Project Prometheus Ch. 01

Hello all. Just a quick foreword before the story begins. This is my first foray into writing, and I hope that people like what I have to write about. I have had many ideas tumbling around in my head for years, and this is the first time I have given them any real form. A certain popular writer inspired me (You know who you are, sir!) to give this a shot, and I wanted to say thank you to him, for telling me that I should do so! Now shall we begin?

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The blocky yet agile freighter, the Darkstrider, tore through hyperspace on course with its destination. The pilot confirmed they would arrive at the system they were headed for in a few minutes. She turned her attention away from the blue tunneling glow just outside of the cockpit.

“Are you sure about this?” Inari asked Taal’ani, their lone Fel’caan crew mate and resident computer systems specialist. She stood up and stepped away from the pilot’s chair, which turned slightly as she moved. The area behind her doubled as both cockpit and bridge on this old freighter. Several wall consoles and podiums lined the walls, each one displaying various readouts of the ship’s systems and status.

A luminescent, yellowish-white light illuminated the area. A holographic projector, which emitted a bluish-white light, took up the space in the center of the bridge zone. The machine displayed still frame shots of a thin and unkempt man in his early forties, with an untrustworthy look about him. Inari Sunara straightened out her red spacer’s jacket as she approached, her boots clicking on the floor. Scrutinizing the stills, the captain looked certain, but turned to her crew mate for confirmation.

“I checked the vids we pulled from the security systems and cross-referenced them with stills from before. It’s him,” Taal’ani replied in her girlish voice while looking up at her captain.

Even at forty-six, Inari still had both the face and body of a woman at least ten years younger. With classically beautiful features, like that of the ancient film actress; Audrey Hepburn, albeit much bustier. Dusky skin, inky black hair, and brown eyes were indicative of her Middle Eastern ancestry. She was always striking to look at, a fact well documented by the amount of looks she garnered while the crew were on shore leave. The simple outfit of dark blue synth-denim pants and bracingly tight tank top was enough to send most men over the edge.

Though the same could be said for Taal’ani, as dozens of men looked at her nearly as often. She was a Fel’caan, a race of cat people that looked like the perfect hybridization of human and cat. She had tiger striped fur, a cat like nose and feline features. The cat girl also had the typical teeth associated with cats, though her teeth didn’t interfere with her speech. She had dirty blonde hair on her head like humans do, which oddly didn’t clash with her fur. It just made her all that much more appealing.

Taal’ani’s alluring, swaying walk always drew eyes to her sizable cleavage and massively round rear. Her beauty marked her as an exotic creature, as she always stood out wherever they went. Though her six-foot-four frame towered over that of her captain’s five foot-ten, she knew who was in charge.

Taal’ani would often wear form fitting clothes out in public as she loved the attention. Since they were on the ship, she wore an old torn second-hand t-shirt and baggy cargo pants. She liked to relax when it was just the girls aboard the ship. Her arm computer was displaying the video and still comparison, lining up the faces so they matched.

“So, you are certain it’s him?” Inari asked again, her alto tone resonating with power, as she was a woman used to giving commands.

“Positive. Ninety-seven point three percent match. It’s definitely him,” Taal’ani said to her captain, with a look in her green eyes that almost dared the human woman to defy her. Inari chuckled to herself as she turned and sat back down in her chair. She knew that muley look in Taal’ani’s eyes, which confirmed that she had made sure that there were no mistakes in the man’s identity.

Michael Phillips, also known as Rat-Faced Mike, was a slippery and weaselly bastard that had a lot of pain coming to him. He was responsible for several brutal murders across dozens of systems and crimes that ranked worse than murder. Though the bounty on his head was considerable, it wasn’t the only reason behind their search.

Mike had brutally tortured and murdered the parents of one of Inari’s crew. This would be a most satisfactory capture for all of them, one that Inari would relish for a long time. It was also a very personal matter for two of the crew, Natalya and Korsa. Natalya was orphaned as a child and would have fallen victim to Rat Face’s darker appetites. If Korsa, their medical officer, had not arrived and intervened, things would have been very different.

Priya, the co-pilot and sharpshooter of the crew, ambled over to inspect the face on the hologram. Priya was Inari’s closest and best friend of the whole crew. They served together in the Federation Navy until a certain high-ranking officer wrecked Inari’s career. Priya wouldn’t let Inari just up and leave without her, so once she had finished her second tour of duty, she put in for a discharge and joined her friend in her new life.

They had been thick as thieves since the academy, and as far as she was concerned, that was one thing that would never change. Priya took a swig of cooled water, having just finished a yoga session in her quarters. Her shirt and pants were a riot of colors, though dampened by the amount of sweat that was present.

Inari eyed the woman in an appraising manner, drinking in the lithe figure, B-cup breasts, and perfectly toned ass. Noticing the stare on her captain’s face, Priya flipped the braid over her shoulder and stuck out her ass for the captain to gawk at. She bent over to get a better look at the details on Taal’ani’s arm computer, her runners squeaking as she moved closer.

“That’s him, all right. I recognize the face. Though the last time I saw it, it was etched in pure terror, wasn’t it?” Priya asked as she directed her lilting soprano voice towards an approaching Korsa, while smirking.

Korsa looked at everyone and said in mock surprise, “What? It’s not my fault that the boy nearly pissed himself when he saw me charging into the fray.”

Korsa was a Khontar; a race that is genetically similar to humans, but with very notable differences. Four arms, enough physical strength to bend solid steel, oddly colored skin and two to four feet taller than a regular human adult. These were the most glaringly obvious differences between Khontarans and humans, but not the only ones. Many were more subtle in how they were expressed, but the same could be said for any humanoid race.

Korsa’s head was shaped like that of a human, with wide, expressive eyes, which glittered in the color of burnished gold, high cheekbones and a pert nose. Another unique trait of her race was the ability to change her hair color to whatever shade she wished. Though it would take an hour or so before the change was clear. She had gone a bright cobalt blue this time with silver tips, which oddly didn’t clash with her deep red skin.

Despite Korsa’s size, standing just over eight feet in height, she was perfectly proportioned. She had hips that matched Taal’ani’s in roundness, but much wider than the cat girl’s. They were encased in a set of tan cut away shorts, which only accentuated her figure. She folded both sets of arms beneath her breasts, making her massive H-cup rack threaten to tear apart the black long-sleeved shirt she was wearing. Although she was huge by human standards, she was perfectly proportioned.

“Mama K, you would make the most battle-hardened marine shit his pants if he had to stand against you,” Natalya stated.

She then walked around Korsa to better look at everyone and the holo on display. As the ship’s engineer, she was dressed in dark blue coveralls, which were smudged with grease and coolant. Idly dusting her hands on her clothes and flipping her crest of hair out of her face, Natalya stepped in for a better look, her heavy work boots clanging on the decking.

Giving her adoptive daughter a sassy look, she replied with, “Language, young lady!”

“Yes, mother,” Natalya shot back sarcastically, while her musical voice gave over to a bout of laughter.

Natalya was a gorgeous chocolate skinned woman whose attributes matched Korsa’s, albeit on a smaller scale. Standing at five-foot-nine, with a considerable bust and a plump ass, she almost looked like a pygmy version of Korsa, minus the second set of arms. The mother/daughter dynamic they had kept them close and was sometimes comical, often sending the rest of the crew into fits of giggles.

“OK, enough!” Inari said, while stifling a fit of giggling. “Let’s focus and figure out what needs to be done. We don’t know much about what we will find when we come out of hyperspace, besides a patched-up outpost that’s been abandoned since God only knows when. There will be some ships lying about, but we don’t know how many and what weapon loadout they have.”

“We’ll be using the stealth drive to get in close, hack their network and then be off,” Inari dictated the plan they had agreed upon. “Once we have the information we need, we leave and plan our next move from there.”

“Nats,” Inari said, looking directly at the young woman. “I know that this is personal for you, but we have to maintain the objective. Which is to determine what exactly is going on and what he and his new ‘friends’ are up to, so we can get that bastard once and for all. He’s been ten steps ahead of us this whole time. Let’s get ahead of him for once.”

The caramel skinned woman nodded, “I understand Captain. Just as long as we get that weasel bastard, I’ll be cool.”

Inari smiled warmly, looking around at her crew, proud of each one of them. Though they were all outcasts and different from each other, they all held onto one another. The adventures and hardships they had endured together had made them something more. They were family and no matter what, family always stuck with you.

“OK then. To your stations, everyone. We’re coming up on the co-ordinates now.”

Everyone bolted to their places and readied themselves. Korsa and Priya split up, going left and right, through doorways next to the main corridor. Heading up the ramps at the left and right of the main corridor which led to the topside cannon emplacements. Both women sat in the chairs and activated the laser cannons from their seats.

As they manned the guns, Natalya sprinted back down the main corridor to the engine room, to ensure that there were no hiccups with the stealth drive. She slid down the ladder and bolted to the main console, checking the power levels and connectors.

Inari hit the switch that dropped them out of hyperspace and into real space. Taal’ani set herself into the Zen like state she would need to be in to pull off the hack. Immediately they saw the abandoned station, sitting orbit around a massive planetary body. But instead of being adrift in the orbit of the gas giant, it literally was buzzing with activity and lit up like a tree on Christmas.

“Stealth drive engaged. Let’s hope that no one picked us up on long range scanners,” said Natalya as they closed the distance to the station.

Surrounding it was a veritable phalanx of warships. Several light cruisers, a couple handfuls of destroyers, over twenty frigates, and converted freighters. Docked with the station and the larger ships were dozens of fighters. Under normal circumstances, this was a collection of ships that would never harmoniously be in the same area, let alone work together.

“How in the hell did they amass such a fleet, and how is it they’re not shooting each other up right now?” wondered Priya.

“My best guess is that they have a contact that is allowing them to attain the framework of those warships. Though you are right, the number of them gathered in one place is both startling and troubling.” Korsa speculated, her motherly voice tinged with concern.

“Let’s hope no one looks out a window once we get close enough,” worried Natalya over the intercom.

Inari had to be careful, as several groups of ships had clustered together to patrol the immediate area around the abandoned station. They seemed to be in a rather sloppy semblance of standard Coalition military formations. Though there were only two patrol groups, there were other ships that were spaced out around the station. It was almost as though they were expecting intruders. Thankfully, they weren’t clustered too close together, so they had slipped by with none of the other ships so much as turning in their direction.

“Taal’ani, how much closer?” asked the captain as she took them high above the gathered fleet and over the station.

“I’m picking up a strong signal, just a little closer,” she said as she was priming her programs.

The stealth drive they were using was something that Natalya had spent years cooking up. It had taken some time to finish the final tweaks, and she finally got it working several weeks ago. The only drawback was it used a ton of energy just to power it. The rest of the non-essential systems had to be powered down or running on minimal power, so they didn’t drain the reactor.

“OK, close enough. Start the countdown,” Taal’ani told Priya.

The XO of the Darkstrider hit the holographic countdown display. Seven minutes and counting before someone detected them or the cyberspace defensive systems were set off. Thanks to a particular piece of hardware that Taal’ani designed and built into the ship, they could hack into any system anywhere. As long as there was a signal they could latch onto, they would always manage it.

“Found a way in. Silly boys and the games they play,” Taal’ani snickered as she piggybacked off a signal that was being used to play a recently popular galaxy wide MMO.

“What’s the count?”

“Five twenty-seven,” Priya said. “Working my magic, ladies. Hold on……”

The three-dimensional coding that she had to do was annoyingly complex, but Taal’ani enjoyed a challenge. Thankfully, the system wasn’t anything too exotic. Not much beyond the standard defensive programs found in the Coalition military. That these pirates had military grade defenses was a little more than troubling, but that was a fact she’d file away for use later. The rotating cipher was easy enough to crack, but time-consuming. Just one more rotation, insert the next few lines of code and….

“I’m in ladies. Time?”

“Two-eighteen! Must be a new record!” Inari said while she kept the Darkstrider in a stable position. Taal’ani smirked to herself, and she began her data trawl through the pirates’ archives.

“Combing through their files…. lots of personal junk in here…. found them! Initiating download.”

“Outstanding work, Talon,” Inari sighed in relief.

“Also, I got a little something else running while we wait for the download. I hacked the camera system on the station, and we should have a live feed streaming to the main holo… now!” Taal’ani said as she finished hitting a sequence of keys. At the last keystroke, the main holoscreen flooded with the various live images of the station.

“Are we recording?” asked Inari.

“Always captain!” Taal’ani piped up.

“Hold up a second!” she shouted, which caused everyone to jump.

“What is it, boss?” Priya asked, genuinely concerned at the change in demeanor. Inari selected a feed and sized it to fit the whole screen. On the screen were three men, who appeared to be having a merry laugh over something. One man, no one recognized, but by the way he was attending to the consoles on screen, they guessed he was one of the station techs. The other two were of more immediate interest to the group.

“There’s your confirmation, Nats. he’s here,” said Korsa as she watched Rat-Faced Mike sharing a laugh with a slightly rotund older man. He had greasy, slicked black hair, a pointed oiled goatee and wore what appeared to be a…. Confederation military uniform. Seeing this man there, though, had both Inari and Priya seething with rage.

“Captain Joseph Briggs!” Inari spoke with venomous spite.

“He’s most definitely the supplier! I knew he had his hands in some shady things, but aiding and abetting pirates?!” Priya said with angry shock laced into her voice.

“Just about done. One last file cache and…..” Taal’ani said while still working on her computer. On the screen, red lights flashed, and all three men looked around, wondering what was going on.

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“What is happening?!” Briggs roared at the station tech as the lights and alarms blared out their warning.

“Gimme a sec!” the tech shouted back while he punched up several command sequences on the main console. “Oh shit! Someone’s accessed and copied all our files!”

“WHAT?!?!?” Briggs raged as he stepped forward to see for himself.

“Who did this?” asked Rat Face in his reedy, high voice.

“Checking now.” The tech’s hands were a blur as they obeyed his mind’s command to check every avenue of infiltration. “It’s not from inside the station, so it has to be a remote signal from somewhere…” the tech trailed off while furiously typing away at the console.

“Trace that signal, NOW!” Briggs shouted, breathing down the tech’s neck and looming over him in an intimidating fashion.

“Think he needs persuading, boss?” Rat Face asked with a smirk on his face while reaching for his pistol.

“We still need him to find out who breached our system. I thought you told me that this system was unhackable!” Briggs fumed while backing away. He gave the tech some room to work while shooting a glare at Rat Face, prompting him to move his hand from his weapon. Rat Face put his hands up in mock surrender, a gesture of compliance.

“Fair enough,” he said, while backing away.

“It is unhackable! Unless you’re better than me and have exotic toys to reach out and establish a secure link….” the tech said, looking at the radar holo. then punched in a few commands, having the station start a full scan of the surrounding space. At first, he couldn’t see anything on the radar holo within range, other than their own ships. He was just about to give up when a ghostly single ping lit up the holo. It was pulling away from the station, then faded after maybe a second.

“That has to be it right there!” the tech pointed at the holo.

Rat Face pulled his weapon from his holster and aimed at the tech’s head, finger dancing on the trigger. “I see nothing there, boy. Just your imagination.”

“Just wait!” The tech screamed while he was re-calibrating and focusing the station’s sensor grid. Once he was done, the signal was little more than a ghost signature, but it was steady.
“Why would one of our ships be pulling away from the station so quickly?” he finished sarcastically, his voice trembling slightly.

“Boy, if you didn’t have a much-needed skill set in that head of yours, you’d be a smoking corpse by now!” Briggs screamed at the tech, who gulped and nodded in fear. The portly older man stepped over to the comm system and shouted out, “All ships converge on that ship pulling away in sector thirty-seven! I repeat, converge on that ship pulling away in sector thirty-seven! Shoot to kill!”

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The radar holo on the Darkstrider went red and lit up like fireworks. The computer confirmed that there were hostile targets bearing down on their position.

“Damn it!” Inari swore as they were making their way out of the immediate area to make the jump to hyperspace.

“Nats, disconnect the stealth drive! Our cover is blown!” Inari barked over the intercom, shutting down the drive on the main console. It restored some power, but not enough to get them out and barely enough to power the shields and weapons.

“Fuck!” came the reply. Natalya immediately went to work, shutting down the stealth drive, which was drawing a significant amount of the energy from the power core. She grabbed her spanners and wrenched as hard as she could, but the couplings weren’t budging.

“Mama K! I need some help down here!” Natalya screamed into the intercom. The response was the heavy, rapid footfalls of the Khontaran woman heading down to engineering while screaming at the top of her lungs,

“Talon, take over!” Taal’ani wasted no time in shutting down her arm-computer and jumped into the second gunnery seat that Korsa had just vacated.

As she burst into the room, Korsa saw Natalya was struggling to disconnect the relays that fed into the power core. Korsa jumped down, her short boots clomping as she landed. She rushed over, grabbed the spanners with all four hands. With almost contemptuous ease, pulled her arms apart, loosening the seized connectors. Natalya then hurried to finish the disconnect, which she did just as the first wave of fighters rolled over the Darkstrider, peppering her with their laser cannons.

“Power restored, Captain!” Natalya called out as she nodded to her adoptive mother.

She went back to managing the ship’s power levels, hoping that they weren’t in too deep. Korsa helped her out where she could, making sure she forgot nothing in the scramble. Seeing the spike in power levels, Inari cranked their shields to maximum. She banked and rolled as much as she could, but there were only so many maneuvers she could pull off while being swarmed by the pirate fighters.

“A little help would be nice, Pree!” the captain barked.

“I’ve blasted six into scrap, but they still keep coming!” Priya growled. The laser turrets wailed, ejecting their deadly energy into the oncoming fighters.

“How’s it looking down there, Nats?!” Inari all but yelled into the ship’s intercom.

“Power levels are stable and we’re ready to jump on your mark, Captain!” Natalya said. With all the dipping and rolling they were doing, all Korsa and Natalya could do was lock everything down. They held for dear life, as their captain tried to fly her way out of this mess.

“Should have seen that fail-safe trigger written in that last line of code!” Taal’ani grumbled to herself. She steadied herself against the swoops and turns the ship was making. The Fel’canni locked onto and blasted any fighters that came too near. Those frigates and destroyers were closing a little too close for her liking as she kept firing.

She heard and felt a slightly heavy thud near to where she was sitting, but paid it no mind as the incoming fire threatened to fry their shields and then them. Just then, she saw on her targeting system that both the frigates and destroyers had fired torpedoes.

“Captain….” Taal’ani warned, her tone underscoring her sudden fear.

“We have our co-ordinates! We’re out of here!” Inari screamed as she hit the throttle and they faded away into hyperspace.

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“THEY GOT AWAY!” Briggs bellowed as he saw the ship disappear from their radar screens.

“Not quite,” the tech said as he checked over the battle report.

“What do you mean?” Briggs asked as he quickly closed in on the tech.

“Seems like one of our fighters tagged that ship with a tracer beacon before they blew the poor bastard out of existence. They may have escaped, but we can track where they are. By following their trajectory, we can find out where they are going,” the tech said happily, relieved that he was giving his boss some good news.

“Excellent!” Briggs said, a smile lighting up his face. “Have the Phoenix and the Cerberus lock in four fighters each and head them off now!”

“Sending two destroyers and a small contingent of fighters after a measly freighter?” Rat Face scoffed while waving the pistol right in front of him.

Briggs stepped up right into Mike’s face to ensure that his point was made, while he slapped the pistol right out of the thinner man’s grasp.

“TAKE. NO. CHANCES. Have I made myself clear?” Briggs intoned as he was nose to nose with the weaselly man.

“Crystal.” the other man replied with a slight tremor in his voice. He then turned to the comm console to relay Briggs’s orders, with a disgruntled and venomous look on his face.

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The crew of the Darkstrider breathed a collective sigh of relief as they were safely away in hyperspace. “That was good shooting, ladies. First round’s on me when we get back to Coalition space!”

Korsa laughed jovially over the comms and said, “Never turn down a free drink when someone’s buying! I will help Nats here in Engineering. Some of our systems took a few nasty hits, and she needs my help in getting the maintenance done.”

“All right, then. Talon?” Inari asked.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do. Sifting through all this data will take me a while, and that’s only after I break the encryption on these files. It’ll take me a few hours at least,” Taal’ani said while giving the data file a brief glance as she stepped away from her turret. Her stomach groaned, embarrassedly. Blushing, she murmured, “I will grab something from the galley before I head off to my room to decrypt this.”

Though the bridge had a good computer system, Taal’ani’s room had a top end system built into it. She had the system installed because the one aboard was lacking severely in her eyes. It also allowed her to work in private, with nothing around distracting her. Inari stood up from her chair, stretching and working out the kinks in her neck and back with audible pops.

“And then there were two,” Priya’s soft lilting voice said into Inari’s ear as their Fel’caan crew mate retreated to the rear of the ship. She felt her XO’s arms wrap themselves around her midsection as her body pressed against Inari’s back.

The captain closed her eyes and tilted her head back, relishing the musky scent emanating from Priya. She felt her lover’s tongue dart out to lick that nerve point just behind her ear, on her neck. Inari shivered with anticipation at what was to come. Firefights always made Priya exceedingly horny, and this one was no exception.

Snapping her eyes open, Inari whirled, temporarily throwing Priya off balance. The captain was ready for it though and reached out to grab her XO before she toppled over, bringing her in for a soul searing kiss. As their lips mashed together, their tongues came out and dueled each other for supremacy.

Inari’s hands snaked down her lovers’ body, coming to rest on that wonderfully massive ass of hers. She grasped both cheeks, kneading them firmly, playfully, making Priya moan through the kiss. In one smooth motion, she gripped Priya more firmly and pulled her up. Inari was carrying her while Priya’s legs wrapped around her captains’ torso. Priya broke the kiss and stared into Inari’s face, muttering in a low voice.

“I love it when you do that, Captain.”

“Right now, I’m not your captain. I’m a woman who needs satisfying,” Inari said as she walked back to her quarters, carrying Priya.

“Abso-fucking-lutely!” Priya giggled with glee as she let go of Inari and jumped into the moderately sized room. She then dragged her lover in behind her, quickly divesting her of her jacket and her tank top. Inari’s breathing shot up rapidly, making her bra clad breasts heave with anticipation, begging to be freed from their confines.

Priya first removed her shirt, having gone with no bra while doing her yoga workout earlier. She then descended on Inari like a hawk, unclasping her bra from the front, popping her lover’s tits free. A gasp of relief escaped Inari, before it turned into a moan of pleasure as Priya then kneaded, licked and sucked on her succulent F-cups. Inari quickly undid her synth-denim jeans as the heat between her legs increased. She then pushed Priya back on the bed, breaking her off from her play.

Priya fell back with a squeal, landing hard on the bed. She quickly propped herself up on her elbows, watching as Inari kicked off her boots and finished pushing her pants off. She saw her lover was dripping through her boycut underwear. She made quick work of her own yoga pants, leaving her in just her thong, which was saturated with her own juices.

Inari then pounced on her, locking lips with her once more, and their tongues again engaged in their dance. Priya ground her leg against Inari’s pussy, just as Inari did the same to her, eliciting a simultaneous moan from them both, their eyes closing from the passion. They ground against each other like this for several minutes before Inari opened her eyes and stopped moving her leg against her XO.

Priya opened her eyes and whimpered in frustration, but only for a moment. Her captain had rotated herself horizontally, setting them up in a sixty-nine position. Doing this placed her dripping womanhood right in front of Priya’s face. She smiled for a moment before she cried out as Inari pulled aside the thin fabric covering her pussy and buried her face into it. Her tongue lapped at Priya’s clit, rolling it round and around, sporadically pulling it into her mouth. This sent shivers of pleasure up her lover’s spine.

While trying not to get lost in the waves of pleasure engulfing her, Priya grabbed onto the waistband of Inari’s boyshorts and pulled them down. They peeled off her ass, being nearly soaked, but in a few seconds, her lovers’ own pussy was exposed, which Priya attacked with a vengeance. For a few seconds, the tongue probing her depths stopped, while breathy moans coming from Inari filled the air. After which, Inari dove back in, determined to give her lover as much pleasure as she was getting.

A few minutes of this and Inari’s clit had peeked out of her folds, just as her fingers probed the entrance to Priya’s honey pot. She grabbed Inari’s hips, bringing them closer to her face, and reached out with her lips to latch onto Inari’s clit. Inari cried out as her XO found her sensitive nub and nibbled, licked and sucked.

Undeterred, she continued with her questing fingers, slowly sinking two of them deep into Priya’s slick love box. She left them there for a few moments, letting her lover grow accustomed to this new intrusion. After about a minute, she moved them in and out, slowly, making her fingers do a come-hither motion, her finger pads tapping Priya’s G-spot.

“Oh my God!!” Priya screamed as Inari’s fingers did their little dance inside her. Hearing her lover cry out always got Inari hot, even more so now, as she was so close to release.

“Right there, right there, right there…. oh… GOD…. YYYEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!” Inari cried out. Priya was rimming her and then tongue fucking her pussy, returning to her slit to lick and suck it and then repeating the process all over again.

As Inari began to cum, she drove her pussy hard into her lover’s mouth as she spasmed through her orgasm. Her fingers that were working on Priya’s G-spot sped up to where it was almost as though they were playing on a snare drum. She bent her head again to take her lover’s clit into her mouth, sucking it gently but firmly.

Priya’s breath caught and hitched just before she wailed wordlessly through an explosive orgasm of her own. Both women fell away from each other, panting as though they had both run a marathon. Inari recovered first, hands reaching for Priya’s thong. Once they found it, it was quickly peeled off her XO’s body, leaving her fully exposed. Smiling lasciviously, Priya pulled up her legs, rolled over and kneeled with her head down and ass up.

Presented with Priya’s ass and pussy for her to pillage, Inari didn’t wait, diving in headfirst. Pressing her mouth to Priya’s sex, her tongue slathered and lashed her lover’s pussy lips. The attention to her cunt elicited low moans of pure pleasure, causing her to quiver. She pushed back into Inari’s face, pushing her lover’s questing tongue deeper into her overheating pussy. The captain’s hands popped up and clutched Priya by her hips, pulling her ass hard into Inari’s face.

“Oh, oh, oh, oh, oooooohhhhhhhhhh…” Priya moaned as her ecstasy level kicked up a few notches, sending electrical jolts along her nerves. Inari continued to dive into Priya’s honeypot until she was dripping like a leaky faucet. At that moment, the captain backed off before liberally coating her middle and index fingers in her own saliva.

Placing them at the entryway to Priya’s pussy, she pushed them in one solid motion, encountering little resistance. Yelling out for a moment, it caught Priya off guard by the sudden push, feeling both fingers curl inside her. They stayed put, resting on her G-spot, before Inari’s arm moved. This forced the captain’s unyielding digits to move, rubbing on her most sensitive of places, hard. Crying out in little bursts, the smaller woman could sense her orgasm on its way.

“More, more, more, more, more….” she begged, almost chanting. Inari grinned, watching Priya’s body writhe like a woman possessed. It was always fun, setting her off like this. Just when the younger woman could take no more, Inari made her move. Using her thumb, she reached for and located Priya’s clit. Tapping on her love button in a staccato beat, Inari sent Priya into a massive orgasmic high, blasting into her like a storm.

Screaming into the pillow, Priya arched in ways that only a yoga master could, as the sensations coursed through her body like a drug. Eyes flickering, she flopped onto her side, languishing in the feeling of total bliss. Ever so slowly, Priya’s breathing slowed as her body recovered from the aftershock of their lovemaking.

Bolting upright and quickly pulling off her boyshorts, Inari growled like a feral animal, with needs that required satisfaction. Once the sodden garment was off, she tossed it on the floor behind her and stood over her recovering XO. A minute passed before the East Indian woman’s eyes opened and she stared up at her captain. Before she could even utter a word, Inari squatted, with her pussy landing right on Priya’s mouth. The older woman then grabbed her lover’s head with both hands, dragging it to her steaming honeypot.

“Eat me like your life depends on it!” Inari said gruffly while driving her pussy into her lover’s face. “Make me….” the captain squealed as her thought was cut off by Priya slapping and gripping her ass, as her tongue snaked into her lover. It flicked and whirled about Inari’s love canal, darting out to tease and press her clit, before going back to lap up the nectar that oozed from her captain’s cunt.

Inari moaned in appreciation, relaxing her grip on her lover’s head as she put her tongue to work. Priya’s hands tightened for a moment, before her right hand abruptly let go. A rebuke formed on Inari’s lips, until she left the fingers probing her pussy lips, teasing and inviting. Inari released her grip entirely from Priya and lifted herself up slightly, allowing her lover some room.

Picking up on the invitation, Priya coated both her index and middle fingers in Inari’s pussy juice before slowly sliding them into her. Groaning in delight as the fingers penetrated her, Inari shuddered as they pressed in further, until they bottomed out on Priya’s knuckles. Giving her lover a few moments to become accustomed to this new invasion, Priya continued sucking and nibbling on Inari’s nethers. The effect it was having was obvious, as the captain rolled her hips slightly, almost begging for her lover to continue.

Figuring that she had drawn it out long enough, Priya moved both fingers in and out, slowly. Smiling, Inari bit her bottom lip as she enjoyed the sensations that rippled through her body. She rolled her hips more, slowly riding Priya’s fingers and face as the slow burn of an orgasm started in the depths of her pussy.

Sensing this, Priya changed tactics and tapped Inari’s G-spot intermittently, as her fingers thrust in and out of her captain’s honeypot. Inari’s breath caught, feeling the pace of the approaching orgasm ramp up in intensity. In response, she rode Priya’s fingers harder, her lust demanding more from her lover. Priya stepped up her assault on her captain’s pussy, inserting her ring finger alongside the other two, further stretching Inari’s cunt.

Crying out, Inari gazed down at her XO, her eyes telling her subordinate what she needed. Priya’s mouth latched onto her captain’s clit, sucking and nibbling on it, while her fingers played Inari’s G-spot like a bongo drum. Inari wailed, a low keening sound that started slowly, then built in intensity as her orgasm hit her like a wave crashing down upon rocks.

As she came, the low wail transformed into a full-blown scream. Inari vibrated and jerked, like someone shocked by a cattle prod. Her arms shot out and jittered about as though they had minds of their own. Priya looked up and, with a smile forming on her face, rolled over to the edge of the bed, digging out a small box that Inari had tucked away under the bed.

“What are you up to?” Inari asked Priya somewhat breathlessly. Priya opened the box and dug around for thirty seconds before finding what she was looking for. She pulled out a translucent pink, twelve-inch double ended dildo.

It wasn’t an ordinary dildo, though. In the middle was an angled barrier that was shaped to fit them over their pussies properly, designed so they could grind each other while being filled. It also had several vibration settings for extra stimulation. Priya took the end that was shaped for her and licked and sucked it, making it nice and wet. After it was coated, she slid it into herself slowly, relishing every inch she was putting into her steaming quim.

Once it was fully entrenched in her honey pot, she looked at Inari with hooded eyes and in a husky voice said, “We’re not done yet.”

Nodding, Inari licked and sucked on the end of the dildo that was protruding from her lover. Once it was slick enough, she shifted her legs to go around Priya while she edged herself onto the fake cock.

Priya slid closer to make it easier for her captain to slide on. With a slight gasp, Inari slowly impaled herself onto her half of the dildo. They were now locked in and moved together, each motion bringing out gasps of pleasure from the other. Priya sat up and toggled the vibrating switch on the top side of the barrier, starting it in the middle setting.

A squeal of pleasured shock coursed through them both. Inari sat up and grabbed Priya, drawing her close to her, as they continued grinding against each other. They looked into each other’s eyes as the buzzing toy worked their pussies to new heights. Inari kissed her lover, which Priya returned with equal passion and fervor.

They squeaked as they continued kissing, feeling another orgasm building in each of them, as Inari flicked the switch to maximum. Barely ten seconds later, both women broke their kiss and shrieked like banshees as they both came together. They both fell back against the bed in unison, their lungs straining to feed their bodies oxygen. The intense lovemaking they had just given each other had nearly blown their bodies out.

“That was… wow!” Inari mumbled as she shimmied off the dildo and shut it down, giving their over-sensitive pussies a break from all that stimulation. Priya groaned wordlessly as Inari removed the toy and set it back in their toy box. Priya then moved up the bed to cuddle with her captain. Resting her head on her lovers’ considerable chest, she stroked Inari’s stomach as she lost herself in the afterglow of sex.

“Yes… it was,” Priya said, a goofy smile playing along her lips.

She then looked up into Inari’s eyes and leaned in to give her a long, slow burning kiss. Inari returned the kiss in kind while adjusting the covers to crawl in with her XO. With a contented sigh, Priya finally broke the kiss and cuddled up to her lover, passing out in mere moments. Inari’s own eyes felt heavy, and since it would be several hours before they reached their next leg on the journey. She let herself drift off to claim some much-needed rest.

******************************

Taal’ani heard the intense and intimate sounds that came from the Captain’s quarters. She was busy going through the data they had lifted from the pirates’ base as it went on. Despite each room being adequately soundproofed, those two weren’t exactly quiet. Hearing the cries of feminine pleasure got Taal’ani riled up a little, but she tamped it down.

Despite being straight as an arrow and being raised in such a manner by her clan, she couldn’t help but be curious about what sex was like with another woman. She had had plenty of dalliances with males of many species, but was still interested in what it was like.

Forcing herself to focus, she dove back into the data streaming on her holo screen. Using her interface gloves, she picked out all the messages and streams that were personal and set them aside in the interface. Taal’ani would go through those later, as there were often hidden gems of information in personal correspondence.

Latching onto the files that detailed finances, ship armaments, weapons and so on. She pulled apart her hands, enlarging them so she could go over it all in further detail. Examining the files had yielded plenty of information about what the pirates were doing, but almost nothing about their backers. There were a few subtle points throughout the data, which hinted at a pattern beneath the layers of information.

She spared a look at the chronometer and saw that once again; she’d lost herself in her work as they’d been in hyperspace for a few hours now. Taal’ani gave herself a break. Having trolled through the files she lifted had given her a headache, since she’d been looking them over for so long. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Taal’ani massaged the inner orbit of her eyes, giving herself some relief. She opened her eyes and looked again at the holo, then scoffed in annoyed frustration.

“That damn conduit is acting up again,” she growled as she got up to leave her room.

The door retracted in a sideways motion as she approached it. She turned left and headed down a few meters to find the maintenance panel she was looking for. Pulling a multi-tool from the utility harness she usually wore, Taal’ani disengaged the bolts holding the panel in place. Once it was removed, she gained access to the wiring beneath and got to work.

Holstering the multi-tool, she then pulled a scanner and placed it in the relevant section of the internal wiring. She knew this cluster of wiring was responsible for the interference in her computer system. Since she had joined the crew of the Darkstrider, she had upgraded the cyber systems and security protocols for their systems.

The system she had set up in her quarters was far more advanced than anything the Darkstrider had. The only way to upgrade the ship to the same specs was for all the wiring and systems to be yanked out and either upgraded or replaced. The ship would have to be in dry dock while the upgrades and modifications were being made. Until then, Taal’ani had to make do with the buffers and adapters that allowed her system to function as it should, but there were still hiccups from time to time.

The scanner finished its work and beeped back a negative on anything wrong with the wiring in the area. A look of confusion flicked across the Fel’caan’s features as she reset the scanner to check the wiring again. She broadened the scanning area to be sure she missed nothing. Thirty seconds later, the scanner again displayed a negative readout on finding anything wrong.

Shaking her head, she went back to her room and ran a troubleshooting algorithm to find out exactly what was going on. Seating herself at the holo terminal, she focused on the algorithm, putting it through its paces while making sure it was functioning normally.

“Odd, it’s not intermittent,” she said to herself as the algorithm plowed through the various systems that would likely be the troublemaker.

“Primary systems showing no issues or lag. Going through secondary systems,” the computer chimed as it continued its diagnostic.

As the system continued its routine, Taal’ani tried a more unorthodox approach. If the interference was being constant, then she should be able to stop it for a few seconds and look at the code to narrow it down to where it was. She waited for the next lag spike, readying herself to find and follow whatever it was.

“One, two, three, four….” she counted out loud, waiting for her moment. “Forty-five, forty-six… gotcha!” she grinned in triumph as she successfully slowed down and enlarged the code responsible for the lag spike. The grin on her face melted away almost immediately, and her eyes widened in alarm as she recognized what was slowing down the system.

“LADIES!” Taal’ani cried out into the intercom, “We’ve been tagged! One of those bastards must have hit us with a tracer missile!”

Inari’s groggy voice responded, “We were what?!?”

“Someone has hit us with a tracer missile! I’m heading out to get it!” Taal’ani panicked as she ran for the cargo bay area, where their spacewalk suits were stored.

******************************

Those chilling, frantic words jolted Inari out of her sleep induced stupor and she hurriedly got dressed, her limbs a flurry of motion. Quickly stomping into her boots, she darted out of her quarters and jumped into the pilot seat. Her hands flew across the controls and less than a minute later, they dropped out of hyperspace on one of the outlying systems of the Kepler Verge star cluster.

The current system was uninhabited, which was a blessing, as they needed to work quickly and unobserved. Priya joined her captain in the cockpit a few minutes later, her face a mask of worry.

“Getting my suit on now, Captain. Shouldn’t be over five minutes,” Taal’ani called out over the ship’s intercom. Not even three seconds later, the Darkstrider’s sensors beeped, the radar holo showing that two ships had just jumped in right on their heels.

“Talon, we’re out of time! Contact bearing one-five-six, mark five!”

“Shit! How many?” Taal’ani asked as Inari powered up the main guns and shields.

“Ten contacts! Eight fighters and two destroyers, closing fast!”

“Whatever we got must be important for them to throw us such a party!” Korsa said as she hopped into a gunnery chair and readied herself for combat. Natalya was only a few seconds behind her adoptive mother, throwing herself into the other chair, and scanned her readout for targets.

“Damn it! Priya, you have the ship!” Inari commanded as she sprinted from the bridge.

She stopped by her quarters for a moment to fly into her flightsuit before heading to the central airlock at the top of the ship. They customized the central upper air lock to dock and latch her Banshee class fighter on the upper part of the hull. Originally designed to seat one, they made modifications to accommodate one pilot and some small cargo. Or an additional passenger, if needed, which they did from time to time. She climbed up the ladder and shot straight up into the pilot’s seat.

“No time for pre-flight checks. Have to get this done now!” she said as she sealed the airlock and bulkheads, detaching her fighter from the larger ship. Quickly fitting her helmet and air supply to her head, Inari powered the engines. She pulled away from the Darkstrider and banked right, bringing her to the frigate’s aft section. She opened a comm channel, getting ahold of the Darkstrider.

“Talon, don’t fuss with your suit. Get back on your computer and see if you can shut down that tracer remotely. I’ll buy us some time!”

“You be careful, love. Don’t do anything foolish!” Priya’s voice crackled over the comm channel.

“Always, dear,” she replied, smiling.

Inari pulled an Immelmann maneuver and sighted in her first target. Putting all the power she could muster into the engines; she dodged the incoming shots of the initial wave of fighters and returned fire. She clipped one pirate fighters’ engines, sending him careening into his wingman, vaporizing them both.

Instead of turning around to pursue the other two fighters, she made a beeline for the nearest destroyer. She intended to distract at least one, hoping to buy her crewmates time to shut down that tracer. Her Banshee suffered several glancing shots, but it was nothing her shields couldn’t handle. Once she was close enough, Inari opened fire, scoring multiple direct hits, but the destroyer’s shields held. Slowly, the destroyer turned to follow her, as she had wanted.

“That’s it, you stupid son of a bitch! Follow me!” Inari had passed out of their firing range and headed for the second destroyer, but was dismayed. She saw it was opening fire on the Darkstrider and pulverizing her. There were still six fighters left, and they had formed up on an intercept course for her.

They would not let her interfere with the second destroyer’s job. Though she was glad to see her ship weaving and jinking about, doing everything it could to avoid the incoming fire. ‘That’s my girl’ Inari thought as she tightened her jaw in resolve, throttling up to reach those fighters coming after her.

******************************

Priya was pulling out every defensive maneuver she could muster and remember to keep the ship from being blown into scrap.

“Taal’ani, how’s it going?” Priya squeaked through gritted teeth as the crew held on for dear life.

“Trying to latch onto the code and start a shutdown sequence, but it’s slipperier than a greased up Kash’tuun eel!” she shouted out in frustration.

“Pree,” Inari’s voice crackled over the channel, “Pull a head spinner. I’m coming right for you!”

“Copy that!” Priya replied. She then spun the Darkstrider in a quick series of rolls to the left, then repeated the same set of rolls to the right. As she did so, Inari buzzed right past them, with all six remaining fighters on her tail. As Inari raced by, several blasts and explosions rocked the Darkstrider.

“Got one!” Natalya cried out eagerly from her gunnery chair.

“Same here! Clipped one of those bastards bad too!” Korsa piped up as they turned their attention back to the destroyer that was trying to close in on them. Priya looked out the window for a moment, and sure enough, she saw they reduced the squad of fighters in size to four. One of them was tumbling away from the battle, out of control, and its engines were dead.

“Good shooting! Our shields are holding for now, but we can’t take too many more hits, or we’ll be sitting ducks!” Priya said. She tried to dodge another round of incoming fire from the destroyer. But the shuddering of the ship told her she was unsuccessful in doing it.

“Shields are down to fifty-three percent! We can’t take much more of this!” Taal’ani shouted. She was working on her arm computer at a frenzied pace, trying to kill the tracer beacon that latched onto their ships’ hull.

******************************

A brilliant idea came to Inari as she was trying to shake the remaining three fighters on her tail. She ignited her fuel reserves, speeding up to where the pirates could barely keep up. Both destroyers were close now and bearing down on the Darkstrider, ignoring her fighter completely.

‘Clumsy fools! Never ignore even a single enemy fighter.’ she thought to herself, mentally repeating one of the tactical mantras she’d learned during her time at the Federation Academy. The pirates were pushing their engines hard to try to stay in range for their cannons. She raced for the nearest one, holding her craft as steady as she could.

‘Easy now. Have to time this right!’ Laser fire strafed the outside of her canopy, the deadly bolts missing, though just barely. A quick glance at her read-out showed the fighters were barely twenty meters away.

‘Perfect!’ Inari smiled inwardly.

She blasted right over the wide bow of the destroyer, then drove down the stick, going into a nosedive. Then, she banked left and looped inverted over the top of the destroyer. It was a risky maneuver, to be sure, and she gambled that none of the pirate pilots were skilled enough to pull off such a stunt. As she came about, her gamble paid off, as none of the pirates had wanted to follow her in such a death-defying trick. They opted instead to barrel past the destroyer and come about to catch her.

Inari opened fire with her laser cannons, slagging two of the remaining fighters immediately. The third saw her coming and tried to evade by banking right, but he wasn’t quick enough. Her laser barrage clipped on one of his stabilizers and he careened, out of control, into the second destroyer.

The shields on the destroyer absorbed the impact and flickered for a few moments. Inari saw her chance and opened fire on the destroyer. The shields sputtered, then fizzled out. Whooping in triumph, she toggled her firing switch and launched a pair of Hellfire torpedoes. Inari then sharply banked and gunned it, wanting to be as far away from the blast wave as possible.

******************************

Dorian Johnson, Captain of the pirate destroyer Cerberus, stood on the bridge, watching the battle unfold. Frowning in outrage and disbelief, he witnessed the carnage being wrought by the ships he was trying to destroy. The radar picked up two new points of contact, streaking towards the Phoenix. He saw the ship was in the process of turning to avoid the torpedoes, but it was moving too slowly.

“Brace for impact!” he shouted as he ran to his command chair, strapping himself in. The rest of the bridge crew held on as the torpedoes hit home, causing a great deal of destruction on the starboard side of the Phoenix. The impact sent a shock wave of energy that rocked the Cerberus.

“Status update, now!” he commanded.

“Shields at seventy-three percent, sir!” his tactical officer reported. “That freighter is still firing at us, but our guns have almost punched through its shields. We nearly have them!”

Dorian allowed himself a small smile. Normally, he’d follow orders from those who commanded him, but he’d cripple the ship, board it and take what prisoners he could. He wanted to have fun torturing them, slowly, painfully, making every scream count.

Even more exciting was the prospect of female captives. Those were his most favorite, especially exotic alien women, if there were any to be had. It was because of his ‘extra-curricular activities’ that had garnered both the respect and fear of his men. The respect he didn’t want, but the fear…… he craved it, reveled in it. He always wanted more playthings, but his orders had been explicit. Shoot to kill, leave no survivors. But it had been a while since he had any real fun, so orders be damned.

The comm officer walked up behind him and coughed mildly to get his attention. He turned with a bored look on his face and asked, “Yes, what is it?”

“Incoming transmission, sir. Apparently, the Phoenix is still in fighting shape,” the officer told him. Dorian couldn’t help but guffaw.

“Really?!? Have they seen themselves? Do they really think they’re in any condition to fight??” he asked, cackling.

He looked out the bridge windows and saw that despite the damage wrought by the Hellfire torpedoes; the Phoenix was still firing her port cannons on the Darkstrider. The starboard half of her hull was reduced to a melted, smoldering mess. There were many breaches to the compartments on the starboard side, but it kept on its task to destroy that freighter.

“Gunnery chief, keep an eye out for any more surprises. Anything that comes for us, vape it. Understood?” the captain said coolly. The gunnery chief nodded and turned his attention back to dealing with the Darkstrider while keeping an eye out for that pesky fighter.

“I’ll give him this much. Captain Baird is one tough and stubborn son of a bitch,” the comms officer remarked before stepping back to his post.

Dorian couldn’t help but nod. Having met Baird personally several times, he knew the massive bear of a man was not someone to be crossed, figuratively or literally. He also knew Baird was a stickler for following orders, so he had to move fast. If he was going to have his fun, he needed to board that ship before Baird could close with it. Moving at a slower pace than the Cerberus, a plan formed in his mind.

“Mister Smith, increase to flank. I want to catch that ship before the Phoenix does. Do so and you may take part with me in my personal activities this evening.”

The pilot smiled and replied, “Aye sir!” knowing catching this ship would be well worth the damage their destroyer sustained.

******************************

“Can you give us any more power, Nats? We can’t take much more of this!” Priya screamed into the comm as the Darkstrider rocked from another salvo from the destroyer on their tail. Priya was trying to evade the shots, but the ones that hit them were still rocking the ship hard.

“I can give you a little more, but not much! Otherwise, we’ll fry instantly!” Natalya shouted over the comm. Taal’ani was still trying to shut down the tracer remotely, but having little luck with it. Another blast hit them and smashed through their shields.

“Starwitch, our shields are out! We need your help now!”

“Hang tight. I’ve got a little surprise handy, but you need to get clear fast!” Inari’s cool voice said.

“Plan C?” Priya asked.

“Plan D,” came the reply. Hearing that, Priya rerouted all extra power to their engines, putting as much distance between the Darkstrider and the Cerberus.

******************************

Starwitch banked around after harassing the Phoenix for the last couple of minutes. She made a beeline for the Cerberus, readying her payload. An EMP torpedo, designed to fry the systems for anything the size of a cruiser. Though it was temporary, she hoped it would take down the Cerberus long enough for them to get away from this firefight. Despite the damage she wrought on the Phoenix, the Cerberus seemed to ignore her.

‘Stupid idiots. They never learn.’ Starwitch thought to herself as she lined up her shot. Within three seconds, she was in range, another five and she was locked on.

‘Suck on this, you cocky bastards!’ Inari then fired her torpedo, then banked hard to port, putting all the power she had, even shields, into the engines. The G-forces slammed into her body with all the force of a falling anvil, and she nearly blacked out from the strain. It was only through sheer willpower that Inari stayed conscious as she redlined it to the Darkstrider.

Rapidly blinking her eyes, she concentrated further to maintain her heading to her ship. She knew she wouldn’t get there in time, so she prepared to shut down the power on her fighter. Inari checked the clock on the torpedo. ‘three… two… one… now!’ and she shut down her fighter, drifting through space.

******************************

Alarms wailed as the Cerberus listed to port. All systems were flickering intermittently while others shut down completely.

“WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!?” Dorian bellowed as he struggled to regain his footing.

“We suffered a hit from an EMP torpedo!” the tactical officer cried out while trying to force the systems to respond. Turning his head, he walked over to the gunnery chief and asked him quietly,

“I thought I told you to deal with any surprises that came our way.”

“I tried, but that torpedo detonated before I could line up a clear shot!” the gunnery chief retorted. The man was clearly agitated that his captain was blaming him for something beyond his control.

“Your performance and attitude will not do,” Dorian said, as he calmly drew his pistol and aimed it at the chief’s head before firing.

Everyone on the bridge flinched as both blood and brain matter splattered across the gunnery console. A lot of it sprayed outwards to hit some of the men standing nearby. Holstering his weapon, Dorian continued speaking calmly, as though nothing had happened.

“If any of you present don’t wish to join him, I suggest that you all get back to work and restore power to our systems. I won’t have this crew of smugglers getting away!”

The bridge crew exploded into action, desperate to hold on to their lives, as their captain looked on impassively. He looked out the bridge viewport and saw that the Phoenix was drifting to port listlessly. Dorian beamed, thinking to himself, ’A touch too close, Baird. That ship is mine now.’ The systems readout on the Cerberus flickered back to life, making the man smile evilly.

******************************

“Well done, ladies!” Inari said as she closed on her ship, having powered her fighter up again.

“Talon, any luck with that beacon?”

The staticky reply was laced with frustration, “Negative captain. Damn thing must be military grade for it to give me so much trouble.”

Inari frowned pensively, then asked, “Can you give me an exact location?”

“Yeah, on the armor plating just above the engines. Why?”

“Three words; grab onto something!” Inari barked as she looked for the offending device. Hearing what sounded like a curse, Inari moved her Banshee into position just above the Darkstrider. ‘On the plating above the engines…. there!’ She focused her targeting reticle on the cylindrical protrusion on the plating and fired a brief burst. One bolt hit the beacon, and it shattered into millions of pieces.

“Signal gone now?” Starwitch asked.

“Yeah, we’re clear now, but did you have to do that??” came her XO’s acidic reply.

“No time for a spacewalk to disable it. Looks like both destroyers have recovered and are closing fast!” Inari said as she readied the docking clamps on her fighter, closing with the depression built into the Darkstrider.

A few seconds later, she heard and felt the satisfying clunk of the clamps engaging and locking into place. Without taking a breath, she tore off her helmet and dropped it into her seat. Then she jumped to the hatch and slid down the ladder, back into the freighter.

“We ready to leave?” Inari yelled as she shot down the corridor towards the cockpit.

“Need to recalculate the jump to hyperspace. Just need a moment,” Priya replied as she started up the Navi computer. “What the…. it’s not working!” Priya shouted in horror.

“What do you mean, it’s not working?” Inari panicked.

“I mean that it’s not working! We have a functioning hyper-drive, but the damn Navi computer is fried!” the XO wailed in disbelief. Taal’ani ran over to check and see for herself. Her hands raced across the consoles, hoping to breathe life into the Navi computer. But it stayed off, having been reduced to dead weight on the ship.

“Talon, can the rig you built function as a Navi computer?” Korsa asked, thinking out loud.

“It’s possible, but it will take hours to spit out a proper route. Navigating Charybdis’ Maw is no small feat! Without a proper route, we’ll be torn apart!” Taal’ani said as she continued trying to get the Navi computer back online, but to no avail. The crew looked at each other for answers, but no one said anything until Priya snapped her fingers, voicing her idea.

“Wasn’t this freighter converted from an old explorer ship?”

“What do you mean?” Inari asked, looking at Priya in confusion.

Priya’s hands quested about the ship’s controls until she found the set she was looking for. She powered the long dormant sensor grid that was built into the Darkstrider, bringing them online from their long sleep. Immediately, the range of their radar expanded to an immense distance, far beyond what their current radar system was capable of. Inari’s eyes widened, now comprehending what Priya had in mind.

“Are you crazy?!?!? We could wind up flying through a star, get caught in a supernova, any myriad of places or situations that could destroy us!” Inari yelled. Priya looked up at her captain, steely resolve etched into her face.

“At least we’ll be anywhere but here! You want to risk the pirates and what they could do to us?” As though in response, the freighter rocked with laser impacts. At least one destroyer had restored their power and was bringing her cannons to bear.

“We’re out of time!” Priya screamed as she gunned the ship to maximum velocity, trying to outrun and dodge the destroyer’s cannons. “What are your orders, captain!?”

Inari stared out the viewport for a moment, knowing if they were to stay, they would be killed or worse. She looked back at the radar holo and blew an outward breath of resignation.

“Do it, XO. Take us out of here.” As more laser blasts decimated their shields, Priya powered up the ship’s hyperdrive and banked left. She chose a direction that led away from any known hyperspace routes, hoping it would deter the pirates from following them.

“Sensors online and functioning at peak capacity. Nats, how’s the power looking?” she queried over the intercom.

“Power levels are low but stable. Ready to jump!” came the slightly hysterical reply.

“Shields at seven percent! If we’re going, we need to go now!” Inari shouted from behind Priya. Mentally reciting a prayer to Shiva, she set their course, and then activated the hyperdrive. The starlines around them blurred as the Darkstrider jumped into hyperspace.

******************************

Roaring in a rage, Dorian Johnson watched as the smugglers’ ship disappear into hyperspace.

“Track them! Wherever they went, we will get them!” he screamed as he turned on his heel and stormed away from the bridge.

The tactical officer spoke up in a quavering voice, “S… sir? We… can’t.” The psychotic captain halted and turned about slowly.

“What do you mean, ‘We can’t?’” he asked, his voice as dangerous as a bared blade.

“The tracker, sir. It’s…. not sending a signal. It was… either shut down or…. destroyed.”

Faster than thought, Dorian was on him, his hands wrapped around the boy’s neck, choking the life out of him. The young man tried to pry his captain’s hands from his throat, but his grip was like steel. Rather than try to fight back, the tactical officer punched a nearby activation button. This brought up the localized star chart on the main holo, showing where they were.

Highlighted in green was the trajectory they had been heading, following the Darkstrider’s course. Outlined in red was the trajectory in which they had jumped out of the area. When the holo sprang to life, Dorian’s attention snapped up to it, no longer focused on killing yet another tactical officer. He slowly released the kid from his death grip and stepped forward to study the hologram in further detail. First, confusion lined his face, then a small smile appeared, his mood evidently lighter.

“I suppose this will do. Taking a risk like this, this close to Charybdis’ Maw? They’re dead already.” Dorian spoke out loud as he finished his study of the star map. The route the smuggler’s ship had taken was not on any known hyperspace route or star chart.

Effectively, they had traversed into wild space, an uncharted frontier which few explorers had ever come back from. Space itself would kill the unwary traveler if they were foolish enough to take such gambles. The small cluster of black holes here on the outer halo of the known galaxy, known as Charybdis’ Maw, had torn apart many ships that had dared venture too close to it.

The only ways to get past it was around, towards the core of the galaxy, or through a small gap in the gravitational pull of the cluster. Only the most desperate of people ever took that route. Some explorers had tried to find a way around the outer edge of the Maw, but none had succeeded.

“Contact the base and let them know, target destroyed. There is no way they will survive this close to the Maw,” Dorian said with a slight edge to his voice. “Notify the Phoenix. Tell them to conduct what repairs they need, and then we head back to base. I’ll be in my quarters and I’m not to be disturbed,” he said stiffly as he strode from the bridge.

Miffed that he wouldn’t have any new toys to play with, he headed to his quarters, where his current playthings waited for him. As he stepped into his quarters just off the bridge, the bridge crew breathed a collective sigh of relief. The tactical officer sat rubbing his neck as he went back to work, thankful that it wasn’t him chained up in the captain’s quarters.

******************************

Priya was sitting on eggshells as they plowed through hyperspace, hoping that they would live through this jump. The sensor grid was operating as it should be, though it was dangerous going through uncharted space and there was only so much that the sensors could pick up.

So far, there was nothing of note on the radar holo, but the entire crew had to be vigilant. All it would take is a few seconds of distraction and that would be it. They would wind up dragged into the pull of a black hole, caught in a solar storm or one of many ways in which they could not escape.

Focusing on the sensor grid readout, Inari called out, “Nats, anything to report?”

“Nothing captain! Hyperdrive is functioning normally, as is the power core! Any fluctuations are within normal parameters! I’ll let you know if anything changes!” came the agitated reply. The entire crew was on edge, having taken such a risk with their lives.

Decking panels littered the corridor behind the bridge, as the crew was checking each section of wiring. Korsa was checking the cabling and power conduits to ensure that there were no shorts or issues. Taal’ani was hunched over her arm holo as she was focused on writing up a complex algorithm.

“How’s it coming, Talon?” the elder woman asked without taking her eyes off the radar.

“Slow. Re-writing sensor algorithms isn’t exactly my forte, and this program hasn’t been updated in nearly fifty years. I might be able to squeeze point two-five parsecs of distance out of it, but I’ll need to tear it apart and write it from the ground up to make any actual difference.” Taal’ani replied as her fingers tapped in numerous complex sequences.

“It’ll have to do,” the captain said, her voice betraying a slight tremble.

“Seven minutes, captain,” Priya chittered as she maintained her focus on the controls, ready to drop them out of hyperspace at a moment’s notice.

“Finished!” Taal’ani crowed triumphantly. “Uploading the changes now!” The radar holo winked out, then three seconds later, it came back online. Previously, the sensors could only see up to point six-nine parsecs from the Darkstrider, but now, they could see up to point nine-six parsecs away.

“Outstanding work, as always, Talon!” Inari sighed in relief as she clapped her crewmate on the shoulder. “How much time do we have now?” Priya asked.

“Should have ten, maybe eleven seconds to do an emergency hyper-drop before we hit something,” the Fel’caan said as she finished running the numbers. Priya then relaxed, their time to respond nearly doubling, giving them a substantially better chance at surviving this.

“Nats, should we chance dropping now?” Priya inquired over the intercom. “We have more distance now, but I’m not sure how much further we can keep going.”

“I wouldn’t risk it,” came the honey-voiced response. “Some panels were blown off in that firefight and nearly fried half of our systems. We’re lucky that this is all the damage we sustained. Give it another four minutes and we should be OK.”

The XO huffed in frustration but understood that the hyperdrive wasn’t something to be toyed around with. It had to run for a certain amount of time before the energies that enabled them to jump stabilized and the hyperdrive could be safely shut down. Shut them down before they stabilized, and you risked rupturing the containment module in the hyperdrive. This would render it into a half-ton paperweight. At worst, half the ship would be vaporized in the ensuing explosion.

Priya had often said they needed to get a new hyperdrive. Many of the newest ones, which were far more advanced than their current one, had reduced the time needed for stabilization to less than a minute. Only problem was that such drives were in the hundreds of thousands of credits, making it cost prohibitive for their ragtag crew to acquire.

“Sixty seconds, ladies! We’re almost through this!” Inari exulted as she watched the numbers tick away. The crew waited with bated breath as the moment arrived.

“Five… four… three… two… one… drop us out, Pree!” Natalya cried out over the intercom. Hitting the switch immediately, the Darkstrider dropped out of hyperspace, with nothing but black space around them. The entire crew let out a massive sigh of relief as they had escaped from a sticky situation yet again.

“Chalk that one up in the record books as our riskiest escape yet!” Priya said as she jumped out of the pilots’ seat.

She embraced her captain fiercely, thankful that they were all alive. Inari returned the hug with all the strength she could muster, crying tears of joy. Happy squeals abounded as the rest of the crew joined in a group hug, smiling and laughing that they had beaten the odds. After a few minutes, they broke apart, the reality of their situation sinking in.

“We made a blind jump by the Maw and survived! We charted that route, right?” Inari asked, voice trembling with anticipation.

“That we did, captain,” Taal’ani said proudly, having recorded the entirety of their escape. “This is something that is ours alone!”

Taking a moment to calm herself, Inari spoke, her voice hopeful, “Let’s get back to our stations, ladies. We should explore this area a bit, see if there’s anything around here.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” they all chorused as everyone retreated to their positions.

Inari stepped into the pilot’s chair and powered the engines, taking them forward, deeper into the blackness of space. She shut down the hyperspace sensor grid before the power drain took its toll on their already strained power core. The soft light of a yellow star shone in the distance, close enough to be seen but far enough away to be benign.

“Talk to me XO, is there anything on the scanners?” the captain asked.

“Just a moment, captain.” Priya said as she scanned the holographic representation of their current position. “I have a contact. Some sort of celestial body just ahead of us. About nine minutes out from our current position.”

“Planetary contact?” Inari queried.

“That’s affirmative, captain. Doesn’t look to be that large, and it appears to be moving at a rather slow pace, though it is one of seven bodies detected,” Priya said with a smattering of enthusiasm.

“Let’s go have a look, then! You never know what we could find, but we should be ready for anything that could be out here,” Inari stated, her excitement tempered by her caution. Without being asked to, both Korsa and Taal’ani bolted to the upper gun ports, keeping their eyes peeled for anything that might be hostile. The Darkstrider pushed forward through the darkness of space, sensors scanning for any readings they could pick up.

“I’m picking up readings that show that three planets are gaseous. Could be worth something in the long run, but we’d need detailed scans to be sure,” Priya tittered excitedly. “The other four appear to be terrestrial, but we should have a look at them to determine what they exactly they are!”

“Anything to show that anyone has been here before us?” Inari asked as she coasted the ship around the planets.

“Nothing on the radar or on the sensors. No ion trails, no artificial constructions of any sort. It’s just us here!” Priya said.

“Ok ladies, we can stand down,” Inari called out. In moments, the rest of the crew had returned to the bridge, and everyone was clustered around the radar holo, buzzing with excitement.

“An undiscovered system and we’re the first ones here! You know, this could mean….” Taal’ani trailed off.

“A fortune provided we play our cards right,” Priya said, her face alight with hope and possibility.

“We may want to keep this to ourselves for now. Who knows when we might need a place to go to ground again?” the captain stated, always the voice of both logic and reason.

“Inari is right, girls,” Korsa said, stepping behind their captain in a show of support. “Having a hiding place that the entire galaxy knows nothing about is an ace we should keep to ourselves,” the large woman finished.

“Since when do you play poker?” Inari asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Nats has been teaching me whenever we’re in a jump,” Korsa shrugged.

“Anyway,” Natalya interrupted from behind Korsa, “we probably should stop and drift for a bit. I need to step outside and have a look at how bad we got shot up. Mama, mind giving me a hand suiting up?”

Korsa nodded and followed her daughter down the hatch from the bridge into the cargo bay. As both women descended, Starwitch brought the ship to a complete stop. She then ran a full diagnostic on their systems, to be sure that everything they had was still functioning normally.

“Can you mind the diagnostic for a minute, Talon? I need a drink.”

Taal’ani smirked, “I’m on it, boss. Mind grabbing me one while you’re at it?”

“Sure!” Inari shouted out, while walking back into the lounge with her XO right behind her. The lounge was the size of a small den, with a circular table built into the decking, surrounded by a trio of somewhat comfy loungers, which were also bolted down.

Walking past all of that, Inari went right for the freezer above the fridge and pulled out the bottle of vodka that Natalya kept in there. She then reached into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of fermented Shou’arie milk. Shou’arie was a cow-like creature native to the Fel’caan homeworld of Bastellian. The milk it produced was a potent aphrodisiac in its raw state. When fermented properly, it packed enough of a kick to down even Korsa, who had one hell of an alcohol tolerance, even for a Khontaran.

“I don’t understand how Talon can still talk after drinking that stuff, much less walk straight,” Priya said while crinkling her mouth in distaste. She plonked down a trio of glasses on the table, of a similar mind to get a drink as well.

“Something about her species’ ability to withstand its effects, I suppose,” Inari replied. “Still, watching her on this stuff can be amusing,” she smirked as she poured the milk into one tumbler, then a generous amount of vodka into the other two.

“Not as funny as when Nats drank that stuff on a dare! You remember what happened?” Priya asked, giggling. Inari keeled over, laughing, recalling the incident with perfect clarity.

“I’ll never forget that day! I swear, it was like she was stoned out of her mind!” the captain said as she sat down, shaking with laughter as her XO went back to the bridge to bring Taal’ani her drink.

******************************

Natalya had shrugged off her coveralls and was busy slipping into her vacc suit. She had further stripped down from her white tank top, charcoal work pants, and work boots. In moments, she was standing in just a forest green sports bra and matching bikini panties. The suit fit over her like a second skin, and she was busy sealing off the entry points while Korsa brought over the gear she needed.

Knee high mag-boots, designed to conduct deep space repairs, her engineers vambraces, containing most of the tools needed to make any repairs. A materials harness, which held any additional bits she might need and finally, her chest plate and helmet apparatus. Korsa couldn’t help but look at her daughter, proud of her and the woman she had become, but at the same time, was wistful.

“What is it?” Natalya asked as she noticed her mother’s stare.

“Nothing, it’s just…” Korsa started, ready to go on about how Natalya was focusing too much time on chasing the man down. Natalya rolled her eyes as she saw the speech coming and cut her off.

“Mama, we’ve been over this. I know you think I’ve become obsessed with trying to track down that scumbag. Thing is, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep since that day. Too much has happened since then, and you know how close he got a few times. I can’t rest and won’t, not until that excuse for a human being is dead at my feet. Or thrown into a black hole where his worst nightmares seem like a cheerful place,” the chocolate-skinned woman finished.

“I know, and I understand that. I really do. I want to see you happy, Nats,” the big woman replied.

“I will be happy when that rat bastard is gone,” Natalya said vehemently.

“But what about after?” Korsa asked with some concern.

“I’ll figure that out when I get there. Now come on, mama, I need to have a look at what’s out there.”

Natalya stepped into the titanium boots, bending down to activate them. With a sucking hiss, they clamped shut around her legs, grafting themselves onto her suit. Korsa helped Natalya with her chest plate, locking it around her upper torso. Grabbing the vambraces, she slid them up her daughter’s arms one at a time, until the shoulder plates locked in with the chest plate.

Checking the alignment and finding it good, Korsa then pressed a button under the collar of the plating. With a similar hiss, the loose exoskeleton collapsed in on itself, secured to the vacc suit. Testing her mobility and finding it acceptable, Natalya stepped over and picked up the harness. She attached it to herself as she straightened up while Korsa retrieved her helmet. Checking herself over to make sure she had everything, Natalya stepped over to her mother and mentor, ready to finish.

“OK, mama. Set me up and let’s get going,” Natalya said as she clapped her hands together. Korsa smiled and set the helmet on her daughter’s head, then turned it, the audible click confirming it locking into place.

“Vacc test running,” Natalya said into the mic built into the helmet. The holographic interface in her helmet displaying all the seals and hard points in her suit as the checks ran through their cycles. Every single one lit up green, showing no leaks in the suit.

“Pressurized and stable. Ready to go,” Natalya said as she walked towards the rear cargo door of the Darkstrider. Korsa had stepped back and activated the containment field that separated the door from the rest of the hold. The doctor then activated her wrist comm, speaking her mind.

“You be careful out there, OK? I don’t want to have to perform an autopsy on you,” she said with a halfhearted laugh. Natalya turned to face her mother and smiled indulgently.

“Don’t worry, I won’t be floating or anything. We’re the only ones here, so I’ll be fine,” the engineer replied.

With that, Natalya pressed the button on the digital interface and opened the bay doors. After a brief decompression, she stepped through the containment field and out into space. Grabbing the edge of the doorway, she swung out to the right, grabbing onto the ship plating. Activating her mag boots, she then placed them onto the hull and traversed upwards, the cargo bay door closing behind her. As she cleared the vertical section of the ship, she got a good view of the state of the ship’s armor plating.

“Damn! The damage out here is extensive! I’m surprised that we didn’t get fried!” Natalya said into the comm as she surveyed the wounds the ship had sustained. Blackened scorch marks littered the titanium-steel plating like sand on a beach. A system prompt lit up the internal interface, telling Natalya that the onboard camera had just come online.

“Are you seeing this cap?” Natalya asked. There was a brief crackle before the reply came back from Inari, slightly slurred, but clear enough.

“A bit blurry, but we see it. Anything that needs immediate attention, or can it wait until we get back to a station for repairs?” Inari inquired. A brief sparking to her left caught Natalya’s attention, and she sighed, knowing that there would have to be a few things that required patching.

“Looks like it can’t wait. Seems that we have a damaged sensor and maybe some compromised wiring surrounding it. I’ll patch it up, but we may have to replace it,” Natalya declared as she walked over to the affected area. Kneeling, she dug into her harness and pulled out some solder, wires, and hull sealant.

Pressing a button on her left arm, a small compartment on her vambrace opened, revealing a small set of tools set into it. She pulled the stripper out, going to work on the sparking wires. After cutting them, she then set up the new wires and put them into place. Stowing her tools, she then pressed a button on her right vambrace, activating a small torch that popped out. Setting the heat to the solder, Natalya glued together the new wires to the old pathways and then set them into the recess, which they had nearly been blown out of.

“Done. You should have it back online,” Natalya reported to the crew as she shut down her arm torch.

“I see it,” Priya spoke over the comm. “Recalibrating it now. It should be back in a few moments.” Natalya stood pleased with herself as she looked around the hull, remembering the destroyed beacon.

“Inari, was that beacon vaporized, or is there still something left?” Natalya asked.

“I suppose there should be some of the casing attached to the hull. Why?” came the response.

“Want to pry off what’s left of it and properly dispose of it? Can’t be too careful with these things,” she said.

“I damn near vaped it when I hit it, but if you want to have a look, go ahead. It’s…”

“…. at the rear of the ship, just above the engines, I remember.” Natalya replied. As she made her way to the remnants of the beacon, Natalya couldn’t help but be struck by the sheer wonder and beauty that was deep space. She glanced at the system they were in, looking at the maiden worlds, untouched since their creation. Some of them had multiple moons, while a couple of others had only one or none.

She kept walking, reaching the area where the beacon had been attached. The laser burns on the hull were extensive, but none of them had punched through the ship’s armor. Natalya kneeled down and looked at what remained of the tracking beacon. Inari had done a number on the thing, as the laser bolts devastated the beacon to where there was barely anything left. All that remained was the casing, which looked like a small, ruined tower.

Checking the thing over, Natalya made sure that there were no hidden electronics left on the thing. She pulled out a portable scanner and scanned the beacon remnant to be sure. The scan came back negative, as she knew it would, so she pulled out her welding torch and went to work removing what remained of it. It took a few minutes for the beacon to come loose, as the clamps softened from the heat of the torch.

Once it was loose, Natalya gave the shard a good knock and sent it careening off into space. While technically this was littering, wherever the shard wound up, it would be far from here. Shutting down the torch, Natalya then stowed it and turned around to face space once again. She didn’t know why, but staring out into the vastness of it made her feel calm somehow.

Natalya sighed as she took a few more minutes of sightseeing, before turning on her heel to head back inside. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw what looked like a small asteroid drifting near their position. Curious, Natalya walked closer towards it, zooming in with her built-in interface program, getting a better view of the hunk of rock.

“That’s strange. That thing doesn’t appear to be a rock at all,” she said to herself while examining its rough edges.

“That’s not a rock!” Priya’s voice popped into the comm, jarring Natalya from her introspective thoughts. Focusing on the floating object for the first time, she saw the XO was right. It wasn’t a rock, it looked like a sizeable chunk of metal of sorts.

“Cap, can you power up and bring me closer? I want a good look at it,” Natalya chattered into the comm.

“All right, hang on a sec,” came Inari’s reply. She felt the ship shift towards the flying hunk of metal, the captain using the retro-thrusters to guide them closer.

“Pree, can you figure out where this thing came from before I grab it?” she asked as they came closer.

“Yeah, just give me a moment,” Priya responded. Natalya stepped back as the Darkstrider closed the distance to where she could comfortably grab the debris. It was metallic for sure, about the size of her torso, and looked to be about six inches thick. Shaped like a tooth, the silvery metal looked familiar, but Natalya did not understand why.

“Got the trajectory. You can bring it in.”

Natalya rubbed her hands but still stepped forward gingerly, not wanting to make any sudden moves. She reached out and clasped the uppermost edge of the metal and, pulling slowly with both arms, dragged it towards her. Slowly walking backwards, she turned and pushed it in front of her.

“Mama, open the cargo bay and extend the ramp. I’m bringing it in.”

Hearing the hiss of the opening doors, Natalya guided the shard to where she was just over the doors. Seeing the ramp, she deactivated her mag boots, floating upwards, before starting up her suit thrusters to guide herself down onto the waiting ramp.

“Quarantine field is ready,” Korsa’s voice said over the comm. “Want to be sure that this thing is safe before we do anything else with it.”

Reactivating her mag boots, Natalya pushed the metal fragment in before saying, “I know, but I’m wondering what this thing is doing out here? I thought we were the only ones who knew about this place.”

“Did you miss anything, Pree? A faded ion trail, perhaps? Maybe a probe or a buoy of sorts that was left behind?” Inari quizzed her XO as they went over the calculations. Priya was going over the trajectory data of the hunk of metal that was being quarantined and double checked the numbers to be sure.

“I’m certain. No one has been here. Ion trails leave behind a residue that takes months, sometimes even years, to dissipate. I checked the readings over at least three times. It’s just us here and no one else has been,” Priya continued, frustrated. The computer chimed just then, giving them a projected path of the metal shard’s flight. The yellow pathway showed led them towards the fourth planet in the system.

“Well, wherever that thing came from, it was from there. Nats, you back in?” Inari spoke over the comm.

“Just closed the doors and finished with quarantine checks, captain. The shard is safe, and so am I.”

“Good, because we’re heading to see where that thing came from, so I want everyone to their stations on the double!” she said, her voice booming with the command. Everyone scrambled to their seats while Inari hopped into hers and powered the engines on course to the fourth planet. As they closed in, it looked to be covered in ice, mostly white with hints of blue here and there.

“Scanning now,” Priya reported as she narrowed her search on the world and the space surrounding it. A small ping lit up their radar holo, showing a contact in high orbit around the dark side of the planet.

“That can’t be right,” Priya said in a voice barely loud enough to be heard.

“What’s that?” Taal’ani asked.

“I’m picking up a reading, some sort of ship, but it’s huge!” Priya scoffed with disbelief.

“I see the positioning. Taking us in for a closer look,” Inari intoned in a voice that brooked no argument. As the Darkstrider got closer to the point of contact, a large black spot became visible in space, blotting out the stars surrounding them.

“Doesn’t look to be any running lights. I’m picking up a power signature, but it’s very weak,” Priya said as the black blot grew larger in the cockpit’s viewport.

“Hitting the lights,” Inari stated as the searchlights on the Darkstrider fired up.

In front of them was a ship, massive, as Priya had told them it was. Debris of various types floated about their ship, but none large enough to cause any concern. It so happened that the lights from their freighter were playing along the prow of the ship where a name was spelled out in gigantic white lettering; PERSEUS. Eyes widening in wonder, Inari spoke in a quiet voice.

“Ladies,” her hushed tone heavy with reverence, “I think we may have found one of the lost Prometheus vessels.”

******************************

This is where the first chapter ends and don’t worry, I’m not one of those authors who just writes something willy nilly then forgets about it. No, I have a definitive plan and idea for what I’m going to shape this story into. This will be one of those truly epic journeys, where you’re going to need a big breakfast, maybe second breakfast and elevensies just to get through the first bit, lol!

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my work and I do hope that you’ve enjoyed it! I’m open to constructive criticism and will seriously consider any suggestions made about various story arcs. Please feel free to rate and comment on my work down below. If you like what I write, don’t be afraid to follow and share, though your views, ratings and comments are quite enough for me.

In the meantime, this is C.H. Darkstrider, signing off to grab a beer and some quality time with the wife! ;) You will attain whatever you most desire, as long as you believe in yourself. Cheers!