"You wanna know about ships?" Mr. Xan asked.

Sasha nodded, her enthusiasm as heightened as she could make it in the moment. It was a lie. She cared as much about the Flying Axis as she did the mechanics of their robotic helpers. In fact, she didn't know the ship was called the Flying Axis until she posed the question to Mr. Xan on a whim. But the panda was always cooped up in the command deck. He had to have been stir-crazy.

Or maybe it was just her.

“What, you writin’ a book, kid?” Xan asked.

“Don’t be a jerk,” she said. “You’re supposed to be my teacher, aren’t you?”

“Technically, I only get paid to overwatch.”

“Then…Overwatch me how to fly a ship, panda.”

He gave her the biggest eye raise, to which she responded with a grin.

Mr. Xan was without a doubt the worst instructor she’d ever met, preferring to let Mr. Erin do the heavy lifting while he slept in his chair all day. But messing with him kept her mind off the questions eating away at her. At the humans in her dreams. At her clones getting massacred by-

She pushed the thoughts away, grabbing hold of what she assumed was the steering wheel.

“How does this thing work?” She jerked it from side to side. The ship remained floating freely through warp space. “It’s not moving.”

“That’s because that’s the gun control, genius.”

She blinked.

Upon closer inspection, she did notice one of the mounted cannons had been twisting in response to her yanks. She tilted it upwards, aiming it up to the sky. Xan reached over to press the twin buttons on the tops of the steering wheel. Bolts of light shot out in quick succession, soaring out into the empty vacuum and disappearing.

“Are those gonna hit something and get us in trouble?” Sasha asked.

“Naw, they’ll burn up after a few seconds.”

“Oh.” Sasha glanced at the wheel. “Can I…”

Xan smirked. “Go crazy.”

Sasha grinned, immediately twisting and shooting out into the sky like a mad woman. Torrents of laser beams arced across the sky lighting up the bright blue vacuum with blazes of gold. Her maniacal laughter only ceased when the canons responded with audible clicks.

“Crap. It stopped.”

“That’s because you used up all the fuel, kid.”

Mr. Xan waved a hand, and Sasha reluctantly scooted backward. Her liaison pressed a button at the center of the wheel, the sound of something pumping following a white bar filling at the bottom. The machine chimed, Mr. Xan pressing the buttons himself and launching two bolts into space.

“Is this what you do all day?” Sasha asked. “When you’re not sleeping, I mean?”

“Manning the canons? No. If we’re lucky we’ll never have to use ‘em.”

He moved over to the larger console, flicking and pressing levers that all looked like blinking machines to Sasha’s eyes. It felt like she’d need a whole year just to learn the basics of ship navigation, let alone how to pilot on her own through the vast sea of the cosmos.

From what she understood, warp space was their cosmic road. It got them to and from wherever they needed to go whenever they needed to go there. And it wasn’t just them, either. She’d occasionally spot ships or people floating freely. One gave her a nasty scare when she saw it seemingly teleport in front of her while she was midway through her comic book. But none seemed hostile. None had attacked their ship directly.

“How much longer until we reach Wonder?” Sasha asked.

“We still got an hour, kid. Which you’d be better off-”

“What? Were you going to say bugging Mr. Erin? Because he’s busy.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Mr. Xan didn’t answer. Or look at her, for that matter.

Sasha followed his gaze. Another ship had just popped into warp space. One that glimmered with a crimson red sheen, its spheroid design reminding her of a torpedo, though one massive in size. It dwarfed their ship by a wide margin.

“That’s a big one,” Sasha said.

Mr. Xan was still quiet.

Sasha squinted at the vessel. Though hard to see from afar, she noticed people standing in the command deck window. Humans. And athians. And…She squinted further, an odd sensation of déjà vu washing over her.

A kheprian. It looked like a spider of some kind.

“Get Erin.”

“Hmm?”

Mr. Xan had his gaze locked on the ship, his hands slowly moving over the controls. As he did, Sasha noticed the vessel ahead had begun to open, the inner section of the torpedo glowing with white light. She felt signals resonating off the ship.

“Is that a-”

The light launched out.

Sasha fell backward, g-force pulling her back as their ship jerked upwards, the beam of light racing by. Oh my god! The ship ahead was glowing again.

“ALL ROBOTS!” Xan shouted into the intercom. “WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! I REPEAT! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”

The beam of light shot out again. Faster. Sasha clenched her teeth as the ship rocked with impact, alarms flashing above. The robots in the command deck were fleeing out of the room. Mr. Erin grabbed the wheel with one hand, the other clicking through levers.

“Panther! Get the weasel up, now!”

She looked from him to the vessel, which was now glowing with multiple lights, and immediately nodded. She ran with the robots, only pausing as she felt the ship shake violently from another impact. What the heck is going on?

***

Mr. Erin wasn’t in his room. Or with the robots, who had all scattered to perform maintenance duties. She followed his signals and found the supposed weasel standing near the exit hatch.

“Mr. Erin! We’re-”

“Under attack?” he asked.

She nodded.

Her other liason was putting on his helmet, his body covered by a slim-fitting space suit. He tossed one her way as well, much to the panther’s surprise. She’d never seen the things before. In fact, she’d never seen the wall of blasters either. They were in the same spot that had once held nothing but a bare wall.

“Can you shoot?” Mr. Erin asked, pulling from the collection of previously hidden blasters.

“No.”

Mr. Erin nodded. He grabbed one and tossed it her way, Sasha almost getting crushed under the weight as she tried to catch it. Holy- She took several deep breaths, lifting the thing with shaky legs.

“What the heck is this for?”

“Protection,” Mr. Erin said. “ You realize what that ship is, don’t you?”

“No.”

“It’s a pirate ship, Sasha!”

He pressed the button for the exit hatch, the vacuum of space pulling against them, though Sasha felt her legs suddenly lock into place. A magnetic suit? She looked over only to gasp as she saw Mr. Erin jumping out into space. She ran after him, hanging out the door.

“Hey! Are you crazy?”

“Matter of perspective!” he called back. He had his wand in hand, the weasel falling onto the side of the ship and walking up to its roof. All the while Xan was still weaving out of firing range, lasers flying and scraping against their hull. Sasha fell backward, the ship shaking with another heavy impact. “Point and shoot, Ms. Panther! And look out for recoil.”

Sasha found her footing again, dragging herself up.

The ship shook again. But she could hear something else from outside. The sounds of metal being blown apart. She wobbled over to the still-open entrance. Outside, she could see the other ship flying after them. Its lasers were priming again, all aimed at a singular point. She braced for another violent crash but didn’t feel a thing. Her eyes opened, growing wide when she spotted where the lasers had hit.

“Mr. Erin!”

The weasel flicked his wand, the beams of light which had all frozen in place getting flung right back at the enemy. A cascade of crashes followed, Sasha’s smile returning. Nice shot, Mr. Erin.

“Don’t just stand there, Sasha!” her liaison cried. “Start firing!”

Sasha looked back to the gun. The other vessel showed little signs of damage. Cursing under her breath, Sasha waddled over to retrieve her blaster. Between the vacuum of space and Xan’s flying, just holding the thing steady was an exercise in pain. But she eventually reached the exit chamber again.

Okay. Which button is to shoot? Ugh? Maybe this o-

The gun flew backward, careening into her face and sending her sprawling backward.

“Sasha! Are you okay?”

She groaned. Maybe lying and dying was an option.

“On second thought,” Mr. Erin shouted, “maybe just stay out of this!”

She groaned louder. Rising to her feet, she saw lights flashing overhead. The ship continued to rock as a robotic voice blared over her.

“Danger! Hull integrity compromised! Danger! Hull integrity compromised!”

She reached for the gun when it fell through the ground. She immediately jumped back only to see the walls around her start to tear. Shutters were shaking and ripping. The ground caved under her feet, Sasha plummeting only to be stopped by her staff appearing, her legs dangling over the cold vacuum of space.

“AAAAAAAH! MR. ERIN! MR. XAN!”

Her screams received no response.

She activated her skill, pulling herself back to solid ground. Sort of. The ceiling of the chamber had blown away. She ran to the door, her heart racing as she found the blue sheen of warp space replaced with the black vacuum of a solar system.

A planet. One surrounded by three moons and a large ring. And one she was fast plummeting towards.

“Mr. Erin?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

When she looked outside her room, she didn’t see the Flying Axis doing its evasive maneuvers. Nor did she see a weasel deflecting lasers. No. It was only more of the approaching planet. The entire section of the ship she was on had ripped off.

“Anyone?”

Her staff chimed.

“Ms. Sasha,” GT said. “We’ve breached the atmosphere.”

She pulled herself from the door, her eyes shutting as she tried to slow her breathing. To not panic. Not again. She squeezed GT with both hands, her field channeling through her body. Sasha took a last breath for strength.

"I hate pirates!"

And then she leapt out the hatch.