Space is Vast

Chapter 12 - Taking it Back

Two more days of nothing passed, the crew waited to arrive at the space station where all the refugees were. The computer had alerted them that there was only two hours before they reached the destination. Only Adam was awake, everyone else had fallen asleep, but he was too excited, he couldn’t stop thinking about Abella. He sat in the pilot’s chair and tapped the dashboard with his fingers. He had waited three years to see her again and he couldn’t believe this was real. He felt his eyelids drooping from watching the dark emptiness of space,

He was jerked to life by Vida who had been softly repeating his name, “Adam, hey Adam, look we’re here.”

Adam rubbed his eyes groggily and looked out the window. He jumped as he saw a space station in the distance. 

“We’re here? Did I fall asleep? What happened? How long ‘till we get there?” Adam’s face turned from sleeplessness to anxiety and his eyes searched Vida’s for the answers. 

“In about ten minutes we’ll reach the station. Don’t worry.”

Relieved, Adam fell back into his chair. 

“What kind of place is it?” He asked Vida 

“On the display it read as an… internment camp.”

“For refugees?”

“No… for prisoners.”

“What? I thought they were fleeing from their planet!”

Vida sighed. “Scipio! Where did you get your info from?”

Scipio perked up, and tapped a few keys on his keyboard. “Says here the computer just canned all the information in this system.”

Vida sighed. “Let me guess, one of them was a Slaver vessel, which no doubt has Adam’s sister listed in the roster.”

There was the sound of keys tapping.

“Maybe….You might be right.”

“You know I am!” She huffed at Scipio. “So what do you want to do Adam?”

“The only thing we can do. The only thing that’s right, we have to go get her.” He replied.

“Inside an internment camp?”

“Not unless she’s anywhere else.”

“Fine, whatever you want to do Captain. Look, there it is see for your self.”

“See what? Oh…”

As Adam looked at the display, a bulky rust colored building came drifting slowly into view, becoming a small dot to be squinted at, to a small space station, only about five floors in all. On the outside it looked to be abandoned. But as they came closer two small ships departed from the station to meet them. The radio buzzed, and Vida picked it up. “Yes?”

“This is escort one to trade ship, what is your business here?” 

“Hold on a moment.” Vida said into the radio. “What should we tell them? Should we try to find another way?”

“Uhhh… Trade ship. I can hear you whispering. You might want to stop holding the receiver button.”

“Uh… thanks, and sorry. We uh… we came here for a slave.”

“Well why didn’t you say so. Welcome to Necron, Slavers Haven. If you’ll follow me, you can dock inside and check out our new line, just in from Erandor.”

Vida pushed Adam down, as he shot up to yell into the radio.

“That would be great, thanks. We’ll set our ship to follow you.” Vida tapped a key.