Meanwhile, the crew members, clad in blue from head to toe, including transparent facemasks, were concealed by the dancing holograms. They snatched up weapons and disabled the invading troops before any of them knew what was happening.
Kisia Manjari squealed as the dancing boys disappeared and she found herself hoisted aloft by two blue clad crewmen.
“Oh, Hafiz, you are wonderful!” Karina cried. “You’ve saved us! Was it your ancient Hadathian spirit guides who told you how to do all of this?”
“Very close, o luscious lemon drop, it was the strategy of an ancestor portrayed in one of my collections of rare and venerable vids. The occasion was an athletic contest but the principles were much the same except we had to employ holograms and our own humble resources instead of the living creatures at the disposal of my ancestor.”
“The invaders have been taken prisoner and the ship secured, my Lord,” one of the blue-clad crewmen said across the ship’s computer’s com system. “What shall we do with them now”
“I haven’t decided,” Hafiz said. “The crocodile pit or being staked out in the desert. What do you think, my darling?”
“Oh, Hafiz, that’s so very unevolved. Besides, the crocodiles would probably give Ms. Manjari professional courtesy, or perhaps die of indigestion. Why not just confine them to the ship’s dungeons until such time as they may attain enlightenment?”
“Yes, my angel, but I am very cross with them. Because of them we may not continue our journey. Perhaps we should teach them the joys of spacial liberation?”
“It’s a thought,” Karina conceded. But they had delayed a bit too long.
Kisia Manjari broke loose from her dancing boys and pushed a button on her inconsequential left breast. “MQtU, send over the second, third, and fourth phalanxes! And watch out for the biohazards and the dancing girls!”
Her former captors recaptured her, menacing her with her own weapon. She simpered at them, “You wouldn’t blast a girl for making a little call, would you?”
Karina looked at her husband hopefully but he shook his head. “Alas, we have no second line of defense.”
“Shahrazat), this is the Condor. You still in one piece?”
“ConSorT’ Hafiz said. “We are just barely. We are about to be boarded a second time.”
“They’re probably coming through that piece of oversized tubing linking their ship to yours, right?” the voice asked.
“That seems a safe assumption,” Hafiz said.
“None of your people coming through, right?”
“No one but pirates.”
“Okay, we’re on the case, but Sha.hraz