“Perhaps we can talk this out. Surely there’s a peaceful arrangement we could make,” I offered as I backed away. I scanned the horizon and noticed several rocks. There was still the damaged spaceship, but I doubted it would be useful in a fight. Our opponent had a jetpack, which meant he had the movement advantage. If I could find a way to disable his jetpack and gatling gun, we could win the inevitable fight.
“It’s too late! You lost that chance when you sold the gem!” Harry shouted as he pointed his gatling gun at me. Before he could fire, several laser shots hit him. Despite being laser shots, they were roughly as fast as bullets. That was something I would need to investigate. Tracing their origin, I was able to notice that it was Scarlett who fired the shots. Once Harry saw her, she started running. “You literal b—” Harry was about to swear before he was cut off.
“The name’s Scarlett! Remember it well!” the foxy lady shouted as she fired more blaster shots at Harry. Heh, nice one. Wait, I didn’t mean it that way! In response, Harry’s gatling gun arm started firing at her. Most of the shots missed, but a few hit her in the chest region. Due to the armor, her life was spared. But it still injured her as she flew backwards. In contrast, her blaster shots barely made a dent on Harry’s cyborg body.
While he was approaching Scarlett menacingly, I fired my own laser rifle at Harry. I set it to have a three-shot burst, making each trigger pull fire three shots. As I attracted his attention, I said into the radio, “Zalex, grab the ship’s batteries and some wires!” I ran as Harry fired his gatling gun at me. Unlike Scarlett, more shots hit me. I was fortunate to wear an armored spacesuit as I only got bruised and knocked back. It still wasn’t something I could rely on too much. Police officers wore bulletproof vests, yet they weren’t absolute protection.
“Face it, no one can stop me! To resist me is futile!” Harry boasted as he flew over to me. I was barely getting up when I felt a boot stomp on me. I was now pinned to the ground as a homicidal cyborg grabbed my helmet. “Now it’s time for you to die!” Before he could pull off the helmet, a jolt of electricity hit my system, filling me with pain. My shock was brief. I was blown a short distance away as I briefly convulsed. It was the most painful sensation I ever felt, as if I was hit by a freight train going a hundred miles per hour. My limbs refused to operate, but I was ultimately going to be fine. The same could not be said of Harry.
I watched as Harry was continuing to be electrocuted. I looked at his back and saw that Zalex had attached the wires to the batteries and placed the exposed ends against Harry’s robotic body. “Way to go, Zalex!” I shouted hoarsely as I regained control over my muscles.
“Zalex always comes out on top!” Zalex shouted as he kept the wires against the cyborg. He pulled out a drill and quickly unscrewed the bolts connecting Harry’s gatling gun arm to his torso at blistering speed. The cyborg’s gatling gun arm fell to the ground as Zalex swiped all the bolts and placed them in a pouch. Zalex started getting to work on Harry’s other arm when he was kicked away, sending him and the screwdriver flying.
Harry slowly got up, allowing Scarlett and I to find cover behind some rocks before he readied his fist to attack. Harry looked in my direction and shouted, “I may not have my gun, but I can still crush you!” As he raised his fist, I could see Scarlett holding a laser pistol with both hands as she aimed. To buy her time, I decided to take out my laser rifle and fire it at Harry. The gambit worked as he shot hateful eyes my way. The cyborg charged towards me, falling straight into my trap. I got up and jumped, the low gravity sending me high. By the time he reached my previous location, I was far overhead. Before he could launch himself after me, sparks emerged from his metallic torso.
Scarlett fired her shot. The blast directly impacted Harry’s back. Unlike most other shots, this one seemed to actually hurt him as he screamed in pain. He fell to the ground and felt his back. “My jetpack! You destroyed my jetpack!” he shouted as he looked at Scarlett, who gave him a smirk.
“Did I?” she asked with fake innocence before holstering her pistol. She put a hand over her heart and said mockingly, “I’m sorry I broke your toys.” At least she’s mocking our enemies and not us, I thought as I focused on aiming my laser rifle. With Harry focusing on Scarlett, I searched for a weak spot. I tried to look for an opening, but I saw none. Either Scarlett got the one opening, or I wasn’t able to see it. Now that I think about it, she did have a higher Perception stat than me. That may be part of it. I fired my rifle anyways.
“You’ve already done this several times to no avail! What makes you think that you’ll kill me this time?” Harry asked as I saw two figures approach from behind him. I knew it was time to distract him.
“You know what they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try and try again,” I said as I backstepped. “We also have a power you don’t. The power of teamwork. Individually, we could never hope to defeat you, but together we can.”
“That’s the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard! Now stop it with the anime speeches and tell me why you kept shooting!” Harry shouted back as he raised his fist.
“The truth is, we were always one step ahead of you,” I said with a smirk as the two shadowy figures jumped on Harry’s back. He was knocked to the ground and pinned by the larger one, who I immediately recognized as Gruma. She knelt down on top of him and placed his face against the rocky surface with a vicious smirk. I don't care what she was doing this entire time! I'm just glad she decided to show up!
“Glad you finally decided to show up!” I quipped. She sent a dangerous glare my way, making me quickly add, “Thank you.” She accepted that apology as she went back to growling at Harry.
Zalex quickly unbolted all the limbs he could in the time he had. Before Harry could knock them off, he was left limbless, being only a torso and a head. “How? No one has defeated me before!” he shouted as he tried to move but couldn’t.
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“Rule one of combat, always pay attention to your surroundings. You should’ve known we could use the spaceship over there, yet you acted as if it didn’t exist,” I explained. I knew it was stupid to explain my victory, but I just felt like rubbing it in today. I smirked and shrugged. “Rule two of combat, never take your eyes off a combatant. A combatant you don’t see is one that can surprise you. Rule three, always cover your weaknesses. This is best done with a team, which you refuse to use due to being a lone wolf. Honestly, this battle was always in my favor, not yours.”
“But the amazon came out of nowhere! There’s no way you could’ve relied on her!” Harry shouted as he looked at Gruma. He winked at her and said, “There’s no shame in losing to a beauty like you.” I gasped as I couldn’t believe he was that bold. Scarlet looked shocked as well as she watched the obvious flirting.
“You have a lot of bravery to ask out a woman you just fought,” Gruma said as she picked up Harry. She smiled and said, “I respect that in a man. If you join us, we can spend more time with each other.”
“Really?” Scarlett and I asked in unison. Zalex merely looked on in interest as he walked towards our spaceship. I decided to follow him so he wouldn’t steal it. Scarlett followed up behind us, presumably to get away from the awkward scene.
We reached the spaceship and immediately surveyed the damage. Zalex said into the radio, “Compromised hull and oxygen tank. Luckily for you, the oxygen tank on my spaceship was unharmed. I’ll place my current supplies in the ship before heading back.” With that said, he placed the items he had on-hand in the ship before walking back.
I checked my suit and sighed in relief as I felt the keys. I messed with the radio until I only had Scarlett on the other side. To be honest, it’s disorienting to constantly hear someone that is far away when you can’t even hear your footsteps.
“Do you think we’ll ever find our way home?” Scarlett asked as she laid down on her back and looked at the stars in the sky.
“We’re tens of thousands of lightyears away from Earth. Even if we traveled at the speed of light, we’d be long dead by that point. It’s quite possible that Earth could be dead by that point and humanity would be extinct,” I said, eliciting a frown from Scarlett. I let the silence hang for a while before adding, “Of course, I was kidnapped from home and put on a sadistic gameshow in the course of a single night. Therefore, there must be some way to ‘take a shortcut’ across the galaxy. There’s the hyperlanes that we’re using, but my viewing of the galactic map has shown me that they only cover three hundred systems here. There must be either wormholes or gateways to get across the galaxy.”
“Do you think there is a place for me on Earth?” Scarlett asked as she pointed to her face. “I’m not exactly normal anymore. I’m a mutant, just like those creatures from that show. I don’t want to hide for the rest of my life. I want to have a life again! Go to college. Get a job. Have a family. Yet all of these were taken away by the Qarri. I want normalcy, yet I can never have it.” She started to tear up as she sniffled.
“I don’t know,” I answered. Everything she said was true. Unlike me, who could rejoin society, she’d have to live in the shadows. Unless we found a way to turn her human again, she couldn’t have a normal life. “We’ll just have to find a way to make you human again. We’ll raid a Qarri base for a way to reverse your mutation.”
“You’ll risk your life for me?” she asked as she stood up.
“You’re my friend. And I’m not letting one of my friends spend the rest of her life alone!” I replied as I stood up as well. I noticed that Zalex had already returned and started working on the ship. I could also see Gruma carrying Harry into the spaceship. The two were smiling at each other, which was odd to me. How did that cyborg manage to woo Gruma so quickly? Doesn’t she realize that he’s still an enemy? We need to keep him locked up until we can either recruit him or turn in him. I shook my head before activating every radio. “Everyone except for Zalex, let’s go in. Make sure to keep the cyborg limbless and locked away in one of the bedrooms until further notice,” I said.
Once all of us were in the spaceship, Gruma placed Harry in an unoccupied bedroom and locked the door. I could see Zalex through the opening in the ceiling as he repaired the ship. Scarlett sat down on one of the couches and tapped her fingers against the armrest. The silence was maddening. I saw things that should’ve been making noise, yet the vacuum of space made them silent. I wanted to talk, but I didn’t know what to talk about.
After a few hours, the ship’s power started up again, lighting the entire area. The airlock door sealed itself shut. After a few minutes, I could hear air entering the room. I looked up and saw that Zalex managed to make the ship look as good as new. “Oxygen recycler back online. The air in the ship is breathable again,” the ship announced. Without needing further question, we all retracted our helmets and took a deep breath. It felt great to have a functioning ship again. All of us started walking towards the cockpit as Zalex reentered the ship.
We all got strapped into our seats. I said, “Take us to Daraxes. We have some business to do there.” As Zalex walked into the cockpit and strapped himself into the last available seat, the ship shot off.
After a few minutes, the ship said, “Gravity normalized. Three days until Daraxes. Do as you wish.” Needless to say, we all walked straight to the kitchen to grab something to eat. All of us grabbed snacks, with Gruma taking some to Harry. I frowned as I thought about how Harry effortlessly managed to attract her. I was with her longer than him, yet I felt that I needed to take time before asking her out. She wasn’t my type, but she was the only semi-normal woman I’ve seen so far. But enough of relationship talk. I’ll have all the time in the world once I get back home. My main concern should be figuring out what forms of FTL travel can get us to Earth within my lifetime.
I soon noticed a delicious and meaty smell from the stove. I looked and saw Scarlett throwing several ingredients into a pan. “What are you cooking?” I asked. She smiled as she looked at me.
“I’m making Beef and Potato casserole. Or at least a modified version of it. Ever since I got turned into this,” she said as she pointed to her face. “I started enjoying meat and berries more. I can still eat all the food I used to, but I prefer meaty meals now. Which is funny because I remember trying to become a vegetarian when I was a child.” She looked worried. “Are you fine with this?”
“Yes. It smells delicious,” I replied. “Now if you learned how to cook some good ribeye steak, that’ll be great. Especially medium-rare.”
“I’ve never had steak before. Was never interested when I was a child. Was never allowed any when I was enslaved, obviously. I’ll try some as soon as I get the chance,” she said as she continued cooking. Great. Now I need to find a restaurant that serves steak somewhere in alien territory. We were lucky to find ground beef at Qasan Station.
After an amazing dinner, I walked to my room and got ready for bed. As I laid down on my bed, thoughts flooded my head. There was so much to do and yet so few options. Most of all, we needed a navigator who knew of ways to “jump” across the galaxy. Secondly, we needed to either befriend, turn in, or otherwise neutralize Harry. Thirdly, I needed to find a steak restaurant for us to visit. I’ll be honest, it’s mostly me who wants that one. It’s also not a true need, but I feel like I deserve a steak after all I’ve gone through. And a good week of nothing. I need that too.