Chpt. 4) Simplicity… or not

“I can’t believe you got me for one mill,” Violet complained as she, Haru, and Sparky made their way to the Mauler through the long coradors.

“Well, you should’ve done as the guards did and left once they got to ten kay,” Haru countered.

“I still can’t believe you made rock, paper, scissors a gambling game. When statistacly speaking as soon as you start losing the chances of you winning is slim to none,” Sparky added.

Violet leaned forward to look Sparky in the eyes and said, “I didn’t ask for your opinion, Sparky.”

“To paraphrase my imbisil of a teacher. I don’t give a fuck.”

“Tue che,” Violet conceded and continued walking.

After a few minutes of walking Violet noticed that both Haru and Sparky had disappeared. She looked around confused then shrugged and continued walking to the hanger, the long coradors giving off and omanise feeling. It made her feel alive and gave her the need to chase something and run. A thought occurred to her, ‘You know what? This is my ship. I can do what ever I damn well please with it.’

She broke out into a full sprint and after a few strides she began doing cart wheels and wall runs until she made it to the long starewell. Instead of going down the stares normaly she activated the cybernetic implants in her legs and jumped. She hit the wall at the bottom of the first flight and rebounded off it and jumped down to the next, the next, and the next until she made it to the bottom of the starewell.

Feeling elaighted at the exercion she walked through the airlock door and came face to face with Haru and Sparky. “About time,” Sparky said snidely.

Violet looked between the two and the door she just walked through, “How did you get down here so fast?” she asked.

Haru pointed down the hall, “There’s a lift just down there. I thought you explored the ship?”

“Oh,” Violet said, then added, “Well, I didn’t explore that much.”

“Clearly. Now, where are we going?” Sparky asked.

“We are going to go get recrutes,” Violet said and bgan walking to her ship.

“Yes, I know this. But where are we getting recrutes?”

“We are getting them…where we get them,” Haru answered.

Sparky froze, “Are you telling me, you two don’t have a plan?”

“Noooooo,” Violet said, “you are saying we don’t have a plan. Haru and I never said we don’t have a plan.”

“But no we don’t have a plan,” Haru said.

“Haru! You know we needed to tell her after she get shot and almost killed!”

“Well, she’s smart she’ll figure it out eventually.”

Sparky stayed frozen in the same spot and said to herself, “I may have made a mistake taking Violet up on her offer,” then she too boreded the small black and red vessal.

***

As space straightened and went back into place, the three laid their eyes on a massive planet with a never-ending storm raging on its surface and the five moons orbiting the gas giant. One of which had a thriving city covering the surface of the moon. “Welcome, to my playground,” Violet said lovingly.

“She means, Asakalabaum,” Haru translated.

“Hey! Stop ruining my fun!” Violet snapped, “You’ve already fiddled with my chair and changed its settings.”

“Well, sorry for making it more comfortable!” Haru countered and turned in her chair.

“HA! Comfortable!? Those are default settings!”

“They’re better than your settings then!”

“You take that back!”

As the argument raged on, Sparky lay in one of the beds at the back of the ship rubbing her temples, saying, “Four hours… four fucking hours of this pointless blathering… four FUCKING hours!” then an alarm went off on her wrist watch, which she quickly silenced, “FIVE FUCKING HOURS!!”

“Oh, stop complaining, Sparky!” Violet said, “Or I’ll turn this ship around and make it ten hours!”

“Just land,” Haru said, pinching the bridge of her nose in defeat.

“Fine, fine. We’ll be landing in a few minutes. So, get comfortable.”

“Good, I’d like to get on solid ground and out of this ship as soon as possible AHHHHHH!” Sparky began to scream as Violet flipped several switches and poured all power into the sublight engines. The sudden lurch made the inertial dampeners switch off, then stay off. As Sparky hit the back of the ship, she yelled, “Did you divert power from the inertial dampeners!!”

“Yep!” Violet yelled back, returning her attention to flying as Sparky yelled a torrent of curses at her. “Yeah, yeah. Hold that thought, Sparky. Mommy has to find a parking space.”

Haru, clutching the arms of her chair in fear, turned her head and said, “I know what that means. Sparky, strap in! Now!”

A wide, devious, and slightly insane smile spread across Violet’s face as she aimed for the edge of the gas giant, “This is going to be so fun!” she said, then pushed the throttle of the ship to maximum speed.

As they hurtled toward the planet, the feeling of gravity took hold and continuously grew. Violet felt as though weights were slowly being added to her body, crushing her. Soon she could barely move her arms, and colors began to drain from her surroundings, leaving everything in black and white. Then her chest began to tighten as her heart struggled to pump blood to her brain and extremities. At this feeling, Violet had enough and activated her cybernetic implants to move her arm toward a nearby button, pressing it and re-activating the inertial dampeners.

As the gravity of the fast-approaching planet stopped affecting her, color returned to her vision, and she pulled back on the yolk just enough to get in a suitable orbit around the planet while not losing any speed. Then she flipped three switches to her left, and she heard the top of her ship open up, and a holographic display of her nearly empty fuel cells refilling came onto the dashboard in front of her.

“Haha! That was fun, wasn’t it!?” Violet laughed and turned to Haru. She had passed out from the immense G-forces. Violet frowned and turned to look to the back of the ship and saw Sparky lying face down on the ground, unconscious. She looked between them and scoffed, “Lightweights.”

Turning her attention back to the holographic display and watched the fuel cells refill. As they reached half full, Haru stirred and groaned. Violet didn’t hear what she said. It sounded like she just mumbled to herself. Violet shrugged and continued to guide the ship around the planet until the fuel cells filled; by the time they finished, Asakalabam came into view, and gravity gave the Mauler plenty of speed.

“Huh, what-what happened?” Haru asked as Sparky crawled her way up to the front of the ship, looking more pale than usual.

“Hey! So, we just refueled from the gas that comprises the gas giant. Hydrogen works wonders for my neutron engines. And due to the gravity slingshotting us, we’re about to land. Very forcefully,” Violet said happily.

“What?!” Sparky yelled and began to go on a rant.

Ignoring Sparky’s yelling, Violet aimed the ship at Asakalabam, and gravity threw them at the moon city. The moon grew exponentially larger as they drew closer. Violet quickly reached up and flipped a few switches above her to send a docking request to the spaceport she would be landing at and reached to her left to rest her hand on a touch screen panel. Her cybernetics connected with the screen, and Violet received complete control of the ship’s unique features.

One of the unique features being gravity manipulation tech. Violet installed it herself and can only change the lower half of the ship’s weight, but it does the job. As they entered the moon’s atmosphere and the ship began to heat, a confirmation signal sounded in the cockpit, and she activated the gravity manipulation reversing gravity. The ship immediately leveled out of the nose dive and began to shake as it continued to fall. A holographic display activated and showed the number of meters and feet before they hit the ground.

Twelve thousand meters, or thirty-nine thousand feet, and dropping. Violet’s heart raced as she saw how fast the numbers ticked by, and her attitude plummeted. She felt alive. Soon she flipped a few more switches, and the reverse thrusters kicked in, slowing the ship further. A timer came onto the holographic screen and began counting down from ten. Violet held onto the yolk of her ship for dear life; nine. Haru screamed, cursing Violet’s name; eight, seven. Sparky held a hand over her mouth and sat on one of the beds holding onto anything else with her free hand; six, five. Violet began to laugh uncontrollably at the chaos she managed to create within a few minutes; four, three, two, one.

The Mauler abruptly stopped as it hovered over a landing pad a few feet below. Violet flipped a few switches on a panel to her right, released the landing gear, and gently lowered the ship onto the platform. Once safely on the ground, she shut off the ship and turned to see a frazzled Haru and a very green Sparky.

“We’re here!” Violet exclaimed excitedly, “Welcome to Asakalabam! An absolute shit hole of a moon and where we can find plenty of redshirts. Maybe.”

Haru shakily stood and flipped Violet off as she made her way to the airlock to leave the ship. Then Sparky lost her lunch.

***