The child picked up her doll and looked at us. From the looks of it she is about eight to ten years old. Celestine realized that she still has her gun trained at the child so she lowered and holstered it. The child now saw Celestine as a friendly stood up proudly and introduced herself.
"Hello everyone, I am Nico p-" She stopped midway.
Celestine and I looked at Nico realizing that she must have undergone something traumatic to be on that lifepod alone.
"Hello Nico, I am Celestine. Nice to meet you." Celestine squatted as she reached out her hand.
Nico shook her hand. Celestine then introduced us to her. We smiled at the kid and she smiled back at us.
"Is it okay if I asked you why you were alone in that lifepod?" Celestine asked with her soothing voice. She made sure to smile.
"Well, my family went for a business meeting on another planet. Everyone I know was there, my parents, my uncle, even my friends. We… We got… We got ambushed by pirates. I saw them kill my friends, my mom made me run to the lifepods. She told me she'll be right behind me but… She just let me board the pod alone and launched me off space." Nico explained as she held back her tears yet she still cried.
Strife draped a blanket over Nico and patted her head which made her calm down a bit.
"Do you know the name of your plane Nico?" Strife asked.
"Yes, it's Kyatto. And I think it's about five jumps from here."
"And do you have anyone you could call to pick you up when we bring you back there?"
"I can call our family driver."
Strife nodded and smiled.
"Excuse us for a moment Nico, we need to talk for awhile." Celestine told Nico. She then called Strife over and she dragged me as well.
We went near the cockpit to talk.
"Thanks to Strife we now know where she lives. Question is should we deliver her now?" Celestine asked.
"Naturally yes, it's just five warp jumps. We can deliver her and be on our way without a hitch." Strife replied.
"Yes! If we're delivering a cheap item to a nobody. Look, this job cost a billion credits. Garner said that the buyer is waiting… and I know from personal experience people with that much money has no patience whatsoever. So I suggest we put this rescue thing into the back burner." I gave them my opinion.
"We can explain to Garner what happened, he could probably understand." Celestine replied.
"I know the direction of this conversation will paint as the bad guy. But can we prioritize the knife? Besides she's probably an orphan now so mommy ain't gonna wait for her."
"Okay that's low. Even for you." Strife talked back.
"I'm sorry. I mean we've been broke for almost six months now. If we messed up, what if Garner suddenly decided not to give any job listings?"
"Dude, he adopted us. You know back when we were useless. So I don't think he'll be mad at us for rescuing someone. He'll probably compliment us."
"Strife has a point. Besides I'll be the one explaining the situation so it's believable." Celestine said with a smirk.
We ended up agreeing that returning Nico to her planet is the best course of action. Strife punched in the new course for Kyatto. Celestine called her and offered her the food she was cooking in the kitchen. Since she only made three and I was the one who was against their idea, she gave my share to Nico as a form of punishment. The three of them ate and Celestine offered to give her a tour of the ship just to pass the time.
Meanwhile I headed back to my bed and prepared my game. As I was about to open the game I received a pop-up notification. It was an alert for any articles made by Julia, Celestine's cousin. Without wasting any time I opened it up. Julia stood firmly, she stood up proud. By the way she gripped the microphone you could tell that something was wrong. She cleared her throat and looked the camera head on.
"Earlier today we received a sad news. The royal family of the Kyatto planet has died in a ship explosion. It was said that the entire royal family were to visit here at Seak for their annual peace celebration." Julia opened her report.
Pictures of the royal family flashed on the screen. They looked like a normal family, mother, father, and a daughter. The king and queen wore a regal half smile whilst Nico smiled ear to ear.
"Although this tragedy struck the citizens of Kyatto with sadness and grief for their beloved leaders, one member of the royal family survived. Duke Rainek, the brother of the late king who survived the accident, has crash landed back on Kyatto. He has sustained multiple injuries and is now undergoing treatment." Julia continued.
The picture of the duke flashed. He wore the royal uniform with pride. He had cat ears like Nico, but he had more muscular and feline features than his cousin.
"With this current turn of events, political analysts predict that as the remaining survivor of the royal family. Duke Rainek would be granted emergency powers to rule the planet."
Before Julia's report ended I only had one thought in mind. Jealous brother murdering his family for the crown. I burst out of my bed and went to where they all are. I pressed the button on the flight control that paused our course. Celestine and Strife casted questioning looks.
"We can't go to Kyatto." I announced to everyone.
They were all taken aback by what I said. Nico had the greatest shock of them all.
"Care to explain why?" Celestine asked.
I linked my holowatch to the ship's monitor and allowed them to watch Julia's report. Everyone suddenly felt shocked by what they've seen. Celestine and Strife looked at Nico who was about to burst into tears.
"Our little princess over here failed to mention that her uncle survived." I told everyone.
"My uncle… survived, thank goodness. But, the reports said an explosion yet I saw the pirates board our ship."
"Well, it's either they were boarded by pirates and the duke managed to trigger the ship to self-destruct as he escaped… or something's fishy is going on here."
"But if that's the case then wouldn't the reports include that?" Celestine asked me.
"That could be a theory but Julia said the duke sustained multiple injuries. It's possible that the people of Kyatto gave out that theory for the duke." Strife suggested.
"You're saying my uncle killed my family. No wonder why he insisted on joining us on our trip." Nico's voice cracked, her eyes flooded with the pain of betrayal.
"That's a possibility. If her uncle killed them all, and Nico showed up alive and well… who knows what he could do? And if we deliver her, we can't guarantee her safety as much as ours." I told everyone.
"Well, what should we do now?" Strife genuinely asked.
"Well she's a member of the royal family, so I think it's safe to assume that he'll kill her. I don't like people who kill kids so bringing her back is out of the question. That said we could bring her to Garner, he'll know what to do. I think." I explained.
"No. If you're planning on bringing her to him and do what he did to the two of you… I can't allow that." Celestine rejected my proposal.
"If she tags along with us our lives would be in danger. Not only that but were lacking the resources to keep her in our custody." I reasoned with her a little more.
"Well it's her life. Not only that it's her planet, it's her people, and her future. We just met her so I don't think we're the best group to decide for her own sake." Strife lectured us. He then walked close to Nico and knelt in front of her.
"All of us here are worried about you. But at the end of it all this boils down to you. So I'll ask you this Nico, what do you want to do now?" Strife asked the teary eyed princess.