Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 67. Chapter 67 - The Computer

Fonith and Lyoth were discussing the Cometskipper. Phentrom, Stawren, and Captain Suoki were with them. Ilial and his scientific team were in their lab beginning the construction of the scanning computer.

“Why don’t we just have them install it in my ship?” Fonith recommended.

“But that’ll require us to use the Cometskipper in the search for the Ulaa-Lah,” Lyoth replied. “I don’t want you to be held to that obligation, and I have no idea how long it’s going to take us to find the ship. Your sister and family have just moved to Boullia Bay to be near you; I don’t want to keep you from them.”

Fonith took a deep breath and said in a voice full of gratitude, “My sister Finnow and her husband Quigley are with their daughter Riah. They are temporarily living on his ship, the Burn Throne, and there’s no rush for them to get settled in a house. They’re good. Also, this is just the beginning of their life in Boullia Bay; I have plenty of time to be with them. They’re home, and now I want to help you bring your friends home too.”

Lyoth stepped up and wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you, Fonith.”

For the following two days, the group rested, enjoying food at the eatery and chatting with many of the people who inhabited the hidden planetary system. They saw Ilial several times, but based on his descriptions of the work on the deep space scanning computer, none of them was able to gauge how far along the scientists were in their development of the advanced device. The third day came with no sign of Ilial until late in the evening, and when the exuberant man showed up, he was very excited.

“It’s complete!” Ilial’s hair was a little disheveled, and he had misbuttoned the pink satin jacket he was wearing. “Come see!” He led Stawren, Lyoth, Phentrom, Captain Suoki, and Fonith to the laboratory. Ilial focused on a clean workbench with a smooth black cube sitting on it. Each side of the cube was about twelve inches. “We call it the Xecot drive, named after this planet.” Ilial held up a remote control with a single button, and he pressed it.

The opaque box’s sides became clear, and the interior was revealed. A sphere of rigid netting encircled an equilateral gemstone that began to illuminate from within. The open-mesh ball started rotating around the light, and it changed color, shifting across the spectrum from red to yellow to blue. Beside the device, a monitor blinked to life, and a detailed readout of the quadrants of space surrounding the Aergoroth Nebula appeared on the screen.

“Fantastic,” Stawren exclaimed, “and it’s beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Ilial replied with a gracious bow.

“I mean,” Stawren added, “it’s also gross, knowing some of it is godstroll blood.”

Ilial laughed, and he continued. “The Xecot drive’s system can only be activated while your ship is stationary in space. It won’t be able to pick up new information while moving. You’ll have to travel to the edge of the known universe, stop the ship, and then perform the scan.”

“We can handle that,” Fonith stated. “Put it in the Cometskipper.” She nodded to Lyoth.

“Will do,” Ilial replied. He sealed the cube inside a special carrying case. “It won’t take long to install.”

While the scanning computer was integrated with the Cometskipper’s systems, the ship’s shields were also upgraded with another enhancement to deal with the gas and dust of the nebula, and the travelers said their goodbyes to the scientists.

“Ilial, you have been a most gracious host for our brief stay,” Captain Suoki declared, wrapping the fellow in an affectionate embrace.

“It’s been my pleasure!” Ilial responded warmly.

Many more hugs were shared between Fonith, Phentrom, Lytoh, Stawren, Captain Suoiki, and the new friends they had made in their short time in the nebula.

Fonith’s starship left the hidden planetary system, and once beyond the cloud, she entered a command into her navigational computer for the cavitation engine to take them to the edge of the ship’s universal star map.

“Twenty-nine long hours,” she informed the others.

Captain Suoki cooked them all a meal, and everyone got some rest over the following day before the Cometskipper reached the boundary of information its map contained and automatically dropped out of hyperspace. Fonith punched in a command for her ship to remain still in space, and she pressed the button on the remote control that activated the new scanning computer.

Her map began to expand, and the group watched in silence for almost two minutes as the Xecot drive flashed and spun. Then the computer beeped, and Fonith’s ship was able to enter hyperspace beyond the borders of the known universe.

“There’s no alert of the Ulaa-Lah yet,” Captain Suoki stated.

“No, but the computer is supposedly running a secondary scan,” Lyoth replied, “specifically looking for the Ulaa-Lah’s unique signature. I think it’s programmed to let us know if it picks up anything similar to the ship.”

Captain Suoki looked determined. “We’re going to find it. We’re going to save Thrad and all the men of the harem. We’re even going to save mutinous Penqui and whoever among his rabble were not loyal to me.” The big fellow sighed. “I miss the harem.”

Lyoth chuckled and Phentrom let out a giggle.

The Cometskipper spent another thirty-seven hours traveling through the void before it reached the edge of the newly scanned space. Captain Suoki cooked them more meals, and they all got more rest, but there was still no sign of the Ulaa-Lah. Three more times over the following five days, the Cometskipper stopped to scan farther reaches of uncharted space, and the map continued to expand.

“How long’s this gonna take?” Stawren eventually asked.

Fonith sighed and pulled up a small three-dimensional map of the universe. It appeared as a fairly round disc with a bulge at the center. “It’s difficult to visualize,” Fonith began to explain, “but the space outside the borders of the universe as we know it is vast, possibly even infinite.” She brought her hand to the edge of the digital map. “The last time some crazy pilots went on the journey to circumnavigate the universe, it took them more than thirty-two years to make the loop. The mapped space we think of as the universe is enormous, but the area that exists beyond our space…” Fonith’s voice faded with the unfathomable nature of the universe. “We could scan the outer-universe forever and probably not map it all. Besides, we’ll eventually need to head back and recharge my cavitation engine and restock my ship. There are no charging stations or supply depots beyond the outer rim, and only a few of them in the deepest regions of mapped space.”

“How often do you need to recharge the Cometskipper?” Stawren asked.

“Every few months, and I’ve had her charged recently, so she’s good to go.”

“But Fonith’s right about the supplies,” Captain Suoki added. “We’re starting to get low on a few main ingredients in the kitchen.”

For the next four days, the Cometskipper continued the tedious task of scanning uncharted sections of space. It proceeded to fly through each new sector all the way to the far edge, and it then scanned the next region before further proceeding.

Stawren’s leg continued to heal, and she was able to remain off it and rest for much of that week and a half of the preliminary scanning.

Lyoth and Phentrom finally got to enjoy some peaceful time together.

Captain Suoki prepared meals for the travelers, and Fonith spent many of her free hours with the big man, pouring over the details that the scanning Xecot drive computer received. It provided notes about many galaxies with species at various stages of their technological advancement. There were also completely uninhabited planets that contained breathable atmospheres and might someday be homes to sentient life.

It was on the evening of the eleventh day that the five aboard the Cometskipper were surprised by an alarm. The ship was floating motionless at the edge of another scanned region, and the advanced Xecot drive computer was mapping the next quadrant of space, when the ship’s speakers began to play a partial message.

“Alert! Alert! Al…”

The speakers died.

“What is that?” Stawren asked.

“It’s some sort of transmission,” Fonith replied, “but the signal is all garbled.”

Then words crackled over the speakers which excited all of them.

“This…” static interrupted, “…arship Ulaa-Lah.”