Chapter 16: Fuel Source

"Oh, isn't that sweet?" crooned Calendrica, her face twisted into an evil grin, "You love him. Pity it's far too late for that; now isn't it?"

"You can't do this!!" I cried, "My mom, she'll know something's wrong; she'll come looking for me!!"

At this statement Malvagita and Calendrica burst into peals of laughter.

"What is so damn funny!!?" I roared.

Malvagita, still laughing, walked over to the wall where Annie was chained. Annie's eyes bugged out, but Malvagita bypassed her and pressed on a nondescript stone. The stone went into the wall and a table slid out with a bunch of buttons on it. Calendrica, now fully composed, walked over to the wall as Malvagita pressed a button and an overhead came down.

"Ooooh, nice electronics," I snarled, "What's next, a slide show?"

Calendrica growled at me and motioned to Malvagita, who pressed some more buttons. Instantly a picture appeared on the screen. It was Mom on stage. I could see her and Carey and even Ned and Irene off in the stands.

"Your mother can't help you, Fiona," said Calendrica, "She's too busy working for us."

"For you!!?" I asked, astonished, "Mom would never help you!!!"

"Oh, but she is," smirked Calendrica, "You see, dear Fiona. We need your mother, as well as all the women performing here today."

"Why?" I asked; my voice coming out as barely more than a hushed whisper.

"They provide the necessary energy we need to refuel our ship," said Calendrica; as calmly as if you had asked her what color the sky was.

"So that WAS your ship that Annie and I saw!!!" I cried.

"YOU SAW IT!!!?" roared Malvagita.

"Silence, Malvagita, it doesn't matter. In an hour, the girl will be dead, and we'll be free to do as we please with this meddler," said Calendrica.

I had to stall them. The longer I stalled, the better the chance was that someone would notice our disappearance and start looking for us.

"So…you say it ran out of fuel?" I asked, trying to keep an air of calmness around my voice.

"Why, yes," said Calendrica, "It did."

She glanced wistfully off into space and then continued.

"It was terrible really. We had just completed our mission when the energy source went poof."

"Poof?"

"Yes, it was awful. Here we were, two innocent naïve girls who didn't know how to get home without getting our fuel source replenished."

"What's your fuel source?"

"Why isn't that obvious?" said Calendrica, motioning to Malvagita.

Malvagita pressed a button and Mom's voice blared through the room. Calendrica made another motion and Malvagita pressed a button. Mom's voice was suddenly silenced.

"You use songs as a fuel source?" I asked incredulously.

"Not songs," said Calendrica, "When the female human voice sings, it produces a sound frequency so unique and sensitive that the ship picks it out of a crowd and turns it into energy."

"Well…" I was desperate now, "Why not just use the radio, or go to a concert?"

"The radio frequencies aren't loud enough," hissed Malvagita, "and we couldn't get the ship close enough to the performers at other concerts."

"No," interrupted Calendrica, "The only choice we had was to stage this concert, drawing in small name acts we knew would play here."

"My mother is NOT small-time!!!!!!!" I cried, "She's famous. People EVERYWHERE know her!!!"

Calendrica grinned lazily, "Well, that doesn't really matter now, does it?"