11. The Last Farewell

Tears blurred Zarah's vision, as she stumbled forwards. How could she have been so blind not to predict this coming? Of course, there would be no future with Warp; she would have to dispossess the image of him from her mind. In addition, there were a lot more crucial things than weep after men! She had been sent here to make an emergency call to Star Command; this was her big mission, to save herself and the miserable captives. But, then again she knew that this was not her merit, but his, she would be dead without him, rotting now in some fast grave on Planet Z. Pang grasped her heart, making the despair even more profound.

"Now, run, run..." she rammed sense into her head. She had approached the paved streets of the suburb, the stores and smithery loomed further there. The roads were noiseless, only some random aliens roamed lazily here and there.

"I have to find somebody to tell me where the local ranger bureau is!" she cogitated, searching for a helper with her regard. And, because of some whim of the time-randomness, there lumbered a man dressed in space ranger uniform down the nearby alley. She accelerated her pace and yelled after the cop.

"Please, wait...!" she panted.

The man turned around and eyed at her suspiciously. Now she apprehended, what was the purpose of his glance. Well, she was not quite plausible. With her messy and torn overalls, greasy hair, dirty faces with tear wakes, she looked like a beggar from the bushes.

"Please... could you lend a hand and take me to the Star Command Bureau?"

"Um... what is your... purpose? If you want to find a place to stay, I recommend the overnight home. It's..." the police began quite unfriendly.

This got her guts boil and she steeled her attitude, taking her identity card forth, repairing her coiffure a bit and wiping the dust off her face. "I am an authorised civilian engineer of Star Command; I suggest you would leave such honours away as treating me like a dosser!"

The man startled and took a quick look at the picture in the card, then her. With affluent apologies, he invited her to his hovercraft speeder that waited behind the corner.

 In fifteen minutes, they had reached the aim. As this was just some periphery of the Galactic Alliance, much ranger enforcements were not needed. A small, two-stored building served as the office. But now the lazy life of this remote place turned upside down.

 Zarah's being caused a chaos. She was almost instantly recognised from the database where missing persons were enrolled. A flock of rangers swarmed around her, making her anxious and curious questions; who was she, how was she here, where had she come from. In the middle of the bustle, a captain leaded her to the comm. room, where she could instantly contact Star Command Headquarters.

 The rash face of Commander Nebula was soon in the video monitor. "Miss G'Deneb! You're alive! Where are you? What has happened? I was told that everything has been destroyed in Deneveria!"

"I was captured by Zurg, but I fled! I'm in a hurry, we have to get the rest of the workers out of Planet Z! And I have very urgent information for you, there are several traitors that have infiltrated Star Command and may be spying you for this very moment! You go on to arrest them immediately and then prepare to send troops to Planet Z!" she nearly squalled into the comm. device.

"What? Where have you got your information? Where are you? We have to send a patrol to get you out of there!"

"I'm on Planet Yrmh, the solar system of Yrrz, coordinates sector 49 of Iota Quadrant, the capital Jabaduhudd, local Star Command Bureau! I'm transferring now some information through a connection cable from my palm book to you. Here are the traitors, go and get them now. Also, here are the places documented that contain Zurg's spy devices. They're not many and they're easy to disconnect." She plugged the cord to the main computer and uploaded the data.

"Wait a moment, I monitor the patrols a bit... it seems that there are no star cruisers very near, it takes a while before the first one can land there... oh, wait, star cruiser 42 seems to be on a nigh quadrant!" Nebula shouted back. Soon the channel was triple-connected: the amazed face of Buzz appeared in the other software window.

"Miss G'Deneb! We are on our way to get you!" Lightyear blurted after getting the instructions from both Zarah and the Commander. "The hyperdrive generator counts the seconds to activate the jump gate. We'll be there in two hours! Over and out!" He vanished from the monitor.

 The Commander kept the link open until Team Lightyear would surely have Zarah in their ship.  He crammed questions over her head about what had happened, how she had fled and got so much information. She left almost all the answers incomplete, just explained that she was too exhausted actually not to remember how she had done everything. According to her swore promise, she would not give any secrets away of Warp. Her lips would remain sealed. Nebula saw how burnt-out she was and finally finished the interrogation-like questioning.

 Two hours later star cruiser 42 landed engines roaring on the small flight deck of the bureau. Choi stood at the entrance sustained by one of the local rangers. When her part of the mission was now over, she had no force left, but was weary and listless. She was completely unknown for the rest of Team Lightyear, except for XR, who rolled in a flash to hug her and shed sugary words. Fatigued she saluted everybody, and as she attempted to step in the ship, she stumbled and fell full length on the floor.

"Ma-am, are you all right?" Buzz asked, helping her up.

"No," she earnestly clarified, the eyes getting filled with tears again. "All I just would like to do is to sleep a week in row and get some tranquillizers."

"I'm sorry, Miss, but we have to go through a questioning before we can let you rest", he uneasily continued. "I was told that you have got some extraordinary information of Planet Z. Several patrols of space rangers are on their way to free the rest of the captives you told there to be through the comm. link."

She only groaned something for an answer.

"Guys, you won't treat my baby like that!" XR snapped behind the team, "We're gonna make her feel comfortable, why dontcha, Missy Blue, go to the gally and bring her a blue angel with a little umbrella..." he glanced at Mira who frowned back. She still went to get her some food.

 Zarah was put to sit on a soft chair and a quilt was spread on her shoulders. Buzz and Mira talked low to each other about her state, then asked the questions. The result was that they understood her being left alone Planet Z in a way she could not actually recall, in addition of that she had been tortured, that she had wandered a week in the forest and so on. The story was addle and confusing, full of gaps and empty plot lines.

 "Shouldn't we let her rest?" Booster whispered compassionately to Mira and Buzz after an age of heated debate.

"I know how you feel, I can see too, how exhausted she is. I haven't seen anything alike during my career. Even that, that she could have left Planet Z alone, is something before unheard", Buzz added. "I think that there's not everything correct in her story. Either she suffers from a shock or then she's hiding things. I have the credence that someone has helped her, but she doesn't want to reveal it."

"We have to get her to Star Command HQ for rest. I thought we could have used her as a guide during the rescue operation of the rest of the captives, but she's not capable of that", Buzz concluded.

"No problemo, folks, I just hoover the stuff from her fella computer into 42 and way we go! Wow, here's a pretty holo map of Zurgie's tower! Cool!" XR commented from the corner.

"I truly wonder where she has got all that information..." Buzz fingered his chin but then ordered to take her to sleep. Next the team entered the bridge.

"We'll take a flight to HQ and then move on instructed by her computer notes."

 XR was left to watch over Zarah. He tried to lighten up the atmosphere with joking, but the sole job she could do was sobbing. The image of Warp in her mind did not tarnish, it remained there like a stigma. She still could feel his touch, his gentle hand on her shoulder as she lied there. His lips caressing her cheek warmly... The only man ever had cared for her would remain a spectre, wandering slowly in her nerves, filling her mind with despondency. Never would he be there for her, maybe... that was the most logical conclusion. She would have to learn to live without these illusions, go back to her career, back to her perpetual loneliness.

The robot took her flaccid hand into his and inspected her, his eyes wrinkled. "I don't wonna see my Goldie sad! What is it? You can tell uncle XR the bad thingie."

Whacked she eyed him and whispered, "I've lost something..."

The robot nodded it in his mind: there was somebody else; she had not done this alone. But who it was, where, that cognizance was tight walled up beyond her subconscious.

She turned her face towards the wall and cradled into the comforter, squeezing the steel necklace with her hand that was around her neck.

 Briefly, 42 darted to Star Command and then whizzed back without the engineer. She was transported to the med lap to get therapy.

"Now, way ahead to face Zurg!" Booster boosted as the ship reached the light speed.

"If the situation is as it was when Miss G'Deneb left the planet, I mean the controls destroyed, we have good changes to get our own men back."

"Wonder how she was able to do that all alone...to destroy entire control rooms..." Mira commented.

"Well, she was a walking mystery! Didn't you see her, she had not a single bag with her, that kind of clothes, not even a flagon!" Booster shook his head.

"Troops, we have to leave that debate now aside. We'll soon join the other cruisers that are gathered to the near space of Planet Z!" was Buzz' last severe word.

---Planet Z---

 Sweat trickled along every grub's forehead as they connected a cable to the electricity source.

"If this ain't gonna work, the Emperor will broil us!" one brain-pod remarked. The hard reparation work was in its conclusion. Everyone kept their thumbs up as one bug attached the cord. A drone filled the room, the vast range of monitors and central processing units flickering, whining and rattling. A beep of an initialization software told that they had made a success. It scanned the disks and errors in a few seconds, then launched the main controlling devices and drivers. All the workers of the Dark Lord hopped in the air and whooped, a couple of them rushed to tell the pleasant news to their Master.

 Zurg had not delighted sentiments but rampaged about the delay. Next he rushed to his main monitor and activated it. The first job was to connect Star Command's spyware and check out the movements of that place. But a horrible curse overflowed from his loudspeaker as the monitor showed only cosmic noise and plasma spots.

"What is this, I ordered you to put it in shape!" Zurg roared.

"We did, we did, at least we see, that there's an army of ships approaching this planet. Have you invited guests, mighty evil Emperor?" a brain pod asked.

"What...?" Zurg winced and tuned the monitor to catch the image of the near space. Tens of star cruisers contrasted against the black vacuum, the familiar and cattish number 42 in the first fling.

This was a moment of extreme terror for him. For the first time he actually was the target of an attack

"Graah! Hornets in job, now! Why did no one warn me about this?"

A hundred grubs spread around the controls like cockroaches swarm when being encountered by light.

 The fight was short and heated but efficient for Star Command, yet Zurg was not completely defeated. Knowing the locations of the main arms helped the cruisers avoid them and destroy them at least partly. While some ships were fighting against ion cannons and hyper-hornets, the others surrounded Zurg Tower and lasered. Two cruisers and a transportation ship headed to the part they knew the ground doors to the main dungeons were situated. Quite easily the arrested were saved, although they were in a bad condition after maltreat. However, at some point Zurg's forces increased and he hit back the rangers with his weapons. But the rangers had got what they wanted, so there was no need to wage wars any longer. They knew that they could not defeat the whole arsenal of Planet Z with this kind of troops, so the retreat began. Zurg was left to lick his wounds; the battle had been still a great loss for him. In addition, now there spooked the fact that his dreams of being the ruler of the whole galaxy were destroyed again. No landanah, no new energy, no supremacy. A horrible bluster filled the half-bombarded tower, "Curse you, Buzz Lightyear, and you, the one whose name will be never said aloud here! I'll get you, wherever you go, you won't be safe, I swear that!"

--------------------

 After the happenings, life soon normalised back to its dull state. The mining in Deneveria was restarted, the work continued. Zarah was kept for a while in the med lab of Star Command base, but she healed physically up soon. Yet, her mind was not ameliorated. She was deeply depressed long after she had started her job again. People came to ask sometimes about the adventure, but all this was just hypocritical cajolery, that did not bring her any true friends. Her energy supply project advanced in a breeze, she discharged all her sorrow and pain into it. One day G'Deneb was invited to the Intergalactic Research Symposium on Capital Planet to demonstrate the functions of her invention. It was an extreme success, but in the middle of the clapping professors, she felt nothing but emptiness and stampede of her mind.

-------

 Weeks later, in one of the suburbs near a small boscage on Capital Planet, in her new single-family house, Zarah was preparing to sleep. An enormously hard day was behind her. She felt her eyes tacky as she pulled the curtains in front of the large living-room window. She took a little observation outside just before the sleep would overcome her. A cold, pale half moon allowed the forest and the high cliffs in front of it bathe in gloomy light. She felt the bitter loneliness again as the soulless moon seemed to be her only company. As during this amount of years, she had been solitary...

 She winced from her thoughts as she saw something stirring on the cliff. She was quite ascertain that she had seen a black figure there. "No, I'm imagining things. I'm too tired. I'd better just go to the bedroom. It's cold here, anyways." So she put the curtains over the window, switched off the lights and let the whole house sink into the darkness.

 Outside the chill continued its eternal being, the ground gradually getting covered with frost. The wan light of the moon was there to create eerie glow onto the stones and among the trees. There, up on the silent cliff, sat a black figure on a rock. The shadow stared at the house below, its now murky windows that still a quarter ago had been full of life. The figure sighed and let a hoar cloud in the air. Before leaving his place, he gave one last look at the house, the last farewell...

"I love you, Zarah... Some day, maybe someday we'll meet again... It was a risk to come this far, just to see your distant existence, but I had to see you one last time. Only there are now the shadows of my heart... from those shadows I'll see your smile, the one last smile you gave me..."

...NOT THE END...