Chapter 9 – Search and Rescue
"Do I even want to know where you got this?" Lard Nar stared at the small knife in his hand. As soon as their new ship had reached the only slightly safer vacuum of space, he had demanded Kark show him what she had used to stab the Irken with. It was a fine weapon; a sharp blade and a hand-crafted grip, it would fit perfectly into Kark's smaller hands. Even without asking, he knew where she had stolen it from. When Kark said nothing, he sighed. "Can you at least tell me why?" Still the child refused to answer; she stared at the floor with her face scrunched up in a pout. I'm teaching her some bad habits... Lard Nar folded up the knife and placed it on a nearby shelf.
Shloonktapoxis broke the tension in the room when he floated in carrying a tray on his head. "Hey y'all! I made us some Bagels! Let's eat!"
Kark and Lard Nar exchanged a glance. "What the devil is a bagel?" Lard Nar asked. Shloonk's body bent over as he lowered the tray. Lard Nar took the tray and stared at the bread rings piled onto it.
"I thought this was called a doughnut." He remembered the distinct ring shape from all those times he had dealt with Irkens. Those goo-sacks were always snacking. Shloonk shook his head, which actually shook his whole body since there is no distinct break between the two.
"These are different. Try 'em!"
Kark grabbed one immediately and started eating. She had never seen a doughnut before so she didn't know what to expect in the taste. Lard Nar, however remembered the overly-sweet taste of those fatty-frosting-Irken foods; he hadn't even liked the taste back before Irk had betrayed Vort. He doubted very much that he would like them any better now. "You're sure they're different?" he asked. Shloonk nodded with his trademark goofy smile. After hearing from Kark about 'how good they taste', he finally took one from the tray. It wasn't sticky like a doughnut, and the bread was a bit firmer as well. He sniffed at it and was about to take a bite when a light from the communications control panel caught his eye.
Lard Nar put his bread ring back on the tray and went to the pilot's chair.
"What's wrong?" Shloonk asked floating up behind him.
Lard Nar pressed a few buttons, reading the incoming message. "Looks like a distress signal." He ran a scan of the surrounding space looking to see where the signal had come from. They were not all that far from the Cone planet. Less than an hour flight. He considered for a moment leaving it for the Cones to deal with.
"Is someone in trouble?" Kark looked at the message. To her eyes it was nothing but squiggles. "What's it say?" she asked reminding Lard Nar that she couldn't read the alien language. He hoisted her up onto the chair with him so she could see the screen.
"This," he said pointing to a section of symbols, "is the universal code for when you need emergency immediate help. Make sure you remember that." Kark quickly memorized the shapes of the symbols and nodded; he set her back down on the floor, then looked up at Shloonktapoxis. "What do you think? It could be a trap."
The cone spoke in his occasional serious voice. "It could also be an emergency. My planet is slow to send help for outsiders. Der is a bunch of forms ya gotta fill out," he said with his voice going back to its goofy tone near the end.
Lard Nar touched his hand to his chin, thinking. If we go to help them, we could be walking into a trap. Or worse we could meet someone that wouldn't feel bad about turning us over to the Irkens for a reward. Bounty Hunters were sure to be out after him by now. But what are the odds that anyone would work with those goo-sacks anymore? "Huh..?" He felt a tug on his uniform. Looking down, he saw Kark with a concerned look on her face.
"If someone is hurt… we should help them right?" Her tiny hands gripped the fabric of his uniform; they were shaking.
I can't put her in any more danger… he thought. But she's right. If that ship is in trouble we're probably the only chance they've got. As long as we're in cone space it's unlikely that anyone else would come to their rescue…. What do I do?
Kark didn't wait for him to decide. Lard Nar had taught her just enough about the controls of the Vortian ship for her to figure out the basics of this one. She leapt up, resting her knees on the edge of the controls and reached over to press a few buttons before Lard Nar was able to grab her.
The hooded face of an alien appeared on the screen. Kark couldn't understand what she was saying but Lard Nar and Shloonktapoxis heard it all.
"Mayday! Mayd #$# %# under attack! Irken Voot Runner blast #$# hole in hull. Life Support failin%$# %$#esting Immediate Rescue! Irken is Armed and Dangerous! Repeat! Armed and Dangerous! Please Respond!"
"How long ago was that sent?" Lard Nar yelled over to Shloonk who was checking the radio-wave recovery data from the message.
"5 minutes ago."
Lard Nar nodded. "Strap yourselves down. If there's an Irken around, then this could get rough."
XXX
"Captian! We can't take another hit like that last one!" A technician yelled out but it did no good. His spineless superior officer was curled up in a ball holding himself. Lost in his own panic after the death of his 2nd in command.
With no one to command, the crew began to panic. Only one officer kept her cool.
"Hold steady and keep firing!" Ixane worked desperately to send out another distress call, but the Irken ship was jamming their communications. All that work to escape our own planet, only to be defeated by one lone spittle runner.
XXX
"Over there!" Shloonktapoxis yelled from his spot at the window. Not far off in space, light reflected off the space junk that was once a large fighter class ship.
They entered the debris field gingerly, scanning the remains with both eye and computer. Shloonk floated in front of Kark as they passed some charred bodies that must have been the crew.
"How could a single voot runner do all this?" The cone asked in shock.
"They were probably side blinded. Sneak attack gives you no time to react." Lard Nar said. His face was grim as he ran scans for life forms and residual heat. Not that he expected to find anything.
Leftover radiation masked the surrounding area making it impossible for the scanner to detect living from the dead.
XXX
"Ixane... Please wake up..." Sure he was a coward that had hidden in an escape pod during the attack, but doing so he had been able to save her as the ship imploded. As long as that gash on her head wasn't as serious as it looked then everything would be fine, right?
Nleez smashed at the tiny communications panel. "If you're out there! Please Respond!"
XXX
A low moan escaped the shadows beneath her hood. Ixane opened her eyes a crack only to close them immediately. There appeared to be a horned demon smiling down at her.
"You awake now?"
Ixane realized in an instant that her translator had kicked in. "Vortian?" She opened her eyes again. The Voritan child looked confused.
"Don't move," she told her then ran out of the room.
Less than a minute later, Ixane's least favorite person rushed into the room. When he threw himself to hug her, she grabbed the lip of his hood, pulled it down over his face then shoved him away; all from her seat on the medical bed.
"Nleez! Where the bleet are we?!" She yelled at the crumpled mass on the floor. A laugh came from the door.
"You are in our escaped ship fleeing the Empire." Lard Nar entered the room with Kark on his heels. He walked over and offered his hand, "I am Lard Nar, former officer of the interplanetary relations fleet of Vort. This excitable child is Kark, and the cone that refused to come here is Shloonktapoxis. He doesn't think we should trust you. I'd like to see if you have a reason we should."
Ixane stared up at the Voritan, having trouble thinking of a response due to her throbbing head. Nleez answered for her.
"I know Ixane will want to join your cause as much as I do. Those filthy green goo-sacks have ruined our planet and killed our people... We..." He saw Ixane glaring at him to shut up. "Well I mean... That's if you want to," he told her.
Ixane sighed. "What is he talking about? What 'cause'?"
"You my dear are looking at the beginnings of a resistance against the Irkens." Kark happily piped up that they'd only decided that a few minutes ago. "We're small now but we can't be the only ones out there with the same idea. So what do you say? Care to join us?" Ixane hesitated. "If not, we could always drop you off on a planet we stop at in the future." Still she said nothing.
"If you join we have Bagels!" Kark announced encouragingly.
"What's a bagel?"
Lard Nar was laughing too much to respond. Nleez was laughing as well for some reason. Maybe it was the pain killers or the attitude in the room, but Ixane felt herself relax for the first time in years, and before she knew it, she had joined their little group.
