by Bret Brown
Popping the hatch open, he sees the little boy and woman. Startled from the visit, they move quickly to hold each other; as they look upon P-T nervously. The smell of body odor spills from the interior of the pod, causing P-T to hold his breath.
Wrappers from alcohol wipes taken from med kits and MRE's spill from the seat storage in the capsule. Without a doubt, stolen from the surrounding drop ships in the hangar bay. Giving clear evidence that they have left the pod on a multitude of occasions; violating P-T's conditions for their stay.
However, P-T pays no attention to this and motions to them to get out. The woman and child slowly move out from the pod and walk in front of P-T scared to death with uncertainty. The woman picks up the child and carries him, holding him tightly with fear, while P-T marches them into the Phantom and locks them up in one of the extra crew quarters.
P-T then enters the cockpit of the Phantom, gun still in hand, opens up the transport's hangar bay doors. He ignites the Phantom's engines and maneuvers out of the hangar. As he makes his way over to Seeker, P-T flips off the Kanggun destroyers that are in view as he passes near them; giving them both hands. He holds up the gesture until he needs to return to actively piloting the Phantom, landing in that hangar bay of Seekers transport.
Arriving in the hangar bay, P-T can see Seeker in the middle of a conversation with a couple of Kangguns as he waits for the Phantom to land. Seeing his ride has arrived, Seeker bows to the Kangguns and steps away, showing his obedience to them. As Seeker approaches the Phantom, P-T remotely lowers the rear cargo ramp from the bridge, allowing him in.
As the ramp closes up on the Phantom, Seeker makes his way to the cockpit with P-T, and sits in the co-pilots seat as P-T stays in his seat. Shortly after, the Phantom exits the transport, leaving all the ships behind them as the set for their next destination.
Seeker, as always, initiates the conversation, "Six... you lucky sack of shit...we've done it again. Hey, I saw a mining colony on the star chart on the way here while fucking around with the computer systems. Some shit hole of a dump, iron mining planet called something like.... Montago 4. What do you say? Wanna head there and fuck so many women until your dick burns when you piss?"
With a heartily grin, P-T agrees, not giving up his little secret of his stow aways.
A couple of days on the trip, both Seeker and P-T are in the cockpit. Seeker, as usual, boring P-T to death with anecdotes and stories from his past; while P-T's head bobs up and down in a mixture of random acknowledgement and nodding off to sleep, not really paying attention or giving a shit.
"... That was the last time I seen combat on the front lines. I was tore up pretty good, but the fight in me was too much to die that day. I said, these cocksuckers aren't killing me today. No way and fuck you."
From the spare quarters, a faint, clanking sound could barely be heard causing Seeker to pause for a moment.
"Did you hear that?" he says, pausing and straining to hear the sound again. The two of them sit silent in the cockpit as the low hum of the Phantom's engines holds its monotonous tone. Holding perfectly still, a couple moments pass and nothing else is heard. "Eh, it must be my imagination. Anyway, what was I saying?"
Just as Seeker starts to speak again, a loud clank could be clearly heard from the extra quarters, startling him.
Concerned by the commotion, Seeker says, "What the fuck is that sound? All of our shit is locked up. So, there's no fucking logical reason for anything to be moving or banging shit."
Seeker gets up and heads back to the crew quarters. P-T is following right behind him knowing what he'll find. Once more a clanking sound comes from the extra quarters. Seeker, going right to the source of the sound, opens up the door to the spare room. He's stunned to see this beautiful woman standing in the room. She's breathing a little fast; hardly containing her anxiety.
"Six! Why the fuck didn't you tell me you brought a gift, you asshole. I've been jerking off for months on end practically ripping off my fucking dick skin, and these past few days I had the real thing right here. Were you planning on not sharing, you fuck?"
The woman pleas to the both of them, "Please don't hurt me. I just wanna get back home."
Seeker interrupts the woman, "Home?! Home?! Whatever the fuck that is? No, you're not going anywhere. You're gonna stay on this ship. Do what I want, WHEN I fucking want. When we get to Montago, depending on how nice you are to us," he says as he licks his chops perversely, "we may or may not sell your ass for shits and giggles."
Seeker leans in to grab the woman by the arm. She quickly pulls away and counters by hitting him across the face with a metal rod she's worked off from furniture in the room.
"Fucking cunt!", Seeker cries out as he holds his face where he was struck. Blood runs through his fingers where the skin was split above his eyebrow. He lunges into the room dodging her attacks as she swings wildly.
Blocking a downward strike with his forearm, he punches her twice in the face landing a couple of jabs. The hits rock her head back and buckle her knees.
Seeker straddles over the woman to maintain his dominance over her, but before Seeker can continue his assault of the woman, a little boy comes out of seemingly nowhere and kicks Seekers ankle as hard as he can.
"Don't touch my mommy!" The little boy exclaims. His face is all contorted with anger.
Reacting to the kick, Seeker hops up on one foot turning to the new attacker. Immediately, Seeker recoils backwards nearly falling on his back side as he points at the boy, "What the fuck is that?!" He shrieks.
All the while, P-T stands back outside of the room completely amused by it all.
The woman, in tears, wipes the blood from her nose and mouth and grabs the child holding him tightly. "This is my son! How the fuck have you two never seen a child before in your lives?" She sighs as she tries to calm herself down. "Look, we're not going to be any trouble. He can vouch for that." Pointing at P-T. "Just drop us off anywhere at your earliest convenience and we'll be out of your hair."
Still pissed from her striking him, Seeker charges at her again and grabs the woman, restraining her. Holding her from behind, he carries her out of the room and takes her to the airlock saying, "You're absolutely right, I'll fucking drop you off at my fucking convenience. I'm gonna fucking dump your fucking cunt ass out. Right fucking now!"
Seeker struggles to take the woman to the airlock as she's fighting back with all of her strength. The boy is following them out, punching and kicking Seeker with all of his might, but both cannot defeat Seekers determination.
Seeing that the situation has gotten a little out of hand and it's lost its amusement, P-T moves towards Seeker and the woman. He gently moves the little boy out of the way with his hand. P-T then grabs Seeker forcibly by the back of the neck, causing him to let go of the woman.
For reasons unbeknownst to P-T, he came to the aid of the woman. Looking Seeker directly in the eye, he shakes his head no; not uttering a single word. However, the stone-cold gaze he gave Seeker was a thousand words in itself.
Livid from P-T coming to aid of the woman instead of him, Seeker lambasts P-T. "What the fuck are you doing, man?! You're gonna help some fucking cunt over me. ME! I've helped your ass for ten years; dragging your fucking dead weight across the whole fucking galaxy. I could've left you for dead on that fucking planet when I found your scrawny, worthless ass. You were nothing more than a sack of shit, a skin bag of bones, but I stuck my neck out for you; and this is.... this is how you're gonna repay me?! All the shit we been through.... NOW you're gonna develop a fucking conscience. Fuck you. FUCK YOU SIX!"
The unyielding hostile tension continues to linger as neither P-T nor Seeker will back down from one another; still within inches of each other’s face. The woman and boy watch the two men from a few feet away concerned for their own safety on the outcome should things get real intense.
Finally breaking the silence, P-T points at the woman and child without averting his intense gaze from Seeker, "Don't fucking touch th
em ever again."
The seriousness in his tone, meant things would only get worse should Seeker not heed his warning, even though the chilling, calm look wouldn't lead one that conclusion.
Outmatched by P-T, Seeker finally eases off and shakes his head in agreement. He leaves his head hung low in defeat and bitter disappointment; no longer able to look at P-T in the eyes.
P-T steps back and turns his back to Seeker, believing that the situation has been resolved. Seeker then grabs an EM rifle he saw a few feet away and shoots P-T in the upper right back with one shot. The round penetrates all the way through leaving a clear hole in P-T's chest; dropping him to his knees.
He tries to turn around, but Seeker shoots him with another round on the opposite shoulder grazing it. Although a graze, the wound is grotesque as the flesh was stripped from the bone. Blood is heavily pouring out with each heartbeat.
Seeker, puts down the weapon; thinking his dealt a fatal blow, and walks up to P-T to get in his face to gloat over his kill. A disturbing look of pleasure comes across his face; showing his true malevolent nature.
P-T has blood running from his wounds and face as his lungs fill up with blood. Seeker looks P-T squarely in the eyes as he crouches down to the wounded man. "You wanted to play hero? Then have a hero's death knowing I'm going to-".
A squishing sound stops Seeker speech. Blood begins to flow profusely from his mouth. Seeker with his eyes wide open in shock, looks down and sees boney mass has passed into his chest. The spike, from P-T's left arm, penetrates through Seeker's chest. A quick twist from P-T and the spike creates hundreds of barbs inflicting further damage to Seeker. P-T removes the barbed spike and pulls out Seeker's seizing heart, killing Seeker.
The woman and child both have been looking away in horror since the shots first rang in the frightening scene. Too scared for the outcome, they stay petrified where they are; total silence except for the sobs of the newcomers comes over the Phantom.
The woman glances over and she sees a distraught P-T, looking over the body of Seeker. Seeker's heart is nearly shredded to bits next to his body; a large pool of blood surrounds the corpse and P-T.
P-T's wounds are completely gone. The only visual evidence of any trauma left are holes and blood on his shirt and face. Strangely enough, she notices that the man has lost nearly forty pounds in weight which is completely confusing to her. She's merely attributes this to being traumatized, lighting or some other logical explanation.
The woman takes the child to the spare quarters and shuts the door; leaving him in the room alone. She cautiously approaches P-T who is still standing over the body of Seeker.
Uncertain whether or not she should talk, let alone touch P-T, she stands there with him for a few moments looking upon Seeker's lifeless body.
She decides she should say something at the very least. "You did the-" P-T puts up his bloodied hand to silence her. Without another word said, she carefully backs up from P-T and goes back to the room to be with her child.
Alone, P-T stands over the fallen friend for several hours, who’s still lying face down in a pool of now, nearly dried blood. Visibly upset, he finally carries the body into the airlock, carefully placing the blood-stained corpse on the floor of the airlock.
He looks upon the man he could call his only friend one last time as the airlock opens and expels the body. P-T closes the exterior airlock hatch looking away; shedding very few tears.
He goes to the cockpit, his friends dried blood mixed with his own still covering his body. Sitting in the pilot's seat, he gazes silently into the eternal abyss; occasionally checking systems to ensure he is keeping it on its course for Montago 4.
Chapter 6
It's been days since the betrayal. The feeling of sullenness is overwhelming on the ship, as no one has crossed paths since that horrific day. The humming of the engines which normally are unnoticeable, sound thunderous as it rumbles through the silence.
In the pilot’s chair, P-T sits quietly with his chin resting on his fist; staring out of the viewport for hours on end. Occasionally, he lets out a big sigh as he shifts positions in the chair. With nothing really driving his desires, he grabs a small computer tablet and turns it on. A bright, fluorescent green, holographic projection of the known universe hovers close above the device with star systems labeled.
With the navigational chart in his hand, he goes to the spare quarters where the woman and child have been living and opens up their hatch. Caught off guard, the two scramble from where they were sitting and face P-T. He enters the room holding the device out towards the woman.
The woman, trying to be sly, reaches behind her for the pipe she used to strike Seeker. She stares at P-T with a watchful gaze, trying not to draw any attention to her other hand. P-T, vaguely motivated to help the woman out, motions to her to look at the hologram.
Uncertain of P-T's intentions, she is still hesitant to get to close. P-T then takes a step back, sets the device on the table in the room and steps out; closing the hatch behind him.
The woman, motioning her child to stay where he is, grabs the device and gives it a quick examination. She determines that it's a harmless map. Trying to operate the device, she taps several different buttons to operate it, all ending with failure. At a loss for getting this technology to work, she takes a swipe at the projection in frustration. This causes the hologram to react to her touch. Discovering this, she takes her hands inside the hologram and then spreads them apart expanding and zooming the stars to a cluster of systems. Locating her home, she zooms the system further. A star system with fourteen planets called Fiortega is selected with brackets surrounding it.
Realizing this maybe her opportunity, she takes the device to P-T in the cockpit. Very shyly, she says softly, "Home. This is my home." as she avoids eye contact with P-T.
P-T grabs the device rather forcibly, and inputs the destination into the computer without saying a word. The woman begins to walk away, but returns to the cockpit's threshold and says "My name…my name is Leliana." she stammers quietly. "I just wanted to -".
P-T puts up his hand to silence the woman. She nods her heads in a manner that she understands him, 'yeah you don't want to talk'. However, as she steps away from the cockpit again, she says "Thank you." as she recedes back to her quarters.
A few days later, Leliana exits her quarters to find P-T in the cockpit piloting the Phantom. She quietly walks up and stands in the threshold of the cockpit looking out at the stars through the viewport. "Would you like some company?", she says softly. No signal from P-T, she decides to sit in the co-pilots seat taking the lack of reaction as an invitation.
"What's your name?", she says pausing for a response. "It's definitely peaceful looking out the stars like this. It's really hard to imagine the astronomical number of dangers that lie waiting as you traverse across the universe. We certainly weren't ready for what happened to us.", she says reminiscing.
"My son, Rowan; that's his name, and I are very lucky to have made it to the escape pod. We both thank you for helping us in our time of need." She stands up looking directly at P-T. He is still piloting the Phantom as though he ignored the entire conversation. She takes her hand and cautiously touches P-T on the shoulder gently before she exits the cockpit.
As they continue to travel to Fiortega, Leliana comes out from her quarters on occasion to visit with P-T in the cockpit. She tells him about her home, her people, and tries to find anything about P-T which is always unsuccessful.
As she talks, P-T is always trying to be busy, but not busy; to ignore her as best as possible. He runs system analysis, checks navigation charts, and checks engine optimization. All things that aren't exactly necessary at the moment, but gives him a great excuse to just nod his head up and down; hoping she'll stop soon
"Fiortega has the clearest lakes you've ever seen.", she proclaims, "You can see all the way to the bottom as deep as the light can go. I heard that for a time on Earth, that's where humans came from, things were once like t
hat. I've never been there, but I'd like go back to see how it's progressed since the pilgrimage."
The computer starts to light up and has a rapid beeping sound. P-T calmly works the console, but exclaims "Shit."
Concerned, Leliana asks P-T "What's going on?"
Still working the controls, P-T actually replies to the woman. "Rogue asteroid field. Need to drop out of hyperspace until clear of the largest hazards."
"Do you need any help?... Anything that I can do?" With a glare, P-T gives the woman the look to 'shut up.'
Annoyed by his constant abrasive responses she gets up "Fine, Asshole! Forget I even asked!", as she storms out of the cockpit.
P-T is now actively piloting the Phantom through the asteroid field. Although aerodynamics are completely irrelevant, it's still a major task on hand to dodge the dangers. Asteroids of all sizes are colliding into each other as they speed through the universe.
