Chapter 12: All the trouble we get in with another tailspin

The Excalibur spun round. Inside the cockpit, Mickey's hand was a blur as it moved across the console, pressing buttons and activating switches. He raised the speaking tube to his mouth:

"Fellas, strap yourselves in now!"

Monstro was bearing down on the tiny gummi-ship at an amazing speed. His mouth was a scarlet cavern, yawning wider and wider with every passing second.

Mickey grabbed a lever beside his right hand and pushed it as far forward as it would go. The hum of the Excalibur's engine soared until it reached a barely audible whine. She leapt forward, blue fire flying from her engine. There were some cries of alarm from the cabin. Kim climbed up into the cockpit.

"Your Majesty, what's… Whoa!" she exclaimed as she spotted Monstro.

"Can't we go to warp?" she asked, taking a seat behind Mickey.

"He's too close," Mickey replied through gritted teeth, arms stiff with the effort of controlling the Excalibur at such a high speed.

"We have to be out in open space for it work," he explained, "I've gotta try and put some distance between us."

The Excalibur was a little further ahead than she had been but Monstro was keeping pace with her. His jaws had now closed. His lips were curled back, displaying a set of great white teeth, each one taller than a bull elephant.

"What is it?" asked Kim, staring awestruck through the cockpit dome.

"Gummi-pilots call him Monstro," said Buzz, taking the seat beside her, "He's menaced shipping in every quadrant of the galaxy. Funny, I've never heard of him coming this close to a settled world before…"

"What do you mean: 'menaced'?" Kim asked, afraid that she could already guess the answer.

"Swallowed whole; entire ships, gone, without a trace."

Kim glanced back. Monstro was a mile long if he was an inch. There might have been room for a whole fleet in his stomach.

"There's an asteroid field up ahead," said Mickey, reading from a computer display on the console, "I'm gonna try and lose him in there."

The asteroids were made from blue gummi, studded with smaller lumps of different colours. Kim would have called them huge; boulders the size of sky scrapers, drifting through the void of interspace. Monstro dwarfed them.

Mickey lowered the Excalibur's pitch, bringing her right in amongst the asteroids.

"This is gonna be tricky," he murmured under his breath.

An asteroid loomed down on them from starboard. Mickey rolled the ship over, skimming just above the surface. The field ahead of them was a maze of shifting pathways between the gummi, some of them barely wide enough for the Excalibur to pass through.

Kim felt a tremor pass through the ship. Something struck the energy shield with a crackle. She glanced back. Monstro, head down, was barging his way through the asteroids. The first two hurtled away and collided with others, sending them bouncing into others in turn like some cosmic pool table. Shards of razor-edged gummi were flying in all directions, striking other asteroids and the Excalibur.

"This shouldn't be happening," said Mickey hoarsely.

"I've never heard of Monstro following a ship this determinedly," said Buzz, frowning.

"It's like someone's sent him after us," said Kim.

Mickey piloted the Excalibur through the tightest passages, slaloming and twisting between the gummi with consummate skill. The other passengers were left clinging to their seats as the Excalibur rolled back and forth, often at the last second, to avoid being crushed to pieces. Monstro had no such problems: what he could not avoid, he simply battered aside. Worse still, while Mickey was forced to zig-zag between the gummi, Monstro could go in more or less a straight line. He was catching up.

"Does this ship have any weapons?" Buzz asked.

"Nothing that'd slow Monstro down," said Mickey grimly. Kim doubted that there was a weapon in the whole universe that could do more than scratch the titanic whale.

The Excalibur dipped behind a large asteroid. Monstro crashed through it. There was an explosion of gummi. Great chunks flew past the cockpit. One piece, vast as a house, struck the Excalibur. There was a flash of green light as the energy shield collapsed under the force of the blow. Mickey wrenched the ship's nose around. It saved them all. The chunk struck only a glancing blow on the port wing but it was enough. Red lights began to flash on the pilot's console.

"It's taken out the port engine," said Mickey, fighting with the ship's wheel to keep the Excalibur steady.

Kim wasn't listening. She was staring intently out of the cockpit dome, almost oblivious to the chaos surrounding her.

"Look at his eyes," she said softly.

Buzz and Basil followed her gaze. She was staring at Monstro.

"He doesn't appear to have any," said Basil, frowning.

"No. Look, there," said Kim, pointing. Monstro had just turned to the right, giving them a fleeting glimpse of his left eye, low on the side of his head. Someone had built a strange contraption of white metal over his eye. It was pointed, with sloping sides, like a circus top. The tip was shiny and black.

"There's one on the other side, too," said Kim.

"By Jove! I'd wager they're the reason for this beast's odd behaviour!" said Basil.

"Hey, I was about to say that!" said Kim.

"Can you shoot them off, Your Majesty?" Buzz asked.

"I don't want to turn us about," said Mickey, "It'd be too easy for Monstro to swallow us."

"Then I'll go," said Buzz, standing up.

"What? No! You wouldn't stand a chance!" said Kim.

"A Space Ranger's first duty is to protect," said Buzz, eyes glittering with noble sentiment.

"Yes but…well, be reasonable, man!" said Basil.

"I think this ship is his target; he's unlikely to notice me," said Buzz, "Your Majesty, is there an airlock aboard this vessel?"

"Yes, behind the cabin," said Mickey, "but Buzz, I'm not sure…"

But Buzz was already climbing down the ladder into the cabin. Mickey sighed. He entered a command sequence into the console.

"I've patched his communicator through to the cockpit," he explained.

"Buzz, can you hear me, over?"

Buzz's voice, slightly tinny over the communicator, replied from the speaking tube:

"Loud and clear, Your Majesty. Ready to disembark, over."

"Good luck, Buzz. If you can't damage those things come back aboard right away, over."

"Affirmative, Your Majesty."

"Opening airlock now. Over and out."

"To infinity and beyond!"

The Excalibur gave a little shudder as the airlock door slid open. A moment later Kim saw Buzz hurtle past the dome, a green and white blur against the blue gummi. He looked tiny, surrounded by those vast asteroids; the exhaust flame of his rocket pack was no more than a pinpoint of light.

He soared up, away and above the Excalibur, towards Monstro. Kim saw that Buzz had been right; Monstro took no more notice of him than a person would a gnat. Buzz paused for a second, floating in space, as Monstro passed beneath him. Everything around Kim seemed still. The sounds of the warning sirens were dull in her ears. Her whole attention was fixed on that minute figure. The blue asteroids, Monstro's grey skin, the black of interspace; they formed a dim and dreary background to his bright exhaust flame.

Buzz dived. He hurtled down, following the curve of Monstro's great, pockmarked body. There was a flash of red; a solitary dagger of light stabbing from Buzz's arm.

Monstro screamed. The people aboard Excalibur did not hear him but they definitely felt it. The force of that cry, generated from a throat as big as a cathedral, shook the gummi ship right to the tip of her nosecone.

Now Monstro was flailing about, thrashing in blind rage at whatever was attacking it. He twisted around. His tail swung in a great curve, shattering hundreds of asteroids into fragments. The Excalibur was engulfed, carried along in a whirlwind of blue gummi. Kim and Basil were hurled from the floor to the ceiling and back again. Only Mickey, firmly strapped into the pilot's seat, remained in place. Kim threw her arms over her head, thrust her knees up to her chin and waited for everything to stop moving.

Kim's mind went blank for a very long time; paralysed with helpless fear. Then she felt a gentle hand touch her shoulder.

"Kim, are you okay?" asked Mickey.

Kim looked up. Everything inside the cockpit was still. The Excalibur was flying slow and level. The world outside the cockpit was dark, lit by stars. There were no asteroids. Monstro was nowhere to be seen.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. Mickey helped her to her feet.

"How are the others?" she asked.

"No-one's seriously hurt," he said, returning to the pilot's seat, "Basil's got an ice cube on his head; he got knocked out on the ceiling when we turned over."

"And Buzz?"

Mickey's ears drooped.

"He's not responding to any of my hails."

Kim stepped forward and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, I'm sure he's alright," she said softly, "His communicator probably got damaged."

Mickey said nothing.

"It's okay; he's a tough guy," Kim continued, determined to be optimistic, "I bet he's survived much worse than that."

"Yeah…" said Mickey with a sigh. He took hold of the wheel.

"We're stuck flying on rockets," he said, matter of fact again, "We can't go to warp with only one engine. The Excalibur is too beat-up to get us much farther. We're gonna have to land somewhere where we can make repairs or find ourselves another ship."

He reached down and activated the display on the console beside him.

"Ah-ha," he said softly, "Finally, a little luck!"

"What?" said Kim.

"We've come out dead on course for Cape Suzette," Mickey explained, "There are no better pilots than the bush pilots of Cape Suzette. We can charter a new ship there to take us to my castle."

"Your castle? Is that where we're going next?" said Kim.

"Yes. Right now, it's the closest thing we've got to a safe place," said Mickey, "We need to step back; take another look at the situation. I still don't know what's goin' on but it's much bigger than a few troublemakers causin' a ruckus.

"Luckily, the communicator is still workin'. I've sent warnings to all my friends. We are all in great danger."

"Then the sooner we get to this castle of yours the better," said Kim.

Without warp engines the League had nothing to do but settle back for the long flight ahead of them. Kim went down into the cabin to join the others dozing in the comfortable armchairs. Mickey alone refused to join them. Kim had never realised how intense the King was. He sat bolt upright in the pilot's chair, eyes constantly scanning the various dials, ears twitching at the slightest noise. He never seemed to tire or slow down. She wondered where he got his energy from. It was quite eerie.

After a refreshing nap Kim returned to the cockpit to find Mickey exactly as she had left him. His eyes were fixed on the route ahead but he would occasionally glance down at the radar screen on his right. Kim moved to stand behind him and looked down at the radar. There were two clusters of dots on either side of the screen, moving in parallel with the Excalibur.

"Pirates," said Mickey, pre-empting her question.

"Pirates? Why don't they attack?" asked Kim.

"I don't know. I guess they're just keeping an eye on us; seeing where we go," said Mickey, "They've been following us for hours."

The pirate ships remained with the Excalibur all the way to Cape Suzette; never closing, never dropping back.

The town of Cape Suzette was on the northernmost tip of a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by a bright tropical sea. It was built on the shores of a natural bay, very wide and deep. The sole entrance, by both sea and air, was through a narrow gap in the towering cliffs that surrounded the bay on all sides.

Mickey brought the Excalibur low, beneath the clouds, as he approached the cliffs. Entering a brief command sequence into the console, he raised the speaking tube to his mouth and said:

"This is the Excalibur, calling the Cape Suzette cliffs. Do you read me, over?"

"This is the cliffs. We read you Excalibur, over," replied a friendly, if formal, voice from the console speaker.

"Request permission to enter, over," said Mickey.

"Permission pending. Please transmit your authentication code, over."

Mickey tapped out a sequence on the console buttons.

"Authentication code received," said the voice on the other end of the communicator, "You are cleared to enter Cape Suzette. Looks you've got some pretty hefty damage there, sir. Over."

"Yeah. We're lookin' to charter another ship, over."

"Well, I hope you're not in a hurry. I don't if you've noticed but you've a whole hornet's nest o' pirates breathin' down your neck. Chances are that all ships inside the city are gonna be grounded until we've seen them off, over."

"Understood. Excalibur over and out."

"What are we going to do if they do try to ground us?" Kim asked.

"We won't stay any longer than is necessary," said Mickey, "We're putting this town in danger just by bein' here."

Kim did not argue with him but she pitied anyone who tried to attack Cape Suzette. On either side of the gap that permitted access to the town, there were mounted hundreds upon hundreds of guns. There were batteries of long guns and short guns; guns for firing into high altitude and low altitude; guns for shooting ships from the sky and guns for sinking them to the deep. Every gun was clean, well provisioned and attended by a team of gunners.

The Excalibur passed unhindered through the gap in the cliffs. The city of Cape Suzette lay ahead. It was clean, spacious and, in places, beautiful. At the highest point of town there were many skyscrapers, dozens of white towers stretching gracefully to the sky. Further down, towards the waterfront, the buildings were less beautiful, more functional, with factories and warehouses crammed side by side. At the shoreline, dozens of wooden jetties protruded out into the bay like stubby fingers.

It was alongside one of these jetties that Mickey finally brought the Excalibur to rest. Climbing down, the League could see the true extent of the damage for the first time. The port wing was almost completely torn away, leaving only a white stump. The hull had been scarred, often inches deep, on both sides. Kim was amazed that Mickey had been able to pilot it at all.

"Come on, we've gotta go," said Mickey.

"But Your Majesty, how are we gonna find a pilot in this city?" said Hercules, staring up at the downtown skyscrapers, "It's huge!"

"It's simple," said Mickey, "All the small charter companies have their offices on the waterfront. We just keep walking 'til we find someone who's available for hire."

The League began to move down the jetty. They had just reached the waterfront proper when they heard the guns. Muffled by the thick cliffs, they sounded more distant than they actually were. It was a steady rhythm of notes, higher or lower depending on the size of the gun.

Kim glanced up and down the waterfront. The citizens of Cape Suzette, animals like Mickey and Darkwing, did not seem in the least bit alarmed by the sound of gunfire not half a mile from their city. A few paused, glanced towards the cliffs, and then returned to whatever business they had to do.

"It would appear that pirate attacks are nothing new to this city," said Basil.

"Let's hope that's all it is," said Mickey.

The League turned off the jetty and moved along the waterfront. The first jetty they came to was dominated by small wooden building with a square tower rising from its roof. A yellow gummi-ship resembling an old seaplane was resting in the water off the end of the jetty. Beside it a sign, carved into a piece of curved wood and mounted on two poles, read 'Higher for Hire'.

The League was about to turn and knock at the door of the office building when they noticed the figure snoozing in a hammock strung beneath the near wing of the gummi-ship. It was a bear, tall and thickly built, with grey fur and wearing a peaked pilot's cap.

Mickey approached.

"Excuse me?" he said shyly.

The bear continued to snore.

"Excuse me?" said Mickey, softly.

There was still no response from the bear. Tarzan stepped forward and growled, ever so softly. The bear leapt out of the hammock as if he had been stung, narrowly avoiding tumbling into the water.

"Hey! Wh-what's the big idea, huh? Can't you seen I'm sleepin'?" he demanded.

"Sorry but we're kinda in a hurry," said Mickey, "We're lookin' to hire a gummi-ship."

"Can't help you, pal," said the bear grumpily, "You hear that? That's the cliff guns and when they're firin' like that, that means nobody's takin' off. Go buy yourself a newspaper or something 'cause you're in for a long wait."

The sounds of gun fire seemed more urgent. There were more of them now and they were firing faster.

"Gee, I'm sorry Mister…?" said Mickey.

"Baloo. Just Baloo."

"Baloo, you've gotta listen. While we're here, this whole city is in terrible danger. We've got to get out of here as fast as we can."

"Say, that's a new one," said Baloo dryly as he settled back into his hammock, "I'm gonna have to write it down."

"Listen, you slovenly slob!" snapped Darkwing, pushing his way to the front of the group, "Can't you get it through your thick skull? This entire city is in peril and we require your ship to save it! Can you ignore the call of justice?"

"Watch me," said Baloo, pushing his hat down over his eyes.

"Nice going, Mister Tact," said Kim.

"Well I didn't see you doing anything to help!" said Darkwing, rounding on her. Mickey had just opened his mouth to call for calm when he froze. The guns had stopped.

The League turned to look across the bay. Green fire was burning all along the cliff tops. They could hear the roar of many gummi engines coming through the gap below.

"We're too late," said Mickey, "They're here."

Authors note: Cape Suzette is the main setting for the cartoon Talespin, which features Baloo, orginally from The Jungle Book, as a bush pilot.