Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 31. Chapter 31 - Escape

A pair of interstellar vessels dropped out of hyperspace behind the destroyer End Vision that was attacking Quigley’s ship. “Who the blazes is that?!” he yelled over the muffled explosions.

Captain Suoki read aloud from the monitor in front of him. “The Burn Throne’s shields have dropped to twenty percent!”

The two new ships moved with brilliant speed, flanking the enemy End Vision and opening fire on that much larger destroyer. The ships then altered their position relative to the target, and they attacked again.

“They’re not doing any damage!” Quigley shouted.

“The shields are down to…” Captain Suoki hollered, but the two warships had changed their position of attack a third time, and one of the End Vision’s cannons stopped firing. “Down to fifteen percent,” the captain concluded in a more normal tone of voice. Explosions were still bursting against the Burn Throne’s shields, but the enemy canons were taking a pummeling and getting weaker.

The pair of ships zipped in front of the End Vision and opened fire on its bow.

The destroyer became still and silent.

A beeping from the Burn Throne’s console informed Quigley that someone was trying to hail him, and he answered.

“Get your ship out of here!” The individual on the other end of the screen was a machine, however, its voice sounded like a woman’s and was not robotic, but it was a robot. The faceplate possessed the vaguest semblance of a person’s face, with lights for eyes and a slit for a mouth, and its metal expression was permanently fixed in a slight smile.

The look of the thing unnerved Captain Suoki, but Quigley replied without hesitation. “I need to reset my cavitation engine! Can you cover me?”

“We’ve got you!” the woman’s voice said from the robot’s mouth.

The two ships continued blasting the enormous destroyer.

“Almost got it,” Quigley said.

“Hurry!” the voice urged. “Their weapons are almost back online.”

“Done!” Quigley declared. “Thank you.”

“Get out of here and we’ll follow!”

Quigley activated his ship’s hyperspace engine, and the Burn Throne disappeared.

The pilots of the two warships were connected. “Nineteen seconds until the End Vision can target us,” stated the woman’s voice from the robot.

“I know!” replied an identical voice. “Trackers are almost… finished! Let’s go!”

The pair of ships smoothly slipped into hyperspace on the trail of the Burn Throne, and the End Vision was left floating in the void. Its weapons reactivated, but there were no longer targets. Its engines had also been temporarily taken out, and when they returned, there was no way for the destroyer to track the Burn Throne and its allies.

Quigley’s vessel rocketed through the void with the other two warships behind it. An alert appeared on the screen in front of the bounty hunter with a star map location. He entered the information into his ship’s computer, and thirty-seven minutes later, the Burn Throne appeared over a grey planet. Seconds later, the other two ships arrived. The robot reinitiated a call and Quigley answered.

“That’s the planet Dilthial,” the woman’s voice said from the robot’s face. “On the far side, there’s a low-orbit space station. Dock on one of the upper levels and we’ll recharge your ship’s depleted systems.”

“How did you find us?” Quigley asked.

The voice laughed. “We did this as a favor to a friend. We’ll explain more when we’re docked.”

The Burn Throne orbited the planet, and its airlock attached to the space station. The doors opened. No one was there to greet Quigley, his family, and Captain Suoki. They entered an empty hallway.

“Go straight ahead,” the woman’s voice crackled over the station’s speakers, “turn left at the end of the hallway, and keep going until you get to the mess hall. We’ll meet you there.” Her voice went silent.

With no other option, the small group made their way to the door that led into the station’s dining space. Inside, they found a woman and the robot.

“Welcome to our home!” the robot declared. “May I present to you the Lady Talula?”

Lady Talula added, “You can leave off the honorific.” The robot’s voice was identical to Lady Talula’s. “I’m the last of an old and tired House from the fallen regal system on the planet Corbint. My family was once House Rethon. This is X-Ø.” She waved at the robot.

“It is such a pleasure to meet you,” X-Ø exclaimed in Lady Talula’s voice, “and it’s lovely to have guests in our home.”

Lady Talula was a lean and muscular woman in her 30s. She was dressed in fitted leather that covered her entire body and made her look like a warrior or a pirate, but she did not carry herself like either type of person. Lady Talula smiled wide and seemed casual, and there was a freeness, a joy to her that felt infectious to the new arrivals despite what they had just endured.

X-Ø on the other hand, was all machine. Its head was round, and it possessed a face, but its body consisted of a large rectangular encasing with a single mechanical arm and no legs. X-Ø moved by means of multiple rollers set into mounts beneath its base, allowing it to glide across the floor.

Quigley introduced his family. “My name is Quigley, and this is my wife and daughter, Finnow and Riah.”

“And I’m Suoki,” the big bearded fellow added. “Thank you for extricating us from that situation, but how did you know we were there? You didn’t just stumble upon us.”

Lady Talula laughed. “No, that’s true, we didn’t just happen to find a ship in need of rescuing. A mutual friend called in a favor, and we were happy to oblige.”

X-Ø added, “You will only fly with your feet firmly planted on the ground.”

Lady Talula rolled her eyes at her counter-bot. “We received a call from a friend,” the Lady continued, “someone we hadn’t heard from in a few years, but she helped us once, and we have been in her debt.” Lady Talula said a name only one of her guests knew. “Neptithia.”

Captain Suoki perked up. “Oh, yes, Neptithia! She’s close with the people I know in Boullia Bay. Phentrom must have reached out to her.”

“I don’t know that name,” Lady Talula replied, “but Neptithia told us someone who she cares about was in danger and needed immediate assistance, and she asked if we could help. Neptithia got us out of a lot of trouble once.” The Lady indicated X-Ø. “We were scavenging on the outskirts of the old Allthrin city of Bavport, when we apparently entered a restricted area. These automated security androids appeared out of nowhere, and of course since the population of the Allarei had been wiped out, there was no one controlling the robo-guards.”

“And that’s when we met Neptithia,” X-Ø added in Lady Talula’s voice.

“That’s right, X-Ø. The system sent her an alert as a backup authorized user, and she turned up and deactivated the security-bots. We were detained for over three days with no food or water before Neptithia got the alert and came to bust us out. X-Ø can condense moisture from the air and produce drinkable water, but she doesn’t have any space to store food. Neptithia saved us.”

X-Ø spoke again. “The flow of water is wisest when it’s frozen.”

Lady Talula ignored the robot. “I’ve since tried to retrofit X-Ø with a compartment for even a single ration pack, but she hasn’t been able to function properly with any changes that I’ve tried to make for food storage.”

“I’m sorry, Lady Talula,” X-Ø replied in Lady Talula’s voice.

The Lady chuckled. “It’s not your fault. You weren’t designed for containing objects.”

X-Ø dutifully stated, “A house built in the forest is but a shadow of the elephant’s elbow.”

Captain Suoki scrunched up his face. “Why does X-Ø keep saying things that don’t really make sense?”

X-Ø made a sad sound, but its expression did not change.

Lady Talula snickered and began to say, “She’s got…”

“I have an augury engine,” the robot explained.

“Yes, you do,” Lady Talula confirmed.

Finnow spoke up, “A prophesy drive?”

Captain Suoki and Quigley both turned to her. “You know what that is?” her husband asked.

Finnow nodded. “Fonith and I had a children’s version of a prophesy drive in one of our toys. It was a stuffed wengilia, a type of hairy lizard. We would ask it questions and it would give us answers. Most of the time, the answers made no sense.”

Lady Talula nodded knowingly. “X-Ø has one of the most advanced prophesy drives – or augury engines – ever designed. When that’s all she was, X-Ø could answer most questions, including about the future. The scientists who designed her always said that her predictions about the future were based on information she had gathered about the past. She would analyze our questions based on the present, and make predictions about the future that should have been impossible to know. When my family’s House fell, I lost almost everything. Family members were executed, our estate was burned to the ground, but I got away with X-Ø.” Lady Talula put her arm behind the metal tube that was the robot’s neck, as if she were hugging it over its shoulders.

“Even when traveling in reverse,” X-Ø stated, “one is actually traveling forward.”

“I added an artificial personality mechanism,” Lady Talula continued, without acknowledging X-Ø’s nonsense, “when I gave X-Ø her head, but in so doing, I needed to remove her augury drive’s quantum entanglement processor, which is what allowed her to accurately predict the future. I see now that may not have been the best decision, because now I can no longer ask her about the future, but when it was clear that I was alone, I decided X-Ø could be my friend. I added a voice box, but its data was corrupted so I had to use my own voice when programming her.”

Little Riah stepped up to X-Ø. “Well I like her!” the child declared. “What am I gonna get for my next birthday?”

Lady Talula started to say, “X-Ø won’t be able to answer your…” but her own voice cut her off again.

“You would still think you do not have enough marmalade, if each week contained eight days.” X-Ø’s smile looked very satisfied to be giving out such important information.

Lady Talula shrugged at Riah. “Sorry, hun, she’s not what she used to be.”

“X-Ø is one mean pilot though,” Captain Suoki declared.

The Lady smiled and said to the adults. “Speaking of… X-Ø, run a diagnostics for the Burn Throne, and activate any repairs we can do from here.” Lady Talula looked back at Quigley. “There’s a nearby system with a top-notch mechanics shop. If there are any major issues with your ship that my space station can’t handle, they’ll be able to take care of them there.” Lady Talula turned to Riah. “Okay, now, how about some food?”