The force of the explosion was so strong that Savros awoke midair, just before landing on his back in the middle of the floor. He sat up, blinking to amber lights and a muffled alarm. He was already at the door, headed for the bridge when he heard Polly’s voice over the intercom.

“Savros, Doctor Prashaad, to the bridge! We are under attack! Code red, get up here now!”

Savros was through the door and in his seat before Polly finished the announcement. Doctor Prashaad was only a few seconds behind him. He strapped himself into the seat behind Polly.

“Where’s Jaen?” Savros asked, concerned, “what’s going on? Who’s attacking us?”

“Jaen’s on her way up from the engine deck. We completed the first six jumps, and before Shin could lock onto another particle, we got hit. Jaen was at the engine decks, ready to check a voltage drain that Shin had detected mid flight. I don’t think she even had time to open the hatch before they hit us.”

“Oh no, they must have found me! I’m so sorry. I’d been hiding at Piso’Mado for over a month before I sent word to The Center. I thought I was going to be clear and safe. They must have tracked us down somehow or followed us from Journey’s Begin. I should have waited longer, now I’ve doomed us all. I’m—.“ Doctor Prashaad was cut short when Polly spun her chair around and slapped him in the face, harder than seemed necessary. It seemed to do the trick, though. Doctor Prashaad immediately gathered his wits and calmed himself.

“We got this, don’t worry, besides we’re so far from Nog’Racias at this point there’s no way they could predict our location, and with our engines, they couldn’t have followed us. We must have arrives at the wrong place at the wrong time and gotten caught in the crossfire or just happened to run into an enterprising group trying to capitalize on their luck by getting the jump on us.” Polly spun her chair back around as Shin activated the screen and brought the short-range sensors online.

Her first theory was immediately shot down; only one ship showed up on the display, they weren’t caught in a crossfire. There was still a chance that they had just surprised another passing ship, and it was a misunderstanding. She watched the screen as the ship sent another volley of fire, and theory two went down the drain. What kind of ship would fire twice on another ship that had made no move of aggression?

“Raising shields. Shielding at ninety-nine percent, shields at one hundred percent. Hailing unknown vessel, prepare for impact.” The second volley smashed into the shields, rocking the KaiStar with as much force as the first impact.

“Shielding at ninety-nine percent, shields at ninety percent. Frequency open.”

“This is KaiStar, diplomatic vessel en route to Galactic Center. Cease fire, I repeat, cease fire!” Polly sounded commanding but not desperate. In fact, she was actually quite calm, considering the circumstances. There was only static on the line.

Polly repeated herself, “This is KaiStar. Please cease fire and identify yourself.”

Static for a moment longer before a voice came through the intercom, “Release him to us and you may live, defy us and you will not.” Another volley of fire was heading at KaiStar. It struck the shields just as Jaen was entering the bridge. She leaped over the back of her seat and landed squarely at the controls.

“Shielding at ninety-eight percent, shields at seventy-two percent.”

“Sorry guys, thank you Shin, we’ll take it from here. Savros, Polly, the twins, please.”

Savros’ heart was racing as he and Polly jumped down the hatch and took their seats in the cubbyholes. As Savros sat down, his seat spun in a full circle as a full surround holoscreen booted up around him. In one corner, he could see the KaiStar in relation to the other ship. He gripped the controls and leaned to the left as his whole chair spun to the left, and his view changed. In the bottom corner, where he could see the KaiStar and the other ship facing off, he could see the forward arms of the KaiStar unfold. He almost forgot where he was as he watched the KaiStar draw two very large guns. It reminded him of a gunslinger in the old stories, drawing both pistols at once. He turned his attention back to the main screen and the ship that was targeted on it. As the guns came online, a reticle appeared on his screen. He moved the controls slightly, and it lined up perfectly, and without thinking, he pushed the trigger. He could feel the vibration of the guns through the whole ship. Savros was blown away at the rate of fire and the power behind it. He’d only tapped the button, but he’d sent several dozen bursts of the laser. As his shot neared the enemy craft, Polly’s shot came in from her side. Together, they struck the enemy ship with much more force than Savros expected. Several of the beams passed right through the holes created by the beams in front of it. One shot from each gun, and the enemy ship was not only crippled, but it was also thoroughly exploding.

Savros looked over at Polly as she watched the same scene unfold on her screen.

They climbed out of their cubbyholes and hugged.

“That was crazy!” Savros was trying to catch his breath after the rush he’d just experienced.

“That’s why you don’t pick a fight. You never know what the other person is packing. Come on, let’s get back up to the bridge.” Polly climbed back up the ladder.

They entered the bridge to see Jaen slap a visibly shaken Doctor Prashaad.

Jaen composed herself, “I’m sorry, Doctor Prashaad, but you have to keep it together. The threat is gone. I need you to breathe. Just take some deep breaths and calm yourself.”

“What do we know?” Polly spun her chair around and kicked her boots up on the console.

“The only thing we have to go on is the transmission they sent and the visuals that Shin was able to capture. We can infer that they at least assumed we were unarmed. Nothing that does us any good at the moment. Shin do a flyby and capture everything you can, then let’s get out of here.” Jaen was sitting in her seat, staring at Doctor Prashaad.

“Are you calmer now, doctor?” Jaen’s voice was kind, but her face was serious. The doctor nodded his head that he was calmer, but the way his fingers were curled into his seat, he didn’t look calmer.

“Okay, good. I need you to think carefully. Do you know of, or can you think of, anyway, that anyone could be tracking you or us? Did anything happen to you, maybe in your captivity or at Piso’Mado, that would allow someone to know your location? Magic, tek anything?” She continued watching him, waiting for his face to give it away even before he decided to tell them or not. She could see it in his face. He had no recollection of anything happening that could lead to this. He shook his head, no.

“Well, I don’t know how, but we have to assume that they are after the doctor and can somehow track or predict our location. Fortunately, after our next jump, we should be close enough to the center to ward off most attackers. We’ll finish our next jump in about twenty minutes and then we are only about an hour’s flight from the Galactic Center of Knowledge. In two hours you’ll be in your own home relaxing. Unless you think they’d dare try once you’re there. Seems pointless at that point, regardless of their goal. At any rate, we’ll report the incident and deliver any evidence we have. The center should be able to handle it from there.” Jaen spun back around.

“How we doing Shin?” She was looking at the screen.

“I’ve gathered everything I can. Jumping now.” The screens faded as they made the jump.

“Does anybody see anything useful?” Polly put the images Shin had captured up on the big screens. They browsed through them, looking for any markings or designs that would give a clue as to who it was. Everybody was looking, but nobody could see anything. They spent the majority of the jump looking through stills and watching videos, but to no avail.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Okay, we’ve only got a few minutes before we land the jump and are back in Living Space. Even though we should be safe, let’s not take any chances. Savros, Polly, ready the twins.” Polly and Savros headed back to the cubbyholes. As they entered the corridor, they could hear the bridge over the intercom. Jaen continued,

“Shin, as soon as we land, hit the drives and let’s move, straight line to the center. If they do ambush us, at least we can give them a moving target. Doctor Prashaad, I want you to just sit quietly and breathe. You saw how we handled the last one, and even if we can’t disable them, we can outrun them. If we don’t come across them first, the Galactic Service is always stationed at the checkpoints entering the system. If they are still pursuing us when we get in range of the checkpoint, it’ll be their problem. Okay, here we go, everyone get ready!” Jaen was fully focused on the job at hand. Savros found the way she could transform into ‘Captain Jaen’ like that to be quite impressive. She was like a completely different person.

Shin’s voice came over the intercom, “here we go, three, two, one. Engaging drives, raising shields. Incoming. Evasive m—“ The KaiStar rocked and shook with the biggest impact Savros had felt. His screen flickered, and when it came back up, he saw three bogeys as the KaiStar drew its weapons. Before they were even drawn, another volley and another massive impact. The corridor lights flickered as Savros turned his full attention to the screen. One ship in front of them with another flanking on either side.

He heard Shin report the shield status, and it was not good, shielding at eighty-four percent, shields at fourteen percent. Then he heard Polly, who sounded like she was laughing,

“Let’s light these fuckers up! Woo!” Polly unloaded her first volley toward the craft on her side of KaiStar. Savros was only a split second behind her on firing on his enemy vessel. His first volley seemed to be entirely absorbed by their shields. Disappointed that it hadn’t been destroyed like the last ship, he locked back on and held the trigger down this time. Another impact nearly threw him from his seat as the lights in the corridor went down and. He recovered himself in time to see the enemy ship exploding, but he worried it would be too late when he heard Shin say shielding was at thirty-eight percent and shields were critical at six percent. He hoped with everything he had that Polly had taken out the ship on her side as he took aim at the large ship in front of them.

“Give me a boost Shin.” He said as he pushed the button, determined to not let up until he saw an explosion. Much like the first time, his volley was met by Polly’s at nearly the same time. Neither of them was willing to stop firing until they were sure the enemy ship was disabled. After a full second, the first sign of explosion and then the big one they were waiting for.

Polly and Savros were on their feet and moving to the bridge as fast as they could.

“Shin, is everyone alright?” Polly asked, ascending the ladder. No response. She stepped through to the bridge. Jaen was leaning the doctor up against the seat as he sat unconscious on the floor. The bridge, like the corridor, was dark, except for the sparks and occasional flashes of the lights. Smoke was slowly filling the bridge, and Shin still wasn’t responding. Savros went to help with the doctor, and when he got closer, he noticed the blood on Jaen’s face, and he started feeling sick again.

She saw the look on his face. “I’m okay, really, it’s just a cut above my eyebrow, where I hit my head on the console in that last attack. Those guys were serious this time. I can’t believe they were waiting for us like that twice. That shouldn’t be possible, but it proves that it wasn’t a mistake last time. They’re tracking him, somehow.” The Doctor was starting to come to, so Jaen left him with Savros and turned her attention to the screen Polly had managed to get working. Savros could hear Polly,

“It looks like Shin’s housings are undamaged, thankfully. Let’s see, well that’s not good.”

Jaen turned to Savros, “Good news, bad news. Good news, Shin’s housings are undamaged which means he should be fine. Right now, he’s buried under a mountain of broken hardware and corrupted software, but he’ll be able to hack himself out long before we can get to him. More good news, the powers supply and fuel reserves are undamaged. The bad news, nearly everything else is damaged. Shields and shielding are gone, engines are off line along with life support and navigation and,” she looked around the dark bridge of the KaiStar, “Main power is out.”

Savros listened to the situation they were in and waited for more because he was at a loss for what their next step should be. As he was taking it all in, Polly grabbed a tool bag and ran out the door.

“Hopefully,” she continued, “Shin will find his way out through life support or navigation. It will save us having to rebuild one of those systems. We won’t know the extent of the damage to the systems until Polly gets the main power restored. It shouldn’t take her long. How is he doing?” She pointed at Doctor Prashaad.

Savros looked down at the doctor, who was mumbling something about ‘wartime antics’ as his head rolled from side to side and his eyes fluttered.

“He’ll be alright. Is there anything I can do to help?” Savros was desperate to help keep his new family safe.

“Could you take him back to his quarters? Put him on the bed and manually secure the door. We’ll check in on him once we have things a little more under control.”

Savros couldn’t lift him entirely off the ground, so he grabbed him under his arms and dragged him out of the bridge. He was only halfway to the doctor’s quarters when the corridor lights came back on, followed by a light show of sparks and arcs, before going dark again. As he reached the door, the lights came on again, this time with less fanfare. They flickered but remained on. Savros dropped the doctor’s torso onto the bed, lifted his legs, and rolled doctor Prashaad onto his side against the wall.

He left, securing the door behind him. He met Polly at the door to the bridge as she was climbing up through the hatch. She gave him a thumbs-up,

“Main power, check. Did you get Doctor Doomsly squared away in there?”. He nodded as she continued. “Hopefully, he stays out of it until we get there. Be better for all of us, really. Hey Jaen, any word from Shin yet?”

Jaen looked over her shoulder at them as they came in. “Not yet, but I can see him working his way through navigation. I’m working on life support while we wait for him. We’re better off letting him bring the engines back online. I’m rerouting power to life support from main power, so I’m killing the lights and accessories. We’re running dark.”

A new display appeared on the screen, and code began to scroll as the program booted up, the screen went blank, and a map of Living Space appeared on the screen with a flashing red dot. The view on the map zoomed in on the dot, frame after frame until the KaiStar was visible under the red dot. The map zoomed back out until the galactic center was also visible on the map. A red line extended from the blinking dot to the galactic center.

“Course Accepted” appeared in red letters above the line. Another window opened next to the map with more code scrolling through it.

“I don’t recognize this. Shin must have written it.“ Jaen looked at the code, trying to make sense of it as it flew by. The screen went blank, and when it rebooted, there was a pair of crude digital lips and a caption that read, “Kaiozoshin Speak’s.”

The lips opened, “I can’t stand not being able to speak or express myself, it’s hell.” Shin’s voice sounded digitized and slower than usual, but it was definitely him. A sigh of relief went through the three of them. Shin continued,

“I still can’t hear you and I’m not a hundred percent the screens are working, but if you can hear me, I’ve repaired navigation enough to chart a course. I’m firing the engines now. Engine one: off line, engine two: disabled, engine three: misalignment. Rebooting engine one. Engine one booting, coming on line. Firing engine one. Engine one: misfire firing engine one. Engine one: misfire. Increasing power supply and fuel delivery, firing engine one. Engine one: on line, functioning at sixty percent capacity, operating at thirty percent efficiency. Engaging engine one. On course to Galactic Center. Continuing reassignment of system functions. Navigation operable, port side scanners operational, bridge communication operational.” The lips promptly disappeared from the screen.

“It’s good to be back.” Shin’s voice over the intercom was a genuine relief to all of them.

“It’s good to have you back!” the three of them said at once.

“Life support, online! It’s only functioning at about thirty percent, but it’s more than enough to get us to the center.” The relief in Jaen’s voice was apparent.

“Now that everyone is okay and we’re back on course, I think I’ll go hang out in the cubby until we reach the checkpoints. Everything happens so fast, I want to be ready if it happens again. I’ll check on the doctor on my way.” Savros was already heading for the door. Jaen looked at Polly, who just nodded and stood up.

“Hey Starfighter, wait for me. I’m not letting you claim all the glory.” She ran after him.

“I don’t need the glory.” He said as he stood in front of the door to the doctor’s quarters.

“Hey lighten up, it was just a joke. You’ve had the worst week imaginable, and then today was supposed to be a simple delivery to a luxury planet. We thought we’d take you somewhere nice and enjoy a mini vacation of our own, but here we are, limping into the galactic center, beat up and broken. But none of us are limping in alone, we’re all still here. And Savros, Jaen and I fully accept you as a member of our family. Even if you never set foot in the KaiStar again. Both of us will always be there for you until the end and even beyond if we have anything to say about it. My point is you aren’t alone and you never have to go through any of this alone.” He hadn’t heard Polly’s voice sound so caring or sincere. Savros turned and looked at her with tears forming in his eyes. He moved his mouth to say “thank you,” but his voice didn’t work. She gave him a long, hard hug as they both shed a few tears.

“Now let’s check on this Doctor, what’s he a doctor of again?” Polly seemed to have run out of patience with the man.

Savros unlocked the door and peeked his head in. He was greeted by the loudest snoring he’d ever heard. Savros closed the door and secured it.

“He’s fine, it’s a miracle he can sleep through his own snoring.” He said with a laugh as he wiped the last of his tears away. With their arms around each other’s shoulders, Polly and Savros headed down the darkened corridor to the cubbyholes.