by JN Chaney
Yeah, that was probably it.
I had asked Athena if the rest of the crew could undergo this treatment, but unfortunately, as she put it, there wasn’t enough time to synthesize the necessary compounds required to make the marks. There was only enough for one person, since the core had only been online for a short while. Because of time constraints and because I refuse to let one of my crew take a risk that I wasn’t willing to take myself, I volunteered to be the guinea pig. If Athena could manage another batch of whatever the hell this treatment was before Brigham’s ship showed up, Abigail, Freddie, and Bolin had already offered themselves as potential candidates.
But all of that hinged on whether or not the first attempt was a success.
Here goes nothing, I thought.
“Don’t worry, Captain,” said Athena. “The process should be relatively painless. You will experience a strange tingling sensation, followed by something akin to swimming in a cool stream of flowing water.”
I stared up at the Cognitive. “I don’t give two shits what it feels like,” I said, frankly. “It has to be done, so let’s get on with it.”
I hated it when people tried to make you feel better about something you had to do. Nothing they could ever say was going to prevent it from happening, so why not just get the hell on with it?
Athena gave me a comforting smile and backed away, letting the pod hatch close on top of me. I watched while the machine sealed itself, trapping me inside, then waited for the next step in the process to begin.
It didn’t take very long. Strange gas began to enter the pod. It smelled like potatoes, oddly enough, or maybe it was plastic. Before I could argue with myself any further, I felt a small prick in my left shoulder. I turned my head and saw a glowing needle of hard light, injecting a blue liquid into my arm.
The pain was brief, like a small pinch. A second later, I felt a strange coolness beginning in my shoulder and moving along my arm. Before I could react, I felt another prick, this time in my back like before, a soft and almost pleasant coolness followed. Another prick on my lower back, and then my side, and then my other shoulder. I felt all of them at once, a dozen across half my body and all of them happening within a few seconds.
And as fast as they happened, it was all suddenly over. The cool rush of the blue liquid crawled smoothly through my bloodstream, filling me with calmness, like I was in a pool of flowing water.
I began to think I might grow tired, sleepy from the effects, but it never happened. Instead, I only grew more awake as I saw the illumination beneath my skin. It glowed faintly at first, but slowly built. After only a few moments, the light was stronger and more prevalent than before.
The blue glow moved, forming a pattern on my skin, creating an intricate design that I instantly recognized, because I’ve seen it so many times before. It was the same design that Lex had. The same symbols that were on Athena. Somehow, because of this pod, I was beginning to look like them.
The process only took a few more moments, as the cool blue liquid continued to move throughout my body, creating more tattoos. Eventually, the glowing lights stopped radiating and the cool sensation I had felt finally dissipated, returning to normal.
The hatch cracked open, and I leaned forward out of the pod, pushing myself onto my feet.
Athena approached me, a curious expression on her face. “How do you feel, Captain?”
I glanced to my side, examining my arms and noticing the tattoos. They looked tribal, almost, and somehow formal. I couldn’t believe that such strange and detailed markings had been placed on me in a matter of minutes, all over my shoulders, arms, and torso. “I feel good,” I said, after a few seconds. “That wasn’t bad at all.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” said the Cognitive. “If you require time to rest, I will understand.”
I ran my fingers along my tattooed skin, but felt no pain or bumps. It was like they had always been there. “No,” I said, looking back at her. “We need to finish preparing for what’s about to come. Brigham is on his way to kill us all. There’s little time to waste.”
* * *
I sat inside one of the little triangle ships, looking over the controls. They were in a foreign language, one that I couldn’t read or even recognize. I knew this was the language of the ancients, because it was all over Titan. There wasn’t enough time to actually learn it, so I’d have to simply memorize the controls as best I could. “Which button is the ignition?” I asked.
Athena’s voice chimed in over my com. “There is no need for that,” she told me.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Simply put your hand on the interface module,” she said.
I examined the dash in front of me, looking for whatever the hell an interface module was supposed to be. I was about to ask for specifics. When I saw a small hand-sized panel. I reached out and touched it, expecting nothing to happen.
The newly-created tattoos on my arm began to glow, surprising me. Immediately after, the panel followed suit, illuminating itself to match the color of my tattoo. “Excellent work, Captain,” said Athena. “The interface is live.”
“Now, what?” I asked, keeping my hand on the panel.
“You must imagine your commands,” she explained. “Think about the actions you wish the vessel to take.”
Think about the actions, I thought. Sounds like a bunch of bullshit, but okay. Let’s go, you stupid ship. Initiate thrusters.
Nothing happened.
“What’s the deal? I thought this thing was supposed to listen to my thoughts,” I said.
“Apologies, Captain. I should have been more specific,” said Athena. “Try to imagine what you would like the vessel to do, but you must visualize it happening. The interface is built to understand mental images and desires above all else, but they must be focused and at the forefront of your mind.”
“Visualize it, huh?” I asked.
I imagined the ship, igniting its thrusters, trying to visualize how the process might work, even though I knew absolutely nothing about the design of the ships. I imagined the little triangle lifting off the ground and—
the ship suddenly vibrated, humming steadily as its engines roared to life. Before I could react, we eased off the deck and began floating in the air nearly a meter up. The sudden reaction startled me, but in a good way, and I couldn’t help but grin. “Now that’s what I’m fucking talking about,” I said, smacking the side of my chair.
“Excellent work, Captain,” congratulated Athena. “Try to move the ship, but only a few meters. Be very careful. We are still in slipspace, after all. You don’t want to accidentally leave the landing bay.”
If I hadn’t known any better, I would’ve sworn the Cognitive was teasing me.
I imagined the ship moving, slightly to the right, visualizing the process in my mind. As I did, the vessel began to shift, tilting slightly to the right and moving. I felt a rush of excitement, a sense of satisfaction in what I was doing. It reminded me of the first time I shot a gun, back when I was seven. Later, again, when I pulled off my first heist.
Good times.
The ship jerked forward, suddenly, surprising the shit out of me. I pulled my hand off the pad, causing my tattoos and the dash to both stop glowing. The ship fell smack into the deck. My chest slammed into the harness around me, nearly knocking the wind out of me. “Fucking hell!” I snapped.
“You must focus and concentrate, Captain,” informed the Cognitive.
“Are you telling me that if I don’t concentrate, I’ll crash the damn ship?” I asked.
“That is correct,” said Athena. “But don’t worry. Once you master the controls, you’ll be able to fly without hesitation. It will be like second nature to you.”
“And how long does that usually take?” I asked.
“The process varies between users, but you are doing well,” she said. “Please, Captain, do not relent.”
I growled at her for not answering my question, but let it go. I touche
d the dash and visualized the ship lifting off the ground, and a moment later, it did. The engines reignited and once again brought me a meter off the deck, where it began to hover in place.
I imagined moving to the left and to the right, then forward and backwards. The ship followed my every command, doing precisely as I ordered. Before I knew it, I was flying the vessel around the mostly empty landing bay, slowly maneuvering horizontally and vertically, without much of a problem. 30 minutes into the practice run, I decided I had had enough and was ready to move on. “We don’t have much time, Athena. I think you ought to show me how to use the weapons on this thing,” I said.
“Please, allow me a moment,” said Athena. “I currently have the weapon systems deactivated. Given your inexperience, I thought it prudent to disable them in order to avoid disaster. I will reactivate them, although they will not be lethal.”
“Not lethal?” I asked, slightly confused by the statement. I couldn’t imagine what that might mean.
“The weapon systems on each of the ships uses a variation of hard light technology. By disabling one of the options in the projectors, only the visual effects of the weapon will function.”
“Are you saying that I can’t blow anything up?” I asked.
“That is correct, Captain,” she told me.
“Damn,” I said, floating the ship over to the other side of the bay. “And here I was, thinking the only way to master this would be to blow a hole in something.”
“Perhaps next time,” said Athena.
There went that sarcasm again.
* * *
In only an hour, I had the controls pretty well figured out. I could fly in any direction, perform a small number of maneuvers, and successfully navigate the weapon systems.
A few hours into it, I called the rest of my crew and told them to meet me in the conference room. Once they all showed up, Athena gave me the signal and I set the ship down and went to join the others.
Now that I had a handle on things, it would be good to regroup and discuss the next step.
I entered the conference room and decided to remain standing, while several of the others took their seats. I’d been sitting on the strike ship for a while and my ass was killing me.
“How did it go?” Asked Octavia.
“I heard you crashed one of the ships a few times,” said Freddie.
I gave Freddie a threatening look. “It took me a few minutes to get a handle on the controls, but once I did, it wasn’t so bad.”
“Can the rest of us start?” Asked Abigail.
“That’s up to Athena, isn’t it?” I said.
Athena had already materialized and was standing quietly off to the side, observing the meeting. She took a step forward and gave the group a kind smile. “I will have enough of the treatment ready for one more dosage in approximately eight hours.”
“Aren’t we arriving at around that time?” Asked Freddie.
“That is correct,” said the Cognitive.
I cursed under my breath. It seemed like every time we took a step forward, something else happened to create yet another barrier in our path and slow us down. We now had access to another ship, but I could barely fly it and we didn’t have enough time for the others to undergo the transition. We’ll have to take Brigham on with only Titan, The Star, and one of the little strike ships in our possession, despite there being literally hundreds sitting in the two dozen landing bays on this moon-sized vessel. “If this is the best we can do,” I said, leaving out my own frustration, “then we’ll make it work. We’ve been in tougher scrapes than this, and with fewer options, and we still pulled ourselves out of the fire.”
Bolin raised his hand slightly, cringing a little with his shoulders. “I did lose a finger the day we met. Not that I’m complaining.”
Octavia glanced up at Bolin. “Really? Come talk to me when you’re in a wheelchair.”
“Okay,” I said. “So it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. I get that. My point is we survived…and none of you are dead. That’s gotta count for something.”
“Damn right,” said Abigail.
Bolin nodded. “You’re right,” the former merchant said. He smiled. “My daughter is alive because of you. That is a debt I can never repay.”
“All of us are here because of you, Jace,” said Octavia. “You, Abigail, and Lex. We are here because we believed in the cause, so we don’t need a fancy speech about how tough we are or how far we’ve come. All we need is for you to do what you do best. Find us a way out and kill as many as you can in the process.”
“Well, shit, Octavia,” I said, crossing my arms. “That’s a better speech than what I had planned. Straight and to the point.”
She smirked. “Don’t get used to it. I’ve never been the motivational type.”
“I assume you have a plan, Captain,” said Hitchens, who was standing right behind Octavia.
I gave him a nod. “Now that you mention it, Professor,” I said. “I think I just might.”
NINETEEN
I sat inside the little triangular strike ship, waiting for Titan to exit slipspace. It would only be a short while now, and then the game would begin.
“Mr. Hughes,” said a soft voice, coming from the chair beside me.
I looked down at Lex, sitting there with her feet dangling above the floor. She stared up at me with curious eyes. “What’s up, kid?”
She looked back down, almost hesitantly, like she didn’t know how to say it…or if she should.
“You’re worried,” I eventually said. “Is that it?”
She nodded. “You said it’s dangerous.”
I’d told her the truth, only an hour ago. I had thought she had a right to know what was happening around her, to the people in her life. “I did, didn’t I?” I asked. “But you know me, don’t you, kid? I don’t go down so easy.”
“Yeah,” she said in a soft voice.
I could see the fear in her eyes. It was the sort of worry you get when you don’t know all the angles, when you can’t make the perfect prediction. It’s the unknowing of it all, like the moment you see the other guy draw his gun, and you don’t know if you’ll be fast enough. It’s that dread you have before the doctor comes in and tells you about your mother…and even though you’ve played the story out in your head a hundred times already, you still don’t know for sure how hard the truth will hit you…because you can’t.
Then, Lex told me what I already knew she’d say. “I just don’t want you to die.”
The words turned my stomach, even more than I thought they would. Not because I hated them, but because I understood where they came from.
That fear, clawing in the back of her mind.
We were both quiet for a moment. “You’re scared,” I finally told her.
She nodded, slowly.
I was slow to continue. I didn’t know how to talk about any of this stuff, especially to a little girl. “It’s okay to be scared,” I muttered. “Everyone else is afraid, too.”
“You’re not,” she whispered.
“You think so?” I asked, straightening up in my seat. I cleared my throat. “I didn’t know you could read my thoughts, kid.”
“You’re never scared, even when the bad people come,” she said, looking at me. “You’re always brave.”
I laughed. “Funny, I thought you were the brave one.” I shook my head. “I get scared shitless all the time, Lex.”
“R-Really?” she asked, a wide-eyed expression on her face.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “Every time I go on a job. Every time I’m about to get into a fight. Lately, it seems like it happens every day. Point is, everyone gets scared. It’s just a feeling you get, like instinct.” I took a short breath. “But that’s a good thing.”
“It is?” asked Lex.
I nodded. “Fear…keeps you awake, even when you’re tired. It opens your eyes…teaches you what to look out for. In some ways, fear can be your friend, if you let it.”
“A frie
nd? Really?” she asked.
“You just have to know how to listen,” I said, tapping my chest. “Understand what it’s trying to tell you.”
“I didn’t know it was talking,” she said.
“Oh, yeah,” I said, nodding. “There’s always something, like a voice deep down inside, telling where the danger is, teaching you how to stay alive. All you gotta do is open your ears and listen.”
She sat there, staring at the dash for a long while, taking in what I had told her. “So, fear is good,” she finally said, turning to me. “You can be scared and it’s okay.”
“Right,” I said.
“Then, we’re both scared,” she told me. “We just have to listen.”
I nodded. “Scared shitless,” I said. “But don’t tell anyone. I’ve got a reputation.”
She giggled. “Me too! I’ve got a reputator!”
“You sure do, kid,” I said, patting her on the head, and we both laughed.
* * *
“What’s our status, Athena?” I asked. The time for the mission was at hand, and I was sitting in my strike ship, hand on the dash, ready to go.
“Titan is currently passing through the Maelstrom system. We will arrive in empty space, less than a light-year from the planet, in approximately five minutes,” she answered. “Any longer and we will be closer to Androsia.”