Somehow Zeke's ship hadn't been blown up yet, but the situation was getting more dire by the second. He could see more and more enemy ships constantly approaching. He was hammering on his laser buttons as hard as he could, just blasting away at anything that happened to fall in his path. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Max turned in the other direction and firing his lasers just as rapidly.
"Hang tight," Milosh said. "Reinforcements just about to arrive."
"Huh?" Zeke said. "What are you talking about? What reinforcements?"
*
Sarah just had time to hit the eject button before her ship turned to a billion scraps of metal all around her. A transparent bubble enveloped the cockpit and she and Milosh were propelled away at a rate so rapid, the explosion looked like a tiny dot of orange light just a second later. The bubble began to descend slowly and gently towards Ingleblott.
"Well, Milosh," Sarah said with a sigh. "We're alive for the moment, but we're out of the fight now. It doesn't look like there's much hope. I'm sorry you're going to lose your planet. Once it's gone there won't be anywhere for us to go either. Looks like this is the end."
"Is not giving up yet," Milosh said. "Milosh give exact coordinates for laser. Reinforcements be here in a few seconds."
"What?" Sarah asked as she looked at the laser. Right next to it a doorway suddenly appeared and the Starswan flew out of it with its guns blazing. It scored several direct hits on the giant laser and then dodged out of the way as the weapon of mass destruction went up in a spectacular fiery explosion. Something connected to the laser must have been controlling the enemy fighters because they all immediately stopped in their tracks and fell towards the surface of the planet below.
*
Within an hour, the surviving members of the fleet regrouped on Ingleblott. The crew of the Starswan was surrounded by cheering Miloshes. Zeke couldn't help but wrinkle his nose in disgust as he landed his ship and saw Trey standing there with a huge smile on his face and his arm around Sadie. She was looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.
"I still don't get what she sees in that guy," Zeke muttered. "I was just as heroic out there as he was. Probably more so. He was probably practicing his ping-pong skills while that whole thing went down."
He climbed out of his own ship and threw his helmet to the ground in disgust. Before he knew what was happening he found himself wrapped up in a big furry hug. When he was finally released he stared at what looked like two filthy bears covered in black soot. "Bobby? Cindy? You guys survived?"
"We hit our eject buttons before our ships blew up," Bobby said. "We took a few scratches, but we're both okay."
"There were eject buttons on those ships?" Zeke asked. "I didn't know that. I guess it's a good thing I didn't get hit."
"Your ship looks like an older model," Cindy said. "Maybe yours didn't have one."
Zeke thought about that for a moment. "That jerk Nulfar was probably hoping I was going to get killed. Where is he, anyway? If he survived the battle, I'm going to have to have some tense words with him."
"Looks like someone else managed to eject," Cindy said as she pointed upwards.
Zeke looked up to see a transparent bubble float gently to the ground. Sarah and her Milosh stepped out and dusted themselves off.
"Zeke, you made it," she said with a smile as she gave him a hug.
"Yeah, I did somehow," Zeke said. "I'm glad to see you're alive, too. Hey, uh, this might not be the best time, but did I do something to make you angry?"
"Do you seriously not remember showing up at my hotel room last night?" she said as she broke the hug.
"Uh, no. I don't. I was at your hotel last night?"
"Yes. You were. And you were very drunk. I'm sure you didn't really mean the things you said, and in light of what we've been through, it's not really all that important anyway. So I guess I'll forgive you. You might want to take it easy on the drinking though."
"Don't listen to her," Max called out as he hopped out of his ship, which he had just landed next to Zeke's. "We are most definitely getting majorly shit-faced when this is over." He unscrewed the lid of his flask and peeked inside of it. "Still got a bit in reserve. I think I'll have a little drink now."
Captain Torean wandered over and gave Zeke a slap on the back. "Geek! It's good to see you. Did you recover from last night?"
"Uh, yeah. How do you know about what I did last night?"
"You showed up at the Starswan drunk as a skunk in your underwear and made a fool out of yourself declaring your love for Sadie."
"I did what now?" Zeke asked.
"Sounds like you had yourself quite the adventure after you disappeared from the strip club," Max said.
"I don't remember any of this," Zeke said.
"That sounds like the sort of thing I intentionally drink to forget," Max said. "Don't worry about it. Like I said, after this is over we'll hit a bar and have lots of drinks and have ourselves a nice mellow time, in which nothing outrageous or embarrassing will occur."
Sadie had wandered over to the group while Max was talking. When she spotted Sarah she ran over and gave her a hug. Then she turned to Zeke and gave a little wave. "Hi Zeke. How are you doing?"
"Pretty good, I guess," he shrugged. "Sorry about what I apparently did last night. I wasn't quite feeling myself honestly."
"I know," Sadie said. "It's okay. But maybe you might want to lighten up on the drinking."
"So I've been told," Zeke said.
"Don't listen to these broads," Max said. "You know how chicks are. They're crazy. All of them. Hell, they're the ones that drive us to drink half the time. Look, I'll tell you what. Not only will we get super hammered after this is over, I'll also take you to another strip club and get you that lap dance you've been needing."
"I don't know if I want to go to any more strip clubs," Zeke said. "I seem to keep getting in trouble when I go to them."
"That's just a coincidence," Max said as he waved his hand dismissively. "I had a string of bad luck once playing cards for floss, but I didn't let it stop me from continuing to do it."
"Well, anyway," Sarah said. "Not to change the subject or anything, but I'm glad you guys showed up when you did. You really saved the day."
"Thank Milosh," Captain Torean said. "He's the one who told us what was going on and gave us exact coordinates for the location of the laser. It's a good thing we brought a Milosh along with us, as well as one of those programmable doors. It looks like we made it here just in the nick of time."
"You did," Sarah said. "If you'd arrived even a minute later I think we'd all have been done for. Instead of a planet you'd probably have found yourselves in the middle of a bunch of rocks floating through space. As it is, we sustained some pretty heavy losses. Everyone fought bravely, though, like that weird blue donkey guy."
"WBDG?" Zeke asked. "What happened? Did he not make it?"
"I don't know," Sarah said. "His ship blew up, and I'm not sure if he was able to hit the eject button in time."
"That sucks," Zeke said. "He did enjoy a good fight though. At least he went out doing what he loved best."
"Actually he seemed to be more into wrestling than space combat," Sadie said.
"Oh yeah," Zeke scratched his head. "I guess he didn't actually go out doing what he loved. That's too bad."
"But you know, really, we have Trey to thank for saving the day," Captain Torean said. "Everyone else was afraid to take the shot, but he stepped up to the plate and expertly fired on that giant death laser. Then he took control of the Starswan and piloted us out of the way of the explosion. If it weren't for him all would have truly been lost."
"It sure is lucky Trey was there," Sarah said.
"I know," Sadie smiled. "Isn't he absolutely amazing? He was the one who said we should listen to Milosh when he was telling us about the laser. Also right before that he single-handedly saved an entire village from a burning wildfire."
"Do you really have to brag about Trey right now?" Zeke asked. "We were just talking about my friend, who quite possibly gave up his life tragically."
"Yeah, but Trey made sure his sacrifice wasn't in vain," Sarah said. "He also made sure the rest of us wouldn't meet similar fates. Really, Zeke, you should show more gratitude towards the man who saved your life."
"I think what happened today goes way beyond just one man," Zeke said.
"Nope," Captain Torean said. "We have one man to thank, and that man's name is Trey Sunblaze. He is truly the greatest man who has ever lived." He turned to the crowd of Miloshes and shouted out. "How about we give a cheer to the hero of the day? Here's to Trey!"
Thousands of Miloshes cheered and applauded in response, while Zeke smacked himself in the forehead.
"I don't mean to rain on this little celebration," Max said as he pointed towards the sky. "But it looks like the bad guys are back with more fighter ships and an even bigger giant death laser."
Zeke looked up to see a laser that looked like it was the size of a mountain descending from an even bigger spaceship. It started to cast a shadow across the ground as it blocked out the light of the sun. "Looks like the day still needs saving. Does Trey want to take this or what?"