"How's the practice going?" Asus asks as he mindlessly watches the white streaks of light that are streaking past them. For as many times as he had entered slip-space, one would think he had gotten used to the sight, yet he still found it intriguing. It had been roughly three weeks since they got off Bulla and were now just cruising through slip-space.
"I think it's going okay. As long as they are relatively still, I think I'll be able to defend us pretty well." Crystal answers somewhat proudly and he shakes his head at her confidence. She had been improving. She spent at least seven hours a day in the head turret. He was actually quite amazed at her dedication. He genuinely felt that his preconceived notions about all royals and government officials being lazy was wrong. Seemed like not every batch was bad after all. He continues thinking to himself as he makes two plates of food.
He was also beginning to feel bad about their food supply as well. It was based off his diet of meat. Unlike the Primordial's who were meat eaters, the Chalmayan's body required plants and meat. It was obvious that she was already feeling the effects of having an unhealthy diet. Her movements were lethargic, and she was eating less too. He could also tell by her hair. She was doing her absolute best to maintain it but even he could tell it was becoming dry and brittle.
He sat on the couch and places his elbows on his knees and then puts his head in his hands. "The mission is clear. Escort the Princess safely home as soon as possible. There was nothing about her health or wellbeing." He says to himself as his eyes flip through the neural images of the mission assigned to him. "But..." His thoughts soon became jumbled as he wrestled with what to do. Finally he stands up knowing what he must do. "The mission is priority one. It will be completed by any means." He finally says walking over to the two plates of food. He grabs to forks and picks up the food and heads back to the cockpit.
"Eat up." He says dryly and he watches her take off the console. He hands her, her food, and frowns slightly at her shaky hand as she takes the fork. He walks to his seat and sits where he can watch her eat. Despite her best efforts, he could tell she was struggling to stop the shaking. "Do you enjoy my people's expeditionary food?" He asks, taking a bite of his food.
"Of course." She answers taking another mouthful herself.
"Would you mind stopping somewhere and getting some food based off your people's biology?" He asks and she simply smiles.
"No thank you. I'm content with the meals provided. I'm a burden enough as it is." She answers and he sighs, taking another bite of his.
"Very well then." He says dryly and then proceeds to continue eating.
"Hey. I'm not feeling so well... I think I'm going to take a nap or something." Crystal says a couple hours later.
"Alright." He says, still looking over his intergalactic map. He takes off his helmet and rubs his metallic eyes. "This is to ensure mission completion."
He flicks some random switches and yanks back on the thruster. He lurches forward slightly as the ship is pulled from slip-space and brought back into the normal flow of time. "Alrighty. According to the archives, Saini is the closet planet that supports intergalactic trade and has a diet similar to the Chalmayans." He says tilting the throttle and joystick to the right as he begins to head for the planet pinged on his map.
He put the ship into autopilot and then began the procedures for planetary entrance. "Fuck." He mumbles holding the left side of his head as a sharp pain begins to throb. "Her health is essential to the mission." He mumbles as the pain slightly increases. He gets up and wobblily begins making his way to the back of the ship. He heads to the far-right corner and finds a roughly one and half by one and half meter box. He lifts the lid and moves aside some of the items in the way until he finds an orange hand sized box just like what the Admiral had described.
He reads the instructions and just as directed he pops one and his body involuntary frowns in disgust at the flavor. He keeps the bottle in one hand and closes the box with his free one. He couldn't believe that a single pill could counter a headache that came from over thinking the mission. But after a few minutes passed he felt the ship violently shake for a second indicating they had entered the planet's atmosphere and just as he started making his way back to the cockpit, he realized the pain had subsided.
"Seems the Admiral was right after all." He says and he stops by their room on his way and puts the bottle in the sack hanging from his rack. He turns to head back out, but Crystal grabs his hand and stops him.
"Why's the ship shaking?" She asks slowly, sitting up.
"We're on the landing on the planet Saini to get you food that supports your biology. Your body is failing to adapt to my people's diet. You just went straight into it without properly preparing for a diet change and now your body is suffering. Therefore I determined that it'll be vastly more convenient and mission friendly if we settled down here until you've recovered." He answers and he can see the troubled look on her face.
"No, no. I'm fine I promise." She says but he pushes her back onto the bed.
"You are not. My eyes do not lie to me. Your body is struggling not to shut down." He tells her and she only looks down in shame.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to cause you any trouble." She says apologetically as he pulls his hand away.
"I know you didn't. However, you not wanting to be a burden and not taking care of yourself properly has now become an even greater burden. Therefore, from now on if you feel I'll or something let me know as soon as possible so we can avoid this in the future." He says and she nods in acceptance.
"Okay..." She says and just as she was about to apologize, he cuts her off.
"And stop apologizing. As long as you're traveling with me you are not a princess. You are a warrior contracted to Primia." He tells her and she wants to respond but couldn't find the words. Since she was staying silent, he took it as she understood and returned to the cockpit.
"This is the Temple to unknown Pilot; we must verify your name transponder and code before clearing you hot to land, over." Comes the soft female voice through his headset.
"This is Major Asus, Derringer to Temple, do you read me over?" He asks, making sure his comms work.
"We read you wall to wall tree top tall Major." Comes the reply from the tower where he was trying to land. "Send it when ready."
"Understood. Sending it now. Stand by." He says, pulling up his codes and clearing his throat as he reads it out to the tower. "Transponder code is PRLFS436AM1/2/2023, designator Thanatos. How copy?"
"Solid copy Thanatos. You are cleared for landing in Bay ZF5 on the Tangent Wing over."
"Understood Temple. What are the pre-landing procedures over?"
"Bay ZF5 is designed for Primordial use Thanatos. Landing procedures will be your standard pre-land over."
"Roger. Thank you. Over and out." He says ending the communication. He would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about the docking station. However upon arrival it seemed he was worried over nothing as each landing bay was private. He once again double checked the autopilot and made sure it was in landing procedure 3 and then made his was to the bedroom. "Hey princess. Get dressed and cover your face. We're moving to actual lodging for the time being."
She groggily looks over at him and gets up. He turns away and walks to the back and begins to lower the ramp. Once it's fully down he sees three people waiting below him whom he assumed to be the maintenance crew. He reaches for the small pouch on the right side of his belt and pulls out a teal coin that was roughly 1.75 cm in diameter and 2mm thick.
As the ship gets closer to the ground, he starts walking down the ramp and just as he gets to the end the ship touches down. One of the men comes jogging up to him and begins requesting roughly the same information as the tower's Temple did. Once that was complete, he asked for the duration of his stay and that's when he showed the coin. "How long will this get me?" He asks and the man gulps obviously scared. Taking it as it was enough, he begins to reach for on his side and the man lightly panics.
"Ah! W-wait. No need to get violent." He stammers and Asus raises an eyebrow in confusion.
"I'm not? I'm reaching for another coin." He says and the mans face seems to melt into relief. "Just who do you take me for?" He asks as he cancels his reach.
"Apologies. That coin will get you one month." He says take a step away.
"That's too long. Can you do a week and use the rest on maintenance and a five months' worth of intergalactic travel food supplies?"
"Yes, sir we can, however even then..." He trails off and Asus sighs.
"Keep the rest for yourself or split it among your crew. I know how hard maintenance life is." He says flipping him the coin and begins to walk back on board. "Me and my partner will be off in 5 mikes."
"Ah, yes. Ah, thank you sir." The man says happily as he turns and jogs back to his crew.
He goes through the cockpit one more time to make sure he has everything he needs and after confirming the cockpit was fine as is, he heads to the bedroom and sees Crystal just finishing up.
"Got everything?" He asks and she nods. He doubles checks everything and grabs what he needs as well and then they make their way off the ship and as their making their way out of the bay, a man runs up to them.
"Sir, wait a moment please!" He shouts and both of them turn around. "My boss said take this map. It doesn't seem like your from here and he was hoping this will prove useful to you." He says holding out a small drive that could be inserted into ones wrist and would serve as a holographic handheld map.
"Oh, thank you. Tell your boss thanks as well." He says graciously as he takes the small drive. The boy just smiles and turns around and starts to jog back to the ship.
"That was nice." Crystal says as she watches him insert it into his wrist. A quick anti-virus scan is ran, and once it was cleared of anything harmful he opens the map and just like they were told a map populates. It was extremely detailed and had multiple layers and features. He picks the one based of their location and then sets the destination for the furthest possible hotel. Using the map they quickly get out of the bay and onto the busy streets Salu. The city they were currently in.
He uses the transport feature to hail a ride and soon a four door space vehicle flies down. He asks if he can go to the location and the driver confirms he can. So they both thank him and hop in.
After about 30 minutes they finally arrive at their destination. Asus hands the driver a smaller silver coin and tells him to keep the change. Immediately after closing the door the driver lets down his window and asks for their departure and he tells him a week. The driver then hands him his call frequency and tells him if at anytime he needs a ride to give him a call, he lived roughly 10 minutes away roughly three sectors down. Asus thanks him and they go about their separate ways.
"These people sure are nice." Crystal says as they walk inside.
"Seems like money really is intergalactic." He responds dryly and takes her arm in his. "Your my wife alright? We're on vacation here because this planet has lots of delicacies that are said to be life changers. Do not deviate from that."
"Okay." She says drawing closer to him.
"Good evening, sir, and ma'am. How may I help you tonight?" The cheerful young man at the counter asks as they stop in front of him.
"I'd like a one-week deluxe room." Asus says and the man pulls up his holo-pad and begins checking for his requested room. We have seven available on the 23rd Floor, is that alright?" He asks after a couple seconds of searching.
"That's absolutely fine. Does any come with a view of the city?" He asks and the man says yes.
"Sure do. Rooms 2000 to 2023 do. I'd recommend room 2016. It's a corner room giving you a split view of the city and the mountain range to the East." He suggest and Crystal squeezes his arm.
"That room sounds great." He says taking the suggested room.
"Great choice. Also all of our rooms come with all day access to all of our facilities." He adds as he makes a couple of swipes on the holo-pad. "Alrighty, and your total comes out to 1.3 Fihks." He says and Asus sighs in relief at a currency he could actually convert.
He hands him a small circular gold coin and the man thanks him. He then provides him a second as a tip and after receiving the room key the two walks down the hallway and calls for the elevator. The door pings open and they both walk into it, still arm in arm. "You stay here for a bit. I'll go get you some food that matches your diet, okay?" He tells her as she starts really using him for support.
"Thank you." She says as the elevator pings open and then head over to their room. She gasps in awe as the view was just like he said. To the East the setting sun was highlighting the snowcapped mountain range and to the West was the beautifully lit neon lights of the city.
Even though her face was covered he could tell she wanted to go out and explore it. His left eye twitched as a ping of pain entered it. He slyly shakes it off and escorts her to the bed. "I'll be back soon." He says helping her sit down. "If you leave the room, make sure you cover your face." He tells her and she only nods as she begins laying down.
She almost immediately fell asleep. Before leaving he spent a solid 30 minutes doing a thorough search of the room and finally deciding it was bug and surveillance free heads out to get her some food and nutrient capsules.
"Thank you please come again." The cashier says happily as he finishes up paying. He starts heading back when a conversation catches his attention.
"Hey, you hear what happened in Nitrates 9?"
"Yeah, about the Primordial fleet that was completely decimated. Only 600 survivors or some shit right."
"Yeah, that's the one. Apparently, it was scuttled, and the Admiral ruptured slip-space and absolutely wreck the enemy fleet."
"I heard that it was a betrayal."
"..." Just as Asus was preparing to say something a envelope populates in the upper right corner of his mask and he continues back to the hotel.
"Did you get it?" Crystal asks as he closes the door.
"Yeah." He answers, handing her the pink slimy liquid.
"Thank you." She says cracking it open and taking a couple swallows. She puts the cap back on and he hands her a medium sized tray. She started taking a couple bites and a couple tears drop rolled down her cheek.
"It's that good huh?" He asks lightly joking and she nods slowly. "Be careful not to eat to much. You've had a light appetite lately and overeating will hurt your stomach. If you feel full, stop, and eat some more in half an hour or so. Don't try and force stretch your stomach." He tells her as he finished his meat stick.
He then lays back in the chair he was sitting on and places his hands behind his head and his thoughts drift back to the conversation he was listening in on before returning. So not only had the ships been stolen from the sector he was in but in a nearby one as well. He side eyes the princess as she continues taking small bites of her food. "Just who is she and who is after her?" He wonders to himself and before he knew it, he was so deep in thought that he hadn't even noticed he had started drifting off to sleep.