“Three, two, one, jumping.” Shin had begun the countdown within minutes of receiving the all-clear from the Galactic Service. It was a relief to Savros that, thanks to Polly and Jaen’s previous trips to and from the Center, the trip to Abriva was only a single jump. Savros decided to use the time to get acquainted with the book. In his quarters, he sat the book on the desk and sat down in the seat as he opened the cover. On the first page in the Center was the symbol from the cover. Around it was three other symbols. Above it was another symbol in the same size circle, with another symbol below and on either side of it. Forming a triangle when connected with the main symbol in the Center. Savros looked at the symbols but couldn’t make sense of them. On the next three pages, he found three vastly different versions of the same tale and began to understand what Doctor Prashaad meant by it being unreliable. He flipped through the pages. It appeared to be just as the doctor had described, everything from bedtime stories to myths and legends, from different sources, and from across the ages. He looked up when he heard a knock on the door to his quarters.
“Come in,” he said without getting up.
The door opened, and Polly came in. “Hey ‘Roni, we’re gonna be at Abriva soon. I wanted to come check on you before we head to the gunner pods. So, how are you holding up? You doin’ okay?”
Savros looked at the book, but he wasn’t reading anymore. He thought about his parents and his uncle and Jaen and Shin, and then he looked at her.
“To be honest,” he began without looking up, “I’m not sure how I should feel.” He was quiet for a minute before he continued, “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course, ask away.”
“Am I a bad son for not wanting to get vengeance for my parents? That was all my uncle seemed to think about afterward and I just can’t help but think I should feel the same way. But what good would that do? It won’t bring them back, nothing will bring them back.”
Tears were falling from both of them when Polly spoke.
“Savros, no one can tell you how you’re supposed to feel. We all mourn in our own way. But let me ask you something, would your mother and father want you out there looking for trouble? Do you think they would want you to avenge them, or do you think they would want you to live the best life you can?”
“I think they would want me to be happy. But how can I be happy when the same people that killed her are probably chasing us?”
“Well, look at it this way, then. You have the option of taking avenging your parents every time they come for us. And in that way, you’ve already taken out at least eight, but probably more than ten of them. Two men minimum on the first ship, two for each of the smaller ships in the second attack, and at least two but probably four on the bigger ship. You’re getting vengeance without even looking for it. That’s gotta be better than sacrificing yourself in a revenge fueled suicide mission.”
“Besides, this way, you have me, Jaen, ‘n Shin watching your back, they’ll never get to you.” She gave him a wink as he looked up at her and held out her hand, “Come on, we’re gonna be there soon, let’s get ready, in case they are waiting for another ass-whoopin’.”
“Three.” They were already in front of the gunner pods when Shin started the countdown. “Two,” they took their seats as the display popped up and began scrolling immediately. “One” Savros held his breath and gripped the controls as time seemed to stop.
“Twins online, engaging drive.” There was only a slight pause, “No enemy ships present, proceeding to Halo.” Savros still stared into the gunner display, watching for any changes.
“Halo Proxima has taken control of our decent” Shin sounded relieved, but Savros continued to monitor their surroundings. “Folding wings, folding gunner arms.” The display flickered, then Savros was left looking at the wall of the gunner cubbyhole. Shin continues with his final sequences.
“Come on, let’s get up to the bridge.” Polly took a few steps, but Savros didn’t move. It wasn’t until Polly touched his shoulder that he looked up at her.
“Huh?, oh, yeah, the bridge.” He started standing up.
“You okay?” Polly looked concerned.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay, I just… I don’t know, I guess I really expected them to be waiting for us, or me.”
“No, you had it right. If they are waiting for you, then they are waiting for us. Just like at the Center, Abriva and the Halo are too well populated, as well as being monitored and protected by their own security teams to attack openly here. We should be pretty safe, as long as we don’t stay long enough for them to track us down and sneak in to the hangar or something.”
He could already make out the hangar below them when he and Polly got to the bridge. He was excited to be back. Abriva felt like home base to him, but he couldn’t really put his finger on why. Maybe because it was the first place he landed after leaving home? Maybe because it’s where he met Polly and Jaen? At any rate, he was relieved to be back. They watched together as the hangar grew larger and larger. Then the roof split open and peeled back as KaiStar settled into the hangar with a light touch.
“Shinzi, can you drop the pod for us?” Jaen turned to look at Savros and Polly, “Okay, you guys run over to Sadjier’s, I’m gonna get started on this code, and by the time you get back, Shin and I should have the software ready, and we can get started on the hardware mods.”
“Sounds good!” Polly was heading out the door into the corridor. Savros jumped up to follow her.
“Keep your eyes open out there.” Jaen said as Savros reached the door.
He stopped and turned back to her. “We will. You guys be careful around here too.” He turned back around, and Polly was gone. He teleported off the KaiStar in time to see Polly unhooking the lines from the pod. They hopped in, and they sped out of the hangar towards Sadjier’s place.
“Ahh! Savros, my friend!” Sadjier looked genuinely happy to see him as he threw his enormous arms out and fully engulfed Savros in a hug, “I have received word from your uncle, he called in not long after you left last time, actually. Here, I’ll get it!” He sat Savros back on his feet as he hurried off to his office. He came back with a large smile and a folded piece of paper.
“It was good to hear the voice of my old friend Savrotores once more. He was not happy with Sadjier when I told him you were with the others, but after I explained to him, he said it sounded like you were safe so he was happy. I wrote down his words to you, here.” He handed Savros a folded in half piece of paper.
Savros unfolded it and began to read the surprisingly clean and neat script.
“Hi, Lad. Sadjier tells me you’ve made some friends, and they seemed like honorable people to him. That’s great news! I’ve been so worried that it was a mistake to send you away. Anyway, I think I’ve located the last place the assassins were hiding out. Theres a cave in the old river bed. I’m going out to investigate in the morning. With some luck, I’ll lay this whole situation to rest tomorrow and at the least hopefully get an answer or two. Take care of yourself, Lad. I’ll be in touch again soon.”
Savros read the note a few times. As he read it, he wished that his uncle were here with him instead of out there walking into trouble. He thought of telling his uncle about the attacks in the hopes that his uncle would abandon his quest for revenge but decided a far more likely outcome would be that Sadjier would try to stop him from leaving again, and then he would have to deal with that as well as not being able to reach his uncle at all if he couldn’t return to Sadjier.
“Well, at least he’s alive. Can you give him another message for me?” Savros looked at Sadjier. He nodded in the affirmative. “Tell him, ‘I am happy and safe. I’ve been to the Galactic Center and seen my mother’s work. I’m working and traveling the universe and I would very much like for him to join me here on Abriva. My mother and father would want us both to be safe and happy.’ And Sadjier, can you do me a huge personal favor? Whenever you talk to him, try to convince him to give up his quest for vengeance. Please, his life is more valuable than anyone’s death, especially his own.”
Sadjier looked at him with large, sad eyes. “Of course, my friend, of course. I have known Savrotores for many years and I doubt he can give it up, but I also understand your desire to have him safe here with you. The smaller your family, the more precious..” Sadjier’s appearance didn’t scream ‘understanding’ or ‘vulnerable,’ but Savros saw both of those in the man today.
Savros looked at Polly and thought of Jaen and Shin back on KaiStar. He couldn’t imagine losing even one of them. He had always taken it for granted in the past, but not anymore. Each of them, and the time they have together, was the most precious thing in Savros’ life.
“Thank you Sadjier, for your service but also for your words. We’ll be back in a week or so to check in.”
Sadjier smiled a grin so big it was larger than Savros’ forearm. “You are welcome, my friend. It is my pleasure, and I will speak to your uncle, try to convince him to come for a visit.”
Walking towards the door with Polly, Savros waved as Sadjier stood there wiping his eyes.
“I’m never gonna get used to seeing that guy!” Polly kept looking back as the door slowly closed behind them. At the bottom of the steps, they jumped into the pod and flew through BelToa back toward KaiStar.
“Next time we have to go to the depot, you should come with and I’ll teach you to drive the pod. We made a few mods to it, it’s not much different, just a few things to know about. Anyway, after you get used to it, you’ll be able to take the pod if you want to go anywhere. We could do it now but it’s better to learn out away from everyone else.”
“Hell yeah!” was all he said.
“Hahahaha, Hell yeah!” she echoed as they blasted up to the hangar.
They finished hooking the lines from KaiStar back up to the pod and teleported back into KaiStar. Jaen at the main screen on the bridge, wearing strange-looking gloves. Savros watched as she used her hands to sort through code, moving lines over and bringing in new lines and bunches. Savros had no idea what she was doing, but it was fun to watch. Jaen drew a circle in the air with her finger, then poked her finger through the circle. The lines of code collapsed, the screen flickered, and KaiStar systems started booting. She took the gloves off and turned around.
“You got back sooner than I expected, but we’re all done too! How did it go? Had he heard from your uncle?”
“He had. I sent him another message asking him to give up revenge and come to Abriva. At least he would have some protection there.”
Jaen nodded, “Abriva would be safer for him than his current location, but I wouldn’t count on him just giving it up.”
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“And Sadjier is still bigger than shit!” Polly chirped in, “You guys want a rat-pak?” she asked, heading toward the galley.
“Sure,” Savros and Jaen said at the same time.
“Halo Prox—hold on” Shin’s voice was coming through all their communicators.
“There, that’s better,” his voice coming through the ship’s intercom again, “Why is it always my speech systems that have the most issue. Anyway, Halo Proxima has granted us take off clearance until local sunset tomorrow.”
“Perfect.” Jaen said. Polly tossed her and Savros a pouch of food and sat in her seat to eat. Jaen continued as she tore the top off of hers.
“So we still have a few hardware mods to tweak, but everything’s pretty much in perfect order, and since Polly can make adjustments to her mods while we travel, as long as we aren’t jumping. We can leave now, jump to the first supply drop, and then Polly can make the changes she needs to while we travel to the next drop. Savros, and I will man the twins, with shin on lookout.”
“I’m sure you noticed on our arrival, the twins draw out quite a bit faster now, and boot up faster, as well. With the extra shield generators and our more robust systems, our next encounter should be much more one sided, even against something like we faced last time.”
“That actually works for me. I need the wings open and the arms out for a couple of the mods to activate, anyway. What do you think, Savrocks?”
Savros had been excited to get back to Abriva, but now that he’d talked to Sadjier and knew his uncle hadn’t been killed, he didn’t mind leaving at all.
“Yeah, let’s do it. I’d rather not sit around and wait to get attacked, anyway.” Savros was leaning back in his seat, eating the last of his food.
Polly jumped up and rested one foot up on the console like she was about to step up onto it, brandishing an invisible sword, “Shintar, take us out me matey!” looking back at Polly and Jaen with one eye closed “Gar!” she said with a snarl.
“Gar!” Savros and Jaen answered, hoisting the words in the air as well.
“Twins pre-boot complete. Arriving in three. Two. One. Engaging main drive. Drawing arms. Scan’s clear proceeding to drop one.”
Savros relaxed a little in the gunner pod.
“Will it take Polly long to finish the mods?” He asked, looking across the small corridor at Jaen.
“No, she should finish up before we make it to the first drop.” Jaen said, facing him and leaning forward in her seat.
Savros pulled the picture of his parents from his pocket and looked at it for a moment before he handed it across the corridor to Jaen.
“Doctor Prashaad gave it to me. It’s my parents, when they were younger, from when my mother was at the Center. The doctor actually worked with her, but only very briefly. He also gave me this.” He handed her the strange spiked sphere, “She used it to test and calibrate the tryptic sensor.”
Jaen’s eyes lit up when she touched it. “Tryptic sensor…” she trailed off as she examined the ball. Squeezing it between her fingers, she smiled and handed it back to him, along with the photo. “We should run some tests on that little thing one of these days.” She said almost absently before looking up at him as he put it away.
“So, I guess you got a something from the Center, that’s good. I was worried you hadn’t found anything.” Jaen said, leaning back and looking at the screen.
Hitting the button on her communicator, she said, “Hey Polls, how’re you coming along?”
Savros and Jaen were both surprised to hear Jaen’s voice coming from the corridor. They both leaned out of their pods just as Polly hoped in between them.
“All done! Everything is shipshape.” She said, dusting her hands off together.
“Excellent timing, Approaching first drop, still all clear.” As Shin spoke, Savros looked at the screens in his pod. He assumed they were making a drop at some coordinate, but he could see another ship come into view. His heart rate quickened as he reached for the controls.
“It’s okay, Savros.” Shin’s voice was calm. “The ship is our drop location.”
As the words made their way through the ringing in his ears, he noticed a green ping on the ship. The enemy ships he’d seen before had red pings. He relaxed his grip. But didn’t let go or take his eyes from the screen.
“Syncing to drop location. Dropping package. Drop complete. Engaging drive, proceeding to second drop.”
Savros relaxed slightly as they went back to full speed. He looked over to see Polly and Jaen looking at him with concern.
“What’s up, guys?” he asked, trying to sound casual.
“Are you okay? You looked like you were about to stroke out for a minute there.” Polly squatted down next to him.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I guess I’m a little jumpy. I just wanna be ready. They got the jump on us and almost killed us all last time. I need to be on guard to protect you guys. It’s my fault, they are after me.”
“Savros, you don’t have to protect us. We all protect each other, we all take care of each other, and if they are coming after one of us, they’re coming after all of us. If someone showed up hunting Polly or myself, none of us would care about who or why they were after. They would have to deal with all of us. So try not to take the full weight of protecting us on yourself. We all share the weight because we all want to keep each other safe.” Jaen held Polly’s shoulder while Polly had her hand on Savros’ shoulder.
Savros smiled. It was true, he would treat anyone coming after any of them as if they were coming after him, and it made sense that the others would feel the same way.
“Bad timing, but we have two unidentified vessels ahead. Shields up and guns ready.”
Shins’ warning came before they were even visible on the gunner pod’s screen.
Savros was calmer this time as the ships came into view, one in front of the other. Jaen switched with Polly and ran up to the bridge as Polly settled into the gunner pod.
“Why are these ships showing up blue?” He asked.
“Confirmed hostile ships show up in red, friendlies show up in green, and blue is for unknown.” He heard Polly’s voice from her pod as she ran the arm through its articulation range.
Savros did the same, testing the range and limits of the arm, “So we don’t want to take out any ship until it’s red? Doesn’t that mean we have to wait until they try to kill us before we can do anything?”
“Well, yes, and no. If the ships are tagged to a known hostile entity, they will show up red immediately. There are also Scavvers and Pirates that typically run ‘flying the colors’, which is an easily identifiable signal marking them as pirates or scavvers. Bandits are the worst but also the rarest. They usually solo and pose as a peaceful ship until you are in position, then they open fire without warning.
“While they’ve only sent two different kinds of ships after us, none of the ships that attacked us have carried identifying signals, and they are very common styles of ships. These two could be more attackers, or just two ships minding their own business. We won’t have to wait long to find out.”
“It looks like we are going around them.” Savros sounded a little confused.
“If they aren’t interested in us, they won’t follow. Since we can’t know what’s going on in there, we don’t want to charge right at them and make them think we are challenging them.”
The color pinging from the ships suddenly turned red. At the same time, Shin’s voice came over the intercom, “Incoming fire.”
Savros felt a slight wobble in the ship, but nothing like the last attacks. A sigh of relief escaped as he focused on the ships. They split apart, circling KaiStar in opposite directions. Savros locked on and fired, but the incoming ship evaded impact at the last moment. He frowned for a second before getting an idea.
“I’ll give you something to dodge,” as he held down the trigger button, sending a blinding chain of light blasting toward the ship. He held the trigger as he jumped back and forth chaotically all around the other ship. The last burst of light made direct contact as it evaded the bolt that came before it. Savros didn’t hesitate. He locked on and opened fire once again. He decided it was going to be his policy to shoot until he saw something explode. The ship exploded and blew apart. Savros spun his seat around, watching the screen looking for the other ship when Polly opened fire.
“Boom! Direct hit! Wanna light him up?” Polly asked Savros.
“My pleasure” Savros held the button until he saw the front half of the ship floating away from the back half. He was slightly disappointed he didn’t get to see the explosion but decided it was still pretty cool to cut a ship in half.
They arrived back on the bridge just in time to catch Shin’s status update, “Shields, at ninety-eight percent. Shielding at one hundred percent. All systems functioning properly.”
“Perfect. Okay, let’s get to the next drop before more show up.” Jaen turned to look at them, “Everyone okay?”
“Yep!” they both said at once.
“You weren’t kidding about those shields! I barely felt a thing!” He looked over at Polly.
“I know!” She was grinning ear to ear.
“That was the strongest shot we’ve ever been hit with too!” Jaen was grinning as big as Polly. “See? We all protect each other, however we can.”
“Yeah, we got your back too, so try not to worry so much. If you haven’t noticed, the four of us make a pretty bad-ass team!” Polly kicked back in her chair.
They made the next drop without incident and continued the short distance to the final drop. After making the third drop, they changed course and headed back toward their jump point to Abriva. Tracking nearly straight back down the path, they took on the way out there. Shortly after passing the second drop point, Shin came over the intercom.
“I’m picking up a distress signal. It appears to be coming from the area that we encountered those two hostile ships. Most likely a survivor aboard the second ship.”
“Well, shit. Okay, let’s fly by and check it out. Approach with caution though, it could be a trap.” Polly turned her attention to the screens as she spoke.
Jaen took her seat, and all three of them sat upright, eyes glued to the screens. Only the front half of the ship was visible. The back half must have exploded after they left. With no other ships in sight, they approached slowly. Shin is ready to engage all three drives if need be.
“Beginning scans of hostile vessel.” They slowly crept closer and closer. “I’m reading two life signs aboard. One is very weak and growing weaker. It appears all systems are down within the ship as well.”
Savros looked at Jaen, then to Polly, and then back at Jaen, he had no idea what the right thing to do was, but the idea of just leaving them there didn’t feel right to him, despite the fact that not long before that, they had attacked them without warning.
“Okay Shin, bring them into the holding quarters, and let’s get out of here, who knows how long it will be until someone else shows up.” Jaen looked at Savros and Polly, “You guys wanna find out exactly who is after us?” She brought the feed from the holding cells up on the screen.
The screen flickered as it changed displays, and two figures came into view. One lying down, the other crouched over him. The crouching man looked up at his suddenly new surroundings with surprise. As he stood to his feet and Savros got a good look at him, vomit hit the deck in front of Savros. He wiped his mouth and composed himself, and looked back at the screen.
A large man in a black cloak with green accents and stripe around the collar. Savros could feel his stomach sending up another volley as he looked at the screen. It was definitely the same guys who killed his parents. Up until now, everything had seemed somewhat unreal, like in a dream, but here he was awake and staring at the same garb he saw the last time he saw his mother’s face.
“That’s… that’s…” he pointed at the screen as he heaved again.
Polly jumped up from her seat, “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
They could hear her rip the door open with a bang. Looking at the screens, the man appeared to have been twice her size. But she didn’t even hesitate to attack. Savros and Jaen rushed from the bridge. By the time they got there, Polly had beaten the man unconscious, and his cloak was wrapped around his neck with her on his back, pulling on it hard enough that if he were conscious, he’d have been looking her in the eye. When she saw Savros and Jaen staring at her, she composed herself and climbed off his back, kicked him in the head before joining them in the corridor, adjusting her clothes and gear and pushing her hair out of her eyes.
“He’s not dead,” she said, pointing at the man she’d beaten. “He might be,” she pointed at the other guy who was missing an arm and whose face was badly burned. He coughed up blood and then was silent and still.
“Yeah, pretty sure he’s dead,” she said as she bent down, rummaging through his cloak and clothes. “Nothin’. Shin, be a dear, please.” The dead man disappeared in a *Pop*. Polly searched through the unconscious man’s clothes, “Nothing, let’s tie him up and see if we can get some answers from him when he wakes up. They bound his ankles and wrists, sat him in the desk chair, and bound him to that. Then they waited.
He laughed when he woke up bound to the chair. “Without me, there is nothing stopping the others from releasing Garaka. The toll will be immense, but a few hundred billion lives are a small price to pay for the safety of all. The prophecy is proceeding and it must be stopped.” He struggled against the bindings before relaxing again.
“I can’t believe a little girl beat me this badly. The prophecy will not unfold.” He clenched his jaw, and there was an audible click, and the man slumped against the bindings. Polly took a step forward.
“No vital signs.” Shin said, “A Parapok seed, no doubt. For this exact situation, I would imagine. Shall I?”
“Yes, please.” They left, the door closing behind them.
Back on the bridge, Savros and Jaen sat down while Polly paced around, wiping blood from her knuckles and splatter from her face.
“Okay guys, so I guess we have confirmation about who these assholes are and what they want. I can’t believe there are still people clinging to these old destructive beliefs. I mean, prophecy! Give me a break. But the fact is, they’re still out there and now they’re coming after us.” Polly paced around as she ranted.
“Lucky for us,” Jaen interrupted her, “we have intelligence and science on our side. While they have some old fortune teller’s words and hatred. I don’t wanna jinx us, but I don’t really see these guys giving us much trouble, as long as we stay on our toes.” Jaen looked around at them. “What do you guys think?”
“They can’t even touch us anymore. I say we live our lives and deal with them as they come up.” Polly and Jaen looked at Savros.
“After this, I do feel a lot safer, but I’m worried about whoever or whatever Garaka is. He said ‘a few hundred billion lives’. What do you think that was all about?” Savros looked back at them.
“Yeah. I don’t know what he meant. I’ve never heard that name before.” Jaen looked a little confused and only slightly worried. “We’ll just have to deal with this Garaka whenever he or it shows up.”
“Yeah, then we’ll introduce ‘em to the twins.” Polly laughed, tossing the bloody rag into the garbage and sitting down.
“You okay?” Savros asked her.
“Oh yeah! It’s been a while since I got to let out some pent up energy like that. We don’t have to seek revenge but there’s no reason we can’t make them regret ever messing with us in the first place.”