The Chase

In a distant beautiful galaxy filled with nebulae, comets, and countless stars, flew a small spaceship holding three close friends. The famous space photographer Captain Finnian was flying the ship, while his excitable co-captain Quixly headed the navigation. Their friend Bronxin had joined them on this trip to help take photographs of the beautiful and yet rarely seen wonders of their universe.

On the ship, they all talked and laughed together, enjoying the company of good friends. “Ok, wait, I have to ask.” Bronxin said. “Aren’t you two co-captains on this ship? You’re equal in rank?”

“Yep, that’s right.” Captain Finnian replied. Quixly nodded in agreement.

“That’s what I thought.” Bronxin said. “But if that’s the case, how come you” he looked at Captain Finnian, “always refer to Quixly as just ‘Quixly,’ but you” he looked at Quixly “always refer to Finnian as ‘Captain Finnian’?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out!” Captain Finnian said. He turned to his longtime friend Quixly and asked, “Why do you always call me Captain? I’ve told you a hundred times you can just call me Finnian.”

Quixly shrugged, an effect that was multiplied being a species with four arms. “You’re my Captain.” He said matter of factly. “That didn’t change when ya promoted me to co-captain.”

“So do you want me to call you Captain Quixly?” Finnian asked?”

Quixly laughed “No way, sir! I’m your equal in rank, that’d be ridiculous!”

Captain Finnian and Bronxin stared blankly at Quixly. Neither of them could tell if he was joking or not.

Quixly continued. “Besides, sir, ‘Quixly’ is a pretty prestigious name on its own. ‘Finnian’ needs the boost, ya know?”

This time Bronxin joined Quixly in laughing. Captain Finnian frowned for a bit, and then he joined in too when he realized Quixly was just messing with him.

Right then, Captain Finnian’s navigation screen started beeping, signaling that someone was requesting a video call.

They all looked at the screen simultaneously. “Who’s that?” Quixly asked.

“I don’t know.” Captain Finnian replied curiously. “One way to find out!” He tapped his screen to answer the call.

On the screen appeared a slim man who looked extremely nervous. His eyes were wide, and he was visibly shaking. “Are you Bronxin?” He whispered, clearly worried someone would overhear him.

“No, I’m not, but Bronxin is right here.” Captain Finnian said, gesturing behind him.

Bronxin walked up to the screen. “Who are you? What’s going on?”

The man looked behind him to make sure no one was there. “My name is Roog.” He whispered. Roog then paused for a moment, eyes to the floor as if ashamed of what he was going to say next. He then looked back up and said, “I helped Master Zvonix escape from prison. We’re on his battleship now. He’s coming to kill you, and the photographers you’re with.

Simultaneously, the three friends spoke in response. “You did what!?” Bronxin yelled in uncharacteristic anger.

“What kind of spaceship?” Captain Finnian asked.

“He’s gonna do what!?” Quixly yelped, his eyes wide like saucers.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Roog started, but Bronxin cut him off.

“Do you know what that man is capable of!?” Bronxin yelled. “Do you know how many people he’s hurt and captured and killed!? And you helped him escape! What on planet ZX-30 were you thinking!?”

Everyone froze for a moment. Although Captain Finnian and Quixly knew that Bronxin had been trapped on a space station by Master Zxvonix for years, and that he was at one point evil as well, he was now a changed man. These days Bronxin was quiet, gentle and thoughtful most of the time. They had never seen him get upset like this. His large, muscular build made the scene even more frightening.

Roog started crying. “I’m so sorry! He lied to me and tricked me! I was a fool! But once I realized how evil he really was, I promised myself I’d warn you. He wants to kill you for escaping from his space station and turning him into the police. You need to get to safety!”

Bronxin took a few deep breaths, and then looked at Roog. “I’m sorry Roog, I shouldn’t have exploded on you like that. I’ve been through some horrible things at the hands of Master Zvonix, and those old hurts boiled over. Master Zvonix is an expert liar and manipulator. You don’t need to feel bad for what you’ve done. I forgive you. Thank you for giving us warning. Do you know how long we have before he finds us?”

Roog smiled, as if a huge weight fell off his shoulders when Bronxin forgave him. “Thank you, sir! Yeah, we’re currently in quadrant 4 of galaxy…”

At that moment blaster shots were heard, and several holes appeared in Roog’s chest. He fell over without another sound. A few seconds later, Master Zvonix himself was on the screen, a man larger than even Bronxin, with over half his body made from robotic parts.

He looked down at the floor and sighed. “Well, well, well, the little moron was brighter than I gave him credit for. It’s a pity I didn’t have time to make him suffer more, but he got what he deserved.” He then looked at the screen and smiled. “Hello Bronxin, long time no see. How have you been?”

Bronxin froze, Master Zvonix’s appearance and robotic voice bringing back countless painful memories. Quixly was visibly shaking in fear at the evil man. Thus, Captain Finnian was the one who responded. “Listen here, you despicable half robot scum. We escaped from you once and we’ll do it again. Your threats don’t scare us!”

“They scare me!” Quixly piped in.

Master Zvonix laughed. “Oh, Mr. Finnian. I’ve heard about your endless courage. It’s nice to see you live up to the rumors. I hope you know that it makes no difference to me if you’re afraid or not. I’ll kill you either way, and that’s all that matters. So, see you soon!” With that he ended the video call, leaving the three friends in silence.

Quixly was the first one to speak. “Do you think Roog is ok?”

Bronxin sighed, wishing he could have the innocence of his friend. “Roog is dead, Quixly. He sacrificed himself to warn us, and we should honor his memory. But we need to act fast if we don’t want to die too.”

“Do you think he actually knows where we are?” Captain Finnian asked. “How could he track us?”

“Oh, I’m sure he can find us.” Bronxin replied. “Maybe he put a tracker on your ship when you first went to his space station. Maybe he tracked us through the video call. Maybe he implanted a tracker in me at some point during my years with him. I don’t know. But I doubt he was giving us empty threats. We are in real danger.”

The three of them sat quietly again as the reality of their situation sank in. The only noise was Quixly shaking in his seat. Captain Finnian looked at his scared best friend, and then at Bronxin, who looked as if he felt it was all his fault. Captain Finnian loved these two guys too much to let them give up that easily.

“Like I told Master Metalskull himself, we’ve escaped him before, and we’ll do it again!” He said encouragingly. “Heck, with our combined knowledge and skills we can do more than escape, we can kick his butt while we’re at it and save the universe!”

Quixly looked at his friend hopefully. “Wowza, Captain. Ya really think we can win?”

“Absolutely!” Captain Finnian replied. “So, are you two with me?”

Quixly nodded enthusiastically “If ya say we can do this then I believe ya, I’m in!”

Bronxin nodded slowly. “Master Zvonix is powerful, but if we work together, we might have a chance. I’m in.”

“Great!” Captain Finnian exclaimed. “Then let’s get to work! Quixly, you start looking through your maps to find good places for us to get away from him. Bronxin, you tell us what we should know about him and the battleship he’s in. As for me, I’ll get in position to drive like crazy, because he could be here at any moment for all we know.”

Quixly started flipping through his star charts as Bronxin began to share more information.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know too much about his battleship.” Bronxin said. “I know he had several backup plans when I was with him, and one was rumored to be a fully automated highly armored battleship. Supposedly he could control the whole thing himself, and it’s nearly indestructible.”

“Is it big?” Quixly asked, still looking at his charts.

“Presumably.” Bronxin replied. “Why?”

“I think I might have an idea on where we can go if it is.” Quixly said. Then his face changed as he had another thought. “Wait a minute! Why don’t we just call the intergalactic police again!? That’s how we got him last time!”

“I was thinking of that too.” Bronxin said. “But if this battleship is even half as powerful as I’ve heard, it’s capable of immense destruction. The police would probably be able to take him down eventually, but my guess is he would kill a good number of them beforehand. I think it’s best to try this on our own first, so more people don’t die.”

Quixly and Captain Finnian nodded in agreement, the image of Roog falling to the ground still fresh in their minds.

The three of them continued to prep for several minutes, when suddenly a massive object became visible behind them. Captain Finnian slowly turned their ship around to face it as it approached. The object was somewhat spherical, and at least 100 times larger than their spaceship. As it got closer, they saw that rather than a smooth sphere, it was pieced together with hexagons. The overall appearance was somewhat reflective too, with the light from surrounding stars faintly showing on it.

“Gee wizzy dizzy, is that a spaceship?” Quixly asked.

Bronxin nodded. “I believe so. That must be him. Get ready.”

The battleship continued to approach until it was within shooting distance, and then it stopped. Soon after, a beeping sound came from Captain Finnian’s screen.

“Hmm, I wasn’t expecting that.” Captain Finnian said. He tapped his screen, and a video call opened with Master Zvonix.

“Hello, my prey.” Master Zvonix said, an evil smile spreading across his face. “Do you have any last words before I blast you into oblivion?”

“Yeah, eat plasma!” Captain Finnian yelled at him, and then fired his blasters at the giant armored ship in front of them. They watched the blasts hit the ship with zero physical effect. No matter how many made contact, nothing happened, not even the shine on the ship seemed to fade.

Master Zvonix watched for a minute, and then faked a yawn. “My my, that was quite the show. And quite the wasted last words. Well, I’ve got some words for you too. Goodbye.” He then pushed a button, and several panels of the ship opened, revealing large guns that started shooting at them.

Captain Finnian was ready though, so he yanked on his controls and dodged the blasts just in time. “I’m sorry, did you say goodbye?” He asked. “Are you going somewhere?”

Master Zvonix rolled his eyes and sent several more shots. Captain Finnian was an expert pilot though, and he dodged those blasts too.

“This is getting a little awkward, with you saying goodbye but not leaving.” Captain Finnian said with a smile. Quixly couldn’t help but chuckle at the comment. This time Master Zvonix looked upset, and he released a torrent of blasts towards them.

Captain Finnian swerved up, down, left, right, forwards and back to avoid the shots. Some of them got close, but he managed to avoid them all. As the blasts were coming, he continued to taunt Master Zvonix.

“It’s no wonder they call you Master Zvonix and not Master Marksman, because this is just embarrassing. What is a ‘Zvonix’ anyway? Isn’t it a blind, stinky worm found on planet QG-412? Are you master of the stinky, sightless worms? No wonder they’re the ones that follow you, no one that could actually see your ugly face would.”

Master Zvonix was clearly becoming more and more angry with every passing second, both with the insults and with the fact that he couldn’t hit their ship. He started smashing his control panel with his fists and yelling all sorts of profanities. The shots from his ship continued to increase in intensity.

Captain Finnian closed the video call and turned to Quixly. “Plug in the coordinates to wherever you think is best, we need to get out of here, I can’t keep dodging much longer.”

“The coordinates are already plugged in, sir!” Quixly said, all three of his eyes tightly shut. “Ya just gotta put us in hyper speed and we’ll be on our way! Please do it soon!”

Captain Finnian wasted no more time in leaving. He plunged them down in a steep nosedive and pushed hard on the acceleration to get clear of the blasts coming towards them. Before Master Zvonix could adjust his aim, Captain Finnian slammed his hand down on the hyper speed button, and they were gone.

All three of them physically relaxed once in hyper speed. They knew Master Zvonix was likely following them, but at that speed he’d be unable to shoot them, which gave them some momentary safety.

For a few minutes their spaceship soared silently past countless stars in the vast universe around them. After a bit, Quixly spoke up.

“Is no one gonna ask me where we’re goin’?” He said with a smile.

“Oh yeah, where are we going?” Captain Finnian asked.

“We’re headed to wormhole 22a13vd6rw.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Also known as, the Giant Smasher!”

“The giant smasher?” Both Captain Finnian and Bronxin asked in unison.

“Yeah!” Quixly said excitedly. “It’s a wormhole that gets exponentially more difficult to jump through safely the bigger your spacecraft is! It’ll be relatively easy for us to get through safely, but nearly impossible for Master Zvonix. Not even you’d be skilled enough to fly through it in his spaceship, Captain.”

“Quixly, you’re a genius!” Replied Captain Finnian. “If we can get him to follow us through that wormhole, he’ll destroy himself!”

“That’s the idea!” Quixly said, a huge grin on his face.

For the next few hours, the three of them discussed their plan. They guessed that they’d have a minute or less at the wormhole to get into position to fly through. They’d wait for Master Zvonix to catch up, and then they’d make the jump. With any luck he would be too angry from their first encounter to learn which wormhole it was, and he’d try to make the jump himself, almost certainly resulting in his demise. If he didn’t make the jump, they’d be at least two weeks ahead of him and would have time to come up with another plan.

“Alright, we’re nearly at the wormhole, get ready guys.” Captain Finnian said as they approached. The ship pulled out of hyper speed, and in front of them was the most colorful, magnificent, breathtaking wormhole they had ever seen. Being photographers, they all instinctively grabbed the nearest camera and took a couple shots of it.

“Wowza,” Quixly said, “it’s beautiful.”

“It is.” Bronxin replied as he put his camera back down, “but we can come back and get more pictures another time. Let’s get ready to make the jump.”

“Good call.” Captain Finnian said, and he steered the ship to the exact coordinates and angle Quixly had instructed him to do.

“Remember,” Quixly said as they got into position, “the Giant Smasher can smash us too if we aren’t careful. Just follow the angle and speed I put into your navigation screen, and we’ll be safe.”

“Sounds good.” Captain Finnian replied. At that moment Master Zvonix’s ship pulled out of hyper speed and immediately starting shooting at them.

“Go go go!” Bronxin shouted, and Captain Finnian slammed forward on the acceleration, aiming straight towards the wormhole.

“Hi-dee ho let’s go!” Quixly yelled as they got to the wormhole. The next thing they knew they were safe on the other side.

“Yahooie! We did it!” Quixly exclaimed. All three of them jumped up and gave each other high fives and hugs.

“So now what?” Captain Finnian asked when they all sat back down.

“I suppose now we wait.” Quixly replied. “If he tries to follow us, we’ll see the broken remains of his ship come through, and we’ll know it’s done. If we don’t see anything it means he didn’t take the risk, and we need to make a plan B.”

After a few minutes of relaxing and celebrating their victory, Bronxin looked at the wormhole they had just come through and saw it start to flash different colors. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing at it.

“Wowza! It means he tried to make the jump!” Quixly said excitedly. “That means we’ve won! Get ready to dodge a bunch of shrapnel, Captain!”

Captain Finnian grabbed his controls, and all three of them watched in anticipation. The colors continued to flash faster and brighter. They couldn’t wait to see proof of Master Zvonix’s destruction, and thus the safety of the universe.

After a moment the colors dimmed down, and then a final huge blast of light came from it, and out popped Master Zvonix’s armored ship, in one piece and ready to fight.

“Holy Scramoly he did it!” Quixly yelped in surprise. “He’s a better pilot than you are, Captain!”

“Well, that news is the worst thing that’s happened yet today.” Captain Finnian grumbled as he started dodging more shots from their enemy. “Find us another place to go, Quixly! We gotta get out of here quick!”

TO BE CONTINUED