Chapter 12
"What happened?" asked Tiny anxiously, the moment I appeared on the Bridge.
Proudly, I held up the canister, and grinned.
"Got it!" I cried.
"You recovered the data?" Tiny asked.
"No, we recovered the secret recipe for Spectran Fried Chicken, dumbass!" I laughed. "Brrrt… breeep…. dooot… yes… drrrrt…." It was probably just as well. If Tiny thought I had information about fried chicken, he might wet himself.
"That's fantastic!" Tiny screeched, jumping up and pulling me into a big bear hug. It was kind of like being attacked by a sumo wrestler, only bouncier. "I can't believe you guys did it!"
"What do you mean, you 'can't believe' that we did it? Didn't you have any fucking faith in us?" I asked indignantly. "Drrreeeet… brooot… didn't think… doot… we could do it?"
"Uh… that's not what I meant…" Tiny mumbled, turning red. I could tell by the look on his face that it had been exactly what he had meant, but that he hadn't intended to let it slip.
"Shit, man! If you don't think we can do it, what does that say about our fucking team?" I asked him. "Brrrrt… beep… our…doot… team…" I shook my head in frustration. That translation was actually painful.
"You're right, Keyop!" Tiny replied quickly. "I should have had more faith. You guys did it!" Suddenly, he looked around. "Uh, where are the others?"
I had forgotten about the others.
Crap.
"I left them fighting a bunch of Spectran soldiers." I mumbled. "Brrrriiip… drroooot… fighting Spectra…"
"You left them to fight the Spectrans, while you ran out of there?" Tiny's face was aghast.
"Don't make it sound like that!" I retorted. "Mark ordered me to leave with the data!" "Breeeet… beep… orders… to save… doot… data!"
"I guess that makes sense." Tiny shrugged. He tried to scratch his head, but didn't have much success, since he was still wearing his helmet. "The primary mission was to recover the data."
"Do you think we should go in there, and help them out?" he asked me.
Shit, why was he asking me? I was just a fucking kid! But here he was, staring at me like I had all of the damn answers. As if!
Still… no one had ever looked at me like that before. It was almost as if… he was asking me to tell him what to do. Almost unconsciously, my chest puffed out with pride, and I had to stop myself from doing a strut.
I was just about to tell him what I thought we should do, when I was interrupted by an enormous rumbling sound.
"What the hell?" I cried. "Brrrt… what's that?"
We both turned to look at the viewscreen, just as a violent explosion tore through the Spectran mining base.
Shit.
88888
We gaped, open-mouthed, at the yellow-orange flames devouring the remainder of the base. Black smoke billowed toward the sky, as if the flames were trying to reach the Planet Spectra itself.
We stood in silence for a moment, taking in the awesome sight, until Tiny spoke.
"Where are they?" he whispered.
Crap! I had momentarily forgotten about Mark, Jason and Princess.
"They should have been back by now." I muttered. "What the hell are they doing?" "Brrrt… should be… doot… back…"
"I don't see them!" cried Tiny, growing more frantic by the second. "What should we do?"
"Shit! How the hell should I know?" I yelled, on the verge of freaking out entirely. "Breeeet…. broooop… doot… beep… beep… beep…"
And then, I suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
I sat down at my station, scanning for any sign of our teammates.
"No sign… of life…" I reported. Tiny's face blanched.
"No life signs at all?" he asked nervously, "No one?""
I shook my head.
"We've got to keep out shit together, Tiny!" I told him, "Get us up in the damn sky, so we can perform a visual search!" "Drrrrt… broot… fly… beep… visual… search… doot…"
Tiny's face took on an expression of intense relief.
"Got it!" he cried. "Great idea, Keyop!" He busied himself launching the Phoenix into the air, while I returned to my station. I began a more thorough scan, inputing a grid-like search pattern into the Phoenix's computers. Once I had initiated my procedure, I moved up to Mark's seat at the front of the Bridge to help Tiny.
"Do you see anything?" Tiny asked me. I shook my head slowly.
"Keep looking!" I ordered.
But after about an hour of flying around the area and searching, we still hadn't found them. My search program had finished, and it could find no sign of life anywhere in the vicinity of the explosion.
I was trying to hold it together for Tiny's sake. The guy looked like he was about to have a fucking heart attack! But it was getting more and more difficult with every passing second. I looked at my hands lying in my lap, taking deep breaths to calm myself down.
A sudden flash of light caught my eye. My communicator had momentarily reflected the image of the fire from the viewscreen.
My communicator! Shit! I couldn't believe that we hadn't thought about that already!
"Princess! Where the hell are you?" I shouted into my wrist. "Fucking answer me! Princess!" "Brrrrt… calling… Princess…. come in… doot… Princess…"
There was no answer.
I tried contacting Mark and Jason, but there was only silence.
I looked at Tiny. Tears were falling down his face. He looked like he was scared shitless.
I knew exactly how he felt.
"What do we do, now?" Tiny asked me.
I thought for a moment, then answered him.
"We have to contact my father." I said. "He'll know what to do." "Broop… doot… contact… Chief… breep… help us…"
Tiny nodded, and activated the Phoenix's communication system. A few seconds later, my father's image appeared in front of us.
My mouth felt dry. I had no idea how to explain what had just happened.
"Tiny, Keyop!" my father exclaimed, "I'm glad you contacted us. I need you to return to base, immediately!"
"We can't…" Tiny sobbed.
"Mark… Princess… Jason…" I sniffled, "Lost…"
"They're not exactly lost." my father said firmly. "At least… we think they're alive. We're just not entirely sure where they are."
"What?" I looked up at my father. "What's going on?"
"I have some explaining to do." my father sighed. "But in order to locate Mark, Jason and Princess, I need to have access to the scans you performed on the Phoenix. That data will help us narrow down our potential search area."
"What are you talking about, Chief?" Tiny asked suspiciously. "How did you know that we performed scans?"
"I'll explain everything when you return to Center Neptune." my father repeated. "Just get yourselves back here, immediately!"
"G-Force!" I saluted. I nodded at Tiny, who ended the transmission, and turned away from the remnants of the base.
But as we left, I couldn't help feeling that we were deserting our teammates, in their time of need.
