Fracture - Book One of the Glass Galaxy Trilogy

Chapter 18: Revelations

We departed Ignum Station later that same, eventful day, our food stores fully stocked and our crew one member larger than when we arrived. Nobody seemed to care about the mess we had made, and our new Doctor -whose name was Rylie- reassured me that we wouldn't see any trouble for it.

So we just peacefully un-docked and continued on our mission.

Long trips through space were a monotonous affair when you had a specific destination and time constraints. We were confined to the ships, never stopping to dock, or even just look at the stars, and it never took long to get mind-numbingly boring for me. But while I struggled to entertain myself, Reaper's crew had no such problems.

The first day after we left the station they procured a poker table from somewhere on the ship and played all day, betting whatever they could get their hands on while using a pack of cards that seemed to be made of pure platinum. "We found those cards on one of the freighters we jumped a few years back," Reaper told me when I asked about them. "They refuse to use anything else now."

On the second day they set up some kind of bowling alley in the crew quarters, using plastic drinking cups as the targets and rolling what looked like a genuine bowling ball at them. Reaper, Abaddon, and Aria joined them, enjoying their time, but the day came to end when Aria rolled the ball so hard that it crashed into the far wall and exploded, sending pieces flying everywhere. Rylie had to remove pieces of it from two of Reaper's Crew, and Aria decided it would be safer for her to not join in any more sports on-board the ship.

But it was the third day that surprised me the most. I woke up, swinging my feet off my bed, and immediately noticed the pervasive silence in the air. Normally the sound of footsteps and muffled voices could be heard throughout the ship, but they were absent that day, and it was admittedly uncomfortable.

I took one of my shirts from the bag of clothes I had brought and pulled it on over my head, its soft, high-tech fibers always pleasant to touch, then stepped out into the hallway. The sounds of life were still conspicuously absent, so I set about the ship looking for someone. The obvious place to look was the crew quarters, since that was where we all ate and spent most of our leisure time, but while there were signs of recent occupancy, it was empty, and I continued searching after disposing of the garbage littering the room.

I stepped up the stairs to the bridge, opening the crude manual door and entering the relatively unimpressive room, but to my surprise it, too, was empty. I quickly glanced at the shoddy screens around the pilot's seat to make sure that there was an autopilot script running and then exited the room, shaking my head at how destitute all the equipment on this ship looked.

The third guess was the correct one, and as I drew near the cargo bay I could finally hear voices drifting towards me. I stepped into the cargo bay doorway to see three dozen pirates sitting on the floor watching something projected onto the wall, Reaper and Abaddon lecturing to them in authoritative voices. I leaned against the doorframe and watched with amusement for a few minutes, the lesson being on the Teracon Navy hand-to-hand techniques that I had given to Reaper after we'd captured Dushel Station.

It was a set of techniques designed specifically for use in the tight corridors of ships, perfectly suiting the pirates that made up Reaper's crew, but they seemed to struggle to grasp the nuances of it. Reaper and Abaddon tried their best to tech them, but they themselves possessed a very limited understanding of the material, and after watching them struggle for a while I stepped down into cargo bay, making sure to step heavily enough that my entrance was audible over Reaper's voice.

"You're going to dislocate your wrist if you try to do it that way," I said loudly as people glanced at me. "You've gotta turn your wrist with the throw."