The Stellarball by Jose Diaz

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A few strands of golden hair grew out of his otherwise normal looking head.

"Try to contact them again and see about their intentions," the captain said.

"Too late, Captain," Mr. Karon blurted. "There's a missile heading our way and a Gohtan vessel has just joined the frog!"

"Shields up and cloak us, Mr. Karon!" the captain ordered immediately.

"Shields!" Mr. Karon hollered into his mouthpiece, "and get ready to cloak!"

Many idle hands suddenly turned active and the ship began to slowly fade from view. Once the cloaking process was in place, the only visible sign of the ship's existence was the fact that it obscured the stars behind it.

Fortunately, because the ship was so distant from the center of the galaxy, the clusters of stars were few and far between, making concealment for The Ball relatively simple as long as it didn't interpose itself between the Telkan ship and the giant star. The ship was equipped with the primitive type of cloaking device that only managed to make ships take on the basic color of their surroundings.

"Fire the solar engines and switch to boring mode," the captain ordered. "Stand by for destination."

Many hands at once danced over the appropriate symbols on the consoles in front of them and seconds later, the stars around the vessel seemed to elongate to ridiculous lengths when the ship jumped ahead, its body revolving crazily as it thundered its way to boring speed and friendlier territory.

Then an earthquake-like jolt shook the entire ship, followed immediately by another one.

"We've been hit!" Marian screamed.

The ship started slowing down and a pull from the giant star was felt.

"Survey the damage!" the captain ordered.

"The solar engine system is down, Sir," a technician manning one of the computers yelled, just as another hit rocked the ship to its entrails.

"The shields just went down!" Mr. Karon bellowed.

"We're sitting ducks, Jousen!" Marian yelled.

The captain stared at the screen; the image of the Telkan warship that sped towards his wounded vessel was now replaced by the terrifying face of the Gohtan ship's captain. Goht was the staunchest ally of Telka in the two terrible wars fought by the two rival powers.

Abruptly, the creature in the screen passed a clawed index finger across his throat in a swift motion and let out a burst of silent laughter.

"Take us to universe 17Q, Mr. Karon," the captain said, as if he had just signed a death warrant.

"May I remind you, Sir, that—"

"Yes, I know. It's off limits," Captain Gideon said. "Universe 17Q, Mr. Karon," he repeated, then turning to Marian, "Shut power off boring mode."

A frown slightly crumpled Marian's forehead before executing the order.

Mr. Karon was still going through the longer process of setting the coordinates to bore. "Done," he finally announced. "But, Sir—"

"What, Mr. Karon?" the captain snapped.

"The nuclear engines alone won't generate enough speed to bore through even the first—"

"Change course!" the captain interrupted, closing his eyes.