Out of This World

Krel

Aja and Krel dropped into the hole that had been blasted into their ship. Pausing for a moment, they allowed their transductions to wear off before jumping down to an even lower level, sliding down the once horizontal hallway into the stasis pod room.

"Mama, Papa!" cried Aja, sliding to the closest one and grabbing it. She looked inside frantically and gasped. "They're gone!"

"No! We can't lose them, not again," Krel growled. "Omen moved them." He felt a rising panic in his chest that he couldn't seem to shake, it felt like his core was going to explode into tiny bits. This day was just getting better and better.

"Intruder alert," Mother's voice droned. "Tarrons detected."

"It looks like Omen got Mother too," Krel griped.

"More reason to find Mama and Papa's cores and get out of the ship," Aja said decisively, pointing up the hallway.

"Oh, you won't be getting out of here," Mother said in a mocking tone.

"Krel, you override Mother's system so we can escape, and I'll get Mama and Papa back from Omen," Aja directed, looking back at the younger twin.

"Just be careful, okay!?" he admonished, gesturing with his arm.

She tore off in the direction of the control room where Omen was, whereas Krel ran for Mother's core processing unit. This was going to be no easy task. He'd never done anything like this before and was starting to freak out a little. What if he messed this up? What then? Everyone he loved would die; Aja would die, Mama and Papa would die for good, Zadra would die, and... Andy. He couldn't keep her safe this time. She'd insisted on dragging herself into his life and into his problems, and now she was stuck fighting a battle that wasn't hers. He silently cursed himself for being so foolish as he ran into Mother's chamber.

Over his earpiece he heard Aja and Omen fighting, Morando speaking through Omen and talking about how he was going to destroy the royals.

"Krel, we're all about to become flexel here!" she exclaimed over the earpiece.

"I heard!" he replied, lifting up the lid to Mother's core processing unit. "Still trying to disable Mother!"

"Four mekrons until mass nuclearization," Mother droned.

"Are you making any progress?" Aja's voice cried over the small device.

"No, I was just thinking of taking a nap," he drawled in reply, crawling over a bunch of machinery and to a control panel. He started fiddling with a few wires and buttons, to no avail.

"Oh, that is never going to work," Mother scoffed.

"Maybe this one?" he mused to himself, pressing a button. It flashed red and he jumped back. "Oh! No."

"Oh! That just tickles," Mother taunted.

He grabbed something that he thought might be promising. "Oh, yeah yeah yeah!" It shorted out in his hand, shocking him. "Oh!"

"You've deprogrammed the ice-maker," she sneered at him.

"Don't mother me, Mother!" he griped. "Just hang in there Aja!"

"Oh, I am!" she groaned, and he could hear what sounded like a blade being thrown. He wasn't sure what was happening, but he was glad he was in here and not out there. He heard Aja's warcry scream, and the clanking of metal.

He decided to tune into Andy's channel. "Hey, Andy, is everything under control?" he groped around inside the control box blindly, looking for something, anything, to disable Mother.

"If by under control you mean being assailed by cutlery then yeah, doin real peachy babe!" she yelled. She sounded out of breath. "Lucy has an amazing arm!"