Chapter 7

Grot hooked the energy conduit to the external battery with a satisfying clunk. The Zoolian hoped it would stay in place long enough for the ship to be repaired properly. The self-repair system they “acquired” from the Kolanians sucked down energy like a starving beast. The sandstorm had caked the vessel in a layer of iron dust, which had penetrated through cracks and crevices and coated the interior workings. The ship’s internal components had been thrown free and damaged due to the buffeting winds. Getting that in working order would take at least a day.

They had been dropped off by Captain Torg, who returned to orbit to keep watch over the planet. The labor had been made more difficult by the bulky jackets they had to wear to block out the cold of the thin atmosphere. All five of them were needed for ship repair. It was supposed to be six, but Captain Kull refused to leave the ship. When Grot, Gort, and Trog arrived, the cowardly Zoolian informed them he would not move from his seat. Kull told them he had felt like he had been watched since he landed on the planet. This feeling of being under scrutiny had only grown since his subordinates had disappeared in the ruins.

Kull’s response to their cajoling was to shake his round, gray head. “What happened to my brothers eh? Something had to have gotten them!”

Kull cradled the long-barreled blaster in his thick arms like it was his child.

“This world is dead, Kull,” Grot reassured him. “They are probably holding out in one of the ruins. Once the ship is repaired we will search for them.”

“No. They are dead or prisoners of this planet’s guardians. I will beseech my grandfather to send a warship here and then we will atomize this place!”

Trog overheard this as he used a blade-like tool to remove the orange dust from the ship. He clicked maliciously and nudged one of Kull’s brothers, Ungah.

“Your elder brother is a remarkable warrior no?”

Ungah glowered at Trog and went back to work, scraping away dust from the hull.

Gort lifted his head from his work and looked up at the sky. “Look at that in the sky!”

“What is that? A ship?” Ungah said.

Trog looked at where his brother was looking.

“No. Too small. Maybe a bird?”

Grot took a small device from his harness and looked through it. It amplified the speeding figure to a dozen times magnification. It fell from his fingers as he stared in astonishment.

“It’s—it is a human female!”

The figure clad in shining armor descended rapidly toward them, silver hair and crimson cape streaming behind her. The pirates dropped their tools and scrambled inside the ship. Kull watched in amazement as they barreled past him toward the armory. As five rushed past him again, fully armed, Kull grabbed Ungah by the arm and shook him.

Ungah babbled to Kull about what was coming toward them. Kull blanched and shrank back into his chair. His eyes blazed with fear. “They are coming! I knew they would come!”

Trog looked over his shoulder at Captain Kull and hissed at him. “Shut up, Kull!”

“We need to destroy this thing, whatever it is,” Gort said.

Ungah shouldered his fire lance and checked its charge. Ungah’s younger brother, Boogah, hurriedly grabbed a contraption that looked like a cross between a satellite dish and a bazooka. Boogah adjusted the strap across his chest. His sonic cannon, or roughly translated from Zoolian “slammer,” had a reassuring weight. In his panic, it didn’t occur to him that the planet’s thin atmosphere would limit the weapon’s effectiveness.

The assembled pirates jumped when they heard an impact on the ship’s hull. The vessel rocked slightly, making Kull whimper. Silence, ominous and heavy, followed. The Zoolians raised their weapons and cautiously approached the ramp leading outside. One by one, they went down the ramp until they stood barefoot on the dust of the valley floor. As they stood in the dim light of Mars, they looked all around them. They saw nothing.

“Ahem!”

Trog and the others whirled and glanced up to see a bizarre figure, a human female, standing atop the spacecraft, one Grot, Gort, and Trog thought appeared slightly familiar. Her silvery hair blew in the slight wind, and her blue eyes glowed with her mirth. She looked down at them with one hand on her hip, smirking at their shocked reactions.

“Well, well, well,” the female said. “Long time no see boys! Did you miss me?”

Grot gaped at the woman. “Who are you?”

“Look closer loverboy,” Ultra Woman said, her sweet tones tinged with contempt.