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"It's not the end, not the kingdom come

It is the journey that matters, the distant wanderer

Call of the wild in me forever and ever and ever, forever

Wanderlust!"

-Nightwish,Wanderlust.

The Frozen Princess by Oliver Mendes

*Prologue: The Wake Up Call*

Orange eyelids blinked open slowly, bearing witness to a chaotic scene. The ship was in total disarray; carbon scoring smudged the once shiny metal surfaces and flames were breaking out from cracked bulkheads and leaky plasma pipes. Wander couldn't be sure in his disoriented state, but he could've sworn--were swearing in his repertoire--that the ship he was in was upside down and that he was in fact lying on the ceiling. A large blur of blue caught Wander's attention and he struggled to focus on it.

"Wander..." a muffled voice said. "Wander!?"

"Sylvia...? Sylvia, where- where are we?"

Wander blinked a few more times just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. But there Sylvia was, a little worse for wear but a gal like Sylvia wouldn't let her own pain or discomfort show. Especially considering how Wander must have looked. He pulled himself out from under a large piece of metal which, ironically, had kept the broken glass and loose piping from the ceiling--or floor(?)--from falling on him.

Sylvia took wander by the arm and started pulling. "We gotta get outta here, buddy. This ship won't hold together much longer."

Wander didn't bother arguing, nor did he bother mentioning the pain that wracked his body. He started running with Sylvia through the broken corridors of the ship, trying to find the nearest escape pod. Maybe if Wander had a spare bottle of orbble juice in his--his hat!

Wander stopped in his tracks, his inertia nearly throwing him out of his designer shoes. "Sylvia, we have to go back!"

"What?" Sylvia stopped and turned to him. "We're nearly out of time as it is!"

"But... my hat!"

Sylvia scoffed. "That blow to the head really did a number on you, huh, buddy?" Sylvia grabbed his arm again. "Don't worry about your hat, it's safe with the princess."

Before Wander even had a chance to ask, the PA system on the ship started to blare with a computerized female voice.

"Hull integrity at... fifteen percent. Main power supply is... diminished. Auxiliary power is in full use by... critical life support systems. Calculating likelihood of ship destruction... the original ternary readout is: unit pair pair comma unit nil nil comma unit pair pair comma unit nil nil point nil..."

Sylvia growled. "Will somebody shut that thing up?!"

As if on cue the PA gave a loud snap and short crackling sound before it cut out to silence.

*The Pale Blue* Earlier that day...

Sylvia was slightly livid, both in color and in demeanor, as she walked--and sometimes stomped--along in the tall grass. She had clearly grown weary of wandering around on this apparently uninhabited planet, but she knew that there was no point trying to talk Wander, the orange furred Star Nomad, out of it. He had his mind set on exploring this planet, saying something about how he felt "drawn" to it. And now he just seemed preoccupied with his banjo. Luckily for him, Wander had grown accustomed to tuning his banjo even with the not-always-so-subtle bumps of Sylvia's myriad gaits. He strummed it, adjusted, and continued this until he was sure he had gotten it perfect. Smiling brightly he stood up on Sylvia's back and began to play an upbeat tune and sing.

"Oh, there's a voice that keeps on callin' me. Down the road, that's where I'll always be. Every stop I make, I make a new friend. Can't stay for long, just turn around and I'm gone again."

Sylvia smirked. "Is that a new one you're working on?"

Wander took the strap of his banjo off of his small, fuzzy frame. "Yup, do you like it?"

"It's better than the last twelve songs you've come up with today." She said flatly.

"Oh, Sylvia, Sylvia, Sylvia. Sour, sullen, saturnine Sylvia."

Before Wander could come up with any more alliterations for sulky Sylvia, he spotted a nearby town. The planet they were on appeared to be mostly water with what little land being flat planes with lush grass and thin patches of forest. This was the first sign of sentient life they had seen thus far.

Wander perked up. "I told you we'd find something here. I knew this place was going to be exciting."

"Oh, yay, one town. Wander, the only thing interesting about this planet is that it wasn't on the map."

"What could be more exciting than an untamed planet?"

Sylvia didn't bother arguing that the planet was tamed and the fact that it was unmarked was probably due in large part to the crummy "discount" map that drifter sold them for a "bargain" price.

As the duo neared the town they could see it was comprised of rather primitive wooden structures. Wander and Sylvia looked around but found no one. Sylvia was certain she caught a glimpse of a wooden shutter being slammed closed. It appeared everyone was staying out of sight. Wander began to dismount his loyal steed, but just as his back was turned he heard a short click.

"Arms oop, lad." The gruff voice was punctuated by the sharp pain of a weapon being shoved in Wander's back. "Turn aroond und noobody gits 'urt."

Wander and Sylvia, under the assumption that they understood what the alien was saying, put up their arms and faced the gruff voiced villain. Wander could see the weapon he was holding. It was a firearm, the archaic type that used small projectiles instead of lasers for ammo. The gruff alien holding this ancient firearm was a very pale blue, almost white, furred alien. He was stout, maybe a little shorter than Wander, and his determined eyes were set deep into his head. Wander turned his head to Sylvia.

"Oh, don't ye be both'rin' with any foolish ideas, lad. Mine's the fastest shootin' arm this side o' the galaxy."

Sylvia swallowed hard. "Uh, look, pal. We don't mean any trouble, we were just--"

"Oh, I know exactly who yeh are! Some o' Lord Hater's minioons, eh? What, th' Watchdogs nary enough anymore he 'as ta send in an orange fuzz-ball and a fat, blue steed?"

Sylvia pushed Wander out of her way and grabbed the barrel of the alien's gun, bending it upward. "Listen up, we are not working for Lord Hater. We're just travelers, we came upon your planet on accident. So if you've got something to say, pal..."

The alien with the gruff voice stepped back and threw his weapon down. "Oh, no, no, no, ma'am. I don't be wantin' any trouble. It's jest well...."

"We've been hiding out from Lord Hater for a while now." A soft voice, which contrasted the gruff alien's voice in every aspect, said.

The alien with the gruff voice kneeled down to the girl who had spoken. "So, s'rry me lady. I didna' mean ta jump th' gun, so ta speak."

The soft spoken girl ignored him and gave to duo a look over. "You two... you're Wander and Sylvia, right? I've heard a lot about you. You'll have to excuse us, we've all been on edge for a while now. What with Lord Hater tightening his grip on the galaxy, we thought we would be captured by now for sure."

Wander couldn't help but stare at the soft spoken girl for a moment, her features were similar yet much more subtle than the gruff alien's. She was just as tall, but not quite stout and her silky fur was more blue than his. And her sparkling eyes weren't set quite as--

Sylvia nudged Wander in the arm. "Ow!" He exclaimed, and then realized he had been staring. "Oh, um... So, who are you guys? And why is it you're hiding out from Lord Hater?"

"Other than the fact that he's a total jerk." Sylvia added.

"My name is Danza and my trigger happy bodyguard here is Stross." Stross gave a slight curtsey to Wander and Sylvia. "We came here from the frozen planet of Rimefrost after Lord Hater enslaved our people and forced them to mine the precious metals hidden deep under our planet's surface. Those of us who managed to escape formed a colony here."

Sylvia looked at her incredulously. "Rimefrost? Wait, if you guys are from a planet made entirely of ice then why would you be camping out in a place like this?"

The gruff alien broke in. "Do ya think we 'ave a choice in th' matter? This 'ere is th' oonly place we kin keep a low profile. Do ya really think anyone roamin' th' galaxy 's goin' ta pay any heed to a pale blue dot floatin' in outer space?"

Wander shrugged. "No, I guess not."

Danza put her hands together and looked away nervously. "Listen," she said, "I know it's asking a lot, but I know you two have a reputation with getting past whatever Lord Hater throws at you. And well...."

"Say no more," that funny feeling that started in Wander's left toe and traversed throughout his body felt a little more strong than usual. Perhaps it had something to do with the way Danza made Wander feel, but nonetheless he was obliged to help out any way he could. "You guys have been away from home for far too long. Just let little ole Wander take care of everything."

Stross shook his head. "That's oot o' th' question, lad. We can't risk Lord Hater getting' ahold o' th' princess!"

"Princess?" Wander and Sylvia exclaimed in unison.

Stross' skin became visibly red underneath his fur and he looked at Danza. "Sorry, ma'am, I wasn' supposed ta talk aboot tha', was I?"

Danza sighed. "It's alright. I think that sums things up." She looked at Wander. "Help us, Wander, you're our only hope."

Wander usually felt confident about everything he did, especially when it came to helping others. But he couldn't seem to shake a nervous little feeling that things weren't going to go quite as planned. Still, a little premonition was no reason to say no to a princess.

"What did you have in mind for us?" Wander said, putting an arm around Sylvia.

*The Craft*

The people of Rimefrost--Rimefrostans? Rimefrostites? Wander would have to ask about nomenclature later--had repaired a spacecraft which was only slightly less primitive than their wooden houses. The two man ship had only one fuel powered rocket at the back and it couldn't even make a vertical takeoff; it had to gain enough speed from a large strip of land before it could get into the air. And as for a landing, well... it probably couldn't make one at all. Not to say that the Rimefrostees where a simple people; they had scrounged together whatever they could when Lord Hater kicked them off their home world. And as far as mechanics went the Rimefrostoids had done a stellar job of getting the old clanker to work.

"You sure this thing won't spontaneously combust mid-flight." Said Sylvia, giving the spacecraft a once over.

Stross crossed his arms. "She might na' look like much, lassie, but she 'as got it where it counts."

"Yeah, whatever."

Wander was helping Danza into the backseat of the spacecraft. He got a warm fuzzy feeling, more so than normal, when he reached down and grabbed her soft hand to pull her up.

"I wish there was another way," Danza began, " you see, the space ship that's hovering over our home world is the only way Hater can monitor our people and command his Watchdogs this far in deep space. But Lord Hater had the forethought to put in a certain failsafe. We can't just take control of the ship and send it flying toward a star. The ship is controlled by an AI, and if that AI gets shut down the whole ship will come crashing down... right on our planet."

The butterflies in Wander's stomach felt like they had turned to stone. He couldn't imagine how it must feel to have an entire planet's freedom being bought for such a steep price. If Danza hadn't been exaggerating about the size of Hater's ship then the destruction would be devastating. "What do you suppose we do?"

"Stross and I are going to take this ship to our planet's surface. We need to get as many of our people as we can underground or otherwise out of the way of the ship when it comes down."

"And you want me and Sylvia to sneak into the ship and bring it down?"

"Like I said, I wish there was another way."

Wander took off his hat and nervously held it by the brim until he got an idea and suddenly his frown was turned upside down. "Take this." He handed Danza his hat. "It has a lot of useful things you might need."

Danza smiled at Wander and took his large green hat in hand. "Thank you, we'll need all the help we can get." She leaned into Wander and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

The butterflies were just starting to break free again when Sylvia took Wander in both hands and sat him on her back. "Come on buddy, Hater's ship isn't going to blow itself up."

Wander took out a wand that resembled a child's soap bubble wand. He dipped it into a bottle of orbble juice and waved it into the air surrounding him and Sylvia in a blue orbble. Stross hopped into the pilot's seat of his spacecraft and closed the cockpit. The ship gave a choking sound before the engine finally started and a jet of flame spurted from the tail of the ship. When it gained enough speed it wobbled a bit and took off into the sky.

Sylvia started to run in place, sending the orbble shooting across the sky almost as fast as the spacecraft. "Come on, buddy, we've got a planet to save... more or less."

*The Air Vent*

Danza hadn't exaggerated about the size of Lord Hater's ship. In fact, she might have even toned it down a little. There was no denying that if a space ship this size fell down on the ice planet the result would be.... Well, Danza said she had calculated the risk. Still, Wander wished that there was a better way. Looking down he saw the flickering light of the spacecraft heading towards Rimefrost and hoped that Danza could get all of her people--and herself--out of the way in time.

"Something bothering you, buddy?" Sylvia asked. She had known Wander long enough to know when something was bothering him. And it took a lot for anything to bother him.

"It's nothing, Sylvia." Wander said. "Let's just find a way inside this ship."

Just as he said this a beam of light shot from the hull of the ship and started dragging Sylvia and Wander in. A slit in the side of the ship opened up, pulling the two inside. And as soon as they entered the slit shut close and the duo's orbble popped, sending them crashing on the metal ground. They looked up to see a dozen or so laser pistols aimed at them.

One of the monocular Watchdogs, apparently the leader of the Watchdogs on the ship, took a step forward, holding a laser rifle that was twice his size. "The infamous Wander and Sylvia. And here I thought that guarding this stupid snowball was going to be a boring gig. But you two.... Oh, I'm going to get promoted to commander once I bring you two in."

Sylvia gave him a mischievous smile. "You sure about that?"

The Watchdog's single eyelid contorted in anger. He took one hand off his rifle to point at Sylvia. "Of course I'm sure, what kind of ridiculous--?

Before he could finish, Sylvia grabbed him by the arm, turned him around, and pulled him to her. She grabbed the hand that was still clutching the weapon and started firing at the other Watchdogs. One bolt of energy narrowly missed one of the Watchdogs eyes, but the heat and light alone was enough to send him tumbling over in pain. The Watchdog Sylvia was holding started crying out, "Don't shoot, don't shoot!", but his subordinates were caught off guard and confused. They started firing wildly, forcing Wander to take refuge behind Sylvia. He reached out to grab a laser pistol and started blindly firing from behind his trusty steed.

After a few minutes the firing stopped and Wander peeked out to see that all the Watchdogs had either ran off or become incapacitated. Sylvia could feel the little Watchdog's heart racing. She took hold of the rifle and kicked him to the ground, when he started to get back up she hit him with the butt of the rifle, knocking him out.

"Well," Sylvia took a few breaths, "that went smoothly."

"That's my Sylvia." Wander went to a locked door panel and blasted it, the two panel door malfunctioned and only one side opened. Throwing his pistol away he turned back to look at the unconscious Watchdog. "Hmm, we might need him for later."

Without question, Sylvia lugged the Watchdog over her shoulder. "Whatever you say, pal."

Wander poked his head out the door and looked both ways. All clear. Apparently, they had done a real good job of scarring off the Watchdogs. Or maybe the AI on the ship didn't require much Watchdog intervention. Either way Wander felt lucky. Now all he had to do was find a control room and take this ship down. Sylvia and he walked down the corridors until they came across a large map like one might see in a galactic mall. A big yellow lightning bolt with the words "You are here" stood halfway up the left side of the ship. Further up was the ships bridge and further down were escape pods. Interspersed throughout the ship was a myriad of other points of interest including, but not limited to, everything from engine cooling systems to a small food court that sold gourmet pretzels. Wander took note of the escape pods and started making his way to the bridge.

They walked cautiously along, hoping they were both right about the absence of Watchdogs on board when suddenly the minion on Sylvia's shoulder started to wake up and thrash about, yelling as he did so. "Agh! Let me go you son of a Zbornak!"

Sylvia grabbed him by the legs and held him in front of her. "Hey, watch it, bud!" The Watchdog stopped yelling and started to tremble. "That's more like it."

Wander stood beside Sylvia so he could look the Watchdog in the eye. "Hi, there, friend." He said warmly. "Listen, we'd be more than happy to let you go if you tell us how to override this ship's AI." Sylvia grinned and gave Wander a knowing glance.

The Watchdog stared at him and seemed to be weighing his options. "No," he crossed his arms and turned his head. "I'm not telling you anything." Sylvia took the laser rifle in one hand and pointed it right at his eye, the rifle let off a high pitched whirring sound as it charged up. "Wait, wait, wait! Listen, there is no way to override the ship's controls, it was designed for minimal crew! You gotta believe me!"

Wander and Sylvia exchanged glances. Sylvia dropped the Watchdog and gave him a tap on the back with the laser rifle. "Get out of here, I don't ever want to see you orbiting this planet again." The Watchdog scurried off toward the escape pods. Wander gave his steed a high five and they started toward the bridge until they reached a large, reinforced blast door marked "Onboard A.I." and "No Unauthorized Access Permitted, That Means You!"

"Now how are we going to get this door open?" Wander asked. Sylvia looked down at her plasma rifle and tossed it aside. There was no control panel on the door and she assumed it must have been opened on the other side.

"Get on my shoulders."

Wander looked up and immediately knew what Sylvia was planning. He climbed up to her shoulders and stretched as high up as he could reach. "It's too high."

"Try standing on my head." Wander stepped up to Sylvia's head as she tried her best to extend her neck upward.

"Almost... Almost..." Wander strained to reach until--"Got it!"

*The Red GEm*

Wander had pulled himself into the air vent that led just over the AI's control room. It was a tight fit even for the small Nomad. But once he felt he had gotten far enough into the vent he started trying to break his way through. He could barely punch or kick in the cramped space but he eventually thrashed around enough until he heard a metallic creak. "Oh, boy." The air vent suddenly caved in and Wander fell into the control room. He stood up and brushed himself off. "Well, that could've gone better." He said to himself. He looked up to see a large monitor hooked up to at least twenty large computers and wires strung like Christmas lights all across the ceiling and snaking to the floor. "All right, now how do I shut this thing off."

Suddenly, the monitor came to life and a menacing red light shined in Wander's face. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that." Wander nearly jumped up to the hanging wires as the electronic female voice spoke. "I am a sentient AI, The Graphical Embodiment model DCXVI. But you can just call me GEm."

"Uh, okay... GEm." Wander thought about how to best approach the situation. "Listen, I know you're programmed to keep this ship in orbit above this planet but if you could just maybe, oh, I don't know, send this ship flying out into deep space." He gave GEm his best set of puppy dog eyes. Somehow Wander sensed that the red light on the monitor wasn't all that amused. Wander looked back to the blast door and saw the control panel. He took a short step backwards.

"Stop!" The red light on GEm's monitor flared up and a pair of loose wires wrapped themselves around Wander's arms. "I'm afraid I can't let you leave."

Wander scoffed. "What? Oh, did you think I was serious about that whole 'setting the ship off course' thing. Oh, you silly-willy." GEm tightened her grip around Wander's wrists causing him to cry out in pain.

"Don't lie to me, I can _feel_it when you lie."

Wander took a deep gulp and stared at the menacing machine. _There's got to be some way out of this._Wander looked around until he saw what he thought was his ticket out. Under the right corner of the monitor was a group of wires that looked frayed, revealing an exposed cluster of copper. Wander kicked off his shoe and, using his foot, reached into a pocket of fur at his side and skillfully gripped his bottle of orbble juice and tossed it at GEm. The bottle hit the top right corner of the monitor, popping its top off, and the juice flooded down, dripping on the exposed wire.

"What are you doing?" The wires sparked and the monitor flickered on and off in strobed flashes of crimson red. The wires loosened up and Wander landed on his feet. He rushed to the control panel and opened the blast door just as an explosion ripped through the control room, sending Wander flying past Sylvia and down the corridor and slamming his head into a bulkhead as the spaceship was upended.

That blast was a little bigger than anyone could have expected, assuming that said person was unaware that the ship's onboard AI was spread across the entire ship, constantly keeping the ship's integral systems in check. "Artificial Intelligence Systems are... critically damaged." The voice didn't sound all that intelligent to Sylvia. She assumed that the "critical damage" had caused the ships intelligence to be... well... less than intelligent.

Sylvia stumbled around in the flickering lights. "Wander..." she called out, "Wander!?" She was certain she heard Wander's small voice calling back to her and rushed to pull him from the rubble.

...moments later...

Another explosion ripped through the ship's hull and Wander and Sylvia were nearly sucked out into space. "Keep running, Sylvia!" Wander's memory was coming back to him, but he was much more concerned on getting out alive. The duo came upon the escape pod bay, a few of which were already taking off. Fortunately for Wander and Sylvia, the ship was still equipped with enough escape pods for a normal crew of a ship this size, so there were plenty left.

Sylvia came to the first pod that hadn't taken off and started typing in coordinates for the far side of Rimefrost. Wander looked around at all the unused pods and got an idea. He went to the first and typed frantically, then he moved to the next, and the next....

"Wander, what are you doing? We have to go now!"

"Just a second!" Wander was going triple speed, hoping that that crash course in calculating coordinates he had gotten from that map-selling drifter was worth it.

"Wander!"

An explosion sounded far off on the other end of the ship and they could both feel the weight of the ship falling from under them.

"WANDER!!!"

"That should do it!" Wander threw himself into the escape pod with Sylvia. They stopped momentarily to see a solitary Watchdog still trying to fix his buckle. Sylvia gave him a quick knockout blow and fired the escape pod engines as Wander took to the pod's computer.

"What was that all about, Wander?" Sylvia yelled.

Wander feverishly typed out commands on the computer and hit "Enter". "Look." He pointed out the window just as the rest of the escape pods were firing off and turning to go straight for the ship's engines. Several pods smashed into the ship sending it flying forward and safely out of the planet's field of gravity. "I set up as many of those pods as I could and using this escape pods computers I was able to fire them off remotely."

"Wow," Sylvia never ceased to be amazed at her orange furred friend, "I didn't know you knew how to do all that."

He smiled brightly. "I didn't either."

*The Princess*

Sylvia had shoved the Watchdog into the escape pod's escape pod just before they touched down on the planet's surface. As they stepped out of the pod, Wander and Sylvia could see the people of Rimefrost cheering as the flaming ship floated off into the wild, dark yonder. Danza rushed up to the duo and gave Wander a hug, setting the butterflies loose once again.

"That was some quick thinking, Wander." She said handing him his hat. "And if it wasn't for your nifty hat we would've never been able to rally everyone to revolt against the Watchdogs." She held up a megaphone which Wander assumed the hat had given her.

"Aye, lad," Stross added, "we set a revolt 'n motion tha' sent them Watchdogs cryin' home ta their mothers!"

Sylvia wiped the sweat off her brow before it froze in the icy climate. "We're just glad you got out safe, Princess Danza."

Danza and Stross exchanged glances. "Wait," said Danza, "you thought I was the princess. Well, close."

Wander was taken aback. "What do you mean 'close'?"

"I'm not the princess," Danza said, putting a hand on her belly. "But she will be."

Sylvia and Wander looked at Danza, then to each other. The butterflies in Wander's stomach felt like they had flown straight out. "Well, uh..." Sylvia began. "Glad we could help out."

After saying their goodbyes, the people of Rimefrost--who turned out to be called Rimefrostians--gave Wander and Sylvia a fresh bottle of orbble juice to get them where they needed to go. Figuring that they had a long ways to go, Wander started tuning his banjo once again.

"Just another day in the life, hey buddy?" Sylvia asked.

Wander just chuckled and began playing his banjo. "Down this road that never seems to end, where new adventure lies just around the bend. So if you want to join me for a while, just grab your hat, come travel light, that's Nomad style."