Chapter 34

MegaDan sat back and allowed himself a satisfied chuckle. The plan had worked. He had managed to get the crew of the Turdination to abandon ship.

He looked around the bridge, absently noting that half-eaten sandwiches and spilled cups of coffee that littered the floor. Obviously, he had interrupted the bridge crew’s lunch. His stomach growled to remind him that it had been several hours since it had received any food.

He looked over at Charlie who was puzzling over one of the technical stations. “Do you think you can figure out how to run this system?”

Charlie looked up at him, giving the thumbs up.

MegaDan grinned. “I knew you could do it! It can’t be that complicated for a guy who runs the gear we use.”

Charlie smiled and went back to poking around the ship’s systems.

MegaDan stood. “I’m going to go round us up some food. Call me if something comes up.”

Charlie made a distracted wave over his shoulder as MegaDan left the bridge. Using the comp-stations spread throughout the ship, he managed to find the galley. With any luck there would be something hot to eat and maybe a pot of coffee. A caffeine kick would be really nice about now.

He almost tripped over a being sprawled on the floor. MegaDan had never seen anything like it before. Tentacles all around its body, another pair where feet might be and a large soft head with two large eyes. The eyes were closed and, as far as MegaDan could tell, the thing was alive. It was dressed in a white chef’s uniform and, if it was alive like MegaDan thought, he had a problem.

What to do with one of the crew still aboard.

He didn’t want to leave the thing locked in the kitchen. That would cut off his access to food. Maybe the cooler?

MegaDan steeled himself and grabbed one of the lower extremities. It had a rubbery texture and stretched a little as he pulled. Small suction cups covered the tentacle. The thing weighed less than it looked and MegaDan was able to get it to the cooler.

He pulled the thing in without it ever making so much as a twitching movement. MegaDan turned the cooler temperature up to just above freezing. After all, he didn’t want to kill the cook, just keep him out of their business. He closed the door and wedged a chair against the door so it wouldn’t open.

Satisfied that the cook wouldn’t be a problem, MegaDan rounded up food and drink for two and went back up to the bridge. Charlie was still hard at work at the console.

“Found a crewman in the galley. He was unconscious when I got there so I locked him in the cooler. Strange looking fellow too!”

Charlie accepted the food from MegaDan with a questioning look.

“No, I don’t think he’ll be a problem. I turned the stat up to just above freezing. I don’t want to kill the fellow after all.” MegaDan pointed at the console. “What have you found out?”

Charlie pulled up the forward screen to show the rapidly diminishing shapes of the Galactic Counsel fleet.

“Good, they’re leaving,” MegaDan said. “Were you able to boost the sensors like we talked about?”

Charlie nodded.

“Excellent. Wait until the fleet is beyond normal sensor range and follow. Keep them just at the edge of our sensors so we don’t lose them. I want to be able to report where they’re at without them knowing we’re behind them.”

Charlie nodded again.

“Oh, and could you scan the ship for any other life forms please? I don’t want to be surprised by any other crew.”

MegaDan went back to the captain’s chair and sat down to eat. If things went according to plan, he would be able to get a report off to Galaxy News without Vice-Chancellor Greklor being any the wiser. He had to expose the Vice-Chancellor for the criminal he really was. An entire species was depending on him.

***

Have you ever heard the story of ‘David and Goliath’? For those of you who haven’t, it’s about a little guy fighting a giant with nothing but a thong of leather and a few carefully chosen rocks.

Sounds pretty one-sided, doesn’t it? All the bookies thought so too putting the odds at a thousand to one against David.

Too bad they didn’t know what David did and that is, a single well-placed pebble can stop even the most formidable foe. He took that knowledge and killed the giant Goliath with a well-tossed stone to the temple.

The echoes of the giant’s fall hadn’t even faded before the bookies were running for their very lives hoping to avoid a number of very angry creditors and patrons.

And so it is with the humans. They are a stalwart few going up against the mighty many of the Galactic Extermination Fleet, commanded by the being known as Vice-Chancellor Greklor.

The question is, what will be the humans’ pebble in this little drama? Will it be the newsbeing, MegaDan Scholes? How about the pseudo-princess Sheanna’Ree? Or perhaps it will be a giant star-turtle swimming to the rescue.

OK, probably not the star-turtle since I just made that up, but still.

Only time will tell if any pebble shows up at all to thwart Greklor and his nefarious plans. Good use of the word ‘nefarious’, don’t you think?

Ahem

Time is rapidly falling short as the aforementioned Galactic Extermination Fleet approaches the solar system wherein lives the vast majority of the species known as humanity. Perhaps now would be a good time to go on that holiday?