As they took off, Jarvell had the ship move through the hidden passage, before taking off up and away. Both him and Kree watched as sunlight hit them, making it crystal clear they just went out during the day, when the area had tourists around. And they just gave them one heck of a show.
"Get us out of here!" Kree said, buckling her belt.
"No need to tell me twice." Jarvell said, kicking the ship into high gear as it blasted off into orbit, and out.
As they started to feel the lack of gravity, Kree let out a brief sigh, before the artificial gravity kicked in, and she heard another shout from Twy'la in the back. A couple of minutes passed, and Twy'la came into the cockpit, as Gum rolled in and then bounced into Kree's lap.
"So I have a feel that's another planet we won't be welcome to return to." Twy'la said.
Jarvell shrugged "You never know. Maybe if we just explain things they'd be willing to give you two another chance."
"And maybe they won't just immediately judge me for being part of my race? Consider me doubtful."
"Now now, I wasn't even aware of that event in question until this morning myself. So there could be many others who are like me-"
"Guys, stop for a second," Kree said, looking at both "I understood that Twy'la needed rescuing, and we took care of that, but what the hell happened in the first place?"
"I only heard a part of it myself before I was grabbed and thrown into that pod. Apparently a Kly'ta went and tried burning the library for not following the same ways of theirs. Though how he would even get to Water Hole, I'd never know. We don't have spaceship technology," Twy'la said, before looking at Jarvell "Why'd you even help anyway? Thought you lived there and all that."
"I did live there, for 15 years. But I still wasn't aware of that event in question until today," Jarvell said "But apparently they expected everyone who moves there to already be aware. About eighty years ago, a Kly'ta who has been abducted from his home and turned slave was brought here, to be freed from his masters. He didn't fit in, and kept claiming he was a former mayor."
Twy'la's brow furrowed "Former mayor?"
Jarvell nodded "But that all paled compared to when he found out about how access is essentially to anyone, of any rank and role, as long as they had a story or tale to share. That caused him to completely snap, and lead to the attempted fire. Though it seems that between the city being between a sea, and quick reaction, it was surpressed quickly, and there were no real damage or casualties. But it still caused them to ban any Kly'ta from ever being allowed in Water Hole."
Twy'la's gaze turned to the floor, as her chin lowered and her mouth once more hid behind her collar.
Kree shook her head "I can understand being wary, but that sounds extreme."
"Then you don't understand how much freedom, of any kind, means to the folks back there. They're mostly refugees, having escaped different regimements and found a new home there." Jarvell said, before turning his back towards Kree and Twy'la, and revealed a scar, burnt into the back of his shoulder.
"I'm sorry," Kree muttered, her own gaze turning to the floor "I guess I robbed you of your own home then."
"Eh, if I learned one thing in the past 15 years, it was that while it's nice, I'm not entirely meant for life in the same place for too long," Jarvell said with a smile as he turned back to look at them, before standing up "And I've been in that seat for long enough. You're the captain after all, right?"
Looking at him, Kree nodded, before taking her seat, and Jarvell took the second seat in the cockpit, before glancing at Twy'la, who still appeared occupied in other thoughts.
"Is she alright?" Jarvell asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kree briefly glanced at her, before picking up Gum, and throwing him right at Twy'la. Gum landed against Twy'la's chest, causing her to snap back and look around, before noticing Gum was in her arms, and she turned her gaze to Kree.
"What was that for?!"
"See? Twy'la's perfectly fine." Kree said, before taking out her notepad and begin to flip through it, until she reached the pages with the library notes.
"The Seven Celestial Dragons. It matches with your tale, Twy'la."
"What?" Twy'la asked, confused about the sudden shift in what Kree was talking about, before registering what she said "You found something?"
"Yeah. The library had a bunch of tales, but one seemed to be similar, and explained how the seven aren't actual dragons, and it's merely a title. But one day they split, scattering around the galaxy," Kree said, before showing both of them her notes "And there was a few records of activities fitting to a celestial dragon's role in the Crux arm systems. Last one was in the Felix Lantern system, though it was recorded about three hundred years ago."
Jarvell whistled "So you two are looking for legends huh? Sounds interesting."
Twy'la nodded "Well, Kree'aria is looking for it. Though I suppose if I am on board, then yeah. You also helped me out twice by now, so feels like I owe you too." She turned to look at Kree.
"You owe me nothing. You're basically offering me some company after I've been at this for over ten years alone." Kree said, before looking at Jarvell "Anywhere we could drop you off at? It's the least we could do for your help."
Leaning back in his seat, Jarvell folded his arms "Good question. I'll let you know when I get an answer," he smiled, before adjusting the headphones and putting it on "I'll check to see if anyone might be on our tail."
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"Appreciate it," Kree said, before looking at Twy'la and Gum "You two gotten comfortable with each other?"
Twy'la glanced down at Gum, who was still in her arms, before quickly dropping him "N-no! I forgot it was there!"
Bouncing off the floor, Gum landed in Jarvell's lap, who didn't seem to mind as he kept checking different radio frequencies.
"So, where are we heading to next, captain Kree'aria?" Twy'la asked, folding her hands together.
"Last record was from the Felix Lantern system in the Crux arm. So, that's our destination. According to the VI's calculations, it will take six jumps to get there. So it will take about three months to get there," Kree explained, before looking back at Twy'la "We can start your ship studies during this time too."
Nodding, Twy'la approached Kree and started to look over her shoulder as their system destination was set and the ship's course was set.
"Might want to put the ship into a faster speed Kree," Jarvell said with a glance towards her "A bounty was set on the ship and on you two. One winged individual, one female Kly'ta with pink energy."
"Cosmos." Twy'la corrected him.
"Either way, you two and the ship are wanted in the Sol system. And while we're safe here while it's still day over Water Hole, as soon as it either becomes night there, or we pass the asteroid field, it won't be the case."
"Wanted, huh?" Kree said as she started to check a certain system of the ship. With the fuel they had, it was possible to utilize it for two large-scale jumps. Though if the ship managed to survive the jump in one piece was a different question.
"Oi," Jarvell's eyes widened upon seeing what system she was checking "This ship is equipped with that type of gear? It looks like a floating rust bucket! Where'd you even get that?"
"It comes installed with it as a basic tool. My people have planets across two different galaxy arms, and the distance is very large. Even tin cans like this ended up getting it."
"Whoa. Your people are pretty advanced huh? Mine haven't really developed ours, we started importing it when we met the first alien civilization from outside our system."
"Ahem."
Kree and Jarvell turned their attention to Twy'la, who just looked completely confused and annoyed at being left out.
"Sorry Twy'la," Kree said, before allowing her to take a closer look "The system is called Hyperdrive. The ship is equipped with two different drives that allow travel between different systems in the galaxy. Jump drive, which you can activate at the border of a system, and it basically has you jump from one system border, to another. Its cheaper on the fuel, and easier to manage."
Pointing at the stats presented on the screen, Kree continued "Hyperdrive, on the otherhand, you can activate from anywhere within a system, and it is much faster travel. Depending on the distance, it can almost feel instantenous. The two downsides are you can't dictate exactly where you land in the destination system, and a lot of ships won't make it out in one piece."
Trying to follow the best she could, Twy'la sighed and looked over at Jarvell, who simply raised an eyebrow at her.
"Right, so if we're going to be hunted, we can't afford to fly to the border, right? Then seems the solution is pretty obvious." Twy'la said, looking at the screen, which stated everything was in order for use.
Shaking her head, Kree turned to properly face Twy'la "Except like I told you a few times, this is a cheap, old model. I haven't used this drive at all since I got it. Probably the only reason it managed to hold itself together for this long."
"So is this the button to activate the hyperdrive?" Twy'la asked, pointing at a blue button.
"No, it's the green button next to it. But I'm telling you, it-"
Kree didn't get to finish her sentence as Twy'la pressed the green button.
If Twy'la could describe the feeling of going through hyperdrive, it would be insane tensions over her body. She was immediately overwhelmed with the sudden speed and felt herself flung backwards, hitting the back wall of the cockpit hard. She couldn't move from it, not turn her head, nothing.
As she was stuck like it, Twy'la still managed to partially gaze at the porthole. All the lights that passed by them stretched to infinity, starting and not ending, and it was a spectable of colours that seemed to banish the normal darkness of space.
The Tin-Can came to a sudden stop, causing Twy'la to almost be flung right at the porthole, only to be stopped by something that kept her stuck to the back wall. As she landed on the floor, Twy'la looked back, seeing Gum slowly release itself from the wall and from her back. It was stuck between her and the wall the entire time.
"Damnit, Twy'la, don't make me regret wanting to teach you," Kree said as she undid her belts and patted Jarvell on his shoulder, before beginning to check multiple red blinking lights "So much for three months. We're here. Crux arm, Felix Lantern system."
"Ugh, that's gonna give me a headache when I next wake up," Jarvell said, before looking at the statistics the VI was starting to bring up "Four frozen planets, one red dwarf star, and one heavily radiated planet."
Nodding as Jarvell called those out, Kree looked at Twy'la, who was still looking at Gum "Keep him here. I want to take a quick flight around the ship and see the damage myself. Help dictate how to land the ship next."
Twy'la quietly nodded as Kree went and closed the cockpit door, which became sealed as Kree left the ship and started to fly out in space.
"She's really impressive, you know?" Jarvell said, turning to look at Twy'la "Everyone else I know would speak about going on adventures, but never actually travel far, let alone for over ten years without initiating a jump like this. She must've gone through an entire arm's worth of systems, if not two."
"That much?" Twy'la muttered as she glanced out the porthole again, wondering if she would see Kree like the previous time. But about half an hour passed, and no such luck, as Kree came back and sat down in the chair, sighing.
"So, good news. The ship is intact. Bad news? There are a lot of much weaker joints now. So we have a lot of reinforcing to do." Kree said, glancing at Jarvell, who nodded as she started to look up stats of each planet.
"Kree'aria, I'm-"
"Don't say sorry. You wanted to help us come to a choice in a sticky situation, and you did. Just next time, let me finish talking?" Kree told Twy'la, before turning to look things up herself.
"Right." Twy'la lowered her chin, before walking out of the cockpit.
"I don't think keeping such a positive demeanor with her is healthy for both of you." Jarvell remarked as he took a closer look at the radiated planet.
"She was already rejected twice. By her own people and now by Water Hole." Kree said, a fist forming. She took a breath, before shaking her head "I'm not going to reject her too."
Jarvell sighed, before both turned to look at some beeps that came from the results about the radiated planet. Remnants of a civilization.
"Got radiation suits?"
"In my size. So one would be a bit big for Twy'la, but fit. Doubt it'd fit you."
"I just need the helmet and breather. My skin can tolerate those levels of radiation, but my organs would probably die if I inhale that." Jarvell smirked.
Kree rubbed the back of her head. Definitely didn't seem like a good place to land, but at least on a radiated planet there were livable temperatures, instead of below -50C.
"Fine. Let's head there." Kree said, and started to carefully pilot the ship.
The travel to the radiated planet, designated Lantern III, took about 2 hours, before they begin entering the atmosphere. While Kree was trying to be as careful as she could, the planet's gravity was much stronger then it seemed, and it fought her.
And eventually, the controls gave, and the ship turned into a dive.
"No you don't Tin-Can! You survived much worse! Now rise!" Kree ordered the ship, pulling on the controls with Jarvell's help, until she managed to take the ship out of the nose dive. But the sharp change caused a certain red light to switch from bliping to simply turned on. And upon noticing it, Kree cursed under her breath.
"Everyone brace yourselves! We're crashing!"