Twinks in Space: Destination Unknown - Part One - 34. Chapter 34 - Escape

When Stawren and Lyoth headed off to access the computer terminal, Fonith, Phentrom, and Captain Suoki made their way back down the hall toward the docking bay. As they approached the door, Fonith made them stop. Quite a lot of commotion was coming from one side of the hanger, but their view was blocked by a cart loaded with huge crates. Fonith motioned toward the wall, and the three of them crept along the perimeter of the room until they were right beside the Cometskipper.

To the surprise of all three of them, Captain Suoki’s pug suddenly came scurrying over to his feet. The worried-looking wrinkles on the dog’s forehead reflected his owner’s concern.

“Froufrou?” Captain Suoki whispered in alarm as he scooped up his dog. “What are you doing here? How did you get out of the Quasar Queen?”

Fonith disengaged a single minor escape hatch of the Cometskipper, and the group entered her starship. “I want to evaluate our surroundings before we make a move,” she informed the men. They headed up to the ship’s bridge, and Fonith started entering information into her terminal.

Captain Suoki began to ask, “How do we get over to the…”

“The Quasar Queen!” Phentrom shouted. He was staring out the window at a team of mechanics who were in the middle of dismantling it.

“Godsdammit,” Captain Suoki growled. “That was such a nice ship.”

Phentrom was beside himself. “Our ship!”

“We need to go,” Fonith stated.

“How do we get Stawren and Lyoth?” Captain Suoki asked.

“Everything about coming here was wrong,” Fonith declared. “Now that we’re onboard the Cometskipper, we need to go. We can figure out how to get them when we’re somewhere safe. We’re not safe here.”

Phentrom looked over and said, “I agree with Fonith. Suoki, I don’t want to leave Stawren, and I certainly don’t want to leave Lyoth, but if anyone can figure out their own means of escape, it’s those two.” The mandroid then squinted at the front window, and he pointed. “There’s something out there. I don’t know what it is, but I can see a reflection out in that region of space.”

“It’s a starship,” Fonith said, pulling up a magnified image on the computer’s larger main display.

Captain Suoki gasped. “That’s a Thionese battleship!”

“We need to go, now,” Fonith said, and without awaiting a reply from either of the men, she disengaged her ship’s external security systems and powered on the engines. The Cometskipper blazed out of the hanger and curved through space away from the oncoming battleship.

“Go,” Phentrom said, “get us out of here.”

Fonith engaged the cavitation engine, and the Cometskipper was gone.

*

“The Cometskipper is gone,” Lyoth hissed under his breath to Stawren, “and the Quasar Queen has been destroyed!”

They were at the door to the hanger.

“Dammit, look,” she whispered, pointing across the docking bay, “there’s a security team coming in; let’s get behind these crates.” She turned her attention to the other ships, and she looked at Lyoth with an inspired expression on her face. “Shall we hijack one of these?”

He perked right up, “Brilliant!”

“Wait,” Stawren interjected, “that cargo shuttle is getting ready to launch. Why don’t we stow away and take it from whoever’s onboard.”

Lyoth nodded and said, “Lead the way.”

The shuttle’s bay door was closing, and the two of them snuck inside.

“Hey!” a guard yelled, but Lyoth’s knife was in his neck before another word left the man’s lips. With a few flicks of the weapon, the guard was dead.

“Thank you, Phentrom,” he whispered to the blade, wiping away the blood.

Stawren took a large blaster from the dead man, and Lyoth grabbed a hand-blaster and a collapsible bludgeon, and the warriors headed silently through the levels of the ship.

Two more guards were unlucky enough to be on duty, and they both also met their ends.

Outside the doors to the bridge, Lyoth used his knife to open a control panel, and he whispered, “I’ll kill the lights before we enter. Ready?”

“No blasters,” Stawren stated, “if we punch a hole in the hull, we’re done.”

Lyoth nodded and disconnected the wires.

The electronic doors snapped open and the room on the other side was dark. Several men were shouting in confusion. From the outside looking in, Lyoth and Stawren could see the exact positioning of the ship operators in the darkness. The two rushed in and there were a few screams. A single blaster bolt was fired, and then the room went silent.

“Godsdammit,” Lyoth growled, stepping up to the doorway and reactivating the lights. The crewmembers were dead.

“What happened?” Stawren asked. “That blaster bolt didn’t hit anything important. It looks like it just impacted against the door and did no serious damage.”

Lyoth turned to face her and rotated around so she could see his shoulder. The blast had grazed him and scorched his flesh.

“Oh gods!” Stawren blurted out.

“It’s not bad,” Lyoth reassured her. “It just hurts. Would you check if there’s a first aid kit in one of those cabinets under the pilot’s station? I’ll look in these over here.”

They were able to find a medical supply box and bandaged his arm. There were no painkillers.

Stawren took a roll of gauze and made him a makeshift sling.

“Look!” Lyoth said, nodding at one of the computer consuls behind Stawren. “The cavitation engine is counting down to jump the ship into hyperspace! Where are we about to go?”

19… 18… 17…

Stawren rushed to the controls. “Dammit, it’s a programmed sequence. We’re about to jump to who knows where!”

12… 11… 10…

“What’s that?!” Lyoth shouted in alarm, using his good arm and pointing out the window. “There are ships coming out of hyperspace!”

Before the cargo shuttle itself entered hyperspace with Lyoth and Stawren, the two of them witnessed an armada of warships arriving at the mercenaries’ asteroid base.

7… 6… 5…

Lyoth whispered, “It looks like they’re preparing for war.”

2… 1… Activate.