Taisen was weightlessly floating, surrounded by dark silence. He felt adrift in the void of death.
Then his consciousness began to return. His body jerked from blissful unawareness as he thrashed around in the thick translucent fluid creating a stream of fluid that rose slowly to the surface through the viscous sludge. His heart rate climbed until it felt like his chest was about to explode under the pressure. He could hear the blood as it moved quickly through the veins of his ears as he gasped for air.
His eyes popped open in time to see a med droid come over and adjust the settings of his recovery pod. Within moments, his heart rate slowed and the involuntary thrashing of his bruised and injured body settled.
Though his body was soothed by the tranquillizer, Taisen's mind was now fully alert and aware. Memories of frenzied motion and impending death flooded his mind as he recalled the flying steel shards, falling deathtrap of a ship and unsecured torpedoes. The crew of the UNS Arctic must have brought him here to heal.
Something tugged at the edge of his consciousness. A persistent feeling that he had forgotten something vitally important that could either aid him tremendously or present a risk later on.
Since coming back to life, he had worked toward one clear goal. All his effort had been put in to help the Humans of Earth -his former home- to overcome a hidden threat whose scope they had yet to even comprehend and to aid the Marrakech of the red planet Agadir to return to prominence with the aid of the Sky Forge which was a giant automated shipyard, constructed by the Enjarian Infinite Empire fifteen thousand years before the rise of the Galactic Federation to create the most powerful space-faring navy of all time.
The Sky Forge was a fusion of lost technology and dark side energies that drew energy and matter from nearby stars which, when combined with the power of ancient magic, was capable of creating an endless supply of ships or so Wrath/Taisen had read in text comprising of the accounts of aliens who claimed to have read about it in older texts written by others who heard about its awesome power.
None of that mattered because all he needed now was a relic currently in the possession of the UN and he would be closer to achieving his goal but the feeling that he had forgotten something persisted. He cast his mind back to the incident aboard the derelict ship and tried to picture every scene and the feeling got stronger as if he was in the right place. Something felt unusual about it.
Taisen suddenly remembered that he felt like he had been there before. Not in its current wrecked state like in his old life but very recently. Like he had been at the controls as it glided through space. He vaguely recalled the vibrations from its thrusters that he felt through the flight controls and the tight turning radius afforded to him by its state of the art primary stabilizers.
He shuffled to one side and fumbled for an emergency button he knew was built into the inside of all pods.
***
Standing at one side of the bridge viewports of the Star Destroyer UNS Arctic, Ensign Swan watched as they crept toward the target zone on the planet below. A few hours ago they had received a distress call from a crew of science officers led by legendary scientist and expert on dead civilisations, Colonel Lyn Wei. The message stated that the team were in peril in the Western half of the Great Northern Forest of the planet Argos so UNS Arctic had sent ground forces to comb through and locate the beacon left by the expedition team.
Seated behind him and to his left on the command chair was the blue-skinned Avarosian Lieutent Alita, deputising for the injured Commander Taisen. For his own part, Ensign Swan had stopped questioning why an alien who hadn't graduated from the Naval Academy was placed at the helm of the ship and why another alien with no command experience was chosen for his second in command.
Ensign Swan had witnessed the bravery and tactical genius of Commander Taisen but he had yet to see the usefulness of Lieutenant Alita. For the most part, she was pleasant to look at despite her bluish skin and displayed remarkable empathy towards the crew. She left her post on the bridge to help troops injured in the search for the missing science officers to nurse them back to health.
His thoughts were interrupted by beeping at his station. He frowned as he sat down to investigate. Liurenenat Alita picked up on his shocked response.
"What does the report say, Ensign?" She asked.
"Commander Taisen has left his recovery pod and is currently on his way to the bridge."
"Does it say if he completed his therapy?"
"The report says his treatment is incomplete and that he left because he had something urgent to say."
At that moment, the tall and slender figure of Commander Taisen strode into the bridge and without acknowledging the salutes of the crew, made his way to the command chair just vacated by lieutenant Alita.
"Ensign Swan, I need you to find out if a ship docked on Earth is still there," Taisen said.
"Should I leave the task of supervising the ground forces then, Commander?" Swan replied.
"The name of the ship is the Lady Luck and its captain is Jorun Na'ak," Taisen said ignoring the question.
"Commander, I'm glad to see that you're in better shape but why is it important to find that pirate at this moment?"
"Compare the scans of the derelict ship we found to the Lady Luck," Taisen replied. "Leave a little tolerance in your parameters to compensate for heavy modifications."
Alita went to work at a console close to the viewport on the opposite end of Ensign Swan.
"Captain, the Lady Luck left Earth shortly after we did. We have no records about its whereabouts because Mr Na'ak submitted fake manifest and destination documents," Ensign Swan announced.
"Not surprising," Taisen replied.
"The Lady Luck is a ninety-five per cent match for the derelict ship," Alita said in a surprised voice. "What does this mean, Commander?"
"It means that there was a third ship that was being chased," Taisen revealed. "They most likely split up to evade their attackers. One was caught and destroyed, one was severely damaged and the last one probably made it as far as Boettia where it was stolen or taken by our dear friend, Jorun Na'ak."