BLAST OFF!

Part 2

By Mark J. DeGregorio, a.k.a.- Lucky

In the middle of an asteroid field, a small Phoebus class ship approached one of the larger asteroids on its finial approach. It transmitted, “Freighter to Control, please come in.”

Ja’phsoon was on duty at the time, responded, “We have you on screen now; please identify yourself.”

The voice on his headset replied, “This is the Freighter Titus, requesting permission to land; over.”

“Freighter Titus, transmit the clearance code for entry.”

Moments later, the cargo ship emitted the code consisting of a series of high-frequency transmission noises. Afterwards, the captain of the freighter replied, “Transmitting complete.”

Ja’phsoon smiled and said, “Welcome home Captain Krangle, proceed to Landing Bay Twelve.”

Aboard the Titus, Alan gloated, “Shit, that was easy.”

Stephanie turned to Alan and said, “A little too easy.”

As she piloted the ship towards bay twelve, they looked out and saw a lustrous starship with a plasmatic ionic cannon. The ship was at least eight thousand meters in length. “That thing’s huge.” Alan whispered.

Nonie stretched her neck into the flight deck, “What’s huge?” She stared at the monstrous battleship and asked, “Is that the weapon the pirates built?”

“Gee, I’m guessing that the answer to you question is YES!” Stephanie snapped.

“Dam,” Alan whined, “that thing is eight times bigger than the Terisen.”

The Titus made her final approach, entered the tractor beam, and began to dock into the pirate’s base, which happens to be the battleship. When the ship came to a rest, they looked each other over and exited the ship.

Two pirates approached them to welcome them back. Nonie smiled and said, “Arg, avast ye swabbies… Tis good to be oggin! Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of Rum!”

The two pirates looked at each other, then at Captain Krangle. Alan quickly thought a moment, then said, “Don’t mind her, she was hit on the head during our trip here.”

He then pointed to the side of his head and made a circling motion with his finger. The two pirates nodded their heads and said, “Aye, that would explain a lot. Better take her to see the doc.”

“Maybe he could do a brain transplant, you know an upgrade to a higher level,” Patricia joked, “got any monkey brains laying around.”

Alan looked at Tyler and said, “Recruit, take her to the doc.”

“Better get someone to show her where it’s at.” Stephanie interrupted.

The two pirates looked at her then the one on the left side asked, “Why is she countermining your orders?”

“Because, I’m his second-in-command and his muscle,” she growled, “If you have a problem…”

Alan promptly grabbed her by the arm and said, “Whoa there, we mustn’t act this way here.” He then turned to the two before his, “That’s why I keep her around, she’s a killer alright.”

The pirate on the right held up a com-link and called for a guild to show Tyler where to doctor’s office was. Moments later, a gold droid moved towards them and said, “Hello, I am Beohbe service droid. I understand you wish to go to the infirmary.”

It stood about five and a half feet tall and was humanoid shaped. Its head was bucket-like with a hinged jaw, which moved when it spoke. From the voice, it sounded male, but its movements were not quiet male making its gender very questionable. Aside from the gold plaiting, he also had black rubbery trimming, two round blue eyes, and a control panel on his chest.

“Beohbe?” Tyler muttered.

“We’ll call him… BOB!” Nonie suggested.

Beohbe injected, “My word…”

“...Is, move it!” Tyler ordered and he led Tyler and Nonie to the infirmary.

After the three left, Alan, posing as Captain Krangle, Stephanie and Mike followed the two pirates to the command center of this enormous battle station of a ship. Patricia was left behind to watch the ship.

* * * * * * *

On the Terisen, James had her pull back from her current position so they would not be detected by the pirates. James sat in his office when Penny came to the door. It slid open and she knocked on the doorframe. James glanced up to see his wife standing in the doorway. “James, are you alright?”

“I never dreamed I would be back here again.” He said, “Things were tough on Earth at first, many times I wanted to get back into space.”

He got up and moved to Penny, “Then I met you, and my life on Earth finally meant something.”

“Don’t worry,” Penny reassured him, “I’m here with you, and the others will be safe, as long as they stick to your plan.”

“I’m not going to lie to you but,” he said, “this is a fight that I had dreaded. We might not come out of this alive. I never wanted to put you in this much danger.”

“Well, I am here and if we have to die, I can’t think of anyone else I would rather die with then you.”

James embraced her in his arms, pulling her in closer. He brought his lips closer to hers. Penny didn’t resist his advancement to her. The two were about to embrace into a kiss, then…

“Captain, You’re needed on the bridge.”

James looked at the view screen, saw Terisen, and shouted, “Not now Terisen!”

“Captain, a pirate ship is entering this sector.”

James signed, “On my way.”

He exited his office followed by Penny. They entered the bridge “Terisen, what cover is available to us?” Captain Wayland asked.

The holographic image of Terisen appeared and announced, “There is the Orcampbuis Nebula at point one, one, six.”

“How long to get there?”

Holographic A.I. answered, “One minute, thirty-two seconds.”

“Get us there faster than that.” He ordered.

“What good is it to hide in a nebula?” Penny asked.

James turned to her and answered, “Because all that static discharge in a nebula will block out their sensors, they will not be able to detect us there.”

Terisen began to move towards the nebula, knowing full well, that all her sensors would become off-line; she wouldn’t have navigation, tactical, and couldn’t lock her weapons on a target. If they were going to get out of the nebula, Captain Wayland would have to pilot her out himself. She did have confidents in her Captain’s ability to do it, but it has been over twenty years since he has done anything like this. They entered the Orcampbuis Nebula in one minute, twelve seconds. Another six seconds passed and the pirate ship entered the sector without detecting them.

If James or the Terisen had visual capability, they would have seen that the pirate ship was the fearsome Kraken’s Storm. Only thing more terrifying than it was Captain Rudnik. He was the most feared, and sought after pirate in the known galaxy.

The Kraken’s Strom was a long, rocket-like ship that looked like something from Sci-Fi’s golden-age Flash Gordon series. One thing, which made this ship different, was that the front was built as if an octopus was placed on the front with its tentacles spread outwards. This was used to ram into ships and lock onto them for raids. Captain Rudnik piloted his ship onto the asteroid field, to assemble with the other pirates.

* * * * * * *

I don’t know why I had to stay with the ship, Patricia thought, who’s going to steal it here? She sat in the entry ramp of the ship. Patricia was still upset that Nonie was able to go and explore the base ship and she had to stay with the ship.

Patricia lay back onto the ramp, crossed her legs, and tried to get comfortable. Crossing her arms, she closed her eyes and attempted to take a nap.

“You’re new here, aren’t you?”

Patricia opened her eyes, only to see a tall young pirate staring down at her. “Are you one of Captain Krangle’s new recruits?”

He looked about six feet tall with dark hair, and a lead, toned build. Patricia sat up and looked him over good and said, “Ah, yeah. I’m just here to watch the ship.”

“What, do you think someone going to steal it?” He asked, “Who’s going to steal it here?”

Patricia got up from the ramp and retorted, “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”

If it weren’t for his golden eyes, he would appear as a normal human. Patricia coyly smiled, “I’m not suppose to talk to strangers.”

The young pirate smiled, “Well, then we can’t have that now can we, I’m Primeevil, now I’m not a stranger anymore.”

As he lead her away, he said, “Come on, there’s some things I’d like to show you.”

As Patricia and Primeevil departed the hanger deck, a small creature scurried across the hanger deck and scrambled into Titus.

* * * * * * *

The golden droid stopped at the doctor’s office with Nonie and Tyler. “Yoo-hoo, oh doctor Kelko.” BOB called.

As Dr. Xon Kelko turned to face them, both girls were disturbed at the appearance of the doctor. He had yellow protruding eyes set at the sides of his head, reddish-purple blotted skin, and three crests on his head. All of this was secondary to the fact that he had four arms attached to his torso.

“What’s the medical emergency this time?” He sighed.

BOB pointed at Nonie and said, “This one bopped herself on the head.”

“Alright,” Kelko sighed, “place her on the exam table, and have the other wait outside. I don’t want her looking over my shoulder while I work.”

Like I’m going to get anywhere near you, Tyler thought as she left the doctor’s office, follow by BOB. She walked through the waiting room and sat down next to a young woman with aqua color hair. She was dressed in ragged clothes and was guarded by two pirates with their laser pistols out.

Tyler turned to BOB and asked, “What’s with her?”

“Oh, she was pick-up during a raid on Talious three; she’s probably going to see Dr. Xon Kelko to have her brain washed.”

If Patricia were here, Tyler thought with a smile, she would probably say something like; Nonie would have to have a brain for them to wash.

Inside the examination room, Nonie was laying on the table while Dr. Kelko examine her using autodoc’s fluorescent scope to scan her head. Nonie turned her head and asked, “So what are you anyway?”

“Frustrated,” Xon snapped, “will you stopped moving you stupid head while I try to see what’s wrong with it?”

He tried again and again Nonie turned her head and asked, “Why do you only have three fingers on each of your hands?”

At this time, Dr. Xon Kelko became infuriated, “Why do you have big pointed ears!”

“Well, you’re the doctor,” Nonie smiled, “you tell me.”

“Look, if you don’t stop moving your brainless head,” he yelled, “I’m going to put it into a vice and squeeze it flat!”

“That be nothing new to me.”

“Oh, I give up!” Xon dropped all four of his arms and gripped, “Ever since you pirates captured me and forced me to heal you ungrateful vagabonds, you’ve been making my life here a living hell!”

Nonie sat up and said, “I’m not a pirate; I’m here to stop them. I’m with the Amalgamation.”

Dr. Kelko popped his head up and begged, “The Amalgamation, take me with you! Get me the hell out of here!”

Nonie blinked a couple of times, and then asked, “So, why don’t you just run away from here?”

Doctor Kelko pointed with his left bottom hand at a collar around his neck and snapped, “Because of this blasted thing! If I leave here, it sends an electrical charge, which I HATE!”

“So, get the key.”

Xon scowled at the dim-witted girl and said, “Commodore Saran has the key and he’s not going to give it to me.”

To Dr. Kelko’s surprise, Nonie stretched her neck closer to look at the collar. After studying the lock for a moment, she held up her hand, pointing her index finger up it began to change its shape into a key. Nonie inserted her keyed finger into the lock and began to jiggle the locks tumblers. She winced her left eye and poked out her tongue as if it would help her to open the lock. After playing with the lock for a few moments, she felt and heard a click and the collar popped open.

“There,” Nonie smiled, “collar is off. Now you can run away from here.”

“I need a transport to get away from here.”

Nonie stretched a large grin and said, “You can come with us! There’s plenty of room with us!”

* * * * * * *

A shadow fighter emerged from hyperspace. It made the jump to congregate with the Amalgamation. It flew to Star Base A71593 and requested permission to land. As soon as the shadow fighter came to a stop in the base’s hanger, the commander of the base made his way the fighter.

The commander was genially surprised when he saw who the pilot was, “Beaker, Professor Flem Beaker? It’s been over twenty years. “We thought you and the Terisen were destroyed.”

“No, we’ve been on Earth all this time.” He responded, and then he and the commander went to the command center.

Five minutes later, Beaker was standing before the commander, all of the ship captains of the fleet, the admiral, and even the president of the Amalgamation explaining the Terisen’s situation.

“…And then we found ourselves in the Orcampbuis System where we discovered the pirate’s base. We sent two thirds of our crew to infiltrate their base and find out how to destroy their new weapon. Captain Wayland sent me here to inform you of what was going to happen with the pirates.”

The admiral stood and said, “You can count of the fleet for support.”

“Thank you admiral,” Beaker responded, “if the data form the Terisen’s archive of Norseids’ weapon the pirates stolen is accurate, we could be faced with the most powerful weapon the Amalgamation has ever witnessed.”

Beaker turned to the president and waited for his response. All held their breaths to what seemed to be a lifetime, then the president of the Amalgamation stood.

He turned to face the counsels and declared, “If the pirates have such a weapon, then I suggest we send the fleet to the Orcampbuis System, meet with the Terisen, and await to see if the pirates really do have such a weapon in their possession. Now I absolutely do not want anyone to start an unnecessary war, so we first must make sure they do have the weapon before we strike.”

The commander turned to the captains and ordered, “Alright, get you ships ready for deployment, we leave in two hours.”

Then everyone broke from the meeting. I only hope two hours will not be too late to save the others, Beaker thought.

* * * * * * *

Alan, Stephanie, and Mike entered the turbo lift with the two pirates. They were on their way to meet with Commodore Saran. All the pirate captains were called to meet with him for a discussion on their attack on the Amalgamation. The elevator stopped at the command center of the base ship, Perpetrator. After it was built, Saran made it his flagship.

The pirates lead the three out of the lift and one called, “Commodore, Captain Krangle is here now.”

Alan looked out through the sea of strange creatures, which filled the room before him. One stood out within the crowd, Commodore Saran. A floating enormous head turned to face them. His face had one huge yellow eye, and a mouth with sharp jagged teeth. Saran also had two more eyestalks emerging from the temples of his forehead. There were also four clawed stems, and four more tentacles branching from his head.

Oh, shit, he’s a Beholder like in that dungeon game, he thought, except fore the eyes. Saran had a scar running down his face from below his primary eye to the left side of his mouth. Of coarse, the pirate hat sitting atop of his head looked a little silly.

As the Commodore approached, he smiled, “Good, now we’re just waiting for Captain Rudnik to arrive.”

A small green alien swab jumped before his Commodore, popped a hard salute and barked, “Sir! Captain Rudnik has just arrived!”

Saran gave a nerve-racking smile as he said, “Good, as soon as he gets here, we can get started.”

* * * * * * *

Primeevil lead Patricia to a vault where the pirates kept all their high-tech loot. The room was filled with enough to open an electronics store. Alan would go nuts in here, Patricia thought. She and Primeevil entered the compartment and looked around. Patricia noticed a blaster looking thing, “What’s this?”

Primeevil shifted his golden eyes to see what she refer to, replied, “That would be a Transmorpher.”

“A Transmorpher?” Patricia inquired, “How does it work?”

He picked up the device and said, “You picture something in your head, point it at something, then pull the trigger.”

“Is the transformation permanent?”

“It remains that way until you change it back with a Transmorpher.” He answered.

As Primeevil lead her to another area, she turned back towards the Transmorpher. I can think of so many funny things I could do to Nonie with that thing, she thought.

Primeevil decided to make his move on Patricia. He led her closer to him and embraced her. As the two locked into a kiss, Patricia stretched her arm back over to the Transmorpher, snatched it, and brought it back towards her. She then pushed it against her right thigh and enveloped it into her leg.

* * * * * * *

The turbo lift’s doors opened and Captain Rudnik and his first mate stepped out. As they approached, Alan’s eyes popped wide opened at their sight. Jocko, Rudnik’s first mate, was a Rhinoid. Alan remembered hearing about Rhinoids from when James and Beaker told them about their arrival on Earth. Somehow, seeing one in person was a bit more frightening. He stood around nine feet in height and probably weighed as much as Juan Tun.

Rudnik, on the other hand, was a bit larger then Alan. He was a stocky, but muscular build. His skin was scaly blue with mottled purple patches around his nose, mouth, and the front of his neck. When he got ten feet from Alan, he smiled and said, “Captain Krangle! I haven’t seen you since the raid on Ghamius Four!”

He reached both arms, grabbed Alan, and constricted him into a bear hug. Alan felt as if his eyes were going to pop out of his head. When Alan pulled back, Rudnik gave his a big smile. His teeth were jagged and pointy much like a sharks.

Then he got a whiff of his breath and thought, somebody should offered this guy a Tic Tak, but don’t think he would know what that is.

“Ah, shouldn’t we listen to the Commodore?” Alan said, diverting Rudnik’s attention off him.

“Yes,” the reptilian captain replied, “Let’s take our places so we can hear the Commodore.”

Stephanie couldn’t help smiling at seeing her brother be mauled by the pirate captain. It, after all, was a suitable punishment for getting her launched into space. She waved her hand to Alan and said, “Come on Captain Krangle, mustn’t be late.”

“I hope your enjoying yourself Steph…” Alan’s whispered was interrupted when the Commodore floated to the platform, calling everyone attention.

The brow over his primary eye pulled down as he started to speak.

“Captains and mates, when we acquired the plans for this ship’s ion cannon, we spent a little more then twenty years to build this flagship to house this marvelous weapon. Now that we have the gathered the entire pirate fleet here, we can launch our attack on the Amalgamation, then the galaxy.”

The pirates started to cheer, then Saran continued, “This asteroid field gave us cover for our operations, but now we will not have to hide anymore… We have the Perpetrator, the ultimate weapon in the galaxy!”

Again, the pirates cheered, then Saran finished, “So, get your ships ready, we sail in one hour.”

One hour, Alan thought, how are we going to stop them in one hours time.

* * * * * * *

Dr Kelko called Tyler into the examination room. As she got up to enter the room, BOB followed her in. As BOB entered the room, Nonie quickly closed to door behind him. Before BOB could react, Dr Kelko deactivates him.

“What’s going on?” Tyler queried.

“We’re escaping!” Nonie gleefully stated.

Dr. Kelko popped the back panel of BOB and proceeded to reprogram him over to their side as Tyler interrogated, “And, what about our plan to stop the pirates?”

“We can do both…” Nonie said, “I have a plan.”

This girl has a plan, Tyler thought, she isn’t smart enough to have a good plan, and then reluctantly asked, “Okay, what’s your plan?”

“We disguise the doctor as a pirate and sneak him back to the ship.”

“And what about the two guards sitting outside?” Tyler interrupted, “Don’t you think they would notice the doctor?”

Nonie energetically smiled, “Then we first take out the guards, then sneak the doctor out.”

Tyler uncertainty asked, “And how do we do that?”

Striking a pose, Nonie shouted, “Don’t worry, I’m a superhero, Elasticity!”

As Nonie’s clothes shifted into her Elasticity costume, Dr. Kelko finished his reprogramming of BOB. Elasticity flattened herself and stretched up to the ceiling. The doctor re-activated BOB and told him to get his next patient. When BOB called for the young woman to come in, the two guards followed her in.

Elasticity dropped herself over both guards, engulfing them in her body. She then proceeded to wrap herself around them to hold them in place while the doctor injected them with a hypodermic. “This should keep them out for a good five hours.” Kelko gloated.

“What about her?” Tyler asked.

Elasticity unwrapped herself form the guards, stretched her neck over to the blue haired woman and said, “If she wants to escape too, she can come with us.”

As soon as they disguised Dr. Kelko and the woman in the guards clothes, they slipped out the medical bay.

* * * * * * *

Still posing as Captain Krangle, Alan and Captain Rudnik walked down a corridor followed by Jocko. They were ordered to retrieve a power unit from the asteroid’s strong hold. Alan remembered that Solow was a space pirate and thought he would dig-up some dirt on him.

“Hey, you remember Captain Solow.”

Rudnik smiled a sharp, pointy teeth grin and responded, “Captain Solow? You should remember what we did to him.”

Alan’s curiosity was now stirring as he baited, “Well, I just like the way you tell it, if you weren’t a pirate captain, you would certainly be a bard.”

Rudnik smiled at his comment and recited, “Well, all us pirates got to hating that conceited jerk. We all came up with this plan to get rid of him for good…”

They rounded the corner as he continued, “…we sent him to retrieve this mind controlling device, then we contacted the Amalgamation and informed them that he was going to steal it. After he notified us that he had it, we instructed him to deliver it to our ship. Then we told the Amalgamation Solow’s heading.”

“So you never found out what ever happen to him.”

“No,” Rudnik answered, “I’m guessing he was captured and hanged.”

The three stopped at a door. It slid open and they stepped through. Inside, there was a platform with seven glowing spots on it. Above it was another one like the one on the floor except being inverted facing down. There was a control panel offset to the right side of the room. Alan had seen something like this before, on the Sci-Fi Channel back home.

Jocko moved to the control panel and moved a few levers, pushed a button, then began to twist a dial. A light appeared between the upper and lower platforms as something began to appear within the light. Whoa, a teleporter, Alan thought, bet we could use one of these back home.

When the power unit had materialized, Jocko walked over to it and lifted it. Since he was a Rhinoid, carrying a haft ton power cell was no problem.

“You guys take the power cell to the engine room, I’ll finish up here.” Alan said.

As soon as they were gone, Alan pulled off his scarf from around his neck, lifted his eye patch, and pulled out his data port cable. Inserting the cable into the computer’s data socket, then into his data port on his neck, he proceeded to download the complete technical schematics of the teleporters.

* * * * * * *

Elasticity, Tyler, Dr. Kelko, BOB, and the mysterious woman crept down the corridor when they heard someone coming. Elasticity readies herself to jump the person. She entangled herself around the person and began slugging at her victim. Nonie prey stretched an arm around Nonie’s neck, while the other hand punched her in the face. “Get the hell off me!”

Nonie stretch back and saw that it was Patricia, “What are you doing? I thought you were staying with the ship.”

Patricia, out of spite, said, “I was getting this!” and held up the Transmorpher.

“That’s the Transmorpher!” Doctor Kelko spouted, “How did you get that from the treasure vault?”

“I have my ways.”

“Who did you do?” Nonie teased.

Patricia stretched her fist to sock her again, Nonie stretched out of the way. Patricia asked, “So, what are you doing? The last time I saw you, you were going to have you head examined. What happened, couldn’t they find anything in there?” and stretched her finger to Nonie’s head.

“Ha-ha, we’re helping our friends escape from here.” Nonie snapped.

Patricia scowled at her dumb sister and asked, “And just how are you going to get off this ship?”

Nonie rolled her eyes and responded, “Simple, we sneak onto the ship we came here in, and blast off.”

The dark haired rubber girl glared for a moment then said, “You do know that if you take the ship, one, the others would be stranded, and two, the pirates would see the ship leave and blast it.”

“Well, there is the Transmorpher,” Doctor Kelko suggested, “we could make anything into an escape pod.”

Nonie’s eyes gleamed, “Yeah!” Then she grabbed the weapon from Patricia, “This will get us to safety.”

Tyler moved over to Nonie and demanded, “And what are you going to use to transform into a escape pod? The pirates will know if anything is missing.”

Nonie smiled and said, “There is one thing the pirates wont miss.” Then she shot Tyler Knight with the Transmorpher.

Instantly, Tyler’s body began to expand outward and grew to twenty-five feet in height. Her body began to round out into a cylinder-like shape. Her head twisted upwards with her eyes becoming windows. Tyler’s butt cheeks formed into booster rockets. Her limbs became the landing gear. Nonie smiled, “…And we have an escape pod.”

“I hate you for this.” The Tyler rocket sarcastically gripped.

Dr. Kelko looked over the living escape pod and asked, “How do we get in?”

“I guess through her mouth.” Nonie responded.

Tyler opened her mouth, which became a loading ramp. Dr. Kelko, BOB, and the mysterious woman boarded Tyler. Nonie went to Patricia and said, “You better go to fly them to safety. Get them to the Terisen.”

“What about you?”

“They need someone who can fly her and you always said you were better then me at everything.”

Patricia looked at that stupid, skinny, freckle-faced, rubber girl and said, “There are some things you seem to be go at. Keep the Transmorpher, you might need it.”

Nonie watched as her sister boarded Tyler and then blasted off. Tyler shot out of the hanger and into the void of space. As they passed through the asteroid field, they saw at least two-hundred pirate ship getting into attack formation.

The ships seem to ignore the Tyler escape pod as it moved pass them. Soon, Tyler exited the asteroid field and got to the Terisen. The Terisen almost didn’t let the living pod into the hanger, until Patricia informed them who they were.

After they arrived, Patricia informed James of what they saw, and what was happening.

* * * * * * *

Alan had finished downloading all the schematics for the stolen technology the pirates had. He unplugged himself from the computer’s terminal and turned around to see Captain Rudnik and Jocko standing behind him. Alan quickly replaced the eye patch and tried to play it cool. “Aye, Rudnik, Jocko, what be you here?”

The two stood there for a moment, then Rudnik replied, “Say, isn’t that eye patch suppose to be on the other eye?”

Jocko reached out, grasped at the eye patch, and pulled on it revealing a perfectly good blue eye. He then let it snapped back into his face. “Ye, know what I think, I don’t think he’s Captain Krangle at all.”

“I think what we have here is an Amalgamation spy.” Rudnik confirmed.

Jocko grabbed Alan by the neck, lifted him into the air, and viewed the data port in the back of his neck and added, “and a thief as well.”

Captain Rudnik walked over to Alan and took his cables from him. He then called over the ships intercom for the Commodore. Shortly after he arrived, Rudnik informed him of Alan’s actions. Saran got on the intercom and announced, “Attention all personal, I want all of Captain Krangle’s crew rounded up and brought to the hanger deck.”

Stephanie and Mike gave each other a glance as Stephanie snapped, “Alan must have done something to give us away!”

Five pirates approached them with weapons drawn. Stephanie tried to strike one before another used a stun baton on her. They took the two to the hanger deck.

Nonie quickly stretched her arm into airshaft and hid the Transmorpher there before two pirates grabbed her and took her to the hanger deck.

The pirate’s fleet halted their plans to attacked the Amalgamation momentary to deal with their spies. Rudnik and Jocko went back to their ship to be ready to re-start the attack. They decided to watch the execution on the view screen. Stephanie glared at her brother and demanded, “Okay, what did you do this time to screw things up!”

“Got caught downloading things from their computer.”

“Damit!” Stephanie yelled, “Do you always have to get more and more technology! If we ever get out of this, I’m going to rip that dam thing right out of your neck!”

A couple of pirates approached Saran and said, “We searched the entire ship, and two of them are nowhere to be found. All ships, and escape pods are accounted for; and no one used the teleporter.”

“They couldn’t have just disappeared!” Saran insisted, “Look again!”

* * * * * * *

The delay in the pirates search of the spies to execute them, gave the Amalgamation’s Fleet the time needed to meet the Terisen. As the fleet arrived, James brought the Terisen out of hiding to intercept them before they confronted the pirates. “Terisen, Open a channel to the fleet.” James ordered.

On the main view screen, Admiral Fuzzet, Beaker, and Captain Vega appeared on the bridge of the admiral’s flagship. “You’re looking good James, it’s been a long time.”

“Yes, it has,” he responded, “but, getting back to why we’re here. The pirates had built a super base ship. They were suppose to have already started the attack from what my people had already told me.”

Captain Vega stood and asked, “Do you have any idea why they haven’t attacked yet?”

“No,” James confessed, “but something has them distracted.”

“Then let’s strike now while they are preoccupied.” Fuzzet suggested.

As the fleet moved into position, James wondered if his friends were successful in shutting down the shield generator.

At that very moment, Alan, Stephanie, Mike and Nonie were surrounded by the pirates. Alan looked up and saw the water pipes as Commodore Saran approached them and gloated, “Is there anything ye would like to say before we cast ye all into the black void, I’ll be listening to any pleas at this time.”

“You won’t get that satisfaction from us,” Alan shouted and then turned to his friends beside him and asked, “uh, right guys.”

Alan again, looked up at the overhead piping as Saran ordered, “Alright ya swaps, take ye marks…”

The Commodore’s crew lined up side by side, pulled out their laser blasters, and charged them up.

“If anyone has a plan, now’s the time to do it?” Mike suggested.

The pipes began to vibrate as the force from within began to build.

“…Take aim and prepare to fire…”

The pirates each held the guns at the ready position, waiting for the Commodore’s order. The pipes on the overhead were now making a loud noise as it were being shaking off their bracings. Saran smiled and muttered, “Time to waste them…”

Before he could give the order, the water pipes burst open spaying his men with two hundred psi of force. Alan J. Foster, the master of water, super genius, was controlling the water and sending the pirates back.

Mike took this as a cue to go into action. He held up his right forearm as it began to morph into his plasma cannon and said, “Love the upgrade.”

After Mike started blasting away, Stephanie’s body shines brightly as she took to the air and worked on the pirates in the outer ranks.

Nonie turned and stretched herself down a corridor and up through an airshaft. She thought that Transmorpher that Patricia gave her might come in handy in the battle. She grabbed it from where she had held it and returned to help her friends fight the pirates.

The Amalgamation fleet arrived and started their attack on the pirate’s fleet. An explosion rocked the Perpetrator, knocking a pirate into Alan. He transformed into his water form and engulfed the pirate, then threw him onto the deck. Commodore Saran shouted, “We’re under attack, men to your battle stations!”

Alan transformed back and grabbed a laser blaster from the fallen pirate, and used it to shoot his way to the deflector shield generator. One pirate charged him with vibroblade. Alan remembered the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the swordsman was shot. Alan held up the blaster and shot him. He then took his vibroblade and made his way to the generator. Alan had to climb a fifty-foot ladder to get to the platform where the controls were. When he finally got there, he reached for his data-port cable and remembered that Saran had his pirates remove it from him. “Shit! I’ll have to do it the hard way!” he complained.

Alan began to enter the pass code into the keypad.

ACCESS DENIED!

“Dam-it! They changed the pass code already!” He gripped, “I guess I could always hot-wire it.”

He promptly removed the access panel, pulled out some of the wiring, and proceeded to shut down the shield generator.

* * * * * * *

The Amalgamation fleet was in the heat of their battle with the space pirates. The Perpetrator shot off another blast, incinerating another Amalgamation’s Armistice class destroyer. Admiral Fuzzet shouted over the fleet communications systems, “We must retreat!”

Captain Wayland conveyed, “We mustn’t give up now! Give my people time to get the shields down. Until then, we’ll move in closer to the pirates fleet and take them at point blank.” James suggested.

“Yes,” Admiral Fuzzet agreed, “and use them as cover against the Perpetrator’s weapon.”

Immediately afterwards, the Amalgamation fleet moved closer to the pirates ships and engaged them in battle. The Perpetrator could not fire on them without destroying their own fleet of ships. Both the pirates and the Amalgamation launched their fighters.

On board Captain Rudnik’s ship, Jocko was standing by the teleporter controls. Rudnik drew his vibrorapier and stepped onto the teleporter pad. “Send me over to the Perpetrator to take care of that phony imposter.”

As Jocko activated the controls, the pad where Rudnik stood started to glisten as he was fading from sight. Seconds later, he materialized four feet from Alan.

Captain Rudnik activated his vibrorapier and held the sword up to slice at his target. Alan had already had the vibroblade activated taking down a pirate when Nonie shouted, “Alan! Captain Rudnik!”

“Rudnik?” he acknowledged, twisting his body around to find him, “Rudnik is here?”

As the pirate captain began his deadly swing, Alan inadvertently held out his arms as he turned. With the vibroblade still activated, he accidentally sliced through Rudnik’s left wrist, cutting off his hand. His vibrorapier fell down the shaft of the shield generator with his left hand.

Clenching his arm stump, He called for Jocko to bring him back. Seconds later, he began to dematerialize in a gleaming light as he was teleported back to his ship.

Alan turned and continued to hotwire the controls when Stephanie flew up to where he was working and yelled, “Alan! We don’t have time for you to be pissing around like that!”

She then raised her hand and blasted the controls to the generator, shutting it down. “Now get your lazy ass down here to help us with the fighting!”

“Oh sure,” Alan snapped, “do it the easy way.”

Admiral Fuzzet saw that the shields were down and ordered, “The shields are down, concentrate all fire on the Perpetrator!”

“What’s our weapons status?” James asked.

“Missile tubes one through twenty are ready.” Penny responded.

James turned to the hologram woman and said, “Terisen, target the Perpetrator’s bridge and fire missiles one through twenty.”

Terisen launched the missiles and hit her target. With multiple explosions, the Perpetrator’s bridge was destroyed. The ship began to veer left and moving straight into one of the larger asteroids.

Alan made his way to the ladder when Commodore Saran appeared, blocking his escape. With one of his clawed appendage grabbed Alan by the neck and threw him back onto the catwalk of the generator. Saran bellowed, “You ruined all my plans! I spent twenty years building this ship, and you ruined everything!”

The Commodore snatched the blaster from Alan with another clawed arm and held it at his chest. Saran sneered, “Now I’m going to kill you.”

As the sound of an energy blast filled the chamber, Alan looked down to see the blast mark, which was not there. The Commodore began to crystallize before his eyes until he was a glass statue of himself.

An enlarged hand stretched over and knocked the Commodore off the ledge, sending him falling fifty-feet to the deck below. Saran shattered into a million pieces. Alan looked to see who killed Saran and saw Nonie holding the Transmorpher.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Alan uttered.

“Somebody had to.”

As the two turned to overlook the area from above, they saw that the ship was heading for an asteroid.

Admiral Fuzzet ordered, “Move the fleet away from the Perpetrator!”

As all the remaining Amalgamation ships pulled out of the asteroid field, Rudnik’s ship exited the field from the east side. Captain Rudnik was in the medical bay of his ship with his left arm in a Fast-Flesh med Unit. He looked at Jocko and said, “If it’s the last thing I ever do, I’ll make that traitor pay for my hand.”

As the Perpetrator moved towards the asteroid, Elasticity stretched herself to the deck below, forming herself into a slide. As Alan jumped on her back, it reminded him of the last time they pulled this trick. It was when they wrecked Stephanie’s car, and they were escaping a beating from her wrath. This time, they were escaping certain death, making a little beating seem insignificant.

After he reached the bottom, Stephanie yelled, “Come on you two or I’ll leave you behind!”

When they were aboard the scout ship, Stephanie started the engines and proceeded out the port-aft hanger. The Perpetrator collided with the asteroid causing several explosions through the ship until its reactor core was cracked. The Perpetrator blew up into a massive explosion of energy, sending the scout ship twirling out of control.

Before the tiny ship could smash into another asteroid, the Terisen locked its tractor beam on it and saved it from being destroyed.

* * * * * * *

The Amalgamation fleet assembled back at their base. The President, Admiral Fuzzet, and all the Captains and crews of the fleet celebrated their victory over the end of the pirate threat. Alan took the Transmorpher and changed Tyler back to normal, and put the weapon in storage for safe keeping.

The President awarded the crew of the Terisen a medal for their service in stopping Saran’s plans to rule the universe. James approached Admiral Fuzzet and said, “I spent over twenty years on Earth and I never thought I would ever get back here,” then looked across the room at Penny, “but now all I want to do is stay with her.”

Fuzzet replied, “I was talking to the president about bringing Earth into the Amalgamation. He said that if Earth wanted to join, that he would induct Earth into the Amalgamation.”

James smiled, “You mean I could take the Terisen back to Earth?”

“Well,” Fuzzet continued, “after the Terisen undergoes a refit, after all, it’s been over twenty years, and we made some advancements since her last refit.”

“So how long will the refit take?” James asked.

“About three weeks should do. Why don’t you and your crew spend the time seeing the sights of Yarog Three?”