Chapter 36

Lilo panted, she hadn't stopped nor did she intend to. Her mind was devoted to a singular thought. Her friends. Stitch could be in trouble. Now she was sprinting through dark corridors, she didn't know where she was going, and nor did she care. She was in danger, but not as much danger as Stitch and his cousins. It was the priority at the forefront of her mind. Nothing took precedence. It was so prominent, the adrenaline fuelling her singular resolve, that she wasn't looking where she was going. The world span as she crashed, in the darkness, she saw nothing. But the feeling of the crash spoke volumes. The texture, unmistakeable. The white clod alien guard, looked down, no face visible behind the visor. Desperately she rolled, struggling to her feet. The alien bent down grabbing her arm. She tugged at the man with a pent up aggression. She almost snarled. The alien wasn't fazed at all by her plight. Instead he reached up to touch the side of his visor. She heard decompression sound as the helmet twisted. The alien chucked the helmet nonchalantly to the side of the corridor. His face was scarred, as if someone had chiselled his face while having a seizure. From what Lilo could guess he was supposed to have fur, but it had been shaven off. He only had three teeth which were sharpened to points. He gurgled in some alien dialect, chuckled and began sauntering away. Blissfully 'singing'.

Lilo blinked. How was she supposed to react to that. She had just escaped from prison, and the guards were helping her up. What was going on? From the corner of her eye she the helmet, she picked it up, a look of confused indignation plastered across her face. She heard a twanging sound come from further down the corridor. As she reached a junction helmet cradled in her hands, she saw a light. A room had light coming from it. Her confusion, and curiosity, convinced her to move toward it. Maybe that alien was just a deranged one- off, it certainly had that vibe. She peered round the door with all the caution she could muster. The light came, not from lights, but a series of helmet spotlights which were perched at the sides of the room pointing at the floor. However the lights actually seemed to integrate with the rooms design. To Lilo's amazement this room was an almost exact replica of a 1960's jazz club. A stage filled up one side of the room, a couple of guards played alien instruments upon it. Lilo had to take a moment to savour the image of the intimidating guards slapping at strings. The sound was piercing but strangely enchanting. Lilo noticed these guards held there helmet microphones to the instruments making it louder. Clearly to overhaul the hum of the chat. There was no English in the thrum of guards, they sat around circular tables, drinks of varying colour and size, in hand. No guard wore a helmet. In one corner a bar, in an almost exact copy of the ones down on earth, was packed with the bottle equivalents of their drinks, as a waiter in appropriate get up served them. Lilo was speechless. Not least, because she was slightly scared, but because of the scale of the room, it was massive. She stood with her mouth open admiring the replica, the only real anomaly was the colour. Whereas the rest of the ship was white this room was an obnoxious red.

Something bumped her shoulder, an alien, Lilo reared back, tripping to the floor. And in a scarily similar way the alien bent down and helped her up. Lilo couldn't understand the surrealism. She was in a replica 1960's jazz club, with guards, who really should be capturing her. But instead, were drinking, chatting, and listening to music. She almost wanted to scream. She was sweating profusely. The alien touched her arm. He lifted his helmet. A reptilian face stared down at her.

"Uch blic ki inkh?" It seemed like he was coughing up furball.

Lilo was suddenly snapped back to reality.

"Uh… Hello?"

"Ohhhhhh, Ji eac ik," He looked around, still holding onto her arm. He waved. She followed his gaze. There was another alien slouched alone on a seat in the corner. He wasn't a guard, he hadn't the usual getup. Instead he wore a large coat of grey, it enveloped his body as he seemed far too short for it. He nodded as an equally disproportionate pair of goggles slipped down his face. The reptilian alien pulled him toward the table. Lilo was confused, yet she surmised that the table was better than prison. She allowed herself to be pulled, whereupon they sat her down. The alien sat likewise and they both stared with interest at her.

"Ekk vi hik?" The lizard one turned to the small one.

"Eh ni ka nak," They both turned to her again, the small one cleared his throat.

"I say, would you care for a drink?" In a very posh British accent. The diminutive cat-like alien then bowed, proffering a glass of a blue liquid. Lilo almost fell off her chair. Had she entered Wonderland? The glass might have well had 'Drink me!' on a label. It was so surreal. She was used to supernatural aliens but this was too much.

"H-how?"

"How can I speak English?" He chuckled in a friendly manner."You would be surprised, my dear, how famous 'English' is out here."

"But why would you speak English out here?"

"Speak it ha ha, no my dear, we don't make a habit of speaking it, we study it." His goggles slipped down his face, he resettled them with a flourish that almost forgave the pause," You see, most languages we use here, are simple and efficient. 'English' is one of the most inefficient languages. It's a marvel, a specimen of divine providence, so many contractions, conjunctions and convoluted mixtures. So many words for the same word. Wonderful isn't it?"

"Uh… Yeah… I guess. Well, my name is Lilo, I'm from Earth."

"Pleasure, the name's Negid and this here is Janqe. I'm a science officer and he is my bodyguard." Janqe smiled and nodded at her. The music reached its final twang and the group exitted to their respective tables.

"Hey I can't help but notice that no one is working. Is there a problem?"

"Oh that…" he turned to his friend, "Ik ji la di," They laughed, the movement shaking the table. The glass toppled, the blue liquid covered the table. The little alien looked forlornly into the bottom of his glass.

A large alien had jumped up onto the stage, his muscles rippling and his overbearing nature, very apparent. He carried himself with humility, perhaps because his arm was in a sling and the cogs in his head seemed to be smoking.

"Speak of the doddle, Did I say that right?" Lilo didn't answer, the big alien. The same that knocked her out. She considered hiding under the table. She felt the fear seep into her skin. Negid noticed. "Scary huh? He's big, not much in the brain area. I made friends with him early. Really easy actually. I can get pretty much anything I want here with him at my shoulder." He chuckled. "His name's Hoklert, a yahar, dying race. Rock for arms and rock for brains. He's probably the cleverest out of all their race. It's why they're dying out." He whispered in her ear as Hoklert cleared his throat. His entire speech was done in another language so Negid translated for her.

"Hamsterwheel is wrong to be catching these creatures. We are wrong to be catching these creatures. They were just like us working for him. Then he turned on them. He could turn on us next. We should fight back against the Hamster." The speech was hardly politician worthy but he received a decent applause.

"He wants to fight against Hamsterviel?"

"Yeah but nothing electronic works on the ship anymore so no one can find him."

"What happened?"

"Well you see, a couple of intruders made it onto the ship. Four in fact. Little monsters, yet unusually powerful…"

"Really!? Experiments broke into the ship!"

"Oh my… Did I say experiments? He looked up at her face from the glass, the goggles slipping from his face." Here I thought you were just an escaped Earth specimen, how do you know they are experiments?"

"Uh… They live with us down on Earth."

"Impossible… You can't live with them, I mean, they are destructive in every sense- they weren't designed with compassion."

"Well, I'm the one who tames them," The little alien perked up, he bent toward his friend whispering in the alien language. The lizard alien laughed.

"Tame them? How?" Lilo, still a little bemused by the company, surmised that if she convinced these people to help her, she may be able to save the experiments. They seemed nice enough. Maybe she could play on their heartstrings?

"Well, Mr.… Negid, I already knew about the experiments because one came to Earth. He was rough and destructive because he didn't know anything else. So I taught him about family and quickly he became considerate, we were best friends, but the federation wanted to capture him. Me Pleakly, an Earth expert and Jumba a scientist helped to…"

"Jumba? As in Jumba Jookiba!?" Negid perked up. Even Janqe's eyes had lit up at the name.

"Yeah, scientist, big and round." The two aliens looked at each other. Their eyes told volumes. They clearly knew him, but what did they think of him. Did they hate him or respect him.

"Lilo, I know what you want us to do, if we help you free your friends you will take me to Jumba," He already knew what her answer would be, he and Janqe had already stood upsetting the film of liquid that covered the table.

"Yes, thank you so much. Um… do you know the way?" He waggled his finger at Lilo,

"I'm a scientist remember, and some things a scientist always keeps on him at all times." Out of his pocket he drew a small square piece of metal. "Lik ji," The metal box disconnected the glow of green light, extenuating the lines, as the piece was bisected into four. It enlarged then. Widening, becoming a large screen. It hovered just above his hand, without any visible support. " The four pieces are the same material as the stuff they use in anti gravity platforms," He tapped his palm." It'll stay like that because of the magnetism with the other metals. The screen itself is a compact hologramatic system with organic sensors. Hence a movement corresponds with an option on the screen." He waved his hand at the screen a couple of times. A map appeared. "Indubitably, good isn't it, my dear." She was impressed, Jumba had some competition. "Come Janqe, Lilo,"

Janqe was happily chatting with Hoklert. "Janqe! You are useless, really. How can you be my bodyguard if you aren't with me." Janqe slapped Hoklert on the shoulder.

"Ti lok no ik?"

"Jo no ki," Hoklert smiled. Lilo looked fearfully at the behemoth, but she didn't cower. She trusted Negid.

"Lilo, we seem to have company on our trip."

"He's not going to…"

"No, no, my dear, he is quite loyal once you get to know him." The four turned down the corridor Janqe taking the lead with his helmet torch shining down the hallway.

"Negid?"

"Yes?"

"Why do you want to meet Jumba so badly? How do you know him?" Negid grabbed his goggles settling them on his head. In the dark she couldn't see the entirety of his diminutive frame. Especially when he was compared to Hoklert's expansive visage. But Lilo could make out white. He was grinning widely.