As Told by Ginger copyright Viacom

Chapter 17: Confrontation

Carl Foutley saw the most peculiar sight. The Flying Saucer that they had been chasing, and had Ginger and her friends abroad, suddenly, inexciplablely, reversed itself and grew closer. It took a moment to realize that it had stopped, and that they were the ones getting closer. "What the hell?" he said.

There seemed to be something important about this, but it continued to elude him. "Oh my god," he said when he found it, "we're going to crash!"

"Don't be silly, Carl," Noelle told him. "Notek isn't dumb enough to just blunder into things like that."

"Ah, I think he is." The other ship was dangerously close now and Notek showed no sign of swerving out of the way.

"He will turn," Noelle insisted.

He didn't.

Ten seconds later, Notek's ship plowed into Nomar's.

OOO-

Macie wondered where all the gravity suddenly came from. At least her bottom had cushioned her after she had fell. She was at lost. Why had Nomar turn on the gravity after so long without? And wasn't there something about power regulation issues?

"Macie, do you have any idea what's going on?" a voice asked.

Macie looked up and saw that it was Ginger's mom. She shook her head. "The last time I knew what was going on was before I entered that limo today." She blinked. "Why? Is there anything wrong?"

"I'm afraid that there might, Macie," Mrs. Foutley replied. "With these aliens you could never tell."

"I suppose." Macie shrugged. "But they aren't exactly my area of expertise."

A soft, mumbled boom reverberating followed her words. "What was that?" they asked each other.

When she realized that Mrs. Foutley wasn't going to say anything more, Macie said, "I believe that Nomar lost his mind."

OOO-

The truth was, at least as far as he was concerned, was that Nomar still had his mind intact. And he certainly didn't order the change of power priorities. Which he couldn't understand. He was the only one who could the spacecraft. But when he looked closely into the matter via the ship's computer, he was shocked to find that one of the passengers had diverted the power away from the engines to the artificial gravity.

That fool! If Notek, or whoever that was that was following them, caught up with them, then they were done for. As to prove his words, a rumble passed through the hull of the spaceship.

What the hell was that?

He started to get up when he was suddenly aware that he was no longer alone. He looked up and found that freckled girl pointing one of his blasters straight at his chest. "Going someplace, Nomar?" she asked.

Nomar frowned thoughtfully. You're the girl who sabotaged the ship, aren't you?

The girl wagged her finger. "No, I high-jacked it."

Impossible.

"Go ahead. Try it."

He started to get a bad feeling about this situation. You do know we were hit by something, are you not?

"Of course I'm aware of it. Would you mind explaining it? After all, you are the expert here."

It's quite simple actually.

The girl nodded.

The ship that was chasing us plowed into the hull when you pulled that little stunt of yours.

"Somebody was chasing you, huh? Why am I not surprised?" She motioned the gun toward Nomar's command chair. "Go ahead. Try to take command of your ship, captain," she sneered. Almost as if she didn't believe that he wasn't a captain.

But Nomar wasn't about let a little brat like the one in the room with him take his ship from him. Even he had gotten it by means that were less than totally honest. He sat back down and began to take command of the ship.

OOO-

Ginger slowly swam toward the light at the top of the waters. She would have swum harder but there seemed to be no hurry. No hurry at all. Just a gentle swim in the tropical lagoon. Then she reached the surface.

And woke up.

As studied where she had found herself, she could almost remember what had just happened, but not quite. There were smoldering cinders here and there amongst debris that covered about a quarter of the floor of the corridor. Or was that deck? They were on an actual Flying Saucer after all. She tried her darndest to remember as she ever so carefully sat up.

Then she remembered why she had lying on the floor, knocked out.

Another Flying Saucer had crashed into theirs and was now sticking quite far into it now. With a sudden realization of that could mean, she did a quick search of her body for injuries. Amazingly she couldn't find any. She didn't know whether she should be surprised or not.

"Ginger, are you all right?" somebody was saying. She sounded familiar, but the name eluded Ginger. Just who was it?

She looked and saw a couple of blondes. Courtney, how could she have forgotten her name, was still buck-naked and was kneeling by Ginger's side. Dodie was in the background talking with someone that Ginger couldn't see. "Of course I'm alright, Courtney. Shouldn't you put on some clothes?"

"But we were distracted by the other Saucer, and when it hit us, I was afraid that you were hurt. You're not hurt, are you?"

"Amazingly enough, no."

Courtney back stood up. "That's good. I'll go get my things then." Suddenly her face paled. "Oh dear."

"Courtney, is there something wrong?"

"Your brother is staring at me right now."

"That's impossible, Courtney. He's back on Earth."

"Oh? Then who's that?" Courtney pointed and Ginger turned her head to follow.

And gasped. Sure enough, Carl Foutley was standing under a hatchway into the other Flying Saucer that she hadn't seen before. "Carl, what are you doing here? You supposed to be at the Bishops'."

Carl didn't seem to be listening. He kept staring at Courtney. At her bare breasts. "Courtney," Ginger told her, "I think that you should go get dressed now."

Courtney nodded. "Yes. I think I'll go get dressed now." She turned around almost as if she were mooning Carl and hurried away, and tried unsuccessfully to hide that fact. Ginger also noted that Dodie still hadn't noticed Carl.

Carl had started to follow Courtney, but Ginger touched his leg when he tried to pass by her. "Where do you think you're going, Carl Foutley?"

"After Courtney," Carl said dreamingly.

"I think she's going to want her privacy about now, don't you?" Ginger had a little edge in her voice.

His eyes locked onto Ginger's. "Oh yes. Absolutely."

"Carl!" Dodie's voice rang out. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be back on Earth!"

"Actually I was going to ask you the same thing," Carl informed her.

"Going for a ride," Miranda replied coolly. "Apparently one to nowhere."

"Apparently that's same story with us," Noelle said, climbing out of the hatch. "We've just been abducted by aliens it would seem."

OOO-

You witch! Nomar spat, that he would have done had he been able to. What did you do? How did you manage to wretch control away from my vessel?

Mipsy chuckled. Her aim didn't waver in the slightest. "You know I think that Miranda was wrong. I don't think is your ship at all.

Explain.

Now where did his extraterrestrial charm go off to? Mipsy wondered.

She smiled. "It's quite simple actually," she repeated his words. "If this was your ship, I wouldn't been able to take command."

What do you mean?

Mipsy began to explain the inner workings of the ship's computer, not going into much detail of course, but just enough to impress the little thief in front of her. Apparently disabling the computer's security routines without resetting them afterward. "And here I thought that Ginger's friends were lame."

Very clever, but you overlooked one thing however.

"Oh what's that?"

I'm an exile, remember?

"So that part's true then?"

Not really. I'm more of a fugitive.

"But what does that have to do with the price of tea in Magnolia?"

They aren't taking me in alive. Nomar sprung out of his chair and ran to an exit at Mipsy's right. She fired a few shots with her newly found gun, but due to her inexperience and his speed, she missed every time. He made it to the hatch before Mipsy gave chase.

When she reached the open portal and looked both ways down the corridor, Nomar was nowhere to be seen. She swore. "Miranda isn't going to like this."

She picked a direction and began running.

OOO-

Ginger frowned as she watched as more of her friends climbed out of the hatch. She had no idea that Darren or Noelle had been at Dodie's when Ginger had left in the Flying Saucer with her friends. But what were they doing here?

Fortunately Miranda asked the question for her.

"We got picked by Notek on his way after the alien who piloted the ship you're on," Hoodsey replied.

"Nomar," his sister supplied.

"Right, Nomar."

"Why?" Miranda asked.

"What do you mean, Miranda?" Darren asked.

"Why did this Notek bother to pick up passengers in his pursuit of Nomar?"

Because he is a most wanted criminal, a disembodied voice from the other ship answered.