I Don't Seem So Bright in a Well-Lit Room

Chapter Twenty-Nine

By the time the puppies on the Garax ship had sniffed out the Shiv, it looked a little worse for wear. It had suffered some damage, but it was still whole and that is all that really mattered to the crew. They rather enjoyed breathing oxygen.

Luckily the Shiv had been faster than the stolen Vexian ships and had outrun them before its shields had been depleted. It had not been immobilized, but it wasn't moving. It was now hiding in quiet contemplation. They needed to think. They needed a plan.

"There is a ship approaching. Wait. No. There is something other than a ship approaching. No, no, it's definitely a ship. Well, it's ship shaped, anyway. Yes. There is a ship shape approaching," Knutt calmly reported.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Teeg fired back.

"Hmmmm..." Knutt answered. "Well...there is  something approaching that looks very much like a ship, but I can't confirm that it's actually a ship. It's reading as more of a concept than a solid."

"Well, that's just strange."

"Yes, but that's not even the strangest part. I thought Quarols were extinct, or at least lost forever. Apart from ours, of course. I'm reading that there are seventy-three on board."

"Okay, okay, okay. So, seventy-three Quarols flying through space on a concept? I think you need to be switched off and back on again," Teeg chuckled. "As long as it's not a Vexian ship..."

"Regardless, Potto is on whatever that is. I can feel him," Clory added, telepathically.

"Well that's all I need. Let's go get him!" Teeg sighed with relief.

"I also detect one Towerscapian, several baby doggies, and an ostrich," Knutt said hesitantly. She didn't want to be turned off and on again. She had never been rebooted, but it sounded weird and uncomfortable.

"Well, why not, yeah? Go big or go home, right? Any tigers? Manatees? Clarinet players? Talking loaves of rye bread?" Teeg said in jest, but she was getting a bit worried. Not worried about the approaching "ship", but about her own ship's mental health. "Maybe a French New Wave film festival going down on board?"

When the ship hailed them, things just got more confusing.

Teeg could see the ship because Knutt had given her the idea that it was there, but she had no idea what a Garax looked like. Upon hearing that there was an ostrich on board, she immediately thought of one. Therefore, the Garax on her screen had the look of a large, fierce, long extinct, flightless Earth bird. In a snappy dress suit.

"Crew of the Shiv! We are the peaceful Garax," said Nux, looking down at them from their flight deck screen. There was nothing peaceful looking about an ostrich. "We would like to gift you your friend the Towerscapian, and seventy-three Quarols. Or at least the one you call Potto. Really, you can have as many as you like. Don't feel pressured into taking the lot. We need to find nice, caring homes for the puppies anyway. Any Pottos you don't take, we will find nice, caring homes for as well."

Teeg did not know how to respond to this. Behind the ostrich man she could see a number of red-headed Pottos rewarding hyper puppies with treats for "doing suuuuch a good job, you cutie-pie nummy wittle wuv-wuvs!"

"Ummm. Thanks...?" she finally muttered.

"Perhaps it would be a good idea if they were each wearing brand-spanking-new TDX-30 space suits. And perhaps it would be a good idea if those space suits had thrusters."

"Why?" a Potto clone behind him asked after finding himself in a brand-spanking-new TDX-30 space suit.

"Well, then they could fire you guys directly at the Vexian ships and you could climb into them and take them over. You'd have your own ships then. Seventy-some Quarols on one ship might get a bit crowded, and you could use the fire power," Nux answered the Potto clone.