by Ethan Bibile
“I was actually making progress, you know,” Quinn said, his face and voice void of any emotion. “I made a friend, I was beginning to move past it all. And now…” Quinn trailed off. He knew Morgan was desperate to pry details out of him about his experiences on Krezar, but the A.I said nothing.
Having nothing better to do, Quinn cleared the cockpit window of the images, before turning the engines of the Audion on by flicking the overhead switches. He turned the thrusters so that they were pointing at the ground.
“Where are we going?” Morgan asked. Quinn shrugged.
“No idea,” Quinn said as the Audion took off into the air. Quinn steered the ship up at the sky, taking off up to the atmosphere. Soon, the Audion had broken through the atmosphere of the planet into space.
“Quinn, you can’t let this stop you, you were doing so well, you said you even made a friend in Nigellia. Quinn, you’ll never recover if you don’t let this go,” Morgan begged.
Ideas whizzed through his head, one after another, scenario after scenario. He had no idea what to do from here except return to a life of solitude aboard the Audion, which he knew Morgan would not approve of in the slightest. Then an idea struck him.
“Wait a minute,” Quinn said, his eyes widening. “That alien, the red guy. He mentioned this group, T.A.S.P.A.”
“T.A.S.P.A?” Morgan asked. “Does that stand for something?”
“It probably does,” Quinn replied. “Can you do a search for the word ‘T.A.S.P.A’?” Quinn asked, and within the second the cockpit window had once again become a screen as Morgan began to search for T.A.S.P.A.
After a while, Morgan pulled up a database that contained information. Most of it was all not useful except for one thing.
“The Time and Space Protection Agency?” Quinn said, an eyebrow raised.
“That’s all the information regarding them I could find. Whoever they are, they must be pretty secretive,” Morgan replied. Quinn bit his lip, sighing. His one good lead he led him right into a dead end.
“What’s the Time and Space Protection Agency, Quinn?” Morgan asked, and Quinn detected slight suspicion in his voice.
“They are this agency who are dedicated, it’s their sole purpose, to put a stop to Agross,” Quinn said. “They’ll have knowledge on him. It’s their goal to put a stop to him,” Quinn said.
“No,” Morgan replied. “You’re not joining them, Quinn, you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Why not?” Morgan replied, shocked. “Quinn, all the records on Agross say he is a madman, a lunatic. Quinn, this is dangerous, and besides, do you think this will help you? Clashing with this evil psychopath?”
“Yes,” Quinn replied, his voice showing how sure he was of himself. “I could help take out Agross. Morgan, I can do this and move forward at the same time. I’m sure I’ll meet people there who will help me move past my family’s deaths. But if I don’t join them, or even go after him, then it will haunt me for the rest of my life, even if this time becomes more of a home to me than I was at home with Mum, Dad and Nat.”
Both stayed silent. Morgan not sure where to go from here, Quinn having nothing left in his persuasive arsenal after his speech.
“You know it’ll be dangerous,” Morgan said, almost pleading with Quinn.
“Morgan,” Quinn said. “I escaped Agross once and I rode down the side of a building today on a hoverboard-”
“What?”
“- I think my life is already heading towards a dangerous path.”
Morgan paused like he did before, and Quinn knew he was having some sort of internal battle with himself.
“Fine,” Morgan said.
Quinn didn’t celebrate, he didn’t crack a smile. He might have gotten a new purpose in life, a new goal, but he had to admit it wasn’t particularly pleasant.
“So where now, Captain Fenton,” Morgan said, and Quinn could hear that the A.I wasn’t happy with where they were going.
PIRATES
For the next few weeks, Quinn mainly spent his time searching for anything on Agross or T.A.S.P.A. He had searched database after database that Morgan didn’t have access to. He even searched throughout any physical copy that he could find (This proving to be a tedious task) and occasionally asking people when he felt he needed to.
When he wasn’t doing that he found himself back on Krezar. He was getting better with a gun after many lessons with Laura. He also found that he really enjoyed her company, the two getting to know each other better with every passing meeting. It was relaxing break from his personal mission to find T.A.S.P.A.
Perhaps one of the things Quinn found most strange about living in a spaceship was that whilst drifting through the cosmos he had lost the concepts of day and night. Luckily one clock on the Audion was hardwired to a twenty-four-hour time system like the one that was used back on Nespritia. But it wasn’t the same waking up to see the universe instead of the blazing sun.
Quinn entered the lounge room, ready for whatever the day brought him. He was already showered and dressed.
“Good morning Quinn,” Came the voice of Morgan in a rather bright tone. Quinn flopped himself down onto one of the couches. He would have woken up at a much later time if Morgan hadn’t insisted that he wake up at the same time every day of the week, something about it not being good for your body’s internal clock if you woke up at different times.
“Good morning,” Quinn said, sighing as he stared at the opposite wall, his brain still waking up.
“Anything planned for today?” Morgan asked. Quinn pushed himself up so he was standing, putting his hands on his hips.
“Well I spent yesterday with Laura, so we should probably look for some more information on T.A.S.P.A today,” Quinn said. He looked over at the family portrait on the wall opposite him, blinking at it once, twice, before ascending the stairs to the cockpit.
“Any planets nearby that might have any information on T.A.S.P.A or Agross?” Quinn asked as he opened the door to the cockpit. It was littered with all sorts of things, storage devices and papers on Agross, several books lying about. However, despite all this Quinn had found absolutely nothing on T.A.S.P.A at all. He had managed to find scraps of information on Agross though.
Quinn gently pressed against the touchpad on the dashboard and the cockpit window lit up and turned into a monitor. It was filled with different soft copies of notes Morgan had put there.
They had discovered just how much damage Agross did to planets. Quinn had found several accounts of homeless people who had been given their fate due to Agross decimating their home planet. Quinn had searched for some sort of reason for him to do this, but he only found dead ends. One after the other. The only kind of explanation people gave him was that Agross wanted universal control. Quinn however, didn’t see how destroying planet after planet with no mercy led to universal control.
Other than this and other tiny, useless scraps of information, Quinn had found nothing else on the elusive madman.
“Well, I guess we could just follow the usual routine. A random choice from the nearest planets,” Morgan suggested. Quinn shrugged lightly.
“Sure. I don’t see any other-” Quinn’s voice trailed off suddenly as a shadow was cast down over the cockpit window and out onto the exterior front of the ship. Quinn raised an eyebrow in caution, the shadow most likely being cast from an overhead spaceship, yet if they were friend or foe, Quinn wasn’t sure.
Suddenly a large, very wide metal base of a ship came into view, the ship above the Audion being much, much bigger than the Audion. The ship continued to fly over the Audion at a slow pace. As it continued flying, Quinn noticed thrusters on the bottom of the ship. They were large, no doubt carrying immense power.
As the ship continued drifting forward, Quinn noticed a clear, glass window that stuck out of the bottom of the ship. Squinting at it he could see something inside, yet his eyes couldn’t make it out. He managed to make out the disordered shapes of some sort of cross… no not
a cross, two items crossing over each other to form an X shape. Quinn squinted harder until his eyes shot open as he figured out what it was.
It was a black flag with two white guns crossing over each other.
Quinn swore as he jumped into the Captain’s chair, flicking a few switches above his head and turning the engines on, flicking switches at the back of the dashboard that would up the speed. He then pushed as hard as he could upon the two thruster levers and the Audion shot out from underneath the spaceship, zooming out of its looming shadow.
“Quinn, is that what I think it is?” Morgan asked, his voice more inquisitive than worried.
“Yep,” Quinn said as he pushed the Audion to the maximum thrust.
“Pirates.”
Quinn had heard stories all throughout the ages of pirates that flew throughout space, capturing, plundering, murdering, torturing, all sorts of horrible things. The stories went back centuries, pirates not only inhabiting space but planets too.
Quinn himself had never run into a band of pirates before and he wasn’t looking forward to ever meeting a group of them. Unless he could out fly the pirate's ship behind him now, he was going to have a terrifying encounter.
Quinn looked up at one of the screens above his head which showed him a picture of a green radar. The Audion was the centre dot, whilst the pirate ship was represented by another green dot further to the side, yet it was catching up to the Audion. Even going at the top speed the ship could go at, they still weren’t losing the pirates.
“Morgan,” Quinn asked, his heart beating from the heat of the chase. His eyes continued to flicker upwards to the radar. He wasn’t losing them. “We need to use full power to outrun these guys!”
“Quinn, we’re using everything we have,” Morgan said, now his voice full of worry. “All thrusters are being used to full power. Quinn, you saw the thrusters they had on that ship.”
“We can outrun them,” Quinn said with determination in his voice, urging himself to be the optimist.
Quinn pressed a button on the arm of his chair and the two transparent blue straps came out from either side of the seat, going on the diagonal and forming a seat belt for Quinn. He bit his lip, his heart nearly pounding as hard as it had been when he escaped Nespritia. It was like it was frantically trying to escape from its bony prison.
Quinn suddenly pulled the left thruster lever towards him, stopping the thrust the left thruster was giving. Since the right thruster was still ignited, the entire ship spun around. Once the Audion had turned around one hundred and eighty degrees and he found himself looking out of the cockpit window at the looming omen of darkness that was the pirate's ship, he pushed forward on both thrust levers, zooming forward underneath the ship.
“Haha!” Quinn shouted, putting his hand up in the air in victory, a grin on his face.
Before he made it to the backside of the pirate’s ship, the Audion froze and a blue, transparent light surrounded the ship. Quinn’s smile was wiped off his face and his eyes widened in horror. He pushed the thrust lever forward. And again. And again. But the Audion didn’t move forward. It only moved backwards.
“Morgan,” Quinn said, worry filling his voice.
“They’ve got us in a magnetic hold,” Morgan replied. “Only ships with immense power thrusters can break out of these.”
Quinn undid the seat belt and leant forward over the dashboard, looking forward out the cockpit window.
The Audion was being pulled into a hangar bay at the bottom of the pirate ship. The Audion was moving upward slowly, going into the underbelly of the ship. Light flooded into the cockpit window from the inside of the hangar.
The hangar itself was huge. It easily fitted the Audion inside itself. White lights lined the top of the wooden walls, pieces of metal everywhere to support the room. A loud clang filled the Audion and Quinn knew that the hangar bay had now closed. The blue light that had surrounded the Audion disappeared, giving Quinn a proper view of the hangar.
There was an opened metal door on the far side of the room and to his horror, three disordered figures emerged. Quinn immediately ducked underneath the dashboard to hide from potentially being spotted from the outside. His hand crept up to the top of the dashboard, searching over levers and knobs and buttons until he found the one he was looking for. He flicked it and the engines turned off. After flicking another switch, so did the lights.
“Morgan,” Quinn said, slowly coming out from underneath the dashboard. “What do we do?”
“I’m going to be honest with you Quinn,” Morgan said, and Quinn closed his eyes, knowing that the answer wouldn't be pretty. “If we’re going to get out of this, we need to fight our way out. You’d need to find a way to open the hangar door, so we can get out of here.”
Quinn slowly pulled himself out from under the dashboard, crawling on all fours until he was out in the open. Ever so slowly, he peeked his head over the edge of the dashboard until he could see out the cockpit window and out into the hangar. To his shock, he didn’t see any form of life outside the window.
Quinn jumped up quickly, so he got a full view of the hangar, looking around outside wildly. The aliens that had previously entered the hangar were now gone.
Quinn picked up his gun from one of the tables in the corner, gripping it tightly. He slowly turned around to face the cockpit door and after taking a deep breath, opened it and went down the stairs.
The Audion looked much different now that is was covered in darkness. Given the situation at hand too, it made the whole thing seem much more terrifying.
He could feel his heart pounding against his rib cage and his breathing sounded like it was the loudest noise his ears had ever heard in the eerie silence. Nothing made a noise except for Quinn, even Morgan remaining completely silent.
Quinn slowly put his hand on the door that led to the cargo room and was about to turn the handle when Morgan’s voice suddenly broke the silence.
“Quinn, hide, now!” Morgan commanded. His voice held authority that Quinn had never heard before in his life. Quinn took the order and dived underneath the dining table. The second he had hidden in the darkness the cargo room door burst open.
The three aliens Quinn had seen entering the hangar burst into the lounge room, somehow having entered the Audion.
All three of the aliens held large black instruments which each had a light upon the end of it. Their weapons had a large handle with a lever on the side. Quinn had no idea what it controlled. Where the nose for the gun should have been was a square with four tongs on each corner. Every few seconds or so the things would crackle with sparks, illuminating the room just a little more than the lights from their guns already were. One of the aliens held a small device with a blinking red screen. Quinn guessed they had somehow used this to get into the Audion.
“We know you’re in here,” Said one of the aliens. He had purple skin, yet his features seemed to mostly resemble a human, a deformed one at that though. His nose was off centre and nearly all his teeth were knocked out.
One of the other aliens was large, Quinn was surprised it had even fitted through the cargo room door. It was bald with an arched back; the skin being stretched out tightly across its face which seemed to be nearly completely flat.
The final alien that entered the lounge terrified Quinn the most. It resembled a spider but if it had been scaled up in size. It had at least eight legs and scuttled along the walls, using two of the legs to hold the weirdly shaped gun. Its head stuck out from its long neck, which flicked around quickly, its blood red eyes darting throughout the room, searching for some form of life.
“Come out come out wherever you are!” The spider alien taunted, before laughing like a pure lunatic and scuttling off. The other two aliens grunted out a couple of laughs before walking off through the ship to search for Quinn.
At this moment, Quinn needed Morgan.
He was terrified and had no idea what to do. Morgan would, however. But it would be stupid to even try to talk to hi
m as the three pirates would hear Morgan too.
Yet Morgan had told Quinn the only way they were getting out of this was if they fought their way out.
Quinn sighed as silently as possible. He looked at the gun in his hand, knowing he was going to have to either fight or be captured. And there was no way in hell he was getting captured.
Quinn silently removed himself from underneath the dining table, his fingers wrapped around the trigger of the gun, ready to fire at an instant's notice. He slowly stood up and with both hands on the trigger, Quinn stepped forward into the Audion after the three aliens.
All three of them had disappeared into the hallway. Quinn’s heart pounded as he slowly edged forward through the hallway. His mind going back to several scenes from movies he had watched back home, where someone wandered down a tunnel that had evil doers inside. In some of them, the hero had made it out alive. But in others, the hero had met their unfortunate death.
Quinn nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a light turn the hallway corner up ahead. It took him a second to collect himself, but once he did, he dived into the room right next to him.
Quinn pressed himself against the inside wall of the room, breathing hard yet straining his ears to try and hear which alien it was that was going through the hall. His ears were met with a slow, tromping sound and Quinn’s mind went straight to the largest alien.
Quinn knew it was going to be now or never, so he jumped out into the hallway.
Only to find himself face to face with the spider alien, clinging upside down to the roof.
“Gotcha!” It screeched, which caused Quinn to fall backwards, tripping over his own feet. The spider alien raised its huge gun, ready to fire the already flickering sparks at him. Quinn managed to react faster though, blasting the spider alien off the roof. It flew off backwards and hit the wall with an echoing thud, the gun spiralling through the air and crashing down onto the floor.
Quinn scrambled to his feet. As he did so, loud footsteps came from behind him. Quinn spun around to see the huge alien standing directly behind him, its face illuminated by the light on its torch.