16

16

Space, Adican Cruiser

“Rilfor!”  A smaller female Adican shouted.  “Our battleship near X-37.6 is down.”

“Damn!” Rilfor said “That’s really unfortunate.  Who did it?”

“Well,” the female Adican said, “Our sources point to one of the Rapirian flag ships but we’re detecting signs of human life from the wreckage.”

“At least now we know where they might have gone.  I need proof for the Empress though that it was human.  Tell the bridge to set a course for the wreckage of the ship and to get there as fast as possible.”

“Yes sir!” The female said and walked out of the room.

.        .        .

Space, Rapirian Battleship

Spencer woke up late the next morning and crawled out of bed.  He took a shower, brushed his teeth and threw on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans.

He walked to the main area, got a cream cheese bagel and sat down with his friends.  They traded stories about the events from yesterday but stopped when they saw Grace approach them.

“Thanks for the save,” she said to Spencer and kissed him on the cheek.  Spencer blushed blushed slightly and was about to say something but she had already walked away.

Spencer noticed that everyone was staring at him. “What?” He asked.

“Nothing,” Jensen said smiling and went back to his cereal.

Rojan walked up to them a few moments later and said, “We will be docking in an hour or so, so get anything you’ve got together.” and then walked away.

Spencer walked back to his room to get his things but he then remembered he didn’t actually own anything that was on this ship so he turned around stepped out into the hallway where he was then confronted by Grace who walked up to him.

“Hey,” Grace said.

“Hey,” Spencer replied.

“We’re landing soon.” Grace told Spencer.

“I heard.” Spencer said and looked at a clock, “In about 30-40 minutes actually.”

“Yup,” Grace said.  “I was going to go get some breakfast,  wanna come?”

“Sure”  Spencer replied although he had already eaten.

Spencer followed Grace out of his room and followed her too the main room where Grace grabbed some breakfast and sat down at a table across from Spencer.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Grace said through spoonfuls of food.  “What exactly happened on our little bomb-setting adventure?”

“Well,” Spencer said, “Let me think.”  Spencer then told Grace about how he went back through the Adican ship to find her injured and quickly saved her life and was able to bring her back to the ship just in time.

“Wow,” Grace said “Hard to believe I couldn’t remember much of that.  Thanks anyways.”

Rojan walked toward Grace and Spencer with Colby, Jensen and Lily and told them to follow him.

The group began to walk down the hall when a sudden lurching threw Spencer slightly off balance.

“What was that?”  Colby asked.

Rilfor laughed at them and said “Not to worry, it’s just the ship docking to the station.”

Rilfor continued down the hall followed by the embarrassed but also grateful humans who followed him to a closed hallway with a guard at the door.

“Are we ready to board the station?” Rojan asked the guard.

“Perfect timing.” The guard said smiling as he opened the latch to the door opening the hallway to the station.

The group walked through the hall and onto a space station filled with military guards, ships and amazing views of two yellow and black moons and two suns, one red sun close to the planet, and a farther away blue one.

“This is a military station,” Rojan informed them as they walked across the large open area where they exited the ship.  “Civilian stations have commercial vessels filled with restaurants, shops and entertainment!”

Spencer tried to picture it and eventually just related it to an airport in space.

They arrived at another door where two guards opened a hatch and then followed them into a pod where the guards strapped everyone down to chairs and bid them farewell as they exited.

Before Spencer could try to understand why all the restraints were necessary he heard a metallic ring and was lifted from his seat.  The rocket began to fly downward and Spencer heard another pop as the pod broke the sound barrier not even 5 seconds after launch.  Spencer looked out the window to see the pod dropping towards the planet at an astonishing rate.  Sure there must have been an accident Spencer began to panic.

The pod continued to drop and then suddenly Spencer was nearly thrown to the floor as a parachute of some sort brought the pod to the ground at a slow pace and set them down.

Their straps released as a guard from the outside opened the door as if this was nothing special because, for the guard, this was probably an everyday thing.

Spencer, grateful he was still alive, followed Rojan out the door and stepped into the greenish light of the new planet.