Chapter 20
"He said what?" Arzu couldn't believe that her crew member had told Wizz-Ra. The ThunderCats, Slythe, Willa, Nada, Mandora, Corporal Simmons, Snowman, and Arzu and her remaining loyal crew had met in the smaller dining room about an hour and a half later.
"He said that he did get one more message. The Mutant High Council indicated that it was a race to the finish. Whoever got to Slythe and back to Plundarr first would receive the incentives and no one else," the wizard repeated.
"So they are sending more here," Slythe frowned.
"Hold your roll. We didn't bump into any other ships on our way here," Esen pointed out.
"Forgive me but space is a very large place – how could you tell?" Cheetara asked.
"Our scanners have a long range of approximately ten miles. We can also detect other cloaked Mutant ships, though we wouldn't necessarily be able to track other cloaked ships. The Mutant High Council didn't exactly see the need for it, for some reason," the female jackal, Ayşegül, explained.
"That seems irrational," Lion-O commented.
"Welcome to Plundarr, where not everything we do makes sense, except to the High Council," Hamza, the male jackal, spoke up.
"Good times, good times," Panthro shook his head.
"I'll get my team on it. Hopefully we can manage to avoid a surprise. Assistance is still at least three days out," Mandora said.
"Your said assistance won't be locking us up right?" Refik, the male monkian, wanted to know.
"As long as you don't have any warrants out in your name, no. In fact, they may want your opinion on a few things," Mandora assured them.
"They want us to be spies," Ayşegül said.
"Think of it as showing loyalty to your new King. Well if Lion-O gets the ok from the other leaders of Third Earth," the Evil Chaser said before quickly heading down to the Control Room.
"Talk about weird. I never thought I'd be living with Thunderians and hopefully happily to boot," Esen couldn't believe it.
"Well it certainly may happen. As Mandora stated, I need to confer with the other leaders here on Third Earth," the lion spoke up.
"Aren't you King? Doesn't that mean you make the decisions?" Hamza asked.
"I can only speak for my people. We share this planet with many others and as such decisions of this magnitude are shared," Lion-O explained.
"So no hostile takeover huh?" Refik wondered.
"What do they teach you on Plundarr?" Tygra gave him a look.
"Apparently, not the truth. That's why I couldn't believe to hear that you had defended Slythe against the Mutant High Council's demands," Arzu said.
"Well he'd been a great help. He helped us so we helped him. Seemed only fair," Lion-O said.
"Don't confuse his good nature with weakness," Willa spoke up. Everyone turned to look at her. Arzu raised an eyebrow.
"Hardly. I doubt that he would be King without the ability to flex those muscles, both literally and figuratively," the female lizard said.
"Yes, well I am not the only one with muscles. Until we hear back from the Evil Chasers, I suggest we stay on high alert. With any luck, the High Council bluffed, and your ship was the only one that came here," Lion-O hoped he was right. Just then alarms went off across the Lair.
"What is that?" Esen asked.
"Medical alert," Tygra said. He was already up and out of his seat heading for the door.
"I need all available personnel to the Med Bay," the voice over the communication system was unmistakable. It also sounded like the person on the other end of the call was in pain.
"Pumyra," Ben-Gali was off like a shot, Cheetara moved faster and was gone.
"That can't be good," Ayşegül frowned.
"No, it isn't. her cub isn't due for almost two and a half months," Lion-O quickly got out of his chair and headed for the door.
"I'll help," Refik offered.
"You have medical training?" the lion asked.
"I'm the ship's medic," the monkian nodded.
"Then come on," Lion-O said.
To Be Continued…
