July 3rd, Five Weeks from Daraxes

“You see, Chess is a game of tactics. Both sides start with the same resources and soldiers. Both armies must follow the same rules. Ultimately, it’s the hypothetical perfect scenario to see who’s a better tactician. Now, if I only had the patience to get good at it,” I said as I looked at the position I was in. I only had a king, two bishops, and a knight left on the board. Meanwhile, Scarlett had her king, two rooks, two bishops, and a pawn left. If I was to win, I had to avoid getting trapped by her rooks. I had to withdraw a bishop into block one to end the check I was in. Currently, she had two rooks vertically next to each other. I could only move the king back to my side, where I would inevitably be trapped. My knight was not in a position to eliminate any of her units.

“Quentin, be honest. You can just admit that I’m a better Chess player than you. No shame in admitting that you were beaten by a girl,” the vulpine replied with a smirk and mocking tone. “If you weren’t so proud, you would make me captain. I know how to win fights.”

“Chess is not a true representation of tactics and strategy. In an ideal scenario, I would have the advantage. Real-life battles aren’t boardgames,” I replied as I moved a bishop right in front of my king.

“Clever move. I must admit, you caught me off guard. Too bad I was one step ahead of you,” she said as her tail started wagging. She moved her pawn onto my side of the board and replaced it with her queen that got eliminated early. There goes my plan for eliminating one of her rooks. I was counting on her killing my bishop with her rook, hence allowing me to kill that rook.

I quickly knocked out one of her rooks with my other bishop, but it didn’t change the outcome. Her queen was in a perfect position to eliminate that bishop, sending me into a check. I couldn’t eliminate her queen, so I moved my king up the board. In response, she killed my last bishop with one of hers. It was clear that I couldn’t win. I raised my hands above my head and said, “I surrender. There’s no way I can win this match.”

“Thank you. And so, on the dawn of July 3rd, 2023, King Quentin of the Kingdom of Kentucky surrendered to Queen Scarlett of Georgia. For his humility, he was allowed to keep his lands as long as he swore fealty to her. She became known as Queen Scarlett the Rose for being a beauty with the strength to destroy those who trespassed against her and her people. She ruled over an era of prosperity until the end of her days,” Scarlett monologued as she seemed to create a fictional world for our match. Once she was done, we both let out a laugh at the whole speech. I swear, she must’ve prepared that before the match.

Our laughing was interrupted by the sound of a chessboard being flipped. As the pieces hit the floor, Scarlett and I turned to see Harry standing up and staring down Zalex. “I know you stole my queen!” the cyborg shouted at the Sorlok. When the latter stood up, Harry’s white queen fell out of his cloak. Some habits die hard.

“You know the funniest part? This exact scenario happened with Harry and Gruma. The difference was that she was the one to toss the board, along with the table. Except for the stolen piece, that time Zalex stole one of my pieces,” I said as I suppressed a laugh. There’s no doubt that Harry would be offended if I laughed at him. But it’s always funny to watch someone flip a board when they lose a game.

“I was growing tired of games anyways,” Zalex said as he walked towards the stairs. “Besides, we’ll be in Aria Station soon.”

“Aria Station?” I asked. I need to start checking the map more often.

“The one and only. Aria Station is a hub for bounty hunters. Perhaps it’s because the criminal hive of Daraxes is only a month away. Perhaps it’s due to being one of the only decent places in a few months’ travel. It’s a part of the Ateri Federation, a cluster of space stations and planets that are populated by some feathered Sorlok-like creatures called the Ateri. To be honest, I always found them disturbing to look at. Sort of like a strange evolutionary branch that shouldn’t exist,” Zalex said with some disgust in his eyes.

“I wonder if they’re avians. If so, then we could simply win a fight by punching them with enough force,” I pondered aloud as I started formulating a plan in case things went south.

“That’s beside the point. What I meant to say was that Harry probably has contacts there. Is that right?” he asked as he looked at the cyborg.

Harry crossed his arms and looked at the ceiling. After a short sigh, he explained, “I have contacts there. There was an old crew I used to work with. We called ourselves the Lawmen. It didn’t last long. Out of the five of us, two died on a dangerous mission. That left three of us. Since the two who died kept the team together, we went our separate ways. Using us as an example, it would be like Gruma dying. With her gone, there’s nothing keeping us together. I have no reason to hang around with the other Earthlings and the same goes for Zalex.”

“If the other two continued bounty hunting, I don’t see why you’re so worried. Shouldn’t they be doing their job instead of sitting around a station? What are the odds that they’ll be there right now?” Scarlett asked as she walked over to the conversation.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“An overlooked aspect of bounty hunting is competing for a job. While there are always fugitives, many people have moral qualms about picking up certain jobs. Recapturing escaped slaves tends to rank high on ‘jobs no one wants to do.’ Refugees and asylum seekers are another group many refuse to hunt. Part of the reason I get jobs is because I do those missions and more. The surviving two members were always squeamish about those tasks. They’ll probably be looking for a new posting at the station as we speak,” Harry explained as he started walking towards the stairs. I was about to ask him something, but he walked away before I could say anything.

As Zalex walked up the stairs after him, Scarlett walked in front of me and asked, “Want to go watch another episode of Star Trek? Especially considering that someone here is trying to be like someone in particular.” She had a slight smirk as she looked at me. Captain Kirk is cool, but I’m nothing like him. He’s far more competent than me. Besides, if I’m Kirk, I don’t know who everyone else is. There’s no real equivalent of Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, or Scotty. I feel guilty for being the one out here. Honestly, everyone deserves someone far more experienced and collected.

“Sure,” I replied. She started walking towards the stairs and I followed. We got to one of the TVs and turned it on. I flipped through the channels, only to find that none of them had Star Trek on. I then flipped to an interesting show that some alien group had. I turned on English subtitles. Why do they have subtitles in English? It doesn’t make sense, but neither does stuff like psionics, which apparently exists.

As the show came on, I watched a spaceship crash onto a desolate planet. It was a decently sized ship, which was probably a corvette unlike the civilian ship we had. Despite being a military ship, only five aliens walked out of the ship. They looked like the squid-like alien that I dealt with at Qasan Station. The difference was that they were inside of some robotic exoskeleton that had four wheels to roll on and six-like appendages. Above the torso-like area was a large glass bowl that contained a control panel and one of the aliens in it. The bowl was filled with a liquid that looked like water.

“Na’aqueeth, we’ve landed far from our target. This is no place for us,” said one of the aliens to the one who had the biggest exoskeleton.

“Su’umazaa, you’re overreacting. We are a strong species! Those land-dwelling savages should fear us and not the other way around! Now then, let’s get one of those beasts to repair our ship!” Na’aqueeth shouted as he rolled off towards the north of the ship. Or at least what I would consider north since I needed something to keep track of where they were going.

However, before I could watch the end of the episode, I heard the ship announce, “Approaching Aria Station. Please make your way to the cockpit.” Scarlett and I ran to the cockpit and sat in the back two seats. Zalex and Harry had already taken the front two. Gruma was not in the cockpit, which was concerning. However, before I could take note of it, the ship started rocking. I strapped my seatbelt on as I watched us enter into another station similar to Qasan Station. Unlike the last one, this one was much smaller, only about a tenth of the size. Unlike Qasan Station, spaceship traffic was light, with quite a few vessels being more militaristic than civilian.

“Welcome to Aria Station. Remember, there are many leads in this station for all sorts of tasks or questions. The number of defectors, bounty hunters, and mercenaries here ensures that there is intel on every part of the galaxy. All you need to do is tell me what mystery you want solved,” the ship said, seemingly out of nowhere.

I thought to myself for a while before I replied, “I would like to know how to activate gateways. If I could activate them, it would greatly expedite my journey home.”

“Since your SAD is linked to me, I have pinpointed a source of knowledge on your map,” the ship replied. I checked my SAD and, sure enough, I saw a pin with the title “Gateway Expert” on it.

“I want to find out how to reverse what the Qarri did to me,” Scarlett replied as she pulled out her SAD.

“I’ve pinpointed the location of a Qarri scientist who defected. You may get some information out of it,” the ship said before it entered the station. As typical, there was a period of weightlessness before gravity returned. I heard a thump from the hallway but couldn’t unbuckle my seatbelt until the ship landed.

I unbuckled myself and ran into the hallway once the ship parked itself in an empty parking lot. I opened the door and saw Gruma dusting herself off. She looked at me and asked, “Why does the ship do that all the time?”

“Gravity,” I replied as I stopped to make sure she was okay. Seeing no major injuries, I walked to the air lock and opened it. Unlike Daraxes, there was no one to greet us as I walked out with my laser rifle strapped to my back. “I need to think of an intelligent way to divide us. Neither Scarlett nor I are strong enough to defend ourselves if we got into a fistfight. That means that Gruma and Harry need to split up so each group has a heavy hitter,” I said to myself as the rest of the crew walked out and stood by me.

“While I would prefer to stay out of this, I’m afraid I have to follow you, Quentin,” Harry said. I turned to face him. He shrugged and explained, “I’m the best mechanic that’ll be left once Zalex leaves us. I’m probably going to be the one to open the gateway.”

“That settles it. Zalex,” I said as I turned to face the Sorlok, “you can do whatever you wish. Harry and I will find out more about the gateways. Gruma will follow Scarlett in her quest to regain her humanity. Understood?”

“Quentin, I can handle myself. I’m not the emaciated weakling you met back on Qasan Station,” Scarlett replied as she flexed her biceps. Not that it showed much considering that she wore a duster and was still lean. She’s definitely stronger than she was two months ago, but she’s still weaker than me. She can protect herself with her pistols, but if a sufficiently strong enemy gets in melee range, she can’t win.

“I feel like the two of you need some girl time together,” I said in a half-lie. They knew the true reason, but I figured that adding another reason would make it more appealing.

“Fine. But know this, I’m looking forward to a sparring match with you. Then we’ll see who needs protection,” Scarlett replied as she walked towards the monorail station ahead of her. Gruma followed after her.

Once they were gone, I announced, “It’s time we start setting a path to Earth! No more meandering! I’m going back to Earth, no matter what!”