"Ram the Blade ship," I repeated.
"Are you crazy!?!" Marco grabbed my shoulder, his eyes wild.
< Rachel, here I come, > Tobias smiled inwardly.
"Yes, Captain," Menderash flipped several switches and pushed forward on the throttle. Our 'stolen' Yeerk craft crashed full speed into the Blade Ship, smashing its command bridge inward. However, this left the Rachel in quite a damaged state as we tumbled about inside. Alarms flared everywhere, and red lights flashed in our eyes.
"Did we get 'em?" I rolled over and asked Menderash. He sat up and rubbed his new permanently human head.
"It would seem so, but the Rachel is now no longer capable of z-space travel, and we have a pressure leak in the outer hull."
< GO to the shuttles! >
"What was that?" The French officer, Jeanne was puzzled.
< NOW! >
"Better listen to it, Jake," Marco started down the corridor.
< Her you mean, > Tobias grinned as only a hawk could.
"Huh?" I turned to him.
< It's Rachel, she's okay! > He exclaimed with glee.
"But, how?" Marco said.
< Stop worrying about me and get to the damn shuttles already! >
Suddenly, the Blade ship recovered and brought its only functioning canon to bear. It fired once, skimming the top of our craft. We began to scramble to the escape pods. The Blade ship fired again, and the cockpit exploded. A wave of fire, shrapnel and the sucking clutches of space raced after us. Marco, Menderash, Jeanne and Santorelli piled into one escape shuttle. I leapt over a broken off panel on the floor and landed with a thud in the vessel. Tobias stood in place, looking tired.
< She's okay… > He murmured to himself. I reached out of the pod and pulled him inside. Marco slammed the hatch shut. Menderash punched the release button. Nothing happened.
"Oh, no…" Marco said quietly.
< Use the Force, Marco… >
"What!?"
< I always wanted to say that, > Rachel said in a cheerful tone.
< Rachel is that really you!? > Tobias cried out. Marco pounded on the release switch, as the blaze turned the corner and began to head toward us. Santorelli braced himself against the round wall and kicked the release with his booted foot. With a hiss of expelling smoke, the pod broke off the side of the Rachel. Suddenly, the area where we just were exploded, launching us into space.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[ Tobias ]
We hurtled through the empty reaches of space. Santorelli and Jeanne were the most uncomfortable, since they had never traveled in space before, let alone in a small escape shuttle. Marco amused himself by trying to get her to agree to go on a date with him if we survived this mess.
"Come on, I'll have saved your life, and that makes me all the more irresistible," he pleaded.
"Hah," she replied, and crossed her arms over her chest.
Jake and Menderash were at the controls. I had morphed to human and now sat cross-legged in a corner.
"Any idea where we're headed?" I asked Jake.
"Currently, no."
"The z-space engines were partially damaged in the explosion that sent us off, we would only be able to make short jumps through space. Even so, it would be inherently dangerous to try this, we could very well exit z-space into a sun, crash into an asteroid, or some other horrible conclusion," Menderash said, as he looked over his shoulder.
"It'd be better than dying here when the Blade ship recovers or the Kelbrids hunt us down and take us prisoner," Santorelli stood up, hands on his hips.
"He has a point," Marco said then turned his attention back to Jeanne.
"Shall we?" I gestured toward the controls.
"Alright, Menderash, can you compute a short-jump coordinate into this thing?" Jake put his hand on the back of the chair Menderash was in.
"I can, let's just hope we survive it," his hands danced over the controls. "Ready?" He looked back at us.
"Ready," I confirmed.
"Let's do it," Jake said.
"No wait-" Marco began, but Menderash had already hit the switch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[ Marco ]
Menderash pressed the switch and our small shuttle lurched forward. Then time stopped. I looked back at Jeanne, she was frozen with her mouth open, her hands in the air, leaning forward. Santorelli was in mid-air, falling backward. Menderash was braced against his pilot's chair. Why not? I thought and bent over to kiss Jeanne. Someone grabbed the back of my hair and craned my neck back.
"R-Rachel!?!" I stammered.
"None other," she smirked.
"Rachel!" Tobias leapt up and bounded over to her. He scooped her up in his arms and swung her around. The bright white gown she wore whirled in the air. Without the support from Rachel's vise grip, I fell over onto the deck.
"Sorry to break up the moment, but, where are we? What is this?" Jake smiled walked over.
"Allow me to explain," a voice said from the back of the ship.
"Ellimist!" We shouted in unison and turned to face the old man.
"Yes, it is I," he nodded. "Your friend Rachel had gone into a situation in which survival was impossible. According to the game rules I have with Crayak, I was not allowed to interfere, and she died. However, I offered Rachel a proposition, and she gladly accepted."
"What do you mean?" Tobias put Rachel down.
"Crayak has his drode, and now I have Rachel."
"You mean…" Tobias looked into her eyes lovingly.
"No, Tobias, she is not a tool to be used for my own purposes. In exchange for an existence beyond her former life, she has volunteered to be a," he frowned then continued
"A part-time servant you could say."
"Cool," I said and sat up.
"Then why hasn't she contacted us until now?" Jake asked.
"There was never a need to. You guys seemed to be getting along fine without me," Rachel rested her head on Tobias' shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her. Jake and I smiled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[ Tobias ]
Rachel and I kissed. We said our good-byes to Rachel and the Ellimist prepared to revert time to normal. Rachel held out her hand, and I grasped it. In a flutter of white, they disappeared.
"Say hello to mom and my sisters, and of course Casssie," Rachel managed to say before vanishing.
Back in the real time, we shot off into z-space.