Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 46 – Epic pursuit

“All, return to your seats! We`re about to re-enter DA-51.” V-Nus ordered the crew as he contemplated the immensity of the black hole that expanded in front of his eyes, ready to swallow them, once for all.

“Great, keep course. Sissy, get rid of this mess.” Shoffer referred to the corpses spread around the Bridge while trying to avoid the sickening smell of blood that overwhelmed their lungs.

The decease enemies along with their equipment were absorbed by the deck, like mare objects that sank shallow waters, and thereafter expelled off the ship, leaving in the space a wave of body parts, a disturbing scene for whoever would be unlikely to come across.

Flumen looked around, recognizing how efficient Sissy was on extinguishing any traces that a fight had ever occurred, except by his memories that would always remain, which he wished she could also expunge.

“Sissy, bring me the intruder. He may have some useful information.” Shoffer`s thoughts resounded throughout the momentarily quiet spaceship.

“Shon, I am afraid this is no longer possible.” She replied with some indifference in her voice. A tone that the others had not yet heard.

“Why not? Is he dead?” Shoffer`s serious voice enquired with a plausible guess.

“Affirmative.” She provided him with the shorted answer.

“How?” Shoffer`s short words demonstrated some impatience as he challenged her intellect.

“Once the prisoner was released into space ‘as per you orders’ – she emphasized – he asphyxiated and his body froze.” Sissy`s voice replied completely absent of any feelings.

Shoffer took a deep breath and before he could start, she continued. “However, I anticipated his knowledge could be of some usage for the mission and I took the liberty of transferring his entire intellectual data to a memory cell.”

At the pace Shoffer tried to remain calm while speaking to the ship`s entity, V-Nus kept on piloting Chariot 3, doing his best to deviate from a series of discharges fired behind.

The pursuing squadron then suddenly ceased fire and decreased its speed. Flumen and Cai Yiu watched the mothership retrieving the squadron back into her hangar still en route towards the Nibirian ship.

“Odd. Did they give up after all?” V-Nus hopeful thoughts flooded his drained mind. The stress and tiredness were evident not only on his face, but on the minds and shoulders of them all.

V-Nus` surrealistic hopes were then disrupted by the sudden discharge that trembled Chariot 3. For a brief moment, the loud blast coming from the hull underneath echoed inside their heads, making Flumen assume the ship was about to be torn apart.

They all wondered whether Chariot 3 would resist. For an instant, they doubted it. The buzzing sound drilling their ears felt interminable.

The hatch leading to the Inter Deck was locked immediately after the momentary decompression. “Bridge sealed.” Sissy alerted, isolating them from the rest of the ship or whatever could have remained after the blast.

“What?” Trying to recover from the heavy dizziness, V-Nus looked around trying to find where the close range discharge had come from. Nothing.

He finally looked down through the ship`s transparency that blinked intermittently between solid and clear, and found the two stingrays flying underneath what was left from Chariot 3`s concernedly damaged hull.

Flumen looked down and along with V-Nus, searched for one of the spherical probes that was once part of the ship`s landing gear, completely gone, leaving a hole leading its way up to the Flight Deck.

With that image in mind, Flumen wondered how the ship would land should they ever make that far.

Even though there was not a threatening message or any exchange of communication between the Greys and the Nibirians at this time, the damage on the wing of one of the stingray shaped crafts that pursued them was enough for V-Nus to deduce who was flying that craft.

“He`s alive”, the Martian thought just before the Nibirians reached the same conclusion: the nasty squadron leader was still alive after all.

The resemblance between the scars next to his eye, scratched from top to bottom and the wing of his craft, ripped from forward to aft were of an almost symbolic irony, as if they were meant to each other.

“Lower hull critically damaged. Flight Deck and Inter Deck compromised. I am incapable of performing maintenance due to insufficient reserves of graphene liquid and fuel. Transparency mode: unstable.” Sissy provided the not so promising ship status report.

“What else could go wrong now?” V-Nus wondered out loud without taking his eyes out of the enemy craft underneath.

“Transparency mode: irresponsive.” Sissy added before the ship became solid to their eyes once for all.

From that point onwards, they could only guess where their enemy was. The Transparency mode stopped, leaving them with nothing but a couple of windows at the bow and stern of the Chariot 3, just enough to navigate the falling ship.

“I see. That`s what could have gone wrong.” V-Nus` irritated voiced replied to her update while they watched the darkness of DA-51 expand through the portholes above their heads for what could be Chariot 3`s last attempt to cross it, should she not be incinerated before reaching it.

Just prior to immersing themselves into the hole, the crew felt one more blast underneath. “Another discharge.” Shoffer knew they did not have much time, but he was far from knowing how short of time they actually were.

“Critical Damage on the ship`s structure. Landing is highly recommended.” They could barely hear Sissy`s fading voice with the buzz from the deafening explosion still being heard inside their heads.

Chariot 3`s bottom lights had been reduced to half, lost along with half of the partially disintegrated hull. The remaining part of its navigational lights started to blink randomly, alternating between red and purple.

While feeling a sharp pain down on his back, Shoffer strove to recover from his dizziness as he fought to maintain control of the damaged ship. “V-Nus, help me keeping a steady speed, we cannot afford any miscalculations at this time.”

“V-Nus, V-Nus, V-Nus!” Shoffer looked to the side and found his co-pilot unconscious. The Captain sighed in disappointment before the Nibirian ship finally entered the black hole. “This is becoming a habit”, the Captain concluded.

“Shon…”Sissy paused, her fading voice seemed to be defective, failing, dying “…I have managed to lo…ck Chariot 3 on a ste…steady speed, but I am afraid the ship shall no…t resist any lon…er.”

“Have you locked the correct coordinates?” Shoffer sounded apprehensive.

“Negative Shon. Chariot 3 will not make that far. You must land the ship as soon as you can.” Sadness was somehow noticeable in her voice while she put on all the remaining energy to alert her Captain.

Realizing the ship`s entity was about to pass – if that was even possible – and knowing that soon so would the ship, Shon swallowed his fear and tried to hold his emotions. “Sissy, you cannot leave. This is an order!” Flumen and Cai Yiu heard the Captain`s voice trembling along with the space disc. A tear came out of his eye while his sweaty hands tried to grasp his now seat tightly.

“Shon, shall yo…r pa-th…be safe. I lo…e you...” Her last words were almost unclear, but at that moment one thing had become evident: Sissy had become a much more sensible, perhaps ‘alive’ being than she had ever been before.

“I love you too.” Shon silently replied as he dried a tear with his sleeve.

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