Separate Ways
Chapter Three

Rik & Corvus raced out of the city on foot toward a forest that lined the base of the ginormous mountains that separated Daverra and Galek. Corvus stayed close behind Rik, constantly watching their backs as the city grew smaller and smaller behind them. They entered the forest after a long sprint from the city and the temperature noticeably dropped. It was damp and cold within the forest and the fog remained from the early morning. Corvus could not piece together how Rik had managed to land in these conditions.

After a short walk through the brush, a ‘w’ shaped starship lay in a small circular clearing. Corvus examined the ship and took in every detail; the dark grey hull that had been made out of military grade steel which most starships were made from. Along each side it had two large wings that carried three long barrels on it that were likely the weaponry. The cockpit sat high in the back of the ship where it was slightly risen above the rest of the ship. The windows were tinted blue signifying them to be a rare glass made from Tanzanite and coarse sand pulled from worlds in the Outer Fringe of the system; the combination of the two made very tough glass that were equipped on certain makes & models of starships.

The ramp was already lowered for them and Corvus followed Rik up the ramp which was lit with three rows of thin, blue LED lights. Steam poured out from between the ramp and the ship making a thin layer of fog around his feet. As he stepped into the ship he now realized that Rik had taken good care of his ship and took the time to keep it clean. Corvus had seen a lot of ships working at the service centre and not many of them were as clean as this. The main hull of the ship had a small rectangular table with a few chairs around it and the table itself had a few empty glasses with a bottle of half empty, light brown alcohol on it. Rik did seem like the type to have a drink now and then but after the first impression he didn’t seem like a drunk, which was a tiny amount of relief for Corvus.

The ramp closed behind him making a mechanical buzz like an old elevator and clicked shut with a large thud. Corvus could hear the O2 system kick in to begin keeping the ship pressurized and keep oxygen levels at the norm. Rik walked toward the back of the ship and up a small staircase that led to two pilot chairs at the back of the room. One either side of those slightly lower were two doors that likely led to the engine and hyperdrive. Rik sat in one of the chairs and beckoned Corvus over. He jogged over and sat down beside Rik and after a moment the chairs ascended into the cockpit and the floor below them closed.

“You got the TKX model? That’s pretty gnarly.” Said Corvus. Rik shook his head and pointed at one of the small radars on the dashboard and after pressing a button activated. The screen illuminated with a bright green visual of in front of the ship but went fuzzy and began to distort. Rik watched Corvus as he examined the small screen.

“Fixable?” said Rik. Corvus banged on the dashboard under where the screen was and it flickered and returned to being blurry and distorted.

“Fix it, don’t break the damn thing.” Rik said watching Corvus slam his hand on the console. Corvus rolled his eyes and examined the image closer. He noticed that it was simply a connection issue and it was possible that one of the wires was melted or have separated from a previous repair.

“Yeah, this is nothin’.” Explained Corvus, “All I have to do is get inside the console and rewire the video input signal from the-“ Rik cut him off.

“Look, I don’t give a shit what’s wrong, I give a shit about it being fixed. Get on it.” He finished. Corvus wanted to respond but figured it would be fruitless so he got down on the floor and removed one of the panels under the dashboard and began searching for the wires that connected the targeting camera and the targeting screen. Rik kicked the ship into drive and Corvus stopped what he was doing.

“You’re actually going to drive this thing while I’m in here?” asked Corvus.

“Time is not really our friend, kid.” Rik retorted. There was a long pause and Corvus now knew how little time they had, especially if enemy forces noticed their ship.

“Well, it’s going to take a few minutes.” He finally blurted out.

“In case you didn’t notice, there is a war taking place. Get it up asap.” He demanded as he jerked the ship into drive and ascended out of the thick forest. Corvus worked double time to get the targeting system fixed. He hadn’t thought about it, but what if the battle was still continuing in space at this time? Rik would surely need his targeting system; trying to dogfight without a targeting system would be like trying to hit a fly with a toothpick. He finally found that one of the wires was singed and was likely causing the poor signal.

“I found the issue, do you have any spare wire up there?” he asked loudly. Rik spun in his chair and looked through a tool box with no actual tools inside of it, rather just a bunch of junk. He dug through it, tossing random junk all over the floor and eventually found a tiny length of wire and reached under the dashboard where Corvus’ legs were sticking out. Corvus spun his body awkwardly enough to grab the wire from Rik and looked at its short length.

“Boy, thanks.” Corvus said sarcastically.

“Just fix the damn thing.” Rik barked as he spun back around and began to move forward now that the ship was hovering above the dark green & white foggy forest. He began activating all of the systems to assist him in getting through the impending battle; shields, weapons, radars and emergency systems.

Corvus cut the wire as close to the singed part as he could in order to connect the two wires and keep them stable at least long enough to get through the battle. He pulled a small cylindrical tool out of his belt that looked like a ratchet but had a small hole in either side of the tip and small pincers within the hole of the tip. He yanked on one of the wires and fed it through one of the hole and clamped the tip of the cut wire. With the small piece of wire in his hand and another tool in the other hand that resembled a torch he slowly touched the wires together and used the torch tool to begin to mould them together. After a short period of time he grabbed a small rag and held the two wires together long enough until the plastic hardened.

Rik was now ascending into the atmosphere and he could see the battle quickly approaching. Even from that distance, it was absolute mayhem and for once he was not excited to enter the battle as he was a common enemy of both fleets. If could remain hidden within the fray he would be okay but if either capital ship spotted them he would certainly become a target, even in the midst of a war.

Corvus repeated the process he used on the first wire on the second one which barely reached the end of the new wire. This was particularly difficult because if the connection wasn’t perfect he’d have to redo it, or they’d have to get through the battle without a targeting system which would not be easy, even for the best pilots. He gripped both wires and pulled them as close to each other as they could. Repeating the first process on the final connection, he wiped sweat from his forehead and examined it.

It seemed to be fine but the real test was in combat. Corvus pulled himself out of the dashboard and sat back down. He looked out of the window to see the impending battle which brought out a new level of terror. He’d seen it on the ground but being inside of the starship and rushing into it at full speed was different. Battleships shaped like massive towers, and others shaped like scythes, they were silhouetted against the planet Delirium which stood silent in the distance.

Corvus activated the targeting screen which took a moment to boot up and eventually appeared. It was a first good sign but the real test came with both clarity and longevity. After a moment the screen flickered but soon stabilized and was crystal clear. The system activated bringing up the heads up display and Corvus sat back in his seat and let out a long sigh of relief.

“Buckle up. This is far from over.” Rik said, pulling Corvus’ seatbelt over his shoulder and turning his gaze back to the battle.

“Hold on tight, kid.” He said. Corvus gulped and couldn’t help but feel a twisting knot in his stomach that made it nearly impossible to breath. He grabbed the side of his seat and looked down at the dashboard wanting to help, but if Rik needed him he would say so.

On Rik’s side on the dashboard was a picture of a woman and a young child. Did Rik have a family, and if so where were they? Would they be worrying about him? This intrigued Corvus but he sat silently back in his seat and began begging to himself that Sasha would be okay, and that Rik could get them through the battle.

Rik put his left hand on the throttle control, then his right hand on the control stick and took the ship off of auto-pilot which was incredibly dangerous to have on during a dogfight as most automated systems in starships couldn’t handle the quick maneuvers and decisions that needed to be made. Unlike Rik, the ship had no instincts or foresight into their opponents. Their fate was solely in Rik’s hands.

He knew the feeling of charging into a battle that could not be won. For him, these moments are the times when he reflects on his decisions and see images that are deeply rooted in his memories. Life would flash before his eyes as if he were drowning, or falling off of a cliff, or spiralling down toward a rocky valley in a fatally wounded starship. Vivid images of his wife and daughter flashed through his head like a slideshow, and as he embraced them many times before leaving for a week or a month for a hunt he could almost smell their scent and feel their touch; his wife’s perfume and his daughter’s soft blonde hair. Soon, the pain would come. Instead of his wife’s perfume and his daughter’s soft blonde hair, he could smell blood and feel cold, pale, lifeless skin.

As always, he was shook out of his hypnotic state by the violent shake of an explosion. As his vision returned he could see the debris of a flaming ship barreling toward them. Without a thought he barrel rolled out of its way just in time. Corvus nearly threw up in his lap after the close call, having watched Rik live another world for the past minute and a half.

The battle all around them was almost symphonic in its chaos. Rik pulled the ship up hard to try and follow the trajectory the slave traders went in. He had been tracking them for days, so he had a good lock on them as long as they didn’t get too far away. He looked over at Corvus and quickly back to the battle and knew he would need the young man’s help; he regretted the thought of putting the task in his hands but it needed to be done.

“Corvus, I need you to pay attention to this radar.” he explained as he tapped a radar that was just above their heads. Corvus looked up at the radar and saw a barrage of blinking lights on the light blue screen and one single red light.

“The red light is the slave trader’s ship; if it starts fading you need to press and hold that button until it disappears to get their trajectory!” Corvus nodded and peeled his attention from the battle and focused all of his attention on the blue radar screen. It was easier said than done when people all around you were being killed in an instant by stray blaster fire and full speed collisions that would rip any starships apart.

The ship began shaking as Rik maneuvered through the fray and it kept nearly jerking Corvus out of his seat but he kept his eyes planted on that red dot. Sasha depended on him to watch it, even if she didn’t know it. It was the difference between life and death, and he would not accept the latter for his sister or himself.

Flickering lights and various beeping and alarms came from the dashboard, and Corvus only understood a few. None of them seemed bad; he knew what the bad alarms sounded like and he prayed they wouldn’t come. Rik made a harsh left turn as another starfighter exploded next to their ship and found himself scaling the top of a massive battlecruiser. He was not getting locked onto so perhaps the battleships or fighters hadn’t noticed him yet as he didn’t look like any of the other starfighters. Shortly after that moment a small red dot on the dashboard immediately in front of Rik begin flashing and beeping rapidly. Locked on. He knew it was too good to be true. Luckily, it was only a starfighter and not the battleship; he could outrun a starfighter.

He quickly nose dived toward the battleship and nearly smashed into one of the turrets to avoid the starfighter but it followed him closely firing shots just by them. Rik maneuvered the top of the battleship, weaving in and out of turrets and small towers, hoping that the pilot behind him was not as skilled as he was. It remained persistent and he soon rolled to the right of the ship and hugged the side of it while making his way to the rear thrusters. The red light stopped and for a moment he felt relief, but a short moment later it continued.

“C’mon, take the hint.” Rik said to himself. He now knew it was do or die, and he didn’t plan on dying just yet. He slammed on the reverse thrusters and heaved back on the control stick making the ship come to an almost complete stop and pulled up on a dime which pulled Corvus forward into his seatbelt knocking the air out of him for a moment. After waiting a moment, they both watched their pursuer pass under them in a blur. Rik then activated the ion boost which made the ship lights flicker for a moment and plastered Corvus back to his seat with the g-force which completed a very small loop and placed them behind their pursuer. He racked up the throttle to full and quickly went from prey to predator.

The ship resembled an exclamation point with the spherical cockpit on the right and an extended arm reaching out to the left, which was equipped with two thin cannons. It was dark grey and accented with red and light grey all along the ship which stated it was of IRP origin. Corvus was happy they were having to kill one of them, as opposed to the Federation who he respected, at least in comparison.

The targeting computer locked on and he released a few quick shots from the plasma cannons. The starfighter in front of them shredded as the plasma bolts ripped through it’s hull and reduced it to flame and shrapnel. A small smirk grew on Rik’s face after the explosion and was not surprised he had just pulled off. He had seen a lot of combat, especially in space dogfights like this and by this point his adrenaline was pumping so hard that he forgot the chances of their survival.

It made Corvus sick to his stomach for having been thrown around by the g-force like that but he was impressed nonetheless. He looked up at the radar and the red light began to flicker and fade. A row of buttons glowed above the radar and Corvus pressed and held the button Rik told him to. Rik paid no attention to it as he darted away from the rear of the battleship and began making his way away from the dogfight. He didn’t want to have to take any more fighters out as it would only draw attention to him. His purpose was to escape, not to fight.

“I think we’re in the clear!” Rik declared as he sped away from the battle. The red light disappeared and Corvus released the button after a few moments to make sure the dot had completely vanished. Corvus sat back in his seat and let out a long sigh of relief. Suddenly, a loud buzzing alarm went off that jerked Corvus back up off of his seat.

“What is that?” asked Corvus. Rik flipped a few switches with put the shields on full and completely deactivated the weaponry. Before he could answer two scythe shaped battleships appeared in front of them as if they’d always been there. They had arrived through a hyperspace lane and Rik was right in their way.

“Fuck! Hold on, kid!” yelled Rik as both battleships began firing at Rik who began maneuvering left, right and all around the blaster fire. These blasts were not like a starfighter, they were more powerful and with only a few hits could completely deactivate the shields and lead to complete annihilation. The starship got hit twice and rattled the inside of the hull and sent a chill up Corvus’ spine. He didn’t want to think this was the end of their short journey, but it seemed likely.

Rik was now drenched in sweat and was visibly shaking but his eyes remained fixated on the battleships. His gaze was intense with both fear and ferocity. A third blast hit the front of the ship and the shields destabilized leaving them open to anything. Rik quickly rerouted any excess power to the controls and vital systems to push them into working overtime. If he could just get between the two battleships they would not fire at him for risk of hitting each other.

Suddenly, blaster fire hailed past their ship toward the IRP battleships. They both looked around to only see multiple Federation starfighters blast by them toward the battleships. Behind them was a Federation battleship that diverted itself from the battle to deal with the incoming attackers. Rik wanted to think that they did it to save them, but in reality it was a tactic to cut off any arriving forces.

Rik brought his attention back to the battle and continued toward the battleships. He looked up at the radar that had been tracking the slavers who were in the direction of the battleships. Putting the starship into full throttle he began maneuvering around blaster fire that whizzed by them. The battleships approached quickly and as Rik got between the two of them they began firing, despite the risk of hitting each other. This he did not expect and one of the blasters slammed into the front of the ship.

The ship shook violently and nearly knocked them out of their seats. Red lights began to flicker in the cockpit as the ear crushing sound of an alarm blared throughout the ship. Corvus looked around trying to see what may have been wrong and how much trouble they were in.

“We’re hit, but it’s not critical.” Rik stated as he began checking main systems. A critical hit meant that they wouldn’t have time to react whatsoever; critical meant fatal, and they would be history. Everything at first seemed intact but eventually a blue line of lights above Corvus’ head on up the upper dashboard began flashing in sequence very quickly and another quieter alarm with a lower tone began honking.

“It’s the O2 stabilizer. Can you fix it?” Rik asked as he looked over at Corvus, who already knew what the issue was and was trying to come to his senses. Rik hit Corvus in the chest with his arm which made Corvus jump out of his shock.

“Can you fix it?!” he barked. Corvus quickly nodded to him and descended on his chair into the main hull of the ship. One of the panels near the ramp of the ship was hanging down and steam was pouring out. Corvus could recognize that this was the coolant system being activated. The O2 system wasn’t permanently damaged and could be fixed but it wasn’t going to be easy, and they did not have a lot of time. If the oxygen levels got too low the cabin would depressurize from the system being tricked into thinking the ship had landed. It was a fault in many old ships and was rarely ever rectified.

Corvus ran over and looked up into the hatch access. He could see various lights and a few of the fuses that powered the system had blown from the impact. Luckily, they had been hit with a plasma charged blast and not an ion blast. Plasma would only singe the metal and cause physical damage, where a heavy enough ion blast would have completely obliterated the O2 system and the chance of survival would plummet. At this point, he only had about four minutes before the cabin began to depressurize.

He removed his tool belt and tossed it up into the open hatch and jumped up to grab the edge of it. His hand slipped and his other hand couldn’t hold the weight so he tumbled to the floor clumsily. He brushed it off and got back up to try again. Why do they put these things so damn high? Corvus thought to himself. Kneeling down he better prepared himself for the leap and after a short moment he leaped up again and confidently grabbed the frame of the hatch. He pulled himself up after a short struggle and scrambled into the tiny compartment which held other less important systems such as aesthetic lights, ramp access and temperature stabilizer which looked older than the ship itself.

Sweat dripped from his forehead down onto the steel floor of the compartment. He was sweating in the cockpit but the steam made him feel like he was melting in the small, confined space. He placed a small pair of goggles from his tool belt on which would help him see through the steam. At this moment he realized that he was shaking intensely and if he had to make the needed repairs he could not let his hand slip.

Looking around, he could see where the damage was done. As he suspected, the fuses had been blown but a few of them were still intact, which wouldn’t explain the dramatic change in pressure. The coolant system was clearly working but a small circular sized compartment was black and melted around the sides. He took a deep breath and quickly pulled it off before the metal cooled and made it much more tedious to remove the cover. It was red hot and he dropped it out of the hatch immediately after pulling it out. The pain was normal to Corvus as he had burned himself many times on hot metal.

Inside of the compartment was the manual controls which was incredibly good news. The automatic controls were on the other side of the unit and meant that the oxygen levels of the ship would be taken care of internally and the pilot wouldn’t have to think about it. This was good but confusing news. The ship shouldn’t be losing oxygen because the only thing that was damaged were some of the fuses. The system was working.

He soon looked up and could see a massive gash in the metal frame of the ship. Through the gash he could see stars. Of course the O2 system was working; it was still providing oxygen into the ship but at the very same time, oxygen was being sucked out of the ship which brought the situation from manageable, to almost impossible. He quickly popped his head out of the hatch and screamed for Rik. Rik descended from the cockpit after throwing the ship onto auto-pilot now that they had passed the battle.

“Is everything okay up there?” he asked.

“No!” he yelled, “I need a sheet of metal that’s roughly two feet by three feet!” Rik went to look around and looked back at Corvus.

“What?” he asked, confused as to how that would fix the O2 system.

“It’s not the O2 system! There is a hole in your ship!” he yelled. Rik processed the information and began ferociously digging through his belongings hoping to replace something that would be strong enough and large enough to seal the hole. If it was roughly two by three feet then he knew the hole was not small.

“Here!” Corvus yelled as he tossed a long red tool at Rik, who caught it nearly before it hit him in the forehead. He looked down at it and was baffled by the small tool. He looked back over at Corvus with a raised eyebrow. Corvus knew that Rik wasn’t joking before; he really knew nothing about tools or fixing anything.

“Find a sheet of metal anywhere, and cut it with that tool! Activate it by hitting it off the ground!” he yelled. Rik tapped it on the ground and the tip of the tool began to glow red, then orange and was quite brilliant. He could almost immediately feel the heat coming off of the tool and he searched around the hull for a sheet of metal that he wouldn’t need. The table in the main room had a thin metal top to it with one large leg in the middle to support it. It would do for the repair, so he jogged over and began sawing away at the top of the leg. The tool cut the metal like butter and it made Rik chuckle to himself; this would make a better tool of war than in the workshop.

The table separated from the leg and landed on his head. He pushed it off angrily and rubbed the top of his head. Corvus wanted to laugh but the intensity completely shutdown his sense of humour; the intensity was too real. Rik quickly handed up the sheet of metal to Corvus who pulled it up through the hatch after wrestling with it for a few moments. He pulled out another tool from his belt and began welding the metal to the ceiling over the wound. His breaths became deeper and deeper as he began to feel the effects of low oxygen levels in the cabin.

“Rik! Reroute all power to the O2 system! We’re going to pass out!” he said. Rik at that moment also recognized his deep breathing and ran over to the pilot’s chair and ascended. He began shutting off all of the systems, including the engine. The power began to reroute to the O2 system and the lights in the ship turned off and emergency lights followed, dimly lighting the cockpit and cabin below.

Corvus could hear the system boot up and stop welding for a second to catch his breath. He could now feel the cool air pumping through the ship that almost felt like an air conditioner. After his lightheadedness left and his breaths became short and frantic he knew he was okay. He continued welding and after a few minutes the wound was completely sealed. Taking a moment to check for leaks in the patchwork, he took a moment to reflect.

All within a few hours Corvus had watched his home be reduced to ruins, his sister get kidnapped by slave traders, a mercenary lead them through the most intense experience he’d ever had and they had just nearly suffocated. He knew he couldn’t process all of that information and some or all of it would hit him later. Likely everyone he knew was dead and he had seen the faces and severed limbs of people he’d grown up with, people he’d fought with and people that loved and hated him. The only person in this galaxy right now that even knew who he was, was Sasha and a bounty hunter.

He dropped his tool belt out of the compartment and climbed down onto the floor. Rik grabbed the hatch door and closed it above Corvus’ head. Corvus looked up at him who was relieved that the chaos had passed. Other than relief, the man’s face was difficult to read. He was definitely middle-aged but looked older than he was and that was due to the wrinkles around his mouth and eyes. Little did Corvus know it wasn’t age that was making this mercenary rough around the edges; it was his convictions in a galaxy full of greed and murder. Regardless of what he’d done in his past, he dragged them through hell and were both alive and that got them one step closer to Sasha.