James elft a stinging pain in his neck that drove him awake from his deep sleep and peaceful dreams. His body jolted awake as he stood up upright in a sharp move looking with hatred around him.

It took him sometime to realize where he was and what just happened. Rigo, who held a medical fiber syringe, stood beside him waiting for the side effects of the forced sleep drug to go away.

"How long did I sleep? I feel like I slept for centuries already," James said while he was sensing the place of the syringe in his neck, he still felt an irritating sting in it.

"Only ten minutes, sir."

James looked in doubt towards Rigo, who went away to put this syringe into the dump zone. Just as James was lost in his thoughts, his eyes saw something strange, a youngster was lying beside Eli like a sleepy baby.

"Who the hell is that? Where did he come from? How did he come here on board the ship?" James threw all these questions on Rigo's face while pointing out towards the youngster.

"I don't know, he just appeared strangely in the commanding deck, '' Rigo answered as he went back to his seat.

"He just appeared here? how is this even possible?"

Rigo pressed some buttons before replying to James, who followed him and sat on his seat while his eyes were looking towards this strange youngster:

"There is an old tech in our empire that could move people between far places."

"Are you saying he was sent by one of your tech?" James asked in doubt and disbelief, as this was the first time he heard about the existence of such ability, ability that seemed more magical to be true.

"I don't know, I searched him and didn't find anything with him at all. When he woke up, we could ask him."

James didn't let this matter down as he asked:

"Have you checked his state? I mean if there is a way to make him wake up now we should use it. I hate dealing with unknown people, they always bring disaster with them."

"The medical examination that I ran with the help of the system in this cruiser diagnosed his status as in deep coma, a status similar to miss Eli's condition," Rigo replied while he drove the cruiser passing through some clouds of bluish gas.

"Are you saying he had the same condition as Eli? And since when has my cruiser can run medical diagnostics?"

"He is in the same coma condition as miss Eli, which is weird in my opinion. The system in this ship is miraculous, it can do many things, but your small cruiser is holding him back."

James kept looking towards this youngster as he snorted, he didn't believe he had gotten himself a new one to rescue. He looked towards the front where the scene changed drastically.

"We have arrived inside the zone safely, thanks for complimenting my ship, I really appreciate reminding me of its potential."

Rigo didn't get the sarcastic tone in James' words. As the cruiser appeared in the faint green sky, James noticed the presence of a large number of cruisers coming in or leaving this zone. Everything seemed somehow chaotic, yet it was following a hidden system.

"Run a full scan of this zone, we need to locate the place of those kids fast."

"affirmative."

Rigo then started to use the scanners in the small cruiser to scan every inch at this place. The zone was formed of a flat piece of land that stretched for millions of miles like a huge island.

James didn't know how this place was formed or what kept this land there without falling apart, but he had all the info he needed about this land from Eli's description. He waited patiently for Rigo to end his scan, as he needed to figure out where exactly they were right now.

"There is something here in this place that's jamming our scan," Rigo said.

"Do you know at least where we are?"

Rigo pressed some buttons as a hologramic view of the whole zone appeared, it then pointed towards a place that began to flash with red light as he said:

"We are here right now."

Jamed observed the map again, then he said after a couple of minutes:

"So we are basically in the outer borders of this zone. We need to cross a huge distance buddie."

James then looked towards the front to feel stupid, as in front of him appeared a large fleet of fighters. They were much smaller than his cruiser, but he knew he couldn't underestimate these nasty little things. Their ability to do rapid maneuvers were unparalleled in the whole galaxy.

"We have company," Rigo said.

"I noticed, can you try to reach them out and understand why they are blocking our way?"

Just as rigo was about to turn the transmission on and send this message to them, he found a message sent from these fighters.

"They sent us a message first," Rigo said.

"Decent folks, let's hear what they wanted to say."

Rigo activated the message to be heard loudly in the commanding deck. A strange language appeared which James didn't understand.

"Use the automatic translator in the system and play it back."

"Affirmative."

In a few moments, the message was broadcasted with human language that James could understand easily.

"This leader Rot, the leader of the rebels fighters. This zone is now closed under our jurisdiction, no cruiser is allowed to enter or leave here without our permission.

Violate this lock down and we won't hesitate to shoot you down. Please cooperate and don't be foolish. All cruisers have to follow us towards a place where you will all land and stay there safely until everything is over. I repeat, don't test our patience and be wise."

Jamed looked in disbelief towards Rigo as he asked:

"How the hell did they enter here?"

Rigo replied simply:

"It seems you aren't the only one who had a back door into this zone."

It hit him to make James realise his mistake. He was foolish to think Dora would take the same route as him. She must have found a secret way to enter here, and it seemed she did so long time ago.

"We are delayed, way delayed, than I expected," James said while gritting his teeth out of anger. He didn't only lose valuable time, he also missed the chance to meet Dora, and now he didn't know where she was.

His eyes got stuck over these small fighters as he decided to take the risk. He pressed the transmission button as he said loud and clear:

"Hi, this is James, princess Dora's friend. Can you please deliver the news of my arrival to her? Tell her I must see her immediately, as the secret mission she sent me for had gone south and now there is a huge threat approaching us."

James released the button to let the message pass through. He waited for long seconds while Rigo next to him muttered:

"As if your words will be heard by them."

Just as Rigo finished his cold words, another message arrived at the cruiser. James pressed the button to play it rapidly as the previous voice of leader Rot appeared saying:

"Can you please identify yourself formally? Tell your code, the mission codename, and state the brief details of the intel you have."

Rigo looked at James who went silent for a moment as he knew if he did wrong, these fighters wouldn't hesitate to shoot him down. After some thinking, he found a suitable answer as he rushed to record it and send it to that leader.

"My code is the guardian of Phoenix, the mission codename is Edwardo, and the brief detail of my intel is the approach of the Rontag Empire fleet from here."