The captain’s chair on the deck of the Darkstorm was a sleek and beautiful design. It was the perfect height to lean over and look at all the monitors from the different control stations. It also stood a single step above the other stations, a little elevated so even if the captain was shorter, they would be looking down at the rest of the ship deck.
Charyd ran a hand over the backrest in greeting as he passed the chair and then stepped down to his station. The seat in front of the monitors was not as soft as the captain’s chair but it would do.
For now.
“Systems check?” shouted Captain Posey as soon as she came on deck.
Charyd could have sworn he heard the Darkstorm let out an imitation of a sigh before responding, “All good, as I already said a thousand times.” Its voice resonated perfectly on the small deck without any echo at all.
“I don't remember you exaggerating so much before your… side trip,” Posey said to the air. With a sigh of her own, she turned to Charyd’s station where the screens were lighting up.
“Officer Charyd, are the coordinates correct?” Posey asked him.
Charyd patted the navigation board, he felt in solidarity with the ship. The four sections finished loading the display of the central star in the system they were heading to. “Yes, Captain.” If he went to an additional decimal place, they would be trying to land on top of one of the tallest mountains of their planetary destination. However, the Darkstorm could easily do that.
The remaining crew members announced their checks were good too. This was Captain Posey’s first time commanding a ship of this level, and it showed. In fairness, no one in the military had experience commanding a ship like the Darkstorm before.
The speed of a Dark Matter Engine allowed the ship to travel across a galaxy in a few hours. Along with the ability to precisely land on a planet and maneuver with ease around any asteroid belt without a navigator, the Darkstorm was a first-class ship. It was shaped like a fish and used that structure to slip through any uncharted waters unrestrained like a salmon going upstream in spring. It did not matter if it was empty space, a planet’s gravity, or even the rare phenomenon of the invisible space waves. It darted around all obstacles.
The Darkstorm was going out for its first flight since returning to Cadoon’s control. It was not doing a simple dash delivery of the local hot and ready meal. On board was a Lightning Strike, yet another new invention made specifically for the Darkstorm and ready to be used on one very specific target. All eyes in the Cadoon government were on the Darkstorm right now.
Charyd felt some of the weight on him whenever he was called, but Captain Posey was being cooked by them and the bio-luminescent sweat lit up her entire face.
His hand subconsciously went to where he kept his comms and the biometric chip registered to his… other persona. It was stupid to even have them on him, but he did not want to leave them lying about in his room. The moment this test trial was done, he was going to steal this ship.
For the second time.
The first time was a lot easier when he had his small crew and the ship was empty. Yes, it was in the middle of one of Cadoon’s top-secret military factories, but that was nothing for Charyd to worry over. Now, it was him against nine. He had better luck at the slots in Barmaca, especially when he rigged them. He had to finish setting up his plans once the Darkstorm was moving to their destination.
He tapped the navigation screen to display their current route. They would be there in three hours. They would shoot the Lightning Strike off at some other ship and be off. With the jagged array of the weapon, they could shoot it around a planet and it would use the tiny amount of ions floating far apart in space to ricochet into the target. It would be hard for their target to dodge when the strike hunted down the area with the largest concentration of metal. It had come in handy a few times when he commanded the Darkstorm.
“Tony, begin energizing the DME and countdown,” Posey declared. She took a deep breath. It would probably be a lot easier if she was not wearing so many pins from the Cadoon Space Academy on her uniform.
“About time, Captain,” the Darkstorm replied with an exasperated tone.
Charyd turned to look back and see Captain Posey’s nose flare and narrow lips twitch. Her sharp fangs were ready to snap at the ship. The Gunner Officer leaned over to Charyd. “They re-commissioned the Darkstorm with more security but they should have done a hard reset on the AI computer.”
Charyd only nodded his head. The Darkstorm’s AI, Tony, had a habit of being overly polite. Unless things were running slow. Or it was bored. It was some truly ingenious and very subtle coding built in to nudge the crew.
“No one will be taking this ship out from under my command ever again,” Captain Posey said. The control room was too small. There was no chance to have a private conversation. The whole ship was meant to be small and agile. Able to be crewed by only ten people. Quick bomb drop offs, scouts, or electrocute ships to prevent them from fighting in battle. Or do quick trade deliveries, as Charyd had used the Darkstorm for. The room was certainly not big enough for the captain’s ego.
The whirring of the engine grew louder. The vibration of it charging until it was ready to launch the ship forward. Maybe the vibrations would make Captain Posey relax. Instead she stood rigid as a support beam in front of the captain’s chair.
The chair was really comfortable. It already had an indent of Charyd’s ass in it, but it was soft. She should probably take a seat.
“Ten. Nine - We’re going- AND ONE!” shouted Tony.
The ship vaulted forward. Charyd looked forward before his neck got hurt from the sudden strain. He heard Posey sit down and curse. “That’s not a countdown!”
A smile pulled across Charyd’s face. He really wanted to captain this ship again. It was the orca of space, shaking any captain that had not raised it for the asteroid races herself. Charyd held on for months and almost succeeded in breaking the ship if the military hadn’t shown up to take it back. At the time, he was too distracted by the ship to notice the threat that had slowly circled them. Lightning Strike was powerful, but it only fried the computers on the first ship. The second ship it hit had a reboot, and the third barely flinched. The fourth through seventh fighters were not even touched. In the end, they were caught.
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The Gunner Officer straightened himself once the DME corrected the gravitational pull in the Darkstorm. Charyd looked at the map, he smiled when he saw how they were already out of one solar system. “Speed of four KMS reached. The estimated time now on the display.” He tapped out the navigation screen.
The numbers 00:02:58:56 popped up. Quickly followed by a youthful-shaven man’s face. He wore the high collar of a military officer, no specific rank, and no badges on his narrow frame. “Woah. We can do better.”
Please don’t.
Charyd still couldn’t understand what was the deal with humans giving all of their tech human faces. It was weird. And this one, Tony, as Captain Posey called it, was even weirder. Especially when it wanted to screw Charyd over.
Charyd tapped at the map. “Captain, this is the most efficient path.”
“Mmmmm kay. No.” The Darkstorm’s program added a tiny beep in substitute of a tongue clicking. “We can get there a lot faster if we don’t take such a wide girth around a big jolly planet there.”
“Captain, I was having us avoid the rings.”
Captain Posey inclined their head. “Tony, you know your systems. Can you handle the gravitational pull and particles of Planet AT-5540?”
“I’m going to slide on through. You won’t hear a bump on our shell.” A thin long hand pointed to where the time clock was displayed. “We will get there now in this much time.”
He smiled so big that it forced his eyes to close. It was the last image everyone saw before the youth’s face disappeared and the countdown clock changed to 00:01:59:13.
“Excellent Tony.” Captain Posey’s shoulders actually slacked into the chair. “Officer Charyd, take notes.”
If a hammer or wrench was nearby, Charyd would have used it to hit the Darkstorm’s board. Charyd stared at the newly mapped path on his display. He would have to be back at his station in an hour and a half.
The gunner next to him was busy tapping away at the screens, no doubt adjusting for the change in his own plans. Once he finished, he turned to Charyd and asked, “Hey mate, want to come with me to check the weapons? The pirates left a hilarious piranha design on one of them.”
“You will be cleaning that mark. Now.” Posey's purple eyes, a unique trait for her species, focused on the marksman with a glare so accurate it proved the pin on her chest was not just for show.
Charyd patted the sucker on the back. “I’ll come help ya clean.”
“Sorry man. I figured we could bond.” They walked out of the control room, the doors automatically closing behind them and air pressuring the room. “C. P. is uptight. They're all afraid about pirates ruining this trip for them.”
“Didn’t they already catch them?”
“Yeah, no one is going to take this ship again. They’d be an idiot. Captain Posey was denied this ship twice according to rumors. Kicked from a special program, then having the pirates steal it? She is really determined to have it though. This mission? This is what’s going to prove to the higher-ups she can keep it.”
Everything they said was history Charyd already knew. The path to the weapons bay was intelligently placed next to the control room. They climbed the ladder to get near the dorsal fin where the Lightning Strike was set up to charge and run. A strong current is ready to be built up between the dorsal and ray fins. The direction changed by the tiniest signal sent from the pectoral fins. As silly as the ship looked, it was befitting for seas. The display panel that ran the diagnostics was next to the entrance into the weapon itself. On the panel entrance was a fish with multiple pointy teeth drawn, maw wide open, and a red mohawk. The space academy symbol of the satellite and fighter jet were being eaten in its path.
The room lit up as Darkstorm’s human representation hologram appeared, hand pointing at the display. “New security protocol. You need to scan your biochips to enter the weapon’s room.”
Charyd shrugged. He reached his right arm out, bare of any tattoos like a proper space cadet. The light scanned where the chip sat. “Flight Officer Charyd, access granted.” The Darkstorm’s human face smiled. The marksman did the same. “Gunner Officer Boil, access granted - after you clean this mark.”
“Yo… Charyd? You know that–”
“I know!” Charyd interrupted before he had to listen to yet another rant on how he had the same name as the galaxy’s most famous pirate. The same one that had stolen the Darkstorm immediately after it was finished.
Well. Joke’s on them.
“You know that Charyd is a very popular name for my species, right? One dude! One dude uses it and suddenly we’re all pirates about to mutiny and take over the galaxy!”
The human visage of the Darkstorm visibly laughed even if there was no sound to accompany it. It vanished before Boil could notice.
“Sucks man, but you gotta clean this,” Charyd pointed to the piranha. He opened up the panel and passed it to Boil.
Boil grumbled, placing the panel on the ground to go get cleaning supplies. The cables to run a jagged Lightning Strike were organized in perfect steps around the small compartment. The typical warning signs of the DME pipes were visible. Most people avoided touching them. Charyd reached behind them, elongating his fingers to reach further, and stuck a small bottle cap-sized smoke bomb. Sneaking a real bomb on board would have set all the alarms off. These caps were enough to give the illusion of a bomb. Add in the flare of a pulled evacuation trigger, and the ship would easily be his. Then he could get his crew back.
He knew where to hide the last four bombs too. He slid down the ladder, sticking another below the bottom rung.
“Thought you said you would help clean?” An equal-ranking officer walking the halls approached him. His eyes glared down at the last rung.
“I should really go back and study that new path, to get better at my job.”
“Stupid aliens.”
Charyd was never cut out for the rigid social structures of the military. His human fist solidified into a brick and quickly smashed at the asshole’s head. The human had no time to react and was knocked unconscious. His body collapsed down with a satisfying thump.
Everyone was a critic of every type of alien race in space. Never mind that the Captain was a Shacor. Never mind that half the crew were not human. Just because Cadoon’s first settlers were humans did not mean they ran the whole system. The racial slurs were common but completely unjustified. Charyd was the most intimate critic, the amoebas of the universe, able to shift and learn a species’s language in no time. It made his species perfect for navigation and communications. Also perfect at hiding his real identity. Along with all the fake ones too. He felt the weight of the tiny biometric chip hiding in the frequency identification protector in his pocket. He was currently Flight Officer Charyd, the chip stolen from a man that fell asleep at the bar. The coincidence of him having the same name as the famed Pirate Captain Charyd was a joke that only his crew would get. He couldn’t wait to get them back so he had someone to laugh with about this.
His boot kicked the officer on the ground. He was already under a time constraint and now he had to hide this loser’s body. No one would be going to the gym right now, but that was past the mess hall. He might run into Boil by then. He adjusted his body’s muscles and picked up the body. He took two steps down the hall when suddenly a metal panel popped open next to him. Inside the large cavity were various pipes and cables for the ship. Barely large enough to fit a human. He stuffed the guy in and slid the panel into place. It did not lock. He shifted it around, trying to figure out what made it pop but nothing worked. Until he remembered he was on the Darkstorm.
“Thank you,” Charyd said to the air.
The Darkstorm did not reply but the panel clicked with a satisfying lock. He tapped on the panel, but no echo was heard on the other side.
Convenient.