The Infinite Nebula Star

"I know where to go!" Zalla cried out suddenly, as Chrysth began to think to himself.

As was natural to him, he ignored Zalla. "I know!" she said again. "Let me fly!"

Her became annoying, so he snapped, "You think I'll let you touch my ship? You came close to failing the flying class I was forced to give you."

Zalla didn't mind him. She knew she'd get a reaction like this. "You should let me!" she said eagerly. "I know where to go!"

Chrysth didn't say a word. Zalla scowled, and stomped out of the main piloting room. Once safely out of Chrysth's eye range, she grinned. "Chrysth," she said to herself softly, "I'm smarter than you even know."

She walked toward Mystic. Mystic and her had solved a lot, but Zalla knew that Mystic still harbored some hatred for her. She still had to be careful when speaking to her.

"Mystic, how long ago did you take that hacking class?" she whispered.

Mystic didn't look Zalla in the eyes, but answered, "Two years ago. Why?"

"I need to you to... err... fix something."

"What?" asked Mystic in a bored tone.

"I don't know!" said Zalla, frustrated. "Just do something!"

Mystic looked at Zalla now, interested. "Huh?"

"Break something on the ship, nothing major, but enough that the ship will tell Chrysth that he has to fix it immediately."

"Why should I do this?"

"I need to do something..." Zalla paused, then blurted, "I need to set the course of the ship. Chrysth taught me how, but he doesn't want me to do it!"

"I don't trust Chrysth when it comes to going places" Mystic said with a half smile, "considering the last place he took us. But how do I know you'll take us somewhere I'll like?"

Zalla leaned toward Mystic's ear, and whispered, "NFP."

Mystic fully smiled now. "NFP" stood for, "Non-Found Planet" There was at least one planet out there, that nobody had visited.

Mystic stood up. "Trust me on this one." she said, and walked off.

Within a few moments, the voice of the ship came out loud and clear, "Chrysth!! Yipes, I'm being tickled!!"

"You're what?" asked Chrysth, no humor in his voice at all.

"I'm being tickled!" the computer said even louder, then half laughed, half screamed.

Rolling his eyes, Chrysth got up. This kind of thing happened once in a while, ever since some nitwit had decided that ships should be able to feel things. Nobody had liked his idea, so the man sent a viris to the ships. The viris still lived, and every so often, a ship would get it, and the ship would be "tickled" or "hurt" in some places around the engine.

Chrysth headed off to fix it. He knew it would be an easy fix, and it was no big deal, but the computer wouldn't shut up unless he fixed it.

As soon as he passed, Zalla ran into the piloting room. "Dragon," she said, as she typed some things, "turn to the left 20 degrees, and down 3 degrees." she soon had a galaxy map on the screen in front of her, and she carefully mapped the direction.

Sounding as if he wasn't being tickled any longer, the computer answered, "Where are we headed?"

"I doubt very much if the destination has been set in your programming."

"Try me."

"A planet that hasn't been even walked on."

"Netto?"

"Netto?" repeated Zalla, shocked. "I've never heard of that planet."

"It may be because Chrysth named it. He put it into my system. It has been walked on, but by Chrysth, and only Chrysth."

"Whatever." said Zalla. She had no time to be surprised. "Head there, and lock the coordinance. We're going that way."

"Coordinance locked."

Zalla smirked. "Good." Now all she had to deal with was Chrysth's anger. Perhaps that was a lot, but with the cooridance locked, he couldn't change them until they got there.

Zalla knew he could hack the system, but with any luck at all, he'd decide it was too much trouble.