Talora

by soylentOrange

The Earthican government passes a doomsday weapon tax, prompting Prof. Farnsworth to send his private stash off planet. Umfortunately, unbeknownst to the crew of the Planet Express ship, other people have their eyes on the dangerous cargo in their hold.

2. Part 2

Part 2: Pursuit

Chapter 7

It was still there. Fry watched the bright speck of light shift lazily against the stellar background. Amy had first spotted the white dot, or the Snark as its discoverer had termed it, as Leela was piloting their ship through the Kuiper Belt. At first everyone had assumed they were only seeing the nucleus of a particularly reflective comet. It had the same grayish color through a small telescope and was drifting in a stable orbit that would take it around the sun once every few hundred years. But then it had started to move. As the Planet Express ship left the solar system, the point of light had followed them. It had been tailing them for almost four days now, and Fry was worried.

"This isn't right" he though to himself. "We should be doing something about this." The delivery boy slumped his shoulders and rested his chin on his hands. He was in the laser turret, which was mounted on top of the ship's hull and reached by a long ladder. The Planet Express ship was designed for speed and cargo capacity rather than for fighting and so it did not boast a large armament. Still, the ship was not defenseless. The turret that Fry currently occupied contained a medium range neon-cadmium laser. It could cause some serious damage up close, but had a rather awful rate of fire. The ship's only other defensive option lay in the two class-B torpedo tubes mounted under the bridge. Unfortunately the ship only had three torpedoes.

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Fry had been the first to notice that the 'comet' was not behaving as a mindless ball of rock would be expected to. He had mentioned it to Leela, but the captain had simply shrugged and said: "The ship's computer probably got the orbit wrong. Don't worry about it Fry". Leela had always known more than Fry about practically everything, so Fry had taken her advice and forgotten about the icy dirtball entirely.

When Fry woke up on the first 'morning' of their trip he put on his clothes, took his shower, and joined Leela on the bridge. The captain had been awake since takeoff almost a day beforehand. Normally an interstellar vehicle would be controlled by the autopilot for most of the trip, but the PE ship's autopilot was an infamous drunk. No one trusted it behind the controls unless it was an absolute necessity.

Fry felt sorry for Leela. Since he had nothing to do anyway he might as well be piloting the ship. "Hey Leela, why don't you take a break? I can handle the ship for awhile. I've been practicing." Leela started. Presumably she had been dozing off and had not heard Fry enter. She turned around to look at the delivery boy.

The cyclops gave Fry a skeptical look. "Are you sure? The last time I let you take the controls you piloted us right into that flock of space-chickens."

"This from the woman that crashes into half a dozen billboard signs a week", thought the red head. Of course, he would never have dared to say it aloud. "I'll be good, I promise. Please Leela? You look like you need some sleep. There's no reason for you to torture yourself in the pilot seat for the whole week. If you don't want me to drive, at least let me get Amy in here. She can fly the ship as good as you can."

Leela smiled. "Maybe you're right. I am a little tired." In fact she looked like she was about to collapse. "Thanks for trying to look out for me." Leela stood up with a stretch and squeezed Fry's hand. "I'll be in my room if you need me". Then she was gone.

Fry slid into the chair that had been occupied by his captain. Leela's scent still clung to the air near the console. As Fry went through a quick system check he thought about his recently departed friend. "She's so great.", he thought to himself. "If only I could express my true feelings for her." In fact, Fry had been successful in showing Leela how he felt toward her on several occasions. One time he had been infested by intelligent tapeworms that had overhauled his entire nervous system. Leela had fallen in love with the new him, but Fry had soon realized that she was really in love with what the worms had made of him, and he had disposed of the parasites. Another time Fry had made a deal with the robotic version of the devil to win Leela's heart. Fry had been practicing the holophoner since soon after he had moved in with Bender. The delivery boy and beelzebot had literally exchanged hands. With the new robotic hands Fry was able to express the incredible music talent that his slow hands had kept bottled up inside of him. During the following months it had finally dawned on Leela that there was more to her friend than met the eye. Unfortunately for Fry, the robot devil had not been so happy with their trade, and had forced the delivery boy to take back his horrible hands. Fry was understandably devastated. He expected Leela's new affection for him to immediately evaporate. To the red head's surprise, however, it hadn't. Leela by no means felt as deeply for Fry as Fry felt for her, but it was a start, and there was hope.

The next few hours passed quickly. Fry loved being alone on the bridge. Only alone could he truly appreciate the silent majesty of the universe that he was sailing through. The delivery boy daydreamed while monitoring the controls. There really isn't much to piloting a spaceship. The truth is that space is BIG. It is so unbelievably, mind-numbingly big that the chances of hitting anything are too small to express with words. The main concern for the pilot is monitoring the engines and the ship's trajectory. The ship could easily meander off course if the dark matter engines were to fail. Even worse, power could be lost. Without power there is no life-support or communications. That is the other consequence of the vastness of space. The chances of coming across a ship that has drifted off course and cannot send out a distress signal are depressingly slim. A pilot then is more a damage control officer than anything else. He must be ready to respond to a crisis aboard his own ship and fix it before it gets out of hand.

Suddenly Fry was aware of another presence in the room. Fry whirled his head around to see Amy smiling at his from over his shoulder.

"Hi Fry, watcha doin?" asked the intern.
"Oh Hi Amy. I'm flying the ship. Leela looked tired so I gave her a break a few hours ago", said Fry.

"Oh Ok." Amy fidgeted. After a few moments of awkward silence Amy asked:

"So has the ship tried to send us a message yet?"

Fry was confused. "What ship?", he asked.

Surprised, Amy said "You haven't seen it? Its been following us all night."

In a sudden leap of insight that was rare for the red head, Fry realized what she was talking about. "You mean that comet that I said looked like it was following us yesterday? Leela said not to worry about it."

"Yeah but its not really a comet. Comets either orbit a star or move in a straight line between stars. The thing that's behind us is following us. It must be a ship"

"Why?"

"Because we've been turning upward for the past hour, and that thing behind us has been turning with us."

That bit of information gave Fry a scare. He had had a bad premonition about the thing when he had thought it was a comet. Now that Amy had told him it was a ship, that premonition was back more insistent than ever.

"What's wrong Fry? You don't look so good." There was a hint of worry in Amy's question.

"Ohh, umm its nothing. I just need to go check something. Will you fly the ship for awhile?"

Fry didn't wait for an answer. He had to see their stalker for himself.

At first Fry didn't see what he was looking for. The only rear facing window on board the Planet Express Ship was the laser turret bubble, and Fry had rushed straight there. The delivery boy had spent several minutes scanning the space behind his ship, but there was nothing there. "Maybe the ship isn't behind us anymore", he muttered. He swung around in his seat to look over the bow of the ship, and gasped. A huge cloud of interstellar gas and dust swept into his view. Somewhere on the other side of the cloud was a bright star, for the dust was lit throughout with reds and yellows. Filaments of atomic hydrogen spread out from the cloud in all directions like smoke in a breeze. As Fry sat mesmerized by this view he saw that the ship's upward turn was taking it on a course through the nebula. In a matter of seconds, the outer bands of dust enveloped the ship like a terrestrial cloud would swallow an airplane. A low whisper filled the ship as trillions of charged particles slid across the smooth hull. For the next minute Fry could see nothing but a dim brownish murk outside his window.

Slowly the light began to increase and the haze grew thinner. A bright circle appeared near the bow of the ship and the delivery boy turned just in time to prevent his eyes from being blinded by a brilliant white star. Fry was too awestruck to move for a long time.. Thoughts of the sheer beauty of what he had just seen drove everything else out of his mind, and finally he began to head back down the ladder. While on the top rung however, he happened to take one last look at the nebula that had so moved him, and his spirits suddenly fell through the floor. Between himself and the nebula was a bright white dot.

The silent grey vessel had been following the Planet Express Ship all along. The reason that Fry had not seen it was very simple, no light had been reflecting off of the Snark for Fry's eyes to see. When the nebula had been in front of the PE ship it had blocked most of the light coming from the nearby stars on the other side. If Fry had stopped to think about it he would have realized that someone on the Snark looking back at Fry would not have been able to see him either. There simply wasn't any light. When both ships had cleared the nebula however, the light from the nearby stars was no longer blocked out, and the presence of the ship that was following Fry and his friends was revealed in a burst of reflected electromagnetic radiation. "And" thought, Fry, "If this thing is as bad as I think it is, we just lost our one good chance to get away from it when we left that nebula."

Leela had been in her quarters since Fry had relieved her and so was oblivious to the nebula and Fry's reactions to it. She was sitting at her desk calmly writing in her diary when the delivery boy burst into her room. More annoyed than surprised, Leela turned to face her friend and asked dryly, "Don't you ever knock?" Fry looked confused. There was obviously something bothering him.

Leela's irritation was replaced by worry. "What is it Fry. Is everything alright?"

"Somebody's following us!" exclaimed Fry

"What? Who?"

Leela would have had no way of knowing about their pursuer. The PE spaceship did have radar, but it generally only sent out pulses in the forward direction as an attempt at energy saving. The only way an object that was following the ship could be spotted was visually, and, having assumed the Snark was just a ball of ice, Leela had not seen a reason to look.

"That comet I saw yesterday! Only its not a comet it's a spaceship and its been following us since yesterday and I saw it through the window a minute ago and its so bright and close and…" Fry was left gasping for breath.

"Slow down Fry." Leela said gently. "That comet you saw yesterday is still back there? Hmm, it must be a ship then. And you said it's close to us?"

Fry nodded

"That is a bit strange"

"I don't like it Leela. There's something about that ship that just gives me the shivers. Its up to no good, I know it is."

"Now don't go overreacting. Maybe they're just going to the same place we are. Still, if it'll make you feel better I'll call them on the vidphone, ok?"

The red head nodded again.

Fry and Leela worked their way through the ship to the bridge. Amy was still at the controls, and Bender was sitting on the couch at the bow. Putting on her most convincing air of command, Leela walked over to the video phone near the pilot's seat. She set the transmitter for all bands, all frequencies and began to speak.

"This is the Earthican space ship Planet Express Ship to the vessel that is positioned…" She paused and looked at the radar screen, which Amy had switched to rear-sweep only a second ago. "… 180 million miles to our stern. Please identify yourself."

The only answer was static.

Leela tried again. "This is the Earthican space ship Planet Express Ship to the vessel that is following us. Please identify yourself"

Still, there was no response.

The Planet Express Ship's captain tried several more times to reach the ship, but the response was always the hiss of interstellar space. Whatever this thing was that had followed them from Earth, it had no intention of talking to them.

That night, dinner was tense. Fry, Leela and Bender ate their meals without saying a word. Each of them was thinking about their friend the Snark. Even Bender was relatively subdued. After 20 minutes of silence Fry had had enough. "So what are we going to do about it?" he asked. Leela sighed.

"I don't know", she said. "It hasn't done anything yet, and we don't know what it wants. Maybe it will just go away"
Fry rolled his eyes and replied angrily: "But what if it doesn't 'just go away'? It could be waiting for a chance to catch us by surprise."

Leela sat back and crossed her arms. "But what would you have me do about it? We're flying through a channel of normal space between clusters of giant stars. If we change course now and try to loose it we'll end up flying into a well of space-time. Time will slow down so much that when we finally make it home hundreds of years could have passed. None of us can afford to pay three hundred years of back-rent!"

Fry just stared blankly at Leela. He hadn't understood a word she had just said. "So, umm, that's bad right?"

The cyclops just ignored that. "What do you think Bender? What should we do about this?" asked the captain, gesturing in the robot's direction.

Bender took on a haughty air: "I was wondering if you were going to ask for my opinion. Stupid humans, always ignoring the robots. I don't see the problem. Don't we have several hundred pounds worth of doomsday device onboard? If they start shooting at us or whatever, we can launch one of the professor's little toys at them." Bender pictured the resulting explosion to himself. "Hehehehehe."

Suddenly a high pitched warble was heard throughout the ship. Several seconds later Dr. John Zoidberg came running into the room amidst a string of odd noises..

Leela jumped to her feet at the sounds, but immediately relaxed when she saw the red lobster in the doorway. "Dr Zoidberg! What the heck are you doing here? I thought we left you, I mean, I thought you stayed back on Earth?", asked the cyclops, adrenaline still coursing through her.

"No, Zoidberg came on this mission, no thanks to you!", responded the space-crab. He waved a claw at Leela, Bender, and Amy. Leela noticed that Fry wasn't singled out, but let it slide.

Fry asked: "So what's wrong Dr. Zoidberg? Why all the screaming?"

The red alien paused for a minute to think. All of the commotion had pushed everything out of his head. "Well, it's a long story, but since you're all sitting here with Zoidberg standing in the only escape route, I'll tell it anyway"

Zoidberg started in on what everyone present could tell would be an unnecessarily longwinded speech aimed at keeping it's speaker at the center of attention for as long as possible. "After my good friend Fry let me climb on board the ship, I hid in the cargo bay. I knew that anybody saw me for the first few hours that you'd turn around and leave me behind. All was well for…"

Bender cut him off before it could continue any longer. "Shut up you stupid lobster. We don't want to hear your damned story."

"Awww…" The dejected red creature sighed and started to walk mournfully out the door.

"Wait Zoidberg!", cried Amy, "Why were you screaming just now?"

Zoidberg perked up when he realized he was still the center of attention. "Well, I haven't eaten any real food in two weeks, so I was digging in one of those food crates that are in the cargo hold and…" The monologue was cut off before it could continue further with a loud "WHAT!" from Fry, Leela, and Bender.

Leela gave the doctor a disgusted look. "You idiot! Those aren't food crates, those are weapons of mass destruction!" A confused "Huh?" was all she got from Zoidberg.

The cyclops rolled her eye. "We're carrying a shipment of the professor's doomsday devices. They're extremely dangerous!"

"Oh… Well then that would explain this." The lobster reached into his lab coat and brought out a large biohazard sign. He had ripped it off of one of the crates.

By this point, the robotic member of the crew was thoroughly tired of this discussion: "If you don't tell us why you were screaming in the next sentence you speak, I am going to shove this fork up your crustacean ass." Zoidberg squealed. There was no doubt as to the sincerity of the robot's threat.

"Ok Ok, please don't hurt Zoidberg!", the alien pleaded. "I was eating out of a crate, when this thing made a horrible noise and bit me."

Leela and Amy exchanged glances, and Amy said icily: "So you broke one of the professors doomsday devices?"

Zoidberg cringed, but nodded. Then Leela spoke up, following Amy's train of thought. "And this device, which has the ability to vaporize a significant chunk of the universe, has been sitting, for the past few minutes, damaged in the cargo bay next to other devices that could also destroy significant chunks of the universe?" Again the lobster nodded.

The whole crew stared at each other while this information sank in. Then, as one, they all jumped up and bolted out of the room.

Amy was the only one of the group that knew enough about Farnsworth's inventions to assess the damage. The rest of the crew had to wait nervously while the engineering intern looked over the broken piece of machinery. After a quick inspection Amy stood up and chucked. The tension in the room evaporated. "Its ok," she said. "Zoidberg didn't do any real harm. He broke some wires and the short circuit zapped him. Its not going to explode or anything."

"Ok good," said Leela. "But can you fix it?"

The intern shrugged. "I dunno, maybe. I'll have to call the professor to make sure I have all the tools I need."

Leela nodded and started to dress down the guilty lobster for causing such a panic. Amy headed off to the bridge to call Farnsworth. It was not long however, before the intern was back.

"So," asked the cyclops, "what did the professor say? Can you fix it?"

Amy looked puzzled. "I don't know. I cant get ahold of him. Every time I try and call him I keep getting this weird noise."

Leela wasn't particularly worried. Amy was known for being a bit absentminded at times and probably didn't have the vidphone set right. The cyclops gestured to Amy to follow her up to the bridge. The rest of the crew, sans Zoidberg, followed the two women.

Leela watched as Amy placed the call. As far as the PE ship's captain could tell Amy was doing everything right, but instead of the normal ring tone, a high pitched squeal blasted out of the speaker. All of the humans covered their ears, and Bender turned down his volume. Fry dashed over to the machine and turned it off. The audile assault immediately died away, leaving echoes in the crew's ears.

Fry cried out in a pained voice: "What the hell was that!"

The PE captain visibly slumped. She walked over to the pilot's seat and slowly eased herself into it. The cyclops held her face in her hands for a moment. When she finally looked up at her crew there were deep lines of worry in her face. "That, my friends, is a the noise a vidphone makes when it is being jammed. I'm afraid out friend the Snark doesn't want us making any phone calls."

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Chapter 8

Fry thought about all that had happened in the past four days from his perch in the laser turret.. With his head resting in his hands, the delivery boy watched The Snark transit one of the stars in the binary system the ships were passing through. For a moment the white spark disappeared into the glare of the much brighter star. Leela had not been able to get a transmission through to Earth since the communications blackout had been discovered. It had been decided that the Planet Express ship would stay on course and keep the same speed so as to not alarm their pursuers. Leela no longer thought it was likely that the vessel that was following them was indifferent. She hoped that by keeping constant course and speed that the Planet Express crew could get closer to their destination without forcing the Snark's hand.. If Leela could get the PE ship within a dozen or so parsecs of a populated star system she could make a break for it. The professor's ship had engines that could outrun almost anything, but only over short distances.

Fry had not been satisfied with the solution. There were too many 'iffs' in it. Everything would work out ok IF the Planet Express ship could get close enough to an inhabited planet, and IF the Snark didn't attack them and IF they could outrun their pursuers. The delivery boy new that there wasn't really much of a choice. They couldn't run and they couldn't attack without provocation, and, he reminded himself, whatever was behind them could probably beat them in a fight anyway. Still, waiting felt too much like not doing anything.

Sitting in the bubble dome staring into space was just making Fry feel worse. There just simply wasn't anything that he could do, and he knew it. The delivery boy got up with a sigh, banging his head on the low ceiling in the process. He slid down the ladder and headed for his bunk. Maybe some sleep would help clear his mind.

Fry awoke to the sound of klaxons. Either Bender had burned something in the microwave and set off the alarm again or they were under attack. It was the latter. The delivery boy rushed onto the bridge. The rest of the crew was already there, and they were all staring out the front window. One star, a red supergiant by the looks of it, dominated the view. It took Fry a moment to discern what everyone was looking at, but at last he spotted the swarm of tiny motes emerging from the star's limb. A small fleet of vessels had been hiding behind the star, waiting for the PE ship to blunder into their trap. The vessel that had been stalking Fry and his friends for so long had been a threat after all. Its job had been to monitor the PE ship until it could be sure of its course. Then it had radioed ahead to its friends, who had picked a suitable star system along the flight path and lain in ambush.

There wasn't anything that could be done. Leela throttled back the engines and waited for some sort of communication from her adversary. The Planet Express ship might be able to fend off one of these attackers, but the three dozen blips that appeared on radar represented more than could be dealt with.

The cyclops did not have long to wait. The vidphone switched on with a click. The head and shoulders of a caucasian human male appeared on the screen.

"My name is Ivan", said the man. A jagged looking scar ran down the left side of his face. It moved as he spoke.

"You are carrying a cargo that is of great interest to me. You are surrounded and outgunned. If you power down your ship and surrender the cargo to me, then I will let you live."

The Planet Express crewmembers looked at each other. Ivan was talking about the professor's doomsday devices of course. Suddenly the thoughts of what could happen if such things were to fall into the wrong hands raced through their minds.

Leela made a decision and she made it fast. Any man that would surround a civilian vessel and demand it hand over its cargo on pain of death could NOT be allowed to get his hands on the professor's stash.

"Understood Ivan, we are preparing to surrender. We will power down the ship and await further instructions." Replied Leela as sincerely as possible.

The cyclops captain switched off the monitor before Ivan could respond. Fry started to say something, but Leela cut him off.

"Alright people, this is what is going to happen. Amy and Bender, I want you to man the torpedo tubes. Fry, you go man the turret. Keep it powered down until I give the signal. Zoidberg… "

Zoidberg began to jump up and down and clap his hands. "Hurray, I'm helping!"

"… get out of everybody's way," Leela continued.

"Aww…" The lobster sighed.

The bridge became a swirl of motion as everyone hurried to do their part. Zoidberg followed them mournfully out the door.

Leela got ready. Her plan was to let the attackers close in. When they had gotten near enough Leela would spring a little trap of her own. The neon-cadmium laser would be a most devastating weapon if the attackers got within a few miles of it, and Fry would be able to take several of the out before… well best not to think about that last part.

Chapter 9

Once again Fry found himself in the laser turret, only this time there was more than a distant point of light to greet his eyes. Fry could see the enemy ships clearly now. Each ship was vaguely reminiscent of a grey stingray, with a large bulbous bridge riding at the bow. Two vertical stabilizers extruded from a long barb that served as a tail. Two barrels protruded from the leading edges of each wing. The delivery boy could just barely make out human figures aboard the vessel if he squinted hard enough.

Leela's face appeared on the monitor by his left hand. "Fry, I'm going to power up the dark matter reactors in 30 seconds. The people on those ships will be able to see you as soon as the lights come on in the turret. Start shooting as soon as you have power." Said the captain. Leela was trying as hard as she could to mask the tension she felt, but Fry had known his cyclops captain for long enough to recognize that, under the cool exterior, Leela was just as terrified as he was. That was comforting in a strange sort of way. It is easier to deal with a difficult situation when you know that someone else is as scared as you are.

"I understand", Fry whispered. "Leela, if we don't get through this, I… I just want you to know…."

"Its alright Fry, I know" Leela smiled.

The lights came on. The Planet Express ship hurtled forward and down, hoping to throw its adversaries of balance. A pulsing throb filled the turret, and Fry put his hands around the joystick. He fired.

The first ship exploded in a burst of radioactive sleet, and cheers rang through the PE ship. It did not take long for the enemy fleet to recover. The stingray vessels began to back away from their suddenly ferocious prey. If they could get far enough, Fry's weapon would have little affect on them and they could shoot down their prey at their leisure. Leela did not intend to let that happen.

Bolts of death crisscrossed the void, coming dangerously close to hitting their mark. A grey form appeared in Leela's view. She rolled to port, narrowly avoiding a collision. As the stingray passed underneath her ship Leela rolled 180 degrees, bringing the laser to bear. The blip of light on her radar representing the enemy ship fizzled and went out. Fry was doing well.

It was all Fry could do to keep breathing. The sky tilted crazily overhead as Leela pulled the ship through complicated evasive maneuvers. Red tracer fire and newly formed nebulae lit up the battlefield. If he had not been fighting for his life Fry would have been impressed by the beauty of it all. The green PE ship shuddered under him. It had taken a glancing hit. A black streak ran its way down one green flank. If a shot like that were to intersect with the turret bubble… Fry kept firing.

Ship after ship gave up its crew to the cold vacuum of space. The commander of the stingray fleet had not counted on the tenacity of this tiny little mote that had dared to resist him. He ordered his remaining ships to break off and withdraw at full speed. His opponent had been aggressively engaging his ships in order to keep them close. It was time to put a stop to that.

Leela couldn't keep up the attack any longer. Her ship had sustained damage and could no longer keep up with her assailants. The engines began to sputter and then finally died with a mournful 'whump'. The once proud spaceship was now nothing more than a projectile obeying Newton's first law. Leela watched helplessly as her enemy passed beyond her range. They had never really had a chance, but now the proof of it was laughing in her face. Still, they had done rather well. She had seen at least nine separate fireballs light up the sky. Through the front window she could see the remains of one of her foes, its scorched carcass still venting fuel forlornly into space. Leela shook her head to clear it. There was still one thing left to do. Leela's plan was about to enter its final stage.

Fry felt the engines cut out. The Planet Express ship began to drift through space. Leela's face again appeared on the monitor, but did not show the signs of defeat that the delivery boy had expected. "Fry, come on down to the bridge. You've done everything that you can from up there."

Chapter 10

Fry, Leela, and Zoidberg stood on the bridge and watched the two ships approach. This time there was no escape. The dark matter reactor had detected a coolant leak and shut itself down. Without power the laser was useless and ship could go nowhere. The attackers came on slowly, and with weapons bared. They had been fooled once and were not about to let it happen again. The first ship took up station a few hundred yards in front of the bow. The second one moved toward the stern. Leela sighed. She had hoped to get rid of both opponents. One would have to do.

The cyclops activated the vidphone one more time. "Bender, can you hear me?" she asked. Bender's face appeared on the screen. He gave his captain a thumbs up. "Ok then. Do it." "You got it, chump" came the answer. Leela looked at her friends and gave them a wink. "You might want to put on your seatbelts."

A port in the Planet Express Ship's green underbelly slid open. Bender pushed the long cylindrical object out the hole and watched it sail away from him. Once he was certain it was headed in the right direction he closed the port and knocked on the hatch in front of him. The hatch slid open. Bender nodded at Amy and the two of them braced themselves as best they could.

Leela had come to the decision that the stingray ships were too maneuverable to be taken in by one of the PE ship's outdated torpedoes, so she had held them in reserve, counting on her enemies equating a powerless ship with a defenseless one. A torpedo could not be fired without power for a simple reason. There were two doors in the torpedo tube. One door would close when a torpedo was loaded into the tube, and then the other would open a short time later. This served to keep the ship pressurized during the process. The first door could be opened manually, but to open the second one would spell certain death to anyone that required an atmosphere to live. Bender however, did not fit into that category.

While the laser battle had been going on about them, Amy and Bender had been loading the tube per Leela's instructions. When they had finally wrestled the blunt weapon into its place Bender had crawled into the tube with it, and Amy shut the inner door. Then they had waited.

The torpedo floated through space for what seemed an eternity. Bender had aimed well. The deadly projectile would pass too far beneath the enemy ship's bridge to be spotted visually, and no other windows adorned the hull. The other enemy ship's view was blocked by the hull of the Planet Express Ship itself. Since the torpedo was small and powered-down it would not be picked up by any save the most powerful sensors. The Planet Express crew, however, could plainly see the weapon glide toward its hapless target.

The stingray was caught completely off guard. The torpedo's sensors registered the collision with its target. The change in momentum was deemed enough.

The Planet Express Ship's cabin lit up with the birth of a ferocious new star. A chain reaction tore through the enemy vessel as the shockwave from the torpedo's fusion warhead passed through the ship's delicate innards. Small gouts of flame escaped from the hull like living things. The bridge lost its pressure in a flash. Shards of glass, furniture, electronics, and biological remnants rushed into the waiting vacuum. The doomed ship shuddered one last time and finally succumbed to its fate. It's existence ended in a massive fireball, which suddenly vanished into blackness, deprived of its oxygen. All of this had taken less than five seconds, and had been completely silent.

The shockwave triggered by the stingray's explosion hit before Fry and his companions could even register their victory. The bow of the Planet Express ship was flung sideways in a manner that a blernsball would be familiar with after recently being hit with a bat. Leela had just enough time to worry that the torque would rip the ship apart before she lost consciousness.

Chapter 11

It was several hours later when Leela awoke. She opened her eye but couldn't see anything more than a grayish blob for awhile. Having been knocked around many times before, the cyclops knew the routine and waited as her vision slowly returned. A particularly close blur of grey coalesced into Fry, who was leaning over her. Something had torn a gash down his left cheek, and minor scrapes crisscrossed his forehead. The cyclops suddenly realized that he had been calling her name for quite some time.

Leela could feel her strength returning and tried to speak. "Unghhh, Fry? Where are we?" Fry looked visibly relieved. He turned his face to speak to someone out of Leela's field of view. "Hey everybody! She's awake!"

Leela propped herself up on one elbow and looked around her. She was in the PE ship's laundry room. The rest of the crew was also there. Amy had a nasty looking bloody patch on the left leg of her pink sweat suit, and a dark welt in the middle of her forehead. Nibbler was curled up asleep in the corner. He looked uninjured. Bender, being made of a metal alloy, had survived basically unharmed, though you wouldn't know it by his complaining. The lobster member of the crew was also unharmed due to his hard outer shell. The one eyed captain looked herself over. She had faired better than she felt. There were some minor scratches and a bruise or two, but she would be fine.

"Hold on", asked Leela, what happened? Why are we in the laundry room?" Amy was the one to respond. "We all blacked out when that missile thing exploded. When I woke up, we were all in here." Leela got up off the floor and sat down on the edge of a washing machine next to Bender. She was relieved that everyone had passed out. It would have been too embarrassing to have been the only one to loose consciousness.

"Bender woke me up as that other bad guy was docking with us," said Fry. "We didn't have a chance to do anything before all these guys with laser pistols came running onto the bridge. They made us carry you and Amy into the laundry room and then they locked us in here." Bender crossed his arms and pouted. "I thought we could take 'em," complained the robot, "but Fry wouldn't let me use Zoidberg as a shield" Zoidberg grumbled in the background.

Leela rolled her eye at the robot. He was always trying to use one of his crewmates as a shield for something or other. "Well, the important thing is that nobody is hurt," remarked the cyclops. In cases like this it was a good idea to take the optimistic stance and concentrate on the future rather than the past. Pessimism has its place, but it also tends to get you killed. The PE captain forced her thoughts toward what was going to happen to them next, and that depended on their captor. "Has Ivan been in here yet?", asked Leela.Fry was puzzled. "No, why would he be? He just wants the professor's stuff. We aren't important to him." Amy broke in before Leela could explain it to him. "Spluh," said the intern. "He's a stereotypical science fiction bad guy. Don't you know how this works Fry? We fight him, he takes us prisoner, and then he comes to our cell and gloats." Fry nodded his comprehension. "Ok, and then what?", he asked. Leela and Amy looked at each other and frowned. The cyclops whispered: "And then he kills us."

The Planet Express crew was therefore not surprised when Ivan paid them a visit a short time later.

The laundry room door opened with its characteristic creak. It had needed oil for months, but no one had ever gotten around to it. Mean looking pulse rifles appeared in the opening, followed by meaner looking men. Two of the soldiers walked into the room and took up position flanking the door. Ivan entered the room a moment later. The scar was a dead giveaway to his identity.

"Which one of you is the captain?", demanded Ivan.

Leela stood up and glared at her captor. One of the soldiers fidgeted with his weapon. "My name is Leela. This is Fry, Amy, Bender, and Zoidberg. I'm the captain and I demand that you get off my ship. I sent out a distress signal before you attacked, and a fleet of DOOP ships will be here in minutes." DOOP, or the Democratic Order Of Planets, was the largest interstellar government in existence. It also had the most powerful navy.

The scarred man just chuckled. "Don't waste your breath captain. I've had your radio jammed for days. There isn't anyone coming to your rescue." Ivan strolled over to the room's single table. He lowered himself into a sitting position. "I must say," he continued, "I am very impressed. You cost me ten ships and over thirty crewmen. If I wasn't so sure you would say no I'd ask all of you to join my organization.

"And what exactly is your organization?" The cyclops was having trouble focusing on her opponent. The scar was so damned distracting.

"Lets just say I specialize in the transportation and sale of devices that certain military institutions might find immensely interesting."

"So you're an arms dealer?" asked Fry.

Ivan turned to face the new voice, and nodded affirmation. "Exactly."

Fry pressed further. "And you want the stuff in our cargo bay so that you can sell it?"

"That's right! People will pay a pretty penny for what that professor friend of yours has built over the years."

The Planet Express crew let out a collective gasp.

Leela addressed her captor. "But Ivan, those inventions are too powerful to be trusted in the hands of any military. Billions of people could be killed if even one were to be used!" Leela paused for a moment. "Hey, how did you know about the professor's doomsday machines anyway?"

Ivan shrugged. "It's not my problem how the weapons are used; I just deliver them. Their future owners decide whether or not to use them. As far as how I knew about them, every arms dealer in the universe knows about them. Farnsworth mentions them every time he makes a public speech. He's always flaunting them in front of people"

Fry chuckled. "Yep that's the professor for you. He loves his weapons of mass destruction."

Leela ordered Fry to shut up. "So what are you going to do with us?", asked the cyclops. "You can't keep us locked up in our own laundry room forever."

"You are exactly right Leela," replied Ivan. "Originally I was just going to let you go. I must say you have earned my respect after the impressive bit of captaining you pulled earlier. It would sorrow me to put such a worthy opponent to death. Unfortunately for you however, my men are demanding they get their revenge for the ships you destroyed. I think I have come up with a rather clever compromise. My ship's crew will finish unloading your cargo bay and then set the timers on the two warheads you still have onboard this ship. If you are as clever a captain as I suspect, you will escape from this room and disarm the torpedoes. If not", the man shrugged, "the nuclear warheads will vaporize your bodies into clouds of gas." Ivan stood up and left his captives to digest his last statement.

Chapter 12

Leela looked around her for something to use. Ivan had only been gone for a minute and she was already looking for a way to escape. She felt certain that her crew would find a way out of their makeshift cell before the bombs went off, but Leela had no intention of waiting long enough for the warheads to be set. That arrogant bastard Ivan had invaded her ship, injured her crew, and was making off with her cargo. That was unacceptable. Leela would not be satisfied unless she had the satisfaction of kicking her strutting captor in the genitals before he left.

But how were they supposed to get out of the room? The door was locked from the outside, and was much too strong to break down. Leela's eye scanned the room. "Lets see", she thought to herself, "table, stool, laundry basket, dirty clothing, mechanical washing unit, detergent, dryer, more dirty clothing…" The one-eyed captain grinned. "That's it!"

"It is not!" Bender added helpfully.

Leela ignored him. "When Ivan walked into the room the door slid open automatically right?"

Amy shrugged. "spluh. So what?"

"For the door to open automatically the ship must have normal power again. The lights work on emergency power, but the doors have to be opened manually."

"So?", asked Fry, too slow to catch on.

Leela smiled deviously. "You'll see. Bender, I want you to move that dryer out from the wall."

Bender shrugged. "Ok you're the boss." What was really meant by the expression was "I'm bored with this conversation and I'm only doing this because I'm too lazy to argue with you worthless sacks of meat."

The robot sauntered over to the machine and gave it a tug. Wires ripped from the walls. White-hot sparks came flying out from the back of the dryer.

"Ok," said Leela, "now pull on that red wire. Careful, it's live."

Bender didn't have to be told. He knew a live electrical wire when he saw it. The robot pulled on the wire with both hands. It came away from the wall in foot-long sections. A dark gash was left in the drywall where the wire had once been.

Leela gestured Bender to stop after a good ten feet of wire was sitting on the floor. "Alright good that'll do it. Everybody except Bender back away to the other side of the room. Bender, I want you to jam that wire into the door control mechanism when I give you the signal ok?"

"Sure, whatever you say big boots"

Leela gave the signal as soon as everyone was a safe distance away. Bender jammed the live wire into the control panel, generating a current of a few thousand amps. Sparks flew from the control panel in all direction, and the lights flickered for a moment. The door opened with a whoosh and Leela seized her moment. There were two guards standing in the hall outside the room. The first guard was never even aware that anything had happened. The second guard had just enough time to see a blur of motion reduce his companion to a heap before he was rendered unconscious by a karate chop to the side of the head.

Chapter 13

Fry caught Leela's arm before she could continue down the hall in her destructive frenzy. "Wait Leela, don't do this. You'll just get yourself hurt. Its not worth it."

Leela visibly slumped. "I know Fry. It's just, I cant let Ivan get away. Not after he hurt you and the others."

"But getting yourself hurt isn't going to fix that. Why don't we sneak onto Ivan's ship? That way when he gets to his home planet or whatever we can call the DOOP and tell them where he is. We might not be strong enough to beat up all of these guys, but the DOOP can."

The cyclops captain gave her friend a long look. "You know what Fry? You're right. Amy and Zoidberg gasped. "Alright everybody," continued Leela, "new plan. Amy and Zoidberg, I want you two to wait here until Ivan leaves, then head down to the torpedo bay and stop the timers. You should have plenty of time since you wont have to break out of here first. Go straight home as soon as all of the ships are gone and tell the professor what happened. Oh, and Amy? Take care of Nibbler for me. As for Bender, Fry, and me, we're going to try and sneak aboard Ivan's ship.

Time was of the essence, so the friends said quick goodbyes to each other and went their separate ways. Amy and Zoidberg went back into the laundry room to wait. Bender and Fry followed their captain down the hall toward the cargo bay.

The trio met no more guards until they had come to the bay itself. Two lightly armed men were carrying a crate through the hatch. What looked like a sort of elastic tube was connecting the two ships. Fry, Leela, and Bender ducked back around the corner and peered into the room.

Leela: "It's no good. We'll be spotted as soon as we enter that tube."

Bender: "Wait, didn't that idiot lobster open a crate awhile back?"

Fry: "Hey yeah! Maybe we could climb in there and hide."

Leela: "Hmm… That might work. We'll let those soldiers carry us through the tube, and we can hide out in the crate until the coast is clear."

The two men that had been carrying the box reappeared before the three friends had a chance to look for the crate. Thirty seconds later the men disappeared into the tube with another crate.

Fry, Leela and Bender rushed into the room to look for the crate. They only had a few seconds before the two soldiers came back for the next crate. Bender was the first to come across what they were looking for. He gestured to his crewmates and jumped into the box. Amy had emptied this particular crate after Zoidberg had broken its contents. The device was currently sitting in the storage closet in several pieces. Fry and Leela managed to squeeze themselves into the crate, but it was by no means a comfortable fit. Bender used his extending arms to reach out of the crate and grab the lid. He carefully moved it into place.

For several minutes the two humans and the robot were aware of nothing save heavy breathing and two loud heartbeats. Then there was the sensation of motion. Leela realized with sudden terror that the soldiers were using the PE ship's magnetic winch to raise the heavy crate. If Fry and Leela had been its only contents this would not have been a problem, but Bender's presence made it a catastrophe. Magnets invariably screwed up Bender's inhibition unit. In the past Bender had started to sing bad folk music when his inhibition chip malfunctioned. Singing would give away their position. Something had to be done, and fast.

Leela grabbed the robot and shoved his face into Fry's stomach. Fry was just about to blow the trio's cover with an angry remark when a poorly done rendition of Johnny Cash's "Mercy Seat" made it to his ears. Just enough noise was escaping into the crate's interior for Fry to hear, and to understand why Leela had done what she did.

The men loading the crate remained oblivious to the singing robot and his companions. One of the soldiers operated the winch while the other pushed a hover dolly into the bay.

"What do you think's inside it?" Asked hover dolly guard.

"Boss says its some kinda big bomb" replied his companion.

"Well whatever it is, its sure heavy."

The crate was slowly lowered onto the dolly. The soldier operating the winch turned off the electromagnet and joined his friend by the crate. Both men got behind the dolly and began to push. The dolly passed through the cargo bay of the Planet Express ship, into the tunnel, and finally into the belly of the other vessel. Fry, Leela, and Bender were now stowaways on the ship of a dangerous criminal, cut off from everyone they had ever known.