Silence

Chapter 3

It wasn't easy pulling the small pods in. The piloteer wasn't meant for clean up so it's beam was weak. Not to mention they could only carry one at a time. When they pulled the second one in they drained it's power and sent it back out for Oosher's people as a small bribe. His goons were goons but they would never pass on making a buck.

"JJ, thank the God you're alright!" Rex exclaimed, flustered and relieved all at once.

"I'm just glad I got through to you. Oosher doesn't take kindly to strangers, and even less kindly to dads men and family. There no telling what he would have done to us."

"Connell how ya' doin' my man?" questioned Caesar, "You look like shit!"

"Not bad, been better, watching a three hundred and fifty five thousand ton ship blow up and disappear in three seconds can take a toll on up you though," said the usually chipper, 23 year old Connell. The man was tired, and usually never showed any outward signs of human lifestyle. This was bigger than it seemed, thought Rex.

"I need something to eat," said someone from one of the other pods.

"Uh, yeah um, we have a couple of candy bars and maybe a bag of chips or something but nothing else really. You got any MREs left Caes?" asked Rex.

"I'll check," said Caesar drooling over JJ. He was utterly infatuated with her.

"Is Peppermint still locked up?"

"Whatever."

Yup, thought Rex.

Caesar had liked JJ for years. Ever since his dad had been hired as an enforcer for Billy, which was around age 9, he had been in absolute love with JJ. He had never had the courage to ask her out or even tell her how he felt until he turned sixteen. Connell answered the door in just shorts. Caesar understood, made an excuse to hangout with Rex but never got over the pain.

"Yup Caes, you got some left enough to feed us all once." Rex bobbled with some of the food containers as Nessa helped him with them.

"So what we gonna do?" said Joe, a mechanic from one of the pods.

"Well I was thinking we would go back to where the P90 was last and maybe look for some space suits to rummage the wreckage," said JJ.

"Well I think I'm the only one that's had space training other than JJ, so if you guys can look through......" Nessa trailed off, staring out the window. "What's that.... Do you guys see that?" Said Nessa getting excited.

Some people started looking out the windows on the left side and the windshield.
"Is that another, pod?" asked several people at the same time. It was indeed another pod with the numbers 69. And beyond that was something even more interesting: What looked like an intact jump ship.

"New first priority," said Caesar and Rex at the same time.
"Can anyone guess what that is?" Asked Caesar, the question being directed to the three small children onboard.
The smallest , a girl named Rihanna, raised her hand.
"Yes," said Caesar.
"The, um new priority is to uh, get the jump ship, right?" she asked, nervous speaking in front of crowds.

"You couldn't be more correct Rih," said Nessa.

Rihanna giggled and went back to her mom and told her everything her mom just witnessed. Being a good mother, she listened and told her that she was the smartest little girl in the Milky Way.
"Let's go then,"said an older fellow, Fredrick, firing up the engine.
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Kelly, the girl they found in the number 69 pod told them that her boyfriend was feeling sick in the toilet of the pod and would be out in a minute. After a half hour Rex knocked on the door and heard a groan almost of pain but it sounded different. More of a general 'I don't like life today' groan but Rex opened the door anyway.
There was a shot and Kelly's boyfriend dropped to the ground deader than disco.
"What the hell was that for. Why did you kill him. He was just motion sick he can't stand small ship flight." The woman was a mess in seconds.
"No," was all Rex would say. He moved out of the way and let Kelly see her boyfriends corpse.
"He's all weird looking, he is like..." She stuttered out. "Oh god no Rodger, why you? Oh please lord why him he never did any wrong," Kelly was screaming at the top of her lungs and everyone backed up a step but Rex. He helped Kelly off the floor and set her in the row of chairs on the right hull of the piloteer.