Lusac lifted himself up another level and then scrambled forwards and around several turns to reach the nearest exit to the weapons section of the fsylan network. The forward weapons were situated dead center of the sector, so it was going to take time to get anywhere that wasn’t devoid of air. He gulped heavily from the breathing apparatus which held less than three minutes of life support.

Crawling through the tubes burned up a lot more oxygen than sitting at the panel had, meaning those last breaths of air were gone sooner than he anticipated. The mask stopped providing anything breathable by the time he reached the section door leading to Non-Vital Systems, sealed shut from the suppression system.

Blackness started at the edge of his vision as he numbly attempted to unlock the door and get himself back into a proper atmosphere. His fingers struggled to press the buttons in their proper sequence to activate the unsealing mechanism. Lus started to doubt if he’d actually make it as he realized he would have to manually slide the door apart, something he wouldn’t have strength for with the last of his oxygen gone.

As his vision tunneled further, the last thing Lus saw was the door sliding open on its own, something that wasn’t supposed to happen if the suppression system was active. With his last conscious thought, Lus slid his mask from his mouth as he collapsed forwards. His lungs heaved with the newfound air, and slowly the darkness receded from view.

Lusac gasped greedily at the air flowing to him from the rest of the fsylan network which hadn’t been shut down by the explosion response. A set of blinking lights warned that he wouldn’t have long to make it over there before the doors resealed, and he forced himself to crawl to safety, just past the currently open door.

“You alright, Lus?” Yrqw asked once again in the comm piece.

“Just great,” he replied, lying on his back as he waited for his body to fully recover from the near asphyxiation as the sector, he just left resealed itself. He stared up at the mess of wires running along the ceiling of the tube, grateful to be alive.

“We need the power from secondary gravity too,” the Kremel informed him. “Dre-Shawiv is worried we might have to start pulling life support or shields in order to get the rest of the boost.”

“On it,” Lusac responded as he rolled over and started back through the tubes. As much as he wanted a break, they weren’t out of trouble yet. At least he was already in the right section, otherwise he’d have to go all the way around the closed off Weapon’s Section which would have taken a lot longer than they had.

The ship lurched, slamming Lus against the wall of the tube as he crawled, and his backpack caught against one of the wall supports. It took even more of their precious time to free it. He attempted to move forward, despite the other jolts, cursing every step. Obviously, they’d taken inertial dampeners down a few notches to fuel their last push for escape.

Lus arrived at the panel for Secondary Gravity and pulled it open to reveal a jumble of wires and lights.

“This isn’t right. Secondary Gravity is pulling way more power than it should,” he murmured to himself. He set to shutting the system off and diverting all its energy back to the engines for Becky using the same method as before.

“Done,” he informed Yrqw once the task was complete, and he was freely floating in the tunnel. It was going to be an awkward journey back to the corridor, but at least it would give his knees a break from crawling.

“Get out of the fsylan network. Dre said we’re going to pull life support from the tubes first.”

“Will do,” Lusac said, eager for an excuse to escape the cramped space that had nearly become his coffin.

“Wait a second. That boost was enough. Where did you get the extra power, Lus?” Yrqw asked.

“It was all in Secondary Gravity,” he answered truthfully.

“Unbelievable. Well that’s all we can do from our side. Now it’s up to Oaty and the weapons crew to get us out of this in one piece. You might as well come watch with the rest of us in Systems Control.”

“Right. On my way,” he said.

Using the walls, he pushed himself forwards, gliding down the tube. While it should have been easier to navigate this way without the need to crawl, having a backpack on made it a lot harder to manage his movements in the space without getting caught on something. Wires, supports, and panels all tried to get their share of his pack or his uniform, forcing him to go slow and untangle himself every few yards. The ship continued to pitch occasionally, but without gravity, it wasn’t as difficult to deal with.

His arm strength was exhausted by the time he reached the door out of the fsylan network, and it was a relief to fall into the corridor, where the familiar tug of gravity resumed its pull on his body. Lus’s desire to watch their escape outweighed his desire to rest his aching body. He climbed down from Deck 3 where Non-Vital Systems was all the way back to Deck 8 where Yrqw and the others waited.

When he entered the large room, he discovered almost everyone watching two large holoscreens. One displayed the sensor data, showing where the Argo was in relation to the Corporate ships while the other gave a view from the front, making it seem as if they were in the pilot’s seat.

Lus pulled the comm unit from his ear. Somewhere in the shuffle of things, he’d lost the ability to tap into the general band, but they were piping the chatter through the speakers so everyone could listen in as they waited.

Dre-Shawiv remained at the consoles near the engines alongside one of the other engineers, both of them shouting and furiously typing away at the buttons in front of them.

“Lus,” Becky called out. She paused for a moment as she took in his appearance, but her smile resumed as she motioned him over to where she and Yrqw were standing to watch the final confrontation.

“Seems like you had a rough time,” she noted once he got closer.

“You don’t seem so well off yourself,” he replied, taking in her frizzy hair and grease smeared face.

“A few of the power conduits decided to try and blow up,” she explained.

“The rear turrets went ahead and did blow up.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Shut it,” Yrqw silenced them. “Some of us actually care about surviving this whole thing.”

They all turned their attention to the holoscreens. Lus frowned as he counted half a dozen Corporate ships surrounding the Argo. Oaty was once again trying to take evasive action as several missiles zoomed towards them.

“That’s not good,” Becky whispered.

“What?”

“The shots are headed straight for the front, starboard shields, but I drained the power from those for the engine boost. If they hit, they’ll tear straight through the hull.”

Lus sucked his cheek. That was very much not good.

“Brace,” Becky shouted as the blimps on the sensors reached the model Argo.

Only a few people around them took her command seriously, and they all let go after several seconds of nothing happening.

“Missiles hit the rear starboard shield,” Nippy announced over the speaker.

Becky blinked in surprise. “An unlucky shot for the Corporates. A few yards more, and we’d have taken a direct hit.”

“Or rather a lucky shot for us,” Yrqw said. His tight face spoke to the volume of concern he held about their chances of surviving this encounter.

“Approaching the breach,” Oaty’s voice sounded.

“You’re coming in too fast, Oaty,” Cewi warned him. “The ship will get ripped apart without front shields.”

“I know what I’m doing,” he bit back.

Lus stiffened alongside most others near him. Oaty was renowned for his skill at the helm, having been a professional racer before the war broke out, but he was also known for taking some rather big risks that didn’t always pan out. Now seemed like a bad time to test out whatever theory he had, yet Lus didn’t see how they had any other chance.

“Watch the portside,” Zer-Dasht warned. “One of the Corporates is coming in close. They’re trying to cut us off.”

Lus watched the blimp on the sensor screen that was a much bigger ship coming straight for their marker. If it got in front of them, it was game over.

“It’s too close, Oaty. Pull out,” Cewi-Bano said.

“Leave him,” Captain Tave commanded. It was the first time Lus had heard the Captain speak over the comms during the entire encounter, and the confidence in his voice gave Lus a little more hope.

That hope died as he watched on the holoscreen as part of the Corporate ship came into view. He winced as more shouts came from both the crew around him and the comm system. Suddenly they were all thrown backwards as the ship tipped upwards, and Lus watched as they narrowly avoided the Corporates by swinging above them.

“We’re still too fast for entering the Highway,” Cewi-Bano cried.

“Not much I can do about that now,” Oaty replied bitterly.

In response, a strong jerk sent Lusac back several steps into a Nemarian who then fell to the ground alongside half the crew in the room.

When Lus regained his feet, he saw that they were safely in the Highway. The breach would have sealed behind them since only Runners’ ships equipped with the proper key were able to use them. The only real loss was the breach itself which could never be used again, but at least they were free from the Corporates, for now.

“Unbelievable. Our bounce off their shields slowed us just enough to safely enter the Highway. The chances of that kind of timing are astronomically low,” Zer-Dasht said in the comms.

Lus couldn’t believe that after all that, they were alive, and the ship was more or less in one piece. Before he could really process their good fortune, a cold voice sounded through the speakers once again.

“Lusac Arten to the briefing room immediately,” Captain Tave ordered.

Everyone turned to stare at him as he inhaled sharply. This was not good. He slid the backpack off and handed it to Becky before turning to go without offering any kind of explanation. Maybe Captain Tave just wanted to thank him for his contributions…

He could dream at least.

As he walked through the halls, no one took notice of him. Rather they were all in discussions about the recent battle and wondering how they survived. He heard people talking about one in a million shots hitting against the Corporates and others saying that they took relatively little damage due to how poorly their enemy aimed in another incredible stroke of luck.

Luck.

Why was that word sticking with him so much?

Everywhere he went, now and even during the battle, it seemed luck was on their side. He wouldn’t say the Argo was normally a cursed ship by any means, but he had to admit that this seemed abnormal in some sense.

Luck… or perhaps it was [Luck] that he should be attributing their success to. He did have [19 Luck] now thanks to leveling up, but it wasn’t just him who was struck with such incredible fortune.

[Beginner’s Luck Soup]! That was the name of the dish he made perfectly for himself and the crew. Now that he thought it, the first time he leveled up, his stats only increased by a total of five. His [Luck] went up by eleven this time which seemed like a little big of a jump for simply reaching [Level 3]. Could it be that the soup gave them this extra boost? How high could their [Luck] go if he kept making it?

And what of other [Recipes]? He unlocked the [Recipe Book] which meant he could find all sorts of useful dishes to cook. For the first time, Lusac found himself genuinely excited about what this cursed Demon deal might bring to his life.

His excitement was cut short as he reached the briefing room with a rather disgruntled Nippy, a tired Cewi-Bano, and the ever-impossible to read Captain Tave.

“Arten,” the Captain greeted him. “Take a seat.”

“Yes, sir,” Lus said, doing exactly as he was told.

“You nearly got us killed, Lus!” Nippy shouted once Lus was settled. “Speaking with an old Corporate pal? What were you thinking?”

“I-I…I did what I thought was best, Nippy. It caught me off guard, and I didn’t have much time to come up with a cover story.”

“Clearly. That ‘pal’ sent word straight to the military. It’s a miracle we made it out at all,” the second in command replied.

“Hey, don’t take this out on him. I’m the one who chose him for the mission, even knowing his background,” Cewi stepped in.

“So, you’re going to take the fall for letting the Corporates catch us?” Nippy accused.

“I don’t think this has anything to do with our mission, at least not that part of it. I’m telling you, I tracked the guy for hours. He bought Lus’s cover story,” Cewi-Bano replied.

“Obviously only for a time,” Captain Tave cut in before the two could escalate the argument further. “My instincts say that this can’t be mere coincidence, Arten being recognized and the Corporates coming after us within the week, but from what Cewi-Bano tells me, you did everything right. And based on your appearance, you did your share to get us out.”

It was a shockingly merciful tone used by him, and Lus tried not to let his surprise show.

“However,” the Captain said firmly, “this does cause some problems for us. I’d like to believe that the Argo itself is not in any true danger, but obviously they’re watching for Arten.” He looked to Lus, his face neutral. “As such, you’ll be staying on the ship for the next month or so until things die down a little bit. I hate to lose you from the upcoming missions, but I can’t put you or the crew at further risk. For the time being, you’re going to stay shipside, even during resupply stops. Agreed?”

“Yes, sir,” Lus repeated. The idea of being stuck on the Argo for weeks without a break made him want to rip his hair out, but he would never voice that. The fact that Captain Tave was even keeping him on the crew at all was a minor miracle, and one he thought he might attribute to that increased [Luck].

“Dismissed,” the Captain said, waving Lusac away.

Counting his lucky stars, Lus left the briefing room and its fuming occupants behind. As he made his way back to Yrqw to see about getting on repairs, he decided to reframe this in a better light. Sure, being stuck on a ship for a month straight was going to suck, but at least it would give him some more time to focus on his cooking. If there were more [Recipes] like [Beginner’s Luck Soup] waiting for him, then Leviathan might have actually fulfilled his word about giving Lus a system more powerful than any other. A whole new world was opening up for Lus, and he liked the way it was starting to look.