+++ Jonathan Jones +++

Lubola System

I watched as a swarm of tiny spider drones crawled through the floors, passing through my path and disappearing in god knows what. Each corridor seemed devoid of life, with only flickering red lights blaring occasionally that guided me through her passageways. I kept my tongue to myself, and so did she. My trust in her shouldn’t waver, yes, but…I’d be honest, even I felt, in a way, terrified of the prospects of her suddenly turning around at me.

It feels off around here. I turned on the flashlights of my helmet. Damn…so this is what derelict ships look like?

“I do apologize for the almost alien environment.” Juliett suddenly said. “The Void-Class was originally designed to only accommodate my commander and a few supporting crew. It’s supposed to be a drone ship, first and foremost.”

“So not many life support systems?”

“Not exactly. Trust me, this place will lighten up once I get back into control. They yanked me off way too abruptly, so the systems inside of my ship had to shut down as protocol directed.”

“But…some of them are online. I mean, those…”

“Oh, those drones? Hehe, no worries about the little buggers. They’re harmless, I swear. They just maintain the more critical parts of the ship.”

“I don’t think even System Dynamics could have designed something like this.” I stopped at a locked heavy-duty door. There was a control panel on the side, but I didn’t immediately play with it, waiting for her commands.

“I told you already. I was built before all of this happened.” She said. “Jon, I’m ancient. While I don’t know my builders, it wasn’t System Dynamics.”

“They produce the most advanced ships nowadays. And weapons.”

“But back during the days of the old Federation, they were just one of the major players.” I checked to control panel, and she giggled. “It’s funny seeing you so curious and clueless.”

“Oh, great, so you were just making fun of me.” I groaned. “Come on, don’t waste my time. Tell me what to do.”

She giggled again, before telling me what to do. I tapped through the control panel, which seemed to be, strangely again for a drone ship, designed for human use. I swiped through the screen, before placing the passcode as she dictated it. Immediately, after I pressed the red icon below, the door opened up.

It was massive.

“What the…”

“Welcome to my CIC, Jonathan Jones!” She said. “As you can see, it’s pretty massive. All that…it provides the processing power I need to run this ship, and its special abilities. Isn’t that cool?”

I looked at the view in awe. It was almost three floors deep, with computers and machinery everywhere. It was also almost circular, with what appeared to be a center below where, as I expected, what appeared to be her holding port was placed. I descended the stairs, taking great care not to step on the wrong thing. Even then, I could tell that all of it was somehow durable. The place seemed strange, armored, and if I had to caution a guess, shielded even. It was almost a fortress within the ship.

“So…do I just place you there?” I asked, and her cheerful voice beamed out again.

“Yes. At last…I’m back. It’s home. It smells like home!”

“Do you even have a nose?”

“Shut up and just let me enjoy the scenery, jerkface.”

“Yeah, whatever, tin can.”

Cautiously, I plugged her “core” into the center of her “CIC”, following her instructions on what and where to attach the multitudes of wires that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I didn’t bother to ask how she did that, as this was practically esoteric technology that I was dealing with. If the brightest nuts of the Sector couldn’t figure out the basic technology of the old Federation after three damned centuries, what could the half-rotten jelly in my cranium do to comprehend all of this?

Just then, when I was done, she went silent, and all things went dark on the ship. I almost panicked, turning on the flashlight of my helmet again, before I stepped on something wrong and fell on my back. Luckily, nothing important broke (thank god for my spine and skull), but damn, did it hurt. And it was dark, except for the direction that my head was looking at.

“Juliett?!” I asked out loud as I pulled myself back up. “Juliett? What the hell is happening?”

No response.

“Juliett?” I accessed the PDA on my forearm, sending a bombardment of electronic alerts around me, hoping to get her attention. “Juliett, what the heck happened? Why did everything shut down?”

Suddenly, I received some pings from SYS. Contacts incoming. The VSS Shine and the VSS Glisten were now assuming defensive positions. And SYS was asking me for orders. Orders? I didn’t even have the slightest idea of what was happening. Still, those pings alerted me enough.

Fuck. I picked myself up, climbing up the stairs, then into the passageways, running as if my life depended on it. Whatever was happening to Juliett was strange. I had no idea. Perhaps her sudden reintroduction to the ship caused issues. Who knows? But there were enemies en route to screw us both. If that was the case, then it was time to defend this vulnerable girl. That stupid goddamned tin can! She could have warned me at least!

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I didn’t bother waiting for her instructions. I followed the routes that I passed, and what I did earlier on each locked section of her ship, straight back to the airlock. I had no idea what to do with the control panels in front of me, as Juliett hadn’t instructed me anything about it when we entered, but I bullshitted my way through it, tapping and pressing whatever crap I could until it opened.

The path outside opened, and I took the leap toward the tether, allowing SYS to pull me back to the Jukebox. In the brief moments that I was in the void, I watched Juliett’s drone ships, her frigates, form a defensive formation in the distance in front of us. Then, the glare. Lubola’s sunlight blared out when I looked in that direction, as an almost swarm of distant dots appeared.

God. I asked as the tether pulled me closer. I thought there was a chance. Did Juliett deactivate? Did she shut down? Did a crippling malfunction occur? God? If you exist…is this it?

How would I…how would I, the Jukebox, and these two lifeless frigates hold on against that tide? SYS was blasting me reports about the upcoming contacts. Multiple frigate-sized ships, multiple destroyer-sized ships as well, and they seemed to have a cruiser-sized vessel too. It was probably the boss of the group of pirates we wronged earlier.

It all will catch up, eventually. Something deep in my mind said. All of it. You won’t escape from it.

I looked back at Juliett’s lifeless form. Her ship still didn’t power up. It was still floating, weightless, dead, and cold. But would Juliett deserve such a fate? She…she would save the Sector, didn’t she say that? But…if these pirates caught up on her.

None of this matters. I shouted in my mind. You have one last job, help her out! Why would you chicken out?! There is no running away. This is your fate. Are you a coward?!

But would it really change who I was? What would all of this really result in the end? Dying to let the “heroine” carry on forward wouldn’t change who I was, no? Did I really come here to find an opportunity to carry forward, or did I come here in vain to help out the only noble being I could imagine after hearing that League officer…in a vain effort to do good for once?

Why…

The question bombarded my mind again and again.

Why…am I here? Why did I go here? Why would I help her out?

And the last question, the sourest of them all.

Why would I even do good? Can I even do something like that? Isn’t…all of this just a lie? I distrust her, do I not?

I shook my head, just as SYS pulled me back inside the Jukebox. There was no time mulling left, and I finally made up my mind. It was clear, concise, and simple.

Defend Juliett. I told myself. It would be your last act. Your last mission. Make yourself decent…

Even for once. For the last time.

+++

+++ [Redacted] +++

Kingdom of Loran

Sagittarius Union

His eyes were empty, and I wanted nothing but to tear it to bits. Would it feel nice? Or would it not? It didn’t matter. I had to. This man…he needed to pay. The only reason I existed. The only reason I had even carried on to this day. To make him pay for what he did. I would never let him get off scot-free.

No luck would save him tonight.

“So?” His beaten lips almost spat blood as he spoke. “Would you take the shot at last? Mr. Spring?”

I kept my pistol trained on him. “You’re scum. Even in the end…you’re scum.”

He smiled at me, and I had half the urge to bash him with my pistol, but I held it off. I had so many questions, questions that needed answers. Why? Why did he do this to me? Why did he…why did he take my own father…in cold blood? Why did he hunt me? Then hunt down those who sheltered and saved me from him?

“I apologize, son.” My father said before I ran away, years ago. “The mistake I made…it caught up on me.”

Mistake? What kind of mistake? Why would someone from the Royal Family have a grievance against him? Against me? When I was merely eleven at the time? Those questions, boiled through my soul for years. I wanted nothing but answers. Answers to satiate my questions as to why I and my father, who I remembered to have lived nothing but an honest life… were treated like that.

“You two…are very much alike. Like father and son…”

“Don’t you dare insult him!” I almost squeezed the trigger. “He’s…he’s not like me.”

Not a criminal. Not a fraud. Not a robber. Not a murderer.

“Crime…laws…civility…Mr. Spring…it’s all a lie. It’s all been a lie since the Federation fell apart.” He wheezed out. “You’re like him. Almost a righteous…survivor. But you, you had scraps, and thus…you. The fact that…you and the gang you’re with hadn’t committed the worst around this lawless planet.” He almost laughed. “Ahaha…but almost all of you are gone now.”

I pulled him by his collar, picking him up. “You bastard. What did we do to you?! What did my father ever do to you?! Why?! Why?!”

“What does it all mean? Mr. Spring is that…your question?” He looked up at me. “Is the family name ‘Spring’ that your father bore, even true? Oh…did you even ask him who your mother was?”

“Answer me, you rat!”

“As if…as if you are in any such position to demand, Mr. Spring.” He weakly shook his head as he wheezed out a few more laughs. “Oh…you’ve come so far…so far…only to receive no answers. Ah…even I sometimes feel pity for the old man. But, you have no idea what he did. Or who he really is. Nothing…would make sense for you.”

I had enough of his cryptic words and punched him as hard as I could, that my fists felt cracked at the sheer force of it. He fell down, blood seeping from his nose and mouth. Painfully, I raised my pistol at him again, aiming it straight to his face. No…this man would never give me answers. He refused. He would never. Not even now.

At last, I pulled the trigger, and I didn’t look away. For a while, there was silence, as the very uncle of the reigning Queen of Loran, died from my shot. I killed someone from the Royal Family. At last…my only purpose.

And it felt…empty.

No answers.

No resolution.

Only but a mere dead man in front of me.

I placed back my pistol in my holster, and placed my hat back on my head, taking a deep breath as I processed what had just happened, only to end up with nothing. What now? I had a getaway, yes, but…what now?

What now?

Where would I go?

And…why? For what reason? What reason did I have left to carry on?

Why?