Flying Off World
Morning came, it was after the crack of dawn, and the scarlet sky faded into a clear blue. Raiga found himself outside Ramon's home, banging on his door. "Ramon! you said to be here early today."
Cracking the door open, Lily, still in her nightclothes, smiled at Raiga's arrival. "Hello he's in the back, come through." Lily opened the door wider, allowing Raiga to step in.
"Hey, Lil why don't you join us? I'm sure your dad wouldn't mind."
"No thanks, I'm going to stick to reading," Lily refused, reverting back to her sitting position, in which she immersed herself in reading.
"Okay," Raiga reacted. Raiga opened the sliding doors, wandering into Ramon's workshop.
Inside Ramon had the vintage jumpship, lifted by a chain similar to the one Raiga had previously used in training. "Woah, you've cleaned up the place" Raiga blurted out surprised." Why do you seem so surprised?" questioned Ramon.
Ramon had placed his tools neatly in their compartments methodically and organised.
"I'm not surprised, well, I mean I am, it's just well organised." Raiga inspected the shelves of tools attempting to work out which ones he would need for the Ship.
"To be honest, I would be lying if I said I did that, it was Lily that helped me with it all," Ramon explained beginning to tinker with the machine once more.
"That makes a lot of sense" Raiga snickers.
Ramon quit what he was doing, placing the tool on the side table. "We can't repair this at the moment," he announced.
"why not?" he asked impatiently. "Some of these parts are rare because they're so old, we're going to have to go off-world."
Raiga without a seconds thought, raised his head and gave Ramon a cheeky smile. "Really? you're not joking?" He started to jump about quicker than a jump ship itself.
"Hold on now! don't be getting any ideas," Ramon asserted."
"You're going to need your uncle's permission first, get that and we can happily leave the planet for a day."
"Done and Done Ramon, I'll be back soon" Raiga being overjoyed, bolted out of the house quicker than a lightning strike.
Now home, Raiga observed his uncle sat at the dining table enjoying a small feast. Stepping into the room, he took a seat opposite the robust man.
"Uncle Conray? So you know how I've been building that Jump Ship?" Queried Raiga .
"Yeah, how is that going? Making any progress?" He asked, enjoying the last pieces of his meal.
Raiga scratched his head nervously. "Well we kinda hit a roadblock, you see we need some rare parts, and we can only get them off-world."
Conray instantly stops eating and places his cutlery down on the table. "Absolutely not" he rebuked.
Raiga gives him a puzzled glare. "Why not? you said I could be a System Jumper I'll be leaving eventually anyway."
"No Raiga you're too young." His uncle Rejected.
"Come on I won't be gone long," Raiga pleaded, now pressing his hands together.
Conray stands up and throws the excess food away in the trash compactor. Then proceeding to pour himself a drink of alcohol, gulping it in one go.
"All I want to do is fix my dad's ship, pl...." Before he could finish speaking, Conray struck the countertop with his fist.
"I said no Raiga, not one more word!" he scolded, pouring himself another drink.
His uncle had drunk more often since his brother had passed, Raiga noticed it more recently than he had in recent months.
Raiga spun around, simmering with rage, proceeding towards the front door.
"You're nothing but a drunk," Raiga blurted out in a fit of resentment, shooting outside, back to Ramon's home.
Before Raiga arrived at Ramon's, Lily and her dad were polishing down the Jump ship. "Thanks for the help today, Lil, I couldn't ask for a better daughter." Lily grinned at her father, pleased with his approval.
"I'm happy to help; I hope when mum comes home, she'll be able to help, so I don't have to do as much," she laughed in a joking manner.
"You don't want to let her hear you say that she'll ground you." The two clearly had a bond when talking about Lily's mother, it was a beautiful sight to see, as they finished cleaning the ship.
Raiga abruptly storms into the garage. "So when are we leaving?" He asked the two.
"So I assume he said yes?" Raiga nodded back at him.
Ramon rubbed his beard "Are you sure? you came in here a little heated."
"Mhm," Raiga answered subtly. He turned to, Lily. "You're coming too right, Lily? It would be an excellent chance to get used to leaving the planet."
Ramon looked at his daughter with a look of hope that she'd say yes. "I don't know." Ramon hopped onto the ship and dropped a step. "Come on, Lil it will be fun," he said, holding out a firm hand.
"Fine" Lily mumble, as she took his hand, helping herself into the Jump Ship's seating quarters. The ship sported a bright blue glossy paint, with grey tipped thrusters; and a sizeable ballistic glass window on the front. Inside hosted a light grey interior, full of buttons, safety measures. But nowhere near enough room to contain Raiga's excitement.
Sitting at the front holding the steering wheel, Ramon signals for Raiga to climb aboard. "Are you coming, Raiga?"
Raiga scrambles onto the vehicle, taking a seat and proceeding to strap himself in. "Now I haven't used this in a while, so it's going to need to warm up, which will take a few minutes to get used to it all," Ramon pointed out.
Ramon started flicking on switches with all the lights on the inside glowing up. "Ramon, so where are we going?" He asked curiously.
"We're going to a planet called Uyora, and you're both going to like it, their tech is so advanced it makes Yuvius look ancient," Ramon let out, as he pressed the engine switch.
The ship now rumbling, the thrusters began to hum, and the ship vibrated. Raiga held on tightly to some handlebars. "Ramon how old is this exactly?" Raiga croaked.
Ramon turned to Raiga and gave him a mischievous smile. "We got it when we found out when my wife got pregnant with Lily." He cracked up. "But don't worry, I'm a great pilot."
"Oh great now I feel much better," Raiga mumbled sarcastically.
Eventually, the thrusters blasted at full power; the ship began to hover. Surrounding the craft, the thrusters turned the air hostile, the wilting flowers broke free from their roots, escaping into the world. Tall trees stood, swaying back and forth, with the yellow leaves romping in the wild wind.
Ramon pulled up, the Jump ship darted into the blue sky, leaving the atmosphere. "Now, in case of an incident, which won't happen! But just in case, there are spacesuits in a cabinet next to the seats where you're both sitting at," he explained to the two.
Ramon pushed his Jump ship to its limits.
They were eventually going so fast; the force pushed them down into their seats. Raiga looked out of a small window only to notice Yuvius was now a tiny yellow speck getting even smaller the further they went until finally it couldn't be seen with the naked eye.
"How long is it going to take till we're there, dad?" Lily spoke up, queried, delving further into her book.
Ramon pressed a button, the machine then proceeded to enter autopilot. "Well at this rate we should be there in about forty minutes if we're lucky, meanwhile why don't you both check out the surrounding planets in our system."
Ramon offered, while checking out the nearest one they were passing. Ramon watched a green planet; covered in a dark green natural material, with a cyan imbued sea to contrast.
Raiga joined in watching the exotic planet. "What does Uyora look like Ramon?"
"Well, it looks much like Seriti, proceeding to point at the planet in question, although the cities are massively advanced and the population is so dense it can get hard to breathe when you're in the centre of one," Ramon explained, returning to the cockpit.
Lily closed her book. She tapped Ramon on his shoulder, "dad, do you think you could teach me how to fly when we get home, please? I want to get an advantage when we have our test in a few days," she wondered, resting on his shoulder.
"Of course Lil, we'll start as soon as we get back," Ramon responded.
Sometime after, they approached a planet much larger, than the already huge Yuvius was. "We're here you two" Ramon pointed out.
Raiga lunged out of his seat, stepping over to the cockpit. "Finally! I can't wait to see what life is like on another planet" He spouted, jumping about all childlike.
Lily stepped up and looked on in awe. "It should be fun" she smiled.
"Both of you strap in; landing can get bumpy." The two took a seat, strapping themselves down.
They entered the atmosphere and rocketed toward Uyora's surface. Shaking out of control, the ship's thrusters slowed, starting to level out.
"They slowed down dramatically and through the clouds emerged the spire to a colossal skyscraper. Branching off from the building, it held a platform for the three to land their Jump Ship.
They slowly lost altitude; the ship thudded onto the platform. Ramon swivelled his head around.
"Now before we get off, our planet is predominantly human, but we're going to come across a whole array of different species."
Ramon unstrapped from the cockpit. "Please avoid using the word, Alien; it's highly offensive.
Lily and Raiga turn to each other, " Of course we won't say that It's common knowledge" Raiga let out a slight chuckle.
They jumped down from the Jump Ship, and the two teens flashed their eyes around the vibrant jungle they both found themselves surrounded with."
"It's warmer for once" Raiga smiled.
"What's the city called Dad?" His daughter inquired.
"Yora" Ramon replied.
They both continued gazing on in amazement.
Ramon moved toward customs. "We're going. Let's move!" He ordered.
The two scampered on catching up to Ramon, hurrying onward. They finally arrived at the bottom of the tower, arriving at the large metal detectors.
Placing all personal objects on a large tray, they all stepped through. On the other side, a skinny bipedal with red scaly skin, yellow eyes, and three arms all with webbed round-tipped fingers waited for them all.
They picked up their belongings, handed the character their pass and moved on.
"What's the name of their species Ramon?" Raiga whispered.
"They're called Dransi there's roughly ninety-eight billion of them in this galaxy with thirteen of them on Uyora alone!" He got all giddy, Ramon appeared well informed about the various types of beings throughout the galaxy.
Raiga grinned mischievously "Wow, you know things of importance, I'm surprised." He cracked up.
Ramon didn't give him that satisfaction. Instead, he just frowned at the kid. "Anyway come on, let's make our way to the industrial market.
"Can we stop at some book stores on our way back if that's okay? I'd like to see what hidden treasures lay here." Lily added.
"Of course Lily, although I am surprised people still read books in this day and age, you'd think people would switch entirely to DNI's.
"Guess I'm old fashioned" Lily smiled.
Wandering out onto the busy streets of Yora, Raiga took it all, in he ran around to inspect every nook and cranny in every corner he could find.
The streets were narrow, and everyone huddled together. It was massively cramped, and at times it was rather hard to move around.
Various zany characters stood pitching ideas and attempting to sell different things to all three arrivals.
A small yellow creature with a small head but fat body raised a question to Lily "Excuse me, little lady, interested in the extraordinary manuscripts of the now uninhabitable world-famous Earth?"
It's Yellow had started to pulsate, and Lily got a little overwhelmed. Ramon grabbed Lily. "Stay close Lily those things can read your desires; it's a horrible trick."
Ultimately, they came through a back alley; it was such a tight squeeze they all had to go one by one with Ramon at the back.
Through the alley, a small stone brick building awaited their arrival. Walking through a wire fence gate, the three stood outside the nondescript building taken by the overgrowth.
Making their way inside, many boxes piled and shelved, surrounded the 3 arrivals.
"I'll be there in a minute" a gruff voice shouted from a back room.
"I haven't seen Kade in a long time, about time we got back in touch. Feels as though it was yesterday that we had just piloted our first ships for the first time."
Ramon began to prattle on about his endeavours with his old friend. Soon enough, Kade came out from the back. The man was blind in one eye, harshly scarred on the left side of his torso, and was missing both legs.
"Ramon! My old friend where have you been all these years?" Kade wheeled over to him. Ramon bent down and hugged him.
"It's been too long Kade, far too long! Ramon said.
"You look like trash as per usual" Kade joked.
"Really? You're not looking so bad yourself."
Raiga and Lily came forward a little startled by his appearance. "Don't worry; I won't bite, probably." Kade chortled
"This is Raiga, and this is my beautiful daughter Lily, you've met before when she was just a small infant."
"This is Lily" Kaid came off surprised. "You've grown, haven't you," he added. "Raiga was it? Great to meet you, son," he greeted them both in goodwill shaking both of their hands with his own rough hands.
Raiga had a confused look on his face. "Kade, forgive me if I overstep but if it's okay to ask, why haven't you gotten any augmentations?"
Lily now anxious due to Raiga's rather intrusive question piped up. "I don't think that's appropriate Raiga," tittered Lily.
Kade pulled a brown rag off from his waist. He revealed the remnants of his legs that once were.
"I did have them. But to have augmentations, they need to be drilled into your leg! So after a year of using them, the material I chose poisoned my body and rejected them. It destroyed the bone in my legs, and now I can't use any augmented limbs." Kade sighed quietly, putting the rag back over him.
"We're sorry we didn't mean..."
"Don't worry about it, you're curious; it's all part of being young," Kade interrupted
Ramon stood at the back, giving off a blank stare. "Now let's get to the reason you came, what's it you need?" Wondered Kade.
Ramon glowed up, "Well, what we need is big, Kade I doubt it's something simple!"
"Listen, we both know I owe you one, name it; I got you," Kade reassured Ramon.
"We need an ST401 Core," Ramon replied blankly.
"401? Come on Ramon you know they don't make those anymore," Kade rummaged through his boxes.
"The chances of me having one of them is like me growing legs and walking again. I'm sorry it's not possible." He said sympathetically.
Raiga piped up "Please! You must know where we can get one," He pleaded.
Kade let out a long and deep sigh. He began to cough and wheeze, smacking his chest, the battle-scarred man cleared his throat and was able to breathe again.
"I'm a sick man Raiga I'm a sick man." He said, wheeling over to a table. Kade began writing something on an old piece of paper.
He handed him the paper with a name across it.
"How bad do you want that core?" he asked the boy.
"My dad was building it; I would do anything to get it running again." Raiga had a stern look on his face; it was clear he meant what he said.
"What was your name again?" Kade scratched his left cheek.
"Raiga Ozumo Sir" he responded.
Kade leant back on his chair. "Well, I'll be damned. "Why didn't you tell me this was Ozray's kid Ramon? Your father was an absolute Legend! I'm very sorry for what happened." Kade got close and put his hand on his shoulder.
Ramon opened the door. "It's time to go guys."
Lily and Raiga stepped out. "What's the name on the paper Raiga?" Lily queried.
"Goron" Raiga answered.
Still, inside, Ramon is having a conversation with Kade. "Do you know where we can find this guy?" He inquired
"Somewhere in the old mod market," Kade told Ramon.
"What's he look like?"
"I don't know, the guy sells illegal ship mods; he's a ghost. The stuff he sells, he'll be lucky to get ten years if he gets caught" Kade remarked.
"I'd better get going; they're waiting" Ramon motioned a point to the door.
"Sure, but if you need anything, come see me," Kade was clearly content with their visit.
Ramon joined the two outside. A calm breeze swept Yora's roads.
"Where do we go from here?" Raiga pondered to himself aloud.
"Come, follow" Ramon ordered.
They all trotted on back through the alley and onto the main roads of Yora. The streets were now bare, and most had returned to their residences.
Without everyone there, all that remained was black-stained walls, steam emitting from pipes stretching into all downtown towers.
"Wow, without anyone here it's a ghost town, feels creepy given the environment," Lily spoke quietly.
They made their way north of their position.
Ambling through, they came to a ample area within the city. A large crowd chanted four words, "Long live the president!"
"What's this all about?" Raiga questioned.
"Yeah, and what's that smell? It's gross," Lily added.
A foul aroma danced around the crowd. "It will be the sewers most likely, I saw the station a few minutes ago," Ramon explained to Lily.
While everything was escalating, a formally attired man strolled onto the stage in front of the audience, he wore a black suit with a red tie, he had grey hair and a well-groomed grey beard as he looked upon the community.
He opened his mouth and was about to perorate.
"First and foremost, I would like to thank everyone who supports me in any shape or form." His voice was soothing, calm and clear.
"However. People need to move onto different things, I have spent the last seven years transforming this planet from a place where criminals would run rampant daily, to a thriving metropolis that survives without crime."
"That's not what I see at all" Raiga uttered
'So that concludes my time with Uyora, and I will be accepting SEAC's proposal to become the new commander in chief of all bases of operations. I will operate from the main HQ on Yuvius, where I will be spending most of my time, thank you and have another good seven years with your next President of Uyora." He proclaimed as he walked off stage. The people cheered once more.
"What?" The three shouted simultaneously.
Raiga tapped a blue character on the shoulder
"Hey, can I ask who is that guy?" he quizzed
She turned around "That's Rolan, he was an ex System Jumper turned Uyora president."
"Something isn't right" Ramon doubted." Anyway, come on we can't stay, we're nearly there."
They came into a warehouse it was mostly empty except for three people, one of them, a grey slimy creature with three arms.
"Stay close." Ramon walked over to one of the sketchy looking people, "Do you know where we can find Goron?"
"What you need?" he asked back.
"An ST401 Core" Ramon folded his arms.
"That's going to cost you man; you got 2,000 pieces?" He inquired.
"I have, yes."
"Wait here" the man decreed.
He took himself outside and pulled up a small thin device, and pressed a button on the side.
On the other end, a deep voice whispered back.
"What is it?" the person mumbled.
"ST401 Core you got one?" He consulted.
"I'll be 5 Minutes" the gadget shut off and he went back to Lily, Ramon and Raiga.
"Goron won't be long."
Ramon removed his bag and unsealed the front. He pulled two grey rectangular pieces worth 1,000 each.
"Dad isn't what we're doing highly illegal?" She worried.
"It's fine the item itself isn't, buying it from a dealer maybe," Ramon laughed anxiously.
Finally, Goron appeared in the warehouse.
He wore a dirty trenchcoat and scuffed grey jeans you couldn't see his face clearly due to him being hooded.
"Do you have the money?" He held out his hand.
They exchanged items, and now Ramon held a glowing cylindrical bulb.
Ramon and the teens left and returned to Kade's shop back through the city, passing past the now dispersed crowd of president supporters, and through the alley once again.
"Well it was good seeing you, my friend, you must come back anytime!" Kade pleaded with Ramon.
"It was a pleasure seeing you as well" They shared a pat on the back with a handshake, saying their goodbyes.
Lily and Raiga proceeded to give a brief wave, "we'll see you soon Kade, take care of yourself"
Seeing him off with the wave, they all made their way back to the tower they arrived at, just around the corner.
Inside, they got in and passed through customs and waited for their ship to come up through the lift.
The Jump Ship soon came, and they blasted off back to their home planet.
While travelling back home, on a Stormy Yuvius, Colt was in a hospital. Sat on a chair a doctor came with some news. Colt stood quickly, and the doctor looked at him with remorse.
"Colt I'm genuinely sorry... she didn't make it."
Colt stumbled back onto his chair. A glistening tear fell onto the floor as if it was the last bit of life leaving his eyes. Colt stared blankly off elsewhere; he couldn't comprehend the deep sorrow that came over him; he felt like his soul fled from his body, and the pain in his chest only grew with terror.
Colt stormed outside, he ran and ran like he was in fight or flight mode, unable to stop.
Eventually, he dropped to the ground on all fours in a puddle; rain poured around him.
He wept and bawled as loud as he could shouting into the sky.
"Why her?" he whispered. "Why?" He shrieked.
As such a terrible event unfolded, Raiga had just landed back on Yuvius.
"When can we install it?" Raiga asked.
"As soon as we get a chance I need to open the stall tomorrow, it hasn't been open today, and for now I want to help Lily with her test in two days." Ramon locked the ship "sorry we couldn't stop at a library Lil" He apologised.
"It's okay I had fun," she smiled at her dad.
"I'm going to read," She said, walking inside.
"I'm going to go home. I'll see you."
Before they both could say goodbye, he had already left to return home.
Raiga opened his front door, his uncle in the front room drinking alcohol again. Raiga didn't even acknowledge his existence and went to the kitchen.
"Where have you been?" His uncle slurred his words.
"With Ramon again? What is he your dad now?
Conray barraged him with a series of questions.
"What would your mother think?" He shouted.
Raiga turned to look at Conray and scowled at him. "Keep her name out of your mouth, you drunk!" He demanded, clenching his fist.
Conray noticed this and put his drink down.
"What you going to do, hit me? Conray cackled.
Raiga took a deep breath in and out, wandering into his room.
His uncle stumbled to the bottom of the stairs. "That's right, run away from your problems just like you always do," Conray yelled.
Conray went to the kitchen and poured himself another drink. "Stupid boy, just like his mother."
Upstairs, Raiga shut himself in and dropped onto his bed trying to keep calm.