Twinks in Space: Destination Unknown - Part One - 14. Chapter 14 - Leaving

“Phentrom, why didn’t you tell me sooner about Captain Suoki?” Lyoth whispered to the mandroid.

“I knew you were focused on helping the people of Boullia Bay,” Phentrom replied, “and I realized there was nothing we could do for him until we get more information.”

Phentrom and Lyoth were with Stawren on the roof of Neffah and Lingkrati’s apartment. Stawren was staring out over the city while the two men talked quietly together.

Lyoth sighed. “You’re right.”

Phentrom shook his head. “I still can’t believe Penqui led a mutiny.”

“I know, and godsdammit,” Lyoth growled, “he’s going to pay for this.”

“Captain Suoki is a good person,” Phentrom added.

“And at least we know it wasn’t him who was trying to kill us,” Lyoth commented. “We can’t do anything for him now, but we’ll try and figure out a way to track the Ulaa-Lah down.”

Stawren spoke up, “You’re trying to track someone?” She looked at them like the answer was obvious.

“Yes,” Phentrom replied, “the dear friend of ours, the one who let me live after the decommissioning failed, is in trouble. He’s been made a prisoner in his own home, where we used to live, and mutineers have taken control of the ship.”

Lyoth was studying Stawren’s face and asked her, “What is it?”

“Did you forget that Fonith is a bounty hunter?”

“Oh, of course,” Lyoth responded, turning toward the stairs that led down into the apartment.

“I’ll get her,” Stawren said, “and you can tell her about your friend’s situation.” She ran down, and a moment later ascended the stairs again with the bounty hunter.

“Who are you trying to find?” Fonith asked them.

“The person who I called on your XG4,” Phentrom answered. “He’s in trouble.”

Fonith looked surprised. “Well, that makes it easy. If we bring my XG4 back to my ship, the Cometskipper, I can pull up all sorts of information from the call you had with them.”

“Really?”

“I’ll even be able to tell you where the other device was in physical space at the time of the call, and if the vessel was moving while you were connected, we’ll know the direction, trajectory, and speed of the vehicle until you were disconnected. Would you like to try and call back?” Fonith offered. She extended him her XG4.

“No, thank you though,” he replied. “The way we got disconnected last time, I’m worried that the mutineers either know we were in touch with the captain, or that they’re now monitoring communications in case we decide to contact him again.”

“The mutineers think we’re dead,” Lyoth stated, “and we’d like to keep it that way. Fonith, why don’t you lead the way to your ship?”

“Are we leaving? What about the people of Boullia Bay?” Phentrom asked.

Lyoth, Stawren, and Fonith all smiled.

“We’ve done the hardest part,” Lyoth explained. “We’ve gone through the worst of what needed to happen. Jintrin is secretly in charge of Boullia Bay and its citizens, even though no one knows it yet, and Tenki is his right-hand man. They have measures in place to deal with any of the minor secondary pirates who might come seeking revenge for the dead admiral. A few locals will think there’s a power void, and they’ll try taking control, but that’s where Tenki comes into play. He and Jintrin are determined to help the people. Tenki has gathered a few of the folks who rose up, and they have established a council for peace. They’ll be responsible for stopping anyone who wants to play gangster now that the pirates are gone.”

Lyoth stared into Phentrom’s eyes. “At this point, we are only here as their reinforcements. I didn’t know what our plan was going to be together, but we have started making friends, and I started to feel like we could stay here.” He frowned. “But if there’s a way to help Captain Suoki, I want to do it.” Lyoth reached up and brought his palm to the mandroid's cheek. “I love you, Phentrom, and I’m sorry our relationship was plummeted into all this chaos, but thank you for going through it with me and helping these folks. Now it’s time to help our own.”

Phentrom gazed at Lyoth. “Okay, I’m in this with you.” He turned to Fonith. “Let’s go to your ship and see where the Ulaa-Lah was while I was talking to the captain.”

“Follow me,” Fonith replied with an excited smile. She looked enthusiastic about the coming hunt.

As the quartet made their way through Lingkrati and Neffah’s apartment, they informed the rest of the group of their plans.

“Before you do anything,” Tenki said to them, “let us know how we can be involved.”

A few minutes later, Lyoth, Phentrom, and Stawren followed Fonith onto her ship. It was docked outside of town at a private landing facility.

“Welcome to the Cometskipper,” Fonith said proudly as the shuttle doors closed. She inserted her handheld device into the ship’s primary computer, and a three-dimensional holographic image appeared above a digital display tabletop. “Just a moment,” she said. A small secondary screen blinked with the code Phentrom had inserted into her device in order to contact Captain Suoki. “I see you were calling a fourth-generation DBH trans-satellite receiver. That should give us plenty of information.”

Fonith punched a few more buttons and the holographic lights brought up a section of the universe with several galaxies as landmarks. A glowing green beam appeared in the middle of the hologram that was no more than an inch and a half.

“Zoom 20 times,” Fonith instructed her computer.

The galaxies flashed away as the beam expanded until it was over two feet long.

“The ship was traveling in this direction,” Fonith commented, pointing along the glowing green stripe. “It was moving at 7.2 light speed, but it doesn’t look like it was headed towards anything, maybe the edge of mapped space. But look, hang on, let me pull up this other map.”

The green flash disappeared and the image above the table displayed a vast section of the universe with many galaxies.

“Here’s the positioning and trajectory of the ship,” Fonith continued, extending her hand into the three-dimensional image of light, and she pointed at the now tiny speck of green. “But if the computer extends the direction indefinitely, the ship just goes to nothing. Even if I change the angle by 10° in any direction, there’s nothing there.”

“Unless there is,” Phentrom interjected. Lyoth, Stawren, and Fonith looked at him. “I mean, what if something’s recently been found out there? There are constant mapping expeditions beyond the outer territories. Maybe your map is outdated?” He shrugged apologetically, but Fonith looked intrigued.

“Well, that’s a possibility,” she concurred. “I love a good challenge! Let’s see if we can find something new out there in the middle of nowhere.”

She was quiet for a few minutes as she entered several commands into her device, but nothing resulted in new or helpful information. Then she looked at the mandroid. “Phentrom, this sector we’re looking into is beyond the Yizod Galaxy. Do you know any specific groups surveying space out there? Are there companies, or is there a planetary system that’s doing reconnaissance in that outer sector?”

“I know of at least one science team that was positioned in the Yizod Galaxy, the Raptor Collaboration, and I think both the Drescio Corp. and the Ologon Planetary Conglomerate have deep space surveillance crews with bases in the Yizod systems.”

Fonith was already seeing what her computer could find out about each of them. “Dammit, I don’t have the tech or know-how to bypass any of the firewalls blocking their information.” She looked up and turned to Stawren. “Do you think your friend who coded the dummy bank card might have the capabilities to crack this security?”

“I’ll give her a call.” Fonith handed her the device, and Stawren initiated the connection. Less than a minute later, Neptithia’s Blue face flashed onto the screen.

“Hey there, kid.”

“Hi, auntie Thia. I’m here with Phentrom and Lyoth, and they’d like to talk to you. Are you free?”

“My ship is auto-docking right now,” Neptithia replied, “so there are a few minutes before I need to do anything. Have them tell me what’s going on.”

Phentrom spoke up, “Hello, Neptithia, the ship where Lyoth and I spent the past several years has been overthrown, and our good captain is being held captive.”

Lyoth continued for the mandroid. “We have a destination where the ship seems to be headed, but it’s an area of uncharted space where mapping teams are currently working. We think something may have been found that the mutineers want.”

“Auntie Thia, we thought you might be able to find out if some corporation or a group of scientists were out there who found something important.”

“Interesting,” Neptithia replied. “The software in my computer’s housing room has more robust data-piercing capabilities. Once the ship is docked, I’ll head there and see what I can find out. Stawren, the number from the device you called me on is impressively encoded. I have no way to get back in touch with you.”

Stawren looked at Fonith. “And it needs to stay encoded,” the bounty hunter replied.

Stawren turned back to the screen. “Sorry, auntie Thia, we’re gonna have to be the ones to contact you again. How much time do you need?”

“That’s no problem,” Neptithia replied as an alarm began chiming in the background. “Give me… oh, about an hour. Gotta run!”

The call disconnected.

Less than 45 minutes later, Stawren impatiently called her back.

“Hey again, kid,” Neptithia answered. “I’ve come up with something!”

“Hi, auntie Thia. What did you find out?”

“I found the plans for a military outpost on a very remote planet in a long-dead system that doesn’t have a name; even its star has faded to a white dwarf that’s barely visible. It looks like the base was slated to have been completed almost 18 months ago, but there’s no documentation that I can find of it having actually been built. I also couldn’t determine what planet’s military was planning on setting up the fort way out there, nor could I figure out a reason why anyone would want to.”

Neptithia tapped the device in her hand and continued. “The schematic lists an area for barracks, as well as officer housing. There’s a weapons warehouse, two different laboratories, a single airstrip, two helicopter landing pads, and a very large unmarked building that looks like an airplane hanger, but isn’t.”

She shrugged. “All that being said, the base is not quite where the ship is headed, but it’s the nearest thing in that quadrant of space. It’s a barren and remote patch of space and there’s just nothing out there.”

“The base’s plan is a serious lead,” Lyoth replied. “We’ll start by seeing if we can find it.”

“Stawren, I’ve transferred you everything I could find.”

“Thanks, auntie Thia. You’re like a sorceress of technology!”

Neptithia smiled. “Keep me posted, kid. I’m curious about what you’ll find. Incidentally, how do you plan to get there?”

“That’s where I come in,” Fonith interjected.

“Auntie Thia, this is Fonith. She’s friends with my dad. She’s a bounty hunter, and she’s got a ship.”

“I’m also intrigued to see what we can find out there,” Fonith added.

“Sounds like you all have a plan,” Neptithia replied.

“Yeah, thanks again, auntie Thia. Talk to you later.”

“Bye, kid.”