chapter=Chapter 11 By now we can safely say that there are two species of life forms in the universe: the first beings live their entire lives as natural leaders helping other beings figure out what they should be doing with their lives. The second species are the all too happy and fairly conciliatory group that wishes to be led down each path by the previous group. Oddly, it is this second species that invariably torments the universe by telling nearly everyone else who crosses their path, that they are being led down the wrong road. Countless wars have waged as those who are unable to lead themselves constantly attempt to correct those who fall into an even rarer third species who are content with leading their own fulfilling lives. The Mullambimbi's were no exception to this rule. They have lived on Nafoolina for more than 10,000 generations when their ancestors had dropped them off after growing categorically tired of all their constant meaningless bickering. For thousands of years the Mullambimbis had divided into factions and warred insistently over who was going to possess the bizarre undergarment contraptions that were in such short supply from their native homeland. The Mullambimbis suffer from a disproportional genetic enlargement of their male tentacles. Given that all Mullambimbis are male by evolutionary astonishment, this explains why they not only choose war more frequently to solve their problems, but also why they have a dying need for any apparatus that can add support for their challenging physical attribute of what amounts to grapefruit sized groinal knapsacks. For this reason, the Mullambimbis don't run, or walk fast, play physical sports, or generally move their legs back and forth much. Instead, they have constructed plateaus silk covered land cruisers complete with antigravity fields and inertial dampers to safeguard any sensations of rapid acceleration or falling. At no point do the Mullambimbis have to deal with their physical limitations provided they can be one of the more fortunate souls to be wearing the ancient "berry baskets" as per a rough translation would suggest. Now one might question that if the Mullambimbis have the ability to create such amazing flying vehicles, that somehow they should be able to solve the problem of their overcompensating genetic prowess. Herein lies the problem dictated by the previous understanding of the universe; it is forbidden for them to create these coveted garments for their gods have told them they will die if they attempt to address this issue themselves. So naturally, they fought to the death over this subject for over 8,000 generations until the Clumads from Hipius 7 decided to develop massive luxury resorts on the outer fringes of the Mullambimbis" now well established garment worshipping temple just two hillsides south of our beloved U.P. ship. Between the Mullambimbis" and the Commander's new found "genital free" theory to his existence, Sanjit was simply exhausted with the sheer count of dinner time discussions about people's private parts. What was the universe coming to? Sanjit was sure that whatever was going right with the universe was surely taking place on the other side from where he is now, which is flying through the air as a result of a gigantic explosion that he will mischaracterize as a preemptive Mullambimbi attack. The explosion is so large that even the Mullambimbis" have decided to retreat in fear of a preemptive strike on their own offensive position. "Aaawwwwwwaaaahhhhhhh..." Sanjit managed under the extreme conditions of being thrown back to the top of the ship where Hitchy was attempting to weld their two ship hulls together. Sanjit landed square on his back covered in a panting coat of slithering smoke oozing out of his every craves. Hitchy glanced over in the budding sunrise surprisingly unaffected by the horrendous sound that just accompanied what must have been a moderately sized conventional bomb of some kind. He tapped the pause button on his blasting ear implants, lifted his goggles and asked, "Oh hi Sanjy, did you forget something?" Sanjit just looked on in astonishment as he coughed puffs of smoke from his lungs wondering if he could reach Hitchmouth's neck to squeeze just hard enough to pop his head from his shoulders. "Explosionnn..." Sanjit puffed as he began to regain the mobility of his lips. "Oh, was that the noise I just heard?" "No...the...the noise you just heard was my body slamming against the deck plates you are attempting to weld together. However, the bright flash and rupturing hole in the atmosphere just moments before my landing would be the bomb!" Sanjit was regaining his composure and starting to roll himself onto his side. Just about this time a ceiling panel flapped open exhausting plums of smoke from inside of the ship. A struggling feminine hand was desperately trying to find ground to pull herself up past the door's edge. It was Dr. Smutts. Without delay a banter of dialog began to emit from the exit. "You idiot!" She started. "Now look her young lady, I won't have you addressing a commanding officer in that tone!" "Commanding officer? You nearly got us killed you bleeding idiot!" "I was merely attempting to activate the waste recycle unit to make room for my morning regularity." "Yeah well, whatever you did was NOT the waste recycle unit. You've blown every piece of electrical equipment in the entire ship, and now I have a half shaved pair of legs that were already four days behind schedule!" "Oh dear..." "Would you two stop shouting!" Sanjit finally demanded. "This is not the result of the Commander's bowel movements. Look!" Sanjit thrust his hand straight into the morning cloud cover pointing out a hole the size of London that had been sliced away when whatever exploded came through. "I say, that's a frightfully large hole isn't it?" "Well, if that was an explosion then where is the debris?" Dr. Smutts finally noticed. "What?" Sanjit ran to the edge of the ship and looked down. He was in disbelief; there was definitely an explosion. Something threw him through the air like a cheap blow-up doll on a rooftop hideout. She was right, there was nothing save the sound of burning electronics sizzling from every pore of the ship's innards. "Well that does it." Hitchy extinguished his welding flame, and threw down the wand. His goggle free eyes looked like a tanning machine that was fed to emit Homaltine spray for that summer gleam of California skin cancer. "You've finished welding the ships together have you?" the Commander asked. "Nope, both ships are now totally and completely useless. Whatever entered our atmosphere must have used some electromagnetic field to stop itself from crashing into the surface before landing. The sound you heard was most likely the boom that occurs when the atmosphere is suddenly displaced by such a large body of mass." Everyone just stood for a moment in continuing shock and awe at the dissertation just given by Hitchy's last few hours of incredible brainpower. "Perhaps I shouldn't have destroyed the rest of your Homaltine." Broke the silence by Dr. Smutts, embarrassed by her knee-jerk reaction to enforce drug laws set in stone by a galactic organization which has been caught numerous times trafficking the very same drug from planet to planet. Dr. Smutts was a doctor, and therefore cared about people's well being, and wanted them to refrain from taking drugs. Yet, in this case it seems to have proved a viable solution for what would otherwise would soon be a seemingly uncontrollable mound of nerves and muscle. "Hitchy, why do you think that whatever came through the clouds landed?" Sanjit questioned. "Because, there used to be only three mountains over there, and now there are four." Hitchmouth still seemed upset that his grand plan to weld their ship to the Princesses ship was never going to be realized since both engines had managed an unfortuitous folly of technical decapitations. "Well then, I think we better prepare ourselves for a bit of a journey. Nothing like a bit of adventure I always say." The Commander was unaffected by the absence of information regarding their new visitor. The facts were that there are several races in the universe, many of which have not yet been discovered or cataloged, but given the very nature of its debut, it was safe to say that whoever or whatever was driving that ship were going to find their company a bit on the "light" side of engaging wit and humour. That is if they have any humour to give.