Mortal Protection Services Chapter 47: XII.A: Abstainer

XII.A: Abstainer Abstainer Abstainers Office "Oohhhhh I think I'm gonna be sick," I felt green. Greener than Dilt's Death Dragon. Jia sighed next to me. "You've literally never eaten anything in your entire existence, and your body is actually, factually, currently made up of nothing but hyperspace technology. You can't be sick." That made a certain kind of sense, but I still felt sick, "Have you ever sent a child on a suicide mission?" "Yes." She stared at me a moment to let that sink in. "I also sat back and watched the Martian galactic empire collapse. You'll get over it all in a few million years." "Great." "I'm going to go prepare the rest of the trap, let me know when Dilt has died, so I can flip on the lamp to attract the moths." "Nicely Solian metaphor there. Watching Dilt's whole life twice has taught you much." "Not quite his whole life." She opened the door out to campus and when she was halfway out she stopped and said, "Ping me when his last chapter has ended." Dilt's Death Dragon darted from the shuttle bay into open space, and less than twenty real seconds later, he was through the wormhole. I tortured myself though, by letting time crawl by... because, I guess... I'm an idiot that likes to suffer. So a couple hours later when he popped out of the wormhole a second after entering, I finally let time go normal speed. I had a view of Ingamar's bridge, Jimmi's too, and of course, a window following Dilt that had his Comm line replicated for audio. "Sir, there's something... weird that came out of the wormhole." "Onscreen." Ingamar replied. The same thing was happening on Jimmi's bridge, where she'd finally returned to her station. "It's... hailing us." "Onscreen again." Dilt appeared on both bridges view screens. "Oh, hey guys! Fancy meeting you both here." "Dilt? What the fuck are you flying?" Ingamar said. Leia was singing some sea shanty in the background, and every time they did a little warp jump the image of Dilt on the bridge flickered. "Fine singing Leia! Dad's proud of you, so proud." "Uh, thanks? Dad." She replied while the crew belted out the chorus and they blinked a few more times and started unleashing hell on another chunk of angry, hungry space meat. "Ing, you guys seem busy. I'm just gonna jet. Amanda and Molly can explain it all to you. Love you Leia, you too Ingamar." Dilt closed the line to The Amish Papacies. "Dilt, brother? What're you doing in that rad little space squid?" Jimmi asked, realizing she was still on the line. Her ship could fight and operate just fine without much input needed from her. "Oh, you know, just turning myself into a hyperspace trap... MPS is collapsing. Rogue Jameses are probably gonna come try to stop us and well... we gotta beat the Scourge, here and now, or it'll eat the entire universe." "Alright then..." She took a beat to process. "How can I help?" "Luke's gonna need a lot of support after I'm gone. I don't think even Dinoships are gonna keep him from being depressed about what happens next." Dilt's overly advanced Martian cockpit extended a little robot arm with a tissue like ball of material to wipe his welling tears. "Can you record this Jimmi?" She gestured to someone behind her and they said, "Always Recording, but starting a special file now." "Thanks Jimtarng..." He paused a moment, so it'd be easier to cut that part later. "Hey Luke, I love you buddy. Dad's so proud of you. I know you're mad about the dinosaur thing, but keep up your physics studies, okay. At least as much as you study dinosaurs, study physics and engineering. We only didn't tell you when you were littler because we didn't want you to get stuck on them. I swear we were planning to teach you about them when you were fifteen..." Dilt swallowed down his emotions, and continued, "Be nice to your sister, and your moms and Molly... And have fun with your dino ship's Son. Remember, Dad loves you, and he did what he did for you and Leia." He paused for a long beat. "That's good Jimtarng, cut it