Chapter 4: The long Journey
Atlas takes a stroll in the hangar to calculate Folkvangr food supply and the time to warp travel there. He sees Maya that is sitting at one of the supply crates. He notices something is wrong with her as she covers one of her eye with her hair. "Maya?" The lioness turns to face him. He finally sees it clear, an eye patch is barely seen of her covered eye. "Huh?" She take a long pause before continuing her sentence. She pushes her right front hair for Atlas to see the patch. "Atlas, Not so lucky huh… Only 5 of my team survived after defending this ship from their attacks." Atlas shakes his head disagreeing but did not know how to answer her well. "I hear you are the commander of this nomad ship now Atlas." She breaks the silence. "Yeah." He answers shortly. She stands and gives a pat at him. "Don't worry about me, it will take more than this to break my moral. Lead this ship and its crew well Atlas." She voiced her opinion while walking away of the hangar and turn to the direction of the mess hall.
As soon as she left, Lenora pops in his mind. "Shit, I forgot…" He mutters to himself and quickly goes to the medical room. "Where's the princess?" The words comes out from the first thing he thought of as he arrives there. "Princess Lenora is in her room in front of yours sir." The doctor answers while Atlas gives a thumbs up before leaving. He walks there hastily. "She have not come out of her room for 8 hours now if I count it correctly. Better grab some food for her too." Thinking primarily in his mind as he turns around to the mess hall. It is lightly crowded than before. He sees Maya sits around her team while chatting away. Atlas packed some of the fast foods and scurries away before others can see him. With his quick steps, he arrives in font of Lenora's room. He tries to open it but it was locked. Atlas sighed as he forced himself to use the overwrite card that Callan gave him back at the bridge. He enters the room, it is dimly lit with Lenora curling up at the bed beside the window.
She did not react to him entering the room even the sound of the door closing. "Lenora…" Atlas tries to grab her attention, her feelings drift away of her gaze into space as he puts some neatly packaged item into her wardrobe. Atlas put the packed food at the table and sits close to her. This makes her startle a little. She quickly fixed her orange eyes gaze to Atlas. He presses his left hand at her cheek and Lenora eyes begins to water. Atlas pulls her into him as she finally cried out her broken heart after the long silence. "Atlas, I…I lost my family, my home planet and the betrayal of my marriage in just one day. I did not even have the picture of my family with me." Her feelings exploded out at Atlas while gritting her teeth. He keeps holding her tight and comforted her as she lowers her head more to him. "I have no one left…no one…except you." her voice trembles saying those words accepting Atlas. Atlas rubs her left ear gently as she arches it back. "I will be with you till the end of this journey Lenora." Atlas says to her out of pity while wiping away her tears. She looks directly at him as if she wanted more out of him; she tries to lean in more to Atlas as he allows it. He grabs the packed fast food and pulls out a few French fries. "Lenora, eat up." He tries to persuade her to eat while rubbing her right cheek with his thumb. She opens her mouth narrowly, Atlas hand feed her the few fries that he already holding. Lenora chews it slowly, he gently pressed his forehead against her while holding both of her cheeks using his hands. "Don't lose hope yet Lenora. I know you need some time to recover and I believe in you. You are stronger than this." He says it while looking directly into her eyes. He let her go and pick up the hamburger and gives it to her. She managed to recover some composure and eats it.
"Want to hear a story Lenora?" He asked her. She nods slowly. Atlas starts away with overlooking the space as she watches him. "A few decades ago, a young prince is enjoying the night by looking into the starry skies. A sight of engulfing red skies suddenly catches the prince as he is informed of the betrayal by his own uncle that is leading a coup against him in the cover of the night. He is powerless to stop everything that the chaos happens at the capital city with sounds of gunfire and explosion. When his uncle soldiers come to arrest him, few of the civilians that is loyal to him gathered up to guard the entrance and started to throw sharp object at the soldiers." She listened quietly as she chews the remaining of her food. "They fire without warning at them as some of them throw their lives away without regret to stop them. The scattered forces that supported the young prince tries with their full might acting as a bulwark stopping them from getting him and to buy time for the prince to escape with his loyal guardians. The soldiers stand side by side with the civilians shouting 'long live the prince' repeatedly while he and his guardians escaped into the forest. At the end they stand firm till the last man falls, all 2 million of them fallen at the hands of the coup forces in just a nightfall." Lenora starts to well up hearing the story reminds of her situation.
Atlas did not stop there and continues on. "The prince carries out a risky plan to escape from that very planet to travel afar from it with his loyal people. They managed to do the impossible and settle down on a planet and keeps pressing themselves to be far more superior to the others. The prince, now crowned as emperor guides his loyal and zealous people in guarding the nation that they make; remembering their fallen brothers and sisters that have fallen for their dream to come true." He stops the story as he looks at her while grabbing a drink for himself and her. She grabs it moderately and drinks it while Atlas raised the bottle to toast at his own real body. "That's the story of the Emperor of a zealous empire." He drink his drink and tries to leave while standing; while calming his own homesick feelings. Lenora quickly hug his waist while accidentally dropping her sealed drink. "Atlas don't leave me. I-" without finishing, Atlas flashes back of the four companions that he saved before. He quickly return the embrace, fully compassionate of his memories before; knowing that Lenora cannot be left alone for the time being.
"I won't Lenora, I won't." He says it to her repeatedly while sitting back at the bed edge. She comfortably wraps her tail at Atlas while he clasps her back for her support. She falls asleep quickly with Atlas stroking her cheeks. "Vexis is going to be angry at me bringing back another fox." he outburst the thought seeing Lenora's face while sleeping. Atlas did not sleep as he relaxed his head back at her tail while overthinking of his empire back home.
Meanwhile back at the bridge Callan received the update situation of whole supply that Atlas calculated. "We only have 60 days worth of food. Maybe we need to create a hydroponic room and plant some of the vegetables that we can grow." Callan says to Camilla. She flicks her tail in hearing that. "Yes, our head engineer is still unconscious. Guess we better put a hold of the plan for a second since he is the only one that can build it from scratch."
He nods in response. Camilla watches the radar display and something catches her eyes. She sighed in relief as they approached a neutral country sector and marked an alternative route for backup plans. A short notice sound is made from the crew timer, it was the bridge crew switch time. They did not budge from hearing the sound but some leave to the rest room and two of the crew take notes of what they wanted to eat to take it from the mess hall.
"Don't strain yourself, take a quick nap if you want. I'll pilot the ship." Callan toned the order to the bridge crew with Camilla starts stretching before helping the two bridge crew for hauling their food while grabbing some for herself. Callan starts sitting on the control helm desk and guide the ship around the checkpoints. Maya decided to take a peek on how the reactor crew doing. All of the reactor crew survived during the attack as they are mostly inside the ship. Satisfied with her curiosity, she take the long route to the medical room to see the injured. Maya accidentally bumped on the captain that is making her way to the mess hall. "My apologies captain. I still getting the use of my half impaired vision." The captain shakes her head. "No, it's alright Maya. Did the doctor planned to give you an artificial eye?"
"No, the rare supplies is still back at the supply depot before the attack including the valuable resources. I will have to make do on what we have at the current moment." She positively answers.
"Have you see Atlas?" She asked her. Maya remembers him sneaking away with some food somewhere. "I catch a glimpse of him packing two set of foods and drinks 2 hours ago, maybe he is at his room or at the princess's?" Camilla nods in acknowledgement as she left, she knows that Atlas is the only one that can comfort Lenora. Waking up still in Atlas embrace, Lenora sees him fallen asleep while comforting her. She gently rubs her head at Atlas hand to wake him up. "Lenora…wait…I've fallen asleep?" She smiles of seeing Atlas reaction. "You need some rest too." She says to him, with a short pause she continues her sentence. "Atlas, thank you for being here with me. To tell you the truth, I started to fall for you since you trained me." Atlas is shot with the words he did not wanted to hear. He shakes his head disagreeing. It makes Lenora sits up from Atlas comfort and wanted to ask why. Before she says anything, Atlas opens up to her about the truth.
"Lenora, I am not the real master of this body. My conscious is transferred to this body as I have fallen into cryosleep in my home world. I only borrow this body since the already owner of it died. I need you to arrive to where I planned with the captain including your people. I cannot explain any further than this. I am sorry." She holds his hand after hearing what he just said. "I still love you, the real you Atlas. You are the only one left for me." Saying those words to him with her full feelings. "Come and meet me at the bridge Lenora once you are ready. I need to take a shower first." He rubs her forehead and smiles before leaving her. She cleans up the table and checked the wardrobe nearby. She opens the package that is labeled for her by Atlas. There were clothes for her inside. It is a surprise that Atlas know her body size and managed to make it. A small note is hiding in it. 'Just guessing your size and height, If its mismatch; I will make some new ones.' She reads it quietly. She hugs the clothing that he made for her, knowing that he cared for her well being.
After a long 2 hours, Callan notices the ship is hardly shaking. "The hell?" He says while looking at the ships system, the bridge crew is as surprised as he is. He scanned each section in quick pace, it was the reactor coolant system. Its values drops at a steady pace. "Shit!" Blurted out of his mouth. Callan quickly called Atlas to the bridge using the ship speaker while the captain arrives. Hearing his name while not drying himself up, Atlas quickly dresses up after his shower and runs to the bridge. "What is it Callan?" He exhaled long of his fatigue while asking. "Atlas, the reactor coolant is dropping. I asked the reactor crew, the reactor is quick to overheat." He briefed him. The captain slaps her forehead as it surprises the other two. "The ship have a retrofit plan tomorrow. Changing the reactor is one of it because it deteriorate over time. Dammit." She quickly sees the system chart. "Atlas, I suggest we make a stop at this space station. It is a neutral country and near our ship."
"Princess?" one of the crew says it aloud. Lenora enters the bridge after someone notices her. "What's wrong?" She asked the three of them. "We have to make a stop at a nearby space station. The reactor is not in good shape. If we were lucky, we can trade some stuff right there to fix our reactor." Atlas says to her. "I'll go and check some things that we can trade out of in the hangar." Callan speaks out and rushes to the hangar while the captain take over the bridge. The bridge crew silently eating the food they brought back while manning their post and starts turning the bridge in a focused mood for survival.
Lenora starts calculating the drop rate and the reactor output for the amount of time they have. She passes her results to Atlas. "30 minutes left eh. Captain, our ETA?" Atlas asked Camilla. "That should be enough. I can get there in 12 minutes even with half of our speed. Don't worry your highness, you are safe with us." She says it while looking at Lenora. She nods in an instant while Atlas disappears from the scene to the reactor room. Lenora notices him doing so but did not stop him, she looks directly to the ship and space station position in the navigational chart. Atlas tries his best in supporting the reactor crew to find a way to cool down the reactor while drafting out a plan for a backup reactor room using the empty storage room that is separating the two reactors. Folkvangr is forced to use half speed, preventing the ship reactor from further stress. The captain, Lenora and the bridge crew rejoices as they see the station in their sight and started hailing the space station repeatedly. The space station answered with respect of its visitor after seeing the markings of the battleship and allowed the ship to dock without restriction. "Welcome to the space station Minerva-2 fellow Estcallian." The space station operator says in com at the Folkvangr.