Chapter 10 The Phoenix

Chapter 10: The Phoenix

San Francisco, Earth, Early September 2105;

Captain Singh was a man of science, a man of exploration, not a man of speeches. He was oddly nervous, out of character for himself, soon he would be required to give a speech about his mission and his crew. Being the intelligent man he is, he had one prepared of course, he just didn’t want to give it. He stood next to the chief of operations for sciences of Castle Corporation, the mother corporation that was funding this mission. Sonya Chaplain was a wealthy woman who had no idea what she was doing. She was not a scientist, nor a good business woman, luckily Castle Corporation had grown too big to ever fail. She had never been on a ship, nor did she want to, yet she was here, christening their new vessel. She gave a small speech about exploration and the betterment of mankind, but Singh was no fool, he knew when they returned their records would be searched, simply for resources to take advantage of. He also knew, that he could use this mission along with his fellow scientist that would be on board to discover new exciting things about our galaxy.

The time had come, Sonya grabbed the champagne bottle suspended by a thin rope, and released it toward the nose of the ship. Everyone raised their hands, preparing to applaud, but to everyone’s shock, the bottle bounced off of the fresh brownish red paint. The crowd gasped, a sign of bad luck in maritime days, it had translated to to space travel, a tradition to christen a ship for good luck and the bottle failing to break was a bad omen. Ms. Chaplain chuckled, and played it off as her fault, she didn’t put enough force into the throw. A shipyard employee struggled with a long two by four from the ground, eventually pulling the bottle on the string back to the platform. Ms Chaplain released it again, this time with a hearty swing to it, the bottle smashed against the nose of the ship, and as everyone applauded as the canvas covering her name dropped. In large black letters it read “U.S.V. PHOENIX” with her registry number printed underneath. The Mythic class science ship stood proud in the sunlight, about 45 meters wide and 10 meters tall, to both sides of her bridge long the front of the ship were dozens in scientific instruments, not a single weapon.

Harmon Singh gave his short speech then was thankful that part was over. The 12 crew members that were leaving tomorrow on her gathered and had a toast to successful mission. It would be 5 years to the “Eagle Nebula”, 5 years studying and taking samples, and 5 years to return. She was meant to learn about star formation in famous ‘Pillars of Creation’. The Phoenix was a long range science ship, designed for this 15 year mission. On her return she would likely receive another. She was the 5th of her kind and there were more of her sisters nearly complete, heading in all directions of the galaxy to explore for science. Sandra McCormick, the head astrophysicist for the mission gave a short interview for a website. Some cake and some champaign marked the beginning of their journey. Aside from the incident with the bottle, it was cheerful and uneventful.

Dukes Repair Station, 2114;

“Tell us this again, Duke?” I said, rather shocked again.

“Deakon, it’s easy, there’s a ship. It’s not dragon, but it’s adrift, go get it, and if it’s suitable make it your home. That way we’ve got space to make for these upgrades and renovations to the station we need to do!” Duke was acting like it was no big deal, I had been on a couple salvage missions with them already, but it’s usually 4 for 5 of us, not 2! “Look, if you find it, and it’s too much, send us a message and we’ll come help! Besides, we’re behind again, 6 ships are waiting some work so we need as many to stay here as we can.” He slowed down “This is a great chance to get a fresh ship!”

“Okay, we’ll do it!” I said, not looking forward to this myself, but I looked over to Exodus, we were relaxing together for a moment before Duke barged in, they were laying in the other bed in their flight suit. The thought of being able to move freely was appealing though. “When do we leave?”

“Well, as soon as you can, the sooner the better, if it’s been spotted there may be others heading that way to scavenge what they can off it. Except us, we can salvage the whole ship!” Duke explained “I got the coordinates already, if you want it I’ll send them to you now!”

“Okay, and which ship can we take?” I asked

“Well, that’s the other thing, we need Valthy’s ship to fetch some larger parts. Normally I take Drito and Argin for food in my ship, but we can have hers doing double duty until you get back, so take the ‘Talon’ and make sure you don’t scratch her! You’re both pretty good at flying, you can take turns during the search too”

“How far away is it?” Exodus asked

“About a week out if you take the Talon, but two if we gave you Valthy’s ship, which is another reason why I’m giving you mine”

“And what about Glavous?” I asked

“Go and check it out!” I head from one room over. Glavous had a certain intuition like Exodus, though his was somehow different, so if he said it’s a good idea, it’s probably a good idea. My thoughts didn’t go for long though. “Make sure you are practicing while you two are away!”

“Okay, I’m down to check it out” I looked over to Exodus and they nodded affirmatively. “Let’s get ready!”

I went the ‘shop’ and packed up my toolbox, Duke had gotten me a large storage box and my own collection of tools a year ago when he realized I was actually catching on and was becoming excellent at repairing drives and other things, calling it a good investment. Exodus went to Pike’s lab, well really it was theirs now, and grabbed a terminal and some basic repair stuff for their own work. Really I think between the two of us we could probably get any ship up and running, provided the parts where there.

Glavous met us at the airlock where the Talon was docked. “Please, be careful” He said. Chickadee was at his feet, hopping into the air making little squeaks and chirps. Exodus looked down as their pet, and Glavous spoke again. “I feel like this is a great opportunity to gain your mobility, but I get the sense that one wrong move could end in catastrophe” His warning was very ominous, and even with how weird he could be sometimes, a little out of character.

“Okay, Glavous, we will, and we’ll return to you” I stated

“I feel like we should leave Chickadee here, I don’t really know, I just have a feeling” they explained.

“You’ve gotten powerful Exodus, you don’t need you familiar to train anymore, but I know you won’t abandon him now you’ve outgrown him.” Glavous tried to comfort Exodus, but then Drito emerged from the ship.

“Hey! I’ve got some freeze dried rations in there, and filled the freezer chest full of fresh stuff for you, Duke told me you were leaving for a salvage so I went ahead and got you stocked up” Drito watched the daomo jump for attention “Are you taking him?”

“I’d prefer not to, though I feel like leaving behind is mean” Exodus said

“Don’t worry, I can take care of him for you for a little while” Drito was always so quick to help. I still wondered what element they could use, we asked but they never told us.

Only two hours after Duke told us about the ship we pulled the Talon from the airlock and departed. We were efficient like that, because we learned the hard way if we didn’t get to a salvage quickly, someone else would beat us to it. Lost ships were like corpses and dragons looking to turn a buck were like vultures, and that included us.

There’s a part of space travel that isn’t talked about a lot. Humans have a lot of sci fi in their culture, ships that fly seemingly instantly from place to place. We have a little too in our writings. We never really made movies like humans, but writing was once a great part of our culture. Even some of the other races I’ve read up on had some sort of stories about space, before they could even travel through it. The one part that no one talks about, not from any species, not in any story, is the boredom.

Along the way a thought did occur to me again, that made the whole situation a little more exciting for me. “Exodus, if we do find this thing, then we’ll have to freedom to leave the station whenever we want! Maybe we could find out where ship number one landed, and find my Mom and Dad and my brother too!”

“I sort of thought you had already considered it” They replied back, rather happily “We could find them, but also take trips for ourselves too, and have our own little vacations and adventures!”

It took 7 days to reach the coordinates Duke gave us. We did all kinds of things, read on our devices, I did homework on textbooks about warp coils and our fusion reactors. Read specs on ships I’ve yet to see, researched hull designs. Exodus worked on subroutines and made new designs for more hydroponics. An idea they were working on was large stand alone space pods, solar powered for warmth, to grow food, basically fields in space. It was a nice idea in theory. Someday I’d love to see such a big project get undertaken. Together we also played cards, well dragon versions of cards, we talked together, spent some time reminiscing about Clay and our time on Sandpit. One evening Exodus pulled out a book, and rested their head on my stomach to read as I read up on theory on driver coils and warp drives. It was nice, honestly, after 10 years together we were still close, and I’d have to say, closer then ever. If I didn’t know better, I’d say was developing feelings for them. Well, I did know better, I WAS developing feelings, but I didn’t want to risk the great friendship what we had.

Now, for more boring space stuff. We arrived, and there was nothing, so we took the direction it was thought to be adrift in. Five more days of boring space. We entertained ourselves while we let the ship’s local scanners do most of the work. Reading, playing cards, another evening Exodus randomly laid with me, resting their head on my chest as they lay beside me, and I had to think of other things while they read about programming in their device. Surely technical information about fusion containment fields would keep me from having the thoughts about the purple dragon snuggled up to me. They had taken advantage of being away from the others, and worn very little the entire trip so far, ditching the expensive flight suit for the opportunity to let their scales get some air. I had to make sure my cloth lay straight down, to cover up my developing feelings.

I’m going to be honest here, this was long term boredom of looking for a needle in a haystack. I had time to think. These were not new emotions. I remember the time they pointed out my face spikes turning red when we flew in the desert together. I’ve felt this way for a long time. I loved Exodus, their cheery personality they had around me, how sometimes the most simple things in life made them happy and brought out their personality. And I’m not going to lie, I was attracted to them physically too. Their beautiful purple scales that few dragons got to lay eyes on, and their slim and now fit physique. I thought about telling them now, while were alone, with no interruptions to disturb us, I fantasized about telling the truth. Honestly I was opening my mouth, without my control, my emotions were taking over, then a beeping came from the console in the front of the small ship. Saved by the bell.

Unknown location, close the dragon territory border, 2108;

“So how long will it divert us?” Singh asked, there was a round table meeting in the common room near the back of the ship. Sandra had found a planet, possibly with life.

“It’s only a 3 week diversion from our course, it’s that close!” She explained. They had plenty of authorization to make such a diversion without permission, a simple note in the logs would suffice for this. “Spectral analysis shows a lot of complex proteins, I’m pretty sure we’ll find something there!”

“Easy choice, let’s go and take a look!” He decided “Does anyone object?” 10 others in the room shook their heads, no objections. “Great, I’ll note the diversion on our next transmission in 3 days. Until then, Ayan, head to the helm and change course! Let’s go find some life!” One of the crew got up, smiling, she left for the bridge to carry out the order. A human man, Dax, Sat across the table smiling.

“I thought I was going to bored this whole mission!” He was the only exobiologist on board, and was sent along as more of a ‘just in case’

“Well, I’m glad you’re here now too, not just dead weight” Singh teased.

Singh was a man of science, and he might be finding exactly what he set out to find, he was proud of decision, but he didn’t know this was the decision that would seal the fate of the Phoenix. She would live up to her name, but he was blissfully unaware. The ship shuddered, momentarily dropping from warp, and changing direction, before her coils groaned again, bringing the ship back to speed. Human ships could not turn at warp, they were less maneuverable.

It was 24 hours later, the 3 day transmission had not been sent, and the Phoenix was diverted off course at a high rate of speed. Singh was enjoying a cup of black coffee on the bridge. One thing that’s never talked about was the boring parts of space travel, the long times between destinations. This was one of those times. He was not expecting anything to happen. But this morning would show him how wrong he was. One of the screens started beeping and flashing. Sandra perked up, barely awake herself and looked, taking a moment for what she saw to sink in. Once it did it alarmed her.

“Singh! Another ship! It’s heading for us!” She yelled

“What?!? Out here? One of ours?” He panicked a little internally, he was prepared to see the secrets of the universe, not to battle aliens ships. “Drop out of warp to send a message”

“Yes, it’s human, looks to be a Savanna class cargo ship, but what the hell is it doing way out here?” She asked. The ship shuddered lightly as it slowed.

“That’s a good question” Singh thought. “Savanna class, that’s one of ours, Castle Corp ships, long range transport. Ping it, see if it needs help”

“Okay!” There was no ‘sir’, no military style command, this was a science ship, not ready or suited for battle. “Oh, it’s responding! Voice coming through, Singh”

“Okay, play it!”

“Unknown Vessel pinging me, what do you want?”

Singh nodded, ready to record a response “We noticed you’re out in the middle of nowhere alone, do you need any help? We’re on a long range science mission, and didn’t expect anyone else out here!” He nodded, and Sandra sent the message. There was a delay, it was far out, or least they thought.

Before they got a response the ship was in front of them, dropping out of warp itself. It was indeed Savanna class, smaller than them, likely only one occupant. But Singh noticed something different right away, something terrifying, it was armed, something this class of ships didn’t have was guns, but this thing had cannons, two long barrels protruded form either side of the cockpit.

The ships E.M.B.E.R. came up on screen, it was an AI designed to assist in science, but it had control of most of the ship as it felt it needed to, except for vital systems like propulsion and life support. “Captain, I pointed the telescope on the port side on it. It’s called the ‘Argus’ and I’ve got it’s registration.” A photo of the ship’s identifying marks came onto one of the screens. “I’ve already logged it”. A transmission came through and played on the speakers.

“Sorry, Phoenix is it? Your ship is so new it’s not even in my registry records yet. Well, you probably know I’m not supposed to be here, but the company wants what the company wants” As the transmission played the ship shook, it shook hard.

“What was that?!” Singh yelled, Sandra was at the screen, she panicked.

“I think he just shot off the long range transmitter, we can’t reach home!”

The transmission continued to play “There are things worth more to Castle than lives, and that’s what I’ve got, things the law doesn’t allow people or companies to have. They are paying me a very nice price to obtain these items.” There was a long pause as if whoever it was was contemplating, but in fact the attacker was taking aim. “You must understand, you being here, right now, at this place at this time, is astronomical in chances.” The ship shook, violently this time, the lights on the bridge turned red and alarms started blaring. “I’m sorry, but this is how it is”

Kelly McCarthy was the head engineer for the ship, in charge of anything mechanical, and a nuclear specialist, she sat at a console, it was red, blaring, flashing, the screen itself was in panic, she was almost frozen in shock, but still alert enough to yell out one thing. “He just hit the fucking core! We’re losing coolant!”

“SHUT IT DOWN!!” Singh yelled, Kelly had already hit the button, the fission core was already dying, even if it could be repaired, it would be dead for days now before it could be restarted.

The attacker had one more line for the crew “Good luck, I know it’s not going to play out for you, but at least my mission will be a success.” and the transmission ended.

Kelly stared at her screen, the coolant levels were still dropping, The Phoenix was loosing her blood into space, her assailant jumped back to warp and ran, leaving her and her crew to die.

Unknown location, one week upspin from Duke’s repair station, 2114;

I looked out onto her, she was drifting mostly straight, but had a slow pitch roll happening. She was in fact dead, no light, no movement, no sign of anything. It’s slow rotation indicated no had else had gotten to her, otherwise they’d have stabilized her before raiding her for parts. Exodus stood beside me as we watched her slowly tumble, I reached down to a panel and flicked a switch, bright lights coming from the front of the Talon lighting her up. Slowly she exposed her tummy to us. I noticed a large hole, the lights illuminating the inside as she rolled, it was empty inside.

“There, Exodus, the core is gone, they ejected it for some reason.” I took a moment to think, followed by along sigh as I realized a possibility. “I sure hope they got off before they died”

“I’m not so sure” they responded to me. “First things first, we have to straighten her out. Just like that second ship we helped Duke with, or the airlock could break, remember?”

“Yea, you’re right, we got straps but I think it’s a little bigger than we expected, but then again she’s not turning hard or wildly out of control, I think a couple gentle tugs should bring it back to center” I thought about it for a moment, we had been through this before, Duke’s ship was equipped for this. Before I had a plan together Exodus was on the control mount. I knew exactly what they were thinking and sat at a console behind them.

“Good thing you’ve got the best Pilot with you Deakon!” they teased, bringing us close expertly.

“Good thing you’ve got the best technician with you too” I shot back. Exodus got within a few meters of the turning dead ship and I hit a button. A metal piece shot from the nose our or ship followed by a long strap and clung to the other ship. The magnet engaged as it hit, grabbing onto the exterior of the hull near the rear. Exodus applied a very small amount of reverse thrust while I retracted the line, bringing the ship to line with us. It went a little past then the line brought it back. Duke had done this a few dozen times and his ship was equipped nicely for these recoveries. His extra tools were proving invaluable. Slowly I brought the line closer, pulling the ships together as Exodus used their pilot prowess to bring the ships together the final couple meters. And just like that, after only about 10 minutes of careful work, she was under our control, and no longer rotating out of control.

Conveniently grabbing her from the back brought our airlocks in line. Dragon ships’ airlocks were usually on the nose, where this alien ship was to the rear. Exodus managed to perfectly line the two ships up, and I hit another switch. Our airlock was designed for dragon ports, but also had a feature to magnetically lock to most surfaces. Again, this was something none standard, a thing that Duke and the others had designed over the years of recovering ships. The locking ring on our ships was larger than the other ship’s airlock and managed to seal around it. A moment later I got a green light on my panel, we were locked, and it was sealed as far as the computer could tell.

I stood up and Exodus locked the controls and dismounted “Well! Let’s go see what we got!” I said.

“I honest didn’t think we would ever find it, you know how lucky we are?!!?” They were excited, as far as we were concerned this was now ours, but now was time to see if we could fix it.

We went to our airlock, Exodus grabbed a couple of tools along the way. An air scanner and some basic things to check out the ship with. We put on the spacesuits just outside of the airlock, before venturing in and the door slid closed behind us. Slowly the air was vacuumed out of our airlock then an indicator turned to red, noting it was at vacuum, or at least the same vacuum as the space around us.

Our outer door opened, exposing the door to the other ship. I slipped a pry bar into it and surprisingly it opened rather gently. Without power to force it back, or keep the locks engaged. It seemed a little unsafe to me, but what do I know, I’m just a spaceship technician? What really surprised me was the blast of air that hit us from the airlock. Even though it had a gaping hole on the underside, she was holding air, that’s a great sign!

I stepped into the airlock of the other ship, and slipped my pry bar between that crack. OH! There’s the locked door. It didn’t budge, not in the least. I turned to Exodus, they were pointing down, and in a mild bit of surprise visible through their visor. I looked what they were pointing at, and became very shocked myself. There was an arrow, with words pointing to it. Words I hadn’t read in 10 years. It was English! I took a moment to soak it in, this was for sure a human ship!

I was a little rusty too, but after moment my brain figured it out, it was a big word in my defense. “MANUAL RELEASE”. I pulled off a cover and inside there was a crank. I started spinning it and just like before as the door cracked a burst of air was blown into the airlock, refilling what had been lost a few moments earlier. Exodus looked at the screen on their scanner and shook their head, then their voice came through over my headset. “No good! C02 levels are over limits” They took a moment before breaking the news of what they thought “It looks like someone suffocated in here already”

I kept cranking, the door slowly opened wider, I kept going until we could squeeze through. I wish I had opened it all the way, but I didn’t know what was happening. We stepped into the ship and started floating, it was pitch black, not a single watt of power anywhere. We turned on the lights on our arms and started looking around. Give me something to work with! Frustrated and not really knowing what to do, I turned my light to Exodus, they were frozen still, they looked like they had seen a ghost. I shined my light in the direction they were staring, there was nothing there.

“Exodus! Exodus!” I yelled though my mic. They looked at me, and said the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard.

“Deakon, they’re still here”

2108

“Okay, the core is gone, what are the options, how much thrust do we have in the capacitor bank?” Singh asked the now panicking crew. This wasn’t a military ship and in the moment of crisis it was showing. Kelly looked at her screens and starting thinking, fumbling.

“We got enough for warp 1 at ten minutes!” She was stuttering “But we also need to eject the core, as soon as we can, it’s already begun to melt down, the fuel rods are out in the open!”

“Okay, Kelly, stay calm, and get on kicking the core out before it kills us okay?” He said calmly “Just think it through, you’ve got time” Singh looked over to Sandra, staring at local star charts “Okay, Sandra, we still got photovoltaic on the top, is there any stars close by we might make it to?”

Tears were running down her face, she already knew “No, nothing within 10 minutes at warp one, there’s one about an hour away at warp 4, a yellow giant”

“Okay, Ayan, set course for that star and get ready to run with everything we got left, that’s our only chance right now!”

She nodded from behind the controls and started fumbling with buttons. She already knew what the Captain did, this was a last ditch effort, and it wasn’t going to work.

“Let me get the core out before we jump!” Kelly yelled Singh nodded to affirm. Kelly hit buttons in a hurry, and a few moments passed before the ship violently shook again. The ship had opened it’s bottom beneath the core like an aperture and emergency rockets permanently attached to the melting core drove it out of the bottom of the ship and into space, leaving it now no longer a threat to the crew.

E.M.B.E.R. came up on the speakers “Core is away, Captain, I’ve also shut down every scientific instrument and everything but bridge power and life support. The Super capacitors on the warp coils are all the power you have left. I’m going to shut myself down next.”

“Thank you Ember, hopefully we will see you very soon” He nodded

“Godspeed, sir!” and her voice was gone, screens around the ship went blank along with most of the bridge.

“Ayan, engage the warp coils, make a run for it, and don’t let the computer shut them down then the power drops, every damn inch matters!” He ordered.

Ayan turned to her controls, tapping on the screen as the Phoenix jumped to warp for one last time. Making a run for the nearby star that was much too far in hopes the solar panels on the top of her would keep them alive until a rescue.

A few seconds after she disappeared from her last know location, the melting core, ejected from her belly, exploded violently.

The speed of light is warp 1, and relative to space, is very, very slow. After just 11 minutes and 23 seconds the Phoenix fell from warp, extremely short of her goal. The Phoenix shook violently again as she lost the energy from her legs. The capacitor banks on the warp coils were exhausted and she dropped to sub luminal speeds. The drop was not a gentle one, leaving her in the slow rotation she would be found in. In the darkness of space between stars is where she died. As if poetically, her name would leave her with no ashes, no flame, nothing, just silent death. Contained within her the crew that would sadly soon expire. Out of power, she was now adrift on the course where she would be found 6 years later.

2114

I shined my light on the corpse, 6 years of decomposition had left him a skeleton, this beard still clinging to his jaw bone. I was lost, I had no idea what to do, we never encountered this on previous salvages.

“That’s Captain Singh” Exodus said through the speakers in my helmet, they had tears on their cheeks when I turned to look at them as they swallowed hard, holding back breaking down. “The others we will find in their quarters.”

“Did he tell you that?” I asked, Exodus nodded, still shocked at their new discovery. Glavous had warned them this would someday happen, but this isn’t what they expected. Exodus could see the spirit of Captain Singh, clear as day. I couldn’t see a damn thing, other than something was scaring my friend nearly to death.

Captain Singh was a man of science, even in death. He learned quickly he could communicate with Exodus. They were aliens to each other, but Singh managed to talk sense into Exodus and bring them from their initial panic. Now calm and realizing their power had just naturally progressed with all their training, they were now upset for the situation. 12 dead scientist were aboard the ship.

“Exodus, is he aggressive? Should we be worried?” I asked, the worst case scenario was in my head, we found a ship full of really pissed off ghosts.

Exodus floated silently for a moment, as if conversing with spirits, well, they were. “Hes okay, he says rescue is better late than never, but he’s saying more, he knows we want the ship.” As Exodus paused I shined my light around some more, suddenly noticing a plaque on the back wall of the this command deck.

It read “U.S.V. PHOENIX 2105” a year after we were forced off Earth. Some feelings of angers came to mind.

“He wants us to help, to take them to their destination” They sniffled, this entire situation was upsetting to them.

I was suddenly alone with them. I was on board the ship with them, all 12 were sitting around the table looking to me. Their Captain sitting the closest to me, turned to talk to me. The lights were on, the air was breathable. We sat in normal gravity. It was surreal, it was a dream, yet, I was awake. I looked at my hand and noticed I was now naked, my suit was gone, my purple scales were out and open. They all appeared alive, and for some reason they gave me their undivided attention.

“What humans did to you kind does not reflect our race. The general public was not aware of the plan, we were not aware that some parties in secret conspired to remove you against your will and treat you so poorly for so long. Exodus, on behalf of man kind, please, accept my most sincere apologies.” Exodus looked at the spirit of the captain, tears in their eyes, as if receiving some sort of closure, to know that their experience with humans was not a mistake. Some humans, perhaps most humans, were capable of compassion, capable of more than hatred, and capable of knowing when something wrong has transpired, and knew when to takes steps to correct it. Exodus knew this, they knew humans were not all evil, just like he now knew this about their own kind. Evil and hatred was not a trait that was specific to a species, but neither was tolerance and love. All 12 of the crew stood up, saying nothing, they bowed their heads in silence as the captain spoke again. “Once everyone learned the conditions in which you were forced in to, it was assumed there would be no survivors. The news that you and many others are still alive would fill a hole in the hearts of those were are not driven by fear and hatred. However the events you and the others survived will forever scar the name of humanity.”

“What can we do for you, Harmon Singh? To lay you to rest?”

“I failed in my duty to protect my Crew, Exodus. Please repair our ship and take us to the world we sough when we were killed, take us there to fulfill our thirst for knowledge, our spirits will lay to rest, and you may have my ship as thanks and as retribution for the horrible things mankind did to you and your lover.”

“Captain Singh, we are not mates”

“Not yet I suppose, but we all felt it, as soon as you came on board.”

I saw Exodus pass out, suddenly and without warning. I was shocked for a moment but then I grabbed them. Thank goodness for their small size. I pulled us along the walls back to our ship, closing the airlock and waiting for it to turn green. I pulled them inside and removed their helmet, fearing the worst, having no idea what happened. I removed their helmet then I ripped mine off and started shaking them. “EXODUS! EXODUS WAKE UP!” thankfully their eyes opened “Exodus, what was that?”

“I think, I think it was too much. Glavous said there’s a limit to our power, and I think I hit my limit for now, that’s all.” They sat up “I’m already feeling better”

“What the hell happened?”

“I had a conversation with the Captain” They sit in silence for moment, digesting what happened “He said, if we lay them to rest, we can take the Phoenix, as retribution”

“For what? Retribution for what?”

“For the exodus” The tears came back “That man in death, is as wise as most of the human race”

We took some time to rest, Exodus slept, regaining their power. I ate and came up with a plan, then slept a few hours myself.

Once they awoke, I told them my plan, and we were in agreement. We were going to drain all the air from the Phoenix. It was stale and toxic now, filled with rot from their corpses. After it was drained I would close the ejection port in her belly, then we could use reserve air from the Talon, another one of Duke’s secrets, to refill the Phoenix, then boost it with power from the Talon. Exodus was with agreement with one addition, while the ship was drained, they were going to gather the corpses, wrap them, and place them in their quarters, leaving that section to the vacuum of space to preserve them for now. Exodus also warned me to bring a seal kit, but couldn’t quite explain why.

We ate breakfast, put on on the spacesuits again and made our way back onto the Phoenix. This time, Exodus had no fear, and seemed a lot more cheery.

“He says good morning, Deakon!” they said over radio. “Also your plan is okay, but he warns the ship might take longer to drain then you think!”

“I’m not planning using the life support system to drain it, all this toxic shit in the air will get into the system then we will have to replace a bunch of things in there we don’t have parts for!”

“Wait, what’s your plan then?”

I stood at the door to the engine room, through was a window in the door, I could see through the engine room into the empty space beyond the floor. “My plan is, maybe you should hang onto something.”

“Wait! WHAT?!” They yelled over the coms.

“You heard me, let me know when you’re secured!” I responded. I looked at the wall beside me, there was a hand hold conveniently placed. I pulled a strap from my suit, meant for space walks, and tied it off on the hand hold.

“Okay! I’m ready!” Exodus said over the speaker. I knelt down and found the manual override, I pulled the panel off and there was a crank, just as before.

“Here it goes!” I grabbed it and cranked, VERY slowly, Sure enough, the door cracked, and the air from the ship started gushing through the crack. I left it just a little. Something science fiction gets wrong, is a small hole like this isn’t going to suck you through. I left it at a couple millimeter crack which let the air flow out, rather quickly, but not some dramatic sucking that was going to turn us inside out. Of course there was a strong breeze, but I left it like this, the ship should drain given enough time. As the pressure lowered the wind eased off, I gave it a couple cranks and opened the door some more, allowing the final air to escape faster. After a few moments it died down again and I started cranking it all the way open. The last of the breeze whooshed past my in my suit and I was left standing in the now open doorway, staring out the hole with nothing between me and open space. PERFECT!

I floated into the empty reactor room, there were two generator rooms to each side of me. I noted there was more than enough room in here for a dragon power core, and those generator rooms could be gutted! Oh this would work out better than I imagined. I started looking around for a way to close this hole. After a few minutes I found a hatch, labeled plainly ‘MANUAL EJECTION’ I opened the hatch and in side was a large wheel, much bigger than the cranks on the door. Luckily it had instructions. And by instructions an arrow that pointed in both directions with “Open” and “close” at each end. Simple enough! I grabbed the wheel and spun it in the “close direction” but I was dissapointed as it spun freely, seeming as though it wasn’t connected. A little annoyed that there would be an extra step I spun it again idly while thinking, but suddenly it stopped. I grabbed it and turned and it seemed to have caught on something, hopefully the gears that close it!

Exodus emerged form the corridor leading to the reactor room floating in the airless ship. They looked a little sad. “I moved Singh to one of the crew quarters and sealed that section off. What did you find?”

“I think this is how to close the hole!” I started turning the wheel more, and as I did points appeared around the hole and started closing in. It must have taken 200 turns, but eventually the points met in the center but the wheel had more play, so I kept turning the triangle sections the closed in were now moving up to make a seal. As they moved up, that’s when I saw it. There was a large hole in one of the sections, right below where the reactor would have been, this ship was shot!

“Captain Singh says there’s a lock, to make sure it stays shut you need to engage that too!” Exodus explained.

“Did he say where it is?” I asked, Exodus pointed into the hatch, below the wheel there was a lever, it was pointed at “unlocked” so I grabbed it pulled and it went pretty smoothly and engaged into the “locked” position.

I turned my attention to the hole, I could still see into space, but as catastrophic as the one shot that killed the ship was, the damaged to the hull was minimal. The hole was rough and the edges bent inward, a mild problem, but one I could easily fix. Exodus had already grabbed the seal kit from the corridor and flung it towards me. I caught it and laughed as it’s momentum pushed me into the wall. A pipe coming loose above me. I clawed my way back to the hole and pulled a hammer from the kit and started bashing the bits bent inward to point the back to the outside. After I was satisfied the pointy bits would no longer interfere, I pulled one of the metal patches from the kit, the largest one it had. I laid it down over the hole and it covered it with some excess, perfect. I pulled out the sealant, a thick rubbery black stuff from a tube that turned hard as it cured, but also stayed soft enough to remain air tight. I ran a bead around the circular piece of metal then pressed it over the hole.

“Well, Exodus, does Captain Singh know of any more breaches that we need to patch?” I asked

Exodus was quiet for a moment, assuming they were asking. “Nope, it was just the one shot that killed them.” They replied sadly. “But their long range transmitter was also shot off”

“Okay, let’s try airing up!” I reached to grab the patch kit but then I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, there was no sound in the vacuum to get my prior attention. Apparently there was an air pocket in the pipe I knocked, and it was released, breaking the pipe and sent it flying at me. It took my by surprised and before I could grab it, it smashed by helmet’s visor.

I tried to scream but nothing came out, yet everything came out, sucked out by the vacuum inside the ship. I had the thought to push off the floor towards the corridor. I felt my saliva beginning to boil and my vision was blurry. Then, everything went dark.

I screamed inside my helmet, I saw the whole thing as the pipe shattered Deakon’s visor, the glass being sent flying as the air inside his suit blew out explosively. I saw him push off the floor towards me but by the time he reached me he was already unconscious. For some reason without even thinking I grabbed the wall then grabbed his suit as he floated within reach, I pulled, pulled with every bit of strength my small body had. I flung his body down the corridor and clawed along the wall following.

I had to keep up with his body, a single mistake up now and he might not make it! We reach the stairs leading back up to the upper level where the airlock was, but now it was the other direction on this level. I grabbed the wall again, grabbed him by the foot and pulled, every bit of strength I had, and he started floating back toward the airlock. I clawed along the wall and grabbed him again, giving a boost of speed. I managed to do it one more time, he had a good speed going now. His body actually beat me to the airlock. The gravity plating of the online ship taking over as he arrived, pulling him to the floor. I was a couple seconds behind. As soon as I was in the airlock the gravity grabbed me too. I pulled his wings in, they were across the threshold, same with his tail. I was about to hit the emergency button when I saw Captain Singh, He was frantically pointing at boxes on the wall of his own airlock. I looked, one simply had the letters AED, another had the human first aid symbol, the third said “Exposure kit” I took a second and got back into the gravity free ship, grabbed all three, and flung them into our airlock.

I hit the panic button in our airlock. The door slammed shut and the space rapidly pressurized. Faster than I could get my own helmet off. The inner door opened and I grabbed Deakon’s arms and tried to drag him in but all I managed was to straighten up his body on his back. I knelt down and quickly got his broken helmet off. Suddenly Captain Singh was with us. “CHEST COMPRESSIONS!” the spirit yelled!

I moved and straddled his torso and started pumping. “Slower” Singh said. After a few moments of this he yelled again “EXODUS THE AED!” I looked the box, I knew what it was and that it was a last resort, often they didn’t work, but I opened it. Some wires and pads fell out attached to a box, instruction with simple pictured detailed how to apply this to a human. “It should be close enough to use the same way for your kind!” he said. I unzipped the front of his suit and spread it open, exposing his chest and quickly slapped the pads on. My vision was getting blurry now as I realized I was crying. I hit the button like the last steps on the pictures said to.

The box spoke, in English “Analyzing rhythm, do not touch the person!” and a small semi-circle on the screen started spinning. After a moment it talked again it’s words scared me even further “SHOCK ADVISED!” I pressed the red button “STAND CLEAR, DELIVERING SHOCK” and after a second it beeped loudly, Deakon body jumped. “RESUME COMPRESSIONS” and I started pumping his chest again, now crying so hard I could barely see. I was so sacred but I wasn’t going to give up until I either passed out or he came back to life! After a couple moments it spoke again “Analyzing rhythm, do not touch the person!” a few seconds passed “SHOCK ADVISED!” NO! NO! Let this one work PLEASE! I hit the button. “STAND CLEAR, DELIVERING SHOCK” and a second later a beep and his body jolted again. “RESUME COMPRESSIONS”

I screamed as I pumped into him again. An animalistic sound I didn’t know I could make came from my throat. I wasn’t going to give up, I was in despair, I was desperate, I couldn’t lose him! No no not ever! I haven’t even told him! I CAN’T LOSE HIM! “Analyzing rhythm, do not touch the person” I got off him, after a second “NO SHOCK ADVISED, CHECK BREATHING” Wait! What? I started pumping him again. “WAKE UP DEAKON!” I kept going, I was getting tired, but I couldn’t give up “YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME NOW!” I was pumping, not counting, but then his jaw moved. I stop and sat up.

He gasped, he wasn’t conscious but his body was trying to get air, HE WAS TRYING TO BREATH!

“Exodus, the exposure kit! He needs oxygen now!” ordered Singh

I flipped open the box, inside was a bottle of oxygen and a tube, already assembled and ready. I pulled it out and found the end, there was a problem! The end was designed for human nostrils, not our wide dragon nostrils! “Shove both ends in one side! It’s better than nothing!” Singh said. I took his advice and awkwardly shoved both in the closer side and cranked open the valve on the bottle. He gasped more and coughed, some blood splattering out, but his chest rose, he coughed again and sucked in air.

I sat on the floor beside him, and let it out. I was sobbing, he was was alive, but not conscious. “He should make it now” Singh said, the relief overtook me, I broke down and leaned over him, resting my head on his hip, bawling and watching his chest rise and fall.

It had been 24 hours, he still wasn’t awake. I hadn’t slept. I don’t think I could until he woke up. An hour ago I came to my senses and sent a message back to Duke’s station. “We have the ship, but Deakon was exposed, but he’s alive!” They replied right away, but their answer reminded me “Keep us up to date and let us know if we need to come get you! Come back immediately if you can!” I thought about abandoning the salvage, I really should have, but something told me this was something we couldn’t pass up, and my intuition was never wrong.

I sat beside him, slowly rubbing my hand on his chest hoping the stimulation woke him up.

48 hours had passed now I was exhausted. I didn’t leave his side, I wasn’t going to. Watching his chest rise and fall, over and over. Something came over me, I picked up his hand and held it. That was it, that was finally the thing the brought him back to me.

“Exodus, what happened?” he whispered.

“Your helmet got smashed, you were exposed to the vacuum, your heart wasn’t beating, Deakon, I was so sacred I lost you!” I cried.

“I almost died?” he whispered

“Yes, I had to shock you back to life”

I had two days to think about what I’d say right now, two days to consider the consequences. I couldn’t stand the risk of losing him again. I was trying to figure out how to say it, when he surprised me, his own near death experience forced out what he couldn’t say before.

“Exodus, in case of the worst, I need you know, I love you, I’m in love with you” His voice strained for the words, damaged from the accident.

“Deakon!” I planted my face on his chest and cried, like I had so many times in our lives “Deakon! I Love you too! I can’t live without you!” His arm came up and cradled my head on his chest. I looked up and his eyes were open, looking back at me. We stayed like this for a few hours, I could hear his damaged lungs rattling in his chest, it made me worried.

After a couple hours he spoke again. “Can you help me? Get up of the floor and onto something softer?”

“Yes, yes of course!” I pulled on him as he leaned forward and surprised as he got himself to his feet with my help. The walk was brief, but was a sign of improvement. I took him to a bench we had pulled out for sleeping on and helped him lay down.

“I mean it Exodus” he said, after the hours long silence “I love you, and I want you as my mate”

After he laid down I leaned in and kissed Deakon on the lips for the first time in our lives “Deakon, you have me, I am your mate, and you are mine” I pulled back and he was smiling, his hand was suddenly on the back of my head and he pulled me back and kissed me deeply, my heart raced. It was a long kiss, but after a few moments he stopped. “Deakon, you need to rest, we can talk more in a bit okay? You need to heal up!”

“Okay, Exodus, if you can, some water, and maybe some food, please?”

“Yes of course! It’s been a couple days you must be dehydrated!” I walked back to the cockpit, taking a moment to send a message back to the others ‘Deakon is awake, we will be okay!’

I brought him back a bottle of water and a ration, he sat up and drank, and after eating some energy started to return, but he now had a nasty cough. “Exodus, do you think you can pressurize the Phoenix if I walk you through it?”

“Right back to work huh?” I teased “Yeah, I’m sure I could get through it!”

“Well, we’re going to need it now, I nearly lost my life for this ship!”

“I nearly lost my mate for this ship!” I replied

He smiled back at me “My mate” but we went back to thinking as he sat up completely now, paws on the floor for the first time “All you got to do is put on a suit and go into the airlock, there’s a hose and a valve, it’s pretty automatic, pull out the hose a little and open the valve, it automatically goes until it reaches pressure. But on a ship that size it might take a few hours” A moment more of thinking, as if the starvation of oxygen might have gotten a few cells “Once it’s pressurized we can just leave the airlock open and then I can run some jumpers in and power her on, see what we’re dealing with!”

Singh appeared beside Deakon and nodded in approval “Okay, I think it’s a good idea, and so does the Captain!”

“Oh? Still here huh?”

“Deakon, you owe him your life, he walked me through reviving you while I bawled my eyes out”

“Tell him I am forever grateful to him for being able to set my eyes on you again”

“Oh your such a romantic, Deakon” I teased. He lowered his head and coughed into the inside of his elbow, some blood splattering onto his arm. “We need to get you some help though!”

“Once we have the Phoenix secured we can take both ships back to the station and find some treatment. I’m okay for now, Exodus, at least I think I am. We’re almost ready here we can’t leave it now!”

I put on one of the space suits and went through the airlock. I pulled out the thick hose as Deakon explained and turned the valve. The air came out in a fast white cloud fanning out into the space and disappeared. Deakon’s math was a little bit off, it took 3 hours, but he kept me entertained through the radio and giving me silly signs through the windows of the airlock. He was up on his feet now, that was a good sign. He had also given me a pressure senor to leave in the ship for a while, we needed to make sure it was holding the air before we started other things.

Eventually I came back into the Talon and we sat down, remotely watching the pressure sensor, for several hours it didn’t move, it was pretty sensitive, it would detect the smallest leak. So we figured it was all good. We opened up the airlock and stepped into our new home for the first time without a suit. It was very cold, but the warm air from the Talon helped make this room bearable. Next Deakon looked for a way to feed her power. He was the tech here and I was out of my element. He noticed there was a hatch in this main room that lead to the reactor room below. He opened up and ventured into the cold darkness below with a light, back to the room that almost killed him. He floated around before coming back up.

“Okay, human tech, blargh. It looks like I can hook onto the outputs of one of the generators for now, the ship systems should just see it as the generator running naturally, though the systems might get confused without the core present” He explained, he started pulling on the cables in the airlock. “I’d love to get some heat going, it’s really cold in here!”

Deakon fished them through the hatch and down into the guts of the ship. Coming back a moment later taking a minute to warm up. He grabbed the controller for the power, a wireless thing he could use to control the power. Or something, I don’t know, I program and grow plants and fly things. He was screwing around down in there for a few minutes until suddenly I heard him yell “WHOAH THERE! Way too much!” but another moment went by and the lights suddenly came on. I could see the inside of our ship clearly now and it was… sterile. It needed a dragon’s touch for sure!

The life support started doing it’s thing, warm air started blowing form a nearby vent. THANK YOU! But I was still floating, the gravity plating wasn’t working yet. Wait, did this ship have gravity plating? “Singh? Is there gravity?”

“Not without enough power, I don’t think she’s getting enough to turn it on, or your mate shut off the breakers.”

As if on cue I heard Deakon yell form below through the hatch “OKAY! Breakers on!” and I suddenly found myself on the floor. Deakon climbed up through the hatch a few moment later. “Okay, gravity, lighting and life support are all I turned on, I don’t know what these systems are going to do when the boot up, so I want to wait until we’re back at the station before we boot them up. But it seems like aside from missing a power source and that one hole it’s in really good shape!” He looked around “Okay, let’s go check out the command deck!”

I followed Deakon “The bridge!”

“What? Like over a river?”

“No! At least I don’t think so, but Singh says it’s called a bridge, not a command deck”

“Oh, I think could get used to calling-” Deakon froze as he got onto he bridge

“What? What is it?” I looked where was staring and froze up as well. Dead ahead was a dragon warship, 3 rows of guns on each side, and it was pointing right at us.