Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 48 – The fallen angels

As he stood up and looked down through the hatch that he unsealed, Shoffer observed the dust coming through the cracks all over the hull of Chariot 3, pushed by the constant breeze brought into the stuffy compartment.

“We`ve made it! Haven`t we?” V-Nus enquired after coughing the thick dust out of his lungs as he looked for some reassurance. His hands fanned frenetically trying to get rid of the overwhelming cloud of dust that invaded the ship.

“Have we?” Asked Flumen while he rubbed his eyes and touched his body looking for any possible injuries.

“Cai Yiu, Flumen, V-Nus. Any injuries to report?” The Captain of the deceased ship checked on the status of his crew while shaking his head, trying to get rid of the buzz, still echoing inside his head.

“I`m as fine as I could be…”Cai Yiu paused as he tried to disconnect from his seat...“after a forced landing” he continued. His body then detached from the seat and he slid down to the side on an angle, falling on the deck.

“No injuries to report.” Said Cai Yiu as he stood up on his feet, cracked his body, and then touched the side of his arm to ensure his gisra was on its hidden sheath.

“Augh! Everything hurts. Are you not all experiencing the same?” With a painful look on his face, Flumen mumbled while refraining from moving his sore neck.

“We are, Flumen. We are.” And so were the others but they would never admit. Shoffer replied at the same time he cracked his back and carefully helped Flumen to disconnect from his seat while, with the help of his lens, he scanned the body of his friend for any possible injuries.

“Do not move.” Shoffer said. Starting from top to bottom, his eyes browsed over Flumen`s brain, his neck, chest and then he sighed.

“What?” Flumen said with the usual concern in his voice. His face seemed paler than usual.

“Nothing to worry…just a couple of broken ribs.” The Captain tried an uninspiring positivism.

Flumen on the other hand did not feel as much unworried as his Captain.

“Cai Yiu, get me the Healing Aid please.”

Cai Yiu immediately jumped down the pipe, landing on the Inter Deck.

His eyes browsed through the dark interior of the out powered ship while his hands touched the wall looking for the device. “It should be here somewhere.” He thought.

His fingers then felt a fissure on the wall. “The micro lab door!” Cai Yiu Hun noticed the door was no longer fully sealed.

Curious, he placed one of his eyes on the hole.

Pitch black.

Whatever was on the other side, he could not see it. Nothing could be seen.

His curiosity forced his hands to introduce their fingers through the fissure. He started to push, forcing the doors to open.

“Cai Yiu. Hurry!” The weapons and armory specialist immediately gave up on his curiosity once he heard the expediting voice of his Captain.

“The curiosity killed the Urmah.” He thought after all, with the Nibirian saying in his mind.

Cai Yiu turned back and finally saw the glowing symbol that indicated what he had come for.

Back on the Bridge, Shoffer grabbed the apparatus from Cai Yiu`s hand and immediately placed over Flumen`s body.

Shoffer quickly slid his finger over the black display and pressed his thumb against it.

When the weird apparatus made an electric starting sound, Flumen stared at it, imagining the pain he was about to feel. “Is it going to hurt?” He asked.

“No.” Shoffer replied activating the apparatus immediately after his words.

“Ahhh! You said it would not hurt.” Flumen used his fading voices to complain after the unpleasant sensation of his ribs moving back into place inside his body.

“I did not feel anything.” Shoffer smiled as he quietly got up and walked towards the hatch on the floor.

“Take a quick rest. You will need it.” His compassionate voice, just before sliding down the pipe, almost convinced the others to stay.

The two remaining Nibirians and their Martian friend looked at each other, and without saying a word followed their Captain one after the other, moving diagonally, down on the slanted pipe.

During the descend, V-Nus briefly wondered if he would ever be able to fix Chariot 3 again but once he saw the dimension of the damage in the Inter Deck, his mind was filled with disappointment before he even reached the Flight Deck or what was left of it.

At the bottom, their eyes quickly browsed around in search for Shoffer, but all they saw was another several cracks all over the ship`s structure. Almost half of the magnetic passage was gone along with a large piece of the deck itself. Cai Yiu and the rest of the crew were no longer stepping on the Flight Deck, but directly onto the soil that invaded the ship, becoming part of it.

The crew looked to the right where the big crack was and saw the first rays of light from the rising sun coming through.

As the two Nibirians and the Martian co-pilot slowly moved out through the crack, they found their Captain standing ahead, watching the horizon at the distance.

Hesitating, the loyal crew slowly walked towards their Captain, wondering what could possibly be going on in his mind.

Shoffer then slowly removed his lenses. The others watched him throwing them on the ground and then stepping on the thin pellicles. “I want you to destroy all your lenses. Make them disappear.” The others listened to his almost mysterious voice.

“They would never understand the functionality of it without opening our bodies to remove our BCI`s.” Cai Yiu Hun added.

“Precisely Cai Yiu, we shall not mention anything about our brain implants either or you can imagine the tests they will submit us to. We are here to hand them technology, not our bodies and souls.”

With his hand still touching the injured area, Flumen swallowed fear down his throat, realizing how hostile things could become in those pre-historical modern times.

Without arguing, the rest of the crew removed their lenses, dropped them on the ground, and then stepped on them, using their feet to cover them up with earth.

Their dark brown eyes, finally uncovered, found the natural brightness of the sun rising on the East.

V-Nus then asked. “What now?”

Shoffer looked down to the ground and then back up to the sky with the sun light pointing directly onto his face.

Captain Shoffer dropped on his knees with his hands touching the soil. He then exhaled all the air he had left in his chest and as he reached the most peaceful of his moments since the mission had started, he replied. “Now, we wait.”

Flumen, Cai Yiu, and V-Nus followed the same actions and let their bodies fall on their knees. It was time to rest.

Together, they contemplated the sun rising within the distance and although no one shared a word, their minds shared a similar thought, the fact that their paths had crossed each other for the first time just a few days before.

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