. “This is the Alpha Slayer. Isn’t she gorgeous? She has a quantum entanglement synthesizer that can generate optical projections of herself. The Alpha Slayer is capable of producing up to 99 illusion Alpha Slayers in the space surrounding her.” Eleithon patted its bow. “But wait,” she insisted as she led the men around to the final ship.

Eleithon stepped up to it and said, “This is my original vampire ship, the Stealth Witch. She’s my pride and joy. The Stealth Witch is capable of matching the speed of a ship it’s following, and once it catches up, it can attach itself to the other ship totally undetected!”

“And that’s the one we want,” Quigley stated.

“I suspected so,” Eleithon replied, “but I’m sorry, you can’t just take my ship.”

Quigley frowned. “But Eleithon, my family has been taken by the destroyer Deathian, and I need some way to sneak onboard and get them off.”

“Excuse me, Madam Eleithon,” Phentrom said quietly.

She and Quigley turned to the mandroid, and Eleithon replied, “I told you, you don’t need to call me Madam.”

Phentrom nodded. “Eleithon, will you please take Quigley and I on a surreptitious mission aboard one of your vampire ships, with the intention of sneaking the two of us onto the starship Deathian? Please, I want to help Quigley save his family, and the longer we deliberate, the farther away the Deathian gets from where we are.”

Eleithon turned from Quigley to Phentrom and back to the bounty hunter. “Fine, we can take the Stealth Witch.”

“Thank you, Eleithon,” Quigley replied.

“Wait here,” she instructed. “I need to get the activation trigger. I don’t keep them on the ships.” She headed into the building that served as her domicile.

“Thank you,” Quigley whispered to Phentrom.

Eleithon returned a moment later. “Get onboard,” she ordered.

The three entered the Stealth Witch, and Eleithon engaged its engines. Quigley gave her the star map location associated with the message sent by the admiral aboard the Deathian, and when the Stealth Witch was above the moon’s atmosphere, it disappeared into hyperspace.

Eleithon increased the power of the cavitation engines, and the ship’s gauge read 27.9 light speed. In a matter of minutes, it was at the location where the Deathian captured the Cometskipper, and the Stealth Witch’s hyperspace-tracking computer stalked the destroyer through the void. Less than an hour later, with no warning from the Stealth Witch at all, the ship alerted Eleithon that it had already secretly docked with the Deathian.

“We’re there,” she declared. “We’re attached to the airlock, and the Stealth Witch has not been detected. She automatically prevented any alerts from going out on the Deathian. No one onboard will know when the exterior door opens, or when you enter their ship, or when the inner airlock disengages. Their sensors won’t even be able to pick up that you’ll both be armed.”

“This ship is huge,” Phentrom stated. “Can the Stealth Witch access a map of it?”

Eleithon punched in a few commands. “On it, here you go.” She uploaded the Deathian’s schematic into Quigley’s handheld device. “Get your family and get back to the Stealth Witch as quickly as possible.”

“That’s the plan,” Quigley said in a low voice full of malice. He was glaring in the direction of the destroyer as he strapped his sword to his hip. It was a very unique weapon, but Quigley had not drawn it from its sheath in over a year.

Eleithon rose from her ship’s command chair, opened the weapons locker, and offered, “Take whatever else you’d like.”

Phentrom hid that his hands were shaking as he picked up one of the blasters. “Are we really taking on an entire warship?”

“To save my family,” Quigley replied, “I’d challenge the gods themselves.”