《The Celestial Venture》Chapter 13 - Interlude - Space II
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Work on the ship took several hours, and only once Kree and Jarvell performed a few tests, they decided to head off. By then, Regur was long gone, and even though Kree knew where his hiding spot was, she decided not to go and bother him. He already gave them their next lead, and while she figured Twy'la, and perhaps Jarvell too, would have many questions, they could, as Regur said, always find him there.
"Besa. I wonder what that dragon is like."
Glancing over at Twy'la, who was leaning against the back wall of the cockpit, Kree finalized their course to the nearest Persus system, before turning on the auto-pilot to the system edge.
"Regur only told us they were the oldest. And had an ill-fitting tail. But nothing aside from that." Kree said, turning the chair to face Twy'la.
"He also didn't tell us what rule he broke that he needed to imprison himself."
"No, he didn't. We can always ask him at a later point. Didn't seem like the radiation or anything was killing him."
Shrugging, Twy'la moved away from the wall "I suppose."
"Wait, before you go."
Twy'la raised an eyebrow at Kree, who gestured for her to come closer. Once the Kly'ta did so, Kree quickly got out of the chair and pushed Twy'la into it.
"Your spaceship studies are starting now. We have about six months to pass until we finish the jumps to the Persus Arm."
"E-ehhhhh? B-b-"
"Only butt I want here is yours, in that seat, while you are studying!"
While Twy'la kept stumbling on her words over the sudden declaration, Jarvell kept an eye on his side of things and chuckled at the sight, while Gum rested on his lap.
"Don't worry Twy'la, if you need backup, I'm here." he said, winking.
Hearing him, the Angel seemed to falter over her words some more, as her glance moved down.
"That's all water under the bridge. Long washed away. I don't hold grudges. Or at least, hard to make me hold a grudge." Jarvell said, before turning back to his side.
Kree squeezed Twy'la's shoulders "Ready? Lesson one starts now!"
"Not ready! I'm not ready!" Twy'la shook her head violently.
"Too bad! 101 Spaceship! Listen up!"
—————————————————
While the months that passed on the flight to the Persus Arm weren't the most eventful for Jarvell and Kree, they were certainly entertaining.
Twy'la's spaceship lessons had went like a rollercoaster, with some aspects she understood and managed to handle very quickly, like what each system did. Same went for managing the ship's radio, and even checking for damages.
But when it came for repairing the ship?
"Let's just, try that later on."
Kree's words echoed in Twy'la's head for the last month. She was given numerous attempts, and they went awry in the most odd way.
Each time she went to fix a small something she found, Twy'la would always end up with a hammer in her hand, and a finger pulsing, despite Kree telling her every time that a hammer is not used when repairing a spaceship. And that was still considered mild and perhaps salvagable by Kree and Jarvell, who both decided to just spend some time on a planet and properly introduce the tools to Twy'la.
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But for her flight skills, Kree was speechless at first. And that meant a lot.
Despite consistently panicking, freaking out and acting out whenever she was told to take the helm of the ship, Twy'la was apparently a natural-born pilot. She had managed to completely avoid any asteroids in a field on her first try, and she nailed a landing spot on a pit-stop planet.
Kree suggested on numerous occasions that she could end up being one of the best pilots in the galaxy, if she only managed to get a grasp over her own feeling. But Twy'la had an immensly hard time believing that.
"Please don't put me in the pilot seat again." Twy'la said, falling onto one of the beds in the back room.
Jarvell chuckled, while Gum jumped and landed on Twy'la's back.
"Oi!"
Gum quickly jumped away as Twy'la moved to lay on the side.
"Stupid Gelac."
"Ah, come on. That is no way to treat your savior." Jarvell said, while Gum landed on the table and then turned to look at Twy'la.
"Besides, it looks like the two of you had gotten more comfortable with each other."
Looking at Gum, Twy'la shrugged "Maybe. Aside from my rescue, he's also a reminder of home. So looking at him reminds me of bittersweet memories."
"Bittersweet? How come?"
"Well," she turned to lay on her back "I wasn't popular. Far from it. Kinda shunned for being special. And it also made me bitter as heck towards my own people. But they were still that, you know? My people."
Leaning back in his seat, Jarvell nodded "I can understand that. But there are some things that pass those who are connected to you like that."
"Like what?"
"That's up to your to figure out. Can't explain it away like teaching you about a spaceship. Its both simpler and more complex then any one explanation will ever put in, as everyone will have a different answer."
Twy'la took Jarvell's answer in and just laid there, silent, trying to figure out what could pass the connection people can have as a race.
"Final system jump, strap yourselves!"
Hearing Kree's call, Twy'la got up and quickly sat across from Jarvell, as both strapped themselves. Gum moved to Jarvell's lap, as the ship started to rattle a bit, indicating the jump was in progress. At the very least, it was much easier for the ship to handle then the hyperdrive.
As they finished the jump, Twy'la and Jarvell both made their way to the cockpit, to see the system that was part of the Persus system.
Before either could react, Twy'la and Jarvell were flung to the side as Kree started taking evasive maneuvers.
"W-what's happening?" Twy'la tried glancing towards the porthole, only Jarvell was in the way, and she was trying to prevent him from squashing her, until another sharp turn caused them to fall onto the floor, with Twy'la on top of Jarvell.
"We landed in the middle of a battlefield! I'm trying to get us out of-"
Kree's words got cut out as the ship's speakers turned on.
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"Civilian Vessel! This is Lieutenant Glerr of the Una Heirarchy! Find shelter in the nearby asteroid field while I attempt to secure a temporary ceasefire to allow your pass."
"Shelter in an asteroid field? Damnit." Kree said as she turned the ship sharply yet again and started heading straight into the asteroids, only to find that there were now shots being directed at the Tin-Can.
"Twy'la, take over for me. I'll fly out with a breather and provide some cover for you." Kree said.
"What?! Are you nuts? This is a battlefield!"
"You can do it."
Kree's calm and confident tone seemed to stun Twy'la, who saw Kree glance towards her as they approached the asteroids. Instead of arguing further, she stood up as quickly as she could, and half jumped to Kree's seat, before switching with her. The ship rattled a bit from the switch, while Jarvell made his way to the second seat.
"I've got Twy'la's back. Be safe." Jarvell said, putting on the headphones on one ear while looking at Kree, who nodded, before the cockpit door got sealed.
Grabbing a pistol and a breather, Kree started the process to open the hatch in space. Once she did, however, she noticed something flying right in her direction. Gum got stuck to her leg as she got knocked out of the spaceship with him.
"Gum! This is the worst possible time to-"
More shots came as the Tin-Can started to move into the asteroids, but the shots were threatening to push the asteroids straight to the ship. Deciding to scold Gum later, Kree took aim and started to shoot with the pistol. Careful, calculated shots.
While the attacking ships were still distant, Kree's shots had done nothing. But as they started closing in, her shots started hitting the glass of the cockpit. As the pilot seemed to understand what she was doing, he turned the ship around and retreated, and the same process repeated with a second ship.
The third ship, however, got close enough to land a shot on Kree's breather. As she could feel the breather start to fail, she removed it and looked back at the Tin-Can. It was now slowly moving between the asteroids, waiting for a signal that it was clear. And Kree didn't know if she'd make it.
Only her sight suddenly turned pink. And while she didn't feel she could breath properly, she wasn't choking on space's nothingness.
Noticing a pair of eyes in front of hers, Kree realized Gum covered her head with himself. He didn't need to breath, as he demonstrated once before already, surviving the take off from Europa and being in the landing gear, which was essentially in space, for a bit of time.
'Thanks Gum.' Kree thought as she moved to look back at the last ship, aiming to take a shot, only to notice it had stopped, and retreated back. Taking this as a sign that something had happened, she started flying slowly back to the ship, using the asteroids to boost her pushes, until she made it back inside, and closed the hatch, allowing the hatch to repressurize, at which point Gum dropped from her head, allowing Kree to take a few deep breaths as she sat down.
"Gum, thank you, but dont just jump at me like that again." Kree said, offering a smile of gratitude to the pink blob, who responded with a bounce.
As the cockpit door opened, Jarvell headed towards her "We got another call, this time from a General Peror, with the Uma Federation. A cease fire was commenced, and he apologized for sending starfighters to shoot at civilians. We need to evacuate and either land on the nearby planet, Deles II, which is under the Una Heirarchy, or leave the system to one of the other Persus systems nearby."
"First Una Heirarchy lieutenant, now Uma Federation general? Well, I guess Regur was right about both names. But didn't he say Imperium?" Kree said, looking at Jarvell who just shrugged "I need to still catch my breath some more. Tell Twy'la to land on the nearby planet. We need to restock on supplies anyway. And also make sure the ship was damaged."
Jarvell nodded, before heading back into the cockpit. Kree could hear some loud shouts from Twy'la, including a few curses that didn't get translated. Chuckling, she leaned back in the seat and just allowed her mind to drift away.
"Kree'aria. That shall be her name. Unless you have any better ideas?"
"None. It is a beautiful name. Does it have a meaning for your people?"
"Shining star."
Waking up from the shift in gravity as they entered the planet's atmosphere, Kree pondered about the words that went through her mind. She knew the male voice, the one asking about the name, was her father. But she never heard the female one, not spoken to her like that during her own memories.
"We're about to land! This planet has proper landing stations, we're being directed to a visitors station!"
Hearing Jarvell's call, Kree decided to just wait in the seat until they landed. She still felt exhausted from her bit of excitement in space.
After feeling the ship settle on the ground, Jarvell and Twy'la both came to the backroom and opened the hatch.
"Did they tell you to do anything as you exit?" Kree asked.
"Only to present ourselves for inspection. And the ship will be inspected too," Jarvell said, as Twy'la made her way down the ladder "Coming?"
Kree shook her head "I'll stay here. I could use a bit of time off. Just try finding out about the whole Una and Uma fighting."
Jarvell nodded, before beginning to climb down the ladder, and Kree rubbed her eyes. If a ship inspection was about to occur, she wanted to at least be properly awake for it.
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