Gabatrix: Veleshar

Chapter 14: Picking Up The Pieces Part 2

Far above the planet of Bog'Ko'Lif, the heavy battleship remained in orbit.

Over a day had passed.....the scars of damage were prevalent throughout the Gular'shel.

Scott stood in the centripetal rotating ring overlooking the damage. In front of him was a large dead end. When the warship lost a chunk of the ring during the battle, the sealable bulkhead doors closed, preventing a loss of atmosphere.

He was reminded of how violent that battle was. This was only caused by a couple of railgun strikes, enough to rip the hull open like a tin can.

When the man put his hand on the door, he could feel the gentle hum of the ship. His mostly fixed augmented hand could note the sensations. Behind that door was the vacuum of space. The bio-organic alloy was already busy regenerating itself. Like a living organism, the Gular'shel could essentially repair some of its damage if left unattended.

Scott took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A part of him hated his past decision to leave the UHN. The wound was ever present, but as he stepped back and looked at the wall, he knew this wasn't the end.

A gentle smile appeared on his face. He felt a sense of accomplishment. He was alive, and he was well aware of it.

As he turned around, he noticed Veleshar standing behind him. The man had no idea how long she had been there.

"Hi," he greeted her.

The same innocent smile appeared on the Greater Adjunct's face. She walked up and put her hand on the bulkhead door.

"You do the same thing that I do," Veleshar remarked.

"What?" Scott asked.

"We call it 'Iolada,'.... bonding with our ship. We, Itreans, care for it.....treat it like a brother or sister. It's more spiritual than anything else....we feel what it feels."

"I can almost see why, seeing that it's almost alive."

"It was more than that for me. Come...."

She extended her hand to him, and he walked up to take it. With their hands held together, they walked over to the nearby sealed door, the familiar quarters that were still intact after the long fight not far from the blasted portion of the ring.

Veleshar approached her panel. With a tap of her hand, the door slid open.

"How are you?" Scott asked her as they both walked inside their quarters.

"Tired," she remarked, seeing a flashing signal on her small corner desk. "Oh....another call."

The door closed when Veleshar approached her desk. She looked at it briefly before tapping a button to accept the call.

The image that appeared was none other than Captain Darin. He was in his quarters, in his same respected civilian attire. The cowboy lightly nodded his head.

"Adjunct Veleshar, Petty Officer Scott, good to see you two in one piece," Darin greeted them.

"Captain...." Scott greeted him. "Errr....Darin....you made it out."

"I told you," the Texan gave a half-hearted smile. "The Rampage got us through."

"How did you escape? You had hundreds of warships closing in on you."

"I can say the same thing for you and Veleshar. I fled at full burn with my camera, watching you guys have all the fun at Renlar's ring. It was a pretty close call.....had to use my decoys and run silent, but the Aksren gave up an hour later."

"Did you suffer any casualties?" Veleshar asked him.

"No, but we did take a missile hit from a patrolling Aksren-cloaked ship that zeroed in on our escape vector. We kept running for a good half day before we finally slowed down and initiated our jump back to the unknown regions. How about you?"