Fire Sky

Chapter 10 - Exploring a New World

Chapter 10 - Exploring a New World

(a/n: not fully edited as I just wanted it out there. Enjoy! )

Atlas sat in the crow's nest, looking out into the vast nothingness that was space. The Ridons may have had their Hellfire destroyed, but knowing that he had a weapon that could obliterate their impenetrable ships was enough to get them chasing after them. All they would need to do is send out a message - just a single message and all hell could break loose. And who knew what Aura would do if she knew Greyson was in danger.

"Atlas, you awake up there or what?" Lorik's voice called through the intercom, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Flicking the mic on he replied, "Yeah, I'm awake. How's Greyson doing?"

"Tron's showing him the nav system. I'm telling you now though, the kid's pretty much a pro. He found a shortcut in Tron's shortcut through the Halion system," laughed Lorik.

Atlas smiled. Tron was their ship's best navigator and he alone knew the star maps off by heart. He could literally fly you from one end of the universe to the other in his sleep if he wanted. The fact that Greyson had done what he'd done did reveal something about him though. His eyes looked to a life in the stars, just like Atlas had when he was younger and his father before him.

"Tell Tron not to worry about it. It was a tiny blip," Atlas told him, rotating the crow's nest so that he could get a better look to see if any Ridons were chasing after them.

"Yeah, Tron's going to let a little kid showing him up go. It's just lucky that I'm the only other one in the control room," snorted Lorik. The intercom went silent before Lorik returned with a more serious note to his tone, "Any sign of them?"

"Nothing behind us, but they may be setting a trap up ahead if the last crew managed to get a message out." Atlas' thoughts were on just how much they could afford to get stuck in a trap with Ridions, the fiercest warrior species in the galaxy. If they really wanted to, the Ridons could just attack and the only thing standing between him and his crew from escaping with their lives and defeating the Ridions - which was a very slim chance - was a crazed and uncontrolled being that could kill them all if the child it was protecting got hurt in any way.

"They may not have been able to fix their ship enough to call for help yet. You saw what she did."

"Yes, but do you really want to risk it?" Atlas asked, rotating the crow's nest again.

"Will you quit doing that? It's dizzying watching you go round in circles like that from down here," Lorik scolded him. Atlas smiled and rotated the nest 360 degrees just to annoy him. Lorik growled through the intercom.

Atlas' smile shrunk as he thought back to their dilemma, "How fast can we push the Cruella?"

"Not much. I doubt the engines would survive. Though the Ridons didn't destroy much, we still managed to drain a lot of power. We need to land as soon as possible and patch up the solar sails."

"We can't fix them as we go?"

"Not if you want to waste energy on keeping the gravity suits on, we can't. Tron and Grey have locked onto a planet that has almost identical atmospheric conditions as Earth, but it's really early in it's birth. Only looks to be a few hundred years, give or take. It doesn't seem to be inhabited at all so we can land, patch up and charge then head off safely."

"Are you sure that we can't make it to Demar?" Atlas asked, worried that if they stopped, the Ridons might manage to catch up with them.

"Well, we could if you want the ship to fall apart, the lot of us to get stranded and die a painful death in space whilst I kill you as you drag us all to hell. Do you want to keep going?" Lorik asked, the sarcasm layered thickly in his voice.