Chapter 14

Vaahn led Buck and Wilma through the underground complex maze of corridors until they finally entered a large room. In the center of the chamber sat a large shuttle with the Gaussian national logo emblazoned upon it in several places. Vaahn turned and smiled.

"I leave my shuttle in your very capable hands," he said, grinning at Buck. "I assume you can fly it with no problems?"

Buck nodded once. "If it moves, I can fly it."

"Good." Vaahn noticed two large men moving away from the shuttle toward them. "Ah, these are the two men I was telling you about. They will act as your bodyguards."

Buck inspected them as they moved across the hangar floor. "They look like the Barbarian Brothers," he muttered.

"The Barbarian who?" Wilma asked.

Buck simply smirked as he shook his head. The two men stepped up to Vaahn and saluted. Vaahn returned the salute, then turned to face Buck.

"They are in fact brothers. You noticed the resemblance?"

"A little bit," Buck answered sarcastically.

"This is Fricholek," Vaahn started.

"And I'm Fracholas," the other announced proudly as he saluted Wilma.

Buck grinned slightly. "Frick and Frack, huh?"
Both men saluted Buck. "At your service," they said in unison.

Buck glanced at both Vaahn and Wilma out of the corner of his eyes before finally answering, "Right." He turned to Vaahn. "I'd like to contact Doctor Huer if that's possible."

Vaahn frowned visibly. "That may not be a good idea. This mission must remain absolutely confidential if it has any hopes of success. If your transmission were leaked or intercepted, it may prove disastrous."

"I don't plan on giving him any details over a non-secure transmission," Buck replied indignantly. "This isn't exactly the first top-secret mission I've ever done."

"He wants to check up on Twiki," Wilma chimed in, smiling.

Buck looked at Wilma out of the corner of his eye again. "Am I that obvious?"

Wilma wrapped both hands around his forearm and smiled broadly. "When it comes to Twiki, yes you are," she replied sweetly.

Vaahn grinned and nodded. "I understand. My shuttle has a secure channel you can use. Just be careful is all I ask."

"I'm always careful."

Wilma cocked her head and glared up at him. "Really?"

The ever so slight hint of a grin appeared at the corner of his mouth. "What? I always have protection with me..., at least when Twiki is around I do."

Wilma continued to stare up at him. "Really?" she repeated. "He's not protection," she argued. "He's a partner in crime."

The slight hint of a grin quickly became a full grown smile. He waved his free hand toward the shuttle. "Let's get going. We're burning daylight. Or at least I assume it's day outside."

Vaahn saluted the two Earth agents. "Good luck Captain, Colonel. I will anxiously await your successful return."

Buck and Wilma started to cross the chamber with Frick and Frack following in step closely behind. When they reached the ship, Buck jumped into the pilot's seat as Wilma took the copilot's seat. The two bodyguards found bucket seats in the passenger area behind the cockpit and buckled themselves in. Buck studied the controls briefly before bringing the engines to life. As he did a large opening in the wall ahead of them appeared. Bright sunlight began to pour into the cockpit. Both Buck and Wilma had to shield their eyes for several moments before they became adjusted to the light. By the time they did, the opening was large enough for the shuttle to exit into the desert air. When Buck eased the shuttle through the opening, he happened to look down at the desert floor.

"Oh nuts," he muttered almost to himself.

Wilma turned her head quickly. "What's wrong?"

He pointed down and to his right. Wilma's gaze followed the point. "We forgot to return the hovercraft. I hope Finegan doesn't take it out of our security deposit."

Wilma simply smiled and leaned back in her seat. Quickly the shuttle ascended into the atmosphere. Within minutes they were flying through the blackness of space. Buck tapped a series of buttons on the console before him and then leaned back in his seat. Several moments passed before the image of an elderly man appeared on the screen between the two pilot's seats.

"Morning, Doctor Huer," Buck said, smiling.

"Buck!" he replied cheerfully. "I was not expecting to hear from you quite so quickly. How is your vacation going?"

Buck and Wilma exchanged quick glances. "It's going great! Just wanted to touch base with you before we hit the stargate."

Huer cocked his head a bit. "Stargate?"

"Yeah. We're doing a quick tour of the whole sector. You know, just seeing the major sights."

Huer nodded. "Of course."

"Any news on Twiki?"

Doctor Huer's face brightened. "As a matter of fact there is!"

Buck's eyes widened. "Really? He's fixed?"

Huer hesitated for the slightest of moments. "I was wondering if you would like to have him accompany you for the rest of your journey."

"Sure! That'd be great!"

"Where would be a convenient place to meet you? I don't want to make you come all the way back here if you're not going to be in the immediate area."

Buck looked at Wilma. She rubbed her chin and lowered her head in thought for a moment. "How about Starbase 10?" she proffered.

Buck nodded as he turned back toward the view screen. "Yeah, Starbase 10 would work."

"Excellent. I can send a courier to meet you there in a couple hours."

"Great! Thanks, Doc. And give Dr. Estes and Theo my thanks too."

Huer smiled warmly. "I'll let you give them your thanks when you see them."

"Fair enough. Thanks, Doc. Well we gotta go; we're almost to the stargate. See ya later, Doc."

Buck tapped a button and Huer's face disappeared from the screen. He turned to look at Wilma. "Isn't that great!"

"Captain Rogers?"

Buck turned to look at the two men in the passenger area. He had almost forgotten about them.

"Are you sure that is a wise decision?" asked Frick.

"What do you mean?"

"Starbase 10 is pretty big. It's right beside one of the busiest stargates in the galaxy. If the assassins were able to intercept your transmission, you just told them where you would be. That's going to make our job a little harder."

"The transmission was on a secure channel."

"Yes, I realize that, but it's still possible that it could have been intercepted. The assassins could have hi-tech decoding programs. They could be there before us, just waiting for us to land."

Buck thought for only a moment. "That is possible, but if I have the chance of getting Twiki back to help me, I'm all for that."

"What's so important about a droid?"

Buck smiled knowingly. "Twiki has saved my life more times than I care to admit. If it means getting him back, I'll take the chance. Right Wilma?"

Buck turned to look at Wilma. However she did not return the pleased look clearly on Buck's face. Instead she seemed to be deep in thought. Buck's smile quickly faded. "What's wrong?"

Wilma bit her upper lip. "I don't know, but something just isn't right."

Buck frowned. "Was it something he said?" he asked, indicating Frick.

Wilma quickly shook her head. "No, not him."

"Was it something Doctor Huer said?" Buck pressed.

She shook her head. "More like something he didn't say."

"You were profiling him?"

Wilma shrugged. "Sorry, bad habit. I'm used to interrogating people and reading them, not only their responses but their body language too."

"What did you pick up?"

"He never said that Twiki was 'fixed.'"

"But we're going to rendezvous with him right now," Buck argued mildly. "He wouldn't send him if he wasn't fixed... right?"

Once again she shrugged. "He might be functional, but I don't think he's 'fixed.' And there's another thing. When you said to give your thanks to Dr. Estes and Dr. Theopolis, he said you can do that in person. I think he's sending one or both of them with Twiki. Something still isn't right with Twiki, though. I'll bet you lunch on it!"

Buck shook his head, then quickly turned to do some quick calculations on the console. "No bet," he said as the shuttle entered into the stargate. "I've paid for far too many of your lunches lately."

Wilma merely smirked.