by Bret Brown
Gathering her composure, she tries a different approach as P-T is still staring at her with complete hatred in his eyes. "Look, we can make this work, but we need to communicate.", she says softly, fatigued from having to plea all the time for their welfare. "I know you are perfectly capable of killing us and removing our troubles from yours, but I believe that I can help you. I don't know what it is that you do and I don't care. I'm asking you to give me a chance. Can you-."
A thick gas rushes in and fills the airlock where P-T is standing. The chamber fills up quickly and P-T can no longer be seen. Several minutes go by as this chamber remains full of gas and no sounds are heard. On the panel, it says in red 'decontamination in progress.'
Ten minutes have passed and then as fast as all the gas came in, it's flushed out. A red, laser light runs throughout the entire chamber scanning everything inside. On the panel, 'biological contaminants negative', 'decontamination complete.'
Unable to see P-T, Leliana steps closer to the viewport. Knowing he's in there hiding, she tries one last attempt to reach his inner humanity. "Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to have you go through that. I'm going on the assumption that we can get along a little better now. Just show yourself and I'll open up the hatch."
A couple moments go by and nothing. No sounds, no movement can be detected in the chamber. "Are you fucking joking with me right now? Fine! Stay there and die! What name do you want on your headstone, Dumb Fucking Dickhead?", she says as she walks away.
Before she gets two steps away, the interior hatch opens and he grabs her by the base of the neck and swings her up against the adjoining wall. Grabbing a handful of her shirt by her throat, he holds her there with his right hand as his left fist is drawn back ready to strike; his face still contorted with rage.
With a show of courage, she looks defiantly back into his eyes, "Do it!", she exclaims "Just fucking do it! End this fucking nightmare... just be quick with it. You fucking monster!"
Looking at his victim, he stands there for a moment; pondering her immediate future. He lowers his left hand from its striking position. With his right, he straightens the woman up a little bit; fixing her shirt where he grabbed her.
Lightly slapping her on the arm in a gesture of friendship, he says "They call me P-T 6. Let's eat.", and walks away.
In complete disbelief, Leliana slides down the to the floor, her knees completely buckled in relief. In an upright fetal position, she has her knees in her chest as she buries her head on her arms and begins to cry.
In the distance from the galley, P-T yells at her, "Come on."
With a big sigh, she stands up, wiping the tears off of her face; hoping for those tears to be the last. Gathering her thoughts and feelings, she tries to fix her hair out of her face but her hands are trembling too much for her to make any improvement.
She goes to her room and into the bathroom; a small room with a latrine and a small square raised from the floor for showering. On the wall, she pulls down a sink. Water comes from the faucet slowly as she washes off her face, spitting out some blood from her mouth.
Drying her face off with a towel she stole when she first got on board, she looks herself over in the glossy, metal mirror above the sink and inspects her wounds. She turns to her son, who is sitting on the bed playing a game on a tablet, "I'll get us home baby, I promise. Stay here, I'll be right back."
She enters the galley, still holding her sore ribs; standing at the threshold. The galley is nothing more than a small storage closet with some cabinets and a fold down table.
Three large mixing bowls, filled nearly to the brim with a slurry mixture that resembles an oatmeal like substance with seeds, sits in front of P-T. Also, a large metal cup is filled with hard alcohol, reeking with potency from the distance, sits near the place setting that P-T has made for himself.
In the most barbaric manner, P-T's cheeks are swelled with food as he is rapidly shoveling food in his face; barely swallowing the last few bites before stuffing his mouth again. He motions to her to dig in.
"I'm not hungry", she replies.
P-T shrugs off her reply.
"Is the hull damage bad? Do you think you can repair the ship?", she says.
Again P-T merely shrugs his shoulders.
"Okay...do you have the parts to repair it and how long do you think it will take? A few days?...a week?...a month?", she asks digging for answers.
P-T wipes his mouth and lets out a vulgar belch as he finishes the first bowl of his sludge.
Disgusted, Leliana recoils back, "Fucking gross!"
P-T chewing obnoxiously, grins at her. His cheeks still full of food.
Still probing for answers, Leliana asks, “Well...which is it? How long until we can get out of here?"
With a mouthful, P-T barely gets the words out between spoonful’s of food, "Are you useful?" The words hardly understandable.
Unsure of what she heard, Leliana asks, "I'm sorry. I didn't get that. Did you ask if I'm useful?"
P-T bobs his head from side to side without breaking stride in his consumption.
"Well, I have degrees in computer programming, computer engineering, and computer diagnostics. That is how I was able to rewrite some of your ships programming and lock you out. It took a while, but after I learned the syntax and everything, I figured it out. I'm already running several system diagnostics to see how well the systems are running. With a little more time and luck, I can see if I can make some improvements... kind of like a tradeoff for saving us."
Hardly interested, P-T starts scraping the bottom of the second bowl; never breaking his gaze at his food.
Leliana, disappointed says, "Well... um... I'm gonna get cleaned up and go to bed. It's been a rough day. I'll let you know the results of the diagnostic when it finishes."
She stands in the room for a few lingering seconds seeing if maybe an ordinary human response will come from P-T, but he's too engrossed with his meal. As she leaves the galley she says with sarcasm, "You're a great conversationalist."
Hearing this, P-T stops eating and has a blank stare on his face for a moment. The bowl he's eating out of nearly covers his face, as he pauses and thinks of his only long-term friend he ever had. Shortly after, he snaps out of his daze and resumes his massive meal. Within a few moments, he's finished eating and cleaned up his mess. He heads to his quarters for a good night’s rest as exhaustion has taken its toll.
Several hours into the night, strange scratching noises come from outside. At first, the sounds were all too subtle to conclude anything but the wind and the trees against the ship. However, the sounds started to have a feeling of possible intellectual intention behind them, causing P-T to wake up and address the matter.
As he exits his room, Leliana is already standing outside of her room. She's covering herself up with a blanket. Whispering, she asks, "Do you hear that?". She pauses for some more evidence, but silence is all that is heard. "It's like scratching noises. Like something or som-" she stops abruptly as the noises come back.
Practically mouthing the words, Leliana says, "Did you hear that?" Standing still and listening quietly, sounds of chittering begin to penetrate the silence. In no mood for anymore bullshit, P-T grabs the oxygen mask and an EM rifle and heads to the side airlock.
Leliana running up behind says, "What are you doing? You can't just go out there and KILL what's out there. We don't know what kind of repercussions that could have on us or them."
P-T, as usual, pays no mind to what she's telling him and steps into the airlock and closes the hatch; not even once making eye contact with her as he checks the weapon's functionality.
Leliana yells through the viewport, "Be sure your big dumbass makes it back. Safely is fucking optional!" She turns away and heads to the cockpit to see what is out there and to check on her diagnostics.
P-T exits the Phantom with the oxygen mask on and the rifle in a readied position. He looks all around him including above in the trees. The star's twilight still permeates thro
ugh the vegetation giving some needed visibility to the area. The mist has lifted and the humidity has seemingly dropped making the air refreshing as the breeze picks up.
Trying to step as quietly as he can, he begins to step away from the Phantom to get a better view of the top of the ship. The sounds of chittering have continued to start and stop, meaning possibly intelligence or at least a form of communication amongst beasts. Confirming that they are definitely on top of the Phantom, P-T slowly works his way around to the highest mound of rubble to get a better glimpse of the disturbance.
As he reaches the top of the mound, he lays flat and lifts his head slightly to catch a glimpse. Several yards away two strange looking creatures are standing on the Phantom, near the hole in the armor. These bristle like hairy creatures have long, thin legs, tipped with several large, thick, curved, red claws. Their bodies are hard to make out from the low level of light, but it looks like that they have a flap of skin connecting from wrist to hip, as well as from the hip to ankle. They are hunched over inspecting the hole as they continue to chitter back and forth.
Without warning, P-T shoots and kills both creatures. The shots ring out and echo for many miles. He casually walks up to his recent victims and drags them off the ship, shooting them one more time in the head for reassurance before throwing them off like trash. P-T then goes back to the blast hole on the ship and inspects for any sabotage, intentional or not.
Inside, Leliana is startled by the shots ringing out, but not surprised at this point. "Fucking idiot.", she says as she's working the consoles. A voice from the computer begins to read the diagnostic analysis to Leliana. "Engine efficiency 41%. Life support systems 95%. Hull breach 15%. Weapons systems 67%. Shields 10%."
"Alright.", says Leliana excitedly, "Let’s see if we can improve this piece of shit's output.", as she types rapidly into the consoles. The computer occasionally responds to Leliana's commands with updates on systems performance.
Having finished with what he is looking for, P-T enters the airlock and begins to decontaminate himself. Once complete and cleared, he puts the gun down and walks up to the cockpit to see Leliana working hard.
"Oh hey," she says, "I've managed to increase overall output for the engines and weapons by 40%. That means we should be able to get back to Fiortega sooner than later. Also, should we come across any more Raiders, we should be able to out match their firepower. The hull is near critical so we can't take any more physical damage. I'm still working on improving the shields a bit. From the systems standpoint, we are ready to leave. Is there more that needs to be done out there?"
P-T shakes his head no and sits in the pilot’s seat reviewing the results she just told him.
"By the way, what was out there?", she asks, "Did you shoot the gun to scare them off?"
P-T nodding his head impressed with what she's done with the ship says, "They're dead."
"Are you serious?", she exclaims, "You can't just go killing native creatures. What if they were some intelligent beings?"
No sooner than she finishes that question, haunting noises come from outside. Looking through the viewport, thousands of creature’s gliding through the air, bouncing from tree to tree. They are howling out loudly as they approach. Sounds of the creatures landing on the Phantom, echo throughout the ship as clawing sounds give way to the howls.
P-T straps in and starts working the console. He fires up the engines and lifts the Phantom out of its pit. Hundreds of these creatures are latched on the ship trying to damage it with their claws. With a cocky look, P-T turns to Leliana and says, "Fuck 'em", as he throttles up the engines.
As the Phantom speeds through the trees, all of the creatures on it are ripped away. Those unlucky enough to be caught in the engines wake are burned to a crisp, as the fortunate ones’ glide back to the trees. Finally breaking past the trees canopy, the Phantom speeds out of the planet's atmosphere.
Resetting the coordinates for Fiortega, P-T launches the ship into hyperspace. With a giant sigh, Leliana says under her breath, "I can't wait to get home and away from this motherfucker.", causing P-T to smile from ear to ear.
Chapter 8
As they approach Fiortega, Leliana is ecstatic with joy as her nightmare almost over. With her son in her lap, she points to him important landmarks that they pass by; entering the outermost orbit of the sixth planet.
A bright blue sphere, smeared with white patches becomes larger and larger with each passing moment. "You see that baby? That's home. Eek!", as she squeals with excitement. "Your grandpa says that this is twice as big as Earth. Lucky for us, we were able to find this place and adjust quite easily. Oh, look there! That's the second moon called Arias.", pointing to the small light grayish moon as they pass by.
It's covered with several large multi-level buildings on the surface, their shadows casting upon the surface. In the upper stratosphere of the moon, a tubular shaped space port, split down the middle, is orbiting with a large ship under construction exposing its core structure.
"That's where they make our ships for traveling when we search for core elements. The workers there can only stay for six months before coming back home so their bodies don't get too weak to live on Fiortega."
Taking Rowan off of her lap, she says, "Honey, Mommy needs you to go to our room now as it's gonna get a little bumpy for the rest of the trip."
"I don't want to go Mommy. Can't I stay with you?", asks Rowan.
"I know, I don't want you to go either, but Mr. P-T here is a terrible pilot." She gives P-T a look of 'help me out here', "So, I don't want you to get hurt."
Annoyed by their conversation, P-T decides to settle this quickly and yells at the boy with a sneer, "Get out of here you little shit, or I'll throw you and your Mommy out the fucking airlock!"
The boy starts to cry loudly, giving a long "Waah!"
Pissed at P-T, Leliana gets out of her seat "Words can't even begin to.... ugh!", she says with complete disgust and disbelief.
P-T grins smugly, "Problem solved."
"Honey, come here the big, dumb man didn't mean it.", as she tries to comfort her son, holding him and caressing his back. "Come, let Mommy tuck you in. Before you know it, you'll be seeing grandpa again.", she says as she carries him to the bed in the quarters.
Still sniffling and crying the boy rubs his eyes with his hands, "Why is the bad man so mean Mommy?"
Thinking for a moment, Leliana says, "Probably because he didn't have an awesome Mommy like me loving him. Don't you worry about that man any more. We won't be seeing him again soon enough. Mommy just needs to help us get home for a little while longer."
She begins feel a little proud of her accomplishments and ability to survive, "Didn't I promise you that I would get us back home baby?"
"Uh-huh.", replies the boy.
"See, you have an awesome Mommy that keeps her promises to her baby. Stay here. Okay?"
The little boy shakes his head yes, as Leliana pulls the blanket up to his neck. She runs her fingers through his hair and then kisses him on the forehead before she leaves the room.
As Leliana re-enters the cockpit, she is still mad with P-T, "I can only hope that the psychological damage you've done to my son doesn't last his entire fucking life. You are un-fucking-real did you know that?"
P-T just shrugs his shoulders, as he's still amused by it all.
After typing some commands into the console, Leliana speaks out to the comms, "This is Leliana Hisk of Sigma three survey vessel to Denali mission control, do you read me?"
"Sigma three?", a male’s voice responds.
"Leliana...?", as another man's voice interjects over the comms, "Leliana is that you?"
"Dad?", she asks as tears start to stream down her face. With her voice breaking from emotions, "It's me dad! We are alright. Rowan is here too!"
"Oh, thank heaven, it's you baby!", as his voice also shaky as he becomes emotional. "I can't believe it's really you. My little girl is home!"
Listening to this conve
rsation, P-T has a visible look of disgust on his face as this display of unusual affection from two adults begins to emotionally nauseate him a little.
The Phantom enters the stratosphere and starts to slow down for landing. As they get closer to the planet’s surface, P-T sees thousands of strange structures throughout the landscape. These buildings vary in height from twenty feet to hundreds of feet in the air. Some are covered entirely with glass reflecting the sunlight. Others are in variations of colors next to each other; mixed amongst the rich vegetation of the planet. Buildings near lakes, large bodies of water and in the middle; nowhere near anything significant with strange pathways interconnecting the landscape.
