NOVEL NEXT X2.3.3 – The Fleet
X2.3.3 – The Fleet
"Cheers!" said the siblings as they all sat at a table.
"I'm not in the mood to celebrate. We are now hunted by some galactic army and you still haven't told us where the Exit is. How do we even know that you are not lying again?" asked Rosso.
"A deal's a deal," said Boreo, downing a whole glass, causing the young man from the desert to sigh. "Don't worry."
"I do worry," he shot back. "You three worry me."
The siblings prepared a meal with whatever the ship was stocked with. The food was delicious, unlike whatever the alien salvagers had given them in the previous days. Roa noticed the warm bond between the three as they enjoyed the food together. Their kind smiles, their laughter, their pats on the back.
"This food—is spectacular, brother," said Boreo to the other. "You've outdone yourself this time."
Roa remembered the way that food brought people together, even at Master Vesper's oasis. He remembered the comforting feeling of cooking or eating something cooked for him by Eralay. An alarm snapped him out of it. He glanced at the siblings who quickly took a gander at the radar.
"Damn it, we got company," Arnalaxia said.
"Who?"
"Captain May. Head of the 8th space fleet of the federation."
"I didn't think they'd follow us this far," said Boreo.
"You didn't think the intergalactic society you stole the constitution from would follow us?" Rosso asked, raising his eyebrows.
"We got an incoming message," Arnalaxia said, pressing a button.
"You have stolen something priceless from the people of the Skies. Surrender now, or we will be forced to take you down," said a man.
"Apricus won't dare shoot us down and destroy the constitution in the process. He's bluffing," Boreo pointed out.
The ship was rocket violently by a blast, causing the siblings to look at each other. Then another, and another.
Boreo ran to the briefcase, inspected the flash drive, lifted it up and said, "it's grade 89 ultranium."
"What the hell does that mean?" screamed Rosso, holding on as everything shook again.
"It means that it can withstand the blast of 89 atomic bombs and not lose any data. It means the captain is about to blow us to smithereens," shouted Barrus.
"Not if I can help it!" Arnalaxia sat at the wheel, and the ship did a barrel roll, speeding up through a sea of asteroids.
"Don't go in there Arn, it's too dangerous," said her brother.
"Trust me. Am I, or am I not, the greatest pilot in Nyx?" she said, whizzing past giant rocks with nimble ease.
A missile flew past them, exploding with the power of a nuclear detonation in front of them. Their ship twisted, losing control as it spun around from the force.
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"This is your last chance, pirates. We will detonate a larger missile if you do not stop," Apricus May said over the speaker.
"We'll never make it," Barrus said.
Arnalaxia pushed the throttle to the max, and the group fell to the ground as the ship sped up.
"You're going to get us killed, Arn!"
"Would you rather spend the rest of our days in intergalactic prison? No amount of Ambrosia could allow us to do all the time they think we owe them," she shouted as her eyes focused ahead.
The ship turned again and again at dizzying speeds, narrowly missing debris, and occasionally hitting a few rocks, causing the hull to shake violently and alarms to go off. Barrus turned on some kind of hacking device, a large radio of sorts, listening in on the private conversation of the police.
"We are losing them. The asteroid belt is too dangerous. We need smaller vehicles. Requesting drones from the mothership," an officer said through the static.
"Tuulbio—Tuulbio, can you hear us? This is Arnalaxia. We have the item. We are in the Thox Asteroid Belt."
After a few moments of silence, a young man's voice calmly said, "read you loud and clear. Are you being followed?"
"Affirmative."
"Piggies?"
"Oink oink."
"Damn it. Checking…" he said, going silent.
"Tuulbio, we need something, now!"
"I'm looking," the man said in a monotone voice.
"Come on, man. They're catching up."
"Found something. I need you to speed up, hit your ultra boosters for about five minutes. I'm sending you the location of an abandoned cargo hold. You can hide in there, but you'll have to gain some distance first," said the man on the speaker.
"You want to boost in the asteroid belt? We're going to die," said Arnalaxia.
"Are you or are you not the greatest pilot in Nyx?" he said.
"Damn it," she said, activating the boosters, causing everyone else to fall one more time.
The debris outside began to blur from the speed, the ship taking on more and more damage as the pilot was unable to keep up with all of the fragments hitting them at such speeds.
"There! I see it. That must be the abandoned ship," said Barrus, pointing at some gray dot in the dark sky.
"Brace for breaks," the pilot said as everyone strapped in.
The boosters reversed, causing everyone's heads to violently shift forward, and with a loud crash, the ship entered the cargo hold and stopped.
No one said a word as they stared at the radar. The swarm of yellow, blinking lights surrounded them, until eventually, even the last one passed them by.
"I think we made it," said Arnalaxia, letting out a nervous laugh. "That was close."
Roa shot a glance at his friends and took a deep sigh of relief.
"Where the hell are we now?" he said.
"Looks like some abandoned cargo hold named Sigma Nine. Used to carry raw ore from the nearby asteroids and back to Proxima, probably," Boreo said, sending out a drone to inspect the deserted ship.
"We best lay low for a day, let things cool down a bit. In the meantime, we might as well check this place out. See if there is anything worth salvaging here," said Arnalaxia.
"I'm not moving from here," Rosso said. "I've had enough excitement for today."
"Same," the other two added.
"Suit yourselves. We'll go check it out, you can stay here," Boreo said as the siblings began putting on space suits.
After several hours the three Jumpers, who were now falling asleep received a message from the siblings.
"We need help! I repeat, we are in trouble," said Barrus over the speaker, his message breaking up.
"Oh, what the hell is going on now?" asked Rosso.
"We got live creatures here. Something strange is going on. We need help," he continued.
"I told you, we are not getting off this ship," Rosso shouted. "We ought to leave you here where you are."
"You can't. We disabled the ship in case you would say that. We need backup, now!" he shouted back.
"What's happening exactly?" asked Roa, rolling his eyes, as he picked up a large laser cannon, inspecting it.
"An infestation, it seems," Boreo said.
"An infestation?" Indigo asked as she looked at the other two.
"Grab the armored space suits and the biggest weapons you can carry. We need your help, now!" he said as the sound of guns shooting rattled through the intercom.
"Goddamn it. These three—I swear, they're nothing but trouble," said Rosso, standing up. "Mark my words—I bet you that they don't even know where the Exit is."
"What I am really wondering is if we really can't use our auras in this place," Indigo said as she strapped a large machine gun to her back.
The three Jumpers opened the latch of the ship, finding themselves in a pitch-black hall. Turning on their lights, they looked around.
"I don't see anything out of place. Just looks—abandoned," Indigo said.
A screech broke the silence, causing them to exchange a worried glance as they stared deep into the dark hall before them.