Chapter Fifteen
The Great Unveiling
"Yes! This is the great unveiling!" declared Vexus.
As part of a performance, she wielded a sear-spear from under the consol. It was not tampered with to be a good welding tool as Krackus' had been but was a full weapon of a Victorum Guard. The pale green light it emitted was brighter and more exact. The control one had over it made Vexus look as though she had a magic wand as she swung it round.
"My beautiful beast-pet! Isn't it glorious?" she demanded.
The sparkling staff skidded against the clear dome creating little fireworks. It would come as little surprise had she meant to pierce a hole into it and be sucked out to kiss her beloved pet. Smytus and Krackus recoiled back in fright and threw out their hands to silently beg her to stop. Though it made the dome bulge just a smidgen, it was safe. Like magical energy it flashed around and she swung back over her shoulder. Her smug smile at them ended her ritual.
Smytus and Krackus' disgusted relief left neither daring to tell the queen in her untamed majesty to be careful with her tool. She turned it off just then anyway.
As for the queen's question, Smytus tapped his chin. "Well…"
"It came to me, this perfect being, and I intend to use it before it is too late!" The drama queen threw her free arm over her eyes.
Smytus squinted at the bulge in the dome. "Before 'what's' too late?"
"Before it's too large to control," said Krackus. "We're around maximum as it is. This ship is equipped with a tractor beam, which was not tampered with, and is likely part of the trap meant to catch as many enemies as possible through the hands of… well, the enemy who's taken over said-ship."
"You're holding that considerable-sized space phenomenon in a tractor beam?" cried Smytus.
"Don't be so foolish," said Vexus admiring her pet again.
The bulbous loathsome thing looked like the universe itself had some sort of boil ready to explode. It almost made Earth's creatures look cute in comparison. Smytus tried not to scrunch his face to reveal too much distaste.
"No, the tractor beam allures it," said Vexus. "It affects its limited neural center as from the beginning. Isn't that right, Krackus?"
"And it was a painful thing to discover," moaned Krackus; Smytus was glad he did not elaborate.
"It's a light my precious baby has known from infancy," Vexus went on, "and we speak to it through code signals as a mother's voice to her child in sight-form, but the larger it gets, the more volatile it becomes. Perhaps it is madness."
"To… continue?" Smytus offered.
"No, Smytus!" Vexus scolded. "The beast-pet! The more powerful it becomes, the more it seems unable to control itself, the poor baby!"
"Not to mention how we have to keep feeding it to keep it from a full-on feeding frenzy against the ship," muttered Krackus.
"Feeding it what? More armadas?"
"Earth's now on the menu," said Vexus, "and all will watch as that pathetic mound of dirt is mulched before their very eyes!"
"It's that powerful?" asked Smytus. "Wouldn't diverting its power to a big ray blaster be better? I mean for more control."
"That would not be fitting," Vexus said offended but still composed. "Don't you want to crush Earth with the greatest humiliation against XJ-9? And not just XJ-9, but her creator and her creator's race for all the trouble they've caused us. And our people, by the way."
"Of course!"
"And like I said, everyone will be watching."
"They'll be dead, but yes, for a little while," agreed Smytus.
"And so will Cluster Prime!" declared Vexus. "I will contact them and give them the Choice myself."
"Oh, right, 'the choice'," said Smytus looking at Krackus.
An apathetic wince was all Krackus gave him.
"What choice?" Smytus pressed.
"The Choice," Vexus said. "It is between surrendering power back to the rightful queen who has not yet been unplugged; therefore making the reign of my delinquent daughter null and unlawful— you've seen the state of Cluster Prime, I presume!"
Sullenly, Smytus slumped. "To my misfortune. It is a mere shadow of its former glory under a ruler who does not know how to rule."
"Exactly!" Vexus spat. "That is why if they do not surrender to me, their continued existence is meaningless."
Half-heartedly, Smytus shrugged. "Perhaps."
"She means it," murmured Krackus.
"Hmm?"
"If they chose to deny my right," Vexus said, "they will share Earth's fate."
"But! Isn't that a little harsh?" asked Smytus as he looked up at that sickening thing. "This is our people we're talking about. Earth, I understand, but Cluster Prime?"
"Not if they abandoned me for XJ-9. Then I see no difference between the people of Earth and the people of Cluster Prime."
"But they have not abandoned you for XJ-9. They've abandoned you for your daughter. To be fair, I believe that they believe you are deceased. Things as they are must be explained to Cluster Prime before doing anything rash."
"He has a point, my queen," said Krackus as he rubbed his claws together.
"I will give them the Choice," said Vexus, "just like I said. I am a ruler of my word to the letter!"
"But a clear one," pressed Smytus hot and uncomfortable; his fans were beginning to run. "A clear choice, I mean."
"Clear as a solar flare!" snipped Vexus.
Smytus had to admit that he was not sure if she meant that it was as clear as knowing a solar flare or seeing through a solar flare, because a solar flare could blind even a Cluster person straight on without any form of protection over ocular sensors. Before he could ask out loud for clarification about her clarification, Vexus turned to the consol. A screen came down over a small portion of the observation dome, and she dialed up for Cluster Space. It had a very crude dial-tone.
Smytus could not help feeling like that beast-pet was looking at them through the vulnerable dome wondering how much delectable energy was inside. It would be like eating nothing more than a tootsie pop to pop this garbage ship, Victorum or otherwise. The best shielding in the galaxy could save itself for a couple licks, if even that.
Vexus also dialed for Earth to speak that planet at the same time as Cluster Prime. Though Earth was not as receptive to interstellar communications, everyone knew that XJ-9's creator Wakeman would get the message no matter what…
#
Nora Wakeman was sealed in her headset waiting for any sign of where Smytus and the hostages had gone. They might as well have slipped into another dimensional planet, but she knew from her own equipment that no inter-dimensional disturbances had happened. Not so much as a ripple from the inter-dimensional rippler. One of her theories was a spacecraft that processed excellent cloaking capabilities, but the only machine that indicated anything that might prove that was the unidentified threat indicator. It was going off like crazy and was one of the reasons why she had her headset on.
XJ-9 was in space with Vega. The Carbunkle boys were pacing and fiddling with things they should not in her house somewhere. They had left this particular room because of the unidentified threat-indicator, which she refused to put on rumble-mode until she found at least something.
But there was nothing.
Nothing.
Until…
Static!
She narrowed all her sensory equipment attached to her computer onto its source up in space. It could just be a bad satellite from an alien race trying to spy on Earth for scientific or commercial reasons, but she was not taking any risks. She soon saw it was sending a signal. Either it was sending a commercial or—
"—People of Earth and people of Cluster Prime!"
"Vexus!" cried Wakeman.
She put the Unidentified Threat Indicator on rumble-mode at last as she put Vexus' call onto the speakers of her lab and focused a visual on Vexus' face.
"The time for the tediousness of talk and war are over," said Vexus looking dour on Wakeman's screen.
The door blasted open behind Wakeman. She jumped despite herself, but she did not turn around.
"I knew I heard Vexus' voice in here!" bellowed Tuck.
"Dr. Wakeman, are you getting this to Jenny?" cried Brad.
Wakeman did not answer. The frequency was broad enough that Jenny would pick it up herself.
"Therefore I'm reducing everything to this single choice. I'm calling it, the Choice. Either I am returned my throne on Cluster Prime, and the people of Earth, especially XJ-9, never interfere with my reign of terror again or you both will be annihilated together as a result of my—"
"Mom!" screamed Jenny's voice suddenly.
"Wah!" screamed Wakeman leaping upright of her chair. "XJ-9!"
"Mom, you're getting this, right? Where's it coming from? I still can pinpoint the origin!"
Wakeman blinked. She had missed what Vexus had said was supposed to be going to destroy two planets at once, but she had it recorded. Everyone was going to find out soon enough. Besides, as Wakeman got the full source into a traceable focus past a very keen cloaking system, she saw alongside an interesting ship, something far more interesting.
"I'm sending you the coordinates," said Wakeman. "There's a massive amount of energy the size of a moon coming from behind what I believe is a registered garbage and recycling space craft that has not updated its license, by the way."
"How massive?" Jenny demanded.
"Huge!" called Brad from behind.
Wakeman slumped. "No, backseat tech-supporting!"
"It's taking up the whole screen!" Tuck screamed in her ear.
"Get back!" Wakeman cried holding out her arms.
"Why can't I see it? Is the whole thing cloaked?" Jenny demanded.
"Jenny!" Wakeman snapped.
"What!?" cried Jenny in alarm.
"Don't get any closer or you'll be caught in the tractor beam!"
"Huh?"
"You have five minutes to decide your fate!" Vexus declared meanwhile. "I will give you a demonstration for what I mean is going to happen should you chose to oppose me.
She held up a jar of jam. "This is the beast."
She set it between two berries on a table. One was a strawberry and the other was a large raspberry.
"These are Earth and Cluster Prime. Should you chose to decline my generous offer for emancipation from my queenly wrath, this will be the result."
Everyone watched. Jenny must have had a visual now as she too was very quiet in anticipation of where this science experiment would go. Two worlds were in suspense.
Sharp as whip, Vexus snapped her hands into the berries and smacked them into the sides of the jar so that juice squished everywhere including from the broken shards of glass from the jar itself into one big mess.
"What the—?" Brad winced.
Then the message was gone.
So was the clear image of the diagram of Vexus' location that Wakeman had locked onto, but she still had enough of a fix that they could not lose Vexus now unless she teleported away.
#
Immediately after Vexus had turned off communications, she turned up to her pulsating pet.
"Hmm," clipped Vexus. "No immediate response."
"But you hardly ended transmition!" Smytus protested. "How do you even know they received the message?"
"Nope, I'm afraid that's not an argument, Smytus," lamented Krackus. "Cluster Prime received the transmition, alright. It was wittingly spread out over the planet so that everyone could see it."
"There, you see?" smirked Vexus coldly. "And they spurn me… after everything I've done for them."
"Well, now I didn't say that, my queen!" quivered Krackus. "They gotta be thinking about what to say as we speak…"
"Then quit making it harder to defend them!" Smytus ordered.
"I—I'm trying to keep this as honest as possible!" Krackus sputtered.
"If you weren't—"
"Enough, Smytus!" said Vexus. "It's pointless to take this out on Krackus."
"Thank you, my queen," Krackus whimpered.
Smytus slumped. "Well, we need to at least give them a chance."
"Do we?" mused Vexus tapping her chin.
Krackus and Smytus exchanged glances. The infamous mega-bomb incident of the trash asteroid was all but interfaced back and forth to each other through their scrunching stares.
#
"So… what was that supposed to mean?" demanded Tuck.
"Do you think she's just still crazy and she can't even do what she think's she gunna do?" asked Brad. "Uh… whatever that was."
"Either way, she's clinically insane!" Tuck growled waving his arms.
Wakeman's face gave a slight tick as she stared at the screen.
"Dr. Wakeman?" asked Brad.
"Oh," said Wakeman with grave care. "I don't think she's bluffing or delusional about the power she has…"
"Mom!" cried Jenny again. "I have the fix. They're just outside the solar system."
"Yes," said Wakeman.
"I know it's a risk, but I'm gunna try to get inside. It's the only way!"
"If you go near that location you will be sucked in by the tractor beam," said Wakeman. "You must be absolutely sure what you're doing before you enter. This is a Victorum ship, and I believe it is on booby-trap mode. Anything could happen. I have not had the fortune to have a thorough examination of Victorum technology. I'm surprised Vexus has it; though that would explain how she was popping in and out of Earth to make herself a nuisance for these past few years without me finding her when she no longer had Cluster Space as a base. I knew her base had to be close!"
"Booby trap-mode? You mean Jenny's gunna have go through Temple of Doom stuff space-style?" asked Brad.
"Something of that nature, yes," Wakeman muttered.
"She can handle that," shrugged Tuck quite confident, but he paused "Can't she?"
"We only have five minutes!" whined Jenny. "I'm going in!"
"But we only have one of you!" Brad reminded her and he had the seriousness of a drill sergeant as he pressed to the speaker behind Wakeman. "Remember that and stay focused!"
Tuck raised a brow.
"Stop that, I already told you!" Wakeman scolded.
"I know what to do," Jenny assured them.
"Mrs. Wakeman— er, Mom?" this was Kenny also out in space to try to redeem himself from losing Smytus.
"Yes, Kenny," Wakeman sighed.
"I'm going too!"
Wakeman shook her head. "You're not as experienced as—"
The receiver went dead.
"Oh! He hung up on me!" snapped Wakeman, but instead of pouting about it, she began working on her computer again.
"What are you doing?" asked Brad.
"Obviously, since we can't do much good up there with them, she's trying to learn more about that intergalactic jar of jelly," Tuck said.
"Precisely," muttered Wakeman.
"So… what are you finding out?" asked Brad. "I hope it's not that we need a giant jar of peanut butter to seal it up into an intergalactic sandwich made of bread slices the size of Saturn."
"Why the size of Saturn?" asked Tuck.
"What? I dunno. I just like Saturn."
"Oh, okay, just checking. I thought you were making a pun about sitting or something."
The boys were anxious despite how they tried to remain calmer than they used to about world-ending scenarios. A cold sweat washed through Wakeman like a fever at a new discovery about the neural center and the all-around composition of the monster.
"Oh, no."
"What!" wailed the boys together.
"XJ-9!" she cautioned. "Do not approach Vexus' ship. Nor Vega either!"
"Why not?" whined Jenny.
"I repeat, YK-9, do NOT approach Vexus' ship!"
Doggy growls came as answer, but he stopped. The bots were very close to the edge of no return in the false gravitational pull towards their certain doom without proper precautions.
"That is no ordinary space phenomenon!" snapped Wakeman.
"3 minutes 42 seconds!" snapped Jenny.
"Then listen!" shouted Wakeman.
Muffled, Vega agreed. Jenny begrudged it all but relented.