Ze'ev popped a vein in his forehead, the punching of buttons on a passcode lock only adding to his impatience. Kneeling before the small, rectangular box attached at the doorway's hip, the raggedy-haired girl fumbled typing a series of numbers so long Ze'ev doubted she knew what she was doing. Her fingers buzzed across the digits too fast for even his acute eyesight to keep sense of what was what.
"Are you finished yet?" His voice was steady and composed, while his insides huffed in annoyance at the girl's incompetence. Less than twenty-four hours before, the very same ship they were loading into – his ship – had docked from a trip to the very same place they were headed to. And yet, this trip seemed to be ages longer because of the unexpected guest he was forced to take with him.
She ignored him for four full seconds, Ze'ev's irritation only increasing as time passed. He noticed her eyes followed the numbers without difficulty, moving from one to the next before her fingers found the correct number. After what must have been over a hundred dials, a green light blazed and the doors to the launch bay slid apart.
Standing erect, she pushed up her glasses, though they hadn't fallen an inch. "The lock has exactly one hundred digits known only by the queen and myself."
"That isn't what I asked," Ze'ev said, brushing by the small girl and into the launch bay. His unit of soldiers followed behind without granting the girl as much as a passing glance. All but one, who snickered as he tripped her trying to scurry back up to the head of the group. She fell onto her face with her mess of hair coming loose from the thick braid she tied it in. Judging by the uneven clumps, she must have to tie it herself.
Ze'ev took a deep breath over the sniggering of his comrades. "Miss Moon?"
The clumsy girl parted the curtain of hair framing her face to reveal a red nose and blotch on her forehead. "I prefer Cress," she mumbled in response.
"Miss Cress, then." He allowed only because calling her Crescent Moon all the time was a mouthful. "Please program the navigation coordinates and prepare for launch."
"By myself?" she inquired meekly.
"You are known as the best hacker, programmer, and, of course, tracker in the entire kingdom." He turned and raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying you're incapable of acting on your own accord?"
She stood and tried taming her hair with red cheeks. "I'm not incapable . . . I'm just not allowed."
With his soldiers standing at attention, watching with amusement, he took two steps toward the girl. He had to lean down to gaze into her eyes with met his without fear, only curiosity.
"Earth is one hundred and ninety six point nine million square miles, most of which is nothing but ice. For someone with your . . . vitals, Earth is death trap without assistance."
Clarification wasn't necessary; if she tried to escape as so many always believed she would – as she used to believe she would – there was no hope for her survival.
"I'll program the coordinates," she supposed before heading over to the largest silver ship on the pad. Ze'ev only felt a slight tinge of impress when she cracked the entrance code in under a minute.
He turned to address his unit of some of the best soldiers in the queen's guard. His respect for them heavily outweighed that of a warm-blooded, naïve child, however, the queen's orders and the mission came above all else.
"First Lieutenant." All backs stiffened realizing their General meant nothing but business. The First Lieutenant in question – the lowest ranked member of their squadron – gulped in what Ze'ev assumed was anger. Whenever he called his younger brother out in front of other soldiers, hatred was usually what the lower-ranking soldier felt.
"Is this a game to you, Ran?" he inquired with cool indifference. "Is this just another practice run where you can screw up however you want and then laugh it off with your buddies?"
He grit his teeth. "No sir," he spat.
"That girl in there is the only one who can find Iceland's princess. So I don't care if she's different than us, I don't care that she's an ignorant kid with hair that trails on the floor, I wouldn't even care if she had a third eye on her forehead; she is vital to the mission and therefore we will respect her."
He stepped back to address the rest of his men. "That goes for all of you. Miss Cress is a valuable asset to the queen and she has asked us to bring her along so that will may fulfill her wishes without hiccup. If any of you disrespect her, you will answer directly to me. Do I make myself clear?"
"Sir, yes sir!" they all repeated before filing into a line to enter the Alpha. Ze'ev received the ship as a gift of service when he was awarded his ranking of Captain at age sixteen – the youngest in history. Three years later he was named the youngest General and retained his status as one of the queen's most loyal soldiers.
He stalked onto the ship, dark memories of his most recent travel invading his personal thoughts. The sound of wheels driving over a dirt road, horses running away in fear, blood splattering the pure snow–
With force, he pushed the thoughts far out of his mind. Being a good soldier meant staying composed above all else, and he was losing his composure. He didn't understand why it bothered him that much; he succeeded in his mission – it was just like any other.
Telling himself that over and over, he found his seat in the pilot's chair with the girl typing on the controls in the co-pilot's seat. Her attention drifted from the small tablet in her lap to the large screen with a map grid drawn out in holographic lines. She must have re-braided her hair; it fell over her back in another messy tail.
"We'll be landing in the mountains near the capital city," she reported without wavering her attention. "It's the only safe place while still remaining close by."
"Don't they have a launch pad we can use?" a soldier buckling himself in asked skeptically.
"Iceland has next to no technology and has no need for a launch pad."
"No technology?" Ran scoffed. "How is that possible?"
With a beep on confirmation, the exact coordinates were locked into the Alpha's mainframe. "It was one of the reasons Levana couldn't brainwash them with her projection magic as she did the other countries in her second strike." She coughed and corrected herself seeing Ze'ev's glare. "Queen Levana."
"Either way," Ze'ev intervened. "We want to be unseen, so the mountains are the best place to stake out until we can hunt the young princess down."
Flipping a switch on the long control panel, he started up the massive ship as the launching bay doors slowly drew open. At his side, the girl quickly buckled herself tight into her seat as if she would be thrown through the window at the slightest jerk. He hadn't realized – though it was so obvious – she had never been on a ship before.
"Hunt?" she mumbled under her breath. "You sound like a wolf."
Next chapter will either be a continuation of Cinder's adventure or a first peek at Kai. If any of you have an opinion on which you would like feel free to review, I would appreciate the help!
Another grand thank you to all who are reading and reviewing!