Diversion To Urasha
Chapter 3

As soon as Lisa had slowed the ship to its usual pace, James and Lottie had both rushed out of their seats to watch the exquisite view of the Universe all around them. Luckily, in this communal cockpit, there were huge windows everywhere.

The two best friends pressed themselves longingly into the same window, gawking at the views outside. First up, there was Earth, and what a view Earth was! To see their home as a whole, as a marble filled with colourful whirls and swirls was such a tremendous feeling. It was a bittersweet feeling too. It felt sad in a way to be leaving planet Earth. It felt daunting and scary. James felt vulnerable, and he still missed his mother.

The view of Earth and its loyal moon was soon replaced by Mars, and then by the ginormous planet, Jupiter. Jupiter was the ultimate giant, fathering its many moons, as well as the other smaller planets in the Solar System.

“Okay, you guys,” James overheard Lisa calling out to everyone. “Get ready to say goodbye to our Solar System. We’re entering wormhole number one.”

Back in space school, James had been briefed about wormholes. He’d been taught that the spaceship would just be cruising along, then suddenly, there’d be a flash, and the next moment, the Earthship would be surrounded by a completely different bunch of moons and planets.

Everything that James had been taught came true. There was no sudden jolting of the ship. It was perfectly safe to stand up during a wormhole, or heck, it was probably even safe to use the loo too. All there was, was a quick split-second flash, and that was it - wormhole one completed.

Immediately upon exiting the first wormhole, James noticed the abundance of stars all around the ship. There were more of the sparkling suns, all illuminating the dark blanket of space.

“Wow,” James’ awestricken voice sounded to his best friend. “We must be in another Galaxy?”

“No,” Lottie’s own awestricken voice sounded. “We’re just closer to the centre. It looks beautiful here though.”

There was another white flash, and the views outside the window changed to darkness with a smattering of stars, once again.

“I think we’re in another Galaxy now,” Lottie added.

James and Lottie spent the whole day sat by that window. The window frame had a comfortable red cushioned seat inside its frame which the two best friends lounged on.

James admired the fact that Lottie was a very clever young woman. She was always far better at remembering the facts they’d learnt from space school than he was. His best friend spent the day educating him on all the planets which they flew past. Some planets looked ordinary, like the planets in Earth’s very own Solar System. Others looked otherworldly, with some of the planets zooming around each other like pulsars. In Earth’s Solar System, there were no twin planets, just planets with moons. In the Universe, anything was possible. On one hand, James had never ever felt so far away from home. On the other, this is where his home was. Space was where James belonged.

After a long day planet watching, it was time for James to retreat to his temporary bedroom for the night. The room wasn’t great. It wasn’t huge, but it was peaceful. The room was James’ only bit of personal space. It wasn’t bad spending the day with Lottie, or even Zach, Lisa and Karl, for that matter. However, James needed time away from Phil. On Earth, James had avoided spending even seconds with his captain. Now, up here, James had no choice but to be stuck with the man he loathed.

James twisted his bedroom sink’s tap, cupping some water in his hands to swish away the toothpaste from his mouth. Once his teeth were clean, James eyed his unpacked suitcase, and then the empty wardrobe next to it. He watched as the clothes hangers just hung there expectantly, as if waiting for James to unpack his suitcase and drape his clothes all over them. “Hah, you’ve got no chance,” he muttered to the inanimate hangers in front of him. James decided he would unpack as he went. He would take out what he needed, as and when he needed it. James could not be bothered to go through the process of unpacking all his belongings and then replaceing a place to put everything, only for him to need to move it all again. Everything was fine being kept in his suitcase for now.

James stripped off down to his underpants, unveiling his impressive torso to his room. He had a very desirable body. He was muscular, but not overbearingly so. He looked athletic, but not as bulked up as a body builder. James had his fair share of tattoos. Normally, he and Lottie would decide that they fancied a new piece of ink, and they would go and get their new body art together. As James climbed into his bed, he wondered what his next piece of ink would be. He clapped his hands three times to put out the light. As the darkness surrounded him, James wrapped his bedsheets all around his body, relishing in the warmth and the comfort which they provided him with.

Today had been a long day, and he could feel his eyes growing heavy already. Planets and stars whizzed through James’ mind. It felt like…it felt like he was flying. His body felt as if it were gently floating through space.

James rolled over onto his back, closing his eyes and grinning as he cruised through space, travelling past planet after planet.

“Hey, James!”

James opened his eyes to see his best friend soaring through space, just as he was. James rolled back over onto his front, flying in pursuit of Lottie.

She kept giggling. Lottie sounded like a little child laughing mischievously, and James had this impulse to just follow her. He soared past numerous planets, yet he could not replace her, she had disappeared. Where was Lottie? James hovered in the air, wondering when his best friend would reappear. Moments later, and without warning, he fell into the darkness.

Everything was pitch black. James could not see a single thing. He could just hear this loud deafening noise. It was like a rumbling sound, one which reverberated its way though his entire body. James’ body felt hot, searing hot, as if he were lying on flames. Something hot, dry and grainy was stuck in his mouth. James’ eyes flicked open. He used his hands to sit himself upright. James had been lying face-down on what looked like red sand.

Horror struck James, as his frightened eyes took in his new surroundings. What was this place? It literally looked like hell.

As James fought against his body’s fear to stand on his feet, he watched as the bright little flecks of ash floated past him. They reminded him of stars. This place was engulfed in heat and darkness. Even the air felt polluted and stuffy. James looked across to the volcanoes and lava pools. They were scattered around everywhere.

Above the non-stop rumbling sound, James heard a whispering in his ears. It was as if something was whispering to him in his mind. The sound was incoherent, but it was very ominous.

Wanting to take his attention away from the creepy voice in his head, James began to hurriedly run across the landscape in search of a way out of this hell hole. He trudged past endless amounts of boulders, until he heard yet another horrible sound. The sound was of a woman, a woman screaming for help. Without showing any consideration for his own safety, James began to run towards the screams. But before he could even make any progress, he was stopped by the worrying sight of a woman. She was only a couple of yards in front of him. James could not see the woman’s face, but he could tell that she was injured, as she limped clutching her side. The female appeared to have long dark hair which draped just past her shoulders. Her body was exquisite, curvaceous and fit, being flaunted by her tight black costume. Without warning, the woman fell face-down onto the ground. James ran towards her. Once he had reached the woman, he realised that her body was completely motionless. It appeared that she wasn’t breathing. With both urgency and curiosity, James kneeled over the woman, placing his hand upon her shoulder to turn her over. Before he got the chance to see her face, James was stopped once again by that blood curdling scream. It was closer, this time, and something else about it sickened him. The scream was a voice he recognised.

“Help me!” he heard Lottie cry.

James left the motionless woman instantly. He fought with all his might to run as quickly as he could to reach his best friend in time.

There she was! James could see her now, surrounded by flames and creatures. He had no time to stop and assess the demonic beings surrounding his best friend. He had to reach her now!

The winged beings clawed at Lottie’s arms, ripping through her flesh as she screamed James’ name.

“LOTTIE!” James yelled, as his terrified eyes watched the clumps of flesh being torn away from his screaming best friend.

Those things, those horrible dark creatures, they were tugging at Lottie, pulling her into the orange flames around her.

Lottie gave one last desperate screech, and then that was it. Lottie and the creatures were gone, engulfed within the orange furnace.

“LOTTIE!!!!!” James cried, just as the scene all around him faded into his temporary bedroom.

Lottie sat at the communal dining table, waiting with the others for Zach to cook up this morning’s breakfast. James was yet to emerge from his room. He was the last one up, and Lottie was desperate for her best friend to hurry the hell up. She liked Zach, Karl, Lisa and Phil, but she barely knew them compared to James. Lottie felt uncomfortable being surrounded by people she barely knew. It was during times like this, that Lottie yearned for her apartment. At least in her home she didn’t have to share her space with anyone else. Lottie sighed, social anxiety sucked balls.

Just as Lottie was beginning to contemplate the idea of disappearing off to search for James, he finally emerged. James’ hair was still wet from his shower. His grey t-shirt hugged his body, leaving little to the imagination when it came to his impressive physique. Lottie couldn’t deny the fact that her best friend was crazy good looking. As James took the seat next to her. Lottie noticed that his eyes looked tired. “Are you okay?” she asked him.

James shot her a look. “I’m fine,” he practically whispered. It was obvious that James didn’t want to draw any attention to himself.

“Yo, guys, breakfast is served!” Zach triumphantly placed everyone’s plates on the table, and then he sat down, tucking into his own breakfast.

Lottie eyed the scrambled eggs and the sausages, beans and bacon. Fry ups were awesome, but you had to be in the right mood to enjoy one. Lottie was still feeling overwhelmingly anxious about everything, and sometimes, her anxiety made her feel a little nauseous. Lottie looked across to Zach. The guy looked so pleased with himself for cooking everyone this meal. Lottie didn’t want to hurt Zach’s feelings, so she began scooping her breakfast into her mouth. It tasted pretty darn good!

“Hey, James?” Zach’s voice cut through the silence. “You okay, man?”

James’ food filled fork stopped just millimetres from his mouth. “Yeah, man, I’m fine. Why?”

“I dunno, I just thought I heard shouts coming from your room earlier?”

Phil dropped his fork, eyeing James intensely. “What do you mean? James? You were shouting?”

Great! Lottie thought to herself. Of all the people James would want to get involved, Phil would be the last on his list.

James cleared his throat. “It’s nothing, honest. I just had a bad nightmare. The whole thing was pretty vivid. One of those dreams that’s kinda hard to shake, you know? It was just a dream though. I’m fine.”

James’ answer wasn’t enough to appease Phil. “You’re having nightmares already? You do realise that dreams do relate to our actual lives? They project our thoughts and feelings? If you’re having bad dreams, then I’m not sure it means you’re okay?”

Looking exasperated, James pushed his plate forwards as he got up from his chair. Lottie could hear the chair screeching as it scraped across the floor.

“I’m not doing this right now. I’m sorry, Zach, but I need to get away from him.” James turned and left the room.

Once free from the communal area, all James could think about was getting as far away from Phil as he possibly could. Once he reached the lift, James stopped outside its closed doors. He slammed his fist on the call button. The doors opened, and James entered the lift. He pushed the ‘lower deck’ button, and the lift took him down to his destination.

The lower deck of the Earthship was split into two main parts. The first half of the deck was taken up by the ship’s ecosystem. Humans needed a source of oxygen to survive up in outer space. The plants inside the ecosystem tank provided the humans with all the oxygen they would ever need. Not only that, the place was beautiful too, laid out like a forest. James couldn’t help but feel that this ecosystem would make the perfect retreat away from Phil, despite its lack of living animals.

The other half of the deck was taken up by the large aquarium-like water tank. Again, this tank had no animals, but it provided both the humans and the ecosystem with all the water both would ever need.

Between both the water tank and the ecosystem, there was a little control area. James walked over to the computer, deciding to run the routine ‘water tank safety check’ first. As he waited for the program to load, James took in the spectacular sight of both the ecosystem and the water tank. One half of the deck was rich with beautiful plants and greenery. The other was glowing brightly blue.

The computer sounded, switching James’ attentions away from his surroundings. “What the….?” he muttered, his body tensing in alarm at the red danger signal. “Everything should be fine. We’ve barely been in space a day and there’s a problem already?” James clicked on the alarm icon. It took him to a diagram of the water tank. There was a fault with one of the little, transparent perspex panels. “Well what do you know, one of the screws is faulty. Which idiot didn’t check that out?”

James huffed and puffed, completely exasperated. They sent this ship up into outer space with a faulty panel? Weren’t they supposed to perform safety checks on this thing before allowing the ship to go up into space? James shook his head angrily, reaching through the drawer to grab a packet of spare screws and a screwdriver. On his way to the problem panel, James grabbed the stepladder. The problem panel was just above his reach on foot.

Still feeling pretty peeved off, James began to remove the problem screw, being careful to put his body’s weight on the panel so that it wouldn’t burst off once the screw came off. Once he acquired the faulty screw, James noticed that the tiny piece of metal was all bent up. James placed it in his pocket. He would show this to Phil later. James took out a replacement and placed it in the appropriate hole. He began to screw the thing in place, when suddenly, the dim lights flickered in sync with a loud bang!

James’ chest sliced over the screw as he was thrust off the stepladder and onto the floor. Water began to gush out everywhere! Oh no, the panel had come off!

Instinctively placing a hand on his blooded chest, James got up, fighting hard to ignore the pain. He grabbed the panel from the floor, and raced up onto that stepladder, pushing with all his might against the vast amounts of water pouring out of the tank. “C’mon!” he yelled, using every ounce of strength he had to put that panel back on.

Lottie sat amidst a scattering of broken plates. Her head was filled with noise, such awful chaotic noise. The ship’s alarm rang in her ears incessantly. Then there were the voices, the panicky voices of her comrades.

“Phil!” Lisa’s strong voice sounded. “We’ve been hit. I need my captain!”

“But James…” Phil was ghost white, lost and irrational in his fear. “He’s down there, Lisa. We can’t just leave him!”

“Phil!” Lisa barked. “We’re surrounded. I can’t take them on my own. You’ve gotta pull yourself together. James is no less safe down there than we are up…”

BOOM!

The ship ricocheted back and forth, as the lights flickered in response to another hit.

“Damn it, Phil. We are in a life or death situation here. You haven’t got the time to act all sentimental. James is most likely to survive if you pull yourself together and get behind that gun. We all are!”

Lottie watched as Lisa’s words transformed her captain. The man grew strong and ready to give his orders.

“Right…right! Zach, you know what to do. You take the back, I’ll take the front. Karl, you take the left. Lottie…” Phil’s voice softened as he leaned over her. “Do you think you can handle the right gun?”

“But James?” Lottie’s barely audible voice whimpered.

“Lisa’s right. James, the rest of us, our only chance is if we fend off our attackers. We need the ship covered at all angles. Lottie, we need you.”

Lottie watched as Zach and Karl climbed their ladders to their fighter cockpits. They couldn’t do this alone. “Okay, let’s do this,” she gulped.

Phil tenderly patted Lottie on the head, and then he rushed up to the frontmost fighter cockpit. Lottie herself mustered the strength to race towards her own rightmost gun. She climbed up the ladder, sat in the big black chair, and put her headset on. “I’m in, do you copy?”

“Copy that,” responded Phil. “We’ve got six surrounding us. We need to blast each and every one of them to hell!”

Lottie watched the little computer in front of her. There were six red dots surrounding the Earthship.

“Wahoo!” Zach’s triumphant voice sounded. “That’s one down!”

A red dot at the rear of the ship disappeared.

“Way to go, Zach!” Phil praised him.

Lottie watched as one of the little red dots crept up to the right side of the ship. When the dot was within her aim, Lottie pushed her thumb on the trigger. “Go to hell, bitch!”

That was another red dot gone.

“Nice one, Lottie!” she heard the rest of her team praise.

Boom! Another hit!

“Holy crap!” Lisa’s troubled voice radioed in. “We’ve been hit again. I don’t think I…I can’t control her. Something’s been damaged!”

“Lisa!” Phil growled. “Just stay calm, try to…”

Boom! Another successful strike from the enemy.

“I can’t, Phil…I’ve…I’ve lost her…”

Lottie felt sick. Was this it? Was her life over? Had she come out here into space to just die?

“No…” Phil’s broken voice sounded. “James…Kimberly…no, this can’t be the end.”

Lottie stared at the computer screen in front of her. There were still four red dots. The ship was doomed. She was doomed. But…what just happened to that red dot? One of them had just disappeared, then another, leaving just two. What was going on?

“Wait, what the?” Lottie heard her captain echoing her thoughts, as two purple dots appeared on the screen. The remaining two red dots disappeared simultaneously.

“It can’t be. This can’t be.”

Lottie felt the ship jolt suddenly to the left, and then it jolted suddenly to the right. The purple dots were spaceships, and now they had connected themselves to the Earthship. Lottie peered out of the window, watching how the blackness of space transformed into purple atmosphere. She placed her hand on her chest, begging the Universe for James to be okay.

James’ hand was blooded from his chest wound. He was in huge amounts of pain, but at least the panel was fixed. James clung onto what surroundings he could, hanging onto them for dear life. The ship appeared to be falling, crashing! Just one name reached his lips: “Lottie,” he breathily whispered. James’ body flung forwards, smacking his head hard against something.

Everything went black.