The Krystabella Starship

For a moment, Alekai's mouth dried. He looked at Jesse with what amounted to unmitigated fear.

"Did you know?"

Jesse shook her head. "I have seen the 'Reality Space-time' show but I had no idea they just now showcased us."

"No!" Alekai threw his burger onto the plate. "I meant did you know our Gear was a prototype light-weight?"

Jesse shook her head.

"I knew it was brand new and no one had ever used it before. The navigation and shielding system however is exactly the same as the Gears that I have flown and practiced on. Since I'm not a Striker, I have no idea what you have or don't have."

Tom laughed. "And you were too ignorant to know what you could and could not do. Good job son. I'm proud of you."

Alekai turned back to Tom. "You said it's light and agile?"

"Yes. It was made to be able to evade enemy fire quickly, but it was too light to carry the heaviest of firepower so they only equipped it with warning shots."

Tom laughed and rubbed his eyes. "But son, warning shots are themselves lethal if you shoot them in somebody's eye and it explodes their brains out."

He shook his head with amazement. "Only the best Strikers with the fastest speed can shoot out the eye of the enemy while both are in high speed action."

He turned to Jesse. "At the same time, lil' Miss here is evading their weapons discharge with her fancy movements. Hats off to the both of you."

Alekai looked furious while Jesse looked guilty. Tom was staring off into space, his eyes on the twin dots that were the two insectoid starships.

"Can we get access to a real piece of Gear, one with real fire power?" Alekai asked.

"'Fraid not, son." Tom shook his head. "Gears are very expensive one-of-a-kind items that are considered Class B weapons. Only military have access to them, which was why the Rat, Warren Paul was so interested in you."

"Of course, he didn't know that all you had was a piece of Scout Gear, but at this point, who cares!" Tom laughed

"You've proven your mettle where you bagged two ships with just the one kill shot. You're now hot commodity, son."

Alekai frowned. He definitely did not want to be considered 'hot commodity'. Things were so tense right now, and yet, Tom looked downright giddy with joy.

"So what's going on right now?"

Tom's eyes turned towards another monitor off to the side where he was also monitoring the situation. "Well, right now, the Captain is talking with the other Captains of the four ships to see what the situation is and why the insectoid motherships are so far from their own territory."

"So we don't know what's going on or when we will be able to jump to the next space pocket?"

"No son. We can't leave until the scorpion and the wasp leaves our space. The UCS is sending military ships here asap, but even at their fastest speed, it won't get here for at least a couple of months. Meanwhile, these two insects are gonna be here, at a stalemate with our four ships as the only guardians of this star space."

"So what do we do?"

"Nothing right now. We are the only things between the insectoids and the Alpha Centauri AB Space Station. If the station falls, we lose this entire quadrant, including Earth."

"That means we will be stuck here at least two months and won't be able to get to Taranhara within the two years to catch up to the starship Caravan." Jesse's eyes were tragic.

"You never know." Alekai tried to appease her. "The insectoids could suddenly decide they're bored with us and leave."

Jesse looked at him as if he was crazy. Only in fiction could things work out that well for a person. In reality, chances were good that things could get worse.

"Are you okay? Did they give you a decent place to stay?" Jesse turned to Tom with a worried look.

Tom scoffed. "They gave me a single room, but I haven't even had a chance to look at it."

"Why not? Have they been working you to the bone on something?"

"Hehehe." Tom laughed. "I've been bunking up in the Captain's room this whole time. It seems he enjoys talking to me and is making me stay with him here. The room is huge and quite nice. Luxury traveling at its best, I tell ya."

Jesse nodded, looking less worried. For a man who didn't even have a ticket to get on the ship, Tom Duncan had done fairly well for himself.

"So you and the Captain have been burning the midnight oil, talking huh?"

Tom's eyes went back to his monitors. "Actually, we only managed to talk for about an hour before the Captain got called away to deal with various emergencies."

"One hour?" Alekai's eyes popped. "Does that mean you've been hanging out at the captain's quarters all that time by yourself?"

Tom nodded. "I have a feeling that man's forgotten about me. He has been gone for quite awhile, and now he's not even on the Anastasia."

Alekai turned back to Tom. "Wait. I thought you said he was in a meeting with the four Captains."

"He is. He got on a shuttle and flew to the Krystabella." Tom shifted views and all four ships came online. He pointed to the largest ship on the screen with his cursor.

"This is the Krystabella. It is one of the largest luxury trans-galactic ship ever built. The Captain wanted to have a look around while we were stuck out here so Captain Murray invited him over there."

He grinned, patting himself on the chest. "I got invited too, but I didn't want to leave my little dragon egg, and I didn't want to leave my snake boy and my little turtle girl over here by y'allself either, so I turned them down."

Jesse laughed. "Awww, that's so sweet." She turned a misty eye at Alekai. "Your dad's such a sweetheart."

Alekai rolled his eyes and was about to say something when suddenly, the Krystabella went dark.

"Holy shit!" Tom jumped up from his chair. He turned back to Alekai and Jesse.

"You both, get back into your Gear and standby for my orders! Go! Now!"