Razzo wakes up to no one around him which he assumes is because Feefee is rummaging somewhere inside the engine. The concept of time is a confusing one in space, because there’s no way to track it out here based on traditional means of counting time based on the sun. Razzo’s sleep could have lasted an hour, a couple hours, or even a day. He gets up and looks around him trying to find Feefee to see if he has made any progress on figuring out where the manual energy intake is. He looks around the engine room but can’t see Feefee anywhere, the massive engine has a faint hum resonating from within it. Razzo puts his hand on the engine and the humming gets quieter, he then draws his hand back away from the engine and notices a faint strand of energy getting pulled out of the engine. Razzo then takes his other hand and generates an energy ball in it and puts the energy ball engulfed hand on the engine causing it to start humming louder. He then takes another fist full of energy and hits the engine with it causing the hum to get louder. Razzo does this a few more times until the engine lets out a loud roar and the bottom cylindrical row begins to spin clockwise. Razzo keeps going and the engine begins to roar more as the second cylindrical row begins to spin counter clockwise. Razzo continues on his path of fueling the engine until all five rows are churning in alternating directions. Through the loud running engine Razzo can barely hear anything but luckily ends up hearing a familiar high pitched scream coming from on top of the last rung.

Feefee is spinning around yelling: “Get me off this thing immediately human!”

Razzo scratches his head: “And how do you expect me to do that, you told me to get it started, kinda counter productive no?”

Feefee screams as he goes flying off and hitting the engine wall and sliding down the wall.

Razzo asks him: “What were you even doing there?”

Feefee gets up slowly panting: “Well you see I was being productive inspecting the entire engine trying to figure out how to power it. Then I never really figured out where the manual energy intake was and I was at the top of the engine. So I looked down and I was going to tell you that I couldn’t figure it out, but you looked so peaceful sleeping that I decided that I was going to take a nap as well. How was I supposed to know that you would figure it out before me?”

Razzo laughs: “Truly a modern mystery, but I guess I would probably say because I heard the engine humming”.

Feefee mutters: “Not this again, inanimate objects can’t speak or hum human! I don’t know what they teach you on Earth but that’s just not how it works. But whatever lets get this train moving, I’ll go to the control room and operate it while you go check up on the others”.

Razzo asks: “Why do I have to go back?”

Feefee rolls his eyes: “For a variety of reasons, you’re faster than me, you can actually be decently useful in a fight, and I actually know how this train operates!”

“Because you were so good at figuring out where the energy intake was”. - responds Razzo sarcastically.

Feefee gives him a dirty look: “Go before I hit you in the groin again”.

Razzo waves his finger and shakes his head to Feefee while taking a step back: “We aren’t doing that anymore remember?”

Feefee waves him off: “Yeah yeah I know just go tell the others the good news”.

Razzo leaves Feefee behind in the engine room as he begins sprinting down the sections to go catch up with the rest of the group. When Razzo gets to the eighth section the train jolts which causes him to go flying forward and falling on his face. Razzo thinks to himself ‘I guess he finally got the train moving’. Razzo runs past the eleventh section of the train and looks over to the body of Kroug still on the ground. He walks up to the Acarine sister and takes a closer look at her rich fur that’s been tarnished by blood, acid, and guts. He bends down and as he touches and holds a patch of untouched fur it stays in his hand as he moves his hand away from the being. He clenches his fist and puts the fur inside of his suit as a tribute to the fallen Acarine that perished in battle. After taking a few moments with Kroug he continues along the train slowly in a depressed state of mind and not paying attention to his surroundings. He passes through the 15th section of the train, and after a while the 20th section as the train continues to move back in the direction that Razzo and everyone else had come through. While Razzo wanders his way through the remaining train sections he thinks to himself, what will he do now that he’s a part of the crew, how many more creatures will he see die that he briefly encounters or becomes friends with. It’s a dilemma for him that he isn’t quite eager to experience but sort of understands that death is a necessary part of life. Razzo mutters to himself ‘that’s the only certainty huh’. The unfortunate thing for him is that he has lost the ability to make a choice in the matter because unlike everyone else he gave up his freedom to work for Kyro. Not that life would have been better back home on Earth, whether it be the boring lifestyle that he was living before the meltdown of the star plant, or the war with the Minerau that he briefly experienced afterwards. It gives Razzo a lot to think about and little to act upon except to continue moving forward down the train.

Razzo reaches the 32nd section of the train where he finally catches up to the rest of the team just sitting at the back of it with the rest of the train missing leaving the end of the train in a torn up state. Some members are sitting at the edge of the train with a couple limbs hanging off like Ostikous and Kyro, looking at the tunnel that they’re leaving behind. Some are resting like Kreeg who is curled up in a ball still trying to process the death of her sister. Screep and Fauwk are chatting with Eekk together while leaning on the wall of the supply container about what they’re going to do when they are freed. The Krutsummus is still wrapped in energy bindings but has given up on trying to break free from them and has effectively decided to lie down in defeated fashion. Jata and the other two Zenvas are nearby practicing growing and retracting their roots while keeping a watchful eye on the prisoner so they don’t do anything foolish. Lastly Chorion’s sleeping on the floor snoring loudly with no one to bother him. No one pays any attention to Razzo arriving at this section of the train, Razzo deep in thought simply goes and sits down next to Kyro and Ostikous at the edge of the train.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Kyro looks over and says: “Good job on getting the train going, we were a little bit worried for a moment”.

Ostikous says to Razzo in his language: “You sort of ripped off a part of the train when you jolted it and the rest got ripped off when the train started running”.

“Well at least you were on the right side of the train when it happened, that's pretty lucky”.

Ostikous smiles beneath his three tusks and states: “I do not believe in luck we all create our own luck”.

“We definitely got lucky that Kyro saved us in that battle” - disagree’s Razzo.

“We all fought admirably together, we had paid the price of and the bountiful one rained down upon us with victory!” says Ostikous pounding his fist on the train floor.

Ostikous grabs them from either side and hugs them as he exclaims: “This may be a foolish idea but I have decided to join the crew if you’ll take me captain”.

Razzo smiles back and tells Kyro: “Looks like you have a new recruit. Ostikous I don’t want to get ahead of myself here but welcome to the team”.

Kyro chuckles: “Well that’s great but I don’t understand a word he says he’s going to need to learn the intergalactic tongue”.

Razzo scratches his head for a moment thinking of the fastest way to do that. He then takes off his language collar that was given to him by the Forklins and gives it to Ostikous showing him how to put it on.

Razzo tells Ostikous: “Tell the captain you’re joining us”.

Ostikous speaks in perfect fluent intergalactic tongue: “I will be joining the crew captain!”

Kyro pats him on the shoulder: “Welcome aboard mate, could always use an extra hand or four”.

Kyro continues asking Razzo: “How did you manage to get that engine started because that thing was ice cold, even with the electric coils I couldn't give it a boost”.

Razzo casually addresses the question: “There was actually a bit of energy in it already, and Feefee figured out how to jump start it with the minimal energy”.

Kyro nods his head agreeing with Razzo but still having some doubts in his head about the reality of that given the complexity of the XERALE engines. After a moment of daydreaming coming up with a solution Kyro shakes his head and just focuses on the positive which is that the train is running and that his mission is close to being accomplished. Kyro begins to ease his breathing and relax as he slouches back. Jata moves closer to the edge and silently grows out her roots. Before Kyro can realize what’s going on the Zenvas roots extend to just behind the captain and then quickly wrap the captain in a bind. Ostikous tells the captain: “Sorry captain but we must do what’s best for ourselves”.

Ostikous takes the energy blade and cuts Jata’s roots while Kyro’s squirming trying to free his hands from the binds so he can activate his energy coils. Chorion gets up quickly and picks up the captain.

Kyro yells: “WAIT WAIT DON’T DO THIS!”

Chorion shakes his head: “Sorry captain but this would be best for all of us if we all went on our separate paths. As in we go on one path and you go on another”.

Chorion brings his arms back and the language collar falls off Kyro. Without wasting a moment afterwards Chorion flings the captain into the darkness that the train is leaving behind.

All they hear is the captain yelling: “YOU’LL FEEL MY WRATH!!” into the abyss.

After being frozen in shock during the quick incident Razzo comes back to his senses and stands up. He picks up the collar and puts it back on as he begins to pace back and forth along the cabin trying to figure out what to say next.

He finally finds his words: “So um what was that??”

A loud silence remains from all the creatures, not one of them providing a peep for the human.

Razzo focuses on the three culprits: “Jata, Chorion and especially Ostikous, why would you all do that?”

Ostikous walks up to Razzo and puts one of its arms on him: “Because it had to be done, the captain couldn’t be trusted”.

Jata chimes in: “We’ve seen the captain bring more and more creatures in and never release anyone”.

Chorion finishes with a statement: “Captain bad, we good, done”. (why say many word when few work)

“But he promised to take all of you back, we could have at least given him a chance, no?” - replies Razzo while frantically looking to the rest of the creatures trying to see if any of them will provide a better explanation.

None of them say anything but Kreeg slowly stands up barely keeping her massive body upright as she’s all out of energy. She makes her way towards Razzo at a snail's pace, upon reaching the human she lowers her head downward until she's face to face with him. Razzo clenches his fists and gets rather stiff as the creature invades his personal space.

Kreeg hisses with all her strength: “Reeeeelaaaaxsss huuuuman I will not huuuuurt youuuuu. Youuuu muuuuust understaaaand thaaaat weeee couldn’t leeeeet hiiiiiim deciiiiiiide our faaaate any loooonger”.

She touches Razzo’s head and moves back towards her previous spot to relax next to their captive. Razzo gets ready to say something back to the Acarine but realizes that he’s all out of words. Despite him wanting to let them all know that what they had committed was bad it was nowhere near the suffering that the captain had put them through during their imprisonment. He stares out into the abyss that they’re leaving behind with only one thought in his mind ‘who’s going to be the captain now?’