Chapter 7
7:32 NST, Day 15
2.20 light years from Neopia
"All right, I'll make this simple. We want answers and we want 'em now!" Ben
demanded as he paced the room. Uno was increasingly aware of how everyone had
formed a circle around him as he said in a carefully neutral tone,
"About what?"
"Don't even pretend like you don't know anything about 'the signals'!" exploded
an irate Nivara.
"So you've been spying on me, huh?" clipped Uno back, attempting to turn the
tables on his would-be inquisitors. Salchicha studied the floor guiltily and
said,
"We didn't mean to…" but Sally, not intimidated in the least, cut him off:
"It's a good thing we did! How long did you plan on waiting before filling
us in on the situation?"
"There isn't anything to tell!" insisted Uno, who was becoming desperate.
Now Infiniti, the Jubjub spoke up.
"We've been friends for a long time, Uno. We have known each other for years
and years. In all that time, do you really think I wouldn't have come to know
you well enough to know when you're hiding something?" Uno sighed, looked at
all the grim, accusing faces staring at him, and said,
"All right. Seven years ago this month, communications experts finally triangulated
the position of the source of the contact with our owners. It is believed that
one of the planets in this star system is called 'Earth', and is our owners'
home planet."
For nearly ten minutes, not a single word was spoken. The entire room just
sat there in shocked silence. Finally, Salchicha voiced the thought on everyone's
mind,
"Our owners…" he whispered softly. One by one, each of them left the room
to go to their bunks, busy themselves in chores, anything to get some solitude
in which to think. At last, only Uno and Zyral remained. Uno slowly turned to
the green Kacheek, the only other one who had known the now unveiled secret,
and said,
"Well, THAT didn't go as well as I had hoped…"
10:15 NST, Day 21
3.14 light years from Neopia, somewhere in the Neopian constellation Yeager
Strella could barely contain her excitement! Not only was she sailing through
the stars faster than previously believed possible, but now she was going to
see her owner… IN PERSON! There was so much she wanted to say and do! She had
already made a list about three pages long…
"Hi!" said Davix, popping his head in and startling Strella back to reality.
"What are you up to? You're being awful quiet."
"Well, I was just thinking."
"I know what ya' mean, meeting our owners and all, it just boggles the mind.
I mean, who'd have thought, huh?"
"Well, I was also thinking about what a good friend you've been to me on this
trip. Some of the others sorta resent me a little bit for being here." "Not
me, nor Shipos. Uno is a little hacked, but he is at everyone over the way we
cornered him. Sally is simply in her normal state, I suppose."
"Still, I'd like to thank you for being my friend."
"It's nothing, really…"
"Oh," said Strella disappointedly.
"But for what it's worth…" Strella looked up, hope sparkling in her eyes.
"I think you're beautiful"
"Hey you guys," called Zyral from the cockpit, breaking the spell of the moment,
"you might want to come see this…" Strella and Davix, as well as Sally and Infiniti,
who had been in the mess room, eating, glided into the cockpit. Sally shot Davix
a look of daggers as they approached the door, but Davix was too curious about
the pilot's summons to notice. Everyone else was already there, and staring
intently at a small pair of screens between the pilot's and commander's chairs.
One was a map with various numbers indicating speed, distance traveled and remaining,
position, inertia, etc. The other was a countdown clock with only a few minutes
remaining on it.
"Almost time to disengage the Chaos drive!" said Vincent excitedly.
"Everyone take your seats," reminded Ben.
Davix pulled himself into a seat right next to Strella and fastened himself
in. They exchanged a knowing glance and prepared themselves for the deceleration.
Everyone got more and more tense as the numbers on the clock got lower and lower.
Finally, only one minute remained, then half, then 15 seconds, 10, 5, 4, 3,
2, 1…
A shudder racked the ship, from bow to stern, as it suddenly slowed from superluminous
velocities to sublight speed. Instantly, sirens started flashing and klaxons
sounded as the ship shook again, but this time accompanied by a loud crash and
screeching of metal. Uno blanched as he realised that they had just hit something,
and something rather large from the sound of it.
Chapter 8
Strella loosened her restraints and pushed to the back. She looked alongside
Yen at the asteroid that had struck the engine and was tumbling rapidly into
the inky void. Without a second thought, Strella headed toward the airlock,
suited up, grabbed a tool belt, and exited the cabin. When Davix realised what
she was doing, he called to her to stop, but she sealed the inner door and hit
the depress valve. He unclipped his seat belt and shoved off toward the door,
grabbing the handle just in time to hear the rush of air from inside the airlock.
Now he couldn't open the door without fatally decompressing the whole cabin.
He quickly pushed over to the panel next to the door and slammed the 'talk'
button.
"What do you think you're doing?!" he yelled into the intercom.
"I'm fixing the engine," she replied as if she were simply taking a stroll
out the front door instead of into the dark, deadly vacuum of space. Davix noted
the dangerously low life support power levels on the cockpit monitor with a
worried glance and then scrambled to a rear-facing window.
Slowly, hand over hand, Strella moved down the framework of the ship toward
the damaged engine. She moved slowly over the bent and twisted portion struck
by the asteroid, trying not to think about what would happen if she were outside
when another one hit. She just concentrated on putting one hand in front of
the other. Finally, after what seemed like aeons, she reached the engine. She
planted the magnetic soles of her boots on the engine pod, bent down, flipped
open a panel, and began working furiously. Davix didn't speak for fear of breaking
her concentration.
C'mon, he silently urged her, you can do this! Please come back
in one piece!
After several gut-wrenching, heart-pounding minutes, she closed the panel
back. A cheer went up from the cockpit. Davix turned to look and saw the life
support gauges rise back to a healthy green. That's why he missed the small
chunk of space rock that sailed down the length of the ship. He turned just
in time to see Strella take a hit between the shoulders that, miraculously,
didn't tear her suit. No, all it did was knock her loose and send her tumbling
down the length of the spacecraft.
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Davix screamed. Strella blindly reached out and grabbed
for anything in range that could stop her from flying off into space. By some
miracle she snagged the edge of the engine nozzle. But the ship was in the middle
of another meteor shower. Strella never even saw the one that hit her the second
time. It wasn't supposed to end this way, she thought at the last instant.
Then the blackness claimed her.
Chapter 9
Strella was floating away. The only thing that could have stopped her was
now just out of reach. Even if it had been in reach, Strella was unconscious
and unable to grab at it. That did not prevent her from being caught. A gloved
paw caught her foot and stopped her flight into the abyss. Davix pulled her
back towards him and slung her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He quickly
used the loops and fasteners to fasten their suits together so she wouldn't
float away. Then, he moved quickly back up the frame to the open and waiting
airlock door. Once inside, he unstrapped her from his back and pulled off both
of their helmets.
"C'mon, don't do this to me!" he urgently whispered. Strella's eyes fluttered
open. She looked up a Davix, lost for words. All she could say was,
"Thank you…"
"You gave me quite a scare back there," he said with a bravado he didn't quite
feel. Strella sat up and smiled at Davix as a cheer went up amongst the other
crew members.
"Hey!" came the voice of Zyral from the cockpit, "I've got a signal!"
A voice crackled with static over the radio:
"Who is this?…. kshhhh…. Identify your *crackle* selves immediately," Zyral
spoke into the headset.
"This is the spacecraft sojourner one, 3.14 light years out of Neopia. I say
again this is the spacecraft sojourner one, 3.14 light years out of Neopia.
Who is this?"
"This is communications control for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
for the United States, on the planet Earth."
To be continued... | 
