The whole space station rocked as the creatures battered it with razor sharp wings and pulses of dark energy, steel purple feathers flying. The music didn't even skip a beat. The shields flared up, a lilac dome around the blue cigar-shaped satellite. It was already breached in places and was losing power at a dangerous rate. There was nothing else to draw from - he had already deactivated all the systems on the satellite except the life support to his booth and the sound systems. The sound couldn't go off - it was the only thing giving him strength. If need be, he could maintain the whole defense system via his cybernetic links, from the safety of his booth - but only if the sound system held out. A shiver ran down his body. It wasn't just due to the failing heating system or the rather cold metal sheath running down his spine and the back of his head.
Another blip appeared on the radar. It was a ship; a slim, streamlined, almost needle-like ship with twin cannons. Painted a rather blinding shade of white, it also emitted a brilliant golden aura, or was that just the flare of its engines as it sped towards the satellite at a speed unattainable by any ship he had ever heard of? He trained the missile systems onto the new target. At a single command signal, a brace of missiles spurted out of the weapons hangar, leaving a faint red trail.
After five minutes of waiting, watching the ship swerve, roll and in some cases, short-range teleport out of the way of the missiles, bursts of laser fire tearing into the creatures on the way as they, too, tried to rake the ship with their claws, he was hailed.
"Stop firing at me. Now."
"Who is it?"
"You know damn well who it is." came the annoyed reply, "We need to leave."
"I won't abandon the Flying Battery."
"We can rebuild it later. We'll lose a lot more if you die. There are sound systems all over the galaxy but you're unique."
"Where will you take me?"
"To find the other children. I know where they are. You'll be happy together. Trust me."
After a few minutes' hesitation, he sent a command to open the doors to the docking bay. The ship slid in neatly. She appeared in the doorway, wings spread out, radiant in her celestial majesty. She wore a breastplate of orichalcum over a blue tabard with a symbol of Tria, the triple triangles, and held a halberd in one hand. Anybody else would have been overawed by her sheer presence but he was used to her being around. Her face was businesslike as ever. She pointed behind her and he shut the doors again just as one of the creatures rammed into them.
---------------------------------------------
The boy opened the foor to his own booth, unplugged himself, shouldered his laptop bag and took the woman's outstretched hand.
The kitten mewed and paced up and down the narrow corridor, swishing its tail. Chisato understood its discomfort. She, too, was beginning to feel restless. Initially the warmth, the humming of the machinery and the gentle sensation of movement as they glided through space was soothing, almost soporific. Now she was too hot, as well as cramped, hungry and thirsty. She was running out of things to write about. Strapping her camera around her neck, she walked through the pitch darkness of the ventilation shaft, her kitten plodding at her heels. Using her electronic notebook as a source of light, she worked the grille free and climbed out. She flattened herself against a wall and listened for signs of people. She wasn't so keen on meeting the owner of the ship quite yet; she was, after all, trespassing. There was no noise except for the regular beeps of machinery and the low hum of the engine. From the way she could hear the engines clearly, she guessed this was probably the engineering deck.
Chisato had never been in a spaceship before. She had heard of them, seen pictures of them in books left over from the old Nedian civilisation, even piloted land and orbital hovercraft, but had never experienced travel in deep space. She was struck by two things: how huge the vessel was, even a tiny ship like this made clearly for one person, and how she could barely feel her passage through space. She took pictures of everything, unsure where to start. She found a terminal on the wall that, when touched, displayed a map of the ship, the different locations flashing different colours depending, Chisato guessed, on how in need of repair they were. The level below her was the cargo hold, then above her was the living quarters and the bridge. She debated whether she should risk climbing to the upper level, where there was bound to be food, or staying hidden and going hungry.
A thought occurred to her: where was Eruaqs? She hadn't seen him at all while climbing out of the ventilation shaft. When she fell asleep he was already curled up in a ball, snoring loudly and talking nonsense to himself in his sleep. He must have woken up before her and wandered off. He can't have gone far, she thought, there are only three levels on the ship and she assumed he couldn't breathe in space.
She began her search on the lowest floor. The cargo bay was now full of large crates. They had been uploaded from the top of the mountain by the thieves. On Expel, a planet that didn't even have a concept of outer space yet! What were they delivering and to whom? She knew a little of interplanetary law from her many interrogations of Claude. They were breaking a million and one trade laws. You couldn't just drop things on underdeveloped planets. She searched a few compartments and empty crates, found no Eruaqs, gave up and searched the engineering deck again.
She soon found the engine. It had an antimatter drive. Chisato took several pictures of it. Nede used some antimatter technology, mostly in weapons systems, but nothing on the scale needed to power a spaceship. A glass cylinder the size of a room, it pulsed with dark purple light from a glowing liquid that was slowly crystallising. It was surrounded by monitors that showed the vital signs of the ship. Judging by the fact that she wasn't exploding, decompressing, freezing to death or meeting any one of the thousands of horrible fates that could befall one on a spaceship, she guessed that everything was fine. A small robot was repairing a slightly loose panel. Eruaqs was nowhere to be seen.
On the top level, she found him almost straight away. He was attempting to decant a chocolate bar from a vending machine and it wasn't working. With a rage that built up into an uncontrolled fury, he yelled at it, swore, shook it and kicked it. Chisato ducked behind a potted plant and watched him, amused. She took a photograph of him. The kitten peed on the plant.
He was too busy attacking the vending machine and she was too busy watching him to notice when there was a mechanical chime and a door opened. Out of the door walked a woman. She looked around Chisato's age but taller, with a lithe, confident warrior's gait. She had wavy brown hair that rested neatly behind her ears and wore a long blue coat with silver filigree and the three-armed spindly logo on the right hand pocket. It looked like some kind of military uniform. As soon as she stepped into the room, she hit a button on the wall and 'An Ideal' started up in the background. When she saw Eruaqs bent over a battered vending machine in a pile of shattered glass and empty wrappers, chocolate all over his face, she almost casually pulled a gun from her coat and pointed it at his head.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my ship?"
