Mark limped to the command chair and carefully sank into it. He closed his eyes and stifled a groan while the other members of G-Force staggered to their stations on the Phoenix.
Except for what was necessary to get the Phoenix launched and headed back to Earth, everyone remained silent. They had defeated the Spectrans, but they all took a serious beating as well.
Once they were well away from Orcus, Security Chief Anderson’s face appeared on one of the smaller monitors above the main view screen. Mark didn’t wait for Anderson to speak.
“Mission accomplished, Chief.” In spite of his best efforts, some pain seeped into Mark’s voice. “But it wasn’t easy.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Well,” Mark said, “I’ll start with an official apology to Keyop. It’s obvious now that the equipment malfunctions aren’t the result of boyish pranks.”
“Told you!” Keyop called from his station. He was still a bit bitter about being accused of replacing Princess’ yo-yo string with used dental floss.
“So what happened to change your mind?” the chief asked.
“There were weapons malfunctions that were simply beyond Keyop’s ability to cause.”
“Such as?”
“My sonic boomerang’s been tampered with.” the commander said, “When I threw it, it flipped back and hit me.”
“He almost got a sonic suppository!” Jason added. Keyop and Tiny choked back guffaws while Princess covered her mouth to hide a small giggle.
Mark glared back at his second. “Thanks.”
“Just making sure the man understood.” Jason replied in an almost realistic innocent tone. He gingerly touched his jaw and winced at the immediate pain; his cable gun backfired and hit him with such force that he first thought his jaw had been shattered.
“I was afraid of this.” Chief Anderson said gravely, “It appears Zoltar has agents in Center Neptune!”
After the chief had signed off, a heavy silence fell over G-Force. Except for relaying the information and commands necessary to keep the Phoenix on course, this silence went unbroken for almost the whole remainder of the trip.
“We’re about to reach the approach vector of Center Neptune.” Tiny reported.
The team quietly watched the main view screen to see something that never grew old: wispy clouds parted to reveal a shimmering, lapis lazuli ocean beneath. And, a short distance away, a small crescent.
Suddenly, the Phoenix came to a stop and hovered parallel to the horizon.
“Tiny, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, Mark!” Tiny’s hands flew over the controls. “It looks like the Phoenix has taken on a mind of its own!” He reached over to pull one of the larger levers. It didn’t move.
He tried pulling with both hands. Still nothing.
Mark reached over to assist. Again, nothing.
Jason came up to add his strength to the effort.
Even though all three were straining to get the smallest movement from the lever, none came.
Then the ship went dark.
And then the Phoenix did a massive belly-flop into the ocean.
* * * * *
“What’s the point of entering a race when I can’t compete?” Jason fumed as he was the first to enter the rec room. His teammates were right behind him.
“The chief just doesn’t want us to get hunted down one-by-one by Spectra’s agents.” Mark explained, “We’re just too vulnerable.”
“Right.” Jason snapped, “Why make them hunt each of us down one-by-one when we could just be one big target? Makes perfect sense.”
“Jason,” Princess said in the most soothing tone she dared to use on him, “we could be endangering innocent people if we went out in public right now.”
The Condor snorted at this – his way of conceding she had a point. He went over to the couch, threw himself onto it, and closed his eyes.
“Stinks either way.” Keyop said, popping a piece of bubble gum in his mouth.
“Yeah,” Tiny concurred as he sat down and took a bite out of a Spaceburger, “so we might as well make the best of it.” He swallowed the mouthful and continued, “I mean –“
The Spaceburger fell to the floor. Tiny’s eyes grew wide and his face blanched.
“Tiny?” Princess’ voice was full of concern.
He gagged. A thick, white foam spewed from his nose and mouth.
Mark was there within a heartbeat, applying the Heimlich maneuver. This only made the foam come out in larger volumes.
“Medical emergency!” Mark shouted into his bracelet.
* * * * *
“Somebody managed to taint Tiny’s food with a new type of detergent used to neutralize fuel spills.” Chief Anderson explained to the rest of G-Force as they stood outside sick bay, “He’s going to be all right. He’ll just have an upset stomach for a while, and he probably won’t even LOOK at a Spaceburger for a while.”
Keyop tossed his piece of bubble gum in a nearby waste can and replaced it with a fresh piece.
“Knowing how Tiny loves his burgers,” Jason said, “that’ll probably kill him within a day!”
Everyone else ignored that comment.
“Poor Tiny.” Keyop said, “I just –“ His mouth suddenly clamped shut.
He let out a frustrated cry and gestured wildly at his jaw.
“What’s wrong, Keyop?” Mark asked.
“Come on, spit it out!” Jason added.
Chief Anderson peered into Keyop’s face. “He can’t open his mouth.” He took the initiative by grabbing the boy by the arm and pulling him into sick bay.
Within an hour the medics determined that someone had injected the newest super glue developed by the ISO into that piece of gum. Unfortunately, the only effective solvent was also highly toxic. So the team of scientists who developed the glue were called in to develop a safer solution to Keyop’s problem.
The chief ordered Mark, Princess, and Jason to their quarters to rest for the night while he considered their next move.
Mark tried his best to relax, but only managed to become more tense as he wondered if Jason was right after all. By staying at Center Neptune as one group, maybe they had simply made it easier for Spectra to eliminate them.
He left his quarters; maybe a walk through the corridors would help clear his head. He hadn’t gone very far when he heard a shriek come from Princess’ quarters.
He was at her door in no time, pounding with his fist and calling, “Princess, are you all right?”
The only sound he heard from the other side of the door was. . . a sob?
It seemed to take an hour, but Mark finally forced the door open and charged in.
He found her in the bathroom. She had a towel wrapped around her as she sat on the edge of the bathtub, holding a clump of wet hair in her hand. There were clumps of wet hair scattered about on the floor and in the tub, but none was left on her head.
“Somebody put hair removal cream in my shampoo bottle!” Princess managed to say between sniffles.
* * * * *
By the time Mark charged into Princess’ quarters, Jason had already slipped away from Center Neptune, rented a car, and was driving through the downtown city lights. It wasn’t the same as doing laps at the track, but there was something about flashing neon lights during a sticky summer night that took some of the edge off his nervous tension.
He didn’t have any particular place in mind as he drove. He just kept going until he came to a squat, concrete block building with a brick facade on the front – a hole-in-the-wall bar called “Crunchers” in one of the seedier areas of town.
He picked out a table near one of the corners and settled in. As Jason looked around, he found nothing all that appealing about the place. It looked like a stock scene from countless, bad, made-for-television movies with the low ceiling of cigarette smoke, biker wannabes, barflies, and washed-up losers who’d be glad to get a five-minute stand, let alone a one-night stand.
Jason was just about to stand up and leave when SHE came in. There was something in the way she wore her riding leathers. . . he knew she rode a motorcycle, but was in no way a biker’s bitch. She had all the physical attributes he wanted in his ideal woman. He knew this was a worn-out phrase, but it was true in this case: she seemed to have been made just for him.
Everyone else faded from existence as she walked over to him. “Mind if I join you?”
“Help yourself.”
Her name was Maxi, and Jason found himself wanting her more and more with each passing minute. And Maxi seemed to feel the same toward Jason.
“Look,” Maxi finally said, “it’ll be Last Call soon. Why don’t we go somewhere to. . . talk? There’s a little motel a block away. . .”
“Sounds good to me.”
This motel was one place where people frequently turned a deaf ear to the sounds often heard coming from the rooms. That wasn’t the case, however, when a disturbingly loud crunch came from one of those rooms, followed immediately by a piercing scream that struck fear and dread into any man within earshot.
* * * * *
Chief Anderson had just finished a conversation with a surgeon when Mark and Princess finally found him in sick bay.
“Chief, we can’t find Jason –“ Mark started to say.
“I know.” the chief replied, “He just got out of surgery.”
“What happened?” Princess asked. This news was enough to make her stop focusing on how uncomfortable the wig she’d been wearing for just a couple of hours made her feel.
“He managed to slip out just after I’d ordered you all to quarters last night.” Anderson replied, “An android calling herself Maxi Payne picked him up at a cheap bar and then attacked him.”
“Is he going to be all right?” Mark asked.
Princess found herself fighting back tears – she was well aware of the possibility of serious injury or death while fighting Spectra. But there was something about this attack on Jason . . . maybe it was because this wasn’t as straight-forward as facing down squadrons of Spectra’s goons. . .
“The surgeon said he should be better within a couple of weeks.”
“Where was he hurt?” she tried to sound calm and businesslike.
“You don’t need to know that, Princess.”
“Why not?”
Just then a security officer with a clipboard appeared in the doorway. “Uh, Chief?” he said. Anderson promptly excused himself and rushed over to the officer, thankful to get away from Princess and any awkward explanations he’d have to give concerning Jason’s injuries.
While Mark kept watch, Princess slipped over to a nearby desk. While she casually wrapped a strand of her wig’s hair around a finger, she sifted through the file folders on the desk. She found the one she was after, opened it, and scanned the top page.
She stifled an embarrassed giggle as her cheeks turned red. She closed the folder and hurried back to Mark.
“Well?”
“I don’t know if I should say.”
“Why not? Where could Jason possibly get hurt that would make you blush. . . oh.” Mark took on a sympathetic tone. “Oh man.” He paused a moment before chuckling a little.
“What?” Princess was shocked by the small laugh.
“Well,” he quietly said to her, “the chief said the android was called ‘Maxi Payne’, right?”
“Mark,” she giggled, “you’re TERRIBLE!”
“This is all current and correct?” the chief asked as he handed the clipboard back to the security officer.
“Yes, sir!”
“Then assemble your team outside the location. I’ll send a couple members of G-Force. DO NOT proceed until they have arrived. Then go in with extreme caution – the subject could be very dangerous.”
“Yes, sir.” With that, the officer left.
“What’s up, Chief?” Mark asked as Anderson rejoined them.
“Some good’s come from this, after all. The enemy agent used Jason’s bracelet to track him, and a constant radio signal was broadcasting instructions to the android during the entire incident.”
“So we were able to pinpoint the agent’s exact location!” Princess added.
“Precisely!” the chief replied, “I need you two to join the security team in BirdStyle to apprehend the Spectran spy!”
* * * * *
“I swear to you, Commander, I have no idea why you’d think I’d ever do something so terrible!” 7-Zark-7 burbled to Mark, “You’re all my family!”
“Now, Zark,” Princess cooed, “I’m sure it’s all a misunderstanding. If you just go quietly with these nice security people, I’m sure everything will be straightened out in a jiffy.”
“Do you really think so, Princess?”
“Yes, Zark,” she lied, “I do.”
“If you say so.” Zark said. He turned to the security team. “I surrender, though I’ve done nothing wrong.”
An officer stood on each side of the robot. They started toward the control room exit. They didn’t get very far, though, before the officer on the left slipped a hand under Zark’s cape and deactivated the robot.
Mark heaved a sigh of relief as the security team rolled Zark out of the room. “That could’ve gotten really ugly.”
“I know.” Princess agreed. “But things just won’t be the same without him around.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
Just then there was a small “clink!” on the floor near Mark. He looked down and saw 1-Rover-1 looking up at him. The little robot dog had brought over his favorite crescent wrench and dropped it at the commander’s feet.
Mark felt sorry for the pooch. He reached down and patted Rover on the head. “There, there.” he said, “You’ll be getting a new playmate soon enough.” He picked up the wrench and tossed it to the far side of the room.
While Rover waddled after his toy, Mark and Princess quietly slipped out of the control room.
Rover chewed on his wrench for a few minutes. Then, when he was sure he was going to be left alone for a while, he waddled over to a communications panel. He stood on his hind legs and, with his right front paw, pressed a button.
A monitor sputtered and flickered to life. A blurry, purple image appeared on the screen.
“Good dog.” the purple image said to Rover, “Very good.”
