Echo-1 The Whale

46: One More Trade

Mildabbar folded his arms across his chest and clamped down his beak with a click. 

"Have it your way," he said spinning around to us, "broadcast to the Magus." 

Blunt activated our communication system. There seemed to be no response, but they were listening. The signal was getting through. 

"Remaining Vedma, Faye, Baba, Yaba, or whatever you'd like to be called. We've decided to let you return to your comet, but before you do, we have one more trade proposal we'd like to make. That diamond suit is far too large for any of you to use comfortably. And your Professor here would really like to be returned." 

Mox waved his arm at the Professor. He gave the Sentinel a signal and the robot stuffed Mildabbar back inside the cavity in his chest. Mox waited and glanced down at his clawed fingers, holding them out to inspect the nails. 

"He's been rather cooperative thus far and I suppose we could keep him and dissect his brain, find out what makes him tick." Silence. "Ok then, good luck on your journey home. Turn us around." 

Uzi cut in on the ship to ship. "Fuck these bastards! You can't just let them go, we have to destroy them! Now, while we can!" 

Macrai was in front of him on the viewer and she said in Varan, "you know we will go with whatever you and Blunt decide." 

Mox looked over to Zandar. He shrugged his shoulders. They both looked at me. I went with my gut.

"Let's get back Death's suit and while we're there we can get rid of Mildabbar. He's starting to smell." 

They smiled simultaneously at this idea. 

"Are you ladies in?" Mox asked them in Varan. 

"We'll cover you."

The scout lifted off from the top of the Brick and fired two rockets at the propulsion system of the Magus. It's guns activated and shot down the first rocket before impact. The second one took out a third of the Magus propulsion system. The blast door hole entrance opened and two wolves in spacesuits were inside holding blaster weapons; the welcome party.

Mox, the Sentinel, and I headed down. We got in our suits. Mox picked up my acid gun; it still had plenty of juice. Blunt pulled up alongside the airlock. The hatch opened and we crossed over. The Brick backed off and the Scout pulled up. It opened its hatch and Uzi jumped the distance in the Rust-a-gogo with Nidi riding in the battered remnants of a sidecar with the last of the rust cannons. I assumed Taegu and Macrai held their breath? 

We followed the two Mega Therion guards down the hall. Nidi talked to them in their growling language the whole time. One roared at her after a while, but the other seemed to be listening. I heard her mention Trag's name. They knew who he was and respected him. 

We passed through two more sections and came to a large room with a door on each side. In front of the door opposite the one we came in was the diamond battle suit. It was open and empty. Next to it stood Faye, Baba, and Yaba. On either side of them stood two rows of battle robots, ten on each side, all armed and ready to fight. The door behind them opened and one of their electro pulse tanks blocked the hallway out of the room. The two wolf guards stood on either side of us. Nidi continued to whisper to the one next to her and Uzi. Uzi sat tight inside his bike. 

Mox spoke from inside his rust suit. "Ah, the lovely sisters. I'm glad this whole incident hasn't spoiled your beauty." 

Faye spoke and the other two remained silent. "It always a pleasure, as well as a pain, to speak with you, Mr. Mox. We're heading back to our comet. And yes, before you ask, there we shall stay. It may have been a mistake to deal with you in the first place, but certainly, it was a mistake to come after you. However, we do feel we have made a valid point about crossing the Vedma. The Banga should be exploding any minute now."