Chapter 03

They walked until they reached the port, making their way to His hangar. As they approached His ship, the landing ramp descended in front of them. He led Her aboard, and She could already hear the various systems and generators whirring on and coming to life. The lights in the corridor were dim for a moment, and then sprung to life as the landing ramp closed, bathing them both in an ambient, but nonetheless gentle, lighting. "Ok, if you're coming along, we're going to have to have a few grounds rules."

She nodded slowly. "Okay..."

"But for now, your place is in the cockpit with me." He pointed. "Once we've left atmosphere, and I've made the jump, we'll figure out the rest. I don't usually have passengers on my ship, but we'll figure something out."

She continued nodding until he finished. "That's fine with me."

He started walking down the corridor and then up to the cockpit. He sat down and strapped in, reaching up overhead and flipped a few switches, looking up at the darkened sky and the air traffic lanes. He looked over at the copilot's chair, and waited a moment, giving Her some time to buckle in, but then lifted off. He heard the roar of the thrusters as they took to the sky and broke free of orbit. "Ophelia, bring up astrogation and calculate the course to Baramasta."

He waited until the antispace generator had a green light, and then throttled forward. A vast tear seemed to form in the middle of the space ahead of them, stretching apart for that small fraction of a second until they were sucked in, the veridian and azure hues of antispace engulfing them. He looked down over the panel, and then at His wrist, checking to be sure his chronometer matched the ship. He sighed, and then remembered her, turning to look towards the copilot chair.

She sighed softly as soon as all seemed calm. "That...was...fun. So, Baramasta?" She turned in the co-pilot's chair to face Him, arching an eyebrow slightly. "Is it a place you'd recommend for an extended stay?"

He shrugged, but not with His arms, His eyebrows shifting towards His hairline as He considered it. "I suppose so..."

It was then that the projection coalesced on the cockpit's control board, standing near the center. "Captain Chariton? Why do we have a passenger?"

The suddenness of the voice's appearance startled her, and She jumped slightly, frowning down at the twenty-centimeter person standing on the console. She'd seen other virtual assistant's but they'd never had shape or form like this. The figure had long brown hair that fell over her shoulders and her blue eyes seemed perplexed, not angry. She appeared more curious than anything. The light green, uniform-style shirt and darker pants covered her appearance in a very conservative style. And while her appearance was that of an adult, as was her silvery soprano, her personality and countenance was child-like more than the mature adult she appeared designed to emulate.

"We have a passenger because..." Chariton stopped midsentence, looking at the other chair for a moment, his eyes taking in Her appearance, before he turned back to Ophelia. "Because She had nowhere else to go, obviously."

The image looked over at Her, and then slowly tilted her head to the side. "I see. And what is your name, Miss...?"

Chariton felt himself blushing a little. He felt foolish and realized he was about to feel humiliated when he had to explain that he didn't know Her name yet either. They'd been in a rush, and he'd just forgot to ask.

"Phytrelia. My name is Phytrelia. Brynn Phytrelia." She blushed a little as she turned to look at him, seeing that he was as red as she felt. "I guess we forgot that part, didn't we.

He smiled uneasily. "Yes, I suppose we did."

Brynn reached her hand across towards him and he took it. "I'm Captain Chariton, but you can call me Idris since it's just me and Ophelia right now."

She giggled a little. "Right now? What, do you normally have a bunch of formal individuals that you force to address you less casually."

Idris stammered a little. "Well, no, not exactly."

"He doesn't," Ophelia piped in. "It's just him and me. It's been that way for as far back as my memory banks have records."

"I see," Brynn said, looking to Idris with a smile as she picked up on the small stab of resentment she thought she heard in Ophelia's voice.

Idris smiled a little, stood up, and walked into the space that connected the cockpit to the main corridor of the ship. He was starving, a sensation he'd only vaguely become aware of while talking to Ophelia.

Brynn felt a little self-conscious, and also a little odd, talking to a computer. She wasn't really sure what kind of expectations she was supposed to respect, much less follow, in regards to what Captain Chariton would or would not want her discussing with his ship's computer. Or was it more than that? What it even an "it" in the first place, or was the system worthy of a "she"?

She quickly began to follow Captain Chariton out of the cockpit. At the last second, she turned, feeling it would be in poor manners not to say goodbye, even if it was a computer. "It was nice to be able to meet you, Ophelia."

As she caught up with him, she started talking to him immediately. "I think we should discuss sleeping arrangements. I'm sure this isn't a very big ship, so I'll be fine with whatever amenities you are capable of providing me. It is unlikely it would be the most uncomfortable place I've slept in before."

The machine he'd been facing chimed and he reached into the opening, taking a bowl from it. Steam swirled off the top as he moved over to sit at the booth-style seat that surrounded about half of the galley, a table extending around in front of it. He placed his food on the surface and looked up at her. He was going to have to give it a moment to cool down before he could eat it anyway. At the edge of his peripheral vision, he noticed Ophelia's image sitting on the edge of the table, legs dangling.

"Or I can just sleep outside..." she muttered, not sure why he'd chosen to ignore her.

He was still contemplating how he would manage everything. He didn't feel right about making her sleep on the floor, or any other place on the ship that might be just as uncomfortable.

"Captain, would you like to provide me with our destination so I can verify the course and provide you with updates on the estimated time of arrival?"

Idris sighed. "Give me a moment to eat, Ophelia. We can discuss it at greater length after I have had a chance adjust." He looked over at Brynn. "Are you hungry?"

Her gaze moved from him to the bowl of food he'd procured from the dispenser. She hadn't realized she was hungry until that moment, but guilt followed her hunger. She had already strong-armed him into letting her aboard, so the impulse to beg for food was hampered by her ambivalence over her status on the ship. She moved to sit down at the table, and then startled a little when she noticed Ophelia. She was going to have to get used to it...to her? To Idris' computer popping up without warning. She shook her head a little feigning distraction to cover the delay in her response.

"I'm sorry, am I what," she finally said. "Hungry? "A little. I'm sure I can hold off until morning."

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, arching an eyebrow at her. He stood, leaving his bowl on the table, and walked over to the dispenser. He looked at it a long moment, thinning his gaze as he tried to determine what to do next as if the machine might tell him. He turned around to look at her for a moment, studying her, as if her very appearance might somehow allow him to glean something. He turned back and she could hear him punching a request into the device before waiting a few moments. When it chimed again, he took the bowl from the machine, walked back to the table, and slid it onto the table in front of her. He then dropped a spoon in her bowl and then a second spoon into his own bowl. He sat back down at the table and started sipping at it as quietly as possible.

She looked at the food, and then looked up at him, before looking back down at the bowl again. His back had been towards her when he was preparing it, and a different kind of butterfly fluttered in her stomach. She was not sure what to do.

He looked up at her and arched an eyebrow interrogatively. "Is there something wrong with it?"

She looked up at him and then shifted, pausing for a long moment. "No, just...instincts."

He pursed his lips, nodding, and went back to eating his soup.

Without looking up, she said. "Thank you." Her response was sincere, but she was still hesitating. She tried not to think of the last time she'd actually had a warm meal and took the spoon and started stirring the soup, blowing gently to try and cool the liquid, and kept herself quiet until she had sipped. "Thank you, for the ride. I am sorry about the soup, I just..."

The ship shuddered, and almost immediately, the sound of alarms filled the entire ship. The image changed and started screaming at him. "CAPTAIN! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

As the ship rocked again, Idris dropped his spoon and stood up from the table. He looked forward at nothing, listening for a moment. He swore loudly, leaving Brynn at the table as he ran to the cockpit.

Brynn's heart leapt into her throat just as Idris stood up from the table. She watched him run out of the galley, but stayed at the table. Chasing after him wasn't going to help anyone.

Idris dropped into the pilot's seat. "This isn't Baramasta! Where are we?!"

Ophelia's image again coalesced on the middle of the control board. "About eight hours short of our destination, Captain. Somewhere just outside of the Klendastan System."

"What happened?!"

"We were knocked out of antispace by something."

Idris gaped, open-mouthed, and then pointed at the viewscreen. "What do you mean 'by something'?! There isn't a black hole or gas giant within two light years of here!"

"Sensors read that the anomaly is coming from that direction, just up off to port and straight ahead about eight hundred kilometers." Ophelia pointed out of the viewport, but it was too far to see anything.

Idris groaned and looked out the viewport anyway. "Are we picking up anything else from it?"

"It is not anything in any of our charts. It might be a ship. I'm getting readings consistent with concentrations of tetrastrand and redidium."

Idris paled. "Oh no..."

"Captain? What is it?"

Before he could answer, Brynn came through the doorway to the cockpit.

"It's...it's them...the...THEM!"

"We're being hailed, Captain."

He looked down at the control board, stunned into inaction for just a moment. "Put it on speaker."

"Atalanta, stand down and your ship will not be harmed. Leave your engines at a full stop and we can promise the most conducive, painless interaction during our time together. Failure to comply will result in your slow, prolonged, and painful demise, followed immediately with the destruction of your vessel." The deep baritone sounded impatient, but still calm.

"Battleship..." Idris went to say the name, but there was no transponder to speak of. "Identify yourself! This is a civilian vessel! You've no jurisdiction here. It'll be a cold day in hell when I surrender and go quietly into the night, especially for strangers, pirates, or mercenaries."

A new voice filled the cockpit now. She had a lilting, feminine voice. "Oh, you wound me, Captain Chariton. You and I both know we're not strangers. You couldn't have forgotten me already, could you? Back on Jastar."

"Captain, who is this woman?" Ophelia's image had hands on her hips now, sounding enraged by what she was hearing.

Idris held up his hand to silence her.

"Oh, and the lovely Ophelia is there too? I am confident that if you analyze the odds, it's far more in your interest to cooperate than to make a pathetic attempt to resist."

The image looked at him, nodding grimly. "I am afraid she is correct, Captain."

Idris moved to boost the sublight engines to full, but when he went to throttle, a short in the console almost started a fire. Both he and Brynn jumped back in surprise.

"Captain, it would appear that the force of our reversion caused the sublight engines to burn out. They are now completely offline. Life support and emergency lighting are still functioning, but we've lost propulsion."

He swore again. "Is there anyone else in the area?"

"No, but they're jamming us, Sir. There is no way we can get a transmission out of here anyway."

He slammed his fist onto the control panel and felt defeat washing over him. "Go ahead then. Take your prize and be on with it."

"Ah, see, Captain, that wasn't so hard now, was it? See you soon..." And with that, the ship fell into silence again.

Idris shut his eyes and shook his head. He had no idea what to do. He was most concerned with saving Brynn.

She reached out cautiously to place a hand on his shoulder. "Idris. What's happening? What's going on?" She asked her final question in a firm voice, expecting full honesty out of him right now. Determination and worry were painted across her face.

Idris shook his head and his entire body seemed to sag. He turned slowly to look at her. "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. And there is nowhere that I can send you to be safe.

"Idris, what do you mean? Who are these people?"

"I don't have time to explain it, but they're just...bad people."

She scoffed at him. "'Bad people? Don't patronize me, Idris."

Idris called over her shoulder. "Ophelia, how soon until they are here?"

"You have approximately two minutes before we are in range of their tractor beam."

"It...It doesn't matter, okay? They're going to drag my ship aboard theirs, throw black bags over our heads, and then beat us. Who they are is not going to change that outcome."

Brynn looked at him sideways. "And how do you know all of that?"

"Because. That's what she did to us last time. To me, I mean."

"Last time? What? When?!"

Idris shook his head and stepped away from her. "Just...look, I don't have time to answer all your questions. Our best bet is to try to smuggle you into one of the crawlspaces and see if they notice you. Otherwise...well, I don't know what they're going to do."

He walked away from her, and she followed after him. "The crawl space?! Do you think I'll be able to fit in there?"

He squatted down and pried up one of the panels. He slid it away from the opening and gestured inside. "I guess we're going to find out." He reached for her arm, but she leaned away from him.

"I'm fine. I can climb down on my own." She squatted down and then slid one leg into the space ahead of her. She slid to the edge of the floor and then dropped into the hole. She screeched, misjudging the depth, and grabbed for a handhold to slow her descent, clunking onto the floor with a grunt.

He peered down. "I did offer to help. Are you alright?"

"I said I'm fine, okay?"

He held up his hands in surrender and then slid the panel back in place, shrouding her in darkness.

She had less than twenty centimeters on a side and the panel was high enough over her that only her fingertips could touch it. She considered the space and decided that it could have been a lot worse.