Victernus - Chapter 27
Two inches of dust. It coated the
tables and the old electronics in a room left over from the last age. A little bit of light
filtered in through a small window on one end. Namara held his hand
to his nose, breathing into it. Theo had entered the old room before him and
was now wiping the dust off of a large computer screen. As it booted up, he
bent over the table and tried not to move.
Namara grumbled, waiting at the
door, "I thought you would have taken care of this place, if you worked here..."
Theo objected, "I was in stasis for
a while too - I haven't been up here in a long time."
He sighed, "Well, hurry. This place
is going to kill my nose... it smells like crap."
The computer finished starting and
was ready to go - a miracle in itself. Theo opened a command window and started
typing on the dust-ridden keyboard. "It won't be long. Don't worry."
While he was typing, Namara heard a
mechanical door opening in another room. He asked curiously, "So, what's in the
warehouse?"
Theo clenched his fist in excitement
and then left the computer, causing Namara to move out of the way. He traveled
back down a short hallway and then stuck a key into the door on the left,
unlocking it. "You'll see!"
Namara followed him and then called further
down the hallway to his friends, "Hey guys, we're ready!" He waited briefly to
see if they would come, and then slipped into the main warehouse with Theo.
Inside the warehouse, a giant grey door
that spanned the entire wall was retracting into the ground slowly. The
machines that were causing all of the clanking and grinding noises were hidden
behind the walls along the edges of the room. As the door fell, Theo's plan was
revealed to Namara. Behind the door rested a gigantic, black spacecraft. It
consisted of three parts: a main body that looked like a thick rectangular
prism, and two bulky wing shafts that attached near the middle. The front end
was slanted, making it just a tad more aerodynamic - not that it was in the
first place.
While Namara held his breath at the
sight, Theo explained to him, "See, as much as we would all like to stay here,
I think we would do best on a new planet where we do not have any history. This
world is still recovering - it's not done - and I'd rather find a new one and
just do it right this time."
Namara contained his excitement and
then nodded, "I understand. If the Selanians ever manage to make it back out of
that hellhole, I think it would be best if we were not here."
Mahalia, who was standing by the
doorway with the others, walked in and said, "So this is what you have been
working on? Will it fly yet, or is it not ready?"
Theo pulled some small black cubes
out of his pocket and handed one to everyone in the area. Holding a tablet in
his hands, he focused on it and said, "It will - there's just a few things that
I haven't finished yet, like the weapons and the long-range transporters. The
short range ones are online though, and..." He pressed a button and they were
teleported onto the ship's bridge almost instantly. "...they work quite well."
Namara grabbed his chest as if he
was unsure of if he was still coherent. He glanced around the spacious room
with the others, who were equally astonished. Computer stations with fixed
chairs were scattered about neatly across three separate levels - the lowest in
the front. A giant window was at the front of the room, and it reached across
it, barely touching the edges. Two open corridors led out of it on the other
end.
Theo chuckled because of their
surprised faces. He suggested, "You guys can explore the ship if you want. Or
you can find a seat, 'cause I'd really like to take off soon and you might not
want to miss it."
Mahalia sat in one of the chairs and
smiled, "Definitely not!"
Athius and Gala sat at separate
stations despite the obvious state of their relationship, and Kyon took a seat
near the front, by himself. Namara scanned the room briefly before stepping
down to the front and sitting down beside Kyon. He smiled, "Wonderful, isn't
it?"
Kyon nodded and smiled back,
resisting the temptation to feel alone. He said, "Yeah, it is."
Namara sat back in his chair,
relaxing his body. He began to swivel his chair around to find Theo, only to
turn back and sit upright. The ship started with a slight rumble before it rose
upwards. Outside of the window, he could see the shield grinding against the
top of the warehouse. Several sections of the roof disintegrated while the
remainder fell back down to the ground.
He glanced back slightly and teased,
"I thought this was supposed to be elegant? You will be the first humans to
leave this system, you know."
Theo laughed, "Oh, shut up."
When the ship cleared the warehouse,
it ascended into the sky. Washington D.C., once the seat of the world's
greatest power, lay in ruins below them. Namara couldn't help but smile,
feeling both freed from control and like some unspoken quest for vengeance had
been fulfilled. Dr. Lynn was probably waking up with a severe headache, unable
to see a thing. The thought only made Namara feel good.
And then, it didn't. Thinking of
what the Selanians had to endure, he couldn't help but feel responsible. Years
before, when he took Lynn up on his offer, he figured that it was just what he
needed. He was far more naïve back then and didn't really assume anything else
about it. However, he quickly realized that it was too late to speculate now.
Whether he or someone else had gone through with it, he was just glad that he
had made it.
While he thought about these things,
clouds zoomed past the window. With the sun behind them, the view quickly got
darker and darker. The ship was leaving the atmosphere. He turned back and
asked Theo, "Have you named it yet?"
"What, the ship? No... You can if you
want to."
Namara smiled and asked, "What would
you guys name it?"
Most of their faces turned blank, but Athius
smiled and suggested, "How about the 'Starlight Alpha?'"
Kyon raised his eyebrow and
chuckled, "I think this hunk of metal deserves a more-"
Namara interrupted, "The Starlight
Alpha it is! Write that down, Theo."
Theo grinned while he set it as the
ship's title, "Whatever you say, Captain."
He furled his brow and objected,
"Captain? I'm not your captain. I don't know how to fly this thing."
Mahalia shook her head, "He's right,
Namara... Or should I say, Captain Galvarros? You've always managed to work
things out for us, and we've always been here to help. I don't think anyone
else on this bridge can take your place."
Theo nodded and pointed to the big
chair in the middle of the room, "I made that chair for you."
Namara smiled and glanced down at
the floor briefly before standing up and moving to the middle of the room. He
stared at the chair for a few seconds before sitting down on it and tapping his
fingers on the armrest. Feeling both accepted and somewhat powerful, he asked,
"So, where are we going?"
Theo shrugged, "I'm not sure yet. I
have the sensors scanning for habitable planets. It'll go faster if we're
moving, though."
He pointed towards the window, "Well
then, go that way!"
Theo shut off the ship's thrusters
and then activated the hyperdrive. He spoke cheerfully, "You got it!" and then
watched as space twisted and folded before the front of the ship. Before anyone
knew what was happening, the Starlight Alpha shot into hyperspace and headed
for the far reaches of the galaxy.