Time Bandits (Part 2)

An explosion rocked the ship, nearly throwing Jel out of the pilot's chair. At first he thought a laser blast had finally punched through the shields and impacted the hull, but then he noticed the frigates on the radar falling quickly behind.

Good, he thought, the time warp was successful. He spun the ship around and brought it to a stop, facing the three frigates. The sight that greeted him would have been very strange if he hadn't seen it before. Everything seemed to be frozen. The ships all had their thrusters burning brightly behind them, but they weren't moving, at least, as far as a human eye could tell. No less than a dozen bright spears of light were pointed at a single location, the exact spot Jel's craft had been a few moments ago. If he had watched closely, he might have seen the beams slowly inching forward, but he didn't waste time watching the familiar scene. Instead, he tried to raise Tisha on the intercom.

“Tish, are you there? Tish, you okay?” No answer. “Come on Tisha, answer me! Tish!” Fear shot through him. What if she was caught in that explosion? What if– He jumped out of his seat and dashed through the ship's corridors. He was almost to the hold where she had been working when he saw her stumbling toward him. She looked dazed, and there was blood on her forehead and in her hair. He ran to her and helped her stay on her feet.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I'm fine, I'm fine. Let me go, I can stand on my own.” He let her go, but concern etched his face.

“What happened back here?”

“I'm not sure exactly,” she replied, her brows scrunching in thought. “I had left the hold and sealed it shut, like you told me to, when an explosion knocked me off my feet. I guess that's how I got this,” she said, tenderly touching her forehead. “The next thing I remember is hearing you calling my name. I tried to answer, but it seems the blast knocked out the nearby comm controls.”

“Well, at least you're not hurt more. And I hope the Siphon is okay.” A look of terror leapt into Tisha's eyes. She ran back to the hold the Siphon was in and pounded on the door controls when they didn't respond. Jel ran up to her and grabbed her arm before she hurt herself. “Tish! Stop! The controls are broken. I'm going to get a crowbar, I'll be right back.” She whirled and ran down the hall to the nearby supply room. Jel decided it was better if he just stayed put. She came back shortly with a crowbar. She managed to get it wedged into the edge of the door, and with Jel's help, got the door opened enough to slide inside. The sight of the blackened wreckage of the Siphon brought her to her knees in tears.

“It's gone! Dad... Dad, I'm sorry... I tried to keep it safe... I failed you...” Jel stood outside and watched for a few moments. He thought about trying to comfort her, but he knew she wouldn't want that. It was hardest to just leave her, but he knew that was the best thing he could do for her. So he went back to the cockpit, punched in their destination, and initiated the phase jump. Everything outside wavered and vanished. Nothing but blackness could be seen outside. Only by looking at the readings on the computer screen could he tell that they were flying at enormous speed through phase space. With nothing else to do until they arrived at their destination, he put his feet up on the console and tried to relax, which was impossible with worries about Tisha flying through his mind.

God, he prayed, You know what she's going through a lot more than I do. Comfort her with Your love. And thanks for keeping us safe. Many times it was hard to see God at work in the universe, but Jel never stopped believing in Him. He was out there somewhere, even if He seemed far away.

To Be Continued...

Truth and Lies

If you want to see lies and deceit, just watch some commercials. It seems like our economy thrives on lying and cheating and taking advantage of people. But I won't rant about the depravity of advertising. Instead, there is another who thrives on lies and deceit: the devil. He spreads his poison all over the world, dripping it into the minds of everyone. Why are lies the devil's weapon of choice? Are they really that harmful? I don't know about you, but one glance at my own life gives me the answer. "You aren't strong enough." "You aren't smart enough." "You're ugly, no one would ever like you." "You one really cares about you." "You are the only one who struggles with that problem." And on and on and on.
I could spend all day writing down the lies that the devil pounds us with on a daily basis. And what happens when we believe them? Our view of reality is distorted into something false. We don't see things as they truly are. Before long, we begin to tell ourselves the lies, because we have accepted them as truth. And when we believe the lies, we are crippled. Even worse, we may end up doing the devil's work: hurting others, hurting ourselves, not helping, not loving, etc.
I have believed a lot of lies in my life, and I have no doubt I still believe many more I have yet to discover, or have yet to let God take care of. I've believed I couldn't do a countless number of things. I've believed if I didn't do well in school my parents would be disappointed and wouldn't like me anymore. I've believed I was an ugly, worthless piece of crud.
How do we stop believing lies? Truth. Truth destroys lies, just like light destroys darkness. The truth is, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Philippians 4:13 NIV). The truth is, my parents will love me no matter what I do. The truth is, "God doesn't make junk" (The Skit Guys).
God's Word, the Bible, is The Truth. By knowing the truth, it is much harder to be deceived. There are some things I've learned over the past few years which I can always hold onto as true. Here are some of them. God is GOOD, all the time. God loves me UNCONDITIONALLY. God is IN CONTROL of my life. Of course, I don't always live like I believe these, but when I start to doubt and get afraid of life and all its troubles, I remember these truths, and know that everything will be fine.
Now, I don't have an awesome way to wrap this up, this has all just flowed out of me, and hopefully it made some sense. I think the most important thing for you to take away from this is: you believe lies about yourself. We all do. Find out what those lies are, and find out the truth. The truth will set you free. God bless you.

Time Bandits (Part 1)

The console lit up like a Christmas tree and a warning siren blared. Jel nearly fell out of his chair with surprise. Recovering his wits, he realized that sound could only mean one thing: another ship had dropped out of phase space right near his. He pulled up the scanner on the screen. Three small ships were headed his way. The computer found them in the ship database and popped up their info. Jel's stomach dropped into his toes.

“Nilites,” he spat. Hitting the intercom button, he spoke into the mic. “Tish, we got company. Nilite police. Three Liton-class frigates, closing fast. How's it going back there?” A woman's voice came through the speaker.

“Not done yet. The Temporal Siphon still needs a few more minutes. Can you hold them off for three minutes?”

“I'll see what I can do. Hurry it up.” He flipped a switch and the engines roared to life. The three ships had spread out, moving to surround him. One of the ships hailed him. He responded, hoping to give Tisha more time. “What can I do for you?” he asked, already knowing what the reply would be.

“Our sensors have detected a time distortion coming from this location,” replied a deep, no-nonsense voice. “Please shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded. Any act of aggresion will be met in kind.”

“Um, I don't know what this time distortion thingy is, but I'm sure I don't have any of them on my ship.”

“Then you have nothing to fear. Shut down your engines immediately.”

“Ok, ok, gimme a sec to find the switch. It's my first time flying this type of ship. The controls seem to be all mixed up, you know what I mean? Heh, heh,” he chuckled. The officer did not laugh. Jel made a show of searching for the engine power switch, hemming and hawing, while his mind frantically scrambled for more options. When he thought he had stretched their patience long enough, he said, “Aha! This must be it.” He flipped the switch, killing the comm connection. He immediately launched his ship forward, straight at the frigate positioned directly in front of him. He closed the distance quickly. When he could just make out the frantic looks on the faces of the pilots, he veered to the right, just barely avoiding a collision.

“Heh, that will give them something to think about,” he smiled. His celebration was cut short by an angry woman shouting over the intercom.

“J you idiot! Next time warn me before you let a drunken monkey fly my ship!”

“Your ship? Last I checked it was my wallet that got lighter when we acquired this little baby!” he yelled back.

“We can argue that later. I need thirty seconds more!”

“Come on, we have to warp now! In a few moments we'll be nothing but scrap metal!” As if to emphasize his point, at that moment the ship shuddered under a rapid serious of collisions. He didn't need the computer to tell him they were being shot at.

“Don't warp! This machine is unstable as is, I don't want to find out what a time warp will do to it!”

“Then shut it down! This craft is agile, but I can't dodge everything, and the shields are almost gone!”

“I can't shut it down til its finished! You know that!” Warning lights flashed everywhere. Shields were gone. Jel knew the next hit would turn them into space junk. He made up his mind.

“Get out of that hold and seal it! I'm warping!” Before Tisha could argue back, he initiated the time warp.

To Be Continued...

Doodle

A little comic I made in class one day.