Ava, p.3
Ava, page 3
part #1 of Secrets of the Ship Series
“I’m trying here,” said Feelo, “let’s get them above the planet, I’ve got an idea.”
Feelo threw the ship about, avoiding the incoming beams of continuous energy fire. They raced towards the thin, dispersing clouds, punching through them in an attempt at masking their signal. But it was no use, the high-intensity weapons tore through the white of the clouds, just missing their large frame.
They soon hit the upper atmosphere. Sparking hot plasma licked at their hull as flames blinded their vision. It threw the Ixion about. Feelo had little control of her unpredictable movements and was at the will of the Gods. Then, with a sudden calm, they pierced out from the atmosphere and instead boosted away from the planet. “What’s the plan then?” asked Caesar.
“Same as always,” he smiled.
“Oh, no…” Caesar groaned, “are you certain you can pull it off this time? Last time, well, we both know how that ended.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
Please work, please work, please work, Feelo panicked.
He flicked through the touch screen computer and brought their defensive capabilities online. Across from him sat a pair of electronic goggles attached to a hulking helmet. He squeezed his head into its small space and clicked the goggles down.
A colourless image soon disappeared, and a view of the ship’s exterior replaced it. The virtual reality gave him a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view around the Ixion with only the slightest of movements rotating the scene.
Looking over his shoulder he could see behind the ship. “You should do this, Caesar, you’re our tactical officer!”
“Pah!” he spat, “when we’ve got weapons that work, I’ll take over.”
A cloud of red mist flowed from the pursuing ship with small bolts of lightning dancing in the vapour creating a dense storm in space. “All right here goes nothing,” Feelo winced.
He guided the targeting system with his vision at the same time selecting the decoy buoys they had onboard.
“Caesar charge the drives! Be ready on my order.”
Feelo concentrated, waiting for the exact right moment to act. All around him came the unmistakable whirr of the faster-than-light engines coming online. The skeleton of the ship shook at the immense power build up on the lower deck. That rattling still not fixed? Feelo groaned to himself.
Then, just as a double beep came from the console letting him know the engines where charged, he pressed down hard on the weapons. A hatch in the bottom of the ship opened and lowered dual rails which fired four decoys in a predetermined pattern. They projected an image of their ship onto sensors, fooling others, usually the authorities, to their actual whereabouts.
“Alright Caesar, now!”
Instantly, the entire ship began to shudder. A vast surge of power rushed towards the engines that glowed a hot cobalt blue. Controls on the centre console flashed offline before coming straight back on as power across ship became sporadic.
Then, with an ear-splitting boom, space around them erupted in a bright flash of wasted energy as they slipped into faster-than-light travel, escaping the thing that chased them, at least for now…
3
A NEW SOUL
Pulsating blue energy enveloped the Ixion, washing over the hull in waves. Feelo let out a tense breath, sliding down into his seat as he did. “Phew,” he said, unbuckling his belt, “that was close.”
“It’s always close. We need to be more careful,” groaned Caesar. “I can’t believe you keep getting away with it.”
“And I can’t believe that you ever doubted me.”
Feelo looked at Caesar, the man who had been like a father to him over the last year and smiled at the anger that was permanently embedded deep into his aged features. Almost twenty years his senior the man didn’t have a bad bone in his body for Feelo, but he was astute, smart, and quick on his feet when things went south.
“Give me a reason not to.” Caesar shook his head as he left the bridge and entered the mess.
Feelo laughed and keyed the comms. “Ava, you there?” he called down to engineering but got no reply. “Ava, come on, it’s the small black box dangling from a thick wire near the lockers, pick it up and press the button, it’s not that hard,” he said the last few words under his breath.
Again, no reply but two sharp barks echoed through the ship. He knew what it meant, at least what it insinuated – something’s wrong. He rushed out from the bridge and descended the stairs to the lower deck, bursting through the hatch that sat ajar at its end.
Meco stood over Ava, sniffing the large gash that ran across her forehead. Blood painted her face red. He rushed over to her, shaking her arm, “Ava! Ava!” he yelled, trying to shake her awake, “are you all right?” She said nothing. Her olive skin had faded, and the blood-soaked her hair, binding it together into a single coagulated mess. He jumped up, grabbing the internal communicator. “Ellie! You there?”
There was a brief wait before a woman’s voice came back. “Sure am, Captain!” she sounded unflustered as ever and full of her infectious optimism. Ellie was the ship’s doctor, or at least the only one who had any shred of formal training in medicine, and she took her responsibilities seriously.
“We’ve got wounded in the engine room. We need you down here.”
“Oh no… I’m on my way.”
The small, ghostly blonde medic charged through the hatch. Her skin was pale with red freckles that arced across her nose and cheekbones. She was barely five feet tall but had an inner strength that most hadn’t found. “She needs to get up to the med bay,” Ellie said, her tone sharpening. “Quick, help me upstairs with her.”
Feelo took the legs while Ellie took the torso. They jogged through the ship, ascending the stairs and turning the corner away from the bridge. They passed through the common area where Caesar sat, who then jumped to his feet. “Is the lass okay?”
Ignoring him, they ran through a hatch and out into the living quarters where six bedrooms were sectioned off into their own private space. At the end, though, was the med bay.
Stepping into the makeshift room, they laid Ava down on a rickety bed whose sheets were crisp and clean. Her lifeless body let out a muted groan as they moved her.
“Is she gonna be all right?” asked Feelo.
Ellie rifled through the draws of the large cabinet which sat at the rear of the room, she pulled out a small, cigar-shaped device and laid its glowing face down against the wound. Slowly, the bleeding abated as the deep gash sewed itself back together, leaving only an indiscernible, faded scar.
With a small torch, she opened Ava’s unconscious eyes, flashing the bright light into them both before checking for any injuries to her neck or back. The energetic woman stood up, cracking her fingers as she did. “I think she’ll be a-ok.”
“Oh, thank God,” he said, patting the woman on the shoulder. “How long do you think she’ll be out?”
“A few hours?” Ellie pushed her long hair back behind her ears. “Maybe less?”
“Right,” nodded Feelo, turning to exit the med bay, but he looked back over his shoulder, “while we’re here, make sure there’s nothing she’s hiding, we don’t need another Timothy situation.”
Ellie shivered. “Ugh, never again.”
“Exactly,” he said, leaving for the mess.
Meco charged up the stairs, its heavy footsteps resounding through the entire ship. He slid to a stop, rubbing its large, mechanical head against Feelo’s leg. They had formed a strong bond, a friendship most couldn’t understand, but they had been together since Feelo’s was young and over those eighteen years, they had become inseparable.
The common area was a space for everyone to relax. A table seating six took the spotlight in the centre of the room. The kitchen, hidden behind a waist-high counter, sat off to one side and a single television sat in front a full-sized sofa, an assortment of antique films and other entertainment piled up as a jumbled mess on the shin-high coffee table.
Caesar appeared from the pantry gnawing at a cereal bar, allowing its crumbs to form a trail behind him. He rounded the table and sat at one of the empty seats with a pad in hand scrolling through the latest galactic news. “Humph,” he groaned, “the United Planets are at it again, they can never keep their mouths shut for more than a few days, can they?”
“They have a lot to be unhappy about,” Ellie said as she entered the kitchen. “Everything they had was taken from them. I know I’d be upset if that was me.”
“Well, maybe they should learn to build better defences before upsetting people, it could get us all killed, not just those idiots.”
“All right you two,” Feelo raised his voice a little, “no politics on this ship, remember? We’re all entitled to our own opinions, and no one is right.”
“Pipe down, kid,” Caesar growled.
“Well, that’s not very nice, is it?” said Ellie, pulling a mug out from the coffee machine before handing it to Feelo, “here, you need this after all that excitement.”
“Well, thank you very much, Ellie,” Feelo said, glaring at Caesar. “That’s kind of you.”
“You’re welcome,” she smiled.
Feelo sipped the hot drink, looking over the mug’s edge at the grizzled man that sat at the table. He was grumpy, as always, but he meant well, he just wasn’t the best at articulating what he wanted to say. They had met over a year ago on a mission to smuggle medicine onto a world under military blockade. Caesar’s tough exterior had dropped that day as he dispensed the much-needed supplies to the welcoming families, Feelo took an instant liking to the man from that point on.
Caesar scratched at the constant dark stubble that inhabited his face, it had greyed under his chin, a fact he hid from others by shaving that part down to the skin. His piercing brown eyes showed a man with conviction, someone who never bowed to the pressures of life or adversity. He was tall, well over six feet, and his muscular frame reflected the hard hours spent in the gym.
Crossing the room, Feelo sat at the table opposite him. The bench he sat on creaked and screamed at Feelo’s meagre weight, begging for investment or repair. Much of the Ixion was the same; it was a mess of cobbled together parts and scrap they bought for cheap, it’ll do for now being the mentality.
“So,” Feelo prompted a conversation, “wanna see what I found?”
“Yes,” Caesar sat forwards, a sharpness to his tone. “Let’s do that, starting with the girl. Who is she?”
Ellie sat beside Feelo with a faint smile, “is she someone you recruited? Is she sticking around?”
“No, and I don’t know,” said Feelo, “there isn’t much I can tell you. She wanted passage off the planet and was very… persuasive about it.”
“Persuasive?” asked Caesar, “what did she offer?”
Feelo winced, “nothing,” he scrunched his face, “she had me at gunpoint.”
“She took you down?” laughed Caesar, “she’s only tiny!”
“She’s stronger than she looks!” protested Feelo, “anyway, I eventually turned the tables and told her to follow the rules of the ship, it’s as simple as that.” Meco barked behind him, pawing at his back, “Meco was there as well, I suppose, not that he did much…” The mechanical beast growled, pushing its heavy nose into his side, “all right, all right. Meco saved me, but only AFTER she had let me go once she learnt I have a ship, let’s make that clear here.”
“She has an honest face,” Ellie nodded, “she wouldn’t do anything to us.”
“You trust far too easily, Ell,” said Caesar.
“I like to see the good in people, that’s all,” she smiled.
“It’ll burn you one of these days, don’t come crying to me when it does.”
Ellie looked down at the table and her shoulders dropped. Feelo placed a comforting hand on her arm and looked towards Caesar. “Come on, don’t be an ass, she only means well, you know that.”
“I know that, but we’ve got this Ava, someone who none of us know anything about. Don’t you think that’s a little worrying? She could ruin all we’ve got going for us.”
“What exactly have we got to ruin?” Feelo looked around the common area, “we’re just about scraping by. Low rations, a ship that’s falling apart, jobs that barely cover the cost of fuel, we’re not living the high life, are we?”
“We make do, though,” Caesar said, “we’re all here because we want to be. We’re all from different backgrounds, but we’ve come together in a bizarre harmony.”
Feelo sat back, surprised at his friend’s honesty as it was very much unlike him. “I know,” he said, “but Ava helped us back there, she fixed the ship, hell, she diagnosed the problem just from a faint sound on the bridge.”
“Great, she helped us escape whoever that was, but it’s not like she had a choice, was it? Either ‘A’ she helps fix the ship, and she escapes with us, saving her own life, or ‘B’ she does nothing and we all die.”
“Stop it!” Ellie tried to yell but her voice croaked and broke. “Stop fighting you two, we have a girl who’s injured and asked for our help, surely that’s the end of the discussion? Common Human decency should override any stupid conflict you two have right now.”
The pair went quiet before Caesar spoke up. “Who were they, anyway? I didn’t even see the ship.”
“I’m not sure,” said Feelo, “I’ve seen nothing like it, they appeared from a storm that formed from nothing, just poof and it was there. It was big, huge, its hull was an infinite black with some weird red energy held in these big tanks… It looked like an Ark of the dead.”
“An Ark of the dead?” scoffed Caesar, “like a plague ship or something?”
“Plague ship…” Feelo scratched at his smooth chin, “I like it, we’ll call it that from now on.”
“It’s a stupid name, please don’t…”
“I like it,” Ellie said, “it sounds dark and spooky.”
“Either way, why did they attack us?” asked Caesar, “we didn’t do anything, did we?”
“I dunno,” Feelo shrugged, “I took this from the crashed freighter,” he pulled around his satchel and dug out the inactive orb and placed it on the table. “The whole thing is off. The freighter was like nothing I’d seen before, its construction was… different, the language aboard was indecipherable, not from any of the colonies that’s for sure.”
Ellie and Caesar leant over the table to get a better look at the object. Their faces reflected in its glassy surface but its once prominent glow was still extinguished. “Is it a gem?” asked Ellie touching its smooth exterior.
“It might be,” nodded Caesar, “let me check it out.”
The man took the sphere away from the common area and into his own quarters. In his spare time, Caesar was a keen mineralogist and studied any gems they salvaged to gauge their worth. It wasn’t long before he came back, placing it down on the table with a magnifying glass in hand.
“This is weird,” he huffed, circling the table, “the ship, the girl, now this damned… thing? None of it adds up.”
“Well?” Ellie said, “what is it?”
“That’s the thing, I dunno,” said Caesar, “it doesn’t have a mineral structure. Under magnification it looks hollow yet here it is, dense as anything and as heavy as a bag of sugar.”
“Think it’s worth anything?” Feelo was hopeful.
Caesar shrugged. “Maybe? Who knows, we could take it to our usual guy and see what he says.”
Feelo winced, “he’s such an unbearable ass, though.”
“Then you two should get along fine,” Caesar smirked.
“Caesar!” Ellie barked, “there’s no need for that.”
“You can’t sell it,” said Ava, leaning against the door frame.
“Hey Ava, you feeling any better?” asked Ellie as she stood, pulling a pencil torch from her jacket and glaring it into Ava’s eyes.
“Yeah, I’m fine, get that thing away from me,” she batted Ellie’s arm away.
“Well, I’m glad you’re all right,” Feelo smiled, “but why can’t we sell it? It’s a useless hunk of junk.”
“You… Can’t,” she remained evasive, “just keep it, at least for now, you might get a better price for it elsewhere if we can find someone who knows what it is.”
Caesar and Feelo looked at one another, silently agreeing with her, but space was vast, and fuel was expensive. “We can’t just gallivant across the sector looking for someone who’s a better mineralogist than Caesar, although I doubt that’d be hard…”
Ellie slapped a backhand across Feelo’s arm. “They’re right, Ava,” said Ellie, “this ship is expensive to run, and anyway, Deaua is a nice place, I could show you around, go shopping, see the sights, that sorta thing. It’ll be fun!”
“I’m not here for fun,” Ava said, “I needed to get off that planet, and that’s what I’ve done. I’ll be leaving you at Deaua and we will never see each other again.”
“Are you sure about that?” said Feelo, “you might grow to like it on board the Ixion. It’s not a glamorous life by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s exciting, at least when it’s not boring and oh God does it get boring, but give us a chance, you’ll see.”
Ava silently stood, staring down at her boots which she scuffed across the floor. “We’ll see.”
Caesar bounded to his feet, sensing an opportunity to push the conversation in a direction that matched his own agenda. “Give the lass what she wants. She wants off the ship so let her go, we shouldn’t stand in her way.”
“Either way,” Feelo stood, “we need to adjust course and head for Deaua.” He walked towards the cockpit before stopping, looking over his shoulder, “wanna join me, Ava? I’ll show you the ropes seeing as you’re our new engineer, at least for now.”
She reluctantly pushed herself off the door frame, “fine, whatever, show me your dumb cockpit…”
4
THE FENCER
“This is it, the hub of the ship,” Feelo spun on his heels, smiling.
