Chapter 16

Xaraxus continued to move down his pre-selected path through the corridors. The LONAC crew backed away from Xaraxus and his captive. The only source of light in the corridors was the lights from the alarms. “Unfortunately, I was locked out of the system before I could open the docking bay doors.”

“How unfortunate, jerk” Sunspot sneered.

When they arrived at the docking bay, Xaraxus took Sunspot’s gun and placed it against the door. He stood back to fire at it, but the doors started to open on their own. Without questioning the strange occurrence, Xaraxus threw Sunspot down the hall and kept his gun trained on her. “I feel like I’ve really gotten to know this crew, especially you. It’s a pity I can’t take you with me. I- I’ll miss LONAC” Xaraxus said with mock sincerity. He then turned to run for a shuttle, but bumped into an unexpected visitor.

“You’re not going anywhere,” said a physically and mentally torn Waitstate.

“And just how are you going to stop me looking like that?” Xaraxus asked laughing.

Without a word Waitstate walked out of the docking bay. He turned to face Xaraxus as he reached the doors. “You’re right, there’s nothing I can do at this point to stop you. However, they might have a bone to pick.” The Raptors stepped out of the darkness just as Waitstate closed the docking bay doors. Screams were heard, but Waitstate ignored them. He helped Sunspot to her feet. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t worry about me. Look, he dropped the book.” Sunspot pointed to the now sealed doors of the docking bay.

“It’s time I put an end to this.” Waitstate pulled out Xaraxus’ phaser and disintegrated the Book.

Gravix came charging down the corridor. “No! How could you?”

Sunspot stood between him and Waitstate. “It’ll have to wait Gravix, Xaraxus did something on the bridge and you can bet it won’t be good.”

Waitstate ran to the nearest comm unit. “I want all crew members to stop whatever the Pit they’re doing and report to their stations.” Waitstate and Sunspot entered a turbolift.

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A few minutes later, Waitstate and Sunspot met up with Admiral Lilwall. “Waitstate, it’s good to see you back.”

“What’s the situation?” Waitstate asked.

“All good news, but I’m afraid we’re still in a heap of trouble,” Admiral Lilwall reported.

Waitstate ran over to the main control console. “Slag! I want all power diverted to the reverse thrusters!” Waitstate shouted.

“But they’ll overload, we could be stuck here for weeks!” Sunspot protested.

“Don’t question my orders!” Waitstate shouted back.

Stunned, Sunspot obeyed and. The ship started buckling as it neared the planet’s atmosphere.

“You’d better hold onto something!” Waitstate shouted at them.

“Great, not this again” Cirrus grumbled as he held onto his chair.

They all took their seats and held on tight looking in suspense at the viewscreen. The blue planet covered it from corner to corner. With a loud boom, one of the nacelles exploded. “We’re not going to make it!” Sunspot shouted. Within a few more seconds, the Freedom was drifting safely away from the planet. “Er, we made it!”

“Cirrus, damage report” Waitstate asked calmly.

Cirrus shrugged. “Aside from a massive power drain, one obliterated nacelle, and about a thousand laser holes all over the ship, we’ll probably make it to the next space port.”

“There’s a shuttle leaving the docking bay.” Admiral Lilwall added. “Scan show no Spectral Death life signs.”

“We’re not going to have to worry about them for a very long time anyhow, not in the shape they were in” Waitstate replied. “In the mean time, I want a fully detailed damage report.”

“What are the rest of us going to do?” Roadkill asked.

“The rest of us are going to fix the nacelles,” Waitstate told her.

“This is Cuffs. I’m in the docking bay,” Cuffs said over the comm. “Seems like we’ve got ourselves a prisoner.”

“What do you mean?” Waitstate asked.

“Seems Toom was too much to haul back to what’s left of the Doom Gaze” Cuffs replied. “No worries though, he’s been deactivated.”

Waitstate paused for a moment. “Just throw him in the brig for now. We’ve got bigger things to deal with right now.”

Aries chuckled. "Have you READ the damage report?"

“Oh yeah, right” Waitstate said. “Well, I guess the next best place is the med bay.”

“I’m sure Restore will love that” Cirrus replied.

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Several hours later, repair work was heavily underway.

“They weren’t as badly damaged as we thought” Cirrus said referring to the nacelles. “It’ll only be a few more days.”

“Get a few of the others and tell them it’s time for a break” Waitstate sighed. “You know where to find me.”