Silence filled the bridge as the four guys sat around in a circle. They departed from the space station fairly quickly after Kennie fixed the issues in the engine room and were now headed off to find one of the other ships that set off around the same time as them. While flying through space, there was one thing lingering within the thin air of the ship. Chronos.
"So, what should we do about him now?" Kennie asked, "despite the damage looking bad, it wasn't too big of a deal to fix."
"I say we just throw him off the ship." Marcus huffed, crossing his arms over his chest as slumped back against his chair, "he's caused too many problems already."
"You can't say that, Marcus." Luciel interrupted, his voice soft and seemingly holding back something he wants to say.
Ren seemed to have picked up on Luciel's hesitance and asked, "could you explain what's on your mind?"
Hesitantly, he nodded, his black and sky blue split hair fluttered about his face as he lifted his knees to his chair, "necessarily speaking, we only caught him tampering with the things in the engine room, and even with that, he exclaimed that he didn't do it."
"He's probably lying." Marcus rolled his eyes, "remember, he's still a teenager and they hate being blamed for things."
Luciel shook his head, "I think he looked honest and genuine. He may have done something with either comms or nav or even putting the ship into light speed, but the wires and such in the engine room didn't seem like it was him."
Ren thought about it for a moment, taking the time to fully assess his time with Chronos and seeing how honest he appeared to be around the group, "do you have any other evidence for it, Luciel?"
He nodded, "the airlock, remember? I mentioned the fact that it looked to have been used but not by Chronos."
"Yeah, you said it was opened before nav failed," Ren stated, placing his elbow on the chair's arm and resting his head in the palm of his hand, "are you implying that we've got another intruder on the ship?"
This time, Luciel shook his head, "I don't think whoever it was is still on the ship because things would continue to break down and such. I think the engine was the last thing they tampered with."
"So," Kennie said, trying to piece everything together, "you believe that Chronos, someone none of us know anything about, didn't damage the engine or communication system or navigation system or jumped the ship into light speed? You think it was someone else?"
"I do believe that one or two of the things was because of Chronos, but not all of it." He explained, "I don't know why I think that, just... He doesn't seem like a bad person, y'know?"
As the group thought about it further, echoes of banging sounds reverberated throughout the corridors and into the bridge. It was clear that Chronos was getting impatient and wanted to be let out, however, not everyone was ready to completely trust the mystery man once again, especially after what they witnessed in the engine room. Noticing the expression on everyone's faces, Luciel simply stood up and made his way out of the bridge and towards the room they had locked Chronos in. Hastily, Ren, Kennie and Marcus all followed behind him, unsure as to what the smaller guy was going to do.
"I'm going to ask him for an explanation," Luciel stated, unlocking the door to the room, "and find out exactly what happened."
And with that, Luciel entered the room and shut the door behind him. The small, fairly empty room now resided in silence as Chronos' eyes flickered towards Luciel. He was sat on the end of the single bed, his knees to his chest and a very visible pout on his lips. Luciel pulled out a chair from under the desk and placed it in front of the door, sitting down and ready to talk to Chronos.
"Hey-"
"Can I be let out now?" He instantly interrupted, his pout still very evident, "I'm being wrongly locked up. What's the saying? Innocent until proven guilty?"
"Technically, we did catch you tampering with the wiring in the engine room." Luciel pointed out, "that would be classed as evidence enough."
His arms crossed over his knees as he sunk his head into his chest, "for your information, I was trying to fix them before it caused a bigger issue."
"Why didn't you ask Kennie for help with it?" He asked, "it would've made you look less suspicious then disappearing."
"Would it though?" He asked, twisting his head to face Luciel, "you guys don't even really trust me. Whether I admit to what I've done and what was done by some other beings, would you have actually believed me?"
Luciel, realising he's beginning to get some information out of Chronos, continued with the conversation and placed the main focus on the issues that passed, "I would believe you."
"One out of four..." Chronos sighed, "not exactly in my favour."
"Kennie would too." He added, "We both have taken a liking to you, you know."
"Either way, it's Ren and Marcus' acceptance I need more." He sighed, allowing his legs to collapse back onto the metallic floor, making a soft bang echo within the room.
"Why not explain it then?" Luciel suggested, "if not to them yet, at least to me."
Chronos thought about it for a moment, cautious as to whether or not to explain and if he's being set up for something or not. It took him a moment before he found his answer and began explaining what happened on the ship over the first few days.
"It basically started when you landed on that first planet," he began, "y'know, Kina."
Luciel nodded, recalling the time they landed on the planet after being in light speed for a few days, "I remember. We had to land to see whether it was an Earth-like planet as the ground people were becoming annoying and impatient."
Nodding, Chronos continued, "well, from landing on that planet, you gained a couple of unwanted visitors. Space pirates."
The last two words made Luciel shudder. He knew he would have had to encounter them at some point but he didn't know what the meeting would be like, whether it was a huge fight or basic theft. Either way, he didn't like the idea that space pirates were aboard their ship.
"What happened was that the space pirates apparently needed to get to planet Astrea on the other side of the galaxy and their ship wouldn't have made it." He continued, "so they put the ship into light speed and just before that, threw out anything they didn't like on the ship."
"Why would they do that?" Chronos shrugged, "And what about comms and nav? Did they do that?"
Reluctantly, Chronos shook his head, "but I have my reasons for it."
"Which are?" He asked, but received no response from Chronos. Sighing, he stood up and turned to face the door, unlocking it and opening it wide for Chronos to exit through, "come on. I believe you and don't think you should remain here."
Gratefully, Chronos wandered through the door only to greet the unpleasant eyes of the rest of the crew, mainly Ren and Marcus. Thankfully for Chronos, Luciel was behind him and ready to stand up to his friends just for them to gain even the smallest inch of trust in him.
"What do you think you're doing, Lu?" Ren asked, crossing his arms over his chest as he leant back against the metal-plated wall, "why're you letting him out?"
"Because he did nothing... Nearly nothing wrong." He corrected himself mid-sentence, "and he's not a bad guy."
"Really? Where's the proof in that?" Marcus stated, rolling his eyes, "we literally caught him tampering with the wiring in the engine room."
"It wasn't me!" Chronos defended, "it was the space pirates! They dealt the most damage!"
The unexpected mention of space pirates fully woke the crew as each one stiffened their posture and keenly listened to what Chronos was going to say. Despite having heard it all before, even Luciel shuddered from the mention of space pirates, his fear of them becoming more evident the further within the story Chronos got.
"I really wanted to tell you all about them! Honest!" He exclaimed, "but as you know, I was also hiding from you guys and didn't know what to do..."
"He could literally be making this all up, y'know." Marcus abruptly, but expectedly, interrupted, "where's the proof?"
Hesitantly, Chronos admitted to taking Luciel's camera from his room and, after apologising, he led them to where he had stored all the photographs and evidence behind the space pirates mischief. He directed them towards cargo bay five and deep down into the furthest corners of the narrow bay, he hauled out a box of photographs and missing pieces from the ship, including the pieces from the navigation system.
"Wait! This was where it was?" Kennie scrambled to grab a couple of items he recognised that belonged to the navigation system but quickly stuffed it back as they already had the pieces, "why didn't you tell us about this earlier?"
"You never encountered them," he said, showing a few photos of two short beings with pale grey skin and bright circular yellow eyes that glowed against their skin. Their long straight violet hair shaded most of their faces but the crew could determine that there were one male and one female, "you wouldn't have believed me so I tried to fix the problems that you didn't realise immediately..."
"There were other things wrong?" Kennie asked, incredibly shocked that they missed his sight, "where?"
"Well, initially, your security cameras were shifted to keep away from the entrances to the vents and the airlock." He said, "and then a few other things that weren't as significant and the last thing they dealt with was the engines."
"So you tried to fix them all before we found out?" Ren asked, his mind finally getting to grips with the truth from Chronos.
He nodded, "and I nearly finished but you caught me when I was trying to fix the wires but it was tricky for me so... I couldn't exactly do it."
"Well, that actually explains quite a bit," Kennie said, thinking back to the wiring, "it wouldn't have made any sense if you were trying to damage them, especially with the fact that they were quite - easier? I suppose that's the word - to fix."
"So it didn't seem badly damaged?" Ren asked, which Kennie nodded, "alright, I suppose everything lines up with your story, Chronos."
"See, I didn't do many bad things." He said, thankful that the crew were finally seeing his side to everything.
"But," Chronos sighed, "what about the issues you actually cause? Got an explanation for that?"
Chronos grew silent. He didn't want to answer Ren's question but he knew that if he stayed quiet, he'll only cause the crew more reasons to not trust him. Thinking for a second, he tried to come up with some sort of excuse for his actions but eventually arrived at no conclusive answer.
"I had my reasons..." He mumbled, "that I don't want to explain... At least, not yet."
He could see the hesitance within the eyes of the crew and could easily infer that none of them, but Luciel, was happy with that answer. He wished he could explain further but at the same time, if he did, there would've been no point in sending the crew out to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Silence filled the air as Chronos saw the small amount of trust he gained within the crew's eyes fade away slowly, only to be completely stopped by Luciel.
"Come on." He said, positively, "sure, Chronos isn't telling us the whole truth, but he isn't a bad person and wouldn't do something to harm us."
Hesitantly, Ren started to nod along with Kennie, "I suppose you're right Luciel."
"Yeah, Chronos is pretty cool anyway," Kennie added, slinging an arm around his shoulders as a wide smile crosses his face, "to be honest, I didn't think badly of you, it's just the scene made you look a bit... Sketchy."
Completely understanding his point of view, Chronos didn't hold anything against Kennie and smiled back at him, thanking him for his compassion. Ren did a similar action, apologising for jumping to conclusions but also stating that he wants to know exactly why Chronos is on the ship but he could wait for Chronos to feel comfortable with telling everyone. The only person who was still very hesitant with accepting it all was Marcus as he remained far away from the rest of the crew. His brows furrowed as his eyes narrowed in on Chronos, still appearing to not trust him at all.
Before any other words could've been spoken, a loud bleeping noise erupted from the communication room and instantly called over the crew. Ren collapsed onto the chair with everyone else hovering around him as he tried to connect the call through.
His emerald eyes went wide as hope flooded into the iris, "its the Athena crew."