October 1st
“Okay crew, we need a plan,” I said as we stood around the kitchen table. Scarlett stood to my right, Harry and Gruma stood at opposite sides of the table while Malgorth was across from me. Across the table was a galactic map. I placed a white king over a Tellos Republic station and explained, “This is the Tellos fleet. They may not have the finest fleet, but they’ll definitely have numbers. Their matter replicator gives them nigh infinite resources.” I then placed a black king over the system with the gateway. “This is the Qarri fleet. They are the galaxy’s foremost power, so they’re no pushovers.”
“And where are we?” Gruma asked as she poked at the chess pieces. I sighed as I placed down a red checker piece between the two armies.
“I was going to use a pawn, but having a repeated white or black would’ve been confusing,” I explained. “If we approach the gateway as such, there are three possibilities. One,” I moved the black king to knock away our checker piece, “the Qarri defeat us. The fate is probable capture, experimentation, and slavery.”
Scarlett’s fur bristled as she heard it. I could see in her eyes that she never wanted a repeat of it. She rose her hand and said, “I, for one, never wish to befall that fate again. I’d rather die.”
“Good thing you mentioned that, since that’s the second possibility.” I placed the pieces back in their spots, but then moved the white king to knock off our piece. “The Tellos Republic killing us is the other probability. The sheer number of guns they’ll bring means there’s a great chance of being shot in the crossfire. If that happens, I hope we all have life insurance.”
“What’s life insurance?” asked Gruma. I facepalmed as I should’ve known it didn’t exist on her home planet.
“It’s a scam to cheat people out of their money,” Malgorth replied as he messed with an empty beer bottle.
I sighed before placing the pieces back in their spots. “The third possibility is that we slip through. However, it’s the least likely of all the possibilities. I haven’t calculated the exact odds since such a scenario wouldn’t have a mathematical equation, but it’s fair to say that we’re toast. Now then, would you like to hear my plan to get out of this?”
“Are we going to wait out the battle and fly through afterwards?” Scarlett asked as she messed with the pieces. She drew our checker piece back before making the white king knock down the black one. She then pushed our checker piece into the gateway. “That seems like a safer plan.”
“It would be, if the fight was truly fair,” I said before setting the pieces back. I withdrew our piece and made the two face off again. This time, I added ten white pawns, a black queen, two black bishops, knights, and rooks. “The Qarri are a multi-sector empire. In comparison, the Tellos Republic is exclusive to this sector. In all likelihood, the elite ships of the Qarri will defeat the Tellos Republic. And they’re the more dangerous ones. They will enslave us if they can, third-party be damned.”
“We upgrade our ship?” the fox-lady suggested as she started to think more about the topic.
“Bingo!” I shouted back as I placed another red checker piece atop the old one. “An upgraded ship with a defensive focus should be our goal. With enough defenses, we can break through the battle and reach the gateway. I would suggest some way to speed us up, even if it is temporary. We need to reach the gateway, activate it, and leave as quickly as possible. Being faster should help us avoid getting shot.”
“What you need are afterburners. They’ll provide the speed, even though they eat fuel like no tomorrow,” Harry said as he pulled up a holograph of a small spaceship. “This was my ship. As you can see,” he zoomed into the propulsion system to show a smaller turbine, “the afterburners here helped me catch up to criminals so I could shoot them out of the sky.”
“Do you know how to install them? Along with a shield, of course,” I asked back as I hoped we got our game plan.
“Yes. But getting the components is a challenge. I doubt the Tellos Republic wants us to get our hands on military components. But I’m sure I can rig something up to help us,” he replied.
“It’s settled then! We’ll land on the nearby garbage planet and use the trash to upgrade our ship. Any objections?” I announced as I slammed my hands against the table.
“I don’t want to touch any of it. It sounds disgusting,” Scarlett said with a scowl. I brushed it off and walked to the cockpit. I placed the coordinates for the ship to land and strapped myself in.
After a few hours, the ship landed on the aforementioned garbage planet. We got ready before walking onto the planet.
Piles of trash greeted us. It was similar to every junkyard scene in movies, but on a scale of cities. Each “block” was composed of a single category and material. Each “district” contained a category of products back when they were functional. Our ship had parked next to the district of toiletry products. Scarlett sniffed the air and immediately recoiled. She gagged. “Disgusting! I’m staying in the ship!” She ran back in, leaving the rest of us to deal with the garbage.
“Harry, check on the disposed mechanical components of either spaceships or aircraft. Malgorth, look for anything you want. Gruma, you can have a field day. Me, I’ll search the electronics,” I ordered before running away.
The electronics pile was far away from the ship. So far, in fact, that I lost sight of all my other team members. To tell the truth, it was what I wanted. I needed some time to myself to sort out what to do. My entire life had been turned upside down for the past five months. I took it all with stride, treating it as a big game. The entire time in the death game was surreal. The fights against the Chitakarn and Gruma felt like an event I watched. It certainly didn’t feel like I fought them.
Then there was everything since I got off that planet. Gruma saved Zalex and took him aboard while I was helplessly watching. When we arrived at Qasan station, I went to the slave market to spy on the evil operation. It was then that I met Scarlett. In retrospect, I wasn’t as freaked out as I should’ve been. She’s an anthropomorphic vixen that spoke perfect English and was of human origin. She was a great addition to the team. However, my own feelings towards her were confusing. By all accounts, Gruma was the one I should’ve been attracted to. But beyond all explainable logic, I was attracted to Scarlett. She was beautiful in an exotic sort of way. Then there were the similarities in personalities. We were both smart and a bit sarcastic. We were probably too close of friends with a compatible orientation, so it felt like a natural evolution in relationship even if I wasn’t quite ready yet.
Zalex stole our ship, so we chased after him with a ship we purchased. While chasing him, Harry showed up and shot us down. After a brief talk, Zalex helped us fight the cyborg bounty hunter and repair our ship. Harry wasn’t happy about being our prisoner, but he warmed up to us. We made a stop at Daraxes where Zalex’s father died while we were on a suicide mission. We then left and went to Aria station. We learned how to use the gateways there. Zalex left us as Malgorth joined us.
And then we got our psionic powers and got mind controlled by a shapeshifter. That was my life since I was abducted. I never thought my life would be so complicated. I always thought I was going to go into the job field after college. But there was a feeling I started to have. The feeling that I wouldn’t want to undo any of this. Ultimately, I saved three lives on this journey, which more than made up for the lost months of my life. Gruma, Zalex, and Scarlett survived because of me. When put like that, any self-pity would be selfish.
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When I reached the electronics pile, I heard a robotic voice ask, “Civilian, why are you on this planet?”
I turned around and faced the robot. It was a bit shorter than me, but not by much. It was bulky and carried an electrified baton. “I’m sorry. I accidentally threw away something I intended to keep,” I said as I scratched the back of my head. The robot didn’t seem amused. I pressed the distress signal just to be safe.
“False. All material possessions can be replicated. Why are you concerned?” the robot replied as it prepared to attack. I placed a hand on my laser rifle as I knew something could break out.
“You know, that’s very capitalistic of you to think so,” I retorted, hoping the Tellos Republic’s programming would give it second thoughts.
“How so? We are a post-scarcity society; the only one in the galaxy. Who cares about a bit of trash when it can be so easily reproduced? All the citizens’ needs are attended to, and their items are instantly replaced. Why should we be concerned about waste?” the robot replied as I felt the upcoming fight was inevitable. Though with what it said, I had a faint feeling that the propaganda both for and against the Tellos Republic was true.
If they were indeed a post-scarcity society, that meant that it would be easy to placate the masses. Bread and circuses. The Roman Empire would often employ it to appease the masses to distract from greater problems. And now I had a feeling that it could be used to disguise the lack of meaningful democracy. It also allowed them to always be at war with the Qarri since they could just placate the people to make them forget about the terrible costs. Of course, this was all speculation. But the robot threatening to kill me didn’t give me any hope.
“Can we get a vote on this? I’m sure the decentralized nature of your government allows representation for all, even the accused,” I replied, hoping my understanding of the ideology was sufficient. But it seemed that like all ideologies, someone found the way to corrupt it.
“The Central Syndicate sees no further need for elections. Since a utopian society has been created, they know that all dissent is insanity. You’re due for a reeducation,” the robot said as its laser baton activated again. It then swung the baton at me.
In a split second, before it could hit me, time seemed to slow down. With the opening given, I sidestepped the attack. Time resumed its normal speed as the baton harmlessly collided with the ground. I took the opportunity to run back while pulling out my gun. I fired several shots at the robot. Most of them deflected off. It seemed its creators made sure it was laser-proof.
The robot tried to charge at me again, rolling faster than a human could run. It aimed at my feet, and I attempted to jump over it. This time, something unexpected happened. My jump gained a boost, going from a foot to my whole height. I easily cleared the attack. I landed on a trash pile, giving me some distance from the robot.
Come on, Quentin, think. The robot has no visible weak spots. It’s immune to laser shots. That means I need to use physical damage to defeat it. But how can I damage it? I looked behind the junk pile to see an incinerator. Bingo!
“Tin can, over here!” I shouted as I clapped my hands loudly.
“Why are you resisting arrest, capitalist pig?” the robot asked. The last part seemed odd. I had no real stakes in politics of that kind. That was something I would worry about when I got home. However, I knew a few ideologies were no good. Fascism, theocracy, monarchism, and communism. And lo and behold, despite claiming to be syndicalist, the Tellos Republic was a de facto communist state. Just like I suspected it of being back on Qasan Station.
A laser blast sounded from behind the robot. The sudden blast left silence as the robot powered down and fell to the ground. Once it fell, I could see who fired the shot. None other than Scarlett. “I think I deserve a reward for saving your life,” she said with a smirk as she holstered her pistols.
“How about a compliment?” I replied with a smirk on my face as well. Thank goodness you showed up, Scarlett. I won’t admit it, but I was going to go through with a risky plan if you didn’t make it in time. “You are quite the foxy lady,” I said before breaking out laughing. She broke out laughing as well at the joke.
“Okay, I’ll accept that,” she said as she started walking back to the ship. “I may hate walking through this junkyard, but I hate losing friends more.”
“Friends,” I replied as I started to realize where this was going. Right now, I had the opportunity to spend time with a woman who respected me and saw me as an equal. And that was pleasing. We were equals. We were both competent fighters who stood up for each other. We haven’t gotten into any major fights like the rest of us had. And then there was the fact we were going home together. Perhaps I shouldn’t wait until we restored her humanity. Perhaps now was as good of time as ever. I was about to open my mouth when she beat me to the punch.
“Quentin,” she said, scratching the back of her neck in nervousness, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. I know it sounds crazy. Utterly bizarre if you will. But, um, can we… can we… can we dance together during the Halloween party?”
At that moment, I let my feelings for her reach me. The mental barriers I placed up were pulled down as the mental image of her human and vulpine forms became one and the same to my mind. She was Scarlett Rose Campbell, no matter how she appeared. “Yes. We can even call it a date,” I answered, gaining more confidence at the end.
Her tail wagged rapidly as her face brightened up. As we walked back to the ship, my thoughts returned to the fight. Though brief, I noticed abilities I didn’t have before. The slowing down of time to dodge the attack along with my large jump hinted that something changed. I knew it had to be the addition of psionics. Those feats broke mortal limitations, which hinted at an odd origin. Just to be sure, I opened up my SAD and checked my abilities:
Abilities Activated Bullet Time (Slow down time to dodge, aim a shot, or think)
Y
Psionic Jump (Boost jumping ability) Y Human Tank (Ability to take physical attacks without getting serious injuries) N Speedster (Superspeed) N Mental Muscles (Superstrength) N Telekinesis N Psionics on Demand (The ability to use your abilities without needing to be in combat) N Bioelectric Pulse (Control the body's bioelectricity to unleash the power of electricity) N Slowed Aging N Immortality Blocked due to not signing a psionic pact
That explained it. Gaining psionics unlocked abilities that defied natural laws. And with repeated use of psionic powers, Scarlett and I could become true supersoldiers. Becoming a real version of Luke Skywalker was now possible. I could also be like Anakin, but I’d rather not turn to the dark side.
We reached to ship to see Harry working on it. From what I could see, he already installed the afterburners. He was currently installing some salvaged force field generators, which would probably provide some protection, though not as much as I would like. Truthfully, nothing would be sufficient barring actual military equipment.
I activated my communicator and broadcasted, “We are preparing to leave the planet. As soon as Harry is done working on the ship, we’ll be heading off.” Scarlett and I boarded the ship and went straight to the cockpit.
The display had already changed on the screen. There was now a combat mode for the ship. The main sections were structural integrity, shields, weapons systems, docked ships, and fuel. If I had to compare it to anything, it would be like one of those HUDs you would find in air combat games. However, this was no game. Should structural integrity in one portion be compromised, it could be catastrophic for everyone. There were no extra lives.
“Last touches finished. We should get going,” Harry said as he entered the cockpit with Gruma. He pointed to the door behind them. “Malgorth is in the hallway.”
“All right. All systems are a go. Next stop: the gateway,” I said as I set the coordinates into the ship. It took off, leaving the Tellos Republic behind. I had a feeling that we were going to have an issue with them later, but it didn’t matter. The sooner we left this sector, the better.