"I don't know," I reply. I step onto the shuttle's ramp and walk in to the craft.
Julie and Angel follow me as I walk the length of the cabin and stop in front of the main control panel, where I guess the pilot usually sits. A moment later I am staring at the deactivated main control panel. Mary and Jane have followed us into the shuttle. And now everyone is looking at me.
I honestly do not know what to do. But for some reason I don't feel nervous.
"So what now?" Julie asks.
Chapter Nine
I put my palms flat on the control panel.
"What are you doing?" Julie asks.
"I don't know," I reply, but I can feel the slime flow down my arms and onto my hands. The coating on my palms tingle and I feel a connection.
Julie opens her mouth to say something else, but stops as the control panel springs to life.
I close my eyes and have a vision of myself soaring up through the clouds to meet up with the starship orbiting overhead. And somehow I know that the starship is currently on the other side of the planet from me. "We have a two minute launch window," I say, barely understanding what it means. "We need to prepare for launch.
Just as I finish talking the ramp at the rear of the shuttle gives a brief shudder and starts to rise. Mary and Jane gasp and move further up into the cabin of the shuttle, looking even more worried as the shuttle's display panels light up around them.
"How are you doing that?" Julie asks. There is an edge of concern in her voice.
"I don't know," I reply with a shrug.
And to be perfectly honest I am not worried. Overnight I have unexpectedly been granted coated with some kind of alien substance that makes me unpalatable to alien predators and immune to alien blasters. Not to mention being able to absorb said blaster's energy and throw it back at the aliens shooting at me. And to top it all, I can now magically control alien spacecraft.
I guess it must be the shock, but for the first time is as far back as I can remember I am not worried about anything.
"Fascinating," Angela says.
Julie glances at her, but says nothing.
"OK, everyone," I call out. "Strap in."
With a high pitched whine, the shuttle's engines spring to life and the shuttle sways from side to side. I sit in the chair in front of the main control panel and pull the seat belts around myself.
Julie sits in the seat to one side of me, still not taking her eyes off me. And Angela sits in the seat on my other side.
Mary and Jane head back towards the cargo area.
"Hey girls," I call out to them.
They turn to look at me.
"You're not cargo anymore," I say. "Pick a seat and strap in." I nod at the empty seats in front of various control panels.
Mary and Jane sheepishly sit down and start to fumble with their seat belts.
The display panels show all sorts of technical readouts in some kind of alien script. None of it means anything to me. But I do not need to read any of the screens. I simply close my eyes and I can feel my mind flow into the shuttle. It feels as if the craft and I am one.
I can sense the ground underneath the landing gear. I can sense the airflow over the wings. And I can feel the pent up thrust of the engines waiting to be unleashed. Below me is the mass of the planet and above me is the wide open sky and the vastness of space beyond.
I open my eyes and gasp. Feeling vertigo and leaning heavily against the control panel. And wanting to vomit again. "Jesus Christ," I mutter. "Is there nothing in outer space that doesn't disagree with me."
"What?" Angela asks.
"Oh, nothing," I say. I take a deep breath and, closing my eyes, let myself merge with the shuttlecraft once again.
As I open out my mind I can see the surrounding ground, even deep underneath to the bedrock. And as I "look up" I can see the clear sky above me. Coming over the horizon I can feel our starship.
But I can also feel two more in orbit, currently coming around the far side of the planet about twenty minutes behind our ship.
"There are two other starships in orbit," I say, opening my eyes but still staying in contact with the shuttle.
"How do you know?" Julie asks.
"Who do they belong to?" Angela asks.
"I don't know," I reply. "To both questions."
"All starships should have an ID beacon transmitting their details," Angela says.
"OK." I close my eyes and focus on the two other starships. "Dracktari merchant trading ships," I say.
"OK, that's not good," Angela says.
"Why not?"
"Because they will seek revenge for the death of their fellow Dracktari, and also the destruction of their starship, even though we did not cause it."
"The starship has not been destroyed," I say. "It has been taken over."
"Taken over?" Angel asks. "By who?"
"Apparently by me," I say with complete disbelief.
"How have you taken over an alien starship?" Julie asks.
I lift up my arm and make the slime flow up to cover it like a formfitting glove.
"Oh," Julie says.
"Fascinating," Angela repeats.
I look at Angela, she seems to be enjoying herself. "I guess this is turning out to be a more interesting research project that you'd originally thought," I say.
"Well," Angela says. "Most definitely."
But now is not the time for small talk. I close my eyes and the shuttle's engines rev up. Moments later we leap into the air. Once again my senses seem to expand and I can see forever in every direction. The big mass of the planet below me blocks out most of my view in that direction, but I can still feel the heavy pinpricks of the starships in orbit. And the half dozen tiny moons that orbit the planet.
Beyond I can feel the masses of the seven other planets in this solar system. And even the little pinpricks of various asteroids and comets.
And at the center of everything in the local environment is the massive presence of the big, hot star. I can feel all sorts of stuff shooting out of the sun. None of which makes any sense to me. So I turn my attention away and focus back on the shuttle that I am supposed to be flying.
But the shuttle seems to know where it is going. I can sense that it is zooming up from the surface of the planet on a trajectory that will intercept with the starship. The air flowing over the wrings thins out and the sky turns black as we leave the atmosphere. The shuttle performs a perfect curving arc that lines up directly with the orbit of the starship.
As the two craft drift towards each other someone shakes my shoulder.
I open my eyes and for a moment I do not remember where I am. I blink as my memories return and turn to look at Julie
"Are you alright?" she asks.
I look at her in puzzlement. I have never felt better. Why would she think I wasn't alright. "Of course," I smile. "What could be better than living in such a fantastic universe?"
She just looks at me.
"What does it feel like?" Angela asks.
"What does what feel like?" I ask.
"Flying the shuttle," Angela says.
"It feels..." I wasn't sure how it felt. Too many words came to mind. Finally I say, "Fantastic."
"It's just you haven't moved for fifteen minutes," Julie says. "We were getting worried."
"Fifteen minutes?" I say. "It's felt like only seconds have passed since we took off."
"We're already matched orbits with the ship," Angela says, as she nods towards the view window.
But I already know what I will see when I look out. I can feel the mass of the starship hovering over me, gently pulling me in.
I close my eyes once more and feel the tow ships glide towards each other until there is a solid contact.
With a clunk and a little shake the shuttle docks with the starship.
The access tube in the middle of the deck opens with a hiss of equalizing air, and a guardrail rises up out from the floor around it.
"Time to get to the bridge and see what
owning a starship feels like," I say as I stand up.
Julie and Angela exchange a look. But Mary and Jane just look scared.
"Don't worry," I say to them as I start to climb down the access tube, "we're safe now. Once the ship has repaired itself, we can fly back to Earth."
"Really?" Mary asks.
"Really," I assure her. And then climb down the docking tube and onto the starship.
The tube leads down to an outfitting room. Around the walls are cabinets and shelves filled whit Dracktari equipment. The spacesuits won't be of any use to us, but stuff like the shovels and picks that are piled into one container could be used by us. Assuming we ever need to go down to the surface of a planet and dig a hole.
The others climb down the ladder after me. And soon the small room feels crowded. I briefly wonder what it would be like with the bulk of half a dozen Dracktaris filling the room, but quickly dismiss that through. The Dracktari no longer own this ship.
"Come on, follow me," I say and put my hand on the control panel to open the door. It is only when the door swishes open with a smooth motion that I even considered if I would be authorized to open the door. Perhaps I really do own the starship, I think. It is one thing to strike a pose of bravado in front of the others, but to realize that I might actually own a starship was something that I had never considered. Even if it is stolen. And even if I don't actually know what to do with a starship.
But I push these thoughts from my mind as I step out of the room and walk down the corridor. The others following behind me.
The first thing that I notice is that the air is no longer filled with choking smoke. The second thing I notice is that I instinctively know which direction to go in.
"Follow me," I say, as I lead my ragtag group towards the bridge.
The corridors look more or less the same. But the vertigo that I experienced the first time of seemingly to be walking downhill while always remaining upright does not affect me this time. A quick glance at the other humans shows that they are experiencing the effects of the conflicting signals between their eyes and their sense of balance.
"Not too far now," I say. "Once we're inside a room things will feel more normal."
"OK," Julie says.
Mary and Jane look completely "green about the gills".
Angela is completely unaffected.
"So, this is not your first time to travel on board a starship," I say.
"No," Angela replies. "I am what you might call a seasoned traveler."
I file that away for future thought as we reach the bridge.
Once again the door opens for me and I walk inside. It looks much better than the last time I was here. Not only is there no smoke but the none of the control panels are flashing with alarms.
"Everything seems quiet," I say as I walk across and sit in the captain's chair.
Angel sits beside me and starts to scroll through the display on the control panel in front of her.
The others are standing awkwardly by the door.
"Come in and take a seat," I say, gesturing to the empty seats around the holographic display. "Just ignore the displays and control panels. You don't actually have to fly the ship, or anything."
"That is good," Angela says. "As it would appear that every system is currently offline." She looks directly at me. "Including life support."
Julie walks over and sits in the chair next to me.
Mary and Jane follow her and sit in the two chairs down from her, putting Julie between me and them.
"So no life support," Julie says to me.
I turn to Angela. "Are you sure?" I ask her
"In fact, as far as I can tell, the only system that is fully operational is the gravity engine," Angel says, as she starts to scroll through the display in front of her once more.
"The air seems fresh," I say. "The last time I was here the ship was filled with toxic smoke. Something must have cleaned that up."
"Hmmm, yes," Angela says. "That is correct."
"The lights are on," I point out. "And the doors work."
"Yes," Angela agrees. She gestures at the screen in front of her. "But the readouts say everything is offline."
There are control panels in both the arms of my chair. I put a hand on each and close my eyes. Again I can feel a little tingle from the palms of my hands and the room seems to melt away from me.
And I am floating in the void of space. Next to me is the bulk of the planet. And I can feel how it is falling around the sun in its orbit, just as I am falling around the planet in my orbit. And I can see the two bright sparks of the Dracktari ships coming around the planet towards me. And also a couple of shuttles climbing up from the surface.
I look inside to see how I am and can feel the air being refreshed and the starship's systems humming along nicely. Everything is OK, but I need more. I am hungry, ever so hungry.
I open my eyes. Only a moment has passed. Julie and Angela are looking at me anxiously. "Apart from being hungry, I think the starship is OK for the moment," I say.
"Hungry?" Julie asks.
"Yes," I say. "That's what it feels like."
"And another thing I've noticed," Julie says. "Weren't the Dracktari like seven and eight foot tall?"
"Yes," I say.
"So how come the seats fit us?" Julie asks.
"I guess the ship is adjusting to its new owners," I say.
"I guess," Julie says, but sounds doubtful.
The panel in front of Angela flashes up a notification. "Someone is trying to hail us on the communications system," Angela says.
"So that's one system that's definitely working," Julie says.
"Who is it?" I ask.
"It's the Dracktari," Angela says. Another message flashes up on her screen. "And also the Authorities from the planet below," she adds.
"Do we need to hear what they want?" I ask.
"I guess they want their ship back," Julie says.
"They took us, we took their ship," I say. "As far as I'm concerned we're even."
"And the people you... Who died?" Angela asks.
I look at her for a moment. "You mean the slavers who fired blasters at an unarmed person?"
"That's self defense where I come from," Julie says.
"Well, I'm not too sure that they'll see it that way," I say.
"Yeah," Julie agrees. "I suppose not."
"We should probably get out of here before the Dracktari try to take the ship from us," I say.
I close my eyes and merge with the ship once more. I can feel the Dracktari ships approach as their orbits converge with ours. And two shuttles are steadily climbing up from the planet below, curving up to intercept me. But as I try to move the ship I can feel that nothing is happening. "We have no thrusters," I say. "I can not change my orbit."
With the alien ships closing in on me I feel like I am caught in a noose.
"They are trying to talk to us again," Angela says.
"Maybe we should speak to them," Julie says. "It might buy us some time."
"No, it will take days to grow new engines," I say.
"How do you know?" Julie asks.
I shrug. "I just do."
Angela is busy scrolling through the display on one of the control panels. "The Dracktari ships are closing in on us," she looks up from the screen. "They might mean to attack us. Or maybe try to board the ship."
"They definitely want their ship back," Julie says.
"My ship," I say. Then I look around. "Well, ours," I add.
"Yeah," Julie says.
I look around at the others. But they are all looking at me. "What should we do?" I ask. This is the first time I have ever been in charge of anything and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.
But no one answers me. The other girls just sit and look worried.
An alarm sounds. We all turn to look at the displays.
Then turn to Angela as none of us can read the alien language.
Angela huddles over the controls in front
of her scrolling furiously thought her display.
She looks up from the screen, for the first time a worried look is on her face. "The Dracktari ships have locked their weapons systems on to us," she says.
"Maybe we should surrender," Julie says.
Another alarm sounds. Red lights start flashing and the whole ship shakes.
Angela turns to the control panel once again.
But I know what is happening before she can speak. I can feel the sense of dread deep in the pit of my stomach as I realize that someone on the surface of the planet has launched intercept missiles at us. And a moment later I have another brief flash of panic as the Dracktari starships launch their own array of missiles towards us.
Angela looks up from the screen.
But before she can speak I say, "We should take evasive measures." I can feel the two sets of missiles closing in on me.
"How?" Angela asks. "We have no power in the maneuvering thrusters."
I know she is right. I can feel it. But I also feel the missiles racing towards me. "Hyperspace," I say, knowing that it is the only way.
"What!" Angel takes a step towards me. "We can't jump into hyperspace!"
The others look at me, absolute fear written across their faces. The
"We can't stay here!" I reply.
"But we have no destination set!" Angel shouts. "We could end up anywhere!"
"But we will end up dead if we stay here!"
"But you can't..."
But even as she screams at me I am closing my eyes and imagining the space around the ship opening up and swallowing us whole.
I immediately realize that jumping into hyperspace this close to a planet is not a good idea. But my mind is already overwhelmed by the multicolored textures of the hyperspace matrix of gravity vectors. And I am lost.
About Reilly Lexington
I have read Science Fiction since I was a child. Now, after many years of false starts doing all sorts of jobs, I have decided to do what I have always wanted to do, write Science fiction.
Visit www.ReillyLexington.com to follow me on my journey. Or sign up to my mail list and I will send you periodic emails about the progress and publication of my new books: http://eepurl.com/di_iun
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