Peace

C/by: Kenjaje

Chapter 5: Mayday

"A hyper drive tunnel is basically remains of a large hyper jump. This tunnel is the tear in space that was created, and will stay for long amount of time." Jumba answered to Lilo's question.

"But isn't that a black hole?"

"No, black hole is very dangerous. Hyper drive tunnel his harmless, if something is too large, it won't pass through."

"So then if earth gets caught in it-"

"Nothing will happen." Jumba reassured her, waving his hand flat against the air. "Do not be worrying. If it was major problem, would have told you in first place." Lilo smiled.

"Alright then. When do we get to it?"

"In about...one minute, thirty seconds." Angel said, looking at the radar. Lilo looked outside the window anxiously, they had been flying for almost half an hour. A while passed, Lilo kept looking at the radar and watching the seconds tick down.

"I wonder how Stitch is right now..." She wandered in her thoughts. "I can't help but believe he actually cried out to me last night. Like he was suffering, being forced to do something he desperately didn't want to." The ETA read thirty seconds. Lilo looked out the front to see the hyper drive tunnel.

It seemed more enormous then she had imagined; a giant swirling vortex. A rift that seemed two dimensional, but was in fact four dimensions, as Jumba explained. It was a straightaway between the universe; a long tunnel that made traveling faster and easier, when used correctly.

Lilo's heart pounded with excitement, it was her first time actually being in a hyper drive. Angel was also a bit ecstatic, she rarely got to see the vast sub-ether dimension, she remembered only a glimpse of it from when she was first made and transported.

"Brace yourselves." Jumba warned, as they inched closer and closer to the now rainbow-colored swirl, randomly placed in the middle of black space. A few seconds after the ETA hit zero, Lilo felt the ship jolt forward. Jumba shut down the thrusters and let the ship drift inward slightly. It seemed to suck them ever so slowly into its void; it reminded Lilo of being inside Pleakley's heart, without the jerking of it pumping.

Outside the hull, the sound of wind rushed past them, the same sound that came when they left earth's atmosphere. When the ship's nose pointed directly at the center of the dome shaped vortex, Jumba pounded the thrusters. The ship then darted full speed; Lilo felt her body slam back hard against the seat. She screamed, but now sound came from her vibrating throat. Angel grasped Lilo's hand on the arm rest to comfort Lilo, thinking she was scared, it being her first time. But Lilo screamed with pure pleasure as the rush of gravity pushed her back. To her, it was like falling through the sky.

She sat staring out the front of the ship as her eyes pushed back slightly in her head, the rainbow gradient that blurred by them with all sorts of assorted colors surrounded them on all sides, a sparkle of light that seemed to stay far off in the distance ahead of them always remained, but flickered every now and then. Lilo's hair began to lift up on its own, as well as her entire body, as the gravity imitated air pressure, forcing Lilo to float no matter what she did. As quickly as it started, the rush of pressure stopped, and Lilo plunged forward hard against the seatbelt, the wind was knocked out of her.

"Ju tegapa?" Angel asked with alarm. Lilo pointed to her lungs, and shook her head, trying to tell Angel she couldn't breath. "Pasha?" Lilo shook her head again. Angel watched as Lilo slowly took in small amounts of air, and gradually grew more calm as she returned to her normal breathing.

"Can we do that again?" Lilo asked Jumba excitedly, as soon as she was able to talk.

"We'll be seeing." Jumba laughed. The three of them quieted down, and sat silently, looking out into the dark emptiness. "Now, will once again search for 626, and hopefully we'll be able to pinpoint location of his being." Jumba said aloud, referring to Stitch. He tapped a few buttons on the ship's computer. Within moments, a holographic blip came up on the windshield, over to their left. Jumba turned the ship to center the dot, a distance estimation came up next to the number, 3,494 yards.

"We'll be ambushed for sure once we get there." Angel pointed out. "Whether we jump by surprise or not, he'll retaliate."

"Hmm...is good point." Jumba agreed, scratching his chin while thinking. "Perhaps we should be getting prepared for attack. Just as precaution. If something should come up, 624 will be monitoring shields, and little girl will be monitoring radar for flanks." Jumba assigned. Angel and Lilo had to switch seats in order to be close to their consoles.

All three of them began to sweat, anticipating an attack at any moment. 3,107 yards. Jumba dried his palms to get a better grip of the steering. 2,337 yards. Lilo kept her eyes on the radar, almost hypnotically; ready to shout out an ambush if it comes. 1,016 yards. Angel tapped a few buttons; all shields were green. 87 yards. All on edge, all breathing low, listening for other ships.

"Maybe no one is going to be attacking." Jumba said.

"You just jinxed us." Came Lilo's low voice, and almost immediately after, a blaster shot zoomed past their windshield.

"Where are they?" Jumba shouted.

"I don't know, they're not showing up!"

"Right shield hit." The ship jerked as a loud crash came to their right. Jumba pulled the steering stick up a bit, releasing the dorsal blaster, and pulled the trigger.

"I'm fighting blind, little girl have they shown up yet?"

"I think I see one!"

"Is it above or below us?"

"It's..." Quickly she grasped the panel the radar rested in and pulled out the glass sphere, to see a three dimensional surrounding of their ship. "Below us at 9:00."

"Be hanging on." Jumba said, thrusting the stick forward, causing the ship's nose to dive. After reorienting himself, he panned the windshield to find the threat; quickly his tunnel vision spotted a glimmer of metal off in the distance. Immediately he aimed the dorsal blaster a bit ahead of its path and fired three rounds, the second one sparked and a flare was seen going upward.

"That is not being all of them. Angel how are shields?"

"The damaged one has been repaired."

"Excellent, we're heading back to Stitch. Lilo, these ships are under some kind of stealth, may want to be keeping closer eye on radar."

"Right." She responded, looking at the orb of glowing blue light. Their ship was the red dot in the center, 626's dot was up to their left at about 4:00, and there were not ships in sight.

"Where are they..." Jumba spoke to himself, to help his thinking. He went to Stitch's blip indirectly, zigzagging to avoid being spotted, but he knew that they already knew he was there. It was just a matter of finding out how they were going to attack. They again waited in silence. Jumba didn't want to get too close to the blip, he never flew any less then 40 yards all around.

"Maybe it is safe to go closer." Lilo suggested. "I don't see anything coming up."

"Bah, is what they are waiting for us to be doing, thinking it be safe, then, WHAM! Are having us for dinner."

"Maybe Lilo is right, maybe it's just-"

"Oh no..." Lilo said, darting her eyes over the sphere.

"Don't be doing that, just tell me what is problem."

"Jumba, we have to get out of here!" Lilo's voice panicked.

"What are you meaning-"The ship suddenly turned over with force as a barrage of blaster shots impaled their hull. "Aye jinkies!" Jumba hollered as he swiftly pulled the throttle stick to the left, stabilizing the ship.

"Hull's shields are it half." Angel said calmly, trying to keep the shaking over her voice under control.

"They're coming at us from all sides!" Lilo shouted, glaring into the radar.

"Be bracing yourselves." Jumba said calmly, seizing the trigger for the dorsal blaster. With a battle cry he fired at every glimmer he saw. However he found a better strategy was to align as many ships as he could with a planet that wasn't far off in the distance, their contrasting color against it made them easy to pick off.

"Jumba be more careful, the engines can't take much more."

"Only being a few more left." All three bit their lower lips.

"They're coming at us mostly from behind." Without saying anything Jumba turned the ship upside down, something the ships behind them weren't expecting (as well as Lilo and Angel for that matter.) The ships immediately broke formation and dispersed to the sides, Jumba turned the dorsal blaster to the left and fired, shooting down three or four ships.

"Shields repaired to three-fourth's."

"Good work, 624. Lilo where's the largest cluster?"

"6:00 below us." Jumba turned the ship's nose to face the oncoming cluster of metal, shooting down five or six, before the formation brushed past them. Some ships clipped the hull of the ship.

"Jumba, fall back, the shields are completely down!"

"Wha-"But it was too late; the ships from behind U-turned and caught Jumba's engines, destabilizing his ship. Lilo screamed, Jumba pulled back on the throttle. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the planet close by, and with the power he had left, he aimed for it. "We're heading towards planet." Jumba shouted over the engine's noise.

"We're gonna crash?" Lilo asked with alarm.

"No." Jumba shouted back, their ship now zooming into the planet's atmosphere. It was bright, and solid. Jumba sighed with relief. "Good, it is planet much like earth, we'll be able to land here safely..." Jumba turned toward the girls. "Not you two anyway." He continued his reply.

"What do you mean by that?" Angel asked, quickly realizing what Jumba was going to say. "You're not really going to, are you?"

"Be taking care of little girl 624. Do not be worrying, when you land, go to ship, will be waiting for you." With that, he pressed the eject button. A glass shield surrounded the seats that Angel and Lilo were in; Angel pressed her hands against the surface and shook her head, saying he was crazy; Lilo dropped the radar in surprise and backed against the other side.

They both felt the rush of jets underneath the feet, and watched from a distance as they fell to the planet's surface. The ship slowly hurdled at high speeds toward a mesa, flaring and combusting on its way down. Angel closed her eyes as the jets underneath her cut off, and let her fall safely into a forest with Lilo.