Wanted

Cherry cut the comm and tackled Josh as he headed for the airlock with drawn blaster. He calmly held Josh as he kicked, fumed and struggled to get free. When Josh quieted a bit, Cherry said, "Give me the blaster. Now, are you under control enough to get up?"

  "Let me up, you piece of junk. You should have let me blast that whole bunch out there."

  "They aren't the ones who caused this. Focus your anger on the right ones. Get the officials who permit these slimes to operate, not those out there following orders."

  Relaxing, Josh said, "You're right. Let me up. We need to get moving. The Captain might need help."

  Josh hurried to the cockpit with Cherry right behind. The comm chimed as they worked through the pre-flight checklist. Josh asked, "Who is it?"

  Belle answered, "It's the troops outside."

  Josh said, "Tell them to go away. We're going to fly out of here, but I'll be back. They'd better have the officials who permitted these kids to be used like – like I don't know what. They won't like me if they don't have all of the very top officials."

  As they lifted off the planet, Cherry called the Captain to let him know they were airborne. The Captain replied, "The shuttle is taking off for the asteroids on the other side of the sun. I'm going to make a couple of passes at that spaceship."

  Cherry said, "Be careful. I'm sure they have more teeth than what's showing."

  "I know they do. I just want them to skedaddle out of this solar system."

  After Cherry hung up, Josh jumped to hyperspace. They came out near the asteroid field Belle had come from. Ahead they saw the shuttle streaking for the safety of that field. Cherry said, "If they get in there, it'll be a problem getting them out. Besides, they might find our asteroid."

  Josh increased their speed, but he saw they still wouldn't make it to the shuttle in time. Two days later, five energy sources on his sensors made him grin. He said, "Cherry, I think we have some help. Fire a blast at the shuttle."

  "We're too far away to really hit them."

  "Just do it."

  Cherry fired but the blaster bolt flew wide. He muttered, "We need to fine tune this some more. When I shoot at something like that tin can, I want to hit it."

  "Don't worry about it now. Get ready to do it again. I'm getting closer so you should be able to splash them a little. Fire it now."

  Cherry squeezed the trigger and the bolt hit the side of the shuttle's shield. The shuttle veered to the left. Josh said, "One more time, then we'll have them."

  Cherry fired again. The shuttle jumped to the right and slowed. The five big energy sources Josh had seen surrounded the shuttle. A terrified voice came over the emergency channel. It screamed, "We're being attacked by some sort of monster. It's sucking all the energy out of our ship. Our position is…"

  The broadcast faded out. As they came into visual contact, Josh scanned for any other signals coming from the ship, but the Nagini were consuming any energy being released. A day later, the shield flickered and died.

  As Josh and Cherry watched, the pilot maneuvered the spaceship with the thrusters. A blaster cannon bolt flew from the shuttle to hit a big Nagini in the side. The animal didn't even flinch.

  Soon the glimmer from the engines and thrusters faded to nothing. The sensors showed no more energy in the weapons. Cherry asked, "How do we get those snakes off that ship so we can grab the Exec?"

  "I don't know. I'll try to get closer to see if Belle's shield will drive them off. Get a tractor beam ready to grab the shuttle if the Nagini move."

  Josh moved a little closer. After a violent head shake, the snakes released the shuttle. They swam through the vacuum directly at Belle. Josh and Cherry tensed and gripped their controls tighter. Josh's knuckles turned white and Cherry's inner lights burned a bright red.

  The monsters came closer and closer. Josh set the shield to be ready to drain the energy out of them, but didn't flip the switch to do it. The Nagini rushed the bow of the shield but didn't attack it. They swirled around Belle's shield. Josh and Cherry stared in amazement at their antics.

  Cherry said, "If I didn't know better, I'd say they were glad to see you. The one you killed must have transmitted something about how good you tasted."

  "They look like a cat or dog without legs welcoming their master home. Ooof, one of them just moved Belle off course. They aren't sucking any energy from us, but they sure are all over the shield."

  "This is crazy. No one will ever believe us."

  Josh said, "Hmmm, here's our way to stop the pleasure ship – if we can find a way to get these things to it."

  "Right. Just train them to attack things we want them to and then back off. Meanwhile, don't eat us. Why don't you look that up on the Ether? I'm sure it's a common topic. How much energy do you think they left in that shuttle?"

  "Not much from the looks of my sensors. We need to get a little fuel in it. At least enough to run the life support stuff."

  Cherry looked at him like he was crazy, "Are you going out there with them? I'm not. A couple of those things are big enough to swallow Belle."

  "Use the tractor beam when I get a little closer. We can set the shield to let the shuttle pass. Then I can go out and shoot a little fuel in."

  "Now would be a super time to ask that bunch a few questions. How many of them would be brave enough to face a Nagini? Haul one of them to an airlock and let them see the snakes up close. His screams would convince the others to tell us anything."

  Josh said, "That might be a problem. They might tell us anything to stay out of one of those monsters. We need a way to ensure they only tell us the truth."

  "We need the little fur ball. She may not be much on personality, but she can sense truth and lies."

  Josh stared at him a second, "How do we get them here? We can take the shuttle and jump to them, but we need the Nagini to keep those inside scared spit-less."

  "You wanted to train them, now's your chance."

  Josh chuckled, "Yeah, but do the Captain and Lemmy want to be test dummies? What if we can't stop the snakes from attacking them?"

  "Then I guess we'll be rescuing them."

  The two looked at each other for a long time. Finally, Josh said, "We've got to get moving. The Nagini are starting to play with their food."

  Looking outside, they saw the five snakes spread out around the shuttle. One would fly in and nudge it. The ship would shoot away to another Nagini. The snake would bump the shuttle, sending it zipping across empty space.

  Cherry said, "That has to be rough on those inside. Let's let our monsters play while we contact the Captain. He may not come out here for love nor money."

  "We won't know until we try."

  Cherry called the Captain. The old alien was reluctant but seemed downright eager compared to Lemmy. Josh and Cherry talked for over an hour before the Captain gave in. Josh gave him coordinates to jump to and told him which direction to be moving so he could match his movement.

  The Nagini stopped batting the shuttle around as they talked. They swam over to Belle and nuzzled up to her shield. Josh and Cherry nervously watched the huge animals. Josh jockeyed the spaceship around and got ready to move forward. The Nagini stayed entwined around the ship.

  A day later, the Captain appeared. The largest Nagini, which was longer than Belle, slowly moved toward his ship. Josh said, "Cherry, what do we do? It doesn't look like that thing is threatening the Captain, but…"

  "Hang on. I'm going to grab it with a tractor beam. If it does anything, suck a little energy out of it with the shield."

  "What if the shield isn't touching it?"

  "Expand the shield. Organic brains. Must short circuit under a little pressure."

  Josh didn't turn his head as he said, "Read my lips, metal junk." He gave Cherry the raspberry.

  When Cherry grabbed the snake with the tractor beam, Belle jerked forward. The snake picked up a little speed but didn't seem frightened. Cher
ry said, "Try braking. Give a few retro blasts."

  Josh hit the retro engines. The Nagini didn't slow down. Josh poured more power to the engines. The other four animals moved in tighter around Belle. They swirled around her faster and faster.

  At the next burst of power, the huge Nagini almost stopped. The comm beeped and the Captain appeared. He said, "What are you doing? That thing looks like its towing you around."

  Josh answered, "It is. We're trying to stop it. Just don't shoot at it or make a quick jump."

  The Captain said, "If I wasn't seeing it with my own eyes, no one, and I mean not a soul, could ever convince me something like this could happen. You guys have to be crazy to think you could ever train something like this."

  Lemmy spoke up, "They're not as crazy as someone who would deliberately jump into the same area where the Nagini are."

  "True. I've been called that and worse for a long time. Josh, what are your plans now?"

  "We need to see what these things are going to do. Your ship needs to be able to move around without them attacking. Then we need to get the life support going in the shuttle."

  Cherry said, "We've got to interrogate the bunch in the shuttle. We need Lemmy to tell us when they're telling the truth."

  Lemmy scowled at him, "So you need me now. Why do you think you can believe a thing they say?"

  Cherry answered, "Because you are going to tell us. Besides, we may shove one out of an airlock for the Nagini to play with. We suspect the others will want to tell us secrets after that."

  The Captain said, "You two would have made good Hanami operatives. No qualms about getting answers."

  Josh said, "It's the only way we have a chance of capturing that pleasure ship. I don't intend to leave those kids to those hooligans."

  Lemmy said, "Speaking of kids, how are the ones the shuttle foisted off on you?"

  Josh said, "I don't know. I locked them into some quarters. I have a robot taking them some food, but Cherry and I have been a little busy here —"

  His voice stopped as the Nagini that Cherry had the tractor beam attached to reached the Captain's ship. The Captain yelled, "That thing has its mouth open. It's going to take a bite out of us."

  Josh shot forward and expanded the shield at the same time until it covered a portion of the animal's tail. He flipped it to absorb any energy it encountered. He said, "Cherry, you might want to release the tractor —"

  That was as far as he got before the Nagini shot away from both spaceships. Cherry didn't quite have the tractor beam disengaged. Belle leaped to the side away from the Captain's ship. The four Nagini who had been swirling around Belle streaked to their huge leader.

  Cherry said, "Uh oh, they look a little upset. Get us close to the Captain."

  Josh didn't have time to maneuver by the main engine so he used the starboard side thrusters. He had to feather the ones on the port side to keep from crashing into the Captain. Cherry said, "Here they come."

  Josh said, "Hit them with a burst of comm waves."

  "What? What frequency? How big of a blast?"

  "Just do it before they get here."

  Josh worked feverishly to move next to the other ship. He expanded the shield and left it set for absorbing energy. The five Nagini hit the shield with their mouths wide open. Everyone on both ships could feel the vibration of the sound as they surged backwards.

  Looking at the view screens, Josh asked, "Do you think they'll come to welcome us the next time?"

  Cherry said, "I don't know. What they do now is the big question."

  Slithering slowly in a complicated dance all around the two spaceships, the huge snakes kept moving. Inch by inch they tightened the circle. The people in the spaceships stared at their view screens in morbid fascination.

  The Captain asked, "Are they going to attack again?"

  Josh said, "Your guess is as good as ours. Until a couple of months ago we'd never even heard of these things. When we popped into view here, they came to greet us like a dog or cat that hadn't seen its master for days."

  The Captain muttered, "You guys sure keep some strange pets."

  Cherry retorted, "We didn't pick them. They picked us."

  The snakes continued to weave around each other as they circled the two spaceships. Josh changed the setting of the shield to repel instead of absorbing energy. Suddenly, the animals were rubbing against the shield. They made sounds that vibrated through the ships when they touched the shield.

  Josh said, "Sounds like their version of a purr. Biggest, scariest cats I've ever seen or hope to see."

  Lemmy asked, "What are you going to do now, Josh?"

  "We need to get to that shuttle. Captain, let's try an experiment. I'm going to shrink my shield. Make sure yours is up. I'll give you a little distance."

  Lemmy's voice quavered as she said, "Do you think that's a good idea? They could swallow this ship whole."

  "I'll be right here to move back closer and give you cover with our shield."

  As the two ships separated, the Nagini moved back a short distance. When the shields changed, they slowly approached. Cherry nudged Josh and pointed at the view screen showing the scene inside the other ship. Lemmy sat in the co-pilot's seat with her head pulled down inside her spacesuit. Her eyes and the top of her head were all that could be seen.

  Josh said, "Don't laugh. I'd like to join her."

  The more the ships parted, the closer the Nagini came. They made a complex pattern of circling each other, then swimming a figure eight design around the two ships. The Captain reported that he could hear the same noise as before when the two ships were together.

  The Captain could be heard muttering, "This is unbelievable. I'm sitting here with great drops of green sweat oozing down my face watching the most unique ballet I've ever imagined – done by monsters out of my worst nightmares."

  Josh asked, "Captain, have you ever seen or heard of these things before?"

  "Only in tales told by spacers after they'd had a few brews in the local tavern. I always assumed they were the figment of someone's imagination fueled by liquor."

  Cherry asked, "Does your ship's database say anything about them?"

  The Captain worked with the computer for a few minutes, while trying to keep one eye on the view screens, then said, "It has a few short articles. It confirms they are real, but no one knows where they come from. Are they natural animals? Are they manufactured? What were they used for if they were manufactured?"

  Cherry said, "Sounds like lots of questions with no answers. How about if I put out an authoritative article stating that they were genetically bred by the Alcantarans as guard dogs for certain areas of space?"

  "Seems that has already been done. It was written about three hundred years ago."

  "Do they quote any sources?"

  "I'll send the whole thing to you. Doesn't your database have something like this?"

  "It's corrupted. We can't get into all of it. When we search for anything, its hit and miss. An updated database is on our list to purchase – as soon as we have money and a place to get it."

  Josh said, "Along with updated star maps."

  The Captain said, "We better get started then. What do you want me to do?"

  Josh said, "Why don't you jump to the other side of the solar system and then back here. I want to see what the Nagini will do. Don't be gone very long. The air in the shuttle should be getting a little stale. We'll standby to do like we did before if it's needed."

  When the Captain started to move out, the Nagini moved closer to Belle and looked like they were snuggling with her. When he jumped to hyperspace, Josh and Cherry settled in to wait for him to get back.

  Cherry dug into the data the Captain had sent. As he studied it, he tried to get more information from Naca's database. His mutters about a piece of junk made Josh smile. After a few minutes, Josh became bored and asked Belle if she could go invisible.

&nb
sp; Belle said, "The database says I can. I'll have to research how it's done."

  Josh asked, "Cherry, what do we do if we can't get back to our own time?"

  "I don't know. I haven't thought about it."

  "You'll need service in a couple of years and we risk upsetting the timeline the longer we stay here."

  "I know, but do you have a solution?"

  "No."

  "Then we just carry on like we always have – except we try not to make too many changes in this time – like killing a lot of people. We can't give up hope yet. We live in a big universe. Who knows what we'll find out there."

  After a few more minutes of silence broken only by Cherry's mutters, Belle announced, "A diagnostic search of the shield nodes shows that I have fifteen substandard nodes. They will affect the invisible effect."

  "What's that mean? Half the ship will be invisible and the other half showing?"

  "No, I can make everything invisible, but from certain angles, radar and other wavelengths will penetrate the shield. They might not 'see' me, but they will know that something is there."

  "Do you know what angle they can see?"

  "Yes, look at this image. It will show you."

  Josh saw a 3D image of Belle floating in front of the view screen. A series of red lines indicated the angles that would expose parts of the ship. Josh asked, "If I turn the ship, will that block those angles?"

  "Yes, the biggest problem is if there is more than one ship in the area or you need to fly out of the area."

  "Hmm, I see what you mean. It's impossible to make any speed if you're trying to move sideways or backwards. Still, something can be better than nothing as long as we know the limitations."

  Josh glanced at his comm clock to see that it would be at least half a day before the Captain came back. He said, "Launch a remote detector. Move it away about ten miles, then go invisible. I want to see what we look like."

  The Nagini gave the first indication that something had changed. Their movement became more agitated. They bumped the invisible shield much harder and tried to squeeze closer to it. Josh and Cherry fastened their seat belts to stay in their seats.

  Cherry yelled, "What did you do to stir them up?"

  "Look at the view screen."

  "I see the Nagini but where's Belle? Do we have a malfunction with the detector?"

  Josh grinned, "Keep watching." He used the thrusters to maneuver Belle. When he reached the proper angle, a small slice of the ship became visible. The flash of light off of it made him grab his head.

  Cherry said, "We're invisible."

  Josh forced out an answer, "Mostly. We have a couple of weak spots." He groaned from the pounding in his head.

  Cherry said, "What's the matter, Josh?"

  "Something just triggered a migraine and my vision is narrowing down to about the size of a pencil."

  The Captain's ship came out of hyperspace. The agitated Nagini swarmed toward him. Cherry yelled, "They're after the Captain again."

  Josh whispered, "Hit them with the same comm signal you did before, then get out there to the Captain. You'll have to do it because my vision is making me sick if I try to focus."

  Cherry quickly sent the signal, then blasted Belle toward Lemmy and the Captain.

  Chapter 23