Invisible, the ship returned from its stroll between the death machines that filled this part of the universe, positioning itself outside this harvest of war.

Xini and Azxaron sat back-to-back at the same post, the seat being largely wide enough for two of their kind, each with their own screens. Sava occupied another post, on the other side, forcing the captain to divide his attention between the two directions, from his command seat. Certainly, Sava did not seem the type to kill people without necessity… but Lhom did not feel too reassured when she passed behind him with a weapon on her belt… She could well be content to use the paralyzing function, or the illegal torture functions that most of the devices in the arsenal had.

“Status of the maneuver?”

Azxaron jumped, taking his ears away from those of his partner's, trying to refocus on the task at hand.

“Uh... yes... I finished the synchronization between my ship's AI and yours. Normally, leaving the area is easier than entering it, but this will ensure that there are no unpleasant surprises. Everything is ready on my side, captain.”

The Hom smiled: his new sla... crew member was the obedient type. Totally subjugated for the moment, Xini was also safe... Sava remained...

He didn't really know if he was ashamed of what he had done to her, or if it was perfectly justified, but her palpable hostility was embarrassing...

“Xini?”

The little creature sighed annoyed, but did not appear as irritating as usual, obligingly giving the desired information:

“The route is set correctly. As soon as we arrive in normal space, we should make a jump to the coordinates of the Utela galaxy, a few systems from the destination.”

Was it a good idea to continue the quest for the master geneticist Hogloo? After all these years, maybe he had moved? Or maybe he was dead?

Libre decided that this was part of the overall adventure and that an additional file to present to the authorities couldn't hurt.

“Good. Crew, ready to jump. Jump in three... two...”

The Xerineans had already stopped listening to him. Sava was giving him a contemptuous look. There were no other crew members to notify of the jump aboard the ship, and in any case this practice was outdated. He scowled but he wasn't going to let that spoil the fun and continued the countdown.

“One... Jump!”

Reappearing during a brief Tik in the normal universe, the ship immediately teleported to the chosen coordinates, much further away in the universe. If there were still some surveillance devices around their potential respawn zone, they should not have noticed their passage.

The sky around them was now starry on all sides and the convolutions of planets, magnified on the screen to appear all despite the distance, indicated their arrival in a new solar system.

Abruptly, tears seemed to open in the space all around them, as if the void was taking shape for the sole purpose of being shredded by an invisible crusher.

Lhom's heart leapt as he recognized the phenomenon. As multiple pointed and golden shapes appeared within firing range, he turned furiously towards the Xerinean post.

“Xini!” he yelled. “Why didn't the alert procedure start?”

She made a guilty pout and murmured her answer:

“Oh... well... to authorize the jump in the middle of zone ‘I’, I had to deactivate the safety devices... I... forgot to reactivate them...”

The captain cursed and turned back to his screens. The Zcarbb ships surrounding them had deployed their jammers as soon as they had appeared. Normally, the ‘Lost Truth’ should have already found itself teleported to the middle of extragalactic space, for safety...

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Why were the Zcarbbs appearing around them, in the immensity of a solar system?

“Xini? Azxaron? The camouflage is no longer active? My system tells me it’s active... Did you do something?”

“No, no,” said the male, “everything is working perfectly. I just fear that the time period corresponding to our disappearance from the present was enough for the Zcarbb scanners to improve enough... My ship could still escape them...”

“We are not going to abandon my ship... Not until we know what they want from us. Ah. They are contacting us...”

The communication icon was flashing on the main screen of the room. As he was about to press to accept, a hand pushed his away.

“Get lost,” Sava growled, “I'll take care of the communication with the Zcarbbs.”

“Tss, it's not with a single experience that you became an expert in Zcarbbs...”

“It's still better than no experience. Now, get out of this seat.”

Reluctantly, Lhom gave way to his comrade. She triggered the acceptance of the communication.

A Zcarbb warrior appeared on the screen, a monstrous insectoid with hooked legs, a mandible dripping with acid, and multiple merciless faceted eyes. Bad thing: soldiers were much less receptive to the possibility of negotiation than princes.

“Unknown vessel,” he said, “are in Zcarbb territory. Request surrender. Immediately or destruction. Provide information registration, crew, cargo, destination. Provide authorization if necessary.”

Sava pouted in surprise. These were not exactly the details she expected the Zcarbbs to ask for.

“This is Sava Domeria, administrative agent alpha rank...”

She saw out of the corner of her eye Lhom's frantic signs, probably meaning, a little late, not to indicate who they were.

“... we did not know we were entering Zcarbb territory. We have been out of real time for a long time and our maps are not up to date…”

“Surrender? Transfer information? Request immediate response to these questions, or destruction.”

“We… I am sending you the device data immediately.”

She transmitted the official document containing the ship's technical data. She was about to specify that the passenger register was perhaps not up to date, when she noticed that it was. Lhom had even included Azxaron in the crew list.

“No authorization. Please follow. Send guidance software. Any deviation from flight plan, destrrrruction.”

The image disappeared. Sava accepted the Zcarbb software's access and it took control of the ship's piloting. She also sent a request to the Xerinean post, asking them to monitor and eliminate any threats that the software posed to the ship. With a computer expert on board, might as well take advantage of it.

The ships passed through another tear in space that opened up to let them pass.

It was strange: as if the universe was shattering into multiple pieces around them, marking the border to a different planetary system. They then headed towards a gigantic golden space base that floated around a gas giant.

“So,” Lhom grumbled, “what do we do now? Did you have a plan, or not?”

Sava didn't really have a plan. She didn't even know if she would actually be able to negotiate with the Zcarbbs again. The circumstances weren't the same. In addition, the Zcarbbs would covet their “Walker” engine and their Stabilizium, which they couldn't leave to them under any circumstances, even if it meant blowing themselves up: it was absolutely necessary to limit the presence of such resources in the Zcarbbs' clutches.

“Is emergency teleportation aboard your ship possible?” Lhom asked the Xerineans. They validate.

“Well, in that case, we obey their orders, but as soon as the situation threatens to go bad, we slip away. Their jammers prevent us from accessing the Network beacons, so we don't know where we are...”

“The Germa system, in the Utela galaxy."

Sava and the captain turned to Xini in unison. Of course, she had found a way to bypass the enemy jammers, despite her distraction. If their monstrous race numbered in the billions, the universe would already be under their feet…

“Can we connect to the Network?” Lhom asked.

“In what standard year?” interrupted Sava. “How much time has passed? Answer!”

Xini typed the request on her screen.

“I don’t know what year it was when we left, but according to the clues, I’d say about fifty years have passed…”

“That’s right,” Azxaron confirmed, “we’ve only lost about half a standard century.”

Sava, who had stood up before, let herself fall back heavily into her seat. A small part of her had hoped that, in the end, the time elapsed would be less than a decade. Fifty years more… Would her parents still be alive? Her older brother surely was, barring any incident… But their age gap had never been so great…

Lhom sighed. Well, it was only fifty years. He must have kept some allies and many of his enemies must be dead. It was a shame for his relatives whom he would probably never see again.

Well, deep down, he still felt a little bad about this idea… but, his family had never been very close… not since an enemy missile had taken his mother… The fact that he had joined another rebel group had also marked a rupture and several of his brothers had never contacted him again…

As his thoughts slowly circled the abyss of memories that he did not want to approach, a new Zcarbb communication came to distract him from this fight:

“New instructions. Galactic Queen requests to see. Authorization local queen. New destination: Utela galaxy coordinator palace.”

The air trembled as a new fissure in space brought the prisoners and their escorts into a new system.