Part I, Chapter I.
Pilot
It was the third day since the accident. The newly named Nirvana flew through hyperspace. The full bridge crew were at their stations, it being the middle of what the humans on board referred to as 'day'.
"Boss I'm picking up activity from one of our long range comm devices." Said Coco from her place on the bridge. A prominent frown marred her face. "I'm not sure about this but I think our navigation computer just came on line again… Boss! The nav comp's sending out our position!"
"Shut it down then! We'll be overrun by the enemy!"
"Shutting it down Boss!"
Questions filled the minds of the bridge crew, but answers were yet to be found.
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Just less than four hours after the strange incident Duero was making his way to the bridge with Parfet to stretch his legs. Suddenly from before them the bridge exploded in noise. He exchanged a quick look with his companion before the two took off, entering the bridge at a run. From his position on the observation deck he saw what had no doubt caused the sudden commotion.
The last swirl of blue was fast disappearing, the tail end of a wormhole. A small sized fighter craft glided swiftly towards them, its streamlined form promising swift doom to enemies. The ship seemed oddly similar to the Dreads he had seen since 'meeting' the women three days past. At that size he wondered if it was a scout ship. His mouth set into a more pronounced frown. Its size seemed to indicate so, which would mean that a larger force would soon arrive.
If it was a scout ship then the Nirvana would be in serious danger. The hyperspace engine had unexpectedly failed nearly an hour ago and all attempts to bring it back on line again had so far been unsuccessful. This meant they were currently trapped in normal space, only able to use their sub-light engines.
Around him the bridge crew buzzed like an angered swarm of hornets. Parfet had left already, gone to try again at one of the hyperspace engines most likely. A klaxon blared and red and yellow alarm lights flashed to rouse the crew members and Dread pilots to their stations in case of attack.
The alien ship drifted off to the starboard side of the Nirvana. Belvedere Coco began speaking quickly as she frantically summoned information up onto the bridge display screen.
"I'm picking up a reading Magno! The ship identifies itself as the Red Zone, one of ours piloted by Tairaka Yukionna-" The picture of a pilot was most prominent, white hair and blue eyes were all Duero caught before scrolling statistics of the foreign ship replaced it.
"I'm not senile you fool! I do recognise the ship!" growled their aged leader indignantly.
" Tairaka! is that you…?" questioned Amarone over the comm.
"Ohma just a little bit longer I swear… I don't want to go to school today… want to sleep…"
" Tairaka!" cracked Magno's voice harshly.
"Huh? Oh… the big blue swirly has ended… oh…" muttered the voice rather distractedly.
" Tairaka! Are you alright?" worry had crept in on Magno's tone.
"Hm? Oh yes this is Tairaka … my head hurts, and it's cold… so cold…" there was a pause "Did the ship get painted or something? Looks odd… like it's mouldy…"
"She's delusional, we'll need that man doctor… Duero take a medical kit and get yourself to the hanger!"
" Tairaka, stay with us, we need you to land in the main hangar, do you think you can do that?"
"Yeah… just a second though bit… dizzy…"
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The modified Dread landed ungracefully on the deck, the force of its 'landing' unbalancing him momentarily and sending several crew members stumbling.
Tairaka unclenched her shaking hands from the control globes to either side of her. Her head hurt and her mind was dulled, connections failing mid thought.
"…Not my best landing…" The white locked young pilot conceded quietly to herself as she awkwardly pulled back the lever that opened the roof of her cockpit, flooding warmth in. Suddenly she was struck by another wave of dizziness. "…Itai…" that was all she remembered before she lost consciousness again.
He helped Parfet and another girl pull the pilot from her ship. The metal catches on the harness that held her in were cold against his hands. Her skin was white, almost translucent, so that the faint outlines of her veins showed. There was a blow to her head, which would explain her deliriousness during the transmission, and her form had gone from slim to thin. They lowered her onto the deck and after sending a message ahead to get extra blankets and raise the heat for the medical centre the Doctor and his unusually quiet assistant Paiway went to work.
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She awoke with a groan only a couple of minutes later when her eyes were opened. Someone was shining a light in her eyes. Tairaka found herself beginning to slip out of consciousness again but a shake from the person who was carrying her… no… whose lap she was sitting in… roused her enough that she was able to consciously begin to work on staying awake.
Duero froze for a moment as the girl in his lap curled close to him, instinctively seeking more warmth for her frozen limbs. It was only for a split second though and he quickly peeled his long coat off and laid it on her, tucking it up to just below her chin.
Another groan was heard as his searching fingers walked across the blow to her head. Dark dried blood was encrusted throughout the left side of her head, certainly she had a concussion, if not a cracked skull, and she showed signs of not having ate or drank for a couple days. Coupled with the hypothermia she was suffering from it was quite a wonder she had managed to still pilot her fighter.
He needed to get her to the medical centre, quickly.
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Parfet fretted anxiously outside the ward as she waited for news of her friend's condition along with Gascogne and their leader. A thought struck her and she turned to her leader who also was waiting for news of the ill and injured pilot.
"I could check Red Zone's log. I helped Tairaka rebuild it from the Dread framework so I understand how it works. Her ship's log is designed to be very detailed. It keeps a record of any shots fired and received, every manoeuvre performed, and any damage taken. Not only will this help us figure out when and by what Tairaka was injured but we can find out how she got here and what's happened since she got in system." Magno nodded.
"Do it now."
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Tense were the group which awaited the doctor's verdict. Gascogne had needed to return to her post when her shift began nearly half an hour before but Magno still waited. The aging captain of the pirates was joined again by an anxious Parfet who fussed nervously until her leader motioned for her to speak.
"I've finished reading the log Captain. From the readings I can safely say what happened to her and how she got here. Her ship was slaved to the mother ship's navigation computer as you know, so she wouldn't get separated from us. We originally installed this feature because the Red Zone's blast sphere attack is only able to be performed when other Dreads are at a distance, so she often fights a fair way away from the other ships.
It was while she was using her Blast Sphere attack that her ship was struck by the men's VanGuard fire. The attack she used relies on her superior shields otherwise her ship would be destroyed along with the enemy's. It seems the combined force of her own attack combined with an almost simultaneous attack from the shot weakened the shields and the ship lost stability. I would imagine that is when she received her head injury because after that there is no pilot activity listed until about six hours ago.
Because her ship was still slaved to our ship's navigation computer it automatically followed us when we left the system. The jump took a total of just over two solar days, closer to what our jump would have been before the fusion.
Red Zone entered this system at the same coordinates we did, her slaving program having used the information our computer sent it before it went out of range as a guideline to out location. Unfortunately it seems she ran into the same unfriendlies we did who had perhaps been waiting in ambush for any such stragglers. Tairaka was immediately attacked and the log shoes pilot activity resumed after the Red Zone was attacked. As her slave system was re-establishing contact with our Nav comp she resorted again to use of the Blast Sphere attack, as the jump had depleted her weapons power sufficiently enough so that she only had power available for one attack. Even though the blast was diluted slightly due to her power shortage the shields collapsed completely just before her slave system sent her on a shorter four-hour jump to our position. Under full power the jump would have been for a maximum of six minutes but she barely had enough power to make it to us in one piece. Her ship computer used the program to have our ship computer cut power to the hyperspace engines so Red Zone could meet up with us in real space. Now that the ship has safely made it to us the hyperspace engines can be restarted.
I also can guess where she got her hypothermia from, it seems that due to almost all the power being sent to her jump engine her cockpit comforts had to be reduced so she was probably freezing for the last leg of the jump."
"Thankyou Parfet." Said a tired looking Magno. "Now be a dear and see if you can get the hyperspace engine switched on again."
Parfet nodded in reply before trotting off to the aft of the ship. Magno waited until she could no longer see the enthusiastic young engineer before she entered the medical ward.
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End of Chapter One.
Author's Notes: I will go into more detail on the slave computer system and Blast Sphere Attack ™ ® in later chapters.