Solomon paced his quarters impatiently, waiting for a bright idea to surge through his well-oiled brain. His hair greasy and messy, his eyes baggy and bloodshot. It had been a long two days since they had released Decius from the brig with the uncharacteristic help from Lucius Deeph. The Captain of the Second usually growled, flexed his muscles a little and thumped off somewhere to break something. Once Kyril entered the room and urged the story be told, Decius told them an unlikely story, but a story backed by the beast-like no nonsense style Captain of the Second.
"Captain Deeph caught me, in the mess hall, when I threw the bread his way. He cornered me in the docking bay, and it got a little heated." "Well, that can explain where you were during the incident, if base security confirm it"
(Which it did, The Eve's security sensors only covered the Evergreen)
"Yes sir,"said Decius.
Solomon clasped his hand over his forehead, rubbing his hair line, "But what happened to your foot then? The saboteur hurt his leg by hitting something hard."
"Well... look at him!" said Decius in surprise pointing at the monstrous Captain. "He's massive! There's no way in hell I could defend myself with my fists with him! so... I tried to high kick him in the head... not my best move, I'll admit..." sniffed Decius.
Captain Deeph let out a barking laugh. "Not your best aim either!" Teased the Captain of the Second, "He missed me, and kicked a full ammo container!" he began laughing deeply. "He's got balls this one has! Hey, Sol, if you don't want him anymore, Can I have him pretty please?" asked Lucius placing his hands on Decius's shoulders.
Solomon stopped pacing his quarters finally, sitting down inside the bed frame than sank into the walls. The inner wall of the bed frame covered in pictures of scenes from his home, his long-passed parents and cut outs of poster girls. "Lieutenant Gordon, we have completed all inspections and searches." said Eve, breaking his train of thought. "And? What's the problem?" asked Solomon in a monotone of boredom, expecting further delays. "We have found absolutely nothing, sir. You are required on the bridge to complete your pre-launch checks, once more." said Eve smoothly. Solomon raised himself eagerly to the bridge with a newfound energy, but with a question of doubt planting itself within his brain.
'Nothing wrong was found?'
Once Solomon had finished his checks from his command chair, he sat back, the fed-up feeling that had been infesting his senses suddenly parted. A new feeling began to turn inside his stomach. 'What was this feeling?' Solomon thought to himself. Excitement. Solomon had just come to realise that now his checks are complete, the Evergreen will soon be on its way. Solomon would be finally at home. Amidst the stars, finding new things, travelling into a new adventure. That is what he loved about The Evergreen, the constant unknown of space.
Kyril was sat in his chair, with a large transparent monitor floating in front of his eyes. His face showing boredom of the tedious checks he still had to make, making a sniff, he swiped the monitor aside commenting "It'll be fine" and pressed his communications button on his command chair. "All hands, this is Captain Sinderman, we are preparing to make way, so strap yourselves in, Engineering, please make sure everything runs smoothly... Miss Ken, please report to the Bridge as soon as we have reached No-grav." The two banked tiers of consoles in the command Bridge were fully manned, all twenty consoles had their human counterpart working quickly amongst the buttons. The Helmsman swirled on their chairs idly, waiting for their Captain to give the order to begin launch. The lights of the Bridge suddenly turned off, the darkness was subdued by the green and blue glow of the command consoles. The central and flanking paths marked with glowing golden lights on their sides to allow them to be seen. Solomon sank into his leather chair, grinning. 'This is it' he thought to himself. 'Home.' he had nothing to do with the launching, just sit back, and relax.
The crew busied themselves as the engines began to shudder and everything took on a slight vibration, Solomon, with nothing to currently do found himself thinking about the incident. 'Why would someone strike Sandra, someone who hadn't even seen them, if they did nothing to be locked up for? It doesn't make sense. How can nothing be wrong with all this effort to escape and hide?'
The Captains aboard the other vessels awaited in the void above the planet. They had patiently waited so far for the two days that The Evergreen had delayed. The Judgement's captain; Errol, had not enjoyed the last two days, he found that he was taking a V.I.P. on of his own. High Advisor T. Winslow. Errol felt like spitting every time he heard that foul mans name. He waltzed about the ship as if he owned it. Now, granted, on the surface he did hold a substantial rank over every one on the ship except Errol, the had roughly the same authority, but on his ship, Errol was in control, not Winslow. But Winslow, the Emperor's golden boy had a shiny piece of paper from the Emperor himself stating that Winslow was acting commander of The Judgement. Errol had no choice, and he was ordered by Winslow; not to inform any of the other captains.