Crystal’s jaw dropped, and the hairs on her neck stood on end. No way… she muttered, shaking her head in disbelief. This is not happening to me But it clearly was. How did you find me? she addressed the droid.
Your prints were left on the box, Crystal Weightless. Crystal backed out of the doorway and braced herself against the corridor wall. The droid knew her name. She was good at getting herself into binds, but she always turned to the same person to get her out. Gravity she thought out loud. Hitting the red button by the door, she hid the Nebula X from view and raced wide eyed to the galley where the other girls had already started eating.
MEANWHILE…
Tension continued to build at the Lander camp on Mars. What few comments Wormhole made were laced with innuendo. Ash’s anger grew until he could no longer contain it. The sun was setting when Ash finally turned to Wormhole and said You’ll never get away with this, Sly.
I already have, you fool! came his scathing reply. With those words, Wormhole rose to his feet and reached for his saber. Instinctively, Lander did the same.
Don’t do this, please! Ash tried to reason. Wormhole only chuckled and removed the safety bolt from the butt of his weapon. A blaze of green energy, a contained beam, shot from the handle, illuminating the campsite which had quickly grown dark. The blinding flash of light burned into Ash and Krate’s eyes, and Sly Wormhole stood, powerful, with his own huge black shadow spilling over the valley behind him like ink.
Ash activated his saber as well, intending only to call Wormhole’s bluff, but both men knew that Wormhole was capable of killing without remorse.
Why are you doing this? Ash asked, but Wormhole only came back with a hideous laugh.
MEANWHILE…
Flash keyed his coordinates into the computer. Uranus sparkled off behind the TNI, but Saturn’s orbit placed it on the other side of the sun, and only empty space lay between him and Jupiter’s path. the screen flickered and Flash adjusted the communications disc toward the Earth.
His gamble at Pluto had paid off by sending him only a few degrees off from his desired course. Still, with the distance he had to travel, those few degrees would place him millions of miles from his target.
The screen went white and then scrolled text from top to bottom. Not his own calculations or database, but transmissions from home! I’m here! he shouted. I’m alive!