Space Warp

I thought she was supposed to be grey and purple.

The Space Warp is – or was – a Confederation Cosmos Cruiser in the Confederation Astro Patrol. Planet Terry's roots are inextricably linked to the Space Warp, her crew, and her technology; the ship could provide the boy some answers... so it's a shame the Space Warp is long lost.

Fiction

Enoch Diggs spent 38 years in the Confederation Astro Patrol, A Clue at least some of which were on the Space Warp. Some Answers

Once, when the ship was many mega miles from home, the captain and his wife, the supply officer, were expecting their first child. The Space Warp had an infirmary, but no nursery, so chief engineer/mess boy Diggs was tasked with finding a suitably sterile environment for the baby. Diggs' solution was the life ship, which was sealed in glass only to be broken in an emergency.

When the baby was born, the captain was summoned to the life ship. His caffeine-fuelled overstimulation mixed with his elation at the birth of his son, and he accidentally struck the life ship's emergency glass, causing it to automatically evacuate the ship, taking Terry with it. Diggs and the other crew members frowned at the captain, but his only response was "oops!". The infant Terry was assumed lost forever. Some Answers

Something happened to the Space Warp for which the captain blamed the radioman, Squink. Squink maintained that it wasn't his fault, and vowed that nobody must learn the secret of the Space Warp. The Saga of Princess Ugly It is unknown if Squink's secret is related to the final fate of the Space Warp: under attack by alien forces, the crew abandoned ship to head for Planetoid 17-Z in life crafts. The Space Warp eventually crash landed on Gorkel without a soul on board, and the Gorkels avoided investigating it due to their superstitions around advanced technology. The Secret of the Space Warp

Years later, when a relatively grown up Terry encountered Diggs, the former engineer told him the story of his birth and separation. As Diggs' memory of Terry's parents was hazy, he encouraged the boy to find Squink at the Milk Toast Malt Shop on Asteroid 43KX, in the hopes he could provide a few more answers. Some Answers

They found Squink in the middle of a bar brawl, during which the former radio operator lost consciousness. Robota carried him back to Terry's ship, and they were joined by a new friend in Omnus. Unknown to them all, as the ship left Asteroid 43KX, Squink had already regained consciousness and was reaching for a blaster, darkly vowing that no-one must learn the secret of the Space Warp. Malt Shop Menace

Squink pulled the blaster on Terry to keep his secrets, and told Terry that his father had blamed him for what happened to the Space Warp. He refused to answer any more questions, and used a jet pack to jump ship... right into an astro tornado. The storm forced Terry's ship down onto Gorkel, where he and his friends were coerced into rescuing the Gorkels' ruler, Princess Ugly. The Saga of Princess Ugly After they had done so, Too Close (Enough) for Comfort The Doom of the Domed City they learned from the Gorkels that the Space Warp had crashed nearby many years ago. The Secret of the Space Warp

Terry, Robota, and Omnus investigated the wreck of the ship. They discovered the Space Warp's video log; though the video portion had been damaged by age, the audio track allowed Terry to hear his father's voice for the first time. The log detailed the Space Warp's attack by alien forces and the crew's subsequent escape to 17-Z. Terry and friends departed Gorkel in the hopes that his parents may still be there, though Terry (and privately, Omnus) had doubts.

Landing on 17-Z, Terry was determined to find signs of life. They first found the local species, and next found a threatening Devourer. The Secret of the Space Warp After Omnus defeated the Devourer, Terry tried to communicate their quest to the squirrelly aliens, though he had his doubts his words were getting through to them. Nonetheless, one of the aliens excitedly led Terry over a ridge, where he finally found his parents. The Saga of Princess Ugly part 6

Crew

• The captain
• The supply officer
• Chief engineer/mess boy Enoch Diggs
• Ship's doctor
• Dark-haired man
• Radioman Squink

Notes

• The Law of Conservation of Detail would have it that the dark-haired man is the younger form of Squink, but nothing in the story explicitly connects the two.