Tales of the Parodyverse

The Wonderful World of Wilblk


Post By

Wiblk (by way of ag)
Wed May 28, 2003 at 07:38:09 am EST
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Hey guys, ag here. My friend Wiblk has a story for this week as well! He's asked me to post it for him.

So, without further ado, here it is!









Wilblk rolled over and groaned. His eyes slowly opened. The holographic projection of his wife and son, hovering slowly over the holo-emitter next to the bed forced him to smile as it did every time he woke up to see it.
"Good, you're awake," a voice said, seemingly from nowhere.
"Good morning to you too, Ship." He pulled the covers off and rolled off the bunk. "Is the load ready?" he asked as he quickly pulled on his uniform.
"The foreman just called in to say it was."
"Good. With a little luck, we just might be able to get this load delivered and still make it back home in time for Weeblk's birthday."
The door separating the small quarters from the tiny bridge opened up, letting Wilblk step in. The bridge was little more than a bunch of control consoles, a chair and a window. Seating himself into the chair, he checked the navigating controls.
"Good, I see you've already started us on our way. I'll head back and check the load." Normally, the load would be checked before disembarking from the loading docks, but this particular dock was one of Wilblk's main customers, and they have proven quite reliable over the years. To shave a few hours off his time, he has started checking the load after getting underway to the final destination of the load. Only once has he found a discrepancy between the load and the order. A quick call to the loading dock, and they had loaded the additional packages onto a fast shuttle and zipped it over, with no questions asked.
"The cargo hold is pressurized, you may now enter." Ship said.
Wilblk squeezed out of the seat, and reentered his quarters. At the far end of the small room, the rear door was slowly rotating down to reveal the cargo hold. Ship was designed to be both a small shuttle and a cargo ship, with the cargo hold being detachable.
Just inside the cargo hold, Wilblk found the customer's invoice. He quickly read through the list. Just as he feared, it was a load of cat litter. This valuable substance was imported from Earth, and lots of planets found varied uses for it. As a result, it turned out to be one of Wilblk's most hauled products.

***

"3,789,234. Yep, all here." Wilblk checked the number on the invoice again to verify.
"Wilblk"
"Yes, Ship?" he asked the artificial intelligence that has proven to be his best friend and confident second only to L'ree, his wife.
"You've got an incoming transmission. It's Weeblk."
"Okay, I'll be right there."
A few seconds later, Wilblk seated himself into the command seat, indeed, the only seat in the ship. A few presses of key controls and the smiling young face of his son peered at him on the small view screen.
"Pop!"
"Weeblk. Looking forward to your birthday?"
"Am I? Are you going to make it back in time? You promised you would."
"I'm way ahead of schedule and should make it there by tomorrow night."
"Yippee," Weeblk shouted. "This is going to be the best birthday, ever."
Wilblk smiled. It was Weeblk's thirteenth year, the year he officially becomes a man. It was also the year that he will be bonded to a guild member to begin learning his future craft. It has already been arranged for Wilblk to teach Weeblk the craft of interstellar cargo hauling.
The space dock orbiting Wilblk's home planet had notified Wilblk a few days earlier that they had received the work orders to modify the shuttle. As soon as Wilblk returns home, work would be started on widening the shuttle slightly to accommodate a second bed in the quarters area and a second chair on the bridge. They would also be upgrading the computer systems. Ship was especially looking forward to the refit.
"Son, I've got to go," Wilblk said as a light started flashing on the console, announcing that they had reached one of the few spatial rifts that made for often used short-cuts through space. One of the drawbacks was that communications were a total blackout while a ship was traveling through the rifts.
"Okay Dad. See you tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow morning, if they can get me unloaded quickly."
"Love you."
"Love you too, son." Wilblk closed the communication channel. "Ship, take us through."

***

"ETA is six minutes and fifty four seconds."
Wilblk scowled. No matter how many times he told ship that precise to the second calculations were not necessary, she still insisted on doing so.
"Great. Alert the dock that we will be arriving in five minutes and inquire how soon they will be able to unload us."
Wilblk leaned back in his chair and watched as the planet, Grapbeks, grew bigger. The Grapbeks port was one of his busier clients, but they usually made him first priority when he docked. From experience, he was confident that he would be able to arrive home early the next morning.
The communications light flashed.
"That's quick. Put it on the main viewer."
Wilblk expected to see Juzhn, the supervisor who oversaw the daily traffic of cargo ships that regularly dock at Grapbeks' loading dock. What he saw instead was the last thing he expected.
"Dad!" Weeblk looked like he had been through a ten round boxing match on earth. He appeared to have lost control of his shape-changing ability and was shifting out and back into his base form. Smoke and flames were rising up behind him.
"Weeblk! What's happening?"
Amid sounds of gunfire in the background Weeblk said, "We're under attack. Mom..." Weeblk choked up. "I think Mom's dead. Dad, you've got to he..." The wall behind Weeblk exploded just as the view screen went black.
"Weeblk! Ship, reestablish contact."
"I'm sorry. There's no response."
The communications light flashed. Wilblk punched it.
"Wee.... Oh, Juzhn. My planet is under attack. I must get home, now."
"I know. We just received a distress call. Detach your cargo bay and we'll tow it in and empty it. It'll be here for you when you're able to return."
"Thanks."
"And Wilblk? Good luck, I think you're going to need it." The screen blacked out.
"Ship, detach the..."
"Already done. Turning around now. ETA to the rift is seven minutes and s..."
"Good. What's the ETA to home?"
"Twenty five minutes."
Wilblk eagerly looked out the view port waiting to see the rift opening up. Twenty-five minutes seemed like an eternity. He just hoped that Weeblk was mistaken about L'ree and that they were both alive and unharmed.







Wiblk

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