Faster than the Stars

Prologue: Not Welcomed

It is a simple freight ship. The jump drive was discount, the sleeping bunks are built into the wall next to the engine compressors making it quite hard to catch a single blink of sleep, there are no automated maintenance system, the crew all wear those oil stained jumpsuits, and the asteroid blasters only run on electricity. Nothing is too extravagant, save myself, a stowaway on the ship.

I'm an Iter Avis, a race of extreme navigation capabilities, and that of a dying breed. I just managed to escape from the Terram Anguis, which is a huge albino snake-like monster that is known throughout the galaxy as the "Planet Eater".

I was trapped beneath the surface, in a small cavern that I undoubtedly knew that there was some Magnusite, lie embedded in the stone and rock. Just it as an unrefined ore would be enough to power my pocket point jumper. I remember running from a horrible, horrible noise of rock being crushed, that followed behind me no matter how fast I ran. It kept getting closer, and closer. The greyish blue stone walls kept getting more narrow as I ran desperately. When I saw the silver light of the Magnusite, I jumped towards it with my pocket point jumper out. I could feel the heat of the energy coming from the ore, and with the press of a button I was sent out into space as pure energy.

Life-forms who are subjected to point travel are turned into energy and move at the speed of light to the nearest beacon, but cannot sustain such a form for more than 5 seconds. Luckily I was sent to a point beacon on a cargo ship that probably was left on by accident. I was safe from the Terram Anguis until it eats the entire planet looking for me. Then it will move onto the next, and eat that one as well.

Being at gunpoint by some shabby pistols, I held my hands up in the air while on my knees within the cargo container. The dim, flickering fluorescent light gave me glimpses of the faces of the figures with guns. The one to the right looked to be a human woman, with her brown hair done in a ponytail. Her brow was furrowed and her green eyes were filled with confusion. The one to the left looked to be a male sergal, with his brownish fur messy and matted. He had a wild look in his eyes, and his grasp around his gun was shaking.

"What is that thing?" The sergal asked the human turning his head to her, but not breaking eye contact with my wings.

"Looks like some sort of dragon." The human replied, she walked forwards, kicking aside a wrench that was in front of me that knocked into my scaled knee.

"Sh-should we just kill it?" Said the Sergal, he brushed his fur nervously with his free hand.

"You want to clean up the mess?" The human replied.

"Not really..." The Sergal says, frowning a little bit.

"Then we should take him to Hiath, he'll know what to with this... thing." The human said, she walked forwards. She used her free hand to grab my arm and jerked me up to my feet. I stumbled a little bit, the metal padding on my shins and feet scrape against the metal box I was in.

"You need to get out of this system." I said to her as I now stood outside of the box, still keeping my hands up. My reply is a swift jab in my back by the sergal with the gun he was holding.

"Don't talk, or else you might regret it." The sergal said. I walked forwards, the gun still pressed against my back. I looked ahead to see the rusted hydraulic door that was left opened. On the other side I saw some bunks built into the wall, and across from that was a sink and a fridge. Ahead of me was the captain's chair, it turned quickly and there I saw another human, this one male and he had a large black beard that jutted from his chin. He wore a red leather jacket on himself, decorated with oil stains.

"So you're the stowaway? I wouldn't even imagine that we would find an Iter Avis in this system, even if it is the biggest system in the entire galaxy." He said with a surprisingly soft voice.

"So should we throw it out the airlock Hiath?" I heard the Sergal behind me say with a slight quiver in his voice.

"I'd rather throw you in there, Sheir. You're addiction is getting in the way of your performance." The bearded human said.

"What makes this lizard better than me!?" The sergal yelled out, digging the barrel of the gun into my back. I stumbled forwards almost falling to my face.

"Neither of you even know what the Iter Avis is, but I know why you don't. It's because they're going extinct, being hunted for their claws." Hiath said.

"Why is that?" The woman asked.

"The claws can be used to finetune FTL drives to jump faster and more efficiently than conventional ones." He says, eyeing my hands, "All they need to do is shape them into a diamond..." Hiath said, standing up. He walked over to me and put a finger to my chin, his breath stunk of an atrocious smell.

"So what, do we sell him on the market or something?" The sergal asked.

"No, I know what most of the universe doesn't even know a clue about: The Iter Avis sense treasure out for lightyears. Nobody knows what it is about them, but they always find the good stuff before anyone else. Which might be another reason why they're hunted."

I looked the captain straight in the eyes, "If you want to live, you need to escape this system a soon as possible, the Terram Anguis is going to devour that planet and then go after this ship!" I said in the most serious voice I could've mustered. Haith only laughed.

That was then.