Chapter 30

All Is Revealed

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Running to the Command Deck, Dylan, Beka, Trance, and Tyr pulled out their guns that they had gotten from the weapons locker. Harper came in over the commlink.

"Dylan, I fixed the defence systems,"

"Good. Tell me, where on the ship is Gerentex?"

"Just a sec... uh oh..."

"Harper, what is it??"

"The Ratface has taken over Command. They got there first, Dylan,"

He immediately stopped running. Beka, Tyr, and Trance could see the stress coming onto him, and heard him mutter "Why do I even bother?"

"I heard that," came Andromeda's voice from nowhere.

"Don't worry Andromeda, we'll get you back," he apologised, sighing.

Tyr cut in, "We should go to Command, and see how heavily they are guarding their position. Perhaps we can break in. If they are overconfident they should be an easy target,"

In silent agreement, Dylan, Trance, and Beka started on their way again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When they reached Command, they found the doors barred and locked, as expected. Dylan put his face up to the door and started yelling, trying to project his voice through the thick protections of Command.

"Hello? Gerentex, we know you're in there, and we only want to talk,"

Beka rolled her eyes and sighed "Oh, don't tell me he's going to try to talk to them!"

Tyr obviously felt the same way.

A voice came through on Dylan's commlink.

"I was wondering when you would get here, Hunt. But I'm afraid you're too late. As you can no doubt tell, I have taken over your ship and I intend to keep it that way," he sneered.

"She's not yours to take, Gerentex," Dylan said, anger building in his voice.

"Well she is now!" he laughed "Now you and your little friends just sit tight out there while I take us all on a nice ride to Darragan,"

"What?! That's the most highly guarded prison planet in the system!"

"Exactly! Well, I suppose I'd better let you in on my plan, so you won't feel too bad that you were tricked by a Nightsider," Gerentex said, glee filling his voice at his accomplishments.

They all just looked at each other, slightly worried but not ready to give up yet.

Gerentex continued with his gloating, but they were barely listening now. Suddenly the word "corpses" caught Dylan's ear.

"Wait, back up, did you say something about corpses?"

"I did as a matter of fact. Don't tell me you didn't discover what was in the Goldensun's hangar?"

"We did, as a matter of fact, but how did you?"

"Ah, Dylan. You underestimate me. I was hired to transport the bodies, the result of an illegal jaunt of a colleague of mine, and to dump them into space. No more bodies, no more evidence. But then a thought occurred to me when I heard from my... sources, that you were in the system. I wanted to kill two birds with one stone , so to speak. So I hired the Goldensun to do the job for me. First so I wouldn't get caught, and second so you would discover them and, as I knew you would, save them from me. That was me shooting at them by the way. You were so predictable, Hunt, and fell right into my trap!" "But how would us saving them help you?" Beka demanded.

"Well, you see, now the bodies are in your hands and you will be blamed for them, not me. And, subsequently, I take over while you are preoccupied by their discovery, and turn you into the authorities, taking all the credit and getting a High Guard Starship to boot. Not to mention the money my colleague is paying me for destroying the evidence for him. Of course, I didn't count on there being a survivor. But now I think of it, that girl Hannah may have been the only thing that pulled the plan through... But that doesn't matter now All that matters is that my plan is finally falling into place," he sighed blissfully, "Now just you stay there and be good. We should reach Darragan shortly," he chuckled maliciously to himself.

The link was cut and the distant sounds in the background of the message immediately ceased.

But a plan was already forming in Dylan's head.

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