[ 51 ]

YOUR SCALY GREEN ASS IS ALREADY LONG GONE FROM WHERE YOU WERE JUST A SPLIT SECOND AGO

Outside the windshield, the stars whiz by like tracers.

Where is Fribby?

ATHENOS II is rocketing through space. And I have no idea where we’re going.

Now normally space travel is my favorite. This is what I was hatched to do.

One thing I love about space travel is that nobody back on your home planet ever knows exactly where you are, because all your particles are being catapulted at the speed of light.

When you’re whizzing through the void like this there’s no point in looking in the rearview mirror. Because your scaly green ass is already long gone from where you were just a split second ago. Out in space you are nothing but a big fat mystery to everyone, including yourself. And typically that’s just how I like it.

But I can’t enjoy our flight the way I normally would because every fool second that ticks by means I am getting farther and farther away from Runcita and my quest. Here I am wasting time getting kidnapped by ATHENOS II and shooting across the galaxy to who knows where. Already the events of this morning at WarWings seem a million light-years away, and just that realization sends a little jolt of terror down my tail.

“You OK, sir?” says ATHENOS II.

Like you really care, psycho. Look at you, trying to play good little spaceship. As if you’re not the reason I’m in this here mess.

“I’ve got everything under control here,” she says. “So you can feel free to move about the cabin.”

ATHENOS II’s voice is so edgy it could double as a serrated knife.

“If you don’t mind,” I growl, snorting firebolts out my nostrils. “I’m just sitting here trying to think.” Then I flap my wings and snarl, “Much easier for me to do, by the way, when you don’t open your big fat mouth.”

“Sorry, sir.”

That’s more like it.

I reach out with my thumb claw and key the Intercom Display and say: “Fribby? Are you there, Fribby? This is Gork. Give me a signal and let me know your location. Copy.”

I wait but there’s no answer.

I key the Intercom Display again.

“Fribby?”

No answer.

Now I swipe the Control Display and bring up the BioCon readout to track any other living organisms on the spaceship. I study the screen as it jumps from the Holodeck to the Fitness Suite to the Squad Bay to the Medical Center, etc., but nothing is showing up. According to the spaceship’s datastream, I am the only living creature on board.

Great.

It’s as if she’s vanished into thin air.

Fribby is gone.