From the minute Sky stepped into the cockpit of the shuttle, Corian never let him out of his sight for a moment. The alien was wary and alert, keeping a careful distance, his gun level with Sky's chest as he motioned him towards the pilot's chair. Sky had barely settled into the seat when Corian all but stuck the gun into his face.
"Ok, first things first. Where is the hidden blaster?"
Damn! Sky kept his face expressionless. "I don't know what you mean."
"Please. I might not be familiar with your shuttle systems, but I'm not stupid," Corian sneered. "This is a military vehicle, so there is a hidden weapon somewhere in this cockpit. Hand it over."
Sky sighed inwardly; he had hoped that Corian wasn't aware of this little-known aspect of military shuttle design, but unfortunately, that was now no longer an option. He reached underneath the pilot console and popped open a concealed compartment. He was about to reach inside when he felt the barrel of the alien's gun against the back of his head.
"Slowly. Don't try anything dumb."
Sky handed over the SPD blaster as instructed. The Kraylean stuck the weapon into his belt with a smirk, then made himself comfortable in the co-pilot seat.
"All right, then. Off we go, SPD."
Sky took half a moment to consider whether he should introduce himself, but dismissed the idea just as quickly; civility would be lost on someone like Corian. He busied himself with the lift-off preparations instead, and soon the shuttle was ascending into the atmosphere.
"All right, we are airborne," Sky announced as NewTech City was dwindling beneath them. "Time for your part of the deal."
"Oh, you mean this here?" Corian grinned, twirling the detonator around in the palm of his hand like it was one of those anti-stress squeeze balls, then caught Sky completely off-guard when he suddenly tossed the device at the Blue Ranger, who caught it reflexively.
"The signal connection cut out pretty much right after we took off," he declared with a chuckle. "The range on that thing is ridiculously short. But that's what you get when you buy your merchandise from a second-rate black market dealer in the Kerovian cluster."
Sky frowned first at Corian, then at the useless device in his hand. "Are the bombs even real?" he wanted to know.
"Oh, they're real," Corian said. "And it sucks that I had to leave them behind. They're free presents for the bomb squad now." The alien let out an angry growl and hit his seat's armrest with a balled fist. "This whole operation was nothing but a disaster! This was supposed to be an easy hit, but NO! One wrong move, and here I am in this crummy ship, not only empty-handed but with out-of-pocket expenses, since I have to get more bombs now!"
"Maybe your heist buddies will share their loot with you," Sky said and Corian let out a snort.
"Yeah, right, as if they would…" He cut himself off abruptly and glared at Sky menacingly, but the damage was already done. Sky kept his grin to himself as he filed away the mental note that now linked Corian's botched robbery with the other two successful ones back in NewTech City.
"Just shut up and fly the damn shuttle," Corian growled.
"I will need your destination coordinates for that," Sky said. "We are approaching orbit."
Still scowling, Corian fished a datapad out of a roomy pocket of his jumpsuit, did some scrolling, then showed Sky the screen. "You will input these exact coordinates and take the quickest route," he instructed him. "No stops, no detours. And don't try to pull a fast one on me by trying to transmit the coordinates back to SPD." Corian held the gun up in emphasis. "Also – maintain radio silence until we get to our destination."
"That's against SPD regulations Section 2, Article 395, paragraph…"
"Do I look like I give a damn?" Corian snapped.
He most certainly didn't, and Sky didn't bother with any further arguments. Corian was the one with the gun, after all. It took Sky a minute to program the navigational computer and when he looked back up he found Corian leaning forward in his seat, his arm stretched out towards Sky and his strange, violet eyes firmly fixed on the Blue Ranger's head. The Kraylean wasn't actually touching him, his hand merely hovered within a few inches of his temple, but Sky jerked his head back nevertheless.
"What are you doing?" he asked, but Corian didn't seem to feel the need to reply. He ignored Sky while simultaneously watching him with what Sky could only consider an assessing look. It was creepy and intrusive, but there was nothing Sky could do about it.
"Hm, now this is interesting…" Corian tilted his head, still regarding Sky with narrowed eyes. "This falls squarely into the 'no weapons on board other than mine' category, so…"
Corian's long, pale fingers wiggled and suddenly Sky felt a slight tingling sensation that seemed to emanate from within his brain. He shook his head reflexively and Corian snickered.
"Go ahead, try to create one of your force fields."
Sky cut his eyes at him, but managed to keep the surprise off his face "My what?"
"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about," Corian said. "I just sensed your genetic enhancement – and I took care of it." He motioned to Sky's hand. "See for yourself."
Sky regarded him with furrowed brows; an ominous feeling was settling into his chest at the smirk on the Kraylean's face. He raised his palm to summon a force field.
Nothing happened.
Heart now hammering in his chest, he tried again – with the same results.
"What did you do?"
"I cut the connection between your force fields and your brain." Corian's smirk widened at the expression of disbelief and horror on Sky's face. "It's a little special ability I have. To be able to detect other people's special abilities – and to disable them. Works especially well with Terrans. Human brains are laughably easy to manipulate." He leaned back into the copilot's chair, looking self-satisfied. "Don't worry, your force fields are still there, your brain just doesn't know how to access them right now. I'll reestablish the connection once we get to my destination. If you don't step out of line, SPD."
Sky felt like he had been doused with ice water. His shields were part of him; it felt like Corian had cut off one of his limbs. For the first time in his life, he was suddenly just like everybody else.
Utterly vulnerable.
He stared at his hand, willing his force field to appear against all odds, and when it didn't, he leveled a disdainful look at Corian who didn't seem bothered by it in the least.
"Don't worry, SPD. You get me to the rendezvous point in time to catch my other ride and I'll get you your shields back. In the meantime, enjoy being normal for a while." Corian answered Sky's smoldering glare with a condescending smile. "Just don't bother me with small-talk along the way."
His datapad chirped, indicating incoming messages, and the alien turned his attention to his device, effectively dismissing Sky to his piloting duties.
There was nothing else for the Blue Ranger to do but to monitor the controls, however, and with Corian ignoring him in favor of his datapad, Sky was left to his own thoughts. Looking out into the vastness of space, he let out a heavy breath; when had this nice day taken such a turn south? A few hours ago he had been at Delta Base, planning a quiet evening for just him and Bridge, and now…
He had it all laid out in his head: They would lounge on his bed, watch a movie, snack on some extra-buttery popcorn, Bridge would keep up a running commentary on every scene until Sky would eventually lean over and shut him up by kissing him. Bridge would kiss him back and that's when they would get to the really interesting part of the evening.
He would lick Bridge's mouth open, and Bridge would moan and press himself tighter to him and he would take Bridge's hand and guide it underneath his shirt and let him do all the exploring he wanted. Then he would flip them over and do some exploring himself until he had Bridge writhing beneath him…
"Hey, SPD, how much longer to the rendezvous point?"
Sky blinked and threw Corian a side-glare while he silently berated himself for his lapse in attention. He was in a very confined space with an armed and dangerous criminal; definitely not the place to be daydreaming about his boyfriend. He checked the navigational computer. "About four hours."
Corian barked out some guttural sounds in his native language that the translator embedded in Sky's SPD badge either couldn't or deemed too offensive to translate.
"Can't this bucket go any faster? Light-speed or something like that?"
"No," Sky said tersely. "This is a mid-range personnel transport shuttle, it's not equipped with faster-than-light technology."
"At least crank it up to maximum speed, then," Corian ordered him. "I'm not crazy about being cooped up in this oversized toaster with you for another four hours."
"The feeling's mutual, believe me," Sky muttered while he increased their velocity. Corian turned his attention back to his messaging device, typing and muttering to himself when he received replies.
Sky deduced that Corian was most likely communicating with the rest of his gang, coordinating a meeting at the location they were heading to. He couldn't help but wonder if this meeting would be amicable or hostile, possibly leaving him in the midst of a confrontation that might turn deadly.
And even if Corian's reunion with his fellow gang members went well, there was no guarantee whatsoever that they would just let Sky turn around and head back home. The STO-55 was a valuable piece of military equipment, after all, and a reliable means of transportation. If the bank robbers decided to simply keep the shuttle and dispose of him…
Of course, the best case scenario was if they never reached the rendezvous point at all.
Sky cast an unobtrusive glance at his passenger. The Kraylean was still typing away at his device while lounging in the co-pilot's chair. He had not even bothered with putting on his safety harness - and that slip now gave Sky an idea.
The 55 was one of SPD's most maneuverable transport shuttles. He had flown it more than a few times in the past, and there were a few specific training exercises he remembered well from back then…
Sky kept his face expressionless as he stared at the command console while a plan was forming in his head. It would work, he had practiced this many times during flight training, and his own harness would keep him in place…His hands tightened on the control stick as he centered his core in anticipation of the maneuver.
Corian's attention was still firmly on the datapad's screen when Sky suddenly yanked the control stick to the right, hard. The alien's surprised yell resonated through the cockpit as he was catapulted out of his seat and slammed heavily into the bulkhead while the shuttle flipped on its side, and Sky couldn't keep the smirk off his face at the sound of Corian's body hitting the shuttle ceiling and the Kraylean's subsequent wail of pain.
He completed the barrel roll, and Corian crashed to the shuttle floor with a satisfying thump and an agonized groan.
The instant the shuttle was upright again, Sky hit the autopilot, then the release button on his harness and shot out of his seat. Even if Corian wasn't knocked out he was at least dazed and that would give Sky enough time to overpower him. It would only take a second to reach him, he was only a few feet away.
Except that, when he rounded the copilot chair, Corian was looking straight at him, his hand moved, just a flick of his wrist, and then….
Absolute nothingness!
The instant absence of everything made Sky cry out in shock. Or at least he thought he cried out, since not the slightest sound came out of his mouth. His sight, his hearing, his voice, the shuttle floor beneath his feet…everything was simply gone, as if someone had flipped a switch in his brain!
Am I dead?
It was the first thing that came into his mind. He was weightless, adrift in an endless, pitch-black sea of silence. There was no up or down, not a single point to focus on. He tried to reach out, call out, but there was nothing and no one, and this was more frightening than anything he had ever encountered in his entire life.
But he wasn't dead. On a basic, instinctual level he knew that he was still in his body, was still inside the shuttle, but he was also completely cut off from both.
What is happening to me?
He knew his heart was still beating, he was still breathing, but he couldn't feel any of it and the nothingness was pressing down on him, he was drowning in blackness and he needed to get out of here, get out, getoutgetout…
"That was such a stupid thing to do, SPD."
The voice that cut through the black silence was like a beacon, and Sky immediately honed in on it like a lifeline. Corian sounded pained, undoubtedly still hurting from the tumble he took – and mad.
What did you do to me?
"I'm sure you're wondering what's going on. Well, here is a little tidbit I didn't mention to you earlier: I can't just switch off your special powers, I can switch off all of your senses, cut you off from every sensation. And I can keep them off for as long as I want."
Fear was a crushing feeling, and Sky never thought he could experience a fear so pure without any of his senses to support it. But maybe that was exactly what made the dread that was now coursing through him at Corian's words just that much worse.
"You should see yourself right now, crouched in front of me like a crumbled bag of flesh and bones," Corian told him, and he sounded like he loved it. "Pathetic, but then again, everyone I do this to ends up looking like this."
Then his voice turned sinister. "If I didn't still need you to fly this thing, I would beat you within an inch of your life for what you did, and I would turn on your sense of feeling just for that."
Sky wanted to scream. Scream out his frustration, his rage, his fear at this crushing helplessness. To know that this scumbag had his body at his disposal to do with as he pleased and there was nothing Sky could do to defend himself. He wanted to kick, punch, bite, scratch, anything. But how?
"Believe it or not, you've only been trapped inside your head for five minutes. Feels a whole lot longer, doesn't it?"
The voice shifted, and suddenly it was a lot closer. Corian must be speaking right into his ear. "I have it on good authority that an hour without your senses can feel like days. How long do you think you can stay sane inside the big black nothing, hmm? Would you like to find out?" There was that hateful snicker again. "Since you so helpfully put the shuttle on autopilot, I really don't need you now until we're getting ready to land in a few hours, do I?"
No, NO! Don't leave me stuck in here like this!
"Or are you going to behave if I let you out of your head?"
Under any other circumstances, Sky would rather have bitten off his tongue than give a bastard like Corian a concession of subservience, but in this case it was the lesser of the two evils.
"What's it going to be, SPD? Yes or no?" Corian was laughing again. "Oh, right, you can't speak. Just try to nod or shake your head, then."
Sky made his best effort at nodding and a moment later, sensory deprivation became sensory overload as Corian flipped the mental switch in his brain and all five of his senses came rushing back at him simultaneously.
He instinctively sucked in a big lungful of air while he squinted at the cockpit lights, which seemed ten times brighter than before. It took him a moment to get his bearings and to realize that he was half-sitting, half-lying on the shuttle floor with Corian looming over him. He looked up and into the barrel of Corian's blaster.
The Kraylean's smile was cold. "I guess I can't blame you for trying, but don't pull a stunt like that again." He motioned with his weapon. "Now get back to your seat."
Sky rose with as much dignity as he could muster and resumed his seat behind the pilot console. When he gripped the control stick he didn't know what he hated more: that his hand was shaking, or that Corian saw it shake.
"And from now on - no more seat belts, SPD."
TBC…