Chalice is a teenaged genius who makes her mom's life easy with inventions such as an holographic 3-D room and the best internet on the block, but her life becomes difficult when she is blackmailed into joining a competition in which the prize is dy...
They cautiously got in, seating themselves on the cushy seats, obviously meant for important officials.
" Hello, kids! My name is Aven Marshall. Yeah yeah, laugh all you like." He himself laughed, cheering them up considerably. Aven meant flier and a Marshall was a type of officer in the military. "I hope you enjoy your ride, kids. Buckle up!"
The engine started up, startling them into, as he said, buckling up. Chalice was slightly disappointed that she didn't get to drive the ship herself, but it was an official ship. She knew that the pilot would get them home safely, yet she still felt apprehension. Would they welcome her home? She shook herself. Of course they would. It would be irrational to think that way. She heard Niko ask,
"Will Chalice get to drive it? She's quite good. She figured out how to fly it and flew it for 5 days straight. Well, we tried it for a bit, but she did more than most would."
Aven was not convinced."Has she taken an official course like I have? No. Therefore, she does not have any authority on this subject. Has she spent 100 hours on learning how to properly and safely fly? On a sim and in real life?"
Chalice could not sit there and let her pride be smashed. "Stall the ship and let me get in the ship. Let me prove myself."
Aven protested, but looked at her face and decided that it wasn't worth the trouble. "Fine, get us all killed."
Chalice took the controls; Dias's ship evidently was a police ship modified for disco dancing. This would be a piece of cake. She unstalled it and the ship roared to life. She listened to the nav controls, and Aven was open-mouthed as Chalice got through each obstacle with ease. She had never been in this area before, yet she had managed the asteroids and satellites with reflexes that he had never seen before even with the better pilots. He would recommend her to Nathan for her amazing skills once he got out of this alive. He had no doubt. That state of mind unfortunately only lasted for a couple minutes when he realized they were picking up speed.
"What are you doing?"
Chalice tersely nodded her head out the starboard window. He looked and saw pirates. The worst type of pirate in his opinion was and always will be space pirates. Some are privateers, or privately funded pirates hired by government officials. These had a flag painted on their side that every pilot fears. The black Potioneers.
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This symbolized that they liked their improvement experiments. They usually tested these experiments on their prisoners. Usually the best way to survive them was to go faster than them and not fight them, but Chalice was going fast enough to break the ship if she continued like this. Lissa knew enough about pirates that she said,
"I have an idea. Let's board their ship while they are boarding ours. We'll lock our ship from the outside, then we take their ship."
Aven was doubtful. "They will be able to access the police ports."
She countered, "Not if we send out an alert against our ship and you explain the situation beforehand. They can lure the pirates into the headquarters and capture them there."
Aven was impressed. This plan might actually work. "Let's get started. Stop the ship. Niko, contact Nathan. Be prepared to be boarded."
Nathan picked up. He hoped it wasn't another pirate attack. There had been a huge battle recently and they had lost three vehicles and 19 officers. This was a heavy loss.
"Yes? NIKO?"
Niko nodded, relieved. This was a video call. "Yep, we're being chased by The Black Potioneers. Lissa came up with a genius plan. Just make sure that this ship is captured. And all occupants go on trial."
Nathan became suspicious. "Wait, what?"
Niko became terse. "Here they come, I have to go, bye!"
The call disconnected. Nathan stared straight ahead. They were going to trap the pirates on their ship and steal the pirate's ship and lock the pirates away. He added the pirate ship to the list of ships not to be attacked. He made a couple of calls.
Meanwhile...
The pirates inside were a bit suspicious. Usually their targets spent a lot more time running away, but maybe they had given up. They shrugged and connected their ship with their airlock. They walked over, checking their weapons. Sometimes their targets tried to escape. It was regrettable, but it happened. They had heard that a bunch of geniuses were flying around in a police ship. They had figured that this ship was the one, based on how well it had been flown. They opened the door. They strode in. They collapsed, stunned from the blast of noise.
Niko held up his sound modifier and stepped over the prone pirates. They cautiously entered the pirate's ship. One pirate was left, and she was holding up a bottle.
"I smash this; we all die. Would you like to live?"
"Sure," answered Shia, and she locked the other pirates inside their ship."Now it's just us," she said, hefting her special gun and pointing it at her. As the pirate started to raise her hand, Shia shot her. She died instantly. The bottle flew in the air, and Chalice caught it. She put on her suit, still carefully holding the bottle.
"I'm putting it in space. Where it belongs. Put on your suits, now."
They complied, and signaled that they were ready. She released it outside. Next, she closed and disconnected their new ship with the old one. Chalice shut the doors.
