In the vastness of space, a ship could be seen flying towards a solar system in the distance. From above it looked invisible due to the emptiness of the void, while from below, it looked like a shooting star. The light from the nearby solar system making it's colors shimmer.
This ship was obviously the Leviathan and inside the ship, silence reined supreme. Only Leviathan could be seen sitting in front of the controls in the bridge of the ship. Her gaze unwavering as she watched the distant stars, from the inside the ship felt like it was not moving at all. Only the instruments indicated the ship's current speed of 500 000 km/hr.
It had actually been 48 years since the Xejrans invaded planet earth and the Leviathan had not stopped flying since then. Although close to half a century had passed, the Paladins had only aged two days thanks to Asia's cryo-pods. The pods worked in such a way that they induced a coma to the Paladins.
Then every cell in the Paladin's body would be 90% frozen and brain function stopped. This would make the body almost stop aging, because of this process the Paladins could live for at least 600 thousand years depending on their travelling habits. Due to the discomfort of going in and out of cryo-sleep, it was only reserved for when the Paladin's were moving to far away places.
Leviathan suddenly stood up from her chair and left the bridge. After walking down a flight of stairs and round a corridor, she came to a room with the door engraved "Cryo-pod room". Inputting a very long passkey into the panel beside the door, the door hissed open and white smoke flowed into the hallway.
Leviathan waited for the smoke to dissipate before walking inside, where six up-right pods were located. The pods were blue with a dozen tubes connecting them to the ship's walls. They also had a small transparent window in the front and if one looked into the window of the pod closest to the door, they would see the face of Paladin Misty.
Leviathan walked to the end of the room, towards a panel on the wall and inputted another series of letters and numbers. Leviathan was the ship and the ship was Leviathan, so she could have done that just by thinking of it, however she liked moving around and using her body. It made her feel more like a real person and less like a god-like computer programme.
A few seconds after entering the code, the doors of all six of the Cryo-pods came off their hinges and slid to the side, letting frost fill the room before it was filtered out through the ventilation systems. One by one the Paladins walked out of the pods....then they fell on their knees and puked their guts out.
"Sorry about that", Leviathan said. "It's a small side effect of the pods", The yellow viscous liquid that came form the Paladins bowels was swept away and into a drainage pipe which ejected the excrements into space.
"Fuck!", Tahir groaned. "Will this happen every time?" he asked.
"Let's just say you will get used to it". Leviathan smiled, revealing a row of perfect vibranium teeth.
The Paladins all went to their individual rooms and took well deserved showers, with Jack and Sara preferring to soak their stiff bodies in a tub of warm water. The Leviathan had a water recycling system which recycled 95% of all water utilized by the Paladins. Due to this and the fact that they would be in Cryo-sleep most of the time, their 5000 Megalitres of stored water should last more than 500 years.
After their baths, they slipped into new pairs of uniforms and headed for the bridge, where six plates of rice and meatballs was waiting for them. Without waiting a second more, they sat down and dug in.
"This is amazing!", Jack commented while licking his fingers.
Jack had spent a lot of time alone in the Australian outback so table manners were not his forte, the same could be said for Tahir and Sara. Only Hugo, Misty and Pei used the forks to eat.
"So Jack, tell us, how was it living alone for all that time?", Tahir asked, his eating speed had slowed down after asking for a second serving, utensils were still off-limits though.
"Honestly, it was great", Jack answered. "I was a bit lonely for the first year but later got used to it. I even joined a family of Kangaroos", he said and the team chuckled.
"You know i spent so much time with wild animals that i began understanding their languages", Jack continued. "Actually to be more precise, i understood how they communicate and learnt how to mimic them".
The other Paladins nodded in understanding, "Let's hope that will also work on alien animals". Hugo chuckled.
"Technically we are the aliens now", Misty commented as she dabbed the side of her mouth with a handkerchief, that gesture embarrassed the boys so much that they picked up some forks after washing their hands.
"Okay on to serious business", Tahir said after they had their fill. "Leviathan, i noticed we are not moving, where are we?" he walked to the front of the ship and looked out a window, followed by the other paladins who were also wondering the same thing. Outside the window, they could see a green planet not too far away.
"That planet was named X4442 by the Asian Space Agency, it is the closest planet to earth which has water in all three states and enough oxygen and atmospheric pressure to sustain life. It's coordinates were saved in my system and i was told to make this our first destination", Leviathan explained.
"Has any contact been established?" Jack asked.
Pei shook her head. "I remember this planet, we tried sending a signal but got no reply. Either the signal did not arrive or the inhabitants ignored us", she said.
Sara sighed, "You would think humans would learn from their mistakes and stop sending signals everywhere".
"We had nothing to lose anymore. We hoped for one of two possibilities, the first one was that the inhabitants of X4442 would be friendly and help us fight against the Xejrans or they would also want planet earth, therefore clashing with the Xejrans and maybe taking each other out".
"Or the two would team up", Jack commented.
Sara scoffed. "Then what?, do you think two lions would team up to fight a dog?" she retorted. Jack lifted his arms in surrender. While the team was bickering, Tahir was fixated on the distant planet, planning their next move. He then walked over to the controls of Leviathan.
"Planet X4442, this is the Leviathan from planet eart.....this is the Leviathan do you copy?" he said after turning on the radio.
"Planet X4442, this is Captain Tahir Okiro of the Leviathan do you read?" he repeated after receiving silence from the first message.
"Either this planet is uninhabited or they are rude", Hugo commented.
"I think we all know what we have to do", Tahir said and the team nodded. "Leviathan, prep the Vultures, we are going to X4442...fuck that's a crappy name".