Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 12. Chapter 12 - Alliance

Phentrom and Quigley were staring at each other.

“What do you mean?” Quigley asked the mandroid quietly.

“I know the voice that called you, the one claiming to have your wife and daughter.”

The bounty hunter’s eyes flashed with rage. “How do you know who it was?! Who was it?”

“Please let me help you,” Phentrom continued. “I also want to live a peaceful life, and I also want to be with the ones I love.”

The fire in Quigley’s eyes dimmed, replaced by confusion. “Love?”

Phentrom gave Quigley a thoughtful look. “Do you know why you were hunting me? Do you know who I’m connected to? Did you know who you were taking me away from?”

Quigley did not know any of the answers. “The commanders of the starship End Vision hired me, gave me your exact location with a device to track you down within a matter of feet, and they informed me that you were malfunctioning and dangerous. It was the most straightforward hunt I’ve ever done. I didn’t need any of those other details.”

Phentrom slowly raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Can we talk?”

Quigley frowned at Phentrom, but he nodded for the mandroid to follow him out of the cell. The bounty hunter led Phentrom to the Burn Throne’s tiny mess hall and waved at a seat. Phentrom sat, and Quigley removed a large box from a cupboard. He placed it on the table, and for a moment, Phentrom thought Quigley was about to reveal horrible torture devices, but the inside was filled with foam lining cradling a pipe.

“As an android, are you able to smoke?” Quigley asked, placing two glasses of water on the tabletop.

Phentrom looked curious. “I’ve never tried it.”

Quigley filled the pipe’s bowl with a little dried floral plant matter, and he ignited the end of a wick with a hand torch. He brought the mouthpiece to his lips, brought the flame to the flower, and he inhaled. Smoke filled Quigley’s lungs, and he exhaled a swirling cloud above their heads. He coughed behind his hand, and he passed the pipe to Phentrom.

The mandroid repeated the action he had just witnessed, and although he exhaled a smaller cloud than the bounty hunter, he coughed more. Phentrom passed the pipe back to Quigley.

“The smoke makes the smoker more compassionate,” Quigley told Phentrom. “I want to understand.” He took a second hit from the pipe, breathed out another cloud, and added, “Aside from getting paid, and your malfunction, I don’t know why I was hunting you, and I don’t have any information about your connections.”

Phentrom cleared his throat and took a sip of water. “My A.I.P. has developed advanced parameters that have gone beyond my programmed firewall of protection, and I’ve evolved the capacity to fall in love.”

Quigley made another face of disbelief. “That’s absurd. If that’s all that is malfunctioning in you, what’re people afraid you’re gonna do, break someone’s heart?”

“I don’t know why my new A.I.P. systems are dangerous to others, but Lyoth accepts me the way I am and is willing to risk this supposed danger to be with me.”

“So, you’re in a relationship.”

Phentrom smiled. “I am.”

Quigley shrugged. “Weird, sorry, it just is. Okay, so tell me, who are these connections you have?”

“That’s who called you,” Phentrom replied, “she’s one of the people who I’ve been staying with, but I can’t believe they took your family. I’m shocked that they would do such a thing.”

“Maybe the people you’ve been with aren’t everything you thought they were,” Quigley replied, his voice turning cold. “Who was it? Who called me? Who stole my family?” He took another puff of smoke from the pipe.

“She’s another bounty hunter,” Phentrom stated, “a woman by the name of Fonith.”

Quigley’s eyes widened, but he frowned. “Fonith?” he repeated. “But this doesn’t make any sense.”

“It’s true; Fonith is who called you.”

“You’re not really talking about Madam Yxolium Bhanshu Fonith, are you?”

Phentrom nodded. “Yes, although we all just call her Fonith. I’ve been staying with her for a while now.”

“But why would she do this? Fonith is my sister in law!”

Phentrom was startled by the information. “She’s your wife’s sister?”

“She is,” Quigley confirmed.

Phentrom paused before saying, “Then your family was never in danger.”

“Why did she threaten them?!” Quigley suddenly raged. “How could she do this to me?”

“My beloved and I – well, mostly him – we helped overthrow the pirates in Boullia Bay, where Fonith lives. There was a rebel uprising and a bunch of the locals joined in, and we won! We kicked the pirates off the oasis planet.”

Quigley was very surprised by this revelation. “They’re really gone? Boullia Bay is free?”

“It is,” Phentrom confirmed.

Quigley considered the information. “My wife has wanted to move there to be closer to her sister, but I’ve always thought it would be a horrible place to raise our daughter.”

Phentrom smiled. “It’s changed so much, in a short period of time.”

Quigley inhaled another cloud of smoke from the pipe and released it above his head. He extended the smoking apparatus toward Phentrom. “Also, the planet actually has a name, although few people call it anything other than the oasis planet. Some of the locals call it Zigga.”

“Well, you should move to Zigga with your family!” Phentrom declared. He took the pipe. “Maybe the people I’m with can help you like they helped the residents of Boullia Bay; maybe they can help you get out of this life.” Phentrom took another small hit and coughed quite a lot. He handed the pipe back to Quigley.

The bounty hunter cleaned out its bowl and admitted, “I was distracted earlier, sorry. What was the name of your lover again?” He returned the pipe to its nest of foam within the metal case.

“Lyoth,” Phentrom reminded him.

Quigley scrunched up his face. “I know that name.”

Phentrom nodded knowingly. “He’s done a lot for people around the universe. I could only begin to tell you his exploits, but he was recently first mate on a prototype city vessel called the Ulaa-Lah, and before that he was a Guild of Houses agent.”

Quigley held up a hand. “Wait, wait, you don’t mean Lyoth Sunknife, do you? Lyoth Silverblade? Lyoth, the Sword in the Dark?”

Phentrom did not know how to reply. “I’ve never heard him called any of those names.”

Quigley was taken back in his memories. “I was only a child,” he said in a voice of wonder, “when the Guild of Houses agents arrived in Weilif. It’s the city where I was born, on the planet Piliothin. Lyoth was a young man then.” Quigley eyed Phentrom. “He was probably about your age at the time. What are you… 20?”

“I’m over 50 years old.”

Quigley was startled. “You’re over 50?!”

Phentrom nodded with a smile.

“Anyway,” Quigley continued, “Lyoth went on a solo stealth mission once the Guild agents had destabilized the military. He snuck into the base and assassinated the general. Oh my gods, I forgot; we named a street after him! There’s a Lyoth Boulevard in Weilif, but I got so used to the name, I’d totally forgotten who he was.”

A thought had been nagging Phentrom, and he asked, “How did you manage to track me for the people who hired you?”

“The End Vision commanders gave me a honing device.” Quigley rose from the table, opened his bag, and removed a large handheld contraption. The words Dokschin Collective were printed on its side.

Phentrom was confused. “That’s the company who built me! But the planet Acsterona, where they’re located, doesn’t have any warships.”

“I’d never heard of the Dokschin Collective before getting this device, and I’ve never heard of planet Acsterona,” Quigley replied.

Phentrom did not like the details he was compiling. “There’s something in me that’s trackable? How do I get it out?” He locked eyes with Quigley. “I’ve been hunted since I left the Ulaa-Lah. I want peace, love, and family, just like you do.”

“But why?” Quigley asked. “Why would a synthetic want any of those things?”

Phentrom grinned and blushed. “I’m in love with Lyoth, and he’s in love with me. Before we left the Ulaa-Lah, the captain of the ship told me he thought I was evolving into a human, or something close to one. I do,” Phentrom continued, “I do want love for myself. I do want a relationship and a connection to other living beings. If you didn’t know I was a synthetic, could you have been able to tell?”

Quigley stared at the mandroid, and he shook his head. “You look like a human. All I knew was your designation, 5NTRØM; I knew nothing else about you. Well, except for your location,” he added, holding up the tracker.

“The name I go by is Phentrom, but I have not learned yours yet.”

Quigley sighed. “It’s Quigley.”

“Thank you for not hurting me, Quigley.”

The bounty hunter rose from the table again and stowed the box with the pipe. “Are you hungry? I don’t have much, ration kits and a few cans of stew.”

Phentrom perked up. “Yes, please, I’d love something.”

Quigley placed the few options in front of Phentrom. “I barely know my wife’s sister. She was at our wedding, and Finnow has visited Fonith in Boullia Bay with Riah several times over the past few years, but each time I was unavailable and they made the trips without me.”

Phentrom tore open a ration pack Quigley handed him, and he picked up one of the protein sticks. “We need to reconnect with them.” He took a bite of the bland foodstuff.

“I’m supposed to bring you to one of the Hope hospital ships, then Fonith is supposed to give me back my family.”

Phentrom swallowed his bite of food and added, “Fonith’s ship and her communicator are both impossible to reach unless she’s granted you access in advance. Maybe we should go to the medical ship and have her reach out to us.”

Quigley got an idea. “Why don’t we go to Zigga?”

“The oasis planet?”

“Yeah,” Quigley confirmed, “since now I know my family isn’t actually in danger, why don’t we head to Boullia Bay and wait for Fonith to reach out to us there? Come to think of it, she might already be there with my wife and daughter.” He punched in the details of the planet Zigga in the 27th quadrant positioning 8.4-Zed-11.2 of the lesser sector, and the Burn Throne rocketed into hyperspace.