As soon as they shot past me, my fingers gave in. I was sure I was going to join their fate, but the door slammed shut just in time for my limp body to smack into it. I dropped to the floor, nearly losing all the air in my lungs. The doors had closed just as suddenly as they'd opened, and now it felt like the room had been muted.
"Sarth … Sarth … SARTH!"
I finally realized Kiko was shouting at me, and I rolled onto my side to look at her. "Cashel" was all I managed to mumble.
"Don't worry," she said, trying to sit up, but the metal cuff still had her pinned to the floor. "Tammy picked him up."
Rei responded in my mind. "He's alive."
"Can you toss me my knife by your hand?"
"Huh?" I looked down, and sure enough her bloodied knife was resting next to my hand. It must've been dislodged from the Quwallie when Cashel tackled him. I wasn't too keen on 'tossing' it to her so I walked it over to her. With it, she swiftly broke off the metal cuff in one swift motion and made her way to the closed flight deck door.
She placed a hand on it. "Tammy, what's the status?"
Tammy responded through the ship's intercom. "Cashel is still recovering, but he sustained no major injuries. The majority of the crew has evacuated. All that's left are those on the flight deck, including Vaughan. I have also remotely overridden and rerouted the other battleships to head back to Sola."
Tammy was amazing.
"So all that's left is to clean up here," Kiko said as she stashed her knife back at her side. "It looks like we have a new ship too. I'll go ahead and bring Vaughan, then dump the rest of the crew in the evacuation pods; you can let Sarth back on the Jago."
I was already up and walking toward her through the thrashed room. She looked a little winded, and there wasn't much I could for her, but I wanted to help.
"I can stay and help translate if you'd like," I asked, hoping she'd let me stay.
"No, that's fine. Go back and rest."
It sounded like she wanted be alone, so I left. I was walking back to the Jago when Rei spoke in my head again. "Don't feel bad. Aki always needs her time after a strenuous battle."
"It sounded like she knew him. He said someone's looking for her …"
"People with power will always have power-seekers." Her tone was somber. "But don't let it bother you!" Her voice turned light, suddenly changing the mood. "We've gotten along fine the past few years."
I was still curious though. Apparently Kiko was someone important, someone with enough power that a power-seeker would search the entire galaxy for her, but I respected Rei's wish and changed the subject.
"Now that we're done nearly dying, how is it you're talking to me without an ear piece?"
"Well," she started, "as you probably know … I'm not human. My species can link with other beings, and we can communicate with our minds. It's called a soul link. I'm also able to see what you see and to let you see what I see."
"Really?" That sounded cool.
"Yeah. Watch."
I blinked, and suddenly I was in a new room. It looked like the cargo area in the Jago. I turned my head to look around but it had no effect on what was in my—or rather, Rei's—field of vision.
"Whoa, this is kind of weird."
She laughed, and through her eyes I saw that she was now looking down the connecting terminal at me. I was facing the side of the terminal wall. It looked like I was talking to it, and we both laughed again.
I tried walking to her but ended up running into the wall, so she returned my vision.
"It takes some getting used to," she said as I reached her. We walked back into the cargo hold of the Jago. "Maybe we can practice it more in the future."
"That sounds fun."
She gave me her famous wide grin. "I can also switch your sight to duo vision which makes only one of your eyes see what I see, but that takes a lot of practice to use efficiently. Aki's the only person I can do it with."
Tammy suddenly appeared in the cargo hold, tapping away at a glass hologram panel with her hair glowing brightly in their neat braids on her chest. "Sarth, will you follow me please?"
"Sure."
She immediately turned and walked away, so I waved bye to Rei and jogged after her. "How's Cashel?" I asked.
"He's already back to normal, taking command in the flight deck. His species is very resilient."
"That's good. He saved my life back there."
We walked through the ship to the medical bay, and she opened the door for me.
"He's saved all of ours." She spoke in her usual monotone, but the sudden pulse in her glowing hair told me that comment meant a lot to her.
She walked to the table in the middle of the room and activated it. "I want to check your condition after that commotion."
I lay on the table, thankful for the cushioned mat that molded to my body. The last checkup had lasted for hours. But now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure she left me there as another joke.
"I'll be back later," Tammy said as she walked out the door.
Since I wasn't able to move, I ended up falling asleep. Sometime later I woke up to see a change of clothes near my head. I guessed Tammy had come by. As I moved to sit up, the table again helped lift me.
As I unfolded the clothes, I noticed the sleeves were short. That automatically put me in a good mood. No long sleeves meant no more brace, at least up top. I put the shirt and trousers on in under a minute and was happy to notice there was no movement restriction. I had felt good the past few days, and this proved that it was more than just the brace taking care of me.
Tammy's face appeared above the table in the form of a hologram. "You passed your checkup."
I stretched my arms and legs around; they felt great. "Thanks, Tammy!"
Her face disappeared.
I set out to find Rei because I knew she wouldn't mind helping me get back into shape. I headed down to the cargo bay where I thought she might be, but before I turned the corner I happened to overhear a conversation between Cashel and Kiko.
"I heard what happened in there," Cashel said. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's not the first time we've run into another Eyes of Blue."
I heard the sound of something being set on the floor.
"This one was different. You don't think he was talking about him, do you?"
"Even if he was, they're never going to catch us."
Cashel was silent for a moment. His tone was weary as he said, "We should get to Crux in a few days. Try and relax 'til then."
"You're the one that needs rest, old man."
I pretended to just arrive and turned the corner.
"Hello, Sarth," Cashel said. "Good timing. Tammy said you're all clear. You can help us unload supplies from our new ship." He gestured down to a crate of food beside them.
"Sure, no problem." I smiled at Akiko, wondering what secrets she was hiding.
#
After a morning of light training that still left me exhausted, Cashel found me and asked to speak to me after I cleaned up. I didn't know if I should be nervous or not. Maybe he knew I'd overheard his conversation with Kiko or maybe now that we were almost to our destination, I was going to get the 'nice knowing you, good luck on your own' speech. I took a fast shower and then met him on the flight deck. He looked serious, all business. Tammy got up from her seat and left without a word, leaving us alone. Now I was definitely nervous, and I racked my brain trying to remember if I did anything wrong.
"So, you've been with us for about a month now," Cashel started, leaning against the ship's wall. "I don't know if you've noticed, but this ship is sorely lacking in male companionship."
I chuckled, feeling a bit more at ease. Making jokes was a good sign. "Yeah, I was wondering how you ended up with a crew of all girls."
Cashel turned his face up toward the ceiling with a smile, a hand caressing his long white beard. "Ah, I didn't plan it that way. That's just how fate fell into place." He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "You don't have a problem with that, do you?"
"What? No! Of course not! I had a friend growing up. She—" I stopped, thinking about how to explain Lone. I'd never talked to anyone about my past. "We grew up together …" I trailed off awkwardly, hating myself for bringing it up in the first place. Luckily, Cashel, in all his wisdom, changed the subject.
His eyes narrowed in on me as he spoke, "Sarth, I called you here to ask if you'd like to join the Jago crew."
My eyebrows twitched. My mouth opened slightly, but it took a moment for the words to come out. "You … you want me to be a bounty hunter? I mean … I have no skills. This is my first time in space—"
I stopped. What was I doing? This was the perfect opportunity, a fresh start from the past I wanted to escape. And I liked the crew. Cashel, Rei, Tammy, and Kiko of course.
Cashel stood and crossed his arms with a sigh. "This isn't an interview, Sarth. In fact it's the opposite. It's only been a month, but you're easy to read, kid, and you've got heart. That's why I like you. And I'm sure I speak for the others as well when I say we'd like you to stay, but it's entirely up to you."
I'd never amounted to anything before, other than being used for my accounting skills as a slave, but that wasn't the reason why I wanted to stay. This crew … these people … I wanted to be with them and get to know them more.
My mind was made.
"Yes, I'll join your crew." I nodded.
He gave me a wide grin along with a firm slap on the back. "Welcome to the crew, kid."
#
"Prepare to descend into the Crux atmosphere."
I was writing in my room when Tammy's voice came from the intercom. She'd been on the Sola ship for the last couple of days apparently rigging the ship to pilot remotely from the Jago, so it was comforting to hear her familiar voice. I set down the writing stick and got ready for the ship to start jittering like when we'd left Sola, but it didn't happen. I wasn't sure what was going on, so I put all my stuff away and went to find out.
Everyone was on the flight deck. Tammy and Cashel were in their seats preparing to land. Kiko and Rei were at a table looking through a hologram of what looked like a catalog of items.
Rei was on a headset talking to someone. "Thirty thousand Yomen? You're joking, right? For a fully operational Sola battleship turbine? Okay, you go get yourself a Sola turbine then; let me know how that goes for you."
"Who is she talking to?" I asked Kiko who was focused on her own hologram.
"She's selling the goods we've accumulated from our excursion," she said without taking her eyes off the screen.
The text was in another language, but it suddenly changed to text I could read, without me having to touch it. This was once again thanks to Tammy of course. She had told me that she was working on something that would let me read any text I saw, but she needed some parts to complete it. It just so happened that the Sola battleship had the necessary equipment needed, and so she'd summoned me to the medical bay last night to install both the vocal and reading transmitter. Now I could read, speak, and understand a multitude of languages instantaneously. By this point I was pretty sure the Jago wouldn't function without her.
I focused on what Kiko was looking at. She was browsing through ammo catalogs and making purchases. In the corner of the screen was a large declining number. I guessed Tammy gave her a certain amount to spend; it was dropping quickly.
"Sarth, come over here," Cashel called. I went over and saw a very large glistening white planet through the sun-shield. "I thought you'd like to see this."
I had never seen a planet from space before; it was such a beautiful sight. There were splotches of blue across the surface. This must've been water, and there was a lot of it.
"That's the most water I've ever seen," I said in awe.
Cashel burst out laughing. "You clearly haven't been out much."
We started picking up speed.
"Sit down," Tammy ordered.
I went to find a seat just as the ship started the jittering I was expecting earlier. It progressively grew stronger. Glancing around the flight deck, I saw a few wires and knobs that were vibrating out of place and either falling to the ground or sparking with a loud crackle.
"Uh, is this normal?" I shouted through the strain of the ship.
I was ignored as Tammy and Cashel were giving status reports and frantically checking the controls. I glanced at Kiko and Rei. They just continued what they were doing, buying and selling stuff.
I sat at my seat and tried not to panic. It'll all be over soon, I kept telling myself.
"Brace yourselves," Tammy said in her usual calm voice.
We approached a docking bay that stretched as far as I could see. There were hundreds of ships, some so small they would only fit one person and some so massive I didn't know how they won the fight against gravity. Most ships were flying in and out of the planet in a controlled fashion.
But we were falling fast, too fast I thought. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. But apparently it was nothing Tammy couldn't handle. Somehow the ship landed without too much of a jolt.
I didn't realize I was gripping my seat so tight until my palms became numb.
"Relax!" Rei took off her headphones. "You're gonna make my heart race. Not bad for your first landing though." She grinned. "Let's go out! We've been cooped up in here too long! Aki, we'll wait for you at the lounge!" She jumped out of her seat, grabbed my hand, and bolted to the exit, dragging me along.
"Hey, don't buy anything yet!" Kiko yelled back.
I prepared myself for my first view of another planet. Once we stepped outside, it was much colder than I expected. Maybe because it only had one sun. I didn't get much of a first view though; all I saw were ships, ships, and more ships. I hadn't been able to take in the details of the Jago as we were fleeing Sola, so I was eager to turn around and take my first real look at it. When I did, my jaw dropped.