Chereads / The Castle Between Galaxies / Chapter 6 - The Boundary (Part 2)

Chapter 6 - The Boundary (Part 2)

Cedric woke sometime the next day with a migraine and with a mouth that felt like sand. After taking some medication, a few bottles of water, and lying on the couch for a while he felt significantly better. He did have a nasty welt on the side of his head from where his cranium impacted steel, but overall was better than he expected. That was the case until he opened his messages and tried to read some of what his colleagues sent when he was asleep, giving him a splitting headache that he had to close his eyes for.

"Maybe a bit too much for a bruised brain right now" he said to himself.

He tried to go out into the corridor a bit later but found the lights to be a bit too much for him either from the concussion or just his eyes weren't adjusted. He didn't really care all that much though and just decided to stay in for the day.

"Jessie, is a video of what happened to the ship yesterday available for viewing?" he asked the AI assistant.

"View-port camera recordings are accessible for the entire day, is there a specific time-frame that you are referencing?" it replied

"Yes, the period when emergency protocols were activated"

"Displaying view-port recordings on next interacted device"

Cedric picked up one of his tablets and a collage of many different cameras and angles, most showed vastness of space but a couple showed a ship decked in spiked designs and vivid reds and yellows. The ship immediately started opening fire with some kind of laser, probably a mining laser of some kind. The shields of The Comet flashed as the the laser started lancing into the upper shields and soon after several pods detached from the red and yellow ship to approach The Comet.

Unfortunately for this pirate there is a reason The Comet was renamed after Captain Rainbow took command. Soon this pirate would be the subject of an attack that is almost unheard of in modern combat. The nose of The Comet finally aligned with the pirate and the fusion drives were driven at full power. By the time the pirate ship started reacting the forward shields had already started disintegrating the hull of the unfortunate pirate ship and as The Comet passed through and the enemy ships main reactor detonated against the forward shield causing the cameras to violently shake. The rear cameras picked up a trail of glowing plasma and molten slag that are the only remains of the unlucky as The Comet streams off into the stars once again reaching warp.

Cedric was in awe at how the battle ended, he had heard rumors but more expected them to be half truths, or that it only happened when Captain Rainbow was proving herself. The fact that it is probably a common occurrence only aggravated his already bruised brain. He decided that it was something to think about later when he didn't get headaches at every turn.

He decided he needed to eat at some point later in the day and thought about asking Jeremy to bring something back from the mess whenever he goes, but remembered the button that was left on his night-stand and decided to use that.

He pressed it and a female voice came from the speaker system in his cabin "Dr. Heidel, how can we help you this evening?"

"If I could have some dinner, I would greatly appreciate it, thank you."

"Of course, we'll bring something up to you from the mess in just a few minutes"

About fifteen minutes later the same nurse that brought him to his room last night came with a covered tray from the mess.

"Dr. Heidel how are you feeling today?" she asked as she sat the tray on the table in his cabin.

"I'm doing much better today than yesterday, although I cant read anything too heavy, thank you for asking... I'm afraid I don't remember if we have been introduced"

"We recommend relative rest for a couple days, and we have not been introduced, my name is Silva Aoike" she said as she reached for a handshake.

"Cedric Heidel, you can call me Cedric" he smiled.

"Enjoy your meal Cedric, please feel free to ask if you need anything else." she smiled back and left with both the abruptness and rush that only those in the medical field are capable of.

He ate his meal, it was pretty good but was a clinically balanced meal, which was interesting in its own way. Then quickly fell asleep after, looking forward to hopefully a day without headaches.