They were at their usual spots, Sara at the front, staring off into space, and Jace in the back, staring in a different, less galactic way, his thoughts muddled and a mess. Their food was about three-quarters gone, and the cards hadn't been touched since Stryker's passing.
Sara stood quickly and leaned forward, staring out the front viewing panel.
"Someone is out there." She said, her voice filled with a mixture of excitement and fear.
That jolt Jace into movement, and he stumbled up to the front to look out the window. He saw the familiar sight of two thrusters in the distance. Immediately Sara punched the distress signal. A light began flashing on the dashboard. A few minutes later a voice came over the com channel. "This is Sam Marcus aboard the Enlightened, senior member of the cadet academy. We have received your distress signal. What is your status."
Sara pushed Jace out of the way to lean toward the comm. "One dead, two alive, uninjured. We are former slaves of the ship Holimar. Our comrade was injured during the escape and passed a couple of days ago. We are adrift with nowhere to go. We intend no harm."
There was a moment's pause, then the comm crackled. "We see there are no armaments on your ship and only two life forms. Prepare for deep scanning, do not fear, this is simply a safety precaution. We will board soon after."
The smaller of the two pinpoints of life approached, and Jace saw it was a classic, single-pilot fighter ship. There was a simplistic symbol of the top view of a ship, surrounded by a solid blue arrowhead shape. He also recognized that. It was the symbol of the cadet academy. Sara also noticed it and became very excited.
"Look Jace, it's the academy! We're not in any danger!"
The thought flickered through Jace's head that they could easily be fakes, there was no way of really knowing, but he shrugged it off as foolish. Acting as someone else wouldn't help them in this case, there was nothing of value to be gained by faking it.
The smaller ship circled them several times slowly as they scanned the tug ship. They must not have found anything, because the bigger vessel began to approach. Jace hadn't seen this one in person, as they weren't built for atmosphere travel, they were built and maintained on space stations built for such things. He had seen it in pictures though, it was an assault carrier, a small type of ship that could only carry a couple of fighter ships. It dwarfed the tugboat though, being about five times its size.
Jace felt the tug shudder as it was caught up in the tractor beam. Then the tug began to twist and turn, and he realized this wasn't your classic tractor beam. Eventually, it was facing away from the ship, with the large rear cargo doors facing the entry hatch. It was disorienting, staring off into empty space, being guided by an unknown hand. They stopped abruptly, causing both Jace and Sara to stumble and fall in a jumbled heap. They quickly separated themselves and scrambled to their feet, their faces burning. It was a very strange experience for Jace, he had never really known a girl, so they intimidated him a bit and he had never made physical contact with a girl before. It was… weird. It made him feel uncomfortable and embarrassed, and he wasn't sure why.
The thought quickly fled his mind when the cargo door slid open. He panicked when he realized they were just floating in space, their cargo door open, but nothing seemed to happen. In fact, a whoosh of fresh air came into their artificially supported, stagnated-air filled ship.
A young man stepped into the ship. He was tall and blonde and wore a fitted, crisp uniform with a white jacket and blue slacks with white lines up the sides. He wore a pin on the edge of his collar by his thought. It matched the symbol they'd seen on the fighter ship earlier, except his had a gold lining around the blue. He also wore a gold, five-pointed star on his other collar's edge. He carried himself with an air of command that immediately intimidated Jace, he instinctively shrank back, though with Sara it seemed to have the opposite effect. She straightened and met his eyes levelly.
Seeing both their reactions, The boy smiled, and immediately the formal mask was gone. He still held himself formally, but Jace felt warmth from him instead of cold. He was still reluctant to approach, but he relaxed a little. Sara returned the smile shyly, and her face became red. Jace observed her curiously, then realized what was going on. He'd never had time for trivial things like crushes or romance, but that didn't mean he didn't know what it was. He mentally grinned.
"Hello, I'm Sam, I'm captaining this ship right now. I mean you no harm. Finding you two here is a surprise, we weren't expecting to find any remaining survivors. The escape pods they make nowadays are pretty much luxury ships unto themselves." He observed their collars. "Although I supposed they wouldn't have allowed you on a standard escape pod. Whoever thought of the tug was a genius."
Immediately the reminder of Striker crashed Jace back into his grief. He struggled to keep his face passive, but the grief was pretty evident on his face. Sara glanced at him then looked at Sam. "we have a dead man aboard. I'm not sure what you want to do with him…"
Sam raised his hand to stop her. "Before we do anything, you'll have to meet with my superior. I may be Captain, but I'm only acting captain. The real head of this vessel is on her way."
As soon as he finished speaking, a 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 entered the room. It wasn't a cold presence like Sam had put off when he first entered, but rather, it was a statement of power, more like a force of nature, and one was simply forced to accept it as it was. At the center of this presence was a woman. She was perhaps mid-fifties, though you could tell her age was no hindrance to her. She had white, short-cropped hair. And her eyes were grey metal, an appropriate color based on Jace's first impression of her. She wore a uniform similar to Sam's, except her jacket was a grey color, as well as being cut differently to fit her feminine form, and she wore black slacks.
She turned to Sam, and Jace noticed his cold captain mask had returned. She said "report, captain?"
Sam saluted by pressing his hand against his heart, then addressed the older woman. "ma'am. These are the only two aboard. No indications of aggression, Everything appears as they said."
The woman nodded then turned to Sara. "And what's your name young miss?"
Sara looked at her defiantly, but there was a little hesitation in her voice. "Sara, just Sara."
Jace would've been surprised had he not been overtaken with grief. Sara had seemed very proud of her name before. It seemed out of character for her to hide her identity like that.
The woman gave her a long look then turned to Jace. Seeing his distress, she somehow managed to pull off a gentle voice while maintaining her rock-hard, don't-mess-with-me demeanor. "What's your name boy?" Jace numbly noticed the slight shift in language from calling Sara "little miss" and him "boy". But didn't see it as a matter that needed further thought. He didn't answer, just looked at her dumbly. Sara spoke up. "His name is Jace, he was close to the man who…" she trailed off, glancing at the pile of boxes that hid Stryker.
The older officer stepped back and looked them both over. Her eyes seemed to pierce them and weigh them, evaluating. Then she turned toward the door.
"Come with us, we can provide you with proper food and new attire. After that, we will discuss your future." She turned to Sam. "frisk them and double-check those collars. If they truly are duds, have them removed, we want them wearing them as short a time as possible."
Sam saluted. "Yes ma'am!" he turned and beckoned to them. Before the white-haired woman could leave, Jace finally spoke up. "what about Stryker?"
The woman turned to him with kind yet firm eyes. "A coffin in space is the most honorable way to send someone off, let's allow him this honor." She turned and left.
Jace looked back at the pile of boxes. He knew that his last sight was the best he was gonna have, he'd seen decomposing bodies in the dirtier parts of the slums back home. He made no move toward his former friend and followed Sara and Sam into the brightly lit ship.
This new ship was much brighter and more sterile than either the slavers ship or the tug ship. There were lights all along the ceiling, and the top half of the hall was white, and the bottom was blue, with a long narrow, chrome-colored plate in between the two colors. Though it didn't chase away the grief, it felt like Jace got a breath of fresh air, and he walked a little lighter.
Sam led them into a room where all sorts of tools and smaller weapons lined the walls. He picked up a scanner and swept it up and down their bodies. He looked down at a screen on the scanner, then nodded, seeming unsurprised. Then he brought the scanner close to their necks and focused the bean on their collars. The screen on the scanner flashed, then turned blue with some green script on it. The clashing colors made it difficult to read, plus Jace wasn't the best at reading anyway. Sam went rifling through a metal drawer and pulled out a small, key-looking needle. He approached them and stuck it onto a minuscule hole on their collars, impossible to see without a close examination. Jace immediately felt them loosen and he quickly pulled his off. He hadn't realized how suffocating they were until the moment before they came off. He looked at it carefully before Same took it and disposed of it. It just looked like an elastic band. He wasn't sure how it could cause the pain he had felt during his early time as a slave. 𝘖𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺, he thought to himself as he handed it to Sam.
Having established their freedom, Sam led them to where their rooms were. He was relieved when the woman's and men's quarters were near each other. He didn't want to be separated from Sara right now. He also was amazed to find he had a personal room. It was small, bare, and had a simple cot, but it was the best he'd ever had.
Sam grinned at his delight. "Don't get used to it. It's not common on most ships, but personnel aboard Madam Sheevs vessel get special treatment." Jace immediately fell onto his bed. It was the softest thing he'd ever felt. It was quite firm, but compared to the ground on his home planet, followed by the hard metal beds they had had on the slaver ship, then the hard benches aboard the tugship, this was a dream come true. Sara looked in on them, then made a disgusted face. "You should wash up first. Don't want to dirty up your bedding."
Jace matched her expression. The only cleaning he'd ever experienced was aboard the slavers' ships and they were anything but pleasant, basically being doused with suds followed by automatic roll brushes going up and around his body. And they weren't soft brushes either. Jace didn't have a high opinion of bathing.
It didn't seem to be up to him though. Sam, excited to show him around, ushered him to the showers and left him, a cleaning rock and towel in hand, in the changing area outside the "Steam room" the other boy called it. Jace stripped his clothes and stepped into the room. It was nothing like the slavers bathing room. It was large, so more than one person could use it, and the walls were tiled, but that was where the similarity ended. The room was completely bare, with bench-like protrusions running around the room at about midthigh to him. It was built for grown men, but it wasn't unusable for Jace. There were vents around the base of the room.
He found a knob near the door and twisted it. Immediately steam shot out of the vents and quickly filled the room. It startled Jace and he gave an involuntary yelp. He jumped onto the benches and pulled his feet up quickly, but the water, though hot, wasn't scalding. He relaxed and just enjoyed the feel of his pores being cleansed. Then he tried to figure out this whole bathing thing. It wasn't hard to figure out, He knew what the towel was for, and he saw no brushes, so he used the rock on his skin. It was rough but pleasant. He scrubbed himself over, and afterward, he didn't feel like all his skin had been peeled off. It was a pleasant feeling, and he saw why so many people did it back home. He quickly turned the steam room off, then toweled off and tossed his towel into a hole in the wall where Sam had shown him to dispose of his towel after.
He found his former jumpsuit had been taken and replaced with fresh, clean clothes. The pants were similar to Sam's, but instead of a jacket, there was a grey long-sleeved shirt with a white mesh along the sides up to his armpits. He donned the new clothes, which fit him perfectly, then slowly walked back to his room.