The cloak isn’t going to be enough, I realized as I watched the number of Reaver ships multiply on our sensor display.

“Dick, the Reaver swarm will move through here like a wave,” I pointed out. “Just because we’re undetectable, doesn’t mean they can’t hit us.”

“What do you suggest?” Dick asked.

“We need to get to a place where we can easily avoid being run-over by their ships.”

“They’re already too close for us to use our main drive to move,” Dick added. “It’s got to be somewhere close so I can use the smaller thrusters to navigate.”

“We could use some of this wreckage as cover,” Vomero chimed in. “If we stick close to a piece of debris, hopefully they will avoid colliding with it.”

“Better make it one of these larger chunks,” Cash instructed. “Reavers aren’t the most delicate with their ships. They scavenge and commandeer conquered vessels a lot, so they don’t really give a fuck about being careful with their ships. I can see them just running through some of this smaller debris, but they’ll avoid the big ones.”

I nodded in agreement, pointing out a large chunk of a ship close to us.

“That one should do,” I said. “It’s possible that they’re back to raid more materials from the wreckage. If so, that chunk of ship will be big enough for them to avoid but small enough that it doesn’t hold any salvageable value.”

Dick slowly piloted us toward the wreckage of a larger ship. It looked like half the hull of a moderately sized fighting vessel. This wasn’t part of the city wreckage but likely one of the ships caught in the battle. Although, in the dim lighting, it was hard to tell what side of the conflict this vessel had fought for. Reaver ships came in all shapes and sizes, as Cash pointed out.

A few moments later, the space around us seemed to hum with energy as dozens of hodgepodge looking ships passed by us. The sheer number of vessels moving through the wreckage produced an electromagnetic hum we could feel but not hear.

Many looked stitched together from parts scavenged from various ships. All were of a small to medium size, about the size of our ship or smaller. I could only make out the lights of a few that looked larger than our vessel.

As anticipated, the swarm moved through the smaller piles of wreckage, killing the Ekara who were feasting on the dead and dislodging smaller pieces of debris. Thankfully, they avoided our hunk of space junk as intended.

The silence felt oppressive, as none of us dared speak at first, irrationally fearing that any noise could be heard through the vacuum of space. We stood in the control room staring at the view screen as wave after wave of the Reaver fleet passed by. A feeling of helpless dread permeated the room. Tensions were high as we waited to see if the armada would move on and give us a chance to flee.

If they stopped, we were stuck for as long as the cloaking system held out. Then it would surely be a fight to the death. Reavers didn’t leave survivors. They left destruction in their wake, taking whatever people were lucky to survive as slaves to serve them or be sold.

To my relief, it appeared that the Reavers were looking for something near the main wreckage of the city. Most of their forces roamed around the largest in-tact parts, buzzing like flies on a carcass. This decreased the chance that one would come close enough to inspect our piece of scrap metal.

“What could they be looking for?” Vomero mused aloud, breaking the tense silence. His voice echoed through the room like shattered glass, jarring me from my morose thoughts.

“Who cares, as long as it’s not us,” Cash said. “If they found us, you’d best hope they kill you instead of taking you prisoner.”

He cast a glance at Ryuuk whose eyes darted frantically around the room at the viewing screen.

“Especially you, Sharpshooter,” Cash goaded.

“Me? You think they’d...do stuff to me?” he asked, scandalized.

“No, I think they’d pluck you and roast you for dinner,” Cash clarified. “Alive.”

“That’s just speciest,” he said. “I’m no more edible than any of you just because I’m Avian.”

“I didn’t say I’d roast you for dinner,” Cash said. “Reavers don’t much care if eating you over me would offend your sense of social equality. Besides, I never said it was because you look like an overgrown chicken.”

Ryuuk scoffed indignantly at the description.

“You just look more tender than the rest of us,” Cash added with a smirk.

“That’s barbaric,” Ryuuk huffed.

The banter was cut short as one of the ships drew closer to our hiding spot. It looked like an old model fighter that had been fortified with a patchwork of metal taken from other vessels.

“Tria, what are the ship’s current combat capabilities?” Dick asked.

This vessel was originally designed for research and development expeditions, weapons systems are limited in its unaltered state. As with everything else on the ship, it can be modified with the right power sources and materials, not to mention direction from a full-blooded Ancient.

“Great, so we’re blaster bait,” Dick said.

Limited is not the same as unavailable. You could destroy a medium sized asteroid if needed.

“Swell,” Dick said, sarcastically.

Taking out the one nosy ship wasn’t the problem. It was the plethora of other ships that would pursue us if we did. The ship passed very close to our wreckage, scanning it with a spotlight. It stopped to hover near the wreckage for a long moment, a scant 20 meters from our ship.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“How good is this cloaking system?” I asked, lowering my voice again for no reason. “I wonder if the spotlight will cause us to cast a shadow?”

“Will it be able to detect us this close, Tria? What about the spotlight?” Dick asked.

This vessel will remain undetected. The thoroughness of the system’s evasion protocols is why it requires Ancient power to operate.

Dick and I both glanced over at Light, who was leaning back in his co-pilot chair with this eyes closed. He was still pulsing with energy, but the brightness had dimmed slightly. It felt bad, draining the poor kid’s energy, but we were left with no other viable alternatives.

Meeting Dick’s gaze, I saw the same concern mirrored on his face. We needed these Reavers to leave before Light’s stamina gave out.

Farther away from us, several Reaver ships dismantled parts of the larger wreckage by ramming into it repeatedly. These areas appeared to be sealed safety shelters that had activated during an evacuation. We watched from a distance as suited figures pried open the shelters and tossed dead bodies out of it haphazardly. Some of the figures were larger than others, though all their bodies and faces were obscured by the space suits.

I felt my fists clench at my sides.

Watching someone desecrate the bodies of the innocent people they had slaughtered was hard enough, but there was also a bitter history between Outlaws and Reavers that further fueled my rage.

Reavers were like the corrupted version of an Outlaw. Much like Outlaws, Reavers consisted of a hodgepodge of species drawn together by common motivations and ideals. Those ideals were just much more ruthless and amoral.

Also unlike Outlaws, Reavers liked to breed new members and not always willingly. The idea of affection seemed lost on them. Most couplings between willing partners were just sexual transactions to sate their baser needs and increase their population. Slaves that were captured, both male and female, were often used for procreation against their will. They populated their numbers with their own young that were indoctrinated with the same disregard for life and decency. It’s what kept the cycle going.

I often thought of them as what Outlaws would be like if they lacked basic ethics and morality. While the Outlaw way of life was largely self-serving, we weren’t into harming the helpless or killing innocent people indiscriminately. We weren’t into taking if it required the destruction of entire populations.

That wasn’t true for Reavers. They were a chilling reminder to every Outlaw, a warning that our philosophy, “Mine to Take, Mine to Keep”, had it’s limits.

“We have to do something!” Ryuuk nearly shouted, splitting the silence like lightning.

“And what do you expect to do against an armada of killers?” Cash replied, gruffly.

“So, we just let these people get away with killing an entire city of civilians and then just ransacking their graves like it’s nothing?!” Ryuuk’s voice was nearly a screech at this point.

“These people are already dead,” Cash tried reasoning with him. “There’s nothing we can do for them now except join them. Dying for a noble cause might be your ideal way to go, but I’d prefer to keep my ass alive.”

Ryuuk looked like he was going to argue, but pounded his balled hands on a nearby dais. Luckily, the ship was sturdy and Ryuuk’s physical strength fairly weak, so his blows landed about as ineffectually as his sentiment to singlehandedly avenge the dead against an entire swarm of Reavers.

“Oh gods,” Vomero choked out the words.

One of the Reavers pulled the body of a small child from a safety shelter they had rammed open. The long blonde ponytail of the little girl drifted back and forth at the Reaver’s rough handling, and a small stuffed doll flung loose from her stiff arms where she had died clinging to it. As if the little girl were nothing more than trash, one Reaver tossed the body away into open space.

A moment later, an Ekara swooped in to carry the girl’s body away. The Ekara were swarming the area, eager to get in on the feeding frenzy. Thankfully, the vacuum of space saved us from having to hear the sounds of the Ekara ripping the bodies apart as they feasted.

I could hear the sound of retching as Ryuuk’s stomach gave out at the gruesome scene. Vomero put his head between his hands as he sat solemnly at the navigation panel. Even Cash was affected.

“Fucking heartless bastards,” he growled. It was a profound statement coming from someone who killed people for money.

I could feel the weight of Dick’s gaze on me and knew he was both avoiding looking at the view screen and watching for my reaction.

For my part, I steeled my resolve and kept my gaze trained on the view screen. I refused to look away, letting the horror of it sink into my mind and reaffirm every good and conscionable aspect of my being. I was not like this. I would never be like this. Even if my own freedom, or my very own life were forfeit, I could never be this.

I packed away my rage in a box. Saved it for later, a time when it would be useful to someone, to some other little child. There was nothing it could do for this one or any of the people who had died here. Cash was right. This wasn’t the time or place to pick a fight, but if the opportunity ever did present itself, I’d use the fuel I’d saved in this moment to make it right.

Ryuuk broke the silence again, his voice sounded hollow and dejected.

“I know I'm greener than the rest of ya’ll, but I don’t know how you can just be okay with doing nothin’. It’s eating me up inside.”

Finally turning from the view screen, I wandered closer to Ryuuk and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“We’re all affected, Ry. Just because we’re better at containing it doesn’t mean we’re unmoved.”

He nodded weakly, still in tatters emotionally.

“You want to do something?” I continued. “Commit that little girl’s face to memory. Burn it into your mind so that you’ll never forget it. She deserves to be remembered, not thrown away as space fodder for the Ekara. Maybe everyone in her life died in that attack and there’s nobody left to grieve or remember her.”

I paused, waiting for him to look at me.

“But I’ll remember.”

As I straightened up, I glanced at Dick. He had an odd, soft look on his face I couldn’t quite place as he looked at me. Holding my gaze, he nodded slightly.

“And I’ll remember.”

“Me, too,” Vomero echoed, quietly.

Cash nodded.

“I’ll remember her, too, Skye,” Ryuuk said, finally seeming to have regained some of his composure.

We spent the rest of the wait in silence until it seemed like they had exhausted their search or found what they were after. Just as quickly as they had come, the Reaver swarm left.

We waited an extra half hour to make sure they were good and gone before re-engaging our engines and lights. Our emotions had settled somewhat by that time.

“What do you think that was about?” Vomero asked in his characteristically inquisitive tone.

As the systems came back online, and Tria deactivated the cloaking system, Vomero and Cash engaged in a discussion about the Reaver’s behavior, but I let their conversation slip into the background. Something caught my eye on the wreckage we were hiding under.

Dick had taken an exhausted Light back to one of the sleeping quarters to rest. He was just reemerging into the control room and must have noticed me focusing intensely on an image in the view screen.

“Skye? What’s up?” he asked, concerned.

I didn’t respond. Instead, I walked over to the navigation panel and selected a part of the screen to zoom in on. A large holo-window appeared in the center of the control room displaying the zoomed in part of the destroyed ship’s hull.

“What tha...” Ryuuk started to say but was quickly silenced by sharp looks from both Vomero and Dick.

A cold chill washed over me as our vessel’s lights illuminated the destroyed ship’s call sign. Most vessels had a name, number, planet of origin, or other identifying mark on the hull in this spot to identify its allegiance.

I felt the tattoo on my right shoulder light up, the intense glow almost painful. Absently, I placed a hand over the glowing Outlaw’s Mark, feeling so many emotions I had tried to compartmentalize rise inside me as I stared at the same symbol emblazoned on the broken hull.