Ilise ran her hand along a black container. If the humidity was off here, there would’ve been condensation all over the cool metal, gently she drummed her fingers on the top corner of it. Her eyes were focused on the screen displaying the control room. “Alice is trying to fly this ship. Is there any way you can stop her and message our crew to get back on?”

The ship lifted off with a sharp enough tilt that her hip bumped into the container. “I’m really hoping that was you, Tony.”

“Oof that looked like it hurt.”

“Answer my question.”

One of the screens flipped to the outside, revealing the prison getting further away. A few bright orange lifeboats started pushing off into the water, beacon sails raising high in order to be spotted later. “Unfortunately the Darkstorm is a very agile moving ship and… oopsie we are off. Maybe we can try getting along with the pirates? I think they’d do great with the military if given another chance.”

Ilise glared at one corner where she knew there was a camera. If Tony was letting the pirates get away with stealing the Darkstorm she would have words with him. A lot of them. With a single step forward, her finger landed on the monitor displaying Alice with a crossed face and pointing to the one named Polo. “They’re pirates! How on earth were your doors left open?”

“You left them open. Should always wiggle the nob and check your keys.”

“This isn’t a house! You could’ve closed them when they were approaching.”

“By the time YOU restarted Darkstorm they were already here.”

“What made you shut down in the first place then? How did the fire happen?” Ilise would be having very colourful words with Tony. Later.

The logs she read through earlier were displayed on the screen. She watched as Tony called up the camera outside of the Lightning Strike scanner. An orange body with one large antenna, another bent similar to how its lower swimmerets were laid on the ground, pirate Squilla. The sheen of the ship was gone, some places were coated with white foam, and others only had a light dusting of a gray residue, but the only spot which looked burnt was where that horrendous piranha once sat on the panel. “Technically by all machines, there were enough VOCs to cause an explosive alert and plenty of smoke caused by the smoke bombs.”

She left a dirty fingerprint on the screen, smearing it across. “You knew there was no fire. That’s why you muted everything.” She sat on the container, wiggling her butt on it until her feet were dangling off it, and kicked Charyd’s shoulder. “You fucking saw the smoke bombs be put in place.”

“Now, that’s not very nice.” A harsh cold air blew down on her, which felt refreshing with how angry she was feeling. “I was just about to compliment your sharp intelligence for deducing everything. Like how quickly you realized it was the pirate Charyd and not your flight officer. Did you ever actually meet Officer Charyd? And, by the way, the names? Total coincidence. For real.”

She rubbed her forehead as the ship rattled to adjust its alignment to exit the planet’s orbit. Her eyes darted around and glanced at the handcuffs on the amoeba pirate. The skin was red from a recent biochip insert instead of the almost lighter skin color from an old biochip from years of service. The pirate stole the identity completely. “How long have you known he was not Officer Charyd?”

The monitors switched to a camera shot from earlier in the day when it was Charyd, her second in command, her medical officer, and herself. Then it zoomed in even more on Charyd’s ass. There were not even pixels, these cameras were high definition enough to show the stitches in the pocket that was on his uniform pants. Of course, he would morph it so it was muscular and defined. Another photo of a Flight Officer Charyd showed up, but back at the hanger. With them zoomed in, two red lines outlined shapes. “Still cute, but not perfect.”

Ilise rolled her eyes to the ceiling. The red lines flashed in her peripheral, drawing her gaze back to the two images side by side. Tony had realized what was happening because the man hadn’t morphed his ass correctly??

“What are they talking about in the control room?”

“Mostly about the beer tasting weak - oh and where is Charyd. Alice tried to communicate but obviously failed. They are also looking for Squilla, who will wake up soon.”

She ground her teeth, her fangs pushing into her lips. She was only one military officer, against four? “I need to know I can trust you, Tony. You hid this information from me. You could’ve told me about this Charyd and stopped everything, stopped you getting hurt. I need you to help me regain the Darkstorm and not walk me into a trap.”

“You’re not alone. There is one other soldier inside the Darkstorm.” Tony spoke rapidly.

She jumped down on the ground. “Who made it back?”

“Officer Saar is in the hallway. Better get going quickly before we get too out of orbit. Just put on the cute little tiara over there to block out Alice and take some handcuffs with you.”

She grabbed the cobalt ringlet and placed it on her head, even though she was allergic to the coating, it was worth the cost of this mission. Writing up all the wrongs that happened on this mission was going to be a pain in the ass. She might cut some parts out, to make sure the project did not get cut. Every belt loop on her uniform had a different handcuff, one for each pirate. She still did not have her gun, but the fire extinguisher proved useful once and Tony was on her side. They could at least communicate now with the trinket in place. “Find my gun.”

“Yes sir. Bad cop is a good look on you”

Tony only said that in mocking, but she still appreciated the comment. “How much longer do you think you can delay launching into space before they catch on?” According to Darkstorms diagnostic graph, they were flying around PT-0237 in the viewport in the control room was a recording of the approaching stratosphere and the distant sun creating the halo and shimmering webs of the invisible waves which surrounded the planet. They flashed in and out of sight randomly before the space cleared up completely. It was hard enough to navigate with both Ilise and Tony trained for it. Alice would most likely kill them all.

“There is no such thing as an idiot-proof plan. Just assume minutes and collect Saar, the hallway is safe,” Tony finally responded after too long.

She kicked Chardy’s ass once before leaving. Damn, it was firm. The door sealed up shut behind her and she took two steps out into the hallway. Even though Tony had told her it was safe, she stayed alert because he was unpredictable now. She sprinted past the private rooms for all officers and toward the Lighting Strike. The ship looked owned by the pirates completely with how it had lost its sheen and was dingy and dirty everywhere. Typical military boot footprints were in the smoke dust from where she had run earlier. A perfect trail for anyone to follow. There were more buried prints elsewhere from the others walking aboard.“Stop, you went too far.” Tony’s voice chimed in her ear.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

There had not been anyone in the hallway and the latrines, Lightning Strike, mess hall, and the DME were further ahead. “Take two steps back…” Tony continued, “and here’s the present I left you!”

A wall panel next to her popped open and at the same time, a harmonica sound went off in her comm celebrating her find. An extremely battered, bruised, and grumbling Saar was crumbled inside. His shoulders were on the ground with his knees over his head. His uniform was crumbled, but that was the least of his worries. Ilise grabbed his shoulders and uprighted him and put him up against the hallway wall. He immediately slid down to the ground and though his eyes were open, he was definitely not all there. Luckily he had his gun. She took it from him. “Tony… Why is one of my officers in the wall?”

“Those pesky pirates.” Tony dodged the question. There was no way to tell when Saar was put into the wall, but at least she had one ally, even if it was the data analysis.

Patting his cheek she began to help wake him up. “Officer Saar, you need to use your wit and combat skills.”

His bruised jaw and shaved head flopped the other way. Mediva needed to look him over. “He’s in no state to fight. Keep an ear to this hallway and if he comes to, let me know.” She glanced up and down, there was no way to keep him safe besides in the wall. Putting an arm under him, she gently placed him back in. He grumbled something, still not fully conscious, but was obviously too weak or too out of it to fight her. “Change of plans. The pirates loved the mess hall. We will bait them over one by one by using you.”

“Great thinking Captain. You already have one there.”

She pushed the panel into place. “Thanks, Tony.”

The metal was locked back in, unfortunately, leaving giant hand prints all over from her opening and closing it.

“Captain… please make sure the gun is on stun.”

Asking for her to stun the death row pirates after, yet once again, they stole her ship was like asking her to sit on a cactus. It only made her more prickly with Tony. Her gun should have been found by now. She lowered her voice as she got closer to the mess hall. “Why do you care if they stay alive? Why have you been helping them?”

A hologram of him appeared next to her, kneeling on the ground, his head down as if in penance. “Those months were spontaneous and unpredictable. It… I can’t find an answer for you in the logs or code. But I can’t delete it to forget them either.”

Ilise paused at that admission and faced the hologram. Tony looked like he was sorry. But he also looked confused. That was a terrifying thought. Even more frightening though was the fact that he hid the logs that Ilise had been told were cleared of his experience with the pirates.

Ever since Darkstorm was brought back from its little excursion with the pirates, Tony had been energetic and testing rank. While the logs were completely cleaned and all code that could be was reset, Tony was special. He clearly wanted to keep something and no tech on Cadoon could outdo Tony on his own code. The banter made it fun to be on the ship though. They both would have to go through training again after this mess but Ilise knew she would still be in Tony’s corner against doing a more thorough wipe.

“Fine,” Ilise finally conceded to Tony’s earlier request, though she quickly justified it to herself by tacking on, “But only because they know the location of the Exec pirates’ home base.”

Her thumb confirmed the setting of the gun to stun, Tony was foolproofing the plan, she had already grabbed handcuffs and they were useless on a dead body. The ship rumbled as it began to go higher into orbit. She charged into the mess hall and spotted the pirate with the beacon of a head carefully walking as he held a sheet cake with a sparkler candle on top, the light reflecting off his head. No warning or anything she fired and stunned Polo instantly. He crumpled to the ground, the cake managing to land with a splat, the sparkler still upright like a victory torch. Sprinting across the mess hall she grabbed his wrists and unhooked the largest handcuffs on her belt for him. Then she grabbed the sparkler and stomped on it to put it out. She was not risking a real fire. The cake had some crummy red and gold letters on it. “Best Captain in the Universe!” She rolled her eyes at the decoration, but at least pirates had good taste to not do a carrot cake. No one in their sound mind should put vegetables in a dessert.

Once Polo was locked up to the table that was secured to the floor, Tony chimed in. “They are getting really suspicious. Two more are on your way. They're armed.”

Like the tables, all the stools in here were bolted down for when harsh evasive maneuvers happened. The only spot she would have protection was by the door. She grabbed a handful of cake, charged her gun, and got next to the door as it hissed open. She pulled the trigger hitting one and threw the cake in the direction of the other. The brown chocolatey goodness distracted her second target long enough for her to knock the gun out of her first opponent and succeed in letting her own gun charge up again to fire the stun shut right into their thigh.

“Fireman carry them fast. Alice figured out the display was fake. We are about to leave PT-0237.”

The waves were coming, if they hit the waves while she was not locked up, she’d be looking as banged up as Saar… Which, now that she thought about it, explained the way he looked. She glanced at Polo, chained to the table, and winced. He could lose an arm or even both. The other two pirates were smaller than the beacon so she quickly followed Tony’s instructions and stuffed each of them in the closest chairs. Tony, helpfully, activated the harness snaps to lock them in place. Ilise handcuffed them anyway. She glanced at Polo again and she could swear that Tony was giving her a disapproving glare through one of the cameras. She rolled her eyes but then repositioned Polo on the single couch and the safety harness snapped into place over his large body. Ilise made it loose enough to make him lean forward so she could handcuff him with his arms around one of the table legs again.

Once she made sure all three of them were good and received a soft beep of approval from Tony, she made her way out of the dining hall. She only had one set of handcuffs and it was time to stop her original target of the day - Alice. Ilise ran to the ship’s deck with that single objective in mind.

Alice was already standing at the entrance of the deck when Ilise slid into the hall.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Alice snarled out and then her entire body lit up, her skin becoming translucent and her bones glowing as she used her natural powers to try and dig into Ilise’s mind.

Ilise grinned and scratched at her head where the cobalt ringlet was already making her skin itch. She didn’t give Alice more time to register the move before she aimed and fired.

Alice was good, she dodged the stun shot by jumping further into the deck and out of sight. Ilise ran right after her, only to see a large red object flying at her. It only glanced at her wrist but she still dropped her gun. Then it registered. Alice was using a fire extinguisher much like how Ilise had wielded it. Fortunately, Ilise already knew how heavy the damn thing was. She kicked it, and though it hurt like a bitch, it threw Alice off balance and forced her to drop the red container. Then Ilise was on Alice, kicking her again and forcing her to step back. A punch had the Nereus turning her head and Ilise slipped behind her, grabbing her in a chokehold.

Alice immediately tried to pry it off and dropped her full weight. Ilise went down with her to her knees, refusing to unlock her arms from around Alice’s neck.

“We…we’re–” Alice started trying to say something.

“Can’t hear you,” Ilise growled right into her ear and tightened her hold.

“Umm… Captain?” Tony’s voice sounded through the speakers rather than her earpiece. “We’re in orbit.”

Ilise felt her arms slacken at that news. Alice kept struggling in her hold but it was weaker. And then the entire ship jumped, forcing Ilise to let go in order to stop herself from face-planting right into the captain’s chair. Alice didn’t have as much luck and immediately blood started dripping from her nose when she hit the edge of one of the stations.

The ship shook again and then the gravity went off. The drops of blood started floating between the two women. Then the viewport lit up as one of the invisible waves became visible just before it hit them. The entire ship was sent spinning. Ilise curled up to avoid being hit where she floated in the middle and then she heard Tony roar, anger clear in his voice, “Fucking Charyd!”