Sasha synced the computer inside of her fighter with the main engine computer inside of the Andromeda. The cockpit closed and she buckled in to her seat. She raked back her brown hair then placed her helmet on her head.
"Are you ready?" Margaret asked over the communication channel.
"Ready to launch, now." Sasha replied back.
Their fighters shot out of the Andromeda's hangar and into deep space. They broke off into opposite directions, guarding the perimeter of the main ship.
"We'll maintain this frequency throughout the night. I am scrambling the signal right now in the unlikely event we are being tracked by anyone who means us harm. If either of you see anything suspicious I will be right here on the ship's bridge until tomorrow morning." Tyreese informed the two women.
Margaret sighed. "You will need some rest when you take over my shift."
"No worries. I have got my dinner here along with a comfortable blanket and pillow." Tyreese joked.
"We will hear him snoring soon. He will find a way to get his rest."
Margaret laughed.
"Very funny litter sister."
"It is true." Sasha quipped while she adjusted the hologram of her late fiancé's face on her cockpit dash.
"Just be careful out there. I love you both. Over and out."
Both women flashed the lights in their cockpits, acknowledging Tyreese.
"Margaret I am going to fly ahead and take a look around."
"That is fine. Do not jump to far ahead. I have the Andromeda covered for now. See you later."
Sasha flashed the lights in her cockpit and took off. She needed the solitude. The double shifts were a blessing. She reached out the hologram of Robert's face as if she could still actually touch him. He nearly made it and would be patrolling right now with her and Margaret if he had listened to her. But he had to be a hero.
Robert why did you have to be so brave?
Only a few weeks ago, Captain Stookey and his squadron of pilots had discovered what they thought was Phillip's location inside of a ship in the capital city. Instead of checking in with intelligence and with King Richard they flew ahead without alerting anyone, until it was too late. Early one morning he reached out to Sasha over their own personal frequency.
We have got him! We are going in to get the pretender.
This is too easy, Robert. You and your men need to come back so we can plan a proper strategy!
The time is now!
Sasha could see the labored but triumphant face of Robert on her wrist com. She heard his heavy breathing and rapid footsteps of him and his men storming the corridors of Phillips ship.
We can end this war today! The king will not have to hide! None of us will have to hide anymore!
I want that so much Robert. But I cannot lie. I do not think this is safe.
My love, we are fighter pilots. There is no such thing as safety. You know that...
Sasha tore herself from that day. She massaged her temples. She readjusted herself in the seat of her cockpit and looked off into space. Instead of seeing the stars and the colors of the shifting galaxies sailing by she saw Robert's face blown apart on the screen of her wrist com. The screams still sailed around her in the fighter as the pilots realized what was happening. The booby trapped ship was actually a ghost ship commandeered by a robot to fly into the nearest mountain range. Sasha tried to convince herself that Robert and his comrades had no idea what was happening. But they knew. Over half of their remaining air force was lost that day, the other half, King Richard ordered to flee and find refuge wherever they could in the vastness of space.
"Sasha, Tyreese, we have got a bit of a situation here." Margaret informed as she pinged their open frequency."
The alarm in her friend's voice made Sasha push her ship's engine's to the maximum. She knew she could only maintain her ship's burn for only a limited amount of time yet she did not care. She could not lose the woman she had come to love as her sister. She would not lose anyone else.
Fifteen minutes had passed before Sasha finally reached Margaret. She eased her ship's position to where she was less than two meters parallel to Margaret. She froze in disbelief.
"Is that the-"
"The graveyard." Margaret finished.
The two young women looked in awe at the hundreds of decaying ships still aimlessly floating around after a quarter century.
Some ships still had the pilots strapped into their cockpits. Far off into the distance they could see undecayed bodies floating. With the absence of oxygen in space, their corpses were denied the chemical reactions needed to break the tissue down.
"If that is the graveyard then we are seriously off course." Sasha shouted in alarm.
Tyreese cleared his throat over their shared frequency. "Come back to the Andromeda you two. I think I have discovered what is going on."
"Have you alerted Richard?" Sasha asked her brother.
"He knows. Yet I do not think he is aware that we know."
"What are you suggesting, Tyreese?" Margaret asked.
"Just get back to the ship, immediately."
Tyreese groaned. In his lifetime as a pilot he had taken on so many enemy ships that they had covered the blue of the morning sky. He had fought hand to hand with some of the most skilled fighters in the universe but he had never taken on a king...a king who was his best friend. Devotion aside, He refused to allow Richard to get them all killed.