Space Trippers Book 1: Trippin' (5 page)

It was as though he had just . . . vanished.

She soon found herself back on the construction bay side, heading toward her apartment to see if maybe he had gone there to wait for her, knowing she would come looking for him.

She was two blocks away from her destination when she heard a noise behind her and spun around quickly to see what it was. All she saw was the slight flutter of fabric as whomever it had been disappeared back down the alley.

Valesque knew it had not been the I.P.A since she still had a good hour left until take off, and they would run forward not away. She started down the alley again in pursuit of whoever it was, turning corners and glancing down side streets in hopes of catching another glimpse of the fleeing figure.

She began to notice familiar looking buildings and landmarks, they had been snaking around to the street where her apartment was. It had to be Dr. Warner! Only he knew where she lived.

She picked up the pace, using all of her Virrilian speed and rounded the last corner, coming out almost directly in front of her building. She stopped in her tracks, as she perceived a familiar looking silhouette in the darkness ahead. “Dr. Warner?” she breathed, squinting against the mist to make out the figure ahead. “Is that you? What’s going on?”

The person seemed to be advancing slowly toward her in the dim light, she could still not quite make out who it was but she did begin to recognize the object they were raising from their side.

Valesque’s eyes widened, she could not believe what she was seeing. “John?” she whispered hoarsely, as the weapon took aim. “What are you . . ." her voice cut off in mid-sentence, her question ending in a thud as her stunned body hit the cold, wet ground. She saw a white light come toward her just before her world turned black.

Chapter Three: Allies

Valesque awoke to find herself lying in one of the over 2,000 pods in the large life-pod holding room of her ship. She was tired and ached all over. Her vision was still a little black around the edges as she tried to acquaint herself with her position. She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate on remembering how she had gotten here, when she felt a light touch on her shoulder.

She had not heard anyone approach and was so startled by the touch she involuntarily jumped. Turning her head quickly around she found a slightly less startled young man standing behind her in the dim light of the holding bay.

“Uh, hi!” he began hesitantly; finally face-to-face he was not sure what to say to a top Tech-Labs Engineer, and a beautiful one at that. “You’re awake?” he asked grasping for something to say. He struggled to sound friendly and easy as her fine–featured, pale face showed her annoyance at his sudden intrusion.

“Did you not expect for me to be?” replied the Scientist alarmed that he might be in on the General’s schemes and had followed her to ensure their plans expedience.

“Oh, no, no.” the young man said nervously. “I was just… uh, you have been out of it since you were brought back aboard your ship. I was beginning to worry, but I guess . . . you are….alright.” he finished, losing his edge toward the end and wondering what he had just said, his dark eyes glancing around nervously.

“Oh.” she replied slowly, not sure what to make of him. He looked pleasant enough, with his warm grey eyes and schoolboy jitters. But he was still military personnel and from what he’d said, an intruder on her ship. “Who are you, some guard the Captain has ordered to keep track of me? How long have I been here? And what do you mean by my ship?” she queried quickly, attempting to sit up.

The young man smiled a big beautiful smile, not one of the Lieutenant’s charming smiles but a true genuine grin. “I am Ensign Sanic,” he began happily noting her interest and detecting a bit of friendliness on the subject, “and you are the Chief Engineer of the Magellan project, right? It is such a pleasure to finally meet you.” he gushed, excited at finally being face to face with the beautiful scientist he had been admiring all these months.

And he was especially glad to see that close up she did not appear to be much older than he was. In fact, her thick, short cropped, dark hair and creamy, ivory complexion coupled with her large brown eyes seemed to reveal her to be no more than two or three years his senior. Not an unbridgeable difference.

Sanic had always been rather brainy, he was especially adept at electronics, figuring out sequences, logic puzzles and the like. He also liked smart women. And Valesque was both smart and beautiful, the perfect combination.

The Ensign had been planet-side on the orbital moon for quite a while so he had plenty of time to admire the building, as well as the builder, of the ship. He had always hoped to meet her, but it seemed rather difficult since she rarely left the project and he did not have the clearance to enter. Now here she was, and all his braininess seemed to have turned to sloppy mush as he realized the situation he was in.

Valesque of course knew nothing of the young man's aspirations or feelings. She only perceived his nervousness and most of all his last remark to her. “The Magellan? You know about the Magellan?” Valesque repeated shocked at his knowledge of the ship’s true name. Suddenly she seemed to like the shy young man who stood before her.

He was roughly as tall as she was if not a bit taller. Certainly not as old or manly looking as the Lieutenant she had met earlier, but cute in his own young, dark-haired, Etherian sort of way.

Although Etherians strongly resembled Earthians there was one distinguishable difference, Etherians had naturally multicolored hair. Each hair actually grew in layers of color; this one’s grew dark on the bottom lightening in bands as it went up until finally ending in blonde tips.

He had an open, friendly look about him and seemed to epitomize Etheria, his home planet. It was a college planet, known as the "party planet”, and he seemed very Etherian with his upbeat expressions, tan skin and blonde-tipped spiky hair. She smiled at him, and he began deeply hoping she would not take the position that he was `just an Ensign’ like all of the other upper crew did.

“I must tell you, I am just, well, thrilled for the lack of a better word, to at last be on this ship!” he continued, glancing around appreciatively at the large dark room with its huge exterior viewing panels before training his eyes back on her. “I must say I never expected it to be as magnificent as it is. Or to be aboard her so soon. I thought we had a good two months left at least.”

“What are you talking about?” Valesque asked suddenly, pushing aside all of the flattery and striving to see this military ensign’s motive. More ranking-military conspiratal gloating?

“Why would a military crew be scheduled for the Magellan’s maiden voyage? Of, course,” she added, coming to terms with reality, “why are they here now.”

“Military?” the Ensign laughed. “I am not military. I am a Scientific Class -Two Operator, assigned to the I.S.A Magellan. I have been planet-side for nearly three months now, watching the construction of my next assignment the `Magellan’. Well, me and a few other guys.” he replied avoiding telling her what else he had enjoyed watching.

“Let me get this straight, you are not military.” the Scientist repeated slowly, trying to understand. “And yet you are on a, shall we say a `confiscated’ and now military ranked vessel with an also very military Captain and crew?”

“We are not all military; I just became 'reclassified' as an ensign a few days ago.” Sanic informed her hurriedly, seeing her confused look. “Some of us are science officers, like me. Some are low ranking engineering personnel and some are space jockeys who just happened to be planet-side when the orders were given. Mostly I guess you could say they scraped the bottom of the barrel to get this crew. Except for some of the upper class officers, of course.” he continued quickly. “Like the Captain, the Commander, our Pilot and of course, you.” he added blushing slightly.

“What makes you think I am a top ranking Officer, Sanic?” she asked with a sarcastic laugh at the irony of it.

“Well, I saw you leaving the Captain’s Observation Room.” he began a bit flustered, wondering what had been his mistake, and liking the way she dispensed with his Ensign title. “Who else but a very high ranking crew member could get away with that?”

Valesque laughed at this remark. “A very peeved Virrilian, that's who, and one that is going to be getting off this ship as soon as possible if she knows what's good for her.”

“But, you can’t.” the Ensign exclaimed concerned with this sudden plan. It was not just the idea of her leaving just when he had finally met her, but it was the sheer danger of such an attempt.

Valesque looked at the young man coldly. So he had been sent to stop her. Well, they would have to do better than that. She could easily overpower him, although she hated to have to do it, he seemed like a nice kid.

"And why is that? Did that conniving Captain send you down here to detain me?" she asked irritably.

She was getting tired of being hampered at every turn. She would get off this ship, even if it meant over the young Ensign's body.

“No, you don’t understand,” the young man continued, rubbing his forehead as he tried to figure out the best way to say this, noting her apparent irritation at being stopped, “you can’t get off the ship, nobody can. You have been unconscious for nearly three days. We are out in deep space now. Even if you could get a hold of a Scuttle Craft there is no way you could make it out of the dual shield with out proper authorization. You would just crash up on the electro field.”

“Three days?” Valesque returned shocked. “I have been down in this hold for three days?!” she continued, glancing down at the panel of her vid-screen and pressing the chronometer button to verify the exact time.

Sanic strained to see what she was looking at, “We are leaving the Milky Way as we speak. I am sorry you had to stay down here but I had been trying to find you on Saturna 3 when you went to look for the General. Unfortunately I didn’t catch up to you until after you had been shot.” he informed her apologetically.

“You saw who shot me?” the Engineer asked urgently, leaning forward out of her pod in anxious suspense.

“Well, sort of.” he replied hesitantly, his dark eyes avoiding hers. “I followed from quite a ways back as they carried you to the ship. I had assumed it was the I.P.A but then you were brought here." he continued, looking around at the unorthodox area. “I startled them when they were placing you in the life-pod. I tried to act as if everything was normal, I did not want to get shot too. The one guy who seemed to be in charge said to leave you here until you woke up. I figured it would only be a few minutes, I didn’t know he meant three days! It was a good thing you were in here though,” Sanic added, patting the lid of the pod, “I would never have been able to tell if you were alive or dead without the heart monitor. You had me pretty scared for a while there.”

Valesque looked troubled, “You say two men brought me here? Do you remember what they looked like? Did one of then have brown, curly hair and blue eyes, sort of Earthian looking?”

“I. . .I honestly couldn’t say.” the young Ensign answered, upset at having to disappoint her. “It is pretty dark in here, you know.” he looked around, as if to prove it to himself.

“And they were pretty well covered up, like they didn’t want to be recognized. If I had to say one thing though,” he continued thoughtfully, “I would have to say that the accomplice seemed almost… luminous.”

“Luminous? Oh, that helps a lot.” Valesque grumbled as she swung her legs over the side of the bed, trying to ward off her achy feeling.

Sanic handed her a flask of water he had been carrying as she slid forward off the bed. “Any idea of what they hit you with?” he asked finally, it was something he had often wondered about these past few days.

Valesque took a sip of water, swishing it in her mouth before spiting it back out. Her palate had become acidic from the liquid. She grimaced, shaking her head and trying to dispel the sharp metallic taste in her mouth. “Ugh,” she groaned, “a taser.”

“A taser did that to you? Knocked you out for three days? Wow,” he marveled, “that must have been some charge, what did they set it on, 'coma'?”

“Probably 'death'.” Valesque replied, stretching out her shock treated limbs. “If it was who I think it was, he knew the highest setting was the only thing that would knock me out. But I just can’t figure what would make him do it, and then dump me back here again when he knew they had taken over the `Magellan.”

"You mean you didn't authorize the use of this ship?" Sanic asked shocked. He had assumed the engineers on the project had been aware of the orders.

"Authorize? Ha! They even had the nerve to assign me to this death mission." Valesque scoffed, like they would ask her permission.

"Are you saying this ship isn't equipped?" the young man asked worrisomely. He could not imagine them assigning him to a non-working vessel. Especially one that was assigned to Corseccan space.

"No, I have already said that. I told that stubborn and irritating Captain up there, before they launched, that the ship was not finished. However, all she did was babble on about orders and refurbishing. I do not think that woman would believe anything unless it was in an order and signed in triplicate. You said you are the operations person right?” she asked him simply.

"Well, all I can say is plan on having a lot of time on your hands because as far as scanners and things of that nature go, you are pretty much in the dark. And that goes for weapons, off ship communications and just about everything else. The only things working on this vessel are the engines. But I wouldn't be too sure about those either.