I had grown weary of the planet I came from. A little ball of sand and water where it was too hot or too cold no matter where on it you went. When the weather did not try to kill me, wildlife took a shot. Wildlife became dinner, but then came invaders. Then invaders were killed by another wave of invaders.
Treason. Terrorism. Democratic governments. Martial law. Anarchy. Industry. Ingenuity. Science. Witchcraft. Religion. Talk shows. These were the long running stories of humans inhabiting planets since time began. We are truly a remarkable species, and I think that our presence anywhere is the mark of a cosmic joke.
In my search for meaning, in my search for a chance far away from a place like my homeland, I did what all frustrated men and women did in times of great turmoil and strife. While a civil war tore apart everything that we knew and loved for the ninth time in two centuries, I snuck onto a freighter carrying precious goods away from the dying planet.
How was I to know that the precious cargo was contraband stimulants?
How was I supposed to know the captain and crew of the ship were wanted pirates?
How was I supposed to guess that three days later, probably light years away from my home at this point, that we would get caught in a crossfire between two completely different warring planets?
I had taken a hiding place on the lower decks of the ship. Carrion I believe the name on the hull said. Not that it mattered much. I was pretty sure the artillery blast we just took that shook everything like a goddamned earthquake was enough to obliterate the outer hull.
Stacks of crates full of that stimulant were toppling over. The bright blue fluid was spilling out of hundreds of thousands of shattered vials. I ran, fast as I could. No. Even faster. I had no idea what that stuff would do to me, but if it was so illegal it had to be smuggled it couldn't be good.
"Fuck!" I shouted to the near empty storage deck. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I was getting close to the doorway to the main decks as metal creaked all around me. Another blast from some too strong military vessel sped up the collapse of the storage, and the potentially deadly fluid was enroaching faster.
"Open!" I told no one in particular when I got to the door. It was getting colder fast in the bay. Life support was weakening as the ship took on more damage than it was ever meant to. Artificial atmosphere was all that was left. Whoever was supposed to give the call to abandon ship likely died in the initial blast.
The door finally opened, and I hopped out into a dark hallway without any care for how close the wave of stimulant fluid was getting. I just followed signs pointing to the escape pods, thanking my mother for enrolling me in a Nelyan language course during school. I could hear the liquid sloshing into the hallway behind me.
Was this adrenaline I was feeling? This tension? I'd never experienced it so much. Death seemed so simple when it was happening to someone in a movie or show or story. In reality, the threat of dying was a perfect motivator to run faster than I ever planned to.
I rounded a corner to find the designated escape pod hallway. Alarms were still blaring, and the hallway was unoccupied by anyone from the crew. Of course that meant a deadly shortage of escape pods as well.
Except for one.
A Nelyan, easily identified by his singular insectoid antenna jutting out from the top of his scalp. He was fiddling with the console near the door of the unlaunched escape pod. He was having technical difficulties at a terrible time. The ship lurched again, and the metal creaking in the hallways grew louder and did not pause.
I had to do it, you see?
The escape pod could not fit us both.
If he were me, he would do the same thing. With less hesitation, too. He was a pirate, a smuggler, and a criminal. I probably wouldn't have even been the first man he had ever killed.
I charged forward, screaming in hopes that would surprise him more than if I stayed silent. He didn't even hear me over the metal lurching. A day before, I found a long knife just lying around. I grabbed it and tucked it away in the low chance that I would need to protect myself. I held it as best I could. They made it look so easy on television.
I decided on aiming for the neck. That would be the best bet for me. In stories, Nelyans died from neck wounds just like humans did. I shouted again, my best imitation of a battle cry as I stabbed a man in the neck.
This knife was more effective than I gave it credit for. I did not just pierce skin gently like I had imagined. The blade was long, and it went clean through the pirate's neck. He made no sound. I'm pretty sure he had died instantly.
On instinct rather than anything else, I pulled my weapon back. I moved to the side too much, though. The sharp edge cut through the rest of his neck, and the guy's head just came off. Yes. That is my story and I'm sticking to it. I was defending myself and the bad guy's head came off.
The corpse fell to the ground and I was left standing there stunned for a moment. All it took was another artillery blast to shake me free again. I hurried over to the console. Apparently the poor guy could not read the language on the computer and that was his hangup. It was a human language, thankfully.
Some simple commands and the door to the pod opened. A small vessel, short range travel only for the most dire emergencies. I dove in and the door automatically sealed behind me. A voice called out to me as I situated myself in the chair at the controls and buckled in.
"The ship is currently in critical failure," the voice said. It was calm in the chaos, unbothered by its own doom. "I will initiate evacuation protocols now, passenger."
I heard clicks and heavy thuds and locks were released. The windows to my pod finally opened up, and I could view what was destroying the ship I had stowed away on. Just as I initially expected, we were caught in the middle of a battle. On the space side, a pack of ships with red insignias I could not make out. Closer to the nearby planet, even more ships with white signage.
The floating wreckage mostly had the red markings. The invading force was being fended off.
"The Carrion will explode in fifteen minutes," the voice said from the pod speakers. "Shall we evacuate to a safe distance now, or would you like me to begin preparing refreshments?"
"Leave!" I barked out, tying myself in best as I could improvise to the pilot's chair. "Get us out of here! Now!"
I heard the roar of engines as the pod ejected from the main ship. I was flying out in space. Not that I wasn't when onboard the pirate vessel. In the pod, though, I could see it all. Just an endless black void sprinkled with stars for a million other worlds.
"I will be directing us to the nearest planet," the voice explained as the thrusters took us toward the nearby planet. Thankfully we were moving at an angle to take us away from the battle.
"I am the Carrion's main computer interface," the pod voice continued. "The crew has referred to me as Fi. What do you go by, passenger?"
"Shiloh," I replied, still not thinking straight and totally fine with a ship AI introducing itself. I think after the adrenaline of escaping a collapsing ship and killing someone, my body was starting to crash.
The thrusters had turned my pod a little bit. Pressure and numerous large holes in the hull had caused the Carrion to collapse in on itself. It was just a few scraps of metal floating in space.
And I was heading down to a planet I had never heard or seen of before. It was almost funny to me in hindsight. If I had never gotten shot at or stowed away, I'd probably end up on some seedy backwater planet the pirates sold the stimulant at.
Instead, the world I ended up on was far more wild.