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“oh god, oh god” he breathlessly huffs. There’s what Parker can only describe as a roar from inside the pod. All the commotion has caught Ambria’s attention and she rushes over. Deka climbs out of the pod and views the strange surroundings. His eyes focus on Parker lying helplessly on the ground. The strange appearance of this fat pink small eyed alien sets him back for a second. He then looks up and sees Ambria. He begins to talk with what can only be described as a series of whistles and grunts. Ambria understands perfectly. She talks back to him in the same language, the accent seems flawless to Parker, much better than her English.

She explains the situation. Deka seems to understand and he quickly heads over to his daughter’s side. Ambria helps Parker to his feet.

“Sorry for that, he knows you rescue us” she says tenderly. Again the contact of her soft fur and tender touch send a chill down Parker’s spine, but he is to focused on the pain from the fall to notice.

“Yeah… *Cough* I got that” Once he is back on his feet Ambria returns to Deka’s side.  Parker slowly approaches them but takes a small step back when Deka looks over his shoulder at the approaching alien. To Parker the look seemed to be of anger, but that could be just how Deka looks most the times. Its hard to tell with a species so odd looking. 

               Parker keeps his distance. Deka and Ambria talk amongst themselves in Deka’s strange almost unpronounceable language. After a few minutes Ambria comes back over to Parker, still holding his robe around her body.

               “You have a computer to use?” she asks. Parker nods and directs her over to his workstation. She sits down and Parker gives her some instructions on operating it. She makes clear that she is looking for information so she can determine how long they have been in the pod for. With Parker’s help she brings up the last known charts of her native star system, and the current state of her people. She determines from this information, much to her shock that her Pod has been drifting in space for nearly the equivalent of 6 years. Strangely though this doesn’t upset her as much as Parker would expect it to.

               The next hour rolls by rather tensely. Parker grabbed some of his spare clothing and gave it to the 3 Aliens. They dressed themselves. By now the young girl, Nela has woken up. Startled at first she is quickly calmed by Deka and Ambria. Ambria again approaches Parker after the 3 of them had finished talking amongst themselves.

               “The Pod… Mura’s body… you have to destroy them” Parker is more then a little shocked

               “What… Why. I mean don’t they won’t me to take her back for burial, or whatever it is they do?”.  He asks quizzically.

               “No, they have no rituals for their dead. Besides, it would help them have peace” She looks around quickly “This ship, does it have any weapons?” Parker sharply laughs, then quickly stifles himself when he realizes that it was not an appropriate response.

               “Um, no not really. I’m just a Cartographer.  This ship has sensor buoys and dispatch drones. Nothing like laser cannons, or sonic char….” He pauses for a moment, his eyes flicker back and forth.

               “What?” Ambria asks.

               “Well I have a few Ion Burst charges. They send out a burst of energy that I use to map the interiors of asteroids, and other space born bodies. I suppose if I rigged a few that burst could become strong enough to blow the pod apart”

               “Would it completely destroy it?” she asks this with almost a strange sense of urgency

               “Hell Ya!, I mean in a contained space like that pod… well it would practically atomize it”

               “Good, do it immediately” She says it as if it were an order. Parker nods and sets about reconfiguring the charges. He takes two of the small technical looking devices and loads them into the escape vehicle, Trying not to look at the alien’s dead body as he does. His eyes drift over a few times but he sharply pulls them back to the charges. Once he has them secure inside he climbs back into the small crawl space and begins to seal the hatch back closed with his small hand held welder. Once he has a tight enough seal he climbs back down into his ship, and seals his own hatch.

               “Ok, it’s done. I’m going to go disconnect it and take us to a safe distance” he informs Ambria, who in turn informs Deka and Nela.  Parker climbs into his ship’s cockpit and sits in the pilot’s seat. With a few taps at the controls there is a sharp hiss and with a vibration felt through the Explorer 10 the pod disengages and begins to drift away. Parker grabs the ships helm and fly’s away, clearing a distance between him and the soon to be atomized craft. Once he has made a distance of about thousand kilometers he aims the Explorer 10’s front window back towards the pod.

               “It’s time” he calls into the back. The 3 aliens come up to the front, joining him the all look out into space, focusing there attention on the small tumbling speck off in the distance. He looks up from his chair at them. “Do you want to say anything… like I don’t know if you have a prayer or something?” Ambria doesn’t even need to translate.

               “No, do it” she flatly orders. Parker shrugs and leans forward out of his seat. Hitting a few commands, he hesitates for a split second. One final prayer of his own, a prayer that his modifications were correct. He hits the detonate key.

               There is a small moment of silence, enough to pull Parker’s stomach into his throat. Then there is a bright flash, and the pod hurls apart. a million pieces scattering to the cosmic winds. Deka and Nela wrap an arm around each other. Ambria places her palm on Parker’s shoulder sending yet another chill down his back, but not as bad as before. He focuses his attention back on his helm, consciously trying to devert attention away from the quite moment. A moment that is clearly making him uncomfortable. As he reaches forward he intentionally pulls his shoulder away from Ambria’s touch.

               “Um, I’m just gonna get us out of here, um I’ll take us to the Cytek system” He looks back up at Ambria, who looks down at him with here completely black eyes. “It’s uh, by a jump lane” She nods in agreement. Deka and Nela retreat back into the rear of the ship. Parker watches them leave, and is still a little nervous about their presence on the ship, But he turns his attention back to flying the vehicle. Ambria sits down next to him in the co-pilots seat. A seat that has rarely been occupied.

               “We have to talk about the plan” she says coldly, looking over at Parker. He looks back at her with a look of confusion.

               “Plan? What Plan?” he says with audible confusion.

               “Yes, what we are going to do, were to go next” Parker scoffs and shakes his head in disagreement

               “No, what’s happening next in I’m going to head to the Cytek system. Its 3 days travel. Then I’m going to enter a jump lane and were going to head back to Dispatch. It’s a big ship and I’m sure from there you and your friends can get a lift to were ever you need to go…”

               “Unacceptable!. We need to go to Frymia-ta, it’s a world where we need to be. And we needed to be there  6 YEARS AGO!” Her scream pierces the ship. It’s odd and unmistakably from a creature of another world. It gives Parker a great deal of pause, mostly because in her exasperation she couldn’t help but bare the rows of razor sharp teeth from behind the stubby muzzle of her face. Her jet black eyes seem burn, and the fine short dark red fur along her body stands on end dancing as if it were flames from a roaring fire, her round ears standing high. Maybe Parker was worried about the wrong alien on the ship.

               It’s not until he looks down at his own hands that he realizes just how much he is shaking. His hands are gripped white knuckle on the helm. His spine locked in a hunched slumped position, unable to move or focus on anything else except the terror he feels bubbling in his stomach. Parker is clearly the kind of person who holds a great deal of fear and hesitancy towards conflict.

               Seeing how white Parker has become, and how threatening her own posture is Ambria quickly eases up. She hides her sharp teeth behind her black straight lips. Her eyes soften and her ears lower.

               “I’m sorry, i…” she puts one of her hands on Parker’s leg. The contact causes him to jump sharply out of his seat and pull to the side of the cockpit. He is still shaking and visibly nervous. 

               “I uhh… I, um” He stammers, a shaking in his voice. He pauses for a moment and gulps back his fear. “I.. I’m sorry. But I, well I have to get back. If, if I don’t get these charts back I’ll lose my contracts. I still. I just can’t… I’m sorry” he braces himself against the walls. He can feel his back tightening again and the fear begins to bubble in his stomach.

               “Ok… That’s Fine” Ambria’s words cause a strange wave of ease to travel over Parker. His back loosens and he moves away from the cockpits wall.

               “Really?” his voice is horse, like that of a worried teenager. He clears his throat and slowly walks back over to his seat. He pauses for a moment as Ambria climbs out of her seat. Everything about her posture is non threatening as can be. “Ok, um well I’ll set up a course” Ambria nods.

               “I’ll go see to Deka and Nela” Parker nods and Ambria disappears from the cockpit. As soon as she does Parker sits down with a slump and lets out a long sigh, as if to push all the remaining fear out of his body. He shakes his head in disbelief and just sits for a moment, taking in the situation he has now put himself in. after a few seconds of reflection he sits up and begins to chart a course into his navigational system. He laments that he only got to chart 70 percent of the system, but it should be more than enough to fulfill his contract.

               After an hour of flying he programs the rest of the way into the ships auto pilot. It takes over and he heads into the back. He suddenly takes notice of Ambria who is rummaging through his food. She looks at boxes and bags and quickly discards them back into storage. She looks over to see Parker stepping down from the cockpits entrance.

               “Don’t you have anything fresh? Like fruit or leaves?” she asks softly, holding a box of freeze dried rice in her hands. Parker shakes his head.

               “Sorry, most of it is preserved. It has to be with how long I’m out here at a time for” he stops and ponders for a moment, remembering the apple he has stored in a vacuumed sealed bag. It was the last one he had, and he was sure he wouldn’t see another until he made it back to earth. The last time he did was 3 years ago. He quickly shrugs off the idea of keeping it hidden for himself.

               “Actually I do have something” he walks over to the sealed food storage bay and reaches into the back, pulling a sealed foil bag from it. He pulls it open with a hiss and reaches in. he pulls out a perfectly shiny red apple, looking as fresh as when it was pulled off the tree. Ambria looks curiously at the strange alien fruit.

               “Here, you can have it” he hands it to Ambria, who looks at it with small smile. She looks back up at Parker appreciatively.

               “Thank you” she smiles. To Parker’s surprise she doesn’t eat it, but instead turns around and walks over to Deka and Nela, who are sitting on Parker’s bed at the back. Again Parker watches how Ambria interacts with them. They all seem incredibly familiar with each other. How Ambria acts when she is around them is oddly in sync with the aliens own mannerisms. There is a great deal of physical contact between all three, and an air of great familiarity becomes more and more apparent.

               Parker has never been great at interpreting others body language and inherent intentions, but he can easily tell that Ambria has known those two for far longer then she let on earlier. He begins to doubt that they just happened to be cabin mates on some transport.

               Ambria gives the apple to Nela. The young alien bites into it, mashing it up in her wide flat teeth, her strange alien eyes illuminated in delight. The fleshy fins on her head stand up slightly, and her strange hands hold tightly onto the red fruit.

               Ambria smiles at the young girl and looks back over to Parker, giving him a look of appreciation. He smiles awkwardly at her and then quickly turns away, walking over to his large computer. He sits down with a slump in the leather recliner, a wave of relaxation traveling through his large body. He hits a few keys in the small panel in the arm of his chair and the large screen in front of him begins to play one of his favorite TV shows.

 

“I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship” - Louisa May Alcott

 

Chapter Three

The Dragon

 

               Parker’s attention was sharply pulled away as a loud urgent alarm began to pour out of the front. Ambria’s ears instantly perked forward and her eyes narrowed on the red flashing lettering displayed across the cockpit’s window.

               “INCOMING VESSEL” it flashed, urgently calling the attention of everyone in sight. Parker put down his coffee and climbed from the recliner, moving hurriedly towards the helm, with Ambria quickly behind. Climbing into his captain’s chair he tapped excitedly at the console running along his left hand side, eyes darting from it to the displays running across his window.

               “What is it, another pod?” he heard Ambria’s voice echo from behind. She moved forward, her palm resting on the back of his seat. He could see the worried look on her face from the reflection in the glass of the window. He didn’t reply right away, instead focusing his attention on sending out a wave of sensor pings. The data started to come back… disturbing data. He turned around in his seat and looked up at his passenger, who looked all too scared herself.

               “Not exactly” he softly stammered, his face running pale and his eyes gripped in desperation. Almost as soon as the words left his lips the small craft began to fiercely rumble. Alarms began blaring and a wave of fear and anxiety traveled through the ship’s four occupants like an explosion dread. Ambria looked up from Parker’s pale face and caught her first glimpse of it.

               The tip of the massive cruiser appeared slowly at first, moving into view as it passed over them in the window. Then it just kept coming.  She and Parker watched with locked eyes as it kept going, growing bigger and bigger in the window until the stars were completely gone, erased by its glowing lights and twisted metal frame.

               A Monster of a vessel, fearsome and evil, it was long, the shape of broadsword only broken up down the middle by a large black mass, strange glowing red lights running like veins down it. The sides were split open, a massive wall covered in spikes and holes. The top moved slowly upward, reaching its peak in a twisted cathedral. It was black, and red, and silver. The three large mountainous engines sticking out of the back generated a haunting blue pulse that pushed this city through space. It seemed to breathe, its hellish red lights pulsing and moving, like a dragon breathing fire into the night. As it slowly lumbered forward it seemed unstoppable, a force that had no pity or mercy for what laid in its path. The shadow it cast was darker then space it’s self. There didn’t seem to be any windows, nothing to show just how vast its crew must be. 

               Parker’s eyes moved over it, each passing moment casting a deep inescapable dread. He felt like a mouse looking down the throat of a hungry predator, counting the few moments it had left before the inevitable. The ships shadow engulfed the Explorer 10, which looked like a fly next to a lion. The cockpit went dark, illuminated only by the ships monstrous red glow. The red light struck Parker and Ambria’s face, both frozen in shock and terror.

               The gigantic vessel stopped, hovering above the modest little speck of a ship. There was a moment of sheer silence, were the only sound heard was the steady and low hum of the monster ship’s engines rumbling the frame of the Explorer 10.

               A sharp shrill crudely and suddenly broke that silence, a high pitched screech that cause everyone to jump in fright. It was emanating from Parker’s own internal speaker system. Ambria quickly covered her sensitive round ears and doubled over in pain. Parker, tightening his eyes in discomfort quickly pulled forward in his seat and desperately began to try to shut it off. He had no luck; the shrill continued for another full second then sharply stopped. Another uncomfortable moment of silence, then all the screens in his ship lit up simultaneously. 

               They all started displaying a symbol, a strange curved design. It was a round figure, cut across by a half square, a single black spike running down its center. It hovered on the screens for a moment then a strange electronic voice began to coldly and flatly dictate over every speaker in the ship.

               “HUMAN…VESSEL…YOU ARE HARBORING… FUGITIVES… YOU WILL… SURRENDER IMMEDIENTLY” It was strange, artificial, sounding as if it had been pieced together by a random database of synthesized spoken words. The message began to repeat itself.  “HUMAN…VESSEL…YOU ARE HARBORING… FUGITIVES… YOU WILL… SURRENDER IMMEDIENTLY”

               It took a moment for Parker to come to grips with what was happening. His mind flowed back to one particular word that made his stomach crawl its way up his throat. He looked back up at Ambria.

               “Fugitives?” he whispered, his voice containing an almost accusing tone. Ambria looked down at him; she began to shake her head.

               “No… No it’s a lie. You can’t believe…” Parker stood up from his chair; he stared long and hard into Ambria’s black eyes. There was genuine fear in her face. A moment of thick tension hung between them. “Parker… please” she whispered. Parker only shook his head slightly and pushed past her. He had to see the others, see their faces.

               He made his way into the cabin. Deka and Nela stood in the center, both their eyes intently focused on the symbol displayed on the large screen to their left.  Deka’s eyes looked over to him, they narrowed. His small green pupils met Parker’s. Parker could see what was in his eyes…fear.

               “HUMAN VESSEL…YOU ARE…HARBORING FUGITIVES. YOU WILL RELEASE… FUGITIVES…YOU WILL DOCK... WITH US… IF YOU RUN YOU WILL BE… DESTROYED” another terrifying message delivered by that cold fake voice echoed through the cabin. Parker was paralyzed; he just looked at the two aliens, seeing how they held each other in terror.  His mind kept pulling back to that word, “fugitives”.

               Ambria moved down from the cockpit, standing to Parker’s back. A ball of tension rose in her gut, a lump wedging it’s self firmly in her throat. She slowly and calmly moved over to the counter, making sure to remain behind him and out of his peripheral view. Her small furry palm gently ran along the laminate, until her slender finger danced over the plastic handle of a small sharp knife left out from their previous meal.

               Parker kept looking at the two aliens, Deka watching him intently while Nela clung tightly to her father, eyes pulled down to the floor.

               “Fugitives?” he softly whispered, and air of betrayal and mistrust in his voice. Ambria tightly gripped the blade and pulled in discreetly down to her side.

               “HUMAN VESSEL… YOU WILL… DOCK WITH US… IF YOU RUN YOU WILL BE… DESTROYED” The mechanical voice repeated. Parker’s eyes moved from Deka down to Nela… that’s when he saw it. Her face was racked in pure terror, a child like terror that Parker himself was only too fully aware of. He had felt that terror… he knew that terror. It was a fear of the dark, a fear of something so purely evil that it would immobilize you, leave you helpless and huddled, whimpering. It was the kind of fear that would make you think you would never see the light again.

               Parker’s hand slowly fell to the console; it instinctively pressed the right command key to open a channel to the alien vessel.

               “Unidentified ship…” he gulped back the dry hard lump in his throat “What crimes are these Fugitives charged with?” his voice held a hint of skepticism, masked mostly by fear.

               “HUMAN VESSEL…YOU ARE…HARBORING FUGITIVES. YOU WILL RELEASE… FUGITIVES…YOU WILL DOCK... WITH US… IF YOU RUN YOU WILL BE… DESTROYED” The cold artificial voice repeated. Parker moved away from the console, he approached the two Aliens. Slowly he kneeled down, his eyes coming level to Nela’s. His placed his hand gently on her shoulder and looked into her.

               “You don’t have to be afraid…” He whispered gently, a quiver in his own voice. “I won’t let them get you” At that perfect moment it wasn’t necessarily her he was talking to, but himself as a child. It was what he had wished someone had said to him long ago in a different time. He looked back up at Deka and smiled, trying to hide his own crippling uncertainly about what would happen next.

               He quickly rose to his feet and turned around.

               “Ambria I…” He paused for a moment, seeing the small knife clenched tightly in her fist, her fur standing sharply on end. There was no doubt from the look in her eyes; she was ready to kill him. “I need your help” he finished.

               Ambria nodded, her body shaking from the rush. She slowly laid the knife back on the counter, her eyes pulling away from Parker’s.

               “Yes… whatever you need… I’ll do it” her voice was soft, nervous. Parker nodded.

               “Good, I’ll need you to fly us as close to their docking bay as possible” Ambria’s ears shot up, her eyes grew wide.

               “What!” she yelled, surprised and angry. Parker quickly raised his hands in a gesture of patience.

               “Look, you know those charges I used to blow the pod apart? Well I have a few left. I’m gonna set them up like before and load them into the docking hatch. Once we get close enough to there docking bay I’m gonna burst that hatch open and there gonna shoot out at a very fast speed. Once there inside that Alien ship I’m gonna blow em and make a run for it in the confusion!” Ambria nodded, his plan made sense, at the very least it was the best option open to them. She quickly hurried to the cockpit and took a seat, awkwardly grabbing the helm and slowly flying the ship towards the monster vessel’s open hanger bay.

               Parker sharply turned and ran over to his equipment locker, he pulled the remaining few charges out and quickly flung them onto his counter. Grabbing his tool case he rushed to unbolt there panels and expose their internal workings. Remembering everything he had done previously his hands moved at lightning speed.

               In the cockpit Ambria cautiously flew the unfamiliar craft, the entrance to the docking bay getting larger and larger in the window.

               “Hurry!” she yelled over her shoulder into the back. Parker and Deka were in the process of hauling the charges into the small crawlway, placing them carefully against the outer hatch. Once the last one had been placed he rushed back down the ladder, practically knocking Deka over as he pushed past.

               “Out!” he ordered, Ambria instantly complied and jumped from the seat into the co-pilots chair. Parker slammed his thick ass down into the seat and began to pull the seats straps down around his large shoulders. “You better buckle up, and I suggest you tell them to find something to hold on to. This is gonna be bad!” he ordered, eyes never leaving the approaching docking bay. He quickly finished locking himself into the seat. Ambria leaned over and screamed to Deka and Nela in there strange tongue and then quickly began to buckle herself in, fumbling for a few seconds with the locking mechanism.

               Parker wrapped his fingers tightly against the helm, elegantly manipulating it as if it and the ship were just an extension of his own body. His foot danced along the four peddles below the dash. Slowly he pulled the small gold Explorer 10 up to the massive docking bay. It looked like it could swallow ships three times the size of his. Inside he could see strange figures moving about, undistinguishable but unmistakably alien. His ship was almost upon the entrance; slowly he began to pitch it sideways, lining the hatch up perfectly.

               His left hand fell to the control panel, fingers dancing up and down in a flurry of commands and overrides. He was ready. With one last sigh and a quick close of his eyes he whispered one final prayer.

               “Please… Please let this work” His eyes darted open and his index finger illuminated the final command key. With a sharp loud rush the aperture burst open and the air from the crawl way flooded out at a cataclysmic speed, pulling with it three small blinking devices. They flew through space, entering the ship’s bay at an immense velocity, arching downward on fatal trajectory.

               They clunked sharply against the massive ship’s deck, flying off on separate paths, tumbling into the strange creatures that occupied it. It was only a matter of seconds, Parker’s finger quickly moved up to the detonate key. It lit up under his pressure and there came a ferocious rumble. Inside the bay he could see three bright flashes that quickly erupted into an orange fireball that spread over everything in its path.

               He had no time to admire , he sharply twisted the helm and put every ounce of weight he had onto the peddle controlling horizontal thrust. The Explorer 10’s two powerful engines rocketed to life and burst out a wave of energy, propelling the tiny craft at bone crushing speeds.

               Parker and Ambria were sucked back into their seats, Parker struggling to maintain his grip on the helm. Deka and Nela held onto each other with everything they had, pressing themselves up against the back wall.

               Suddenly there was a burst of electricity from the spikes running along the massive cruiser’s sides. It arced out like thin red lightning and began to strike Parker’s hull. Everything began to shake violently, a roaring shutter that threw the four passengers around. With everything he had in him Parker curved the helm at a sharp left angle, pulling the ship into a tight barrel roll that quickly reversed its direction.

               More and more bolts of electricity burst out the thousands of tower like spikes. They began to fill the space around the Explorer 10, causing Parker to tightly maneuver through them like some kind of deadly field. He bounced over and under each bolt, some grazing against his hull and leaving long black scorches. Inside the cabin lights began to burst and smash with as an explosive crescendo.

               Parker’s hands had gripped the helm so tightly that it felt as if they had fused into it, as if his hands were now the helm. He pushed everything he had to the limit, his instincts firing as fast as the neurological pathways in his brain would allow. He bounced over, under, over, around, a dizzying swirl of red energy and white stars.

                More and more, faster and faster the bolts hit the ship’s hull. The large computer in the cabin exploded into a mass of shards and glass raining down upon the huddled and terrified aliens.

               “THIS ISN’T WORKING, WERE GETTING TORN APART!!!” Ambria screamed, her voice carrying over loud crashes of the lightning hitting against the hull. Parker had already figured this out, he had to change his strategy and do it quick, or there would be nothing left of his beloved Explorer 10, or of his well liked body. He twisted the helm sharply, pulling the craft as tightly as he could. The large vessel appeared dead center in the window, its red lightning arching out for them.

               Parker hurtled towards the monster at full speed, dancing around the lightning with inhuman level of control. His jaw was clenched so tight that his front teeth began to crack and chip under the strain. He is completely unaware of any pain. The blood shoots through his veins at light speeds, his heart pumping so fast that it is no longer beating, but simply providing a steady hum. He is completely and utterly in the moment, no longer human and flawed, weak and scared, but elegant… simple… for the first time in his life… single minded.

               The monster quickly grows until it once again blankets the sky. The red beams of energy can no longer focus, he is too close. They become disorganized, unable to touch the tiny vessel. The wall of the ship is huge now, towering over them. Leaning his considerable weight into pushing the helm as far down as he can. The Explorer begins to pitch upwards, running up the wall and bursting over the top of it. Parker quickly swings the ship over, hurtling up the length of the vessel, bouncing back and forth across its surface. The ship’s cathedral begins to tower, rising to heights that rival the tallest peaks on earth.

               He sharply rolls the craft to the left, brushing down the side of its base. The ships massive engines begin to appear. He is reaching the end of the vessel. With one final smash of the accelerator the Explorer bursts into speeds well over a thousand kilometers an hour. Inside everyone is pressed back into their seats. The explorer quickly hurtles off into the distance, leaving the massive cruiser to awkwardly begin to turn its self around, pitching slowly, a ship that big doesn’t maneuver easily.

               Parker quickly notices it turning around on his sensors. He knows that he would never be able to out run it. That’s when an odd idea flashes through his head.

               “Tan Hauser!” he yells to himself, as if it’s some kind of life changing epiphany. Ambria looks over at him, her own hands clenched so tightly into the side of the seat that her finger tips have begun to bleed. She wants to yell “What!?” but all she can seem to let out is a funny little loud chirp. The fur on her body so completely on end that is revealing the skin underneath, her ears tucked straight back.

               Parker quickly begins to adjust his heading, flying straight towards a distant orange cloud. The Monster behind them has now righted its self and is quickly closing in, shooting bolts of energy forward as if to be reaching out for them. The orange cloud begins to grow in the window, filling its entirety. The sheer size of this nebula makes the monster perusing them look miniscule by comparison. They are almost at its edge and the Monster’s jaws are almost upon them.

               “How do you know they won’t follow us?” Ambria screams

               “Shut Up!!!” Parker harshly screams back. He is at the edge; the lighting at his back now inches away. The ship breaks the clouds, entering the nebula and escaping the blast of energy. It’s not over though. Tan Houser is extremely unstable as Ambria quickly learns.

               Massive pillars of orange cloud jet up like totems in some celestial church.  He maneuvers the Explorer around them, flashing back and forth in a tight Olympian slalom. The edge of his ship lightly grazes one and it erupts into a fire storm, sending out a massive shock wave that tails them. Parker pushes everything he has left to break from it, staying just barely ahead. Suddenly the clouds split and he pulls the ship sharply up, the wave traveling below and away.

               He circles the ship around a few times, taking in a visual of the small pocket of open space, a bubble in a storm of fire. His foot begins to slowly ease off the throttle and the Explorer comes to a well deserved rest.

               Inside everyone just sits, a strange moment of silence penetrated only by a deep rhythmic panting… Parker’s. Ambria breaths a heavy sigh, looking down at her own bloody split fingers, the pain just beginning to set in. She bares her teeth from the sharp sting, her fur beginning to lower. Her eyes drift from her hands up to Parker, who she sees is in a far worse state.

               His hands are still locked to the helm, blood slowly beginning to drip down his wrists. His eyes are wide, almost bulging and his jaw clenched so tight that his teeth have compacted filling his mouth with blood. There’s no happy screaming, no leaps of joy, just silence and Parker’s heavy breathing.

               Ambria reaches down and snaps off the latch holding her to the seat; slowly she leans forward and softly places her palm on Parker’s arm. There’s no quiver this time, no rush. He just stares straight ahead, hands fused to the controls, chest rising and falling in a perfect rhythm.

               “Parker… Parker you can let go” she whispers, leaning her muzzle softly up to his ear. Her other palm drapes softly across his leg, unknowingly leaving a stain of blood on his jeans. “Let go” she whispers again softly.

               Parker’s eyes slowly drift down to the helm, seeing the death grip he has placed upon it. He begins to feel the pain from his hands and teeth and suddenly his whole body begins to quiver and shake violently. Ambria jumps from her seat and wraps her arms around his large shoulders, holding him tightly like a mother would.

               “Shhhhh” she coos. Parker slowly and painfully pulls his hands from the helm, seeing their left with the impression of its pattern. He opens his palms up and stares down at them, his face quivering along with the rest of his body. “Shhhhh. You did it, you did it” she repeats this over and over.

               Parker finally looks up, moving his eyes over to hers. They look into each other for a moment. His eyes drift down to her hands, placed gently on his body. He begins to see the blood flowing from them; his eyes shoot back up to hers.

               “Your Hurt!... I have ta… we have to… uh… your hurt!” his voice is filled with urgency, he tries to jump up out of the seat but Ambria’s arms hold him down.

               “No… just sit alright… just sit. You’ve done enough already. You’ve done enough” She whispers. She holds him for a few moments longer until his shaking stops then she stands up. Placing a hand on his shoulder she looks down at him with a smile. “Just sit here I’ll go see to the others. I’ll come back with some bandages okay?” Parker can only nod; Ambria squeezes his shoulder one last time then disappears from the cockpit into the cabin. Parker sharply slumps back into his seat, closing his eyes and bowing his head. He lets out one last heavy breath and begins to feel the blood slowing in his body. They made it… he made it.

 

*

               The orange and red storm raged just outside the window. A swirl of furious energy colliding with bolts of power and furious stellar winds pounding at the vacuum of space, a scream against the darkness. Parker’s eyes danced over the chaos, its power and destruction an echo of the turmoil inside him. He was still, caught in rapture by its power and it’s silence, his tiny ship motionless in the small calm pocket at the eye of this thunderous storm. He used to take such moments of calm and silence for granted, but not this moment.

               The sores and cuts on his hands were starting to scab over, the warm copper taste in his mouth starting to thin. Silently he reached up, placing his thumb and index finger inside his jaw. With a small jostle and tug one of his back teeth dislodged and crumbled into his hand. He winced in pain, eyes narrowing with discomfort. The heart in his chest had slowed to its normal rate, breathing calmed and leaving a burning in his lungs. There were no voices in his head, no screaming, and no shouting of “Run” or “Hide”. A strange realization occurred that he was truly calm, that was something rare for him.

               “It’s very beautiful” Ambria’s soft voice echoed from behind him, causing his head to turn and regard her. She moved into the small cockpit, the tips of her fingers tightly wrapped in white bandages, a roll of gauze clasped in her hands. She smiled that strange cute smile of hers and gestured her head towards the chaos outside the window. Parker nodded slightly and calmly turned his attention back to the nebula.      

               “Yeah I guess… I’ve never seen it from the inside before” he chuckled, trying to hide his pain and discomfort behind a mask of casual looks. Ambria moved to his side, sliding her inhumanly slender body into the seat next to him. She twisted it towards Parker and leaned forward.

               “Let me see your hands” She reached over for them, taking his left one off his lap and cradling it in her palms. Parker’s eyes moved from the window to her hands holding his. Slowly she began to wipe away the crusted blood and loose skin, causing Parker to sharply pull air through his broken teeth, an audible hiss of pain. He grunted a few more times as she tightly wrapped his palms in the soft white gauze, small red stains slowly seeping through. She finished wrapping his right hand and returned them to his lap, looking up to see his eyes intently focused on hers.

               “So are you going to tell me what’s really going on here?” His voice was flat, not accusing or hostile, simply a statement, something that needed to be said. Ambria hung her head down, a feeling of shame and regret causing it to grow heavy, her solid black eyes drifted back up to Parker’s.

               “I’m sorry… I didn’t know if I could trust you” Her voice trembled, head still hung. “You deserve to know everything. I’m sorry I got you into this… I’m sorry” she raised her body and leaned in a little closer to Parker, his face flat and cold.

               “I should start from the beginning… which is oddly enough twenty eight million years ago. You see the reason you haven’t seen Deka and Nela’s race before… well is because no one has, not in twenty eight million years. There called “Friata du mia” by my race. It means “The First Travelers”. There race is the subject of legends and myths told across the known galaxy. They affected the course of many societies and planets. They were an empire, the first true Empire, one that has yet to be rivaled in size or power or advancement. They created technologies beyond imagination and held power over everything” Ambria’s voice was flat; this was no bedtime story, or half forgotten legend… This was true.

               “Then one day they ceased to be. No one knows why, many different cultures have many different legends and versions of what happened but no one really knows. I guess just like any empire they just ceased to be. Slowly there race disappeared. Scattered they were just lost to time, along with all their works, all their technology, everything until all that was left was stories, and the effect they had on other young races” It was hard for Parker to take in, but even in his small travels he had heard similar stories, legends and half baked tales from indigenous peoples of strange worlds. He had always passed it off as any cynical pragmatist would. He looked away, and then back into Ambria’s eyes.

               “I was young, still a girl when it happened. My father was a scientist; he was obsessed with the old tales. Our legends say that the Friata Du Mia came to our world when it was still a black rock and they sprung our species from the lakes of fire. He was so obsessed with finding any trace of their empire that he dragged me from world to world, heading into the dark corners of space were others didn’t go. All he found was dust and stories, until… Until that day. We landed on some god forsaken rock. There was nothing there, but he had been told that he would find some ruins. We found a lot more than that. Can you imagine it, a race that had once been the most powerful force in the galaxy now living as a small group of tribal savages? I remember how excited my father was. He never even stopped to think about what he was doing. He sent out a transmission to his partners, declaring what he had found for the entire universe to hear. It was two days later when they showed up. Those aliens, those monsters, in ships just like the one that attacked us. They were brutal and merciless, raining ships and solders down upon the planet, snatching every man, woman, and child they could. We didn’t know what they wanted at first, we just ran. My father… my father was killed in the attack. I managed to grab a few of them and get them onto our ship. Five, I could only save five out of the hundreds on that world. Since that day we’ve been running, chased across space by those demons. Slowly I lost more and more passengers, until all that was left was Deka, Mura, and there child Nela. We were hiding on a refugee ship when they found us again. They attacked, we climbed into the pod, and then I woke up… and found you”

               Her eyes had welled with black tears, her face stricken in grief. Parker’s own face was sympathetic, he lightly placed his hand on her shoulder, it was the first time he had touched her in such a way. The feeling of Parker’s warm palm caused the pain to well inside her throat, she began to sob, clasping at her face, the black tears soaking into her fur. Parker leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight to his soft flabby chest.  She cried into it, letting out the decades of pain and fear she had held back for so long. It was at that moment that Parker realized just how far she had gone. She had been scared and alone for so long, having to hide her terror and shame in order to keep the others safe. He knew that she must have blamed herself and her father for all the misery that had befallen them. Parker understood this. He more than understood it, he had lived it too.

               They held each other for a moment, the storm outside echoing the one inside. An orange fire, vast and large, chaotic and destructive beyond all imagination, and yet small and insignificant compared to turmoil inside those two, lonely beings.