“You see that little dot on the left?”

A grey haired man asked as he pointed to a holographic display of images mapping out a distant part of the galaxy.

“Yes, what about it?” A younger man standing next to him asked

“That’s where we come from, our native star” The grey haired man replied as he floated away from the image towards a big 3D screen displaying an image of a star with three artificial satellites in its orbit

The 3D screen was the most prominent display amongst other smaller screens in the open plan cockpit situated in front of the ship. The screens were arranged symmetrically with the largest in the middle, flanked by smaller screens and the spaceship windscreen showing a view of the void of space outside the ship.

“You mean that’s the sun?” the young man asked turning his head to the direction of the old man as he glided away from him.

“Indeed, and the third spec from the dot is our destination, our home planet.” the grey haired man answered as he pushed a few buttons on a large control panel underneath the screens.

The panel curved around the cockpit forming a T shape from the view of the pilot’s seat. Numerous luminous buttons protruded from the panel, glowing with different shades of dim white light

A fourth satellite appeared on the 3D screen moving towards a position to align with the other three to form the four cardinal points around the white dwarf

“We are almost online”

The grey haired man said to a communication device he picked up from the control panel

The light from the 3D screen and smaller screens around it fell on the grey haired man’s face, revealing shallow wrinkles around his eyes and a deep scar across the right side of his face, slanting down his cheek from the bridge of his thin pointy nose to the side of his jaw, breaking his neatly trimmed beards also grey, like the straight short hair resting on his head

His dark eyes rested deep in its socket, roofed by a thick brow ridge, with puffy bags underneath. His face was marked with natural lines revealing his elderliness, although his pronounced jaw gave him a dominant appearance

The light was reflected on his silver suit giving it a blue shade and illuminating an emblem of a raptor with a snake on its talons in the middle of his broad chest. He was rather built for a man with the level of wrinkles on his face

“How long have we got?” the voice emanating from the device asked him

“About ten minutes” he replied

The grey haired man dropped the communication device back on the control panel, and floated away from the cockpit towards the younger man.

He reached for a bar that stretched along the ceiling of the ship’s deck. He held it twisting and adjusting his back to gain some comfort

His feet hovered more than a meter from the floor of the deck. The deck followed the shape of the ship being taller than it was wide, and stretching several meters in length.

The floor of the deck was smooth and curved to meet the walls of the deck with no edges in sight. Similarly the walls curved to meet the ceiling. The ceiling was less smooth with grooves and patterns decorating it, with each groove emanating a dim blue light

“Does zero gravity make you feel sick?”

The grey haired man asked his younger companion as he stretched

“No, I kinda like it, feels like I’m flying.”

The younger man said moving his hands back and forth almost like he was threading water

“Even with all the genetic modifications I still feel sick sometimes. It’s not good for you if you stay too long in zero gravity”

The grey haired man said as he pushed of the bar gently propelling himself to the floor of the deck

“I know, but it’s fun” the younger man replied smiling

“Well, have fun while it lasts, we will be turning on the gravity two minutes after we go online” the grey haired man said.

The young man floated to one of the windows on the wall of the deck, peeking outside into the vast space and looking at the white dwarf that was a safe distance away in front of the ship. The same white dwarf that was on the 3D screen.

The light emanating from the screens in the cockpit, the hologram on the deck floor and the grooves on the ceiling

cast a bluish white light all around the ship’s deck giving the inside of the ship a dim blueish hue reminiscent of a bright earthly night sky particularly when there’s clear sky with a full moon.

He floated away from the window propelling himself towards the holographic projector displaying the hologram of Earth’s solar system a few meters behind the cockpit

The light emanating from the holographic images fell on the young man revealing a youthful face free of hair, not older than a twenty one year old at most, with small dark eyes a broad nose and full lips. He had thick bushy brown hair, naturally woolly although straighter than it ought to be due to the lack of gravity. Like the grey haired man he wore a silver suit but without an emblem on his chest. He was slim, giving him an appearance of being lanky, but he was only slightly taller than his averaged height companion.

With a wave of his hand he spun the hologram, looking at the solar system from different angles

Using his thumb and index finger, he met them together repeatedly, causing the hologram of the solar system to zoom out, revealing its position within the Milky Way galaxy.

He thought to himself about the vastness of the galaxy.

With his thumb and index finger still slightly pushing against each other on the hologram, using his other hand he clenched his fist with his index finger pointing downwards. The hologram then created an image showing the position of the solar system relative to his current position.

“One hundred and twenty light years” he whispered to himself as he read out the distance between his current location and his home planet as shown by the hologram

“Get ready to strap on, we go online in four minutes” the grey haired man said loudly from his seat in front of the control panel. The younger man hurriedly rushed to the empty chair next to where the grey haired man was sitting.

“Don’t forget your helm, and get mine”

He pointed to the two helmets floating but attached with a link next to the wall of the ship

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The younger man using the floor of the ship to gather momentum pushed himself with his legs, launching himself towards the helmets to grab them.

He did a similar manoeuvre but this time with the walls of the ship, launching himself back to the direction of the seat in front of the control panels

He handed over one of the helmets to his older companion, then wore his, fastening the helm to the reflective silver coloured suit he was wearing

He then sat down on the chair next to his companion and strapped himself in.

“T minus sixty seconds” the older man said into the communication device he had picked up from the control panel

“This never gets old, it always blows my mind” the older man said smiling to his young companion

The 3D screen showed the white dwarf with the four satellites all positioned on the four cardinal points.

Solar flares erupted from the white dwarf as electrical sparks emanated from all four of the satellites

“T minus thirty seconds” the older man spoke again into the communication device

“How can the satellites withstand the gravitational force of the white dwarf” the younger man asked looking at his grey haired companion

The older man ignored the question for a moment,

“T minus twenty” again he spoke into the device

“Anti-gravity pockets” he said replying to the younger man’s question

The solar flare became more violent, together with the electric sparks emanating from the satellites. They danced together getting intertwined as the electric sparks started to form a visible bluish membrane engulfing the whole star

“We are online” the older man said speaking into the device.

“Brace yourself” he continued, looking in the direction of his companion as he pushed a button creating a force field that enveloped the ship

And suddenly the ship was hit with a stream of ionised waves causing the ship to rock back and forth violently. The intensity of the commotion steadily increased as several alarms went off in the ship accompanied with flashing red lights

A blueish white ball of light appeared in front of the ship, the ball began to grow bigger and darker, growing to a size that was big enough to engulf the ship, then the darkness of the ball started to fade as a brown grainy background started to emerge, the picture started to get clearer and then all of a sudden, a sandy plain was visible right there in space in front of the ship.

The commotion in the ship started to die down and the alarms started to turn off one by one as the rocking motion of the ship eased.

“We are good to go” he said into the communications device.

With a click of a button on the control panel, the gravity was back on in the ship

A hole in space, right in front of the ship had emerged, it was a gateway between two points in space.

The ship slowly moved forward crossing the gate and emerging one hundred and twenty light years away from its former position

On the other side of the star gate was a group of people all armed standing a good distance away from the portal, facing it and watching the ship emerge.

An older woman stood in front of the group with no weapons in her hands. Her long black hair danced to the rhythm of the wind and her eyes were covered with tinted shades. She wore a black veil covering her face from the nose down and a blue robe, baggy enough to hide her feminine figure betrayed by age

The rest of the people behind her were dressed in either white kaftans or blue robes, with their faces covered with veils matching the colour of their robes and kaftan. Most of them had their heads dressed with turbans and their eyes shielded by dark tinted goggles

Several hover bikes and open roofed SUVs were visible in the background with more people dressed like the standing group on and inside the vehicles

They were about two dozen people in the group.

They stood in a desert surrounded by the dune, only sand as far as the eyes could see

The ship slowly moved towards the group hovering above the ground before coming to a halt right in front of them, with the portal still open behind the ship

The ship’s doors opened on its side revealing the grey haired man standing with what looked like a small assault weapon, his younger companion stood next to him, slightly taller, also holding a similar weapon.

Stairs protruded out of the door leading to the desert floor

They both took off their helmet as they walked down from the still hovering ship, stoping half way to the bottom of the stairs

“You are late” the woman in front of the group said like she had almost ran out of patience.

“How late?” The grey haired man asked smiling

“It doesn’t matter now, you are here” she said as she simultaneously removed her face covering revealing a smiling wrinkled face covered in sunburnt olive skin. Her teeth were stained and she was chewing what seemed to be Kola

Her eyes were big and dark brown, with thick brows resting on top. Her nose was narrow and a little pointy with a slight curvature. Her lips was full and stained reddish brown from the kola’s juice.

“We have everything you asked for” She said waiving her hand to her entourage, signalling them to approach

“But first we will be giving you the offerings” she smiled brandishing her stained teeth

Three open roofed SUVs moved closer. Some of the people standing next to her started bringing bags out of the SUVs and placed it at the bottom of the protruding staircase of the ship

The grey haired man signalled to his younger companion to inspect it.

They both climbed down the stairs and the younger man proceeded to have a quick look in all sixteen of the black raffia bags with each boldly labelled with the names of specific commodities

He turned to his older companion saying with a confused delight

“Chocolates?” He said as he continued his inspection

“Some melted, he continued”

“Check for hash and tea” the grey haired man replied

The younger man rummaged through the bags inspecting them quickly. He looked at his companion and nodded

“But you do know this is only worth a battery” the grey haired man said to the supposed leader of the desert group as he bent over picking some clumps of hash and giving it a sniff

She smiled again as she replied

“Yes, yes that’s fine it’s only offerings. Now we talk about what you came for”

“They better not be sick and dying like last time” the grey haired man said as he dropped the hash back in the bag and picked up a fist full of tea leaves in the other bag. He held it to his nose as he inhaled deeply.

“No, no they are alive and well, some still sucking on their mothers titties” she said smiling

She signalled for her people to bring out the rest of the cargo and two more SUVs drove forward. Two women with babies on their arms, were ushered out of the SUV and several children aged around two or three came out of the other vehicle.

“Seven babes and two fertile women, two babies still breast feeding” she said smiling like she was impressed with herself

One of the babies started to cry and the woman carrying it, supposedly it’s mother started to rock it gently with care.

Both women had long dark hair, flowing past their shoulders. They were both dressed alike, in cheaper and less appealing kaftans than what their traders were wearing. They both had big sunken brown eyes with dark circles around them. They looked generally unkept and worn out but with a faint hint of beauty lurking behind their miserable appearance.

They had hollow cheeks although the clothes they wore masked their emaciated look, it was obvious they looked starving, not as plump as some of the traders ushering them out of the vehicle.

“We don’t need the grown adults” the grey haired man said

“Cruel to separate a suckling babe from its mother, besides the mothers want a new life and will not hand over their babes to you” she said with less of a smile

“Do you know what space is like?” The grey haired man asked with an irritation clinging on his lips

“It’s a lot kinder to younglings than us adults”

“You seem to be doing just fine” the older woman responded to him

The grey haired man turned his back to the group and spoke quietly to his younger companion saying

“They won’t survive, the stasis pod we have are for younglings, they will struggle to make it” He continued

“It’s your call, we don’t have to take them ” the younger traveller replied

“Seven is better than five.” the grey haired man said

He turned his gaze back to the desert people

“Ok, we will take all of them for the weapons you asked for, and four more batteries” the older man said

“How about the rejuvenation machine?” the old woman asked

“When you give us more than 12 babies less than a year old without any strings attached , it’s all yours”

“Bastard!” She blurted out

“One of the women is family. She wants a better life, I know you don’t kill these children I hope so at least” she said smiling and brandishing her brown stained teeth as she moved her gaze to the younger space traveller

“I’m not sure what you use them for, but it’s sure better than whatever they will end up doing here. We trade for better lives, so give us better deals, not just a couple of batteries and weapons to kill ourselves with” she replied

The younger space traveller ignored her stare and started loading the offerings into the ship

“We changed your life, that’s why you wait for us and keep coming back. Besides, you asked for the weapons, so don’t complain about what you bargained for. And please don’t pretend like you are doing these kids a favour, how many of them did you snatch from their parents?” The grey haired man responded challenging her narrative

The older woman smiled once again brandishing her stained teeth

“You say that one of these women is family, do you know the odds of her survival?” the younger man interrupted with a question as he picked up the last bag containing the offering

The older woman turned her gaze back towards him, still smiling

“I imagine it’s the same odds as your survival, and please correct me if I’m wrong but you seem healthy and well”

Her smile remained, although it was starting to look like it was forced.

“We both lived off world for most of our lives, we are genetically suited for life in deep space, these women are not” the older man chimed in

“You both seemed concerned for the welfare of the women, I’m sure you will do all you can to make sure they are well, besides if the odds of their survival is bothering you, you can always leave them and their babies behind” the older women replied with a more stern look

“Twelve more kids without any attachments and you get the rejuvenation machine” the older man said

He signalled for his younger companion to fetch the bag in the ship they planned on using to barter.

He brought it to the older man carrying it with both hands, and dropped it next to his his feet.

He then walked to the children and two women ushering them into the ship

“Here you go, this is a bargain for you” the grey haired man said as he picked up the bag dropped next to him, handing it to the old woman

She gave a signal for one of her men to grab the bag off him and check the contents. He did so then nodded .

She smiled “saying twelve more children and we get the rejuvenation machine”

The older man nodded in agreement and then proceeded back to the ship with his young companion right behind him.