The control room of the Invincible was nearly larger than a small house, filled to the brim with controls and buttons flickering with lights. Monitors were in the corners of the room, filling the air with pictures and images sometimes unknown to the crew. Much of the Invincible had been automatically programmed so that any crew inside it wouldn’t have to perform any of the dozens of the functions just to keep the ship afloat. Still, running the system was a very complex job, and presently the four at the front were barely keeping the ship together.
“Marcus, I TOLD you to twist that knob right, not left!” Baku shouted at the top of his lungs. Marcus jumped and hurried to do as his boss ordered. On the other side, Blank struggled to manage the power system, and Cinna wondered how to change direction. Baku wasn’t doing any official duties, he was simply yelling at anyone who needed yelling.
“Blank, get over to you post! How do you think Tantalus can stay together without following my orders?”
In the back of the room Garnet and Ruby sat, conversing politely about Alexandria and Tantalus. The Queen could see that Ruby was making a very tough effort to seem regal and ladylike, so Garnet obliged and helped her along discretely.
“Well, I s’pose that the subject has...” Ruby searched her mind for a classy word. “Occurred in your heads about littl’uns.”
“You mean children? Well, Zidane and I are still adjusting to running the kingdom for ourselves. We don’t want to have to worry about kids just yet.”
“What makes you think that?” Garnet felt two hands clasp over her eyes and she recognized the familiar voice instantly.
“Zidane, get off me.” She said, laughing. She got up from her chair. “I thought you were downstairs, moping.” She saw Zidane smiling, clearly a good sign.
“I was,” he said. “But I actually got a good idea in my head.”
“Who gave it to ya, Zidane?” Ruby joked.
Zidane glanced at his former comrade, looking mad but actually amused by what Ruby had said. Nevertheless, she immediately thought she had said the wrong thing and slunk away to the rest of Tantalus. The King turned back to his wife.
“Come on, I’ll tell you all about it somewhere where we can be...alone.” He whisked Garnet out of the room.
“That was SO beautiful!” Cinna muttered, his eyes full of tears. Baku walked up behind him and whacked his head.
“We ain’t got no time to watch some soap opera! We got a ship to land! Marcus, how far along are we?”
“Uhhh...” Marcus searched the controls for some kind of reading, but having little luck. Finally he spotted the auto-pilot mechanism, which gave several useful readouts. He peered at the screen and turned back to his boss.
“We should get there in about ten minutes.” He turned back to Baku, proud that he had accomplished his job.
“Alright, everyone, just stay cool for a while.” Baku sat down in a chair and searched his pockets for something to drink. He came up empty-handed and sighed, watching his three main grunts screw up at the front of the ship. They almost seemed to enjoy bustling around, messing up, and before long Baku found himself thinking of a new play to perform.
“Go over there, Blank! I’ve got things covered here!”
“Like hell you do, Marcus! We’ve been swerving around the last fifteen minutes! You don’t know you’re doing!”
“Hey, shut your dirty mouth, Cinna! Don’t you talk to Marcus that way, or I’ll knock your teeth out!”
“Ah! I was just kidding, Blank!”
“Calm down, guys, and just get back to what you were doing.”
“You ain’t the boss!”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah!”
Before long the three were wrestling on the floor, brawling with each other and trying knock the other two out. Baku simply got out of his chair and continued piloting the ship himself.
After a minute or two Blank crawled out of the mess of bodies. Marcus and Cinna stayed on the ground, rubbing their hands woefully. Blank stood up, brushed himself off and walked to Baku.
“You see, Boss? It’s THAT kind of teamwork that keeps Tantalus together!”
Baku nearly fell over. After regaining his sense of balance, he shook his head and gave Blank the control panel. He started walking out of the room.
“Hey, Boss, where’re you goin’?” Blank asked.
“I gotta round up
everyone. We’re at the cave the Queen was talking about. Just make sure we don’t
crash, alright?” He disappeared behind the door. Blank switched to auto-land and
helped his former enemies to their feet, still rubbing their heads. Marcus grunted. “Aye, about as alright as we can be after getting
bashed in the head.” “Well, I’m not alright! My head hurts!!!” Cinna
whined. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry, fellas. Let’s never fight like that
again.” “Marcus and Cinna nodded in agreement. The three stuck their hands
together and performed the secret shake only they knew. “Okay, now let’s get
back to managing the ship.” “Hey, since when did YOU take over for Baku?”
Marcus sneered. “I was only suggestin’...” “You suggest WAY too much,
Blank.” Cinna giggled. “Do you boys wanna make something of it...” The
three seemed ready to tear each other apart again, but Baku walked through the
door again. “Fellas! Get outside! We’ve already landed. Get your asses outta
here!”
The three immediately scrambled out of the room, eager to follow their
boss’s orders.