There was a pause. Nadal-Ti stared at Lake with confusion etched on her features. For a moment she stared into his eyes as he did hers, and without a word, she smiled and turned back to her terminal. A foolhardy grin stretched Lake's lips, while his eyes burned with fire as he stared at Blackvoid, who stared back in suspicion.
“Lake?” said Blackvoid, trying to get his attention. His call fell on deaf ears.
“Delta do you read me?”
“I-I do, Lake.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
“Right… Turning on engines and putting them at full speed,” said Delta with reluctance. “What are you planning, Lake?”
“Be ready when I give you the signal, all right? I'll take the controls. Just trust me on this.”
“Okay, Captain. You now have navigational control of the ship.”
“He wants us so bad? He’s going to get what he wants!”
Nadal-Ti shot a glance to Lake, whose angry expression was locked on Blackvoid’s holoimages. “Uh, Lake? What are you planning?”
Lake ignored her and leaned forward, grinning as he continued to focus on Blackvoid, causing Nadal-Ti to turn and look forward before tightening her seat belt.
The Iron Saber began to move faster, aided by Blackvoid pulling the ship toward him until Lake could fully control the ship without aid. It flew five times faster than it normally could and the sounds of the force shaking the hull radiated inside.
Blackvoid’s eyes widened as he watched, realizing what Lake was planning to do. As he went to speak, Lake quickly shut off his communications and screen display as the ship was now less than three kilometers away and approaching fast. They could see the Sinker launching dozens of torpedoes from its side then changing course following the plume of the Iron Saber's engines.
“Whatever you're planning to do you better do it fast, Lake! We're about to crash!” Nadal-Ti shouted.
“Five seconds to impact… four… three—”
“Activate the pressure shields now!”
A red hue suddenly covered the ship from bow to stern until it was completed overtaken. In that moment, the ship crashed through the Sinker intact, destroying everything in its path, steel walls, hangers, stairs, until coming out of the other end without damage. The pressure shields combined with the deflector shields of the ship protected it from damage. The destruction the Iron Saber left on the Sinker was catastrophic. But that wasn't the worst of it, the torpedoes that Blackvoid launched followed, being intercepted by the debris and explosions inside the Sinker, exploding and completely destroying the vessel. Lake turned the ship, bringing it to a stop and disengaging the pressure shields as the charred remains of the Sinker floated in every direction.
“He wanted us. He got us.”
“Great plan, Lake,” said Nadal-Ti.
“Honestly, I'm surprised it actually worked,” Lake said.
Nadal-Ti turned to Lake in horror. “You didn't know it would work?!”
“Well, I was hoping it would. I didn't know if Blurb fixed it or not. My gamble paid off though… yay?”
“You risked—we could have—never mind.” Nadal-Ti scoffed before turning back to her terminal in a fury.
“Captain?”
“Yes, Delta?”
“Good work.”
“Thank you.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we burned a lot of fuel with your stunt and there's no way we will be able to make it back to Nadir with what we have.”
“That's fine, Delta, we aren't going to Nadir, anyway.”
“Where are we going then?” Nadal-Ti asked.
“I'm taking another path, if you'll all join me?”
* * * * *
Lake nudged the motionless parci on the shoulder forcefully, waking him up in an instant. Blurb looked around to see he was inside the cargo hold of the Iron Saber, then rose quickly sitting straight up in a panic.
“How did I—he's going to kill us all!” He shouted in fear.
“Oh stop it, Blurb. No one's going to kill you—and you can stop pretending!”
“Pretending? How dare you insult me, I had a gun put to my head and was held captive thank you very much! My mind couldn't take it, so my body—”
“Went into catatonic sleep, a skill that all parci's have? Hey, I'm not judging you, but if Nadal-Ti finds out…”
“You wouldn't dare!”
“Relax, Blurb, I won't tell anyone. I understood why you were doing it and I didn’t want to drag you in if you weren’t needed. Your talents lie in the technical field, not the battlefield.”
Blurb sighed. “I'm sorry Lake, I'm just—”
“No need to explain, old friend. We're alive and we're flying high.”
“I see that. And exactly how is that possible?” Blurb asked.
“It's a long story, I'll tell you on the way,” Lake said. “A lot has happened since you've been out.”
Blurb's attention was drawn on what lay behind Lake. His eyes widened, and he leaned closer to get a closer look. “That's—”
“Yep.”
“How?”
“That's what Garbon was after all along. The suit. You should have seen me in that thing, man,” Lake said.
“You flew it?”
Lake nodded with a smile. “Enjoy it while you can, though. We're headed to Tashiik to get it fixed.”
“Wait, you're letting my brother fix it? What about me? I'm your tech parci, remember?”
“I do, but I need you with me when—”
Blurb suddenly threw his hands up and shook his head. “Nope. You can drop me off at the nearest spaceport.”
“What? Why would I do that? Lake asked.
“You just said you're taking it to my dumb brother on Tashiik. This means you're not taking it to Garbon—like we were hired to do! And that has only one result—he's going to find us and kill us all!”
Lake sighed. “You worry too much, Blurb. Besides, we're going to take care of that, so you need not worry your little green head about anything, alright?” Lake took a seat beside Blurb as the parci buried his face in his hands and dragged them down, moaning with discontent.
“Give me your word, Lake, that this won't come back to bite us.”
“You have my word,” said Lake with a smile. “Now, let's get back to the bridge, the others have missed you.”
Lake and Blurb stood and walked out of the cargo bay.
“She probably only missed the chance to kill me herself.” Blurb moaned.
Lake laughed. “I doubt it, but someone would like to apologize to you.”
“Delta? She owes me an apology from how she talked down to me earlier,” said Blurb as they arrived at the sliding steel door that led to the bridge of the ship.
“Not Delta. The newest member of our crew.” Lake pressed the control panel on the wall and the door slid open, revealing Taran Lo standing near the Captain’s chair, holding a transparent computer screen. He'd cleaned up his appearance and dawned new clothes.
“Are you crazy?” Blurb shouted, before passing out on the bridge floor.
“Well, that went better than I expected.”
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Author Note
Thank you for reading Remnants of Hope: A Rogue Star Story, a standalone prequel for my Rogue Star series. If you haven’t already, and want to know when the first book is released, please subscribe to my newsletter here: Subscribe To Newsletter
Rogue Star is the second series I will be starting, but all three books will be released within weeks of each other. After the trilogy is complete, I will be continuing my work on the Magik: The Avata
r Wars and finishing that eight book series before the summer arrives, which hopefully I can continue to write another trilogy in the Rogue Star universe after. *Fingers Crossed*
If you would like to follow my journey, as I write the books and see the steps I’m taking to improve with each book, please follow my personal blog at: www.ahauthorship.com. There you can stay updated with my process with a daily blog, and a weekly blog.
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