Sometimes the Dumbest of Ideas...

The blinking red warning returned much faster than Mark would have anticipated. He already figured out that he probably shouldn't trust Kaliasi's judgement on the matter, but he had some hope that they won't be caught up for a bit longer. That hope was crushed now under the gravity of the situation.

His stomach was asking him for some sustenance, but he brushed that thought aside again. He saw on screens that there were much bigger problems to care about. The red light was blinking with increasing intensity, which he could translate into Sandanians closing up on them.

Mark Veers spotted from the front screen a planet. It looked small and unimpressive, it certainly wasn't the blue marble he was used to seeing and living on. No, this one was brown and green, with very few oceans and no mountains. The bright yellow, orange and white stains on it were actually city lights. Mark also noticed a huge silvery like fields as they were coming closer to the surface.

"We need to approach the planet from the proper angle before we, uhm, land." He heard Kaliasi speaking. "We don't want to land on the massive solar panels field-" She pointed at silver looking like smooth surface, already very visible as they were speeding in approach. "It's like hundreds of degrees hot, it will fry us on contact. No, we want to land in here, as close to Kramos, the city of Trade." Now she was pointing at a big blaze of orange. "That's where my contact is. Now, if we get separated somehow, look for Ramman, he is a friend. I'm sending you his address… now."

Mark received the exact coordinations on his mark display.

"Why would we separate?"

"No reason." She laughed nervously. "Also don't talk to anyone, don't take off your mask either. The locals do look different than you and if you'll stand out too much, your presence might get alert some autorities."

"Got it." He nodded.

"Or local gangs..." She added much quieter.

"What was that? Can you repeat?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it. Anyway… autopilot is on, we should be going in just a few moments."

She said and wanted to stand up, but one of the cockpit screens began ringing.

"Fuck me… I need to go and prepare something. You talk to the Sandanians, Mark. Stall as much as possible."

With that she left and Mark could see her sway her hips on the way out.

"The alien, heretic wretch."

He hears a familiar voice. And then he saw her on the screen. Short, white hair, black and silver uniform, bright skin with a tint of gold. Strange, angular ears, pointing down.

"Oh, you're that commander lady!" Mark pointed at the screen with a smile hidden behind his mask. "How did you survive the Nightmare?"

He asked, curious and just a little bit concerned.

"You heathen, I am Fio the Bialessa, the knight commander in service of the holy Sandanian order!"

The person on the screen got visibly irritated.

"Yeah, I'm actually kinda glad you survived. Haven't seen many familiar faces out there, and my companion definitely is on ****... Yeah, let's not talk about that. What do you want?" He asked, hiding his own uncertainty.

"You broke countless laws and I am here to drag your sorry bottom back where you belong!"

"Oh yeah? Like what kind of laws? I'm asking because I was never presented charges in any language that I'd understand. If anything, me understanding your language now is a courtesy."

Sandanian woman cursed with words that couldn't be translated.

"You are lucky that the Order allows the heathens to face their accusations. Let's start from the beginning."

She said, and pulled up a golden tablet with what Mark could only assume was the list of his so called crimes.

"Unauthorized usage of O-gate, trespassing in the pilgrim space, smuggling unauthorized technology into the Sandanian Holy Order's territory."

"Hey, my ship got destroyed and you were the ones that fished me out in space and brought me to your station." Mark interrupted her. He noticed a message on his heads up display, notifying him to come to the storage area.

"Polluting the O-gate area with primitive space ship parts. Smuggling the unknown, alien microorganisms into common space..." She scrolled down until she saw something quite uncommon, and then looked at him with shock on her face. "Fornicating with Alearan? You did what?"

She asked, and her cheeks were surprisingly red hot.

"Trust me, I regret that too. She never let me finish."

"Ahem…" She cleared her throat. "Based on those charges alone I should sentence you to ****, but I feel merciful today. If you admit that you committed all those crimes, and pledge yourself fully in service of our god, the great big-giant head, then I shall sentence you only to indentured servitude for three thousand galactic cycles, after which you'll be free to come back to your planet. At your expense."

She said with a proud, merciful voice.

"You know… back home we aren't big on slavery. I'm not either. And **** isn't something I'd go for... So I'm choosing option C."

"Option C? There is no option C. What's the option C?"

"This is the option C." Mark raised his hand, and showed her a middle finger before turning off the communications.

Then he quickly got out of his chair, noticing an alert saying that the enemy ship was arming it's cannons, and aiming it at them. He quickly moved to meet up with one alien woman that was only slightly less annoying than the one he just spoke to. Mark was equal parts curious and wary of an escape plan she thought of, but so far her planning skills - while seemingly lucky - didn't fail him or her. So he was willing to put some trust into her once more. And he was hoping that it wouldn’t bite him in the ass.

Kaliasi was waiting for him near the airlock that led outside, she was basically leaning against it. Mark was growing increasingly suspicious of this exact position on the ship.

“Hey, so how did it go?” She asked.

“Oh, you know, had a quick chat with that Fio commander crazy lady. Somehow she survived the prison station.”

“I don’t think she did.” Kaliasi shook her head, and put on a backpack that was nearby.

“Then did I just speak to a ghost?”

“No, only primitives and the clergy believe in ghosts.” She laughed in response. “Sandanian officers often use multiple proxies that they control so they don’t have to get directly in danger. Kinda smart, I guess.”

“Proxies?”

“Remote controlled bodies. I’m guessing she has like a half a dozen of those.”

She explained and Mark nodded in admiration for alien ideas and technology.

“So how do we…” Veers began, but then something shook the entire ship, and he found himself on the floor, next to Kaliasi.

“They began firing at us, they shouldn’t have done that yet. Fuck, not good. What did you say to her?” Kaliasi said, still standing, holding on to some wall hook.

"Nothing, really..." Mark said with a totally innocent smile. "I showed her a middle finger."

She exploded with a short lived laughter.

"That's the sign that you want to fuck her in Sandanian culture."

A short moment of silence followed.

“What now?”

“Well, the shields pretty much absorbed like ninety percent of first hit, but this ship doesn’t generate enough power to sustain that and fly, so… I just turned off the shields.” She gave a quick explanation, and Mark had a feeling that it was bad news.

“And what does that mean?”

“Let’s see… With the guns they are shooting at us, they’ll probably blow us up in the next salvo.”

“Are you out of your mind…”

Mark began, but she wasn’t listening. Instead, she approached the airlock, overrode the controls.

And opened it.

A second later they were both sucked into the vastness of space, right above the atmosphere of Cirrus.

Mark was spinning in space, felt a crippling cold and saw dozens of warnings on his head up display. He was disoriented, lost. Almost like the last time…