A start of A Life Long Friendship on A Space Ship

Eli looked towards the navigation unit while asking:

"Is it a custom type navigation unit?"

James looked at her for a moment from his place then he replied rapidly:

"Yes, it is. Hurry up and sit on it, as I must turn the ship now."

James then waited for a second before his hands moved rapidly over some switches.

He guessed before that the pilot of this cruiser had set it on automatic control before he came to die under his hands, so James first canceled this automatic control thing. Suddenly, the cruiser trembled for a moment which made Eli panic as she shouted anxiously:

"What was that?"

"That, sweetheart, was the transition from automatic to manual control."

"Don't call me this name ever again. my name is…"

"Eli, I know, I know, don't get this mad over this little thing," James said as he was clicking on some buttons in a try to make the cruiser turn around.

They were traveling at the speed of light, he couldn't just pull the ship over and stop it abruptly, as he might stop it in front of a fleet, or even hit a peaceful planet or another ship.

So, he needed first to change its direction then he would figure out where he should go, but he was surprised by the model of the control system in this cruiser.

"That's strange, this cruiser runs by the latest advance system in the galaxy. How the hell these poor smugglers got a hand over something this sophisticated?

It's only made for huge spaceships, now for a small cruiser like this," James complained while he was trying to figure a way to solve this problem. That Silver Galaxy Eye system was the latest version of a long series of systems dedicated to helping the pilots in flying with their ships.

As it was new, sophisticated, and only limited to large ships, James didn't have any previous experience of it. all he knew was some scattered hearsay which he heard from the crews of those small space cruisers when they visited the base.

"Is that a problem?" Eli asked after some moment of hesitation, as she knew the whole story behind all this. James was focused on trying some ordering sequence he came up with while saying:

"It's a big problem, as this system is made for a large crew to use it, and now we have only me. The other problem we have is the inability for me to override the direction that was decided by the automatic control, as every time I do so I get an error code."

"I have a solution," Eli said it spontaneously while she returned to look over her screen again.

"A solution?" James stopped what he was doing as he looked strangely towards her.

Eli started the navigation unit as the screen in front of her began to liven up, while her two hands were moving strangely in a fact pattern over the keys and buttons that were there on the control panel. James was surprised to see this as he asked:

"Didn't you say you didn't travel on a cruiser before?"

"It's you who assumed that I only said I don't know how to fly a cruiser, but I have been many times on space cruises and even large ships," Eli said without even looking at James who didn't return to the commanding unit as he asked in curiosity:

"Then you suddenly knew how to solve a commanding problem in the Silver Galaxy Eye system?"

Eli was hesitant for a while before she said vaguely:

"I... just know about it. don't you want to solve this problem or what?"

"sigh, I want to solve it, without doubt, tell me how to solve this problem?" James said.

"The problem originates from the coding system and the order sequence of the Silver Galaxy Eye system, as you just said, it's made for large ships with big crews.

So, to make this system follow your orders and change the course, you shouldn't use the old simple way of canceling the previous destination then you steer the cruiser yourself.

You need to replace the old coordinates with the new ones that you want the cruiser to travel to," she explained while she was looking for something over her screen.

James looked towards her strangely as what she said was way more complicated than his knowledge of the commanding systems. He felt doubt towards her as she knew the Silver Galaxy Eye system very well.

"Who really are you?"

"Let's postpone this for later, I have found a far place from here, where no one would find us easily.

I sent the coordinates to the main control unit, you just need to approve it," Eli said while she stopped pressing over the buttons on her control unit. James was about to turn and approve these coordinates to stop suddenly in his tracks.

"Tell me, what is this place that we are heading to exactly?"

"It's…It's nothing, just in the middle of nowhere."

James spotted the nervousness of her, which made him doubt her more. He returned to his control unit as he started to push some buttons while saying:

"If it's in the middle of nowhere, then you won't mind if I changed the numbers a little, right?"

"Stop!" Eli shouted as she was about to jump from her chair when James turned to look at her while saying:

"If I was going to be part of something, then I should at least be informed by it, right?"

Eli hesitated as she returned to her seat while saying:

"If I told you, you will refuse to help and will dumb me anywhere."

"sigh, so you try to trick me and force me to join, right? This isn't a decent way to ask for someone's help," James said while he moved his chair to be close to Eli, who was focused on the screen in front of her while he was recalling some old memories.

"If you want help, you just need to ask me nicely," James said.

"There is no place for nice things in this world," Eli said with a deep long tone as he was still immersed in her memories. James then moved to touch her face as her body jolted, but before she could say anything, James said first:

"I agree with you, you should act this way with strangers. But, c'mon, we killed a smuggler crew, stole their ship, and now we are trying to run for our lives, which technically put us together for a long journey up ahead. We are now considered friends," James said with a soft tone.