...and thus I stick my toe into the water again with a short update. Sorry for the loooong hiatus.
Many thanks to Archonix for the cover art...
"Kif, why are the shiny blue things back up on the screen?"
"The force fields have come back online, sir."
"Shoot them again."
The Lieutenant released a particularly aggravated sigh, before speaking evenly through clenched lips.
"Um, sir. For one thing, we have to get in a position where we can get a clean shot. For another thing, we can just ask to have the fields shut off again."
The Nimbus skimmed alongside the star way, like a shark cruising past a school of minnows, trying to get the one fish that was swimming the wrong way. That green fish, unfortunately, was well-hidden by the surrounding school flashing past it.
Kif wasn't sure, but he thought Amy's transponder signal was broadcasting from inside those lanes as well. He had to do something to delay Zapp…
"Sir, should I issue your order to lower the fields again sir?" Another idea then hit Kif. "And should we set up another of your blockades on those lanes, upstream of this traffic?"
Zapp paused, frowning. It always amazed him how fast he could think. Why, he thought so fast he couldn't even remember thinking of these ideas. Oh well. It gave him a chance to say one of his favorite lines. He leaned forward and dramatically pointed his finger at the screen.
"Make it so!"
Amy didn't dare breathe, as though exhaling might cause the sides of the ship to bulge out and thus clip the swarm of traffic darting past them on all sides. It was like they were careening down a tunnel, a tunnel comprised of blurry vehicles heading in the opposite direction. A few feet in either direction, and no amount of cuteness was going to help her.
She glanced left. Other than being several shades paler then she had been moments earlier, Leela looked the same, eye locked firmly ahead, hands clenched on the wheel. Nibbler looked fast asleep, at first, but then Amy noticed his third eye was only half closed.
Leela's face, and the entire cabin, suddenly turned a light shade of pink. Amy swiveled her head to look out the viewport to her right. A sea of red lights and sirens streaked past, just beyond the traffic encasing them, as they passed the blockade set up in the other lanes. Looking ahead, she could see the DonBot a few hundred meters ahead. And barely a hundred meters beyond that-
"I'm tightening up the tractor beam, reeling us in closer," Leela said. "I've gotta be real careful not to burn out or break the beam. We're running out of time."
"How much time?" asked Amy.
"Only three minutes of fuel left," the computer said calmly. "Performance will start to degrade momentarily."
Bender looked almost as calm as the computer's voice, leaning back in the co-pilot's chair and watching the DOOP blockage vanish behind them. Behind him, Scruffy sat reading his magazine, and Zoidberg cheerfully stared out the window at the pretty lights flashing by.
Fortunately, Fry was panicked enough for everybody, mouth hanging dumbly open, shoulders unconsciously hunched together.
The ship shuddered.
"Nozzle flared out for a moment."
"I see it," Leela said, "they're almost running on empty now."
The flicker in one of the PE ship's nozzles was gone, but the Donbot's limo had suddenly closed the gap with the PE ship to a few meters. Recklessly the limo tried to pull alongside, squeezing between the PE ship and the oncoming traffic. Amy's Romero was so close that the two women could see a grappling hook shoot out from the limo and embed into the airlock door.
A dull thud rang across the bridge.
"Now what?" whimpered the delivery boy. "What's next?"
Bender stretched his limbs, and leaned back in his chair, next to Fry, who was huddled over the ship's controls. He pulled his Zuban out of his mouth, and said "Simple, meatbag. Looks like my buddies from the Robot Mafia are goin' ta pay us a visit."
"Um..isn't that bad?"
"Nah-it's not like they're gonna shoot us on sight or anything, right? They just wanna capture us, which gives us a chance to bribe them." He gestured toward the overstuffed couch. "I got $2.5 million Woolongs in there alone, and another half of Mom's $2.7 billion bucks stashed away in some strange places on this ship. We robots, being superior to you meatbags, know the value of cold, hard, cash. All we hafta do is wait for them to show up-"
He started to make a vague gesture toward the bridge portal, but then glanced at the radar display, and casually leaned sideways.
"Jes' a sec, Fry."
He poked at Fry's control stick, glancing Fry's hands a millimeter to the left, which in turn shifted the PE ship laterally by about five feet. Less than a second later, a farm ship loaded with Hyperchickens flashed past them, missing them by two feet. Unfortunately for the chickens, the Donbot's limo hadn't yet moved.
Amy just barely had time to see a cloud of feathers streaking toward them before Leela slammed the controls, throwing Amy against the side of the ship. At these speeds even feathers became deadly projectiles, and here were hundreds of them dashing by her window. The hiss of air escaping from her overstressed Romeo became a steady moan.
"Wow! Their grappling hook held!" Leela cried. At the moment Amy didn't care, because the wind was knocked out of her, but Leela watched with some admiration as the Donbot's limo stabilized, despite now missing a tail fin, displaying a broken window, and being covered with white splatters. The hyperchicken truck had given the limo only a glancing blow, but to her it was still a miracle the limo had survived in one piece. As she stared, the limo hauled itself against the PE ship's airlock, and one of the limo's windows began to roll down. Feeling a surge of desperation, Leela risked contracting the tractor beam further, and the PE ship seemed to leap toward them, filling their viewscreen.
"Seal your helmet, Am- Faye. We're gonna get on that-"
Just then the tagger on the tip of her laser pistol turned from green to red, and a tinny voice began to speak.
"Fifty-nine seconds-" the computer began, before the newscast burst over the PE Ship's monitor.
"This is Linda, with breaking news. Our own Morbo has an exclusive update on the exciting hunt for the two bank criminals currently taking place on Sqrt 66. The Bounty Hunter's Guild has just announced that a new agency has posted a new reward for this desperate duo- three million Woolongs!"
"I knew it," chuckled Bender. "I just knew if we blew enough stuff up we'd end up being worth more. Still ain't enough to match our bribe though."
-and this new reward is only valid if they are proven dead, bonus if killed on sight or first direct sensory acquisition."