Chapter 4
We pulled away from the Aghoa Intergalactic Space Station and set off in the direction of the planet X-13, which was five planets and, according to Darak, one asteroid belt away. The HUD showed the direction that I needed to travel, so it was easy enough to set my course and soon enough, we were off.
What wasn’t easy was trying to fly through the horde of ships that were both coming in and leaving the space station. The other spacecraft that were leaving left in every different direction and didn’t leave much room for error as they did so. There were no polite queues or ‘after you’s, only flying in the direction you needed to go and crossing your fingers that the other ships didn’t fly into the back of you. Apparently in space, if you wanted to go somewhere you just went and expected others to get out of your way.
After a couple of close calls with a couple of ships that reminded me of drag racers back on Earth, I finally managed to fly far enough away from the space station’s influence that we were free to set our own, much more relaxed and less congested, course through the Xerillian System. It got less and less busy as I went further out into the darkness, and eventually, I was able to put the ship on autopilot for the time being.
I went into the living compartment and made myself another sandwich, because even though the writhing worms in the canteen had made me temporarily lose my appetite, it was never gone for long. I packed it full of ham and cheese, and then I sat down on the bed and munched on it eagerly. Sometimes, there was just nothing better than a simple sandwich, although, a part of me did think that I should be having a nice, juicy t-bone, a heap of mashed potatoes, and some expensive wine or champagne, followed by a ginormous dessert, since I was the first human to make it out here. But, I was a man of simple pleasures, so here I was with my ham and cheese sandwich, and I was very much content with it.
As I sat on the bed, Bob pottered in and laid down on the floor beside my feet like a real dog. I patted him with my free hand, and he beeped happily, before his lights dimmed and he turned on, what I assumed, was sleep mode. After all of the excitement, I had to admit that I was feeling exactly the same. I wolfed down the rest of my sandwich, burped, and then laid down across the bed on my back. I looked up at the metal ceiling with the long, luminescent bulb that crossed through it horizontally, and I felt some of the adrenaline start to dissipate. My muscles relaxed, and I unhooked my breathing tube and took a few deep breaths.
Thanks to the steady supply of oxygen inside the ship, I didn’t need to wear the tube. Still, it was nice to know that I had it on my person just in case something broke. The last thing I wanted was to suffocate in space, which sounded like one of the worst ways to go. I could picture myself choking on nothing as I tried desperately to get any kind of air into my lungs.
“Why am I even thinking about that?” I sighed.
“About what?” Francine asked.
“Nothing,” I replied. “That space station was incredible.”
“Yes, it is one of the more popular ones in the galaxy,” Francine said. “It is always busy.”
“Yeah, and some people really need to take a few flying lessons,” I replied. “I can’t even count the number of times people cut me off on the way out.”
“The rules are different out here,” the AI reminded me. “There are no junctions or lanes that people should abide by, or even any directions if you think about it. There is no up or down in space, and every direction is left or right, depending on which way you are facing.”
“Jesus, you’re making my brain hurt,” I chuckled.
“It is one of the most difficult concepts for biological beings to understand unless they have been in space,” it replied. “AIs have been known to struggle with the concept as well. We are often designed to map out environments, so when there is no easy reference point, it confuses our systems.”
“Well, it’s nice to know we’re in the same boat,” I said.
“But we are in a spaceship,” Francine said.
“It’s a phrase,” I replied.
“I see,” the AI said. “Noted.”
“Did you see some of the aliens in that space station, though?” I said. “They were wild. Those green guys with all those arms, and those other brown ones with the wiry hair… It was wonderful. All I needed was Morgan Freeman narrating what I saw and it would have been perfect.”
“I think even Morgan Freeman might have been speechless,” Francine said.
“True,” I replied. “But not for long. And you know what was really weird?”
“What was that?” Francine asked.
“Some of them were looking at me like I was the strange one,” I said. “I had to remind myself that to them, I was, even though some of them had tentacles or were about double my size.”
“You are the first human from Earth they have ever seen,” Francine said.
“Yeah, and if I’m honest, I was the perpetrator of a lot of the staring,” I admitted. “I just couldn’t help it. This morning, I’d never been out of the Earth’s atmosphere. And now, here I am, meeting hundreds of different species from all over the universe that I couldn’t even have dreamed up.”
“And they will not be the last species you see,” Francine said. “There are millions of races out there that travel across the galaxy, and some that are just like human beings and have yet to venture this far into space.”
“And to think, some humans are so convinced that Earth is the only planet that supports life,” I chuckled. “It’s such a naive belief, especially knowing what I know now. The universe is endless, so of course there are millions of different lifeforms residing in it. Still, I remember times when I would look up at the stars and think, ‘God, are we it?’ because I’d seen no proof of other life. Well, until you landed in my backyard inside that meteor and destroyed my trees.”
“Are you really still annoyed about those trees?” Francine asked.
“No…” I said. “It’s just a shame that they were in the firing line. I guess it doesn’t matter now anyway. I doubt I’ll be back any time soon, if ever.”
I was quiet for a moment then as I remembered my home, my one-time oasis. It was a little farmhouse with a couple of bedrooms, an outdated kitchen, a cozy living room, and a great view of the surrounding fields. There had also been a barn on the property which had become the spaceship construction zone.
The barn was now flattened, thanks to the arrival of Federal agents on my property. I’d originally planned to wheel the ship out into one of the fields, but the agents’ arrival had forced me to alter my departure. I’m sure it must have been very dramatic to watch my ship burst through the barn, but it had left the old structure in ruins.
“You never know,” Francine said. “Perhaps, when all of this is over, you will be able to go back to your home.”
“Maybe,” I replied. “But I won’t hold my breath. I don’t want to talk about the future too much when the present is so uncertain.”
“How wise,” Francine said. “Maybe you should write your own book of philosophical quotes.”
“When I get some free time between space travel, transporting alien goods, and the impending battle to save Earth, maybe I will,” I chuckled.
“Speaking of defending things,” Francine said. “There is another upgrade that I would like to make on the suit as soon as possible.”
“Already?” I asked. “I mean, I’m not gonna complain. All of the improvements you’ve made so far have been pretty awesome.”
I stood up and started to take off my clothes, and then the suit. I pressed the chestplate, and the back of the suit came undone, and then I slipped out of it. I put my clothes back on, and then I brought the suit in and placed it into the small compartment under one of the control panels that Francine had opened up for it.
“I have decided to allocate the resources necessary to upgrade the headpiece of your suit so that the visor you see out of is more useful,” Francine said. “I will add a night vision mode to it so that you are able to see in any type of lighting conditions, and I will also be adding some targeting reticles to the visor that will allow you to aim your gun perfectly in any lighting conditions.”
“What’s brought all of this on, Frankie?” I asked.
“Darak,” the AI replied.
“What about him?” I asked before I caught on. “Oh, do you mean what he said about the space pirates? And no, I can’t believe those are a real thing, either.”
“Yes, I am referring to the pirates that Darak mentioned,” Francine said. “It does not sound like they take prisoners, although they certainly like to take the cargo and the ships.”
“After the fighting lessons you uploaded, I think I can handle them,” I said.
“I know you can,” the AI said. “But I want to ensure your success.”
“You sound like my old high school counselor,” I laughed. “But I get your point.”
“Thank you,” the AI replied.
“Honestly, I’m hoping we don’t run into any pirates,” I said.
Francine remained quiet, though the silence spoke volumes.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I sighed. “I probably just jinxed it. Plus, it’s X-13, and we both know what the number thirteen is renowned for being.”
“I am not superstitious,” Francine said. “But I am realistic. We have to travel quite a distance to deliver the Aghorian, and I think we would be naive to believe that the shipments of the ore aren’t tracked by anyone who is interested in it.”
“You think someone at the station would tell the pirates about the shipment?” I asked.
“It would explain how they are able to focus on the most… productive thefts, and why the military hasn’t been able to wipe them out,” it replied.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” I sighed. “Well, I can’t take the moral high ground. There have been plenty of humans who have done the same thing.”
“The suit is finished,” Francine said as the control panel opened again.
“Already?” I said in surprise.
“I am not just a pretty face,” the AI replied.
“You don’t have a face,” I laughed as I took off my clothes and pulled the suit back on.
“If I did, it would be pretty,” it insisted. “I would design it to be perfectly, mathematically symmetrical, since that is how many humans subconsciously judge the beauty of a person.”
“Well, you just took all of the magic out of human attraction,” I laughed.
“I will take that as a compliment,” it replied. “Magic does not exist.”
I snorted as I finished putting the suit on, and then I looked down at my cap, trousers, and T-shirt on the floor. Did I really need to wear those anymore when I had the suit on? In the end, I picked up the small pile and chucked them on the bed for the time being. I was about to go back into the cockpit, but then I grabbed my beloved trucker’s cap, shoved it onto my head, and returned to my pilot’s chair.
I ran my hand over the old seat, which had come from the first truck I had ever owned, the one that had helped me start my own company. The personalized seat had seen me through decades on the road, and now it was seeing me through my time in space. Of course, I had made some changes to it, like attaching the seatbelts to it and bolting it to the floor, but otherwise, it was the same scuffed, extraordinarily comfortable chair that it had always been.
I watched through the front window as we passed through the Xerillian system. The other planets, X-9 to 12, were too far away for me to see with my own eyes, but thanks to the HUD, I was able to see where they were located.
Two of them looked very small, while the other three were a bit larger than Aghora and appeared to have more activity around them. The HUD indicated that several ships were coming and going while a handful orbited the planet. I assumed that some of the other delivery drivers that Darak had hired were part of the crowd of spacecraft near these planets, the ones that had opted out of going as far as I was to deliver the Aghorian element to X-13 because of the risk of coming across the pirates.
However, Darak had told me that it was likely I would come across them on any of the jobs, no matter how short. So, it made more sense to me to risk one longer trip in order to get all of the money I needed to upgrade the ship, rather than lots of smaller trips that would just mean more risk of coming across the pirates. Besides, I didn’t have a lot of time to hang around and wait for jobs. Francine and I were only at the beginning of our journey, and we still had a long way to go once we had the upgrades.
At least the trip had been quiet so far, so I decided to manually fly the ship for a while so I could get some practice in. But, as it turned out, I had quite the obstacle course to compete with.
As I drew nearer to X-13, the HUD informed me of obstructions up ahead and showed me that my path was littered with asteroids of various sizes that spanned across the system as far as the HUD could scan. There was no way around it, so that meant that I had to go through it.
“Well, Darak warned me about the asteroid belt,” I said. “I just hadn’t imagined it to be so big. This also explains why they don’t send ships in a convoy to avoid the pirates, they’d have to break their formation up in the belt and lose the defensive value of the convoy anyway.”
A few minutes later, I didn’t need the HUD to see it anymore. The belt spanned as far as my eyes could see, but I was just about able to make out X-13 beyond it, with its orange land and blue waters. I assumed that it was a planet covered by a lot of deserts, based on the color of the land, but there seemed to be plenty of water as well.
“You can reactivate the autopilot,” Francine said.
“No,” I said and shook my head. “I need to practice.”
“Well, this should be interesting,” Francine said. “Try not to hit any of the asteroids.”
“Really?” I said. “I thought I’d just drive straight into them.”
“I am detecting sarcasm,” Francine said.
“You’d be right there, detective,” I chuckled before I turned back to the rocky minefield ahead of me. “Alright. Wish me luck.”
“Just go slowly, and we should be fine,” the AI said.
“Uh-huh,” I said as I eased the ship into the belt.
Despite my desire to practice my flying skills, Francine and the tech on the ship still did most of the work in avoiding the asteroids. The ship’s sensors alerted me whenever something large enough to damage the ship was in our path, which in the middle of the asteroid belt, was basically nonstop, and Francine kept updating the flight path display on the HUD to show the spots where the ship could fit through.
At least the asteroids on the outer edge of the belt were smaller and spread further apart. It felt like a roller coaster, but I was fast enough with the controls that we were never in any danger. It was actually fun, and I was giving myself a mental pat on the back when we hit the thickest part of the belt.
The center of the belt was more densely populated, and the rocks were a lot bigger as well. We had to skim over the surface of some asteroids that would surely qualify as small moons, and there were a couple of moments when I thought we might get splattered like a bug on a windshield as I squeezed the ship between two spinning rocks. The joy I’d felt disappeared, and all I could focus on was getting the ship through the asteroids. Tension vibrated through my body despite the nanoprobes, and I felt sweat trickle down my neck.
“How did you manage to encase yourself into one of these?” I asked as I skirted around the edge of a cigar-shaped asteroid.
“With great skill and ingenuity,” Francine replied.
“You’ll have to give me a talk on modesty sometime,” I quipped. “You’re clearly an expert.”
My palms were so sweaty that I thought I might lose my grip on the joystick, but as suddenly as the asteroids had appeared, they started to thin out. I heaved a sigh of relief as X-13 came into unobstructed view, and I could see the rippling waves on the water and what had to be dune lines on the land. The space station hung above the planet like a silver beacon, and I grinned in relief as I imagined how easy it would be to dock there after weaving my way through the rocks.
“Not long now,” I said as I dove beneath one last behemoth of an asteroid just as my HUD suddenly turned off. “What the hell?”
“The system is struggling to keep up with all the debris,” Francine explained. “It will require an upgrade.”
“Of course it will,” I said as I darted between a couple of boulders. “Guess it’s up to me then.”
I gripped the joysticks tightly as I guided the ship through the last stretch, all the while keeping an eye on X-13 in front of me, so that I was always headed in that general direction. There were a few outliers from the asteroid belt, but when we made it through, we would still be on a straight line to the space station.
And then the atmosphere changed. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck and on my arms stand up, and my mouth went dry. My hearing sharpened so that I was able to hear every rustle, click, and whirr from the environment around me. My eyesight seemed to hone in on every detail in front of me and tried to uncover what was inside every nook, cranny, and shadow. My breaths became quick as a wave of foreboding came over me and made me shiver as though I had just stepped into an industrial freezer.
“Is something wrong, Will?” Francine asked. “I can sense a change in your heart and breathing rate.”
“I’m not sure,” I replied. “Something feels… off.”
I slowed the ship until it was practically crawling to the station, and my eyes darted toward any tiny movement that I saw in my peripheral vision.
I was hit with another wave of a very unnerving sensation, and that was enough to convince me to stop the spacecraft where it was. Up ahead of me were two very large asteroids that were side by side, and both were much larger than my ship was.
“Will, we should--” Francine began.
“Hang on,” I said.
I gripped the joysticks tightly. The air felt still and heavy. My heart fluttered nervously.
And then it appeared.
Another ship appeared from behind one of the asteroids and stopped dead in front of mine. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine that the ship had been waiting for someone there. For me.
“Oh, dear,” Francine said.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I think it looks like I might have jinxed us after all.”
“Are you sure they are--” Francine began, but the AI didn’t get a chance to finish.
Suddenly, two beams of red light shot out of the weapons on either side of the opposing spaceship, and I only narrowly managed to avoid being hit by them by sending my ship into a nosedive.
“Pirates!” I said as I punched both joysticks forward and shot off away from our attackers.