Star Raiders and the Lost Expidition (14 page)

Tygla frowned at him and Morgan felt sorry, “Well, it’s against station policy, but, oh heck, I can’t say no to a pretty lady like you.”

Tygla smiled brightly, “Oh thank you! What about Mike, can you let him free so he can help us?”

“
Oh no,” Justin commented when he picked up his weapon and holstered it. His heart dropped, knowing his friend was not going to like this. He then said worried fully, “What am I going to tell Mike?”

“
Well, since you are new around here,” The sheriff said, “And he didn’t kill Morng, I suppose I can let him off with a warnin’.”

“
Oh thank you,” Tygla repeated as she hugged him.

By the time, they returned to the jail, the alarms silenced and they found a short male Lizzian standing in the office and he was furious.

“
Sheriff, did you catch the thief?” He said as Morgan looked to him.

“
Not yet Hazu, but I’m on the case,” the sheriff replied.

“
On the case?” Hazu wondered, “How long before you can catch him and get my inventory back?”

He went over by Mike’s cell pressed several keys on the lock pad that was near it and the energy beams disappeared, as Mike did not quite understand.

“
You’re free ta go,” Morgan said to him as Tygla smiled, ran over, hugged and kissed him. He looked back to Hazu and replied, “Come back tomorrow, I should have few answers for ya till then.”

Justin frowned as he saw their embrace and he knew he had lost him again. The Lizzian turned to the door and departed to his shop as he grumbled in his language about the lazy sheriff.

“
Free?” Mike asked confusedly.

Tygla nodded to him and replied, “I convinced him to set you free.”

“
I just couldn’t see the poor girl cry again,” Morgan said to them, “I guess I got soft spot for ladies.”

They smiled as Mike said to Morgan, “Great, now if we can get the track data for the Hades, we can be on our way.” Justin and Tygla frowned knowing that the Condor is gone. Mike looked at their expression in confusion and wondered, “What?”

“
Mike,” Tygla started regretfully, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but, remember that thief the Lizzian told you about?”

“
Yeah,” he replied unsurely.

Justin then concluded hesitantly as he sighed, “Well, he sort of took, the Condor.”

Mike could not believe what he was hearing. Mike grew angrily at his best friend, “He what?!”

“
I’m, I’m sorry,” Justin apologized as Mike advanced on him.

Mike was now furious asked, “You’re sorry?! How the hell did he steal the Condor? I thought you said you secured it?”

“
I did!” He shot back agitated, “As I told your ‘new girlfriend’ he must of had an illegal remote key code or something. You know, I knew something like this was going to happen when you dragged her in to it!”

“
Don’t bring Tygla in to this. She had nothing to do with this!” He argued as Tygla frowned. She did not like them fighting like this, and over her.

“
She had everything to do with this!” Justin retorted, “If you had said ‘no we don’t do this kind of work’. We could still be at Cian, sippin’ a couple of beers, with our ship, but no you had to fall in love with her.”

Mike shot back, “Hey, I’m not the one who insisted my best friend to take the job.”

“
Oh yeah?” He stammered as he struggled to make a comeback but said, “You know what? I had it! I have had it with you and your stupid adventures Mike. You can take your new
girlfriend
, and rescue the prince without me. I’m gonna find the asshole who stole my ship and get it back.” He then stormed out of the office.

“
Our ship,” Mike corrected him, but he disappeared into the mall. He closed his eyes in disbelief and sighed. He lost his best friend and it was his fault.

“
Touchy fellow ain’t he?” Morgan commented

“
Mike, I’m sorry,” Tygla apologized softly as she started to get emotional. “I didn’t know I would break your friendship with him.”

Mike looked to her and replied calmly, “It’s not your fault.”

“
But it is, If I had listened my father in the first place, none of this would ever happened,” she said as water filled her eyes.

“
But your brother would still be in the hands of the Empire,” he said as he glanced to the door, “Justin’s just…”

“
Jealous?” Tygla said to him.

“
I was going to say protective of me, but you’re right too,” he shook his head in resentfulness and said quietly, “I should’ve listened to him.”

Morgan looked to them, “It’s ain’t any of your fault. If I had been quick on the trigger, you would still have your ship, and, since it’s my fault, I think it is my responsibly to make it up to you. Anything you want, it’s yours.”

“
Thank you,” Mike said shaking his hand. He looked to Tygla and said, “I better go talk to him.”

Mike found Justin at ‘Zumbee’s’. He was at the bar with a full glass of beer in his hand. He remembered the good times they had and already he misses them. He walked over and sat in the next stool.

“
What do you want traitor?” Justin wondered irritably and drank his alcohol, “You and Tygla couldn’t find a ship?”

Mike disregarded that comment and replied calmly, “No, I just came to say that, I’m sorry.” Justin eyes’ gazed to him as Mike continued, “You were right. I’ve should never got involved, with this.”

“
And what about Tygla?” Justin asked, “You still love her don’t you?”

“
Of course.”

“
Mike, she a princess,” he explained, “And only a prince or, or a knight or something can be with her, plus she’s a different race than you. I told you all this. Remember what we agreed after Julia betrayed you?”

“
Don’t mix business with pleasure,” they both said together.

“
Right, I thought we made pact,” Justin said disappointedly.

“
But she is nothing like Julia.” Mile told him, “Tygla is different, she’s sweet, considerate, and loves to help out her family when they are in trouble. Now will Julia do that? No, not in a million years. I made a mistake with Julia, but not with Tygla. I love her Justin. Maybe when you get a girlfriend you’d understand that too. Now I don’t know what your problem is with her but I want to know right now.”

Justin sighed, “When you were with Julia, you dissed me. Now I didn’t say anything to you before because I saw that you were actually happy with her, but you hurt me. I mean. I felt like an outsider, and that you never paid any attention to me anymore. That upset me. I thought I was losing my friend.”

Mike frowned a bit and said sorrowfully, “Look I didn’t know I would hurt you like that and I’m sorry. I guess when I was having a great time with Julia I forgotten that I had great friend as well, but that’s not going too happened again. I’m not going to put a woman between us, ever. I guess we gotta learn to live with it, but if you wanna go and leave me? Ok, I can’t control your life. It’s been fun adventuring with you Justin and I’m gonna miss it.”

Mike frowned, got up, and started to leave. Mike was right Justin thought, but he did not want to be left out again, but what if Mike said was true? He liked Mike too much to have his friendship to be destroyed, and now he lost his only friend in the universe because his selfishness.

Justin turned to him and said aloud before Mike made it the door, “Hey!” Mike stopped and looked at him, “We did have some great times right?”

Mike nodded and replied, “The best.”

Mike exited the bar as Justin looked at his drink.
Ok, Julia was bitch,
Justin thought,
but Mike was right, Tygla was never like her. Maybe it could work out. I mean, I do not know her that much to judge her. He had to give her a second chance at least.

“
Oh what the hell,” Justin said to himself as he finished his drink and placed a translucent dollar bill on the bar. He got up and walked quickly to find his friend, “Mike! Wait up!”

He saw him walking back to Morgan’s office. He jogged down and caught up to him.

“
Mike!” he called to him again.

Mike stopped and turned to him wondering what he wanted.

“
Look, you’re right,” Justin said apologetically, “I’ve been acting like a selfish jerk, and I can tell you that, Tygla’s not that bad. But when you learn that you cannot be with her…I’ll be there for you.”

He placed his hand on Mike’s shoulder and cocked a small smile. Mike smiled to him, knowing that Justin made a good call. They both hugged, as they now knew what true friendship really meant.

“
Now let’s go rescue her brother,” Mike decided.

“
What about our ship?”

“
We’ll find the Condor one way or another. Right now, I think our priorities are to rescue Tygla’s brother. Besides you got that remote right?”

He was about to argue about finding the Condor first, but then his did not want to have another fight. “Yeah, but it’s only for short wave.”

“
Well don’t you have a long range homing system on that?” Mike asked as he pointed to Justin’s wristband.

“
Yeah, but the radar system’s on the Condor, unless we-.” Justin stopped and had an idea, “Unless we can reverse the polarity of the signal. I just need another radar system attached to it and then reprogram the system.” Then he had a second thought as they continued to walk, “Eh, He’s probability a million light years away by now, and Tygla’s brother is… I suppose he’s more important than the ship.”

Mike smiled at his friend’s comment and said, “Right.”

Justin nodded as they approached the door to the jail office, and asked, “So how are we going to rescue him without a ship?”

“
I think our new friend was going to help us on that part,” Mike replied as he opened the door.

Justin wondered what new friend they acquired. As they reentered, they saw Tygla still sitting in the chair patiently waiting. She turned her head and smiled to see that Mike and Justin had made up. She would know that their friendship was too powerful for it to fall apart.

Chapter 7

The Great Escape

While the situation stranded Mike and Justin on the spaceport, things seemed grim as Xman slept in his cell. He suddenly awoke to find out that the engines had stopped. He wondered what Drax was up to, and whatever it was, it was not good. He also wondered why no one had attempted to rescue him. Maybe it is because this Xatu battleship was too much for Xman’s fleet to handle. He saw what happened at the battle he witnessed. It was then up to him to escape.

“
Hey!” He said to his cellmate, “What’s goin on? I heard the engines stop.”

“
It seems that we’re at a destination that Drax had set,” CRAIG replied. “I have been monitoring our movement with my internal motion sensor and it seems that he brought us close to the center of the galaxy.”

The center of the galaxy,
Xman thought,
but why what did he-.
Then remember that Drax’s prior duty was looking for a great power. He also remembered from his teachings at home of an old expedition involved with the center of the galaxy and pure energy. He knew the laws forbade anyone to go there, and that its one explorer never returned from it.

Drax must be crazy to duplicate where Uno had failed, but if Drax did find that energy, the Xatu Empire would be unstoppable. He had to escape and get help, but first he had to get out of his cell. He remembered what CRAIG told him about the material was used in the cell, so had to think. He looked down at the foot of the door and saw the food passage slot. Currently the Xatu guards closed it, but every time they served him disgusting slop, the guard had to push it through and that gave him Idea.

“
Guard!” He shouted hopping to grab his attention, “I’m starving, how about some breakfast over here?”

Three Xatu guards were at the prison’s command post talking to each other when they heard Xman’s request. The high officer nodded to one of the other guards to permission to feed Xman. One guard walked over to the food preparation station on the nearest wall. He pressed a hexagonal button and a square tray that had a bowl attached on top dropped down on a counter that embedded to the wall. He waited a couple of seconds when grey lumpy substance poured down into the bowl. He grabbed a utility spoon and took the tray over to Xman’s cell. He placed the food on the floor, pressed another button that was next to the cell door and the food slot opened.