By Ananya P.
Rayna stood at the helm of the ship, looking through the bubble at the sky above. Some might find the view boring, but Rayna thought it was breathtaking—pitch black, but dotted with stars as if someone had splatter-painted the sky with a toothbrush. Sometimes Legend, their captain, would call them above deck to witness a passing nebula or an exploding star. Mostly though, they travelled through space with minimal interruptions, the translucent chemical bubble around the ship disintegrated any comets they might come across. Rayna headed down below deck where the rest of the crew was situated. Freya was reading a book using her bioluminescent nail polish to light up the words as she drew her finger across the page. Rayna walked over to her bunk and tapped her shoulder. Freya looked up and removed her goggles before blinking up at her with milky white eyes. Freya was blind and used the goggles Bandit made for her to block out the rest of her senses, allowing her to see very faintly and devour books as she did on a daily basis. “What’s the ETA?” Rayna asked. “We should’ve arrived by now.” Freya shrugged. “I’m running out of books.” She motioned to the small pile remaining at her feet. “Legend better have found a civilized planet with some rundown libraries to rob.” Rayna smiled. Bandit, the fourth member of their team, had a soft spot for Freya and would always steal away some books for her, as she wasn’t allowed to come on raids. She headed down to meet him as he would know the most about their ETA, besides Legend, who was sleeping. The metal hull of the ship was colder than the rest of the ship, which looked like a pirate ship that sailed the seas, not space. Most modern ships were compact and made fully out of metal instead of wood. Legend liked the aesthetic of a wooden ship, and the way it was built made it easier to attack and defend, as well as making for a smoother landing. Bandit was sitting at his desk, fiddling with wires on a desk covered with maps. His bandana had fallen off his forehead and was half covering his eyes which made Rayna think he was falling asleep. She sat across from him silently watching, before deciding to speak. “Freya said you’d know the ETA” Bandit glanced up groggily and shuffled around the desk for a map with his gloved hand. “Well, last night we catapulted around Zeelak 8264 and changed our trajectory using its gravity by 24 degrees, which puts us on the landing path.” He traced his finger around a brownish-gold planet and kept tracing until he reached an icy blue sphere. “The change in trajectory was 23 hours ago which puts our ETA at… almost two days.” He looked up at her. “Shouldn’t you be on look out? There’s no one above deck.” That was Rayna’s job—the lookout. Her actual job was strategic offense, but they seldom were attacked. She waved her arm at Bandit. “It’s been almost three months since—” A high pitched sound split the air followed almost immediately by a bang, throwing Reyna against the opposite wall. Bandit pressed a few buttons on his wrist band to offset the gravity, stopping the table from hitting Rayna by a few inches. She gasped, stunned for a few seconds, barely registering Bandit yelling at her to get moving. All of a sudden, her eyes blinked back into focus and her ears popped, registering all the sound around her. Ignoring Bandits obscenities, she grabbed the table with both hands and threw it with all her strength to the left, the opposite and equal reaction giving her enough momentum to get to the stairs. The anti-gravity stopped as she reached the first step, and she landed hard on her hands and knees, registering the blaring red lights as she started to run up. Rayna slammed open the metal door and ran up onto the middle of the deck. Under them flew a compact metal spaceship. Legend was already at the helm, firing thrusters and trying to evade any rockets that were aimed at them. Their eyes met and Rayna could tell he was furious. “You had one job,” he seemed to say. She looked away and headed for the weapons hatch. *** A few hours later, Freya was dancing through the metal riggings patching up the hull here and there. Legend was still at the helm, eyes dark, and he still wasn’t acknowledging Rayna. She was still standing near the weapons hatch, putting the short circuit activation key on charge. In her opinion, the loss hadn’t been a great one; for one, the enemy ship had been eliminated, the shield was completely obliterated and although the wreckage was in one piece, the ship had been made to short circuit and was powered down. On their side, two thrusters had been lost to space and damage was taken to the other three, they were basically immobilized for awhile, and Legend was livid.
Eventually, Legend released the wheel, blood returning to his papery white fingers. He turned around saw Rayna watching him, “We’re already off track from our pitstop in sector 7, and now this.”
She didn’t respond, Rayna knew it was her fault, the sound of his sharp voice reprimanding her only made her feel worse. She turned away, latching the clasp on the weapons hatch.
“Take Bandit and go look for survivors.”
The survivors—or more likely—prisoners were nearly nonexistent. Rayna had made her way to the end of the ship near the thrusters, about to call in negative for survivors when she heard a shuffling to her right. She raised her blaster and neared it. Between two switch boards, she saw him, sleeping amidst the wreckage. His skin was dark but glowing in the still air and he wore clothes that Rayna couldn’t recognize from any civilized planet she had visited. Slowly, Rayna crouched down and pushed at his shoulder. The reaction was immediate; he jerked sideways, his eyes flashing open. If it was possible for someone to have eyes like galaxies, he did.