XJ plopped into the pilot’s seat. YU took his station in engineering.

Through the speakers YU said, “Come on, these humans aren’t that bad. The worst that could happen is that they arrest us. If the Biot empire ever finds us we’ll be shot on site.”

XJ-‘s mind jacked in wirelessly to the ship’s controls as he took hold of the flight stick. “Well, that’s nice YU. Maybe we can just explain to the nice primates that we were looking for a quiet spot to lay low from the law and they’ll just let us go.”

“Could work.”

The ships engines roared to life.

“They’d have no choice but to send us back. You think a bunch of humans would want to cause an international incident over little old us?”

“So what now? The asteroids?”

“Nah too close to earth for my liking maybe we ought to—” The engines shut down. “YU, What the hell just happened?”

In his mind YU-443 queried all ship’s systems while simultaneously looking at the engine. “I don’t know. There’s nothing wrong with the ship. The engines just stopped!”