Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 25. Chapter 25 - Jitha

“It’s not much,” Lyoth said to Stawren, “but this is my home planet.”

The Galaxy Surfer was in orbit above an almost entirely green sphere.

“See the one big lake?” Lyoth asked. He continued without awaiting her reply. “It’s called Lake Iggatio. It’s the largest body of water on Jitha. Oh, and you can see the ice cap; it’s on the southern pole, which means it’s summer up north where I’m from.”

The monitor in front of Stawren beeped. “The ship is picking up the two cities you mentioned, but I can’t see them.” She was looking out the Galaxy Surfer’s windows.

“Again, the cities don’t have much to offer. They’re just spaceports really.”

Stawren turned to Lyoth. “Is one of them where we should go? The Galaxy Surfer is small enough that it shouldn’t need any sort of advanced landing platform, so we could go wherever makes the most sense. Where do we find the granitewood?”

“The trees grew everywhere, and my people essentially quarry the stone-like material from ancient deposits that used to be forests.” He pointed out the ship’s window. “Togoa is below us and Carthal is on the other side of the planet. As the villages were established, they were simply named after the city that spawned them, and each was given a number. I was born in the 87^th village that was part of the communities stretching into the forest from Togoa.”

Stawren sighed. “And no gold was ever found, huh? Too bad.”

“No, no gold was ever found,” Lyoth replied with a chuckle. “But to answer your question, I don’t think we should go to either of the spaceports, and instead we should land near one of the old granitewood deposits farther from the established communities. The ancient stores of stone are lowest in regions with denser populations. Most of Jitha’s villages are close to Togoa and Carthal, but the deeper we go into the forests, the more unused granitewood we’ll be able to find.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Stawren initiated the Galaxy Surfer’s landing sequence to a destination the computer found, far from the two cities. The region was a bare clearing adjacent to a small lake. The ship began its approach.

A ringing chime alerted the warriors that someone was hailing them.

“I bet that’s my aunt Thia again,” Stawren stated, and she answered the call. “Fonith?!” Stawren cried when she saw the bounty hunter’s face on the other end of the connection. She looked disheveled and exhausted.

“Lyoth, Stawren,” Fonith replied weakly, “I’m with Phentrom.”

Every fiber of Lyoth’s being focused in on her words, and he whispered, “He’s alright?”

“Yes,” Phentrom’s voice added over the Galaxy Surfer’s speakers, “I’m alright.” His face appeared on the screen and Lyoth’s heart jumped in his chest. “Phentrom, I was so worried about you.”

Phentrom smiled and said, “We’ve been through a lot.” He looked at Fonith, and she continued.

“Where are you two? Can you join us? Phentrom and I aren’t sure what happened to the others. We were with my sister, her husband, and their daughter, and also Suoki and Golvinte. They intended to escape on a separate ship, but we haven’t heard from them yet.”

“Escape?” Lyoth squawked. “What happened?!”

Phentrom looked sheepish. “I was captured by a bounty hunter. A man named Quigley.”

Fonith and Phentrom took turns telling parts of what each of them had gone through, and Lyoth and Stawren did their best not to interrupt.

When Phentrom mentioned the part of the story where he shot someone, Lyoth could not stop himself. “You killed a guard? I’m impressed.” He then added in a gentle voice, “I’m sorry you had to do that; I know you don’t like violence. I’m glad you’re okay. Are you okay?”

Phentrom nodded. “Quigley and I needed to save everyone. We did what we had to do.”

Stawren also interrupted when Fonith got to the point where she was being subjected to the compliance therapy.

“That’s a fancy name for torture,” Stawren growled.

Fonith exhaled a shaky breath and simply said, “Yeah.”

Phentrom finished the tale by explaining that he and Fonith managed to get onto the Cometskipper with the assistance of Golvinte sniping down into the hangar from a higher level of the ship.

“We were lucky to have him with us,” Fonith added. She then asked again, “So where are you?”

“We’re making our descent onto my home planet, Jitha, way out in the outer rim,” Lyoth replied. “There’s a material here that we need to collect.”

Fonith was intrigued. “What do you mean? What do you need to collect?”

“Granitewood,” Lyoth answered, “a type of stone-tree that used to grow on my planet.”

“Why are you getting it? What’s it for?”

Stawren spoke up, “Fonith, you must have been in touch with my aunt Thia. Did she fill you in on where we’ve been?”

“We were just talking to her right before we called you,” Phentrom replied, “but she didn’t tell us much.”

Lyoth and Stawren took the next few minutes to tell Phentrom and Fonith where they had been and all they had learned.

“The granitewood is the third item we need to get,” Lyoth stated. “We’re headed down to the planet now.”

“Lyoth, how soon can you join us?” Phentrom asked, but he did not get an answer.

A beeping on the Cometskipper indicated Fonith’s ship was being hailed.

“It’s Quigley,” she informed Lyoth and Stawren. “I’ll patch it through to your ship as well.” She answered the call.

Captain Suoki’s face appeared on the screen.

“Suoki!” Phentrom and Lyoth cried out in unison on the separate ships, and the mandroid added, “You made it!”

The captain’s face was full of sadness. “Golvinte was killed.”

“What?” Stawren squawked.

“He provided our means of escape,” Captain Suoki explained, “but he didn’t make it.”

The others were shocked and no one spoke for a few seconds.

Phentrom eventually asked, “Golvinte is dead?”

“He is.”

“What about my sister and niece?” Fonith added.

“We’re here,” Finnow’s voice called from off-screen. “When your ship was taken, we were found in the safe room and brought to the prison.”

Captain Suoki continued. “The rest of us are on a unique ship headed back to its dock. We’re fine; we only lost Golvinte.”

There was another silent moment between the three ships.

“Dammit,” Fonith growled, “he was a good bounty hunter.”

“And a friend,” Phentrom added.

Lyoth spoke up, “Captain, do you remember our eighth location?”

“I do,” Captain Suoki answered without hesitation.

“Stawren and I have just arrived at Jitha.”

“Your home planet?” Captain Suoki replied in surprise. “What do you need from way out there?”

“There is a material that’s common on Jitha, and we need to collect some for a group of scientists. They require some specific items in order to build a deep space scanning computer to help us try to locate the Ulaa-Lah. We’ll meet up with Fonith and Phentrom first, and then connect with you at the eighth.”

“Aye-aye,” Captain Suoki replied. “We are less than an hour from our destination. We’ll be leaving the Stealth Witch behind, and we’ll take Quigley’s ship to Boullia Bay. I’ll get a vehicle there to bring me to you.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Lyoth replied. “And that’s a good name, Stealth Witch,” he repeated.

“We’ll see you soon,” Captain Suoki concluded, and he disconnected.

“Stawren, Lyoth, can you still hear me?” Fonith asked.

“Loud and clear,” Stawren replied.

“I’m all messed up from the torture,” Fonith stated. “Let me know when you two are done getting whatever you’re getting, and we can all reconnect.”

“You got it,” Stawren said, and the call ended.

“The Galaxy Surfer’s descent is almost complete,” Lyoth commented, as the ship approached the tops of the forest’s trees. He pointed out the window again. “There’s the clearing.”

They landed.

“Welcome to Jitha,” Lyoth said to Stawren with a smile.

The computer indicated they were between the farthest villages that spider-webbed out from the two separate spaceports of Togoa and Carthal.

“There ought to be plenty of granitewood,” Lyoth informed Stawren, “and we shouldn’t come across anyone this far out.”

The two of them headed to the Galaxy Surfer’s airlock and opened its exterior hatch. To their surprise, quite a diverse group of people was waiting outside the ship.

“Welcome to the Entry of Ecstasy,” declared a large woman in a headdress of flowers. She stretched her arms out toward the others with her. “These are the Children, and you can call me Mama.”