Jerome stared down at the unconscious Ctarl Ctarl. It would probably be better to kill her now but….. It would seem like such a waste. Perhaps after giving her a lobotomy and inserting a brain chip he’d have a new Ctarl Ctarl henchwoman, except she would never question his orders or bother him with things like being ‘paid’ or receiving ‘benefits’ and ‘fresh Terran meat’. Smiling the android scooped the catgirl up off the ground.

“You’re a robot….” Janell was quite shocked, Connie was scared also.

“Is that a problem? And if you want to get specific I’m an android, though over the years I’ve had to replace most of my body parts with machinery.” The catgirl on his shoulder squirmed slightly, she was already starting to come to, sighing Jerome pulled her off his shoulder and gave her a quick vicious chop across her back. Once more Ashia’s conscious slipped away and was replaced by darkness, “Well now, I think it’s about time we left. You lost the boy, I’m very disappointed in you….. and your daughter.” He stared at the tiny Ctarl Ctarl and his eyes seemed to glow red, Connie shivered, “But no matter. Just don’t fail me again.”

Janell nodded wordlessly, she regretted signing up with this man but she couldn’t turn back now. A contract was a contract, she had a certain image to uphold. The four of them went off towards the spacecraft. The pilot was already inside going through the lift off procedures.

“John, do you think you could make it back to Starwind and Hawking’s by yourself?” Jim asked the boy.

“I… I don’t know. Why?”

“I’m going after Aisha.”

“Are you insane? You’ll be killed!” Jim paled, “Well, I’m willing to take that risk. Besides I probably would have died long ago if it wasn’t for Aisha.” Jim thought back to all the times she’d pulled his ass out of the fire. When Ron Mcdougal almost incinerated him with a pair of heat seeking rockets, or when one of the Ansem 7 had tracked them down on the Galactic Leyline, and also nearly a dozen other events since then. Most recently Aisha had pulled him out of the stomach of a fellow Ctarl Ctarl. He owed a lot to her but, besides that, he really cared for her, “I’m outta here. Try to get to safety.”

“Jim wait, forget about her!” Too late, Jim was running back towards the ship.

Drawing out his pistol he took aim. Though it looked like a regular pistol it was really much more. True it couldn’t shoot casters but it had been modded to pack more of a punch. Also some of the bullets Jim carried on him did more then just penetrate armor and kill. Loading a EMP shockwave round into his gun Jim took aim and fired. The bullet ricocheted off the door and flew away without even scratching it….. Yet not before temporarily short-circuiting the nearby keypad. The door groaned awkwardly and, releasing a shower of sparks, opened half way. Jim run forward and slid through just before it closed. John watched him enter the ship before running away.

The pilot of the Timate 691 didn’t know what to make of the level 2 door malfunction. He was about to go up and check it out when the problem seemingly corrected itself.

“Just get us out of here.” Jerome told the man, “The authorities might be on their way. There’s no reason for a bloodbath to take place here today, I see no profit in it.” He let Aisha fall to the ground so he could light up a cigar.

Janell crinkled her nose, she always found the smell nauseating, “Why do you smoke if you’re a machine?”

“I already told you I’m an android. Why do you ask so many questions when you’re just a paid flunky?” That shut her up, Jerome knew it wouldn.

The ship was given clearance to leave, apparently the stations security hadn’t noticed the disturbance on the ships boarding platform or they had chosen to ignore it and not get involved in the scuffle. Jerome smiled, Terrans were truly cowards. The Timate 691 shot up into the sky.

Jim had to wait for his chance. Not liking the fact that Aisha was just sprawled out in the middle of the floor the one eyed bounty hunter/ pirate mercenary carried her off to the second level and through her in a storage room locking the door. Jim had made his way into the inner workings of the ship and found a convenient center which had vents branching off in every direction. He was able to see where the scary Ctarl Ctarl dumped his big sister. Luckily the dusty vent kept her from picking up his scent and Jim could be very quite when he wanted to be. Soon after he discovered an escape pod towards the rear of the ship. Now he had to wait for his chance. The model 691 Timate wasn’t a big ship. It had roughly two levels to it and actually only needed one to pilot. He’d have to be fast and he’d need a distraction.

2 hours into his flight the necessary distraction came. Janell and Jerome were arguing fiercely over something, the smaller Ctarl Ctarl slipped away to get away from the fighting. It was about time, Jim’s hands and knees were starting to get sore. He went back to the central hub and took the shaft that lead towards the storage room aisha was being held. He didn’t want to risk firing a shot at the storage door. The blast would be loud enough to hear in here. Instead he pulled out a scrambler and hacked the door. The metallic door lifted. He went in to rouse his probably still unconscious big sister.

Aisha pounced on him. Her blood thirsty snarl was soon replaced by a look of joy, “Jimmy!” Then fear, “….. You shouldn’t have come up here! That freak slaver isn’t a Terran!”

“Shhh,” Jim whispered pulling an arm free and bringing a finger to his lips.

“Oh right, sorry.”

Jim led her to the pod. Jim knew the Timate didn’t carry weaponry of any sort so they didn’t have to worry about being fired upon unless the ship had been upgraded. Jim prayed the ship hadn’t been upgraded! The ship could pursue them but it would be pretty pointless. The Timate didn’t have anything to latch onto escape pods. Hopefully The slavers would just cut their losses and let them go. Just to make sure Jim decided to stir up some chaos on board the tiny craft. Pulling out a grenade like device that shot out bomblets rather than shrapnel when it exploded Jim flung it down the narrow corridor. Aisha and Jim dived into the pod. The door slammed and the pod detached right as the grenade exploded only to bring about a dozen more explosions. The inside of the Timate had probably been converted into swiss cheese. Jim knew they wouldn’t be pursued.

“Well were good, too bad these pods can’t be piloted. We’ll have to wait for someone to pick us up.”

“Jimmy, never do anything like that again! I can take care of myself you know, I am a Ctarl Ctarl after all. I don’t need GAH! Mmmmrrrrrrr…….” Jim scratched behind Aisha’s ears.

The worried expression melted away from her face and was replaced with one of pure bliss, “Don’t worry about me right now, did they hurt you? Are you okay?” Aisha replied with a barely comprehendible “Uh huh…. Don’t stop.”

Jim smiled and continued scratching. Aisha plopped down in his lap. Jim knew that cats liked to be in a lap when they were being petted or played with but this was ridiculous.

“Ooof! Aisha?!” But Jim kept scratching, “You know these pods come with two seats right.” Jim indicated the one on his left, Aisha just yawned and stretched out leaning backwards resting against Jim, now he was being completely pushed into the seat.

“Really? They come with two. That’s a nice feature.” Aisha made no move to move.

The Terran being mashed into the seat beneath her gave the ringlet in her hair a tug, “At least sit up in my lap Aisha, you’re killing me.”

“You Terran’s are so weak, a delicate flower such as myself hardly ways a thing.” Still she stopped leaning back into him.

Jim smiled happy she could joke so soon after their last life threatening ordeal. He started rubbing the muscles on her arms she loved to flex so much, “You get a chance to pull off some of your mighty Ctarl Ctarl moves on them.”

“Oh yeah!” The catgirl laughed, flexing for Jim, “Too bad you weren’t there, you would have seen me kicking butt! I uh, ran after them on to the ship and they got the jump on me. Yeah, that’s what happened. Before then I was beating the hell out of both robot boy and his cheap Ctarl Ctarl bimbo.” They heard a resentful snort behind them.

“Huh?” Aisha lept off Jim’s lap.

The two looked behind their seats to spot a scared Connie.

“Oh great.” Jim sighed.

Aisha smiled evilly at the little girl, “Well this pod might not pack any video games or in flight movies, but its certainly provided me with some entertainment.”

“Play nice Aisha, she’s just a kid.” But Jim glanced at her warily, she must be quit vicious if she was in any way related to that one mercenary Ctarl Ctarl.