Chapter 15

They had found no sign of Jason and Princess. Mark slammed a computer console in frustration.

"Please Commander!" exclaimed Susan. "That is quite uncomfortable you know!"

Mark sighed. Susan was beginning to get on his nerves.

It wasn't entirely her fault. They had been carefully combing the area of space where they had found the garbage capsule for hours. And yet they were still unable to locate anything.

Tiny groaned in frustration. There wasn't anything here to find. But could he convince Mark and Keyop of that? They both seemed determined to stay here until they found something. Tiny was afraid that would never happen.

He was wrong.

"Brrrt… signal!" exclaimed Keyop.

"Is it Jason and Princess?" asked Mark.

"Doot… don't think so!" answered Keyop. "Coming from… Spectra!"

A signal from Spectra? Tiny sat up in his chair.

"What kind of signal is it Keyop?" questioned Mark.

"Boop… can't tell… garbled… brrrt… looks like… distress call?"

Mark looked over the data. It did seem like a Spectran distress call, but the signal was so degraded it was hard to tell.

Still… it was emanating from the region around the planet Spectra itself. It might be worth investigating.

Mark knew in his heart that there was nothing to find here. And besides, they could always come back later to look again.

"Find the source of that signal Keyop." he commanded. "Tiny, when you get co-ordinates lock them in and take us there."

88888

Jason and Princess ran through the halls back to the Hangar. They easily dispatched the few goons they met on the way, but they knew they had to hurry before it was discovered that they had escaped.

"There she is!" exclaimed Jason. He pointed at the vehicle mecha. It was parked back in the same spot it had been when they had first entered it a few hours ago. Quickly he opened the hatch and the two of them clambered in.

88888

Mala stirred. She had lost consciousness shortly after she had left the torture chamber. That Rigan was more than she had bargained for. The blow from his restraint cuff had obviously caused some bleeding in her brain.

With a feeling of dread she knew what his next objective would be once he managed to free himself.

She forced herself to her feet, lurching and stumbling down the corridor toward Zoltar's quarters.

When she arrived the door was ajar. It was not a good sign.

Breathing heavily and trying to clear the fog from her mind, Mala looked into the room.

"Brother!" she screamed as she saw Zoltar lying face down on the floor.

They would pay. Those Rigan bastards would pay. With her last bit of strength Mala hit the alarm panel as her mind sunk into blackness again.

88888

Just as they sat down a loud alarm began to ring throughout the hangar.

"Quickly Princess!" urged Jason, "You need to disconnect whatever mechanism cut our power last time!"

Princess' fingers flew over the control panel. "I've got it!" she declared. "Disabling…. now!" She pressed a hidden button and the mecha hummed to life.

"That's my girl!" crowed Jason as he engaged the vehicle's engines. Only moments ago, he had seen just how much girl she was. He shook his head to clear to clear the image from his mind. Now was not the time for distractions.

"Buckle your seatbelt, this is gonna be one wild ride!" screamed Jason.

They zoomed from the Hangar at light speed. Not bothering with niceties such as doors (they were all locked down anyway, what with the alarms going off) Jason activated the weapons systems and blew a large hole in the wall just before certain impact. Debris crashed around them as Jason executed a sharp ninety degree turn and headed for the runway.

They had to launch themselves into orbit. It was their only chance. With luck, they could use the stealth capabilities of the mecha to make their way back to Federation Space.

Guards charged out of nearby buildings, shooting at the mecha and trying to run in front of it. Jason pressed the accelerator and ran them down indiscriminately. He wasn't going to let a few hundred cloned goons get in the way of their escape!

Screeching through the base, Jason soon found that he had to dodge fire from rocket launchers. Jason turned the wheel violently, nearly causing the vehicle to roll over, but he managed to right her at the last second. Jason practically purred at the machine. God, he loved this car!

Approaching the runway he used his laser cannons to melt away the fence surrounding the launch area and zoomed onto the runway. A large missile was approaching fast from behind. Jason coaxed the tiniest bit more power from the accelerator and avoided incineration by a hair's breadth.

But the force of the impact threw the vehicle forward at an even faster velocity. It was just enough to launch.

Jason wiped rivers of sweat from his forehead. Driving was easy, but flight was another matter altogether. He had never been very good at piloting.

As his nerves calmed down he heard a strange noise. It was Princess. She was… laughing?

It wasn't a pleasant sound. Her throat sounded harsh, almost maniacal. Jason turned to look at her and immediately recognized the signs of shock on her face. Her body was rigid, and she was pointing at the control panel and emitting that terrible laughter.

He looked at the panel. Princess was pointing at the transmitter she had used before. He noticed that it was operating.

Why those idiot goons! He knew he should be grateful for the stupidity of the Spectran Guards, but he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Their distress signal had been somewhat scrambled, and weakened.

But it was still transmitting. The soldiers hadn't turned it off. It was pretty obvious that there was some replicative fading going on in that cloning process.

Still, that didn't solve his problem with Princess. He needed her to operate the stealth technology or they would never escape Spectran Space alive.

"Princess!" Jason shouted.

She didn't move.

Jason slapped her across the face. Her eyes maintained a glazed look.

Desperate for anything to bring her out of it, Jason gripped her face with his hands and spoke, his eyes only inches from hers.

"You have to snap out of it Princess." he said quietly, but firmly, "Mark is out there waiting for us. But he can't find us unless you help us escape."

At the mention of Mark's name Princess' eyes filled with tears.

"Mark?" she sobbed, "He's here?"

"Not yet, but he will be if we can get our asses in gear!" replied Jason.

Princess smiled grimly. "Then let's do it Condor!" she exclaimed.

Jason grinned. He turned back to his control panel just in time to see a dozen Spectran space fighters closing in on their position. He could use the weapons, but not while he was flying at the same time.

They were doomed.