Moonhawk 2 - The Blackcrow

Chapter 32 - The Past Of An Admiral

Blurred images formed around Captain Pitch's subconscious once he fell asleep. More and more voices began to echo. Voices, which he had never heard before. A crowd in front of him was cheerfully admiring something or someone. Not quite sure where Pitch was, the captain toddled closer to the crowd. Another, but male voice arose from the rest of the cheering people. A confident and proudful voice was now clearly audible:

"Now, townspeople. There's enough Admiral Palikan for everyone. Don't worry, I'll be here on planet Aella the whole day and night to rest."

Admiral Palikan's figure which the black lord saw from the photo earlier on that night had made a crystal-clear appearance. His visor wasn't cracked like he saw in the photo earlier. That's because Pitch was seeing into the past, when even Admiral Palikan was younger. Pitch assumed that a few others stood behind the admiral, feeling like they belonged to his crew who guarded him, Pitch assumed.

Little children were also admiring him, as far as the black captain could see. Their parents and elders made room on the front line for them to have a better view.

"Sir, could you please tell us more awesome stories which you and your crew went through?" A little child then asked him carefully. A little girl who seemed to be very shy.

The admiral looked down at the small bean, with a more sheepish expression on his face and his voice sounded more insecure than confident. "Well, little ones, perhaps another time."

"Oh, please! Please tell us stories!" The younger generation began to beg him with a shining curiosity in their visors.

"Alright, then. I think I might have one story up my sleeve", The admiral then gave in, and told them about a story, which he and his crew went through just recently:
"A while ago, my crew and I flew into uncharted areas of the galaxy. We had to use a few wormholes here and there in order to arrive at our destination more efficiently. The further we flew deeper into uncharted places, the more we explored. Until one planet caught my attention. A lost, cold planet far away from the light of the stars. A planet which seemed to have not belonged to any solar system for quite a long time. As I took a closer look, a crack in space unexpectedly appeared above the mysterious, giant planet. My crew and I were initially cautious of what that crack within space might do to us, until it suddenly attacked my spaceship with a laser beam that looked to be full of sparkles and glitter. As beautiful as it might sound, it wasn't pleasant for our mission: The beam, when it hit us, teleported us to a place where we began our expedition. We then decided to try it again and went deeper into unexplored places once more. But the same happened again. Repeatedly. One time, we almost reached the end of our galaxy unexpectedly, the rim, as we used another wormhole. Only a few small stars were seen behind us. The crack appeared again, but instead of attacking us, two individuals flew out to our direction from out of that mysterious crack; legends I have only ever heard of before in historical old books: Chorus and Zero, the gods of space and time..."

Admiral Palikan went further into his storytelling but never mentioned why Zero and Chorus fought against him in the first place. The outer rim was dangerous for individuals like Palikan and his crew. The deities protected him from traveling too far away from their home galaxy. Another thing he also never mentioned in front of the crowd was the reason why he traveled through space and time. He told of a lot of specific details, but only just enough for the town people to believe how amazing he was.

To admire him. To idolize him. And it worked.

Hidden inside the crowd, was also our young Corentin, listening attentively to the story his idol told. He wasn't a child, but more like in his teen years, maybe. Pitch wasn't quite sure. He could only assume how old he might have been in that situation. But he didn't think too much about it.