The Second Book of the Alienbutt Saga. The Rise of Mr Fluffy. Part 30.

THE SECRET WORD.

Chapter 9.

INTERSTELLAR NEWS CHANNEL 9. NEWS FLASH.

Reports are coming in that the leader of the Federal Senate, Senator Gralswige has been killed while visiting refugee camps along the Mushtaff System border. Early reports are saying the shuttle carrying the Senator and other high level personnel crashlanded after getting caught up in an unexpected solar storm.
There are no reports of any survivors after rescue teams quickly located the wreckage. Tributes are already pouring in for the Senator who just days before announced that the cure for coffee addiction was to be rolled out to the universe. General Jee, leader of the EDF and the new commander-in-chief of the Federal Navies said in a short statement: “Senator Gralswige worked tirelessly for the cause of freedom, a selfless person dedicated to the Federation and its people. I hope the cure for coffee addiction will be his lasting legacy to the universe and his sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

The Fo’c’sle fleet returned to Ick space without further incident. The rescue attempt had been a great success; the Federation ships defending EV23 had all been destroyed without any losses. General Jee's estates now had been reduced to a pile of rubble after a prolonged bombardment once the away team had returned to Kali's ship. Then just for good measure and because they could they flew around the Coffee House owned planet destroying every building and energy source they picked up. Cyborgpirate had finally committed a devastating act of environmental vandalism by sending so many thermal charges at the north pole that he had melted the ice cap before starting to repeat the act at the south pole. Kali had ordered his first officer to sedate him so they could replace his personality chip that had shorted out, leaving him stuck in a homicidal killing rage with the planet becoming his selected target.
The fleet had returned straight to Dagnabbit, which was still being used as central command for the Ick fleet where Kali along with Killashandra, Grommit, Ponnfarr and the spy Whiff Morgan had been ordered to an immediate debriefing with Wickede and Snoodgrass.

Hydroponic sat staring at the scene before him, confused. There had been a battle here; well more accurately, there had been a pirate attack. Back when he first started out as a Bounty Hunter he had worked for a while hunting down the pirates who almost always turned out to be the Ji Hunters. One thing he had learnt from that time was if the Ji were beaten and unable to flee they would self-destruct their ships to avoid capture, so to see one of their ships floating lifeless was wrong. Hydroponic flicked a switch before him. “Nifty, get up here, we may have a problem.”

Returning to the controls he set the long distance scanners to maximum sweep and then began to scan the wreckage of the ship before him. Nifty walked onto the bridge, her face covered in a white cream and sat down in the chair next to Hydroponic.
“Great, you wake me up in the middle of the night to show me a derelict ship. Have you been smoking in here?” she asked.
Not taking his eyes off the screen and the scan results Hydroponic answered; “Engines have been knocked out and there's substantial damage but the hull integrity is still whole, and no, I haven't been smoking.”
“There's bits of baccy on the desk and you got the blowers on so don't try and lie. Now what's so important about this ship that you woke me up?”
Hydroponic finally turned to Nifty and jumped back in his chair, his eyes wide. “What the! Have you seen your face?” he asked looking puzzled at Nifty’s face.
“Shut up and answer the question.”
Hydroponic gave Nifty a final strange look and returned his attention to the screen. Spending time with Nifty aboard ship he had learnt a few valuable lessons. The main one was not to push observations about appearance or answer questions asked of him honestly, unless that answer was ‘it looks great’. The second thing he learnt was a toilet seat had to be left down and life got easier the cleaner the bathroom was kept.
“It's a Ji pirate ship, you never ever see them drifting lifeless. They're either full of Ji trying to blow you up or exploding after you've beaten them. I need to teleport over there to check this out. What I need you to do is get me out at a moment’s notice if it's a trap or I scream for help,” Hydroponic said, still looking at the scan results.
He then stood up and opened a chest next to his chair and pulled out his gun belt and an old assault rifle. “Beam me onto the flight deck. The hull integrity’s intact there and keep an eye on the long range scanners, as it could be a trap.”
Nifty stood up. “Give me five minutes to get dressed and take off my face mask.”
“What!” Hydroponic said at Nifty who was already walking out. “Well, if it is a trap and the Ji attack, I'll ask them to wait while you get yourself ready.”
“Thanks Hydro, and make me a cuppa while you're doing nothing. You know I need a cuppa when I first wake up.” With that she was gone.

To be continued.
All images are mine.