by Mark Crilley
While half of the Sky Pirates stood there gawking at us, the other half took an interest in our spaceship. They poked it and prodded it and finally just started tearing it apart. I guess they figured they could sell the spare parts or something. By the time they were done with it, there was nothing left but a few nuts and bolts and a couple of broken headlights.
“Well, Gax, there goes our transportation,” said Spuckler. “Any ideas?”
“TO BE HONEST, SIR,” Gax replied with an electronic whine, “I’M JUST HOPING THEY DON’T HAVE A SIMILAR FONDNESS FOR ROBOTS.”
“Don’t you worry, Gax,” Spuckler said, sensing Gax’s nervousness. “I wouldn’t let anyone rip you apart but me.”
“I APPRECIATE THAT, SIR.”
Meanwhile, the Sky Pirates were passing around our rations and other supplies, eating whatever was edible and destroying everything else. When some of the Sky Pirates discovered Mr. Beeba’s bag of books, he went into a panic.
“My books!” he cried, whirling in circles as he tried to free himself.
Two of the Sky Pirates opened the bag and turned it upside down, allowing the books to tumble onto the deck in a big messy pile. The Sky Pirates briefly examined the books to see if they had any value. After a few minutes of discussion they started tossing them overboard, three or four at a time.
“No!” Mr. Beeba shouted, spinning wildly. “This can’t be happening!”
“Relax, Beeba,” Spuckler said calmly. “Those books were just deadweight anyway.”
“DeadWEIGHT?” Mr. Beeba cried, struggling to remain face to face with Spuckler. “I’ll have you know those books contained the maps we needed to get to Alia Rellapor’s castle!”
Suddenly it dawned on me just how desperate things had become. Not only were we at the mercy of these horrible Sky Pirate guys, but we were also completely lost! I’d have given anything to go home at that point. Even a bad day at school was better than this!
After we’d hung from the masts for more than an hour, there was suddenly a big roaring sound and the Sky Pirate ship’s engines came to life. The whole ship lurched forward, and after a minute or two we were moving through the air at a pretty good speed. The clouds rolled by above and below us, and a warm breeze blew across the deck. For some reason it felt good just to be moving again, even if I didn’t know where we were headed.
“Where do you think they’re taking us?” I asked Spuckler, who wasn’t too far from me.
“Hang on, Akiko,” he said, turning to Gax. “Switch on your hypervision, Gax. Akiko wants to know where we’re headed.”
There was a buzzing and clicking sound as Gax switched on the proper equipment inside his head. Though Gax was pretty beat up, he was obviously filled with all sorts of useful machinery.
“I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT, SIR,” Gax said, sounding as if he were straining to make out a variety of details from a very great distance. “CLEARLY WE’RE GOING TO BE DEALING WITH SOME VERY ROUGH TERRAIN . . . THERE ARE IMMENSE CRATERS OF VARIOUS SHAPES AND SIZES . . . NO SIGN OF LIFE THAT I CAN SEE—”
“You idiot!” Spuckler interrupted. “You’re lookin’ at me!”
Sure enough, Gax had actually been studying Spuckler’s face at very close range.
“SORRY, SIR,” he sputtered as he tried to refocus his eyes in the right direction. By then Poog had done his job for him, though. He blurted out another string of high-speed syllables, and this time Mr. Beeba translated it for us right away.
“Poog says they’re taking us to some sort of giant Sky Cove,” Mr. Beeba said, his voice suddenly filled with dread.
“The Sky Cove?” Spuckler cried, apparently thinking that this was a stroke of good luck. “Aw, this is gonna be great! When I was a kid I used to dream about goin’ to the Sky Cove!”
“Is it a nice place?” I asked.
“No, it’s a really scary place, Akiko,” Spuckler explained with a grin. “There ain’t nothin’ there but thieves and robbers and all kinds of monsters and stuff. But I’ve still always wanted to go there, just to see what it’s like.”
Before long the Sky Cove came into view. It was made up of hundreds of buildings, like a huge dark city floating out in the middle of the sky. The whole place was black and shadowy, with streams of smoke pouring out of crooked chimneys that stretched high up above the rooftops. I could tell just by looking at the place that it was every bit as scary as Spuckler had said it would be.
Spuckler was still excited, though.
“Hey, look! They got a sports arena!” he cried, sounding like a little boy in a toy store. “I wonder what kind of games they play.”
Meanwhile Mr. Beeba and I were getting more and more nervous as the ship slowly moved in closer and closer. Soon we could actually see some of the people who lived in the Sky Cove. They were just as scary-looking as the Sky Pirates. Some of them were even scarier. There were people of all shapes and sizes, all of them dressed in dark ragged clothes and many of them carrying swords and knives. A few of them had their hair tied up and pasted into weird spidery shapes, and others had dark tattoos all over their faces and arms. One or two that I saw even had things growing out of their heads that looked like horns! As our enormous ship came floating into the city, they looked up one by one, then went back to talking to one another.
“Spuckler,” I asked, “what do all these people do?”
“Steal stuff, mostly,” he replied, as if it were a respectable profession. “They hardly ever kill people, ’less they really have to.”
It occurred to me that the reason Spuckler wasn’t scared of the Sky Pirates was because he actually liked them for some reason. Who knows? Maybe he’d always wanted to be a pirate when he was a kid. As for me, I was hoping we’d be able to get away from these people as soon as possible. They gave me the creeps, every last one of them.
Finally the whole ship was pulled up to a dock and secured there by ropes tied to posts. It was just like being in a harbor, except there wasn’t any water: I don’t know what was holding everything up. But I’d already given up trying to figure it out. All the stuff I’d learned about gravity in my science classes just didn’t seem to apply here. None of it made much sense, and I’d go crazy if I thought about it too much.
By then I was really hoping they’d come and untie us. The ropes were starting to hurt, and Poog looked like he was getting awfully uncomfortable. Mr. Beeba looked thoroughly exhausted, and Gax had spun around so many times I think he was starting to get a little dizzy. But the Sky Pirates weren’t done with us yet.
A couple of men wearing nice clean suits and enormous top hats came aboard the ship and began discussing something with the Sky Pirates. They pointed up at us one by one and hissed at each another in their weird whispery language. The Sky Pirates crossed their arms and spoke in very short sentences. The two men made elaborate gestures and wagged their fingers in front of their faces. The whole thing looked like a routine they had gone through many times before.
“Well, Spuckler,” Mr. Beeba finally asked, “what do you make of all this?”
“I’ve seen this sort of thing happen before, Beebs, and I got a pretty good notion of what they’re negotiatin’,” Spuckler said, grinning. “These Sky Pirates may be a bunch of dirty rotten thieves, but they do know a thing or two about salesmanship.”
“Spuckler, you’d better not be saying what I think you’re saying.”
“You should be proud, Beeba,” said Spuckler. “You’re fetchin’ a pretty good price down there.”
“Spuckler . . .”
“Not as much as me, of course . . .”
“Spuckler!”
“. . . But at least twice what you’re really worth, anyway,” Spuckler concluded.
And he was right, too. The Sky Pirates were actually selling us, like chickens at a farmers’ market. We were all untied and taken down to the deck, where a group of Sky Pirates led us off the ship and into a big caged wagon. There was enough space for all of us to sit comfortably. In any case, it felt a lot better tha
n being tied up.
A big, brawny guy pulled the wagon down a side street that led into the center of the Sky Cove. People stared at us as we passed, pointing and hissing excitedly at one another. There was nothing we could do but stare back at them and wonder what was going to happen to us.
We were taken down winding street after winding street, past small crowds of people who were too busy to even look up. They stood in circles, sometimes laughing, sometimes shouting angrily at each other. Occasionally we could see inside the buildings, which were dimly lit and filled with similar groups of men, crowded around tables and sometimes bursting into noisy conversation.
“I may not know these Sky Pirate people as well as you, Spuckler,” Mr. Beeba said, “but it’s plain to see that they’re up to no good.”
“Aw, a little gamblin’ never did no one any harm,” Spuckler replied, smiling.
“Gambling?” I asked.
“Yeah, Akiko. That’s the main reason why these people come to the Sky Cove. It’s kind of like the gamblin’ capital of Smoo.”
“No wonder this place is so filthy and abhorrent,” Mr. Beeba said, taking his spectacles off to give them a good cleaning. “One can practically smell the degeneracy.”
I didn’t quite understand all Mr. Beeba’s big words, but I knew what he meant. There was something about all those people huddled in circles that made the Sky Cove even scarier than it already was. I actually felt safer inside the cage. I even tested the bars to make sure they were good and strong.
Finally we arrived at a huge sports arena, the one that Spuckler had seen as we came into the Sky Cove. It was a big round building, about the size of a football stadium, only it looked like the whole thing was built out of solid stone. It was very dirty, covered with all kinds of weird curvy-lettered graffiti and surrounded by piles of rotting garbage. Still, you could tell by the sheer size of the place that this was the most important building in the whole city.
We were led to a gateway in the side of the building that was big enough for wagons much larger than our own. It was pitch-black inside, with just enough light for us to see that we were being taken down a long ramp into an area somewhere underneath the arena. Through the darkness I could see Mr. Beeba shudder a little and glance around nervously.
“Now, it’s important in the Sky Cove never to let anyone see that you’re scared,” Spuckler instructed. “Try your best to look tough.”
“What about Poog?” I asked, wondering just how tough Poog was able to appear.
“All right, forget tough,” Spuckler said after a long pause. “Just try to look cool.”
A minute later we were taken out of the wagon and put inside a damp little cell with no furniture of any kind. The walls and floor were built entirely out of stone. The air was very humid, and the whole place smelled of mildew and sweat. The men locked the cell door and left us there alone in the darkness.
I think all the activity had kept us from thinking too much about the awful situation we were in. Now that we were locked in a cell with nothing else to do, we had plenty of time to reflect on how bad things had become. Spuckler frowned and tried to scrape a patch of dirt off Gax’s body. Mr. Beeba sat down with his head in his hands and stared dejectedly at the floor.
I started to get really homesick all of a sudden, and I wished I was back at home, hanging around with Melissa or just lying in my bed and staring up at the ceiling. At that moment I wished I was anywhere else but where I was. Just when I was feeling as lousy as I could possibly feel, a slimy little lizard thing crawled across my back and I let out a yelp like you wouldn’t believe.
“I hate this place!” I screamed. “I want to go home! I want to get out of here and go home!” I actually started to cry a little right then, and Mr. Beeba and Spuckler came over and sat down on either side of me.
“Hey there, little girl,” Spuckler said. “Take it easy. Everything’s gonna be all right. I promise.”
“Yes, pull yourself together, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba joined in. “At least we’re all essentially unharmed. I’m sure you’ve been in worse places than this.”
“No, I haven’t,” I said to him very seriously, wiping tears away from my cheeks. “I really haven’t. Every place I’ve ever been has been really nice and comfortable compared to this place. I mean, this place . . . this place is just horrible!”
“Do you mean to tell me that in all your years of rescuing people—”
“Look, I’ve never rescued anyone before,” I cried. “Haven’t you figured that out yet? This whole thing is a big mistake! I’m not a rescue expert! I’m not an anything expert! King Froptoppit got the wrong person!”
There was a long pause as Spuckler and Mr. Beeba took this in. I was really starting to shake a little now from the cold. Spuckler and Mr. Beeba moved in a little closer to keep me warm.
“Heavens!” was all Mr. Beeba could say.
“I’ll be darned,” was all Spuckler could say.
“Well, you’ve certainly made an impressive effort, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba said.
“Yeah,” Spuckler continued. “B’sides, Akiko, that ain’t nothin’ to feel sad about. We like you. We don’t care if you ain’t no rescue expert.”
“Most definitely,” Mr. Beeba agreed. “King Froptoppit has brought all sorts of people to Smoo over the years, but no one we liked nearly as much as you.”
“Really?” I asked.
“Oh yes, Akiko,” he continued. “You’re something special.”
“I still wish I could go back home,” I said.
“I don’t blame ya, ’Kiko,” Spuckler said. “But I’m sure they won’t keep us in this cell for long. Why, I bet they’ll be comin’ down here to let us out any minute.”
I was exhausted. I closed my eyes and let my head fall over on Mr. Beeba’s shoulder.
“There you are, Akiko,” said Mr. Beeba. “Take a little nap. You’d be amazed what a bit of rest can do to boost your spirits.”
The next sound I heard was the clanking of keys at the cell door.
“Wake up, Akiko,” Mr. Beeba said, giving me a gentle shake. “They’re going to let us out of here.”
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Two big guards had opened the door and were waiting to take us out of the cell. Spuckler helped me up and we all shuffled out of the dirty little room.
The guards put us back into the caged wagon and pulled us through a number of corridors, each slightly better lit than the last. We could hear the distant roar of a big crowd, like you’d hear at a football game or something. Finally they wheeled us through two gigantic doors. I squinted as we came out into the open air. It took a minute or two for my eyes to adjust to the sunlight before I could see where we were.
There were stands on all sides, filled with the same noisy, dirty people we’d been seeing ever since we arrived at the Sky Cove. There were thousands of them! They were busy talking to each another, ordering food, and passing coins and pieces of paper among themselves. As our wagon was wheeled out into the open, the crowd became more excited. They stood up and elbowed each other aside to get a better look at us. I didn’t know what this was all about, but I was starting to get really nervous.
“Wh-What kind of place is this, Spuckler?” I asked.
“Well, there’s an interesting old tradition here at the Sky Cove,” Spuckler replied, thoughtfully stroking his chin. “They get folks from different parts of the galaxy and toss ’em in a ring together, and then lay bets on who’s gonna beat the tar outta who.”
“How quaint,” Mr. Beeba sneered.
“I don’t think I could beat the tar out of anybody,” I said.
“Aw, sure ya could, ’Kiko,” Spuckler said confidently. “Give yourself some credit.”
By then the crowd was getting very noisy. Obviously they’d come to see a fight and were getting impatient for it to begin. There was a loud trumpet blast, followed by an announcement in that language of theirs. It echoed all around the arena, and there was an excited roar from the crowd.
/> A big fat guy with a completely bald head came lumbering across the arena to our cage and unlocked a small door on one side. He reached in, grabbed hold of Gax, and pulled him out. I wanted to stop him, but I was too scared to say anything. Even though I was worried that something might happen to Gax, I was secretly relieved that I wasn’t the one who’d gotten grabbed. I’d never been in a fight in my whole life, and I didn’t feel like trying to learn right then. I glanced over at Mr. Beeba, who looked very agitated as he followed Gax with his eyes. Even Poog looked a tiny bit nervous.
Spuckler didn’t have any doubts about Gax, though.
“Don’t worry, Gax! They can’t hurt you!” he yelled. “I forgot to recharge your pain circuits!”
“THAT’S VERY REASSURING, SIR,” Gax replied halfheartedly.
The man put Gax in the very center of the arena and left him there. Gax wasn’t a particularly big robot, and in the middle of the stadium he looked even smaller. There was laughter and jeering from the crowd, and a lot of noise as people went to place their bets. I might have been just imagining it, but I’d swear I saw Gax trembling a little out there. I know it doesn’t make any sense for a robot to tremble, but that’s what I think I saw.
There was a second trumpet blast, longer and louder than the first, followed by a much shorter announcement. The whole arena got really, really quiet, and all the spectators turned their attention to a huge pair of doors on one side of the arena. The doors were forty or fifty feet high, built entirely out of steel and covered with dents and scratches from many years of use.
“What’s behind those doors, Spuckler?” I asked, not sure I really wanted to know.
“I ain’t exactly sure,” Spuckler said, sounding a little nervous himself, “but judgin’ from the looks of this crowd it ain’t gonna be real cute an’ cuddly.”
By then the arena was almost completely silent, and all we could hear was this horrible creaking as the doors slowly parted. It took about a minute for the doors to open all the way. Finally there was nothing to do but wait and see what would come out.
