Abandoned, Book One of the Reluctant Heroes Series

Prologue

Captain Illia Tyan-Piquin stormed through the dark, turquoise-tinted corridor. "Where is it?" she muttered, over and over again. Her shoulders were tightening, and her right eye was gaining a slight twitch-- a sign her crew knew meant she was losing what was left of her temper.

Illia and her crew had touched down on the Trenion moon base about fifteen minutes ago, which included turning off the security system. Obviously. What kind of self-respecting intergalactic pirate wouldn't turn off the security system? Hell, even a crappy intergalactic pirate knows to do that. This also meant she had about five minutes before it turned back on, and the systems would send out a distress signal. The crew would have to be out in seven minutes. Ten, at the most. Trenions took this sort of situation very seriously.

Meanwhile, Illia was on a hunt for a very, very rare treasure. The rarest of treasures.
Okay, to be perfectly honest, it wasn't that rare, there was no way Illia was paying thirty bits for this.

Yes, the lovely captain was on the hunt for the sequel to her favorite book. The author was a Trenion, which was ironic, considering Illia loathed Trenions. Nonetheless, the book was a bestseller, and she knew that there had to be at least one copy on the damn base. In fact, she had been told that there was one, by one of the prisoners back in the holding room, which most people would've called a "walk-in freezer." The prisoners would be fine, though. It was a base full of Trenions. Trenions originally came from a cold planet. A freezer would be home sweet home to them. They couldn't have evolved that much over the last four centuries, right?

Illia remembered that fact as she shivered when she arrived at yet another government-regulated bedroom. This one seemed to be for a family of four: two parents and two children.

Illia started looking around the smaller beds, which were presumably the children's. Though she hated to admit it, the series she enjoyed so much was also heavily enjoyed by children. It's not her fault most adults just can't seem to appreciate good literature!

"C'mon, c'mon..." she muttered under her breath. Alas, the book she was looking for was not here.
The captain checked her left wrist, which, due to being cybernetic, had a built in watch with a timer. According to her timer, she had about three minutes to get back to her crew, onto their ship, and off this moon.

"Shit!" she yelled. She may love this series, but Illia was not planning on getting caught by authorities today. Or any other day, for that matter. However, if she wanted to stick to that plan, she would have to run towards her crew right that very second.

Illia jumped up, and began sprinting towards her crew, her expensive Gwainish boots slapping along the floor. The loudness of the slapping was probably giving her away for miles. Usually they wouldn't, but as it was, Illia was sprinting for her life (both literally and metaphorically), and didn't much care if anyone heard her. Maybe if she weren't being so loud herself, she would've heard the slightly quieter, smaller footsteps trailing after her.

As Illia neared her crew towards the entrance of the base, she heard an all too familiar voice nag her.

"Are you alright? We got worried when you didn't come back at the arranged time, was there a stray Trenion?" the green scaled woman asked, concern filling the eyes Illia loved more than anything.

"I'm fine, Ninate. Just couldn't find the damn book." Illia replied, sounding as if not getting her book was worse than getting blasted to bits by an enemy blaster..

Ninate rolled her eyes. This wasn't uncommon, and she could understand why Illia was getting frustrated. This was the fourth Trenion-related place they'd been to since the book came out two weeks ago, places that certainly should've had the book, but to Illia's dismay, they hadn't found a single copy.