Galaxy (GIVEN UP)

Chapter 5

"Watch out for the engine room." Virgil said casually as he scooted round the edge of the opening in the floor. Roman nearly fell into it and wheeled his arms back, trying to regain balance.

He glared at Virgil and took a couple paces back.

"What are you doing?" Virgil asked.

Roman didn't answer. Instead, he took a running leap and jumped clean over the engine room.

"Holy shit, don't break the ship!" Virgil protested, giving Roman a shove. "I've been working on this for longer than you've had a working brain, idiot!"

"Hey, no need to be so mean." Roman said, rolling his eyes. Virgil glared at him. He stormed down the corridor and pressed a button next to a door.

There was a grinding groan from inside the wall but nothing happened. Virgil rolled his eyes, muttering darkly, and gave the door a good kick with the soul of his foot. With another groan of protest, the door slid away.

"Your room, your Highness." Virgil said, motioning towards the door. Roman poked his head inside the door.

The room was, in essence, a storage room. Metal barrels rimmed with something sticky that gave off the same smell as the planet stood in racks all along the walls. A couple of the barrels had fallen over and the floor was stained with the dark purple. Cobwebs the size of Roman's head hung in corners. Roman swallowed as he tried not to imagine what had made those cobwebs. A layer of dust covered everything.

"Where am I going to sleep?" Roman asked.

Virgil shrugged and motioned to the corner of the room. Sacks of who-knows-what were piled up and leaning against the wall. They didn't look remotely comfortable.

"You can't expect me to sleep there, surely." Roman said.

"You're a Resistance fighter, aren't you?" Virgil hissed. "Fight. Survive. Isn't that what you're meant to do?"

"What did the Resistance ever do to you, damn." Roman thought with an eye roll.

"I'll be in the engine room if you need me." Virgil said, looking away. He pulled a sort of headband with a torch melded onto it out of his bag and tied it round his head. "Don't need me." He advised before turning away without another word.

Roman looked back at the storage room and blew a breath out in a lip trill. He'd been in a lot of weird - and frankly dangerous - situations when he was part of the Resistance but never anything like this.

Virgil jumped down into the engine room and sighed, his hands on his hips.

Why was he harbouring a Resistance fighter? The damn idiot clearly couldn't fly to save his life and he didn't seem much good for anything else. So what was it?

Virgil looked up at the darkness of the ceiling.

"I swear to Genar," he growled, "if this is your fault, I'm goin' to kill you." He sat down on the floor and picked up the speed-shield. With a quick measurement, he grabbed his cutting tool and turned it on. The blue light lit up the engine room and it hummed as he turned it on.

"Jesus Christ..." Someone breathed from above him. Virgil jumped and turned his tool off, glaring up at Roman.

"Ya couldn't have given me a warnin', huh?!" He snapped, his accent slipping through. Roman wasn't listening. He jumped down into the engine room.

"That's a Lightsaber." He said in awe, pointing at the tool in Virgil's hand. Virgil hid his hands behind his back.

"So?" He asked, turning his torch band off.

"So?!" Roman repeated. "Where'd you get it? How'd you work it? I thought only Jedi could weald those."

Virgil flinched at the word 'Jedi'. Genar, how he hated that word. That title.

"So?" He shrugged and turned the cutting tool (Lightsaber) back on. "I found it, I took it apart'n'put it back together an'that is a stupid myth." He gestured to himself. "Your proof is right here."

He knelt down on the floor and grabbed the speed-shield, his back to Roman. "D'you mind?" He asked. "You're in my light." He grabbed the sheet of laser glass. "Once I've cut the measurements for my speed-shield, we'll go'n'get the good bits of your ship."

"We?!" Roman repeated. He inched out of Virgil's light. "You're not taking anything from the Kaboom Raa 15!"

"It's only good for scrap now, like I said." Virgil said, trying to stay calm. Roman was really trying his patience. "What? You'd rather someone else got there 'fore us? They won't be as gentle wi'that ship as I would be."

Roman didn't reply. Virgil nodded slightly and switched his torch band on again.

"There." He muttered. "That's settled."

I keep forgetting about Virgil's accent and it's only Chapter 5, someone save me from myself-
Bye,
Blaize