Chapter 8

They crawled until they reached an area within the ventilation system where they could sit upright together facing each other, allowing Flyro to join them and then take the lead.  “So how are we going to smurf off this ship without letting the Schliphargons know that we have escaped, assmurfing they don’t even know that we have escaped from our cell?” Handy asked.

“Everything on board this ship is tied to the fusion reactor core that powers this ship, including the dampening field that prevents the use of telekinetic and telepathic abilities of beings who possess them,” Flyro answered.  “If we could somehow get to the engineering room, we could initiate an overload in the core that would take all systems offline.  But to do that, we need to bypass security lockouts that prevent anybody except for the captain of this ship to activate the power core overload.”

“Are you somehow able to interrupt this dampening field long enough for this one to be able to access and bypass these security lockouts?” Empath asked Flyro.

“If we can reach a computer access port somewhere near the engineering room, I could override the dampening field in that sector long enough for you to use your abilities,” Flyro answered.

“But how are we going to smurf into that area without being smurfed by the Schliphargons?” Dreamy asked, a bit skeptical.  “They must be everywhere smurfing out for any intruders on the loose.”

“Very few Schiphargons even know much about the ship they have absconded since their empire has collapsed ages ago and they have resorted to living among the stars like nomads,” Flyro explained.  “This ship and everyone on board have originally belonged to my people, the Zonnaxians, from the Orion sector of space.  They have taken over its passengers and injected them with alien technologies that make them nothing more than subservient slaves with no will of their own.  They have spared the pilot of my ship, but only because he knew everything about this vessel and how to operate it.  Over time, though, he rebelled against them, not wanting to be a puppet to their galactic thievery.  He escaped from this vessel on board mine, hoping to return to the Orion sector, but the Schliphargons found out and fired a weapon that not only knocked out most of my ship’s systems, but also fatally electrocuted its pilot.  As my ship entered your sector of space, he telepathically transferred all his knowledge into my computer banks, and I had to vaporize his body so that nobody would ever know that he was on board the ship on whatever world it would crash-land.  Your world happened to be the one where the ship could lie low in the hopes that the Schliphargons would not detect it – until your people came across it in your forest.”

“Now I really wish I didn’t dream of smurfing into the stars,” Dreamy gulped, realizing what he and his fellow Smurfs had done.  “And smurftainly not at a time like this!”

“We can’t undo what’s already done, Dreamy,” Empath reminded him. “Right now we need to escape this ship, and the engineering room is the only way we can get to Flyro’s ship in order to escape.  If he can get us enough access, we can cause the power core of this vessel to overload and shut down the systems that’s holding our ship captive.”

“Follow me, my fellow Smurfs,” Flyro instructed. “I will show you the way that leads to the engineering room.”

Empath, Handy, and Dreamy allowed Flyro to take the lead as they crawled through more shaft tunnels.

“There it is,” Flyro announced as they reached a grating.  Empath, who was following Flyro ahead of his fellow Smurfs, looked and saw the engineering room through the grating.  He was impressed by the size of its power core, apparently big enough to power everything in Psychelia and the Smurf Village for several lifetimes.

“So what do we smurf now?” Dreamy said as he and Handy joined Flyro and Empath near the grate.

“There’s a computer access port on the other side of this room that I may be able to reach and plug myself into undetected,” Flyro told them.  “It would be best for you to wait here until I can signal Empath through his telepathy that I now have access to the ship’s systems.”

“Through this smurf’s telepathy?” Empath asked before he realized it for himself.  “You’re the Zonnaxian pilot of the spaceship, Flyro – at least, you’re his consciousness residing in that ship’s computers!  Why didn’t you tell us that beforehand?”

“It was for your safety and the safety of your people, since the Schliphargons were looking for me, the Zonnaxian pilot, that my actual identity was not revealed,” Flyro explained. “However, since my consciousness is now part of the ship’s computer, it is now able to use the telepathic abilities of my original body to do what the original computer’s intelligence was not able to do.   In any case, you still should remain here and wait until I send the signal to you.”

“Go ahead,” Empath said, nodding in agreement. “This smurf can’t wait to get off this vessel.”

Flyro then zoomed back down through the shaft, then traveled through more shafts that weaved around the engineering room until he reached an opening where he was able to slip out.  He found the computer access port just as he said where it would be, and then projected a plug from himself into a socket where he now was able to access the ship’s computer, shielding himself from detection by keeping the computer busy looking for sensor glitches.

Soon, Empath was able to hear in his mind, You’re clear to enter the engineering room.

Empath could sense that the dampening field was down, but he could also sense that it would be a matter of time before the Schliphargons would figure out that the field was down.  He used his minds-eye to push open the grate so that he, Handy, and Dreamy could enter the engineering room.  Fortunately, the people working in that room were those still operating under the control of the alien technologies that made them slaves, so they paid the three of them no mind as they entered.

Empath could sense that the computer controlling the fusion core was nearby.  At the control panel Empath merely placed his hand on it and concentrated all his thoughts on entering into the computer itself through his touch-telepathy.  Soon he was able to read everything in its memory banks as far as how to shut down the fusion core, as well as the security lockouts programmed to keep anybody but the captain from activating the overload.  Meanwhile, Handy and Dreamy became anxious, hoping that Empath would do what he had to do quickly before the Schliphargons found out.

A minute or so passed, and then came the sound of alarms, and the lights of the engineering room became red.

“Fusion core overload in progess,” the computer announced. “All override protocols are cancelled.  Two minutes until overload reaches critical state.  Activating emergency escape pods.”

“There it goes!” Empath stated as he released himself from the computer control panel.

Meanwhile, in the command center, Captain Cullivargh and his crew heard the alarms and the computer announce the fusion core overload.

“Fusion core overload?” Cullivargh asked.  “I didn’t order this ship to activate the overload.”  He tried to override the overload sequence using his command code, but found out he was unable to do so.

“Captain, there has been a disruption in the dampening field coming from the engineering room,” Trakgharin reported from his post.  “It is most likely that the three blue beings have escaped and activated the overload in addition to cancelling out the override protocols.”

Cullivargh realized that it must have been Empath who did this.  He also had the feeling that the Orionite who betrayed him, who was killed by their weapons during his escape, was somehow alive and in league with Empath and his friends.  He slammed his battle knife into one of the arms of his command chair.

“Send Heftargan and the Talektharkon to the engineering room at once,” he roared.  “Either this Empath will be made to abort the overload sequence or he will die with his companions!  Also have them kill whoever tries to escape this vessel.”