Brothers in Stars

     In the Perseus Sector’s only hangar, the Fornax was surrounded by various Neopets milling about – two Usuls were checking the hull integrity, a robot Tuskaninny was loading the cargo hold with supplies, and a blue Acara was complaining to a red Techo who was carrying three first-aid kits into the ship.

     “Isn’t one enough?” Mipsy complained, spreading her arms. “Besides, we can always restock when we get to Orion!”

     “You never know!” Velm responded as he went up the ramp with the first-aid kits. “I even made sure our rations had vegetables! Freeze-dried, dehydrated…”

     Talinia and Mipsy watched as he disappeared into the ship, past a somewhat bewildered striped Kacheek. Then they traded a look between them and walked toward the dwindling pile of rations to give the robot Tuskaninny a hand.

     “Velm really takes his job as medical officer very seriously, doesn’t he?” Talinia commented.

     “Oh, he does,” said Mipsy. “The first-aid kits are always stocked here in Perseus thanks to him and he complains when there aren’t a lot of healthy food options in the mess hall.”

     “But at least we’ll have someone on hand in case of a bad fall in the training area or a twisted ankle. Remember when he was giving us tips to make sure we don’t get too achy after our exercises? They really helped; my wrists are no longer as sore after two straight sessions of target practice.” The green Eyrie massaged her wrists and smiled contentedly before picking up a box of Cherries Jubalee. She and Mipsy made their way toward the ship in time to see Rohane inspecting the escape pods and doors on the side of the Fornax.

     After handing the supplies over to the Tuskaninny on duty, they saluted.

     “At ease, you two. Are you ready for our trip to Orion?”

     “I’m actually excited!” said Mipsy. “I’ve never been to the Orion Sector. I bet they’ve got a lot of fancy machinery and gadgets since they’ll be building the Stellar Ray!”

     Talinia craned her neck to look around at all the preparations. Velm had emerged from the ship at last – only to start an argument with the Usuls about the shields. She sighed and shook her head.

     “Some of us are a little too excited,” she noted. “But it looks like we’re almost done. Where’s the General?”

     “He said he was giving Engineering and Security last-minute instructions while he’s away,” Rohane answered. Glancing around, he stopped when he saw the doors of the hangar open to admit two Blumaroos. His eyes widened in surprise. “No, wait, there he is.”

     “Isn’t that your brother with him?” asked Velm, who strode over to his team. The Usuls discreetly glared at him before moving to inspect a smaller ship parked in the hangar.

     “Just what were you fighting about with those Usuls?” Mipsy pressed.

     “Someone had to tell them how to properly examine the hull armour!”

     While the Acara rolled her eyes, Rohane hurried over to the new arrivals and skidded to a halt in front of General Reynold and Information Technology Chief Reuben. He clicked his heels together and saluted snappily.

     Reuben took one look at his brother and snorted. The yellow Blumaroo narrowed his eyes at him before turning to his other son and saying, “Really, Rohane, it’s fine.”

     “How are you holding up?” asked Reuben.

     Rohane paused, but answered, “The Fornax is fully stocked and armed, and after running the ship systems we found nothing wrong with them. The starship is ready to go, and so is my team.” He glanced over at Mipsy and Velm in a very intense discussion that involved a few flourishing hand gestures and glares. “Mostly.”

     “I was asking about you,” Reuben pointed out, a touch of amusement in his expression.

     “Me? I’m fine.” The younger white Blumaroo took a deep breath and managed a smile. “I’m glad you two will be helping me out.”

     “I did promise to watch your back,” Reuben pointed out, a smirk flitting briefly across his face. “Old Hal keeps telling us this is like a family business to us, and today, we’re going to prove that the family that navigates space together, stays together.”

     Reuben lightly elbowed Rohane in the ribs after Reynold let the latter go. “Right? This reminds me of the time I taught you how to drive a spaceship!”

     “You tricked me into thinking we were still in a virtual test drive!” Rohane objected.

     “I did, but you got the hang of it, didn’t you? It worked! And at least this time, you don’t have a big brother not telling you you’ll be driving straight into space. He’ll be good this time.” Reuben winked. “And he came here with Dad to see you off before holing up with the rest of Team Nerd. Don’t forget to bring back souvenirs from Orion for us.”

     “Would the Orion Sector even have souvenirs?”

     “You’ll find out. Now get out there and bring those plans to Orion. And make sure Dad stays out of trouble.”

     Reynold blinked and pointed to himself, the picture of innocence. “Who, me?” He chortled.

     “Show us why you deserve to be promoted to captain,” said Reuben, mimicking the salute Rohane had given his father moments ago. “I’ll always be online if you two need anything, okay?”

     “Thanks. I hope you don’t mind me checking in a lot.”

     “Are you kidding? That’s exactly what we’re going to be waiting for with the rest of Team Nerd!”

     * * *

     “Captain’s log: it’s been twelve hours since we left the Perseus Sector, and we’re making good time toward the Orion Sector. We’ve just passed the Corona Australis star formation, and Asteroid 52 is just ahead. There’s been no other sign of life aside from a passing ship carrier we presume is headed for Virtupets. The plans are still with us, and Mipsy, Talinia and Velm are playing Cheat! in the mess. Fuel levels remain high, our rations and supplies are still enough to carry us to Orion, and all systems are shipshape.”

     After a moment’s pause, Rohane reached out from his seat and pressed a button on the panel, and the display that had shown the word “REC” in blinking red light went blank.

     “What did you think, Dad? My first captain’s log entry.”

     Reynold cleared his throat before giving way to a light peal of laughter. “You really had to include your crewmates playing card games in the mess, huh.”

     “I didn’t know what else to include,” the white Blumaroo admitted sheepishly.

     A clicking sound caught their attention. A smaller screen propped up on the panel flickered to life and the face of another white Blumaroo appeared on it.

     “You could’ve included my genius mapping and plotting abilities, you know!” the Blumaroo on the screen pointed out, raising an eyebrow, and holding a cup of steaming coffee.

     “I’ll try to remember that for my next log,” said Rohane, raising an eyebrow right back.

     “How are things on your side?” asked Reynold.

     “We were on round-the-clock anti-hacking patrol, keeping our data lines clear and our firewalls and virus protection programs going.” After drinking from his cup, he set it down. “Luckily, nothing has shown up, and we’ve confirmed that the Fornax is the only ship sailing this part of space. Oh, and Fenlix said that the mission going smoothly ‘roxxorz his soxxorz’. I swear, I’m blocking Neopian slang from our servers when we’re done with this mission.”

     The ship glided smoothly past a large misshapen asteroid that could be seen from the large window. All three Blumaroos paused to catch a glimpse of it. Its surface was quiet, and the blazing thrusters of the Fornax cast strange shadows across the rock.

     But suddenly, one shadow seemed to move within one of the craters. Reynold gasped. “Is that – “

     Then the shadow leapt from Asteroid 52 to fly and crash straight into the side of the Fornax, which listed to one side and threw Reynold and Rohane out of their seats and against a computer on the opposite wall. A siren began to wail and bathed the entire cockpit in blinking red light.

     “I thought you said the asteroid was clear!” Rohane cried, rubbing his head and craning his neck toward the small screen where Reuben had begun to angrily type on his keyboard. Then he reached out to help his father back onto his feet as the ship steadied itself.

     “It was when we sent our probes to it!” Reuben yelled. He pulled a lever and started shouting commands off-screen. “Code red, code red! We’ve got a hider!”

     Mipsy, Velm and Talinia burst into the cockpit and scrambled for their stations.

     “Shields at eighty percent!” Velm announced as he pulled up an image of the Fornax. A flick of a switch shut the siren off. “This is bad. We have a breach on the starboard side, against our cargo hold!”

     “It looks like…” Talinia gasped as she peered out of the window. “It’s one of Garoo’s starships!”

     “Charting our escape route!” said Rohane, his fingers flying over the buttons on his panel while Reynold opened a hatch in the floor and started passing out laser swords and blasters. All five of them jumped and gasped when they heard a faint explosion from within their ship. “Reuben, a little help?”

     “Mipsy, Velm, head for the point of impact.” As Reynold instructed the blue Acara and the red Techo, he pressed weapons into their hands, including one flash bomb. “We’ll follow as soon as we figure out how to get out of here!”

     The two of them saluted before hurrying out of the cockpit as quickly as they came.

     “Chief, we have the flight path. Back to Perseus?” Vega’s voice floated from the little screen. A glimpse of a pink Aisha’s ears could be seen toward the left side.

     “Back to Perseus!” Reuben confirmed. “Hang in there, we’ll get you out!”

     “Rohane, Talinia, go,” said Reynold as he armed them with more items from the hatch. “I’ll stay here with Reuben.”

     “Be careful,” the white Blumaroo on the screen added.

     “I’ll be back,” the other white Blumaroo promised as the screen went blank.

     * * *

     “Freeze! Put your hands u – aaaaah!” Mipsy cried as the blaster was shot from her hands to skitter across the floor. The shooter was a grim-looking skunk Mynci who twirled his own blaster – a large and unwieldy thing – and pointed it toward Velm. The Mynci had come from the door leading to the cargo hold, which had been exploded off its hinges.

     “Mipsy! Are you all right?” He raised his arms as he walked over to her to inspect her hands.

     “It’s okay, they were a little scorched, is all.”

     “You’ll get more than a little scorched if you don’t hand over the Stellar Ray plans,” the Mynci growled.

     Velm scowled down the barrel of the Mynci’s blaster. “Yeah, no.” Over the intruder’s shoulder and through the broken cargo hold door, the Techo could make out at least two more Neopets who were already going through the supplies and crates. “You’ll never find them.”

     Something whooshed past the side of Velm’s head, prompting him to press himself and Mipsy against the wall. A purple dart struck the Mynci, and he yelped in pain, clutched his shoulder, and dropped his blaster. He glared at the one who had thrown the dart – a tall green Eyrie who held two more in her hands.

     “The markswoman of Sagittarius,” the Mynci snarled through gritted teeth.

     Mipsy and Velm slipped past the two of them, and before they could be chased, Talinia flung another dart at their enemy, who was forced to dodge by crashing into a table and two chairs. There, Rohane closed the distance to knock him out with the hilt of his laser sword.

     “I’m sure you have a lot of questions to ask him,” said Rohane tersely as he relieved the Mynci of the knives strapped to his light armour.

     “We can ask him later. Come on.”

     Talinia beckoned her captain to follow her into the cargo hold. There, they halted at the sight of Velm and Mipsy behind some metal crates, firing their blasters at a blue Uni and a starry Zafara amidst rations and other supplies upended and strewn across the floor. While the Uni flung a grenade at the two lieutenants that produced thick pink smoke, a nimble red Grundo unclipped a small rectangular object from his belt and slapped it onto the floor. Immediately a display of numbers appeared on the item and a red light flickered to life, blinking ominously. Metallic tendrils snaked out of its body, fastening themselves into the tiles.

     The realization hit Rohane and Talinia at once.

     “A bomb!”

     “A what?” Mipsy asked, coughing as she stumbled out from the haze. Then her face fell when she saw it. “Oh no.”

     “Try disarming our little present,” the Zafara sneered as she watched the Acara swoop down onto the bomb and begin tinkering with it, trying to pull it off the floor tiles. When she managed to cut two wires with a decisive chop of her space sword, the timer began to count down at double the speed until it reached 10:20, eliciting a scream from her. The only good news was that after that point, the counting resumed its normal pace.

     The Grundo laughed before suddenly drawing a long, wickedly sharp knife from his belt and driving it into the space where Mipsy’s hands had been just a second ago.

     “You have that long to give us the Stellar Ray plans,” said the Uni, dodging as Velm rushed her with a blazing laser sword. She kicked out with her front hooves, knocking the wind out of the red Techo as he toppled and skidded backwards on the floor. “And Altair. Where is he?”

     “Velm!” Mipsy shrieked as she drew her own laser sword, whose glowing yellow blade crackled to life, to parry the Grundo’s knife strikes.

     “Don’t hog all the fun, Wally.” The Zafara cackled with glee as she drew a long Maractite whip and she cracked it toward Rohane’s direction, striking his ear and causing him to flinch and take a step back.

     “Time is running out!” she taunted. Gritting his teeth at his stinging ear, Rohane slashed out with the laser sword still in his hands – which shone with a bright green light – at the starry Zafara, managing to strike her on her upper arm. She shrieked but managed to hang on to her whip. “Only a friend of ours has the code.”

     Talinia went over to pull Velm up from where he was sprawled. With her other hand, she fired her blaster at the Uni. The two of them had to dive aside when the Uni charged them, her horn stabbing Talinia in the hand and causing her to cry out.

     “We need to do something,” she rasped as she clutched her hand, dropping her blaster in the process.

     “A distraction?”

     “We have to get back to the general. He’ll know what to do.”

     “I know what to do!”

     The Eyrie and the Techo gasped as Mipsy stood up and pulled the flash bomb from her utility belt after breaking away from Wally.

     Talinia cursed under her breath when she missed the Uni, who had taken refuge behind an overturned table. “Mipsy, wait!”

     “What?” Rohane looked up after dodging the Maractite whip, which came up to a hairbreadth away from his nose. He dropped his sword and ran toward the rest of his team when he saw the bomb arcing high in the air and pulsing fervently with soft yellow light.

     “Don’t look!” he warned as he grabbed Talinia and Mipsy instinctively on his way out of the cargo hold. Meanwhile, Talinia just barely managed to snatch Velm by the wrist and the four of them stumbled back into the hallway just as a bright blaze of light bathed the entire hold.

     * * *

     “There’s a bomb on our ship? And you can’t disarm it?” asked Reynold in disbelief. He grimaced, a hand resting on the main control panel.

     “Only they have the code, and they won’t give it to us unless we hand them the plans,” Rohane confirmed.

     “We can’t get the bomb off!” Mipsy interjected, flailing her arms. She kept glancing from Team Alpha, to the computers, to the doors that they had shut and even barricaded with a couple of chairs for good measure, and back again. “What should we do? We’ve only got five minutes! I think.”

     “Five minutes and thirty seconds,” Velm corrected as he bandaged Talinia’s injured hand. Although he was the one tending to her, he was also the one flinching. “Before you guys dragged me out of there, I caught a glimpse of the timer on the bomb.”

     The green Eyrie’s eyes widened. “Was that why I had to pull you out of there before the flash bomb went off?” She received a nod in reply.

     The yellow Blumaroo massaged his forehead before examining his watch. He reached down and below the panel, pushing a button. A drawer opened, revealing a folder full of blueprints and notes. Before he or anyone else could say anything, the doors rattled with loud, persistent thudding noises, the two chairs in front of it shaking from the impact. Everyone whipped around toward the doors, while Reynold abruptly shut the secret drawer again.

     Rohane slapped his forehead. “I left my sword behind.” But he still had a blaster at his belt, which he drew and pointed toward the entrance.

     It didn’t take long for the doors to shatter under the combined efforts of a few blasters and quite possibly a bomb. Altair had recovered from their encounter in the hall, and he was flanked by his friends. Though the blue Uni and the starry Zafara were still blinking the spots from their eyes that were a result of the flash bomb, they were nevertheless armed and ready.

     Wally rolled a Ghostkerbomb into the midst of Team Alpha like a bowling ball, prompting them to scatter as it went off, filling the area with smoke. Reynold flung his arms around Talinia’s and Velm’s waists and hurled himself against the door of one escape pod. He heard Velm gasp loudly, clutching his side.

     “What’s wrong, Lieutenant?”

     “It must’ve been the fall from awhile ago,” the red Techo grunted as they watched Rohane and Mipsy duck a bright purple jet from Altair’s blaster. The two of them dove in different directions: the blue Acara colliding with the others near the escape pod, and the white Blumaroo throwing himself bodily at the red Grundo to tackle him to the floor.

     Reynold freed one hand to open the escape pod door and shoved Talinia and Velm inside.

     “General – “

     “No questions. Take Mipsy with you!” He kicked out with both feet at Altair approaching him. From inside the teal-coloured sphere with light but strong walls, Talinia threw darts that discouraged Altair and the starry Zafara from approaching.

     “Look for the plans!” Altair ordered. He fired his blaster from where he was on the floor, but the shot glanced off the door that had been shut behind Mipsy. Already the wall panels were closing over the door, keeping the three officers out of reach of their enemies. The Zafara looked from the vanishing escape pod door to where she had leafed through the ship’s star maps as though unsure of what to do next.

     The Uni laughed. “Do you really think that pod will protect you when the bomb goes off?”

     “No,” said Reynold simply. He placed his palm on the security pad beside the escape pod, and it slid away from the ship to plunge into space. The yellow Blumaroo had one last glimpse of their surprised faces before he turned back to Altair and the Uni bearing down on him.

     “Dad?” asked Rohane, yelping as Wally’s knife cut open his sleeve. “Dad, what are you doing?” Reynold pushed past them toward the drawer with the plans and opened it, holding up the folder. Immediately all fighting and struggle in the cockpit ceased.

     Altair gaped at the folder. “Are those…”

     Reynold just nodded. “Let me and my son get to the escape pod, and I’ll give them to you.”

     The skunk Mynci and his comrades hesitated. Wally dropped his knife and let go of Rohane, focusing on the papers in the general’s hands.

     “I heard a bomb is ticking in the cargo hold,” Reynold mentioned, keeping his voice even as his gaze flicked to his watch. “We don’t have all day. Well?”

     Altair frowned. “Deal.”

     “I’ll give you the plans once he’s in the pod.”

     The Grundo and the starry Zafara whipped out their blasters and pointed them at Reynold. “No funny business,” the Zafara snarled.

     The two Blumaroos, one of them holding up the folder, made their way across to the door of the second escape pod. Reynold opened the door and gestured with his free hand for Rohane to go inside. Once his son was within the spacious walled sphere, he dug into his pocket for what looked like a sword-shaped pendant hanging from a fine chain and tossed it toward him.

     But while Rohane was staring at the little sword he had just caught, which was actually a flash drive, Reynold suddenly shoved his palm against the panel, and the door promptly slid shut.

     “Dad? Dad!” The captain grabbed the handle of the door and pulled with all his might, and with a pang in his stomach rising into his throat, he realized that it wasn’t budging. He dove for the computer just beneath the window and switched it on.

     The face of his brother appeared on one screen. The other screen gave him a view of the cockpit of the Fornax, which included his father.

     “Rohane! What’s happening? Why are you in an escape pod?” Reuben flicked a switch beside him. “Dad!”

     “There’s a bomb on the ship! He made me get in!” was the frantic reply.

     “The plans, General,” Altair demanded, extending a hand. In response, Reynold merely held out the folder.

     “If I’m not mistaken…I have forty-five seconds,” said Reynold steadily. As the skunk Mynci reached out for the plans, the yellow Blumaroo quickly switched on his laser sword and obliterated the entire folder with a single stroke. Charred pieces of paper, their contents reduced to smouldering ash, fluttered to the floor.

     Reuben gasped.

     “Dad, what did you do?” Rohane asked the computer screen that continued to play out the events on the Fornax.

     “No! No, no!” Altair whipped around at the blue Uni. “Where’s the code? The bomb – “

     The Uni fumbled for a small device with a little keyboard and a speaker attached to her utility belt. But before she could do anything else, Reynold summoned all his strength into a roundhouse kick that knocked the device to the floor, and brought his laser sword down onto it, frying it into an ashen, broken mess. In that same motion, Reynold swiftly pressed the security pad beside the escape pod.

     Inside the pod, Rohane made a strangled noise when he felt the floor beneath him list to one side before pitching forward and saw the stars and floating rocks outside the single oval window moving past him. His heart, which had been beating furiously moments ago, seemed to disappear in his chest when he realized what his father had done.

     “Dad!” Reuben and Rohane screamed in unison.

     “It all ends here,” he declared, crossing swords with Altair after slamming his shoulder against the starry Zafara, knocking her into the two chairs that had fallen against the decimated doors of the cockpit. Then Reynold looked straight at the screens that showed the faces of his aghast sons, one clutching the sword-shaped flash drive tightly, the other desperately grappling with switches and buttons on a computer.

     “Reuben, Rohane, I love you.”

To be continued…