"What are we going to do?" She asks looking at him as he stayed leant back in the chair looking up at the ceiling. There was a long moment of silence and so she decided to ask something else, but he speaks up first interrupting her.
"We'll stay here. As long as we keep the cloak on my people's ships won't be able to find us. We have some of the most cutting-edge stealth technology. Not the absolute best but definitely considered premium amongst a lot of systems." He finally answers still looking up at the ceiling.
"What if they find us somehow?"
"Well then, I guess we'll be blasting our way out then, won't we?" He says draping his right arm across his eyes and exhaling deeply. "Come on. Let's go to bed."
"Huh?" She asks highly confused. What did he mean go to bed? Weren't they technically in danger? She couldn't even fathom the thought of peaceful sleep knowing there was an entire fleet of stolen friendly ships looking for them. Surely he was playing with her. However as she watched him stand up she quickly realized he was dead serious.
"Ah shit. I gotta make sure the fuel is completely drained so I can close the ramp. Don't want any wild animals getting on board." He says as the door slides open and then closes behind.
He must have gone mad at the realization of seeing his people's ships being used against him. She thinks to herself hopping down and following after him. She watches as he disarms and disconnects the line from the fuel container and then go outside. She pokes her head out the of the ramp and continues to watch him as he does the same with the end of the line connected under the ships port side wing. He then begins rolling the line back into its coiled form and walks back into he ship and places it back neatly on a shelf.
Whiiiiiiiiiiiiirl
"Are we really going to bed?" She asks as he pushes a lever up and the ramp begins to rise up and close.
"That's what I said isn't it?" He asks back walking out of the back bay. She quickly follows him and becomes appalled when she sees him enter the bedroom. She trots over and her jaw drops as he climbs up the short ladder and lays down on the top bunk. "Oh, my apologizes. Normally your asleep on the bottom whenever I go to the head to take a piss. I had assumed you had called dibs on it. Want me down?" He asks after seeing her looking over at him.
"How can you possibly want to go to sleep at a time like this?" She demands. It was completely inconceivable that he was simply ignoring the dire situation they were in or was just pretending to be unaware of what was going on. She was completely and utterly upset at how he was going about this, and she was going to make sure he knew how serious this was. "Those people are out to capture or kill us. Why are you are so calm?"
"What'll you do if we get caught in the air or in space trying to flee huh? Let's be real. You really think we can outgun an entire fleet huh?" He asks laying down and draping his arm over his eyes. "Now stop being a pain and go to sleep or something. Don't run any power from the ship though. Hand held devices only. Starting up anything connected to the power supply will deactivate the cloaking device and give us away."
She clicked her tongue in annoyance. She knew he had a point and that frustrated her even more. "Fine she." She huffs laying down on her bunk. After a few minutes passes, she rolls over on her side. "Hey. Will we really be alright?" She asks, now genuinely concerned. She waits but after a few moments of silence she just sighs and rolls back over.
"Stop worrying. Unless I let them, ain't nobody seeing you, let alone harming you. The mission was clear. Get you back to my home world safely. Even if I have to crawl across the ground like a worm on hot cement. I will see it through." He finally answers and she decides to push her luck.
"And if you can't?"
"Well then, I guess I'll smoke you myself. I don't know what they intend to do but without you they can't quite do it, now can they?"
"Is that so?"
"Of course. Like I've said. The mission was clear. I will succeed. And if I cannot, well. I'll just make sure no evidence of the mission existed."
"I see." She simply says to herself and rolls back over.
Three days later
"Huuuuuh. Those were some persistent bastards." Asus mutters to himself as he watches the familiar and unfamiliar ships heading off planet. "Seems I was bloody right as well." He thinks to himself bitterly as multiple Tracers that were racing towards space began to explode midflight due to their hulls being worn down in the first planet entry. There was a small part of him that had wanted to believe they were friendly but after seeing the exploding ships he knew there was no way it was them.
He swiveled around expecting to see Crystal in the chair like usual, but she wasn't. He gets up and walks into the common quarters and sure enough, there she was laying upside down on couch reading another manga. "We'll be staying here a few more days…" He tells her before frowning under his helmet. "… And sit on the couch properly yeah? You're a princess, right?"
"So? I've been couped up in this blasted ship for like a week." She snaps back. He walks over and crouches in front of her. Then in one quick movement flicks her between the eyes.
"OW!"
KACLANG
"OOOW. BITCH!" She yells after grabbing her head too quickly after getting flicked caused her to fall off the couch and onto the cold Polarian floor.
"See? If you were sitting right, you wouldn't have fallen." He says simply standing back up and walking over to the fridge.
"Anyway, why are we staying here a few more days?" She asks as she picks up and brushes herself off.
"It seems like our pursuers are finally leaving the planet. I don't know how many stragglers they left behind, but we can't leave haphazardly. While I am confident, we can take some ships head on, I don't want to re-alert the entire fleet. As great as my people's armor and shields are, THANATOS is not invincible."
"Thanatos?" She asks, tilting her head to the left in confusion.
"That's the name of my ship. It's ancient Primordial for Death." He explains and she just "Ah's."
"Ah. I forgot some races do name their ships based off of their personality or something of the sort. What do they call them… Designators was it?" She genuinely asks. He was about to make a snide remark but with the innocent look she had, he didn't.
"Yeah. It's designators." He confirms and she smiles softly. She was finally becoming more open and less reclusive. He did feel slightly bad about how he previously treated her. It was her fault or anything nor did he have any reason to be mad. He had been given a priority one mission. The type whose outcome literally could make or break planets. The cream of the crop mission type that every Primordial including himself wanted, yet all he could think about was the short-sighted goal of fighting the enemy.
"Does that mean we'll be leaving the planet soon?" She asks, picking up her manga and sitting on the couch. She lays across it sideways and crosses her right leg over her left. She licks her middle finger and flips a page.
"Yeah. Since we'll be in slip-space for at least a month, if you got any exploring or stretching you want to do before departure, I'll give you half a day or so." He answers walking back into the bedroom. She watched him from the corner of her and he was out of sight, she smiled to herself. She was actually kind of thankful to their pursuers. Since they were stuck together in the same area with no technology to distract them, it forced them to interact more and now he was supremely kinder to her. She had no doubt that if they had returned to space on time that he would still treat her coldly since he could just immerse himself in work and forget about her.
Five days later
"Is she really an adult?" Asus asks himself as he lounged on the ships ramp watching her splash around in the water. Having finished his weapons maintenance, he had begun to watch her play around and enjoy herself. He had only intended to stay another three days tops but, they were about to spend around a two months in space. The only reason why they had to refuel so quickly this time was because under Primordial Protocol "Dying Star" he had to divert all power and speed to the engines to escape the enemy. That's when the unsettling thought hit him.
"Mfasf…Madfc…Maj…MAJOR!"
He was so deep in thought that he didn't hear her footsteps as she approached him and began calling his name.
"Oh, what is it?" He asks, looking up at her.
"I think I'm ready to leave now." She says as he starts to get up. "We've been here for quite some time now."
"That is true. I have been waiting on you after all." He tells her as they climb the ramp.
"Really?" She asks glaring at him.
'Yes. We'll be in space for about two months or so. So, I wanted you to enjoy land a little bit more before we left." He answers simply. As the ramp closes, he heads back to the cockpit, and she splits off to the bedroom and put on dry clothes.
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK
The sound of flipping switches fills the silent room. First, he deactivated the cloaking device. The soft buzz of the reflective shields powering down let him know, it was okay to move on to the engine warmup and pre-flight checks. He flicks more switches and soon the sounds of the power returning, followed by the soft rumble of the engines fill the cockpit. "Ah yes. It's about that time." He says with a smile as all of his indicators start flashing green.
Shortly after the boosters began to light up and the ship began to slowly lift off, Crystal walked into the cockpit and got in her proper seat and buckled in. "Anything I can do?" She asks excitedly but is immediately shot down.
"Negative. Everything has been prepared and we are ready to take off. If you need any anti-nausea mist, now is the time. We'll be space bound in roughly three mikes." He says flipping more switches and pressing multiple buttons.
"No, I think I'm fine." She says as the belly thrusters roar to life and the ship begins its ascension.
He activated the ships mid-range radar and after determining the planet was clear, he switched to long-range and scanned the immediate space zone. Once he concluded that was clear he switched to intergalactic. As expected, he got multiple pings. However, due to the current circumstances, even with the one that were flashing yellow, which normally meant friendly units, he couldn't tell which was friendly and which was hostile.
After a minute or so of debate he set coordinates for the sector that had no pings at all. It was better to risk the flight solo then run into enemy forces disguised as friendly units.
"Do you mind if I play with the head turret? If we get into trouble, it would be beneficial for me to be able to operate it no?" Crystal asks and he was about to shut down the idea but realized it was actually a good one.
"Go ahead. I'd recommend waiting for us to get into space first though. The rumbling and shaking of planet exiting is kinda rough. Oh, also make sure you put it into training mode before you do." He says reaching under his console and looking over multiple small circular disks. "Ah, this is the one." He says finally and turns around towards her. "Catch."
He gives her that small warning and tosses it to her. She just barely catches it and after she does, she looks it over. "What's this?" She asks after a second.
"The training disk." He says swiveling back around. "Don't mess it up." He jokes and she smiles.
"I won't." She says pulling down the control console for the head turret.