A loud noise woke Vindril up from his slumber. Sleep had come with some difficulties, with how his head had given him trouble and the many thoughts that had assaulted his mind, trapping it in an endless swirl of uncertainties and decisions to be made. He moved around a little bit, just to get a feeling, but immediately regretted it. Without exaggerating, every single muscle of his body was hurting in a way he didn’t even know was possible to begin with. He felt like he had been caught in an explosion; maybe because that was what had exactly happened. Ahhh…. what a bother.

He slowly got up, doing his best to ignore the ache his back muscles were sending to his brain. As if doing it slowly could even help him appease the pain. He cursed. Not at his body, even if he had to admit that it certainly wasn’t helping him with darkening mood. No. He cursed at Arturyll, at the bomb, and the entire fucked up situation they had to resolve. Then he ponded why luck was a bitch with him. Truly, if the entire attack on the lab had been carried out just a couple of minutes later, then he and his companions wouldn’t have even known that Girunne was in reality living such a complicated reality. They would have just carried out with their plans, in their blessed ignorance, and left the planet behind. Of course, it couldn’t be that easy, right? Why? Because luck, the damned bitch that she was, just couldn’t look his goddamned way.

Damn it all…

“Here.” said a man who was seated nearby. In his hand, which was posed forward without any kind of rancour, there was a little white pill. “Take it.”

Vindril considered asking who the hell he was, why he was standing near him as if it was the most normal thing in the world, and most importantly, what was that pill he was supposed to take, but quickly opted out; Truth to be told, he was just too tired, too banged up to think about anything else in that moment. Instead, he groped the mysterious pill in his hand and observed it.

The man, a human with bald head and long, but well-kept beard, scoffed as he handed him an iron flask were some water was probably stored inside. “Take it. It’s a painkiller. Mostly…”

Mostly? What about the rest?

“Listen, I’m not some kind of medic. I’m an artificer, you know? I make things blow up. Loudly. I don’t have a fucking clue what’s in it. I only know that it’s supposed to speed up your recovery.”

Vindril clenched his hand. “…So you’re the one that crafted that damned bomb…”

The man nodded proudly. Clearly he took great pride in his workings, for whatever reason. After all, they were just things that made other things go boom. What inner art was he supposed to find in that? “Yep. You can say it loudly. ‘Was one of my finest creations, that was. Sad that I wasn’t there to see her finally come to life.”

Huh. Alright…

Vindril had to rectify his thoughts. That man was passionate about his work; he was obsessed with it. No sane person would have ever had such spirited eyes when talking about explosive devices. He shrugged. Better ignore that strange man and his peculiarities and just swallow the damned med. Maybe by doing he would leave him alone. At least that was his hope.

After taking the lid of, Vindril put the med inside his mouth, took a good sip from the flask, and swallowed down the thing. Now, gulping down such a small thing wasn’t difficult; ignoring the after taste it left from his throat, all the way up to his nose, now that was another story. Without having a chance to stop himself, he coughed loudly a couple of times. That damned med was bitter. Abnormally so. It also had a sort of chemical after taste that served to further enhance the horrible taste it had. Vindril immediately took another sip from the flask, gurgling for a couple of seconds; then he spit everything on the floor.

Seconds later he opened his eyes to stare at the man, ready to kill him. But there was no trace of him. Evidently he had left once he had seen him swallow the pill down.

Good. It was nice to know he wasn’t going to start the day with a punch out.

Eventually, Vindril got up. It was the last thing he wanted to do, but he couldn’t afford to lay down strictly more than necessary. He had to find a way to contact his ship and order them to leave the orbital station as soon as possible. Now that posed a couple of problems. First, given the situation he was in, communication were most probably heavily restricted, if there even were any. Second, supplies were on their way. Given that he had no way of knowing if they were already boarded inside the ship, the risk of leaving behind all those things was very much real. What to do…

Leaving that aside, he also had to speak with Sully to make sure he was ok. He considered him as his friend by now; but even if he didn’t, he had to be there for him. Vindril was like that. If you helped him in his time of need, than he would go to any lengths in order to help you back.

Having made up his mind, Vindril began searching for him. His body, which had been assaulted by waves of pain even when lying down, now literally screamed at him to stop; fortunately, while the pill had left behind such a horrible taste in his mouth, it also release its magic quite quickly. It only took the exorbitant time of five whole minutes before the pain had mellowed down so much that it almost transformed into an afterthought. Vindril smirked. “I’ll be damned…” He didn’t know whatever the hell was in those pills. But he had to admit that they worked like a wonder.

It was there in that moment that he noticed Sully; or his frame, to be exact. He was seated nearby with his back laid against the rocky walls; the wound around his arm had been patched up, but the halwerian didn’t seem to care in the least. His eyes were lost deep in thought. Whatever it was that had left him in such a state, it surely was weighing heavily on his mind. It was a bit uncomfortable getting to interact with a person in that state, especially when he wasn’t feeling good.

He knew he had to act. But how-

“Take a seat.” suddenly said Sully, his eyes always fixed forward. “I suspect you have questions…”

Vindril sat down, trying to get as comfortable as he could. “Well, yes.” he admitted. “But if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t press.”

“…What do you want to know?” he asked.

“Whatever you want to share. I told you; I won’t press you. You’re entitled to have all the secrets you want.”

Sully turned his head towards him. Inside those abstractly blue eyes, Vindril saw all the thoughts he was hiding inside that body of his.

“Let’s see-” he said. “Where should I begin? The story behind those kind theft is quite long. But, just to give a little bit context so that you can understand what will follow, let me say that I didn’t work alone. You see, there were six of us.”

“Six? You didn’t strike me as a person willing to work with others, if I’m being honest.”

“Well, that’s the truth, whatever you like it or not. You see, while I’m in love with money-”

Vindril interrupted him as a sudden fit of laughter got the better of him. When he calmed down, remarked how he had already knew that. The memory of his materialist love for those shiny coins that were tossed his way back on his bar in the Academy on Keelo Prime was still fresh on his mind. “I know. I know.”

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Sully glared at him silently. “…Anyway, as I was saying. Even if my love for those shiny coins is a proven fact, stealing has always been what got my heart racing. You see, whenever I stole something, that is obviously worth stealing, I got an adrenaline rush that so pure that…it made me feel…fucking amazing.”

The halwerian man turned his gaze back, staring once again in front of him. It was clear to Vindril that Sully was replaying some kind of memories inside the confines of his mind. He didn’t have a way to confirm it; but he just knew that was the case.

After a short pause, Sully resumed talking. “As I’ve just told you, there were six of us. Six, completely different personalities, with a specific set of skills that were completely alien to each other. Obviously, there was me. I’ve demonstrated how…nimble my hands can be. My job was acquire things that required a certain slight of hand. Documents, keys, Ids, a various degree of objects. It didn’t matter. If it was needed, I was going to get my hands on it.”

Vindril looked at him. In the enclosure of his mind he was picturing a younger version of Sully that roamed the galaxy with the sole intent of stealing whatever he liked. Quite strangely, that sort of image fitted him…pretty well actually. “…Who were the other five.”

“There was Urian, a human like you. Nobody really knew where he came from, but I can tell you he had the whitest hairs I have ever seen. For whatever reason, he had lost all colour at young age. He even had told us why, but I completely forgot about it. Anyway, he was the tech specialist. I kid you not, there isn’t tech, program, or code that he’s able to command as he see fit. He’s the sort of genius that could violate some of the most secure grids in the galaxy.”

Vindril bit his lip to stop himself from cursing out loud. After all the trouble Ar and him had to go through in order to decode even a part of the code they had acquired on Keelo Prime, he sure would have liked to know that Sully knew somebody that could have helped them. But, given that his current whereabout were on Outer Ridges, maybe Sully couldn’t have contacted him.

“Then there were a couple of half human-half indorian. Brother and sister. He was in charge of planning our escape route, acquiring a star vehicle that couldn’t be traced by anyone, and making sure everything unfolded as planned. His sister instead was a force to be reckoned with. Most complete, and most dangerous fighter I’ve ever seen. Armed or not, she could kill you anyway if the situation called for it. Don’t get me wrong. She isn’t a lunatic. Were it up to her, she wouldn’t hurt a fly. But she gets ruthless when she feels threatened, or she’s getting shot at. As a side note, she’s pretty chill. Just…don’t get on her bad side. She’s scary when she’s angry…”

“You speak of them fondly…” deducted Vindril. “Were you close? As a group I mean.”

Sully smiled. “Yeah. Pretty much, all things considered. It wasn’t as close as you might think, though. Everyone tended to mind their business. It was less complicated that way.”

“That makes four of you. Who are the other two?”

“There was Janik. He was the one that took care of researching the Net to find our next target. It was thanks to him that we decided to steal the Tear. And then…”

His eyes turned a little bitter, as if his focus had turned to an unpleasant memory. “And then there was that fucker you’ve seen before. The one with grey skin.”

“I figured you two had some history.”

“History?” asked Sully absent mindedly before smiling wanly. “Yeah. You could say that. Umbran has always been the type of person I never stomached, you know. It’s his damned fault everything got so messed up to be begin with…”

Oh. So he was right. There really was bad blood between those two. Not that it surprised him all that much. It was quite obvious that this was the case. Having ascertained this, Vindril was now curious to know what on earth could have caused such a rift between former comrades. “Care to tell me what the hell happened?”

“…It’s too long of a story.” said Sully breathing in. “Just know that I’m never going to place my trust in him. Never again. I would rather shot myself than commit such a foolish mistake.”

“Well, if that’s how it is, then I’ll keep my eyes open too.”

His mind wandered briefly to Luzir. Strange that giant wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He usually was in the same place as Sully. So where the hell had he gone?

“Where’s Luzir? I haven’t seen him since I woke up…”

At the mention of the giant, Sully went back to his usual self. “Oh, he’s busy with his morning routine. He usually trains for about an hour every day in order to keep his muscles toned and ready for action. Come, let’s see if can find him. He’s surely easy to stop, no?”

“Hold on.” said Vindril, halting him. “Before that, we need to find a way to contact the ship. I’m not going to risk her getting caught in all this mess. Do you happen to know-”

“Ah! Good luck with that.” smirked Sully. “Every transmission is surely being filtered by Umbral. You can try, of course. But I guarantee you it’s simply not going to come through. Don’t believe me? Try.”

Without missing a single second, Vindril pressed his communicator, setting the frequency to the unique one of the Silver Death. But just like Sully had remarked, silence and static were the only things that could be heard. It seems that contacting his ship wasn’t going to be as easy as it normally was.

Shit.

“Told you.”

Vindril grunted out his frustration. Now what? Well, for the time being, it was better to locate Luzir. The giant, even if he wasn’t a tech expert, might have offered some kind of solution.

//////

“…I’m afraid…there’s only one way…” said Luzir.

The giant was shirtless, with his hands pressed to the ground, and was perfectly performing a series of handstand push-ups; he must have focused on the negative motion, as he was powerfully pushing up, but slowly coming down.

Vindril was almost left speechless. He had immediately understood that Luzir packed a perfectly toned body underneath all the clothes he wore. Just by looking at his arms, which seemed to be as big his legs, anyone with a functioning brain would have guessed that much. But seeing it right in front of him…well, that was another thing entirely.

By his right, Sully snorted irritated. For whatever reason, the little thief didn’t seem to like that answer. “Oh.” he said, barely suppressing his annoyance. “And are you inclined to share it with us?”

“…In a -umph- moment.” Luzir answered. “…Training cannot wait. Not now that -umph- I’m almost done. At least with -umph- push-ups.”

The strain to which the giant was subjecting his body was evident. Considering that he had a personality that did not fit into the common imagery of how warriors should be and behave, with his calmness and tranquillity, it was almost a surprise that his face could show such signs of fatigue. Something, however, he did not mind at all. Vindril understood this at once. For that Nulnarian, training was like a sacred ritual, to which he devoted mind and body. Even if Vindril did not share the same passion, he could certainly respect him for that ethic. And that was something that would not change soon.

Luzir lowered himself for the last time, effectively reaching muscle failure. That, if one had to point the secret ingredient for muscle growth, was all he looked for.

“…You…must get your…hands …on the right frequencies….in order to…send any message.” He blurted out though strained breaths. A couple drops of sweat were running down from his short brown hairs, which he styled in a crew cut, all the way down to his face. “…There’s no other…option…”

“Ah! Thank you very much. Guess what? We already knew that. So, how the hell do we get-”

Luzir interrupted him. “You…already know how. You either sneak past their security…or you ask the person in charge.”

Sully sighed. “That’s just impossible.” his head turned to look Vindril in the eyes. “’Guess there’s just no way after all. “

“I’m not going to let all of this mess just happen while the ship could be caught in the crossfire.” declared Vindril without an ounce of doubt. He still didn’t know how the hell he was going to accomplish it though. Just like Luzir had said, there were only two options that could be…considered.

As Luzir began to execute some lunges, hugging a rock he had found…somewhere, Vindril weighted the options at his disposal.

The first one, and perhaps the most unlikely to bear fruit, so to speak, required him to sneak into the communication room, wherever that was, and obtain some codes that were surely well protected. It didn’t take a genius to realize how difficult that was going to be.

The second instead, while also unlikely, required him to simply speak with Arturyll and appeal to him.

Vindril hated both. One was so impossible to achieve that it was pointless to even try; the other wasn’t that much better. To ask help from anyone, especially a complete stranger, wasn’t a thing that sat alright with him. He believed in taking care of things alone…most of the times. With the way he had grown up, it was a miracle he still found the strength to be…somewhat trusting and caring. But to lower himself, figuratively speaking, in front of a stranger, that even had the audacity to kidnap them…Just the though of that was enough to make him mad.

…Damn it all…

He sighed, releasing his right hand that he had clenched unconsciously into a fist. He was a captain now. He wasn’t alone anymore. And as such, he had to act like that and also carry out the things he disliked in order to ensure everyone’s happiness and survival; even if he had to lower himself in front of a stranger.