An entire week had gone by.

The sun rose on the seventh day over the cruise ship as it floated in the water, slightly drifting to the east as the current carried it around. Neither Calvin nor Hobbes had ever figured out how to operate the anchor to help them stay put. They were aware that if they could just stay in one spot, it would be easier for someone to find them. Unfortunately, they were unable to find the appropriate control to lower the twenty-ton anchor, so they found themselves in a continuous drift, hoping that the fact that the engines weren't running would be enough to keep the ship in one location.

On this particular day, the two friends slowly began to awaken in their chosen cabin. They had chosen one of the first class cabins, and they had at first enjoyed the king-sized beds with extra-soft mattress and fluffy pillows to sleep in, and Calvin had found baths to be more enjoyable when they were the size of a small lake, but after their terrorizing week at sea, they had found them difficult to appreciate now that they were constantly fearing for their lives.

On top of one of the two beds in the room was a large bunker that they'd fashioned out of the various pieces of furniture they'd found around the room and other rooms. They were snuggled up together under the blankets they'd buried themselves under. They reckoned that having several blankets to protect themselves with would be enough against the drone.

The alarm clock started blaring, indicating that it was eleven o'clock and that their fifteenth snooze setting had worn off. Hobbes reached over and pressed it, turning it off as he fought through the mental cobwebs into the land of the living, going into his usual series of cat stretches to getting himself going.

Calvin rolled over, smacking his tongue against the roof of his mouth in an effort to get rid of the unpleasant taste of night saliva. He climbed out of the blankets and checked over the side of the barricade. Upon seeing that Hobbes was still close by, he threw a glance at the locked door.

The door was still locked, but it had several large indentations in the middle, signifying that whoever was stalking them on the ship had been busy. He could well remember last night when they had been awoken at three in the morning, terrified out of their wits as the creature frantically clawed and smashed against the door until it finally gave up after thirty minutes and left. Whoever had designed the ship's doors had clearly been paid very well.

"What do we do now?" Calvin sighed, scratching his side as he stood up.

Hobbes surveyed the room, taking in the huge mess. He picked up the remote control for the TV that sat on top of the dresser and pressed the power button, and after a brief moment, it sprung into life, revealing an endless stream of static.

"Man, the TV still doesn't work!" Calvin complained.

"The entertainment systems still work," said Hobbes with a yawn. "We can watch any movies we want or any TV shows we want, but we can't catch anything local."

"Too bad. I was hoping we could see the status of our rescue mission. You'd think after a week someone might have seen us our here."

Hobbes pressed the button on the remote again and turned the TV off. He chucked it aside onto a chair before looking around the room again, taking in all the food wrappers, empty plates, drinking glasses and banana peels lying on the floor. "Do you think it's safe to venture out for food? We seem to have finally run out of essentials."

Calvin took in the mess disdainfully. "If only we could've gotten lost at sea with the cleaning crew," he muttered. "I guess we might as well. Arm yourself."

Hobbes went over to the bed and grabbed the heavy metal baseball bat they'd found in the ship's sports center. He swung it around a few times, accidentally taking out a reading lamp in the process, but he was satisfied that it would be fine. "Ready."

Calvin went over the door and prepared to unlock it. "Okay, be ready."

Hobbes went into the wind up.

Calvin pushed down on the lock, causing them both to hear a surprisingly loud clock as the door began to swing open.

Hobbes went into a charge, all set with a battle cry in case he had a battle to cry at.

No one was there. Their stalker was gone.

Peeking around the edges of the doorframe at the outside world, they saw that the stalker was nowhere to be seen. They were perfectly safe.

"He seems to be gone," Calvin murmured. "Bring the bat anyway. We need to be ready."

"Roger," Hobbes replied, dutifully putting the bat against his shoulder like a bayonet.

Throwing a few more cautious glances around their perimeter to ensure that they were alone, they set off as bravely as they could down the corridor towards the elevator that would take them to the food deck.

After their initial overindulgence upon first being stranded, the two friends were now so shaken by their mysterious visitor that they were now down to taking only the essentials. They gathered a large shopping cart that belonged to one of the grocery stores, and they proceeded to travel through the shops, taking whatever they deemed important enough to take with them. Recognizing the rather dire circumstances they were in, Calvin had decided that taking fruits and vegetables along with them was probably a good idea, grabbing apples, bananas and carrots as they went, and he also grabbed some canned green beans and green peas as well, having figured out how to cook them over the water tank in the boiler room.

They kept the baseball bat at the ready, poised for battle in the kiddie seat, and Calvin rode in the front of the cart, keeping a good look out, while Hobbes pushed from behind, struggling to see over the top of the handlebar. They walked all over the shops, grabbing whatever supplies they could get.

Calvin was just loading up a tub of ice cream when he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye moving. When he turned to look, it was gone, and there was no trace of anything having been there, which only terrified him more. He set the ice cream down in the cart and leaned against the edge, trying to see.

Hobbes, meanwhile, was loading up on tuna and salmon, when he heard a noise behind him that made him shout with terror, dropping all the cans, only to realize before they all hit the floor that the noise had simply been the air conditioning coming on. He sheepishly gathered up his supplies.

"This is getting ridiculous," Calvin muttered. "Stranded in the middle of the ocean for an entire week has reduced us to nervous wrecks! We've faced hoards of aliens and evil entities in the past with far worse amenities!"

"Well, to be fair," Hobbes said as he loaded everything into the cart, "we always had the MTM or your inventions or our friends to back us up. Now we're alone with nothing to really defend ourselves but a baseball bat and calorific snacks."

Calvin groaned. "We can't go on like this. We need to find some way off this ship. If they can't find us, then we need to make ourselves known."

"I agree, but how do we do that?"

"We need to explore the ship a bit more. We need to locate the radio or the emergency flares or something."

"I vote we find the radio. The last thing we need right now is you playing with a bunch of fireworks."

"I wouldn't do anything unseemly!"

"Other than try to see if you can pierce the hull of the ship with one?"

"… Well, come on! It's for science!"

Hobbes rolled his eyes and proceeded to push the shopping cart down the aisle again.

The soft chime of the elevator went off to alert them that they were finally on the main floor. The doors slid open, allowing them out onto the less-than-cushy floor of the service decks. They hadn't been hard to get to, much to their surprise.

Hobbes peered out into the hallway. "Wow, you'd think this area would be cordoned off to passengers," he said quietly.

Calvin was munching on the ice cream he'd gotten earlier, shoveling it down with a spoon while keeping a focused eye on his surroundings. "Either we got lucky, or this ship is falling apart," he replied between bites. "What's the map say?"

Hobbes took out the map of the ship they'd gotten in the main lobby. "It says here that we're on the officer's deck. The main control room should be down there somewhere," he said, pointing in the direction of the large doors at the far end of the hall.

"Good. Hopefully, the radio and transmitter will be in there as well."

Continuing his snack, he set off down the corridor, while Hobbes brought the shopping cart with them, absently munching on some cookies he'd grabbed.

They made it to the end of the hall, and they found that the double doors were electronic with no handles on them, and there were buttons on a keypad next to them. They stared at them for a long moment, still snacking and wondering what they would need to do about them.

"Got any ideas?" Calvin asked.

Hobbes stuffed another cookie in his mouth and thought for a moment. "Well, we're without technology, so we'll have to rely on basics," he said at last, wiping his mouth off.

"And that would mean…?"

"We break it."

"Oh, good," Calvin said approvingly, setting the tub of ice cream down for a moment. "Pass me the baseball bat."

Hobbes reached into the cart and pulled out the baseball bat, handing it over to his human friend.

Calvin took it in his hands, gripping the rubber-lined handle, and promptly started whacking at the keypad, smashing away at it until sparks started to fly from it, and in a moment, the whole thing fell off, clattering on the floor in a cloud of thick black smoke.

After a few seconds, there was a triumphant beeping noise as the doors slid open, revealing the main control room of the cruise ship, filled with all sorts of gadgets and panels that could control the ship.

"Always stick to your strengths in times like this," Calvin said smoothly, handing the bat back to Hobbes. He finished his ice cream and hefted the empty carton into a nearby trashcan before heading into the room.

Hobbes finished the cookies, tossed the empty bag in with the ice cream carton and walked into the room after him.

"Well!" Calvin said, taking in the large room. "This is the bridge! Now what do we do?"

"… Look for a radio?" Hobbes suggested.

"Sounds good… but what does a ship's radio look like?"

Hobbes scanned the room, looking at the various control panels that lined the desks. There were a lot of desks, and they all had their own panels loaded with buttons and switches, and a few monitors were set up between them. There was a flat table with a map of the ocean on it, which confused them because it wasn't like there were highways with numbers out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There were also some chairs around the room, with one in particular that sat in front of the outermost row of computers. It was tall, made of leather, and looked like the sort of chair you would have your hair cut in.

Climbing into the chair, Calvin took in the room, trying to find anything that might resemble a radio. "So much tech, so little time…," he murmured.

"Let's focus on the task at hand," Hobbes pleaded.

"Agreed. Now let's see… If I were a radio, where would I be…?"

His eyes scanned intensely over the various instruments, trying to figure out which one was the right one. They all sort of blended together in a monochrome cascade of buttons and knobs and dials.

Eventually, his eyes locked onto a headset resting on top of a console in the center of the room. A bit miffed he hadn't seen it earlier, he climbed down from the chair and took it, looking it over. "I think this is it," he said, turning it over in his hands. "How do these things work…?"

Hobbes took the chord it was attached to and followed it to the machine it was hooked up to. "It seems to be attached to this doohickey," he said at last. "Maybe if we activate that, we'll make it do whatever it needs to do."

"That will require us doing something technical, I figure," Calvin muttered, putting the headset on. "You know, I always thought I was a genius when it came to understanding technology. Now that I'm trapped out here without the MTM or Sherman to help me, I'm feeling a little lost."

"Yes, even I would appreciate the rat's help at the moment," Hobbes murmured. "His absence is truly causing a bit of a vacuum in our lives… but then, so did his presence."

Calvin stared at the plethora of shiny buttons and switches, trying to see if any of them were labeled. Crossing his fingers with one hand, he proceeded to flip the switch with fingers on the other hand.

The headset instantly transmitted a high-pitched squeal into his ears that caused him to shout in surprise and drop to the floor, clutching his chest. He wrenched them off and rubbed his sore ears.

"Well, we turned it on," Hobbes said, frantically trying to find a switch that would cancel out the noise. He flipped several of them, causing the high-pitched whine to change in pitch and volume several times before finally finding the one that switched it off, and now they could hear static coming from it.

"Okay, we figured that one out," Calvin sighed. "Now we just need to contact someone with it."

"Who do we contact?" Hobbes asked.

"Well, given the severity of the situation, we'll need someone competent, trained in rescue and capable of actually getting the job done."

"Not Search and Rescue then?"

"Heck no! They couldn't find us for two weeks in the mountains! What are they odds they'll find us out here?"

"Then who do we call?"

"I'll try contacting the MTM. Maybe he can help."

"If he can, why hasn't he already? We've been out here for a week."

"I don't know. Maybe there's something wrong. We have to try, though."

Calvin pressed a few buttons on the control panel, hoping against hope that there was someone out there who could pick up their transmission. "Hello?" he asked hopefully. "Anyone there? SOS! Anyone?"

He heard the strange sound of feedback change in pitch each time he pressed a button, but there were no voices coming out.

"It's not working," Hobbes said inanely.

"Darn technology," Calvin grumbled. "Obviously made by amateurs."

The event that occurred next was rather alarming, causing them both to jump backwards in shock. There was the millisecond-long sound of a laser discharging, and a brief streak of red zipped past and connected with the radio, causing it to explode in a flash of smoke and electricity. They ducked down as bits of plastic shrapnel were hurled at them, clattering onto the floor before throwing the room into silence once again.

Slowly, Calvin and Hobbes raised their heads to look at the destroyed radio, which was even more useless as its remains sparked and crackled in a heap on the shelf.

They looked in the direction that the laser had come from, and they stared in bewilderment at a shadow figure in the doorway.

"… Any last regrets?" Calvin asked quietly.

"Only that I never finished eating the meat section in the grocery store," Hobbes replied. "How about you?"

"Just that we didn't lock the door behind us."

The figure put one foot into the room.

Both friends grabbed onto each other in terror.

However, now that they looked carefully, they could see that the foot was metallic and reflecting in the light. In fact, now that the figure was stepping all the way into fairly-well-lit room, the entire person was mechanical. It had a head, but no face. Its legs were stiff and a bit awkward looking as it walked into the room.

"It's a robot," Calvin murmured.

"Why a robot?" Hobbes asked. "What's a robot doing here?"

The robot suddenly raised its left arm and aimed it right at them, and they realized it was getting ready to fire its second shot of the day.

"Killing us, it would appear," Calvin replied.

The laser sounded like it was charging up now as it made a high-pitched humming sound.

"What do we do to keep from getting killed?" Hobbes asked.

Calvin's eyes immediately darted to the baseball bat lying on the floor before them. In a flash, he dove towards it.

The robot fired.

Hobbes jumped in the opposite direction just as it connected with another part of the computers, causing them erupt in a fiery shower of sparks and smoke.

Calvin got the bat and jumped into a fighting position.

The robot turned again, apparently ready to fire a third time.

Calvin responded by smashing the robot's hand downwards with the bat before swing it again, a lot higher this time.

The robot's head came clean off. It clattered on the floor and skidded across the room. Its body sank to its knees and collapsed.

The two friends stared in shock for a moment.

"… Well, that wasn't so hard," said Calvin at last, holding the bat against his shoulder like a Big League player.

"All that panic over a robot that can't even stand up to decapitation," Hobbes sighed, shaking his head. "That's a whole week of relaxation down the drain."

Suddenly, the robot's bare neck sparked, causing them both to jump. It staggered upright again, and it began feeling around for its head. Much to their horror, the head proceeded to move in its body's direction, waddling back and forth as it attempted to get closer.

"Maybe we should make tracks," Hobbes whimpered.

"Agreed," Calvin said with a nod.

Keeping the bat on them, the two friends fled the bridge as fast as they could.

The robot finally found its head and proceeded to pick it up and put it back on its head, snapping it in place while a faint glow appeared around its neck, indicating that its self-repair system was taking effect. With everything solidified and reconnected, it turned and proceeded to sprint down the corridor after them.

Calvin's fist punched into a button in the elevator and watched as the doors slid shut. As he felt the compartment jerk slightly and start to travel upwards, he went to join Hobbes in the corner. The tiger was clutching the baseball bat tightly in his paws, facing the door and ready to swing should the robot force its way in.

"I feel bad for not grabbing the shopping cart," Calvin muttered, sitting down on the floor.

"I don't," Hobbes replied. "After all that excitement, my tummy's all bubbly."

"Okay… we've figured out that the creature is actually a robot. Now we need to figure out why there's a robot on a cruise ship."

"Security? I mean, we haven't seen any guards or crewmembers the entire time we've been here."

"You think the people on this planet are smart enough to build a robot like that? No, no, no, there's gotta be something else."

There was a loud noise from above them, and suddenly, the elevator stopped, and the lights flickered, but thankfully, they didn't go off.

The two friends sat there in silent disbelief.

"No way…," Calvin murmured. He ran over to the buttons and proceeded to push them determinedly, but nothing happened.

"How can this happen?!" Hobbes cried. "Why?!"

"Okay, keep your head! We just need to figure this out. How do we escape?"

Hobbes suddenly froze where he stood, as if he had just heard something.

"… What is it?" Calvin asked, knowing that his friend had all five senses enhanced, being of a feline nature.

"I'm not sure, but it came from beneath us," Hobbes replied quietly.

"… Did it sound like elevator doors being pried open?"

"… You know, that may be it."

"I don't suppose you can hear the sound of something climbing up a wall in our direction?"

"Now that you mention it…"

CRANG!

They both jumped backwards as a large metal hand suddenly burst through the center of the floor, and it was already glowing bright red, preparing to fire a laser.

In a moment's panic, Hobbes swung the baseball bat at the hand, sending it flying off the robot's wrist in a shower of sparks, and it bounced off the opposite wall before clattering on the carpeted floor. They both watched as the red glow disappeared.

The sparking wrist disappeared back into the floor as it tried to get its other hand through the hole.

Hobbes then noticed the ventilation shaft over the elevator and pushed it open with the bat. "Come on! This way!" he said quickly, lacing his fingers together to give his friend a leg up.

Calvin quickly snatched up the severed robot hand and climbed into his friend's paws, and Hobbes lifted him up and pushed him through the opening. He passed up the bat and jumped up after him as the robot finished tearing the floor open and digging its way inside.

Calvin and Hobbes continued to climb up the cables towards the next door, which thankfully wasn't far away.

"How do we get it open?" Hobbes asked.

"With this," Calvin replied, holding onto the robot hand. He toyed with the exposed wiring on the back and pressed a few together. One of the fingers glowed bright red, and after a moment of humming, it fired a single blast through the elevator doors, cutting a nice clean hole through them that was actually a bit on the small side.

"… Is that it?" Hobbes asked disappointedly.

"Er…"

"Do we have any pencils that need to escape?"

"Give me a second…"

Calvin fiddled with the wires again, and a moment later, all five fingers were glowing, and they fired all together, cutting an even bigger hole in the door, which was this time big enough for them to get through.

At that moment, the elevator below them was wrenched open as the one-handed robot fought its way out of the capsule, and it began to very rapidly crawl up the wall towards them.

Calvin managed to swing across to the hole in the doors from the cable, and Hobbes jumped across after him, just as the robot was about to get them. It was just about to jump across and get them, when Calvin suddenly played with the wires some more and caused the middle finger to fire at the cable the robot was climbing up, slicing it neatly in two, and the half with the robot plummeted, taking it with it, and they both landed on top of the elevator, causing the other cables to snap, and they all went screeching away, plunging into the darkness for several seconds before they heard a crash quietly echo back up towards them.

The two friends collapsed against the wall behind them, exhausted and catching their breath.

"Man…," Hobbes gasped, slumping pitifully on the floor. "We're out of shape…"

"Well, we're finally rid of that thing," Calvin replied. "We can go back to normal around here. I bet if we hurry, we can get to the movie theater and catch a flick before bedtime."

Their thoughts were interrupted by an electronic beeping noise. They looked around for a moment before realizing it was coming from right next to them. It was coming from the severed robot hand they had. The palm was blinking a red light in time with the beeping.

"What's that?" Hobbes asked with quiet dread.

"Well, judging from the frequency patterns, I'd deduce that it's a transmission signal," Calvin replied, holding the hand.

"So… it's transmitting?"

"Yes, it is."

"… Transmitting to whom?"

"Well… I'd wager to whoever sent it."

"So… whoever sent it will be able to find us?"

"Yeah, probably, they will."

"And if the people who sent it are trying to kill us, then we should probably be a little nervous right now."

"Yeah…"

They slowly staggered to their feet.

"Okay, we need to be sensible," Calvin said at last. "We'll both stand guard on opposite sides of the ship. You guard on the port side. I'll guard the starboard side. If one of us sees something approaching, we immediately go and contact the other."

"… Okay…," Hobbes said uncertainly. "So… do we just hang out on opposite sides of the ship until we see something?"

"Well, it's either that, or we chance the possibility of the bad guys coming and getting us in our sleep."

"… All right, let's do it."

"Okay. See you later, ol' buddy."

"You, too. Don't forget about meals."

"Maybe I should for a while. All this constant snacking seems to be giving me a double chin…"

"Nah, you look fine."

"Really?"

"You've got the metabolism of a six-year-old. Me – all it takes is an entire fish buffet, and I gain five pounds."

"Hobbes?"

"Yes."

"… Why are we talking like two middle-aged women?"

"… I don't know. It just happened."

After a long pause, they reluctantly turned and headed in opposite directions of the ship.

They left the robot hand on the floor, beeping away.

The beeping on Dr Brainstorm's radar continued, much to his delight. "At last, we've found them!" he crowed triumphantly, running up from the cabin to the deck, where he found Jack rest on a deck chair, sipping a mao-tai out of a coconut cup.

"What's going on?" the robot asked sleepily, looking out from under his straw hat.

"I've found the boy and the tiger! The recon robot has transmitted the signal!"

"Oh, good, glad to hear it."

Dr Brainstorm pulled a telescope out of his lab coat pocket and aimed it at the ocean, looking around. "The signal said it was coming from that direction! We shall find that cruise ship and eliminate the pair of them!"

"Did they defeat the recon robot?"

"Sadly, yes, but no matter. The robot was supposed to beat them. Now that they've beaten it, they will feel smug and superior, believing they've won, and now they'll think they can defeat anything!"

"Anything built by you, anyway."

"Oh, whatever! Come, Jack! We've got work to do! Help me plot a course!"

"Aye, aye, captain," Jack replied sarcastically as he got up and stretched before heading down into the cabin where all the computers and radars were.

Heading for the main computer with the radar screen, he began to pull up the information about the recon robot, curious to see what had happened to it. He found that it had pretty much been crushed in some sort of crash, which he found slightly amusing, given that it had been on a cruise ship.

However, the more he read, the more confused he began to feel. There were elements of data that weren't lining up with reality.

"Hey, Frank! Get down here!" he called up to the upper deck.

"DR BRAINSTORM! What is it now?" the mad scientist demanded angrily, stomping down into the cabin with his telescope.

"I'm reading some of the data the recon robot sent back, and there's one little detail that stands out above all else."

"Oh, yeah? What's that?"

"Well, we sent the robot out to them six hours ago, right?"

"Right."

"It says it was on the cruise ship for a week."

Dr Brainstorm stared at the readout on the screen in confusion. It was true. For some reason, the recon robot had reported seven days' worth of activity.

"Must be a glitch," Brainstorm grumbled. "I built that thing in a hurry. Must've gotten a few things wrong."

"You must've…," Jack murmured, looking genuinely stumped.

"Time to plot a course! Come on, Jack! We need to get out there and catch him before someone else does!"

"… Yeah, okay," Jack agreed, setting to work at the computers, mainly because he was now very curious to see what was happening on that cruise ship.