Starship Alexandria - Echo Station Port

Nothing was worse than falling flat just before your goal.

The cargo bay had wide hanger doors and when they opened a bright white light filled the room and blinded Aden and Julian. The next thing they knew armed guards wearing the grey uniforms of port authority yelled at them from just outside the cargo bay. The mass of refugees all tried to leave the ship at once but each group had their ID papers checked and their belongings scanned. The crew from the ship stayed behind them and ushered them forward. Aden didn’t know if this was a routine check but he was starting to get that sinking feeling in his stomach.

“Relax. We don’t have anything they care about” said Julian. They had grabbed their belongings and were waiting in the back of the ship trying to get a feel for the situation.

“Except stolen technology” whispered Aden “Speaking of- do you think KhazorCorps knows we took it?”

“Doubtful. It’s not like they know us personally or anything but-”

“But they probably sent a request out to major stations to keep a look out for an arm of this description am I right?” finished Aden. Julian never really lied to him but he had a bad habit of always trying to make Aden feel better. Sometimes it worked. Now was definitely not one of those times.

He hadn't lied to the thief. They didn’t have any other belongings with them that anyone would care about. Outside of the stolen tech they really were poor and had left Earth with nothing but a single bag and their ID papers. Nothing wrong there. But Aden knew that KhazorCorps was not just gonna forget about their stolen technology. They had offices on most major stations. They would have absolutely let the authorities know what happened. In fact the scanners the guards were waving around were likely tuned to pick up KhazorCorps tech. And of course the damn thing was attached to his body. It’s not like he could just chuck it somewhere. He hoped Julian could work something out.

“Ok I’ve got a plan.” Said Julian eyes closed in concentration.

“Please hurry. We can’t keep going to the back of the line. The crew are gonna get suspicious” said Aden.

“Yes. I got it. Here we go. When it’s our turn for the guards to scan us I’ll go first and pretend to collapse from some kind of sickness. Then you rush in and help me up and tell everyone I’m your old man and I have some life threatening illness.” Said Julian.

Aden just stared at him.

“Jules.” Aden said “That is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. What do you think is gonna happen? They’re just let us go? If they think you’re sick they’ll send you into lockdown to keep others from getting sick. We’d be right back to square one!”

Julian paid no attention to Aden and instead fidgeted with his fingers and started to count the guards under his breath. He counted six. It was almost their turn to leave and the guards behind them started to tap their feet at the stragglers.

“Ok then we only have one other chance. You’re gonna have to use it.” Said Julian staring straighting ahead.

“Use it?” asked Aden. “You don’t mean-”

“Yes. When its our turn press the buttons on your palm. I don’t know what exactly it’ll do so just in case it fires lasers or something aim upward. In the commotion I’ll push the guards back and we’ll make a break for it.”

“What?”

“Right now it’s our only shot. Just do it OK? We just gotta get past port authority. Once we’re on the station itself we can meet up with our contact and he’ll take care of us.”

At that moment the line in front of them cleared and the port authority guards waiting on the outside of the cargo hold motions for them to come forward. Aden hesitated for half a second before a voice barked out to them.

“You there” said the guard. “Hurry it along. You’re holding us up.”

Aden cursed under his breath and started to walk towards the guard at a leisurely pace.

“What are you waiting for? Move!” screamed the guard. Aden kept up his same space and ran through the scenario in his head.

Six guards. Two are gonna search us and the other four on guard. Aden thought. Three guards per person? Too many, Julian is gonna get mauled. Forget it, even from this distance the port authority guards look like oversized animals. Julian was surprisingly strong and Aden would never underestimate him in a fight but these guys weren’t pushovers. I’ll turn on the weapon and use my arm against the ones closest to me. That should even the odds a bit thought Aden. And then the eerie thought cross his mind.

I hope I don’t kill anyone here thought Aden. The First Galactic War had taken too many years of Aden’s life. He was no stranger to death but the battle of Halenyx had worn him down. He didn’t want to deal with that again. Not if he could help it. But of course he had no idea what his arm could do.

As Aden approached the guard held out his scanner and gestured to move to the open space outside the ship. Stepping out of that ship disoriented even more.

Echo Station’s bright lights mimicked the sun itself and after weeks living in a third rate starship he had to cast his eyes down. The white metal floor glistened and Aden wondered what it would look like after the firefight they were about to have. He had already decided on pressing the left most button on his palm. Internally he counted down.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One

……huh?

At that moment Aden noticed something on the ground in front of him. A couple yards away a familiar mettalic item shined on the white floor.

His handheld terminal. But how? And who?

On instinct Aden looked up but his eyes had still not adjusted to the bright lights. All he caught was a glimpse of a crowd before he was knocked him onto his back.

Aden didn’t know how long he lied there. It felt like hours but of course he couldn’t hear anything to tell. A sharp ringing sound echoed in his ears. For that moment he forgot he was on Echo Station. Three weeks of dreaming of what he would do when he got here and he had already forgot. Instead Aden felt like he was back on Earth. Back in New York City. He was fourteen and the Beryon ships cast shadows onto the buildings. There was screaming and he wanted to move but he couldn’t and then the stream of light that came from the sky blinded him yet again.

His eyes were still closed when his hearing began to come back to him.

“Aden? Aden!” screamed the voice.

“Wha?” asked Aden. He didn’t know why the voice was screaming at him.

“On your feet soldier! Move!” screamed the voice. This time right in his ear. Aden rolled over and tried to put weight on his knees. Thankfully his legs worked and as he got up he let the hand grabbing his wrist guide him. He forgot where he was for a moment. It was only from hearing the word soldier that his legs worked using muscle memory. The old chant rang in his ears and he felt himself saying it aloud. Left. Right. Left. Right.

After some time they entered somewhere where the light began to dim darken. Aden sat down and could finally make out the soft noise of dripping water and mechanical buzzing. When he finally opened his eyes he saw Julian sitting across from him on a trash can. They were in some kind of back alley. When Julian saw Aden’s open eyes he gave him one of the biggest smiles he had seen.

“Welcome to Echo Station kid. We got one hell of a welcome party huh?”