Entering Psi Trident’s atmosphere was much easier than their earlier tumble through the invisible space waves, but it was still rough. The Darkstorm spun out of control at one point - or at least that’s what it felt like for Charyd - before the viewport was covered in dark gray and rain. The ship’s descent to the planet’s water surface was faster than the rainstorm. The water hit the bottom of the hull and echoed through the entire ship like bullets piercing armor. Only once the ship was stable and had a clear approach to their destination did Charyd let go of his seat’s armrests.
“Tony,” Captain Posey called out. “Please check in on Officer Saar.”
“He is unconscious.” The Darkstorm’s neutral voice came in. It could have replied slower.
Charyd’s fingers tapped the board in annoyance but then he remembered he had a job to do. He took over the navigation once the ship stabilized and attempted to find the dock. The landing pad needed better lighting, he was certain he double parked. A heavy thud and then everything settled. They were on… somewhat solid ground.
The green-snaked woman hissed in shock. “Captain, I will go check on Officer Saar.”
“For his dignity, I will go instead.” Charyd replied as he inputted the last of the commands to finish the landing sequence. The words came out tasting like copper. Ugh, this was not going to play well. His acting better be perfect. Sure, Charyd was a pirate, but he wasn’t a straight-up prick.
Captain Posey nodded. “Officer Mediva, prep the med bay for when Officer Charyd gets him there. I need Officer Saar up and ready. Inform him he has to review the code of the recent wave we went through. Improve it and return the findings back to the Admiral’s office. Commander Sisyphus, care to join me? Your scowl is better than mine.”
“Of course. Debrief me in your office?” A Cadoon man taller than any Charyd had ever replicated unbuckled from his seat and strolled over. The room would hardly fit ten of this giant and he had crossed it in three strides. Everything about this human was double extra. The barrel chest, the girth of his thighs, his two-strand twists, even his uniform was stretched. He was past due for a resizing thanks to all the bulking he did. Humans and their endless need to bulk up and make their muscles bigger always fascinated Charyd. What was the point if they couldn’t deflate them quickly when they needed to squeeze into a tight space? Like… a panel, for example.
Charyd unbuckled himself and stood up.
“I’ve always appreciated a shifter. They can lift others with ease.” Commander Sisyphus’s lips stretched back revealing pearlescent teeth. He knew when someone was studying them.
Charyd clipped his boots together. “Sir.”
Seriously, he had no other words. The smirk on Sisyphus’s face was either threatening or flirting. Charyd could morph into any species or race and could learn their language and slang. But picking up the Language of Love required a whole Ph.D. at the University. Pirating did not come with scholarships either.
Sisyphus hummed as he nudged himself forward with his fingertips to the hallway. With the ship taking on the planet’s softer gravitation, the large man was bouncing smoothly down the hall towards Captain Charyd’s private office. With the man’s bulk, his toes were probably enough to blast him off into space. He caught himself perfectly and continued down the path with small bounces. It was as if he knew the gravity strength already. The Medical officer followed after, her snakes hissing as she overshot her strength and crashed into the panel there. Adjusting to Psi Trident’s gravity was going to take her some time. The command deck’s door slid closed and blocked Charyd's view of the two.
The ship tilted upward slightly before the engines purred on to prevent tipping. Charyd could see nothing but rain and vague outlines past that to signify a building of some sort. The prison. The Darkstorm suddenly tipped to the side and Charyd heard a curse from the other side of the door. Before anybody could say anything, including Captain Posey who was glaring at the ceiling, the Darkstorm’s AI sounded over the speakers, “I need to be locked into the port or else these waves will drift me. Or Flight Officer Charyd can keep me company and stable.”
The Darkstorm’s AI was definitely needing a coding update if it did not know how to prevent drifting. Anchoring was from an ancient c-language. Did the Darkstorm’s landing gear locks not work? Another sudden pivot told Charyd that whatever it was, the Darkstorm was having fun with them. Even the Captain grimaced, her two fangs had to be polished for this mission, most Shicor had at least coffee stains on them.
“Tony, take whoever you need to lock you into position.” Two of the screens on the deck lit up and the crew before them unbuckled and got out. “You go help Officer Saar.” Captain Posey waved at Charyd with a finger without looking at him. The order felt too much like a dismissal. “The rest of you, look over the ship and make sure everything is right.” The main deck emptied quickly. Checking over the Darkstorm after that traumatic pass through the space waves was a must.
This was his chance to talk to her and figure out how she did it. “Yes, Ma’am. But I was wondering if I could have a chance to talk to you?”
“As your commanding officer, I’m always available.”
“I can’t wait to hear how you flew this ship. You handled it with such gentle ease.”
Captain Posey’s face slumped. Her eyes looked at the navigational pin on his chest. “That was your definition of ease? I hate to see what your definition of hard is.”
“We got here without the security permission. Must’ve been your charm that kept them from shooting us.”
Her smokey topaz drawn-on eyebrow arched. “Security received a heads-up message. They did not have time to realize the pattern of waves for this season. We are on a crunch deadline. The pirates’ execution. Go take care of your fellow officer. Tony, send me the file information on each of the pirates to my comm. Starting with Alice.”
Ahh… Alice… She was a firecracker and a half. Charyd was secretly glad they did not have her real name yet. Hopefully. And if Posey was meeting with Alice, Charyd had to be there. For the entertainment value alone.
“Wait. Seeing you pilot and dance your fingers across the hologram.” His gut twisted at the memory, but he locked his earlier snack in place. “I need to learn to fly like you. That was a once-in-a-lifetime event.”
The Darkstorm hologram appeared. “It was mostly me doing the data processing, figuring out when the last crashes happened, etm. She flew ‘off lucky sense’.” The hologram’s fingers came up to draw quotes in the air around the words. It looked tacky. And with the hologram’s smooth face, it was a bit cute.
“Tony.”
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“Ilise.”
A Shicor’s teeth grinding sounds a lot like a sword being sharpened on the grinding stone. This conversation did not help. Charyd focused on Posey. “Wow, purely gut instinct. That’s only built on years of incredible experience. But you look so young. Was there a recent planet’s gravitational pull you compared it to?”
Posey’s face tinted a purple shade. “Training and the war as a medic pilot gave me experience. Excuse me, I have profiles to review and you have to take Officer Saar to medical.”
Charyd watched her leave. Normally, ranking officers relished in praise, not dodged it. The Darkstorm’s hologram crossed its arms. “I, personally, will accept your praise. Getting to know me intimately keeps this ship sailing smooth.”
“Trying to do that.” Charyd wanted to curse the ship out. He had to hold his tongue knowing that every conversation was recorded. He adjusted his body structure to lengthen his legs and lower his density to walk around the ship to Officer Saar’s station. There was a soft gravity pull from the planet but nothing like his home planet. Home was simple with how everyone looked like everyone else to be in style, similar to how the military was with the uniforms. He had started his life as a cabin boy at the trading station. His race was in high demand for their communication skills. Thanks to that need, he rose quickly in position and left home to have adventures. He hit captain status when the wrong trade happened.
Charyd stared at Saar’s board and screen trying to figure out his plan. A true captain always had one. A picture of Saar with his buddies riding a new satellite launcher sat on the desk. A mirror had been tucked away in the lower corner. Vain guy constantly checking himself or overly protective and watching his back. Charyd wanted to enter with the rest of the military crew to blend in. The prison did not have an open-door policy for visitors. Officer Saar had to stay behind to improve the code. Charyd was a laborer, not a desk jockey, he would not know a thing about AI coding. He could at least try to understand how to fly out of the invisible waves. Touching the screen he opened up a few files looking around. Why was everything capitalized randomly? Multiple applications began to open up on the display. The only program that made any sense to him was named database. He was hunting a needle in a haystack. “Darkstorm, could you bring up the latest flight log through the waves?”
Tony’s pixelated version appeared on the screen carrying a folder. It hopped with a “boing” sound and tossed the folder in the air. The face dropped off the bottom of the screen with its typical silent laughter. A text note popped up saying, “Change into Saar to have access.”
The Darkstorm definitely interacted with the military crew more than when Charyd commanded it. The ship apparently only wanted some respect like everyone else. Fine. They will mop the floors more than once. He would personally brush this ship clean if it meant it listened to him. After he saved the crew. Without questioning, Charyd looked at the picture of Saar and morphed into him.
Another wave rocked the ship until it jerked with a sudden stop. The engine did not turn on to adjust, someone must’ve anchored the ship down. It wouldn’t be long until the captain left for the prison.
The doors opened up with the sounds of multiple hissing snakes. “Saar? Why are you here? I was waiting for you.”
Charyd moved his pale hands to his shaved head. “Was only a short nap. I don’t need your aid.”
“I bet it was disgusting too. Where is Charyd? You have his uniform.”
Gorgons have multiple eyes and peep at all the little details. “Charyd lent it so I could do my job. His stink is worse than the shit.” Charyd was not surprised with himself at how easily the insults came. He had heard them all. “I came straight here because C.P. was desperate to have this code done. Now stop sniffing me with your tongues.” He turned back to the screen with a harrumph. Saar would have been harsher. The words still worked and they chased the medic away without a question.
The flight logs opened up on the screen. Multiple error messages that declared false data flashed brightly and then faded to a more acceptable color. He compared them to the video of when the ship shook. It was an endless stream of error messages when Captain Posey messed with the Darkstorm’s internals. Re-watching it still made him gag, but he had to know what she did. The error messages only stated override success. He deleted the false data entries, if the data was wrong, why keep it? All it took was morphing into Saar to access this data. For him to fiddle with the hologram he just needed to change into Ilise Posey. A steady hand and luck are all a pilot really needs. Charyd had not been caught by the military yet, so he had plenty of luck.
“Officer Charyd.” The Darkstorm stated. “I believe you should get going to catch up to your crew.”
Charyd morphed back into his other persona. Thank goodness the watch went unnoticed. “Thanks… Tony.” It felt odd calling the ship by an intellectual name, but the Captain did it and the ship obeyed her. It also did help him multiple times already. “You run things -uh well.”
As he walked out the door, Tony replied with a short and clear beep. He did not make it far. Officer Boil slid down the ladder from the Lightning Strike weapon. “Heyo. Where are you off to?”
If anyone wanted a decent amount of privacy on this ship, they had to be trapped behind the walls. “I want to see the workings of this prison.”
“That’s not suspicious at all. What good is the navigational pilot in the prison? No offense, but you require high clearance as is, being a shifter.” Boil scratched at his neck awkwardly and broke eye contact.
“What am I going to do? Morph into a prisoner and walk out? They wouldn’t bat an eye because of my biochip. Did you clean up that mark?”
“They really didn’t care for the Darkstorm; they carved it into the panel. I just finished sanding the epoxy. Getting some paint now.”
Looking up at the Lighting Storm, Charyd felt his plan click into place like the corner of a puzzle. The cap bombs were in place, all he needed was everyone off the ship now. Boil’s attempt at doing his job would work in his favor. Especially since it was so close to the Lightning Strike system.
Onto the next step of his plan. He wrapped an arm around Officer Boil. “Mate, let’s check out the scum of the world. Remind ourselves why we chose the path we have.” He elongated his fingers just enough to slip under the man’s tight collar and pin a small device there. For a short moment, Charyd felt bad using the guy this way. He was cool. But then he remembered Alice’s face when the security bar pierced her ear as she was taken down. Her cries as she was ripped out of Charyd’s mind still echoed from when the device activated and she was cut off telepathically
“If C.P. finds out that I’m not done-”
“You’ll finish it before we get back to base.” Charyd did not realize how cold his voice had become until he felt Boil tense under his arm. He tried to force a smile and it felt too natural. “Seriously though, do you want to see what weapons they’re packing here? This is a water planet, could you imagine what would happen if the Lighting Strike went off?” He steered Boil to the exit of the ship.
“Ah, that would be horrifying to be next to. Water is a conductor and it’ll probably fry up the whole base with a powerful charge from the Darkstorm.”
“Let’s make sure no one is on the ship to accidentally shoot it off then.”
They caught up to the Darkstorm team waiting at the dock. Captain Posey was arguing with someone on her comms. “Stop the delay and open the gates. You know we’re from the Cadoon Military Space Force. You even admitted that the Commander reached out to you. What more do you need? Vetting!? Fine. Whatever gets me and my necessary crew in there.”
Boil wrapped a fellow arm around Charyd. “Looks like we are going to be waiting a while.”
“Don’t worry, it will be worth it.” Maybe he will kidnap Boil, he kinda liked the guy.
They slipped on the wet stern of the Darkstorm. Sisyphus and the gorgon officer were trying to shelter their heads from the falling rain. Due to the gravity of the planet, it fell so slowly that it looked more like snow. One could swat the rain away as they moved. Psi Trident was 99.9% water. A tenth of a percent leftover was only because of the buildings that were floating about like lily pads in a hurricane. Everyone was waiting for the Captain to lead them into the prison. The Darkstorm had positioned itself on one of three landing spots. Charyd noted two docking chains on the ship to keep it from sliding around. Those would have to go. One of them was plugged into a panel Charyd had replaced himself after an altercation during his command of the ship. It was easy to replace again, even in space. The other docking chain, however, was hooked into a thick metal bolt that looked important.
“For safety protocols, everyone should note that the dock is wet.” The Darkstorm hologram appeared right at the edge of the entrance. “The ship is wet. And when you come back inside me, you and I will both be wet. And I’m slippery when wet.”
“Tony!” Captain Posey said. Through the constant rain, her face luminosity glowed with the heat. “Lock the ship down and stay on alert.”