"The Long Night"
By Nes Mikel
Acknowledgment;
Standard Disclaimers apply. You know what I'm talking about. Don't sue me. Please.
Three
"Explain." Krr'isha demanded.
"Look, I'll start explaining as soon as we get Zero's course laid out towards Sol." Lekim replied.
"Lekim, I refuse." PX-23-DXY complained. "If you don't explain what's going on, this ship is not going anywhere."
Lekim tried to argue his point. "Look, Pixdixy, think about it. The more we stay in orbit, the chance is that the transplanetary authorities or the New Orion's spotting us is increasing every second we stay here."
"Shoot first, ask questions later?" Krr'isha asked.
Lekim nodded. "Something like that, Yeah. They can't intercept us while we're in hyperspace."
Krr'isha shook her head. "You're wrong in your assumption."
"What?"
"Although it's true Zero can't engage in hyperspace, as well as the transplanetary authorities, we know that the New Orion's can." Krr'isha replied rather calmly. "We can deal with the authorities, it's the New Orion's we're worried about here. So you can explain your reasons here or in hyperspace, it doesn't matter. If they spot us, they spot us, and that's how it is."
Lekim hung his mouth open, stunned.
She went on: "It's true we can engage one Nocturnal-class ship of theirs, but that's about it. Even so we still only have 50:50 chances of survival."
"...then how did we survive up until now? I remember since the day I was born on this ship, we've engaged in countless battles!"
"We were lucky." Krr'isha replied.
"And we run away whenever we see New Orion's using... certain distractions." PX-23-DXY pitched in.
Lekim seemed astonished at this. "B... but how?"
"You do realize that you always weren't present on the bridge when the battles took place?" she questioned.
"Well, yeah..."
"Then there you go." Krr'isha waved Lekim off. "You do not have a reason not to explain your intentions anymore. If you do not mind, I would like to activate the cloak to lessen our chances of discovery, since you seem to be concerned about of discovery. But that will only fool the authorities, mind you."
Lekim just stood there, helpless. Krr'isha walked away from him and touched several panels beside the captain's seat. A slight hum was heard from the hulls of Zero, and the cloak was activated.
Krr'isha felt somewhat bad about crushing Lekim's hopes like that, but she knew it was necessary. It was the only way the young ones could ever hope to learn. She wasn't kidding when she said she feared for Lekim to get himself involved in a tragic situation: she was there to protect him. At the same time, however, she wanted him to fulfill his dreams. Those two wishes somehow contradicted each other, a situation she found very irritating to manage. But this was Lekim they were talking about.
She turned around to face Lekim once more. "Now tell us your reason."
He hesitated a little, but then caved in. "All right, all right, fine. The reason I want to go to Sol is so I could steal a particular item."
"Steal something from your own race?" PX-23-DXY asked. "Can you just not buy what you're looking for?"
"No, no." Lekim shook his head sideways. "It's a piece of technology I wanted. We haven't developed that yet, either has the other races."
"Then what are you looking for?" she demanded somewhat harshly.
Lekim shrunk back slightly in anticipation of the rebuttal to come, but answered quite calmly. "I want to steal a New Orion ship."
"A what!?"
