Beyond our Earth

39: Alarms

We stood in the control room, machines buzzing and flashing all around. Althazar stared blankly at the dashboards, his face lit with red-tinted pulses.

"Give me a second to read over the manual." He said, stepping back.

I crossed my arms and waited, watching the dashboards like a light show. Sensors moved rhythmically, gauges shifted in place and buttons lit up left, right and center. It was a mesmerizing affair.

The effect wore off, however, after only a few minutes and I became impatient. Trudging out into the hall I found Althazar sitting on the floor, reading intently, his head buried in the instructions.

"Althazar?" His eyes didn't leave the page. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

There was a long silence. My foot tapped the ground.

"Althazar, are you-"

"Yes love!" He stood up, "I've figured it out, If I just fiddle with the..." His voice trailed off as he disappeared into the control room again.

I slowly walked back in.

"Right then, here we go.. Perfect!... This should work.." He was talking to himself, making adjustments in different places.

"Did you figure it out?" I asked.

"Sort of..." He stepped back, gave everything a look over, then sighed. 

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Sara, I have no clue." He smiled and shook his head foreboding, then went back to fiddling. "Getting the trajectory isn't a problem but figuring out what speed to travel to end up there at the right point in time.."

"Yeah, well keep at it." 

Just then an alarming high pitched beep rang through the air. I raced to cover my ears.

"What is that?" I shouted.

His eyes squinted and he shook his head unknowing. Then we both ran out of the control room. It was only mildly quieter outside but I uncovered my ears and stared wide eyed at Althazar.

"What the hell did you do? Make it stop!"

"I'm trying, love. I've never piloted one of these before."

I gave disapproving sigh. "Well, doesn't anyone else on this ship know how?"

"No. Only the leader and she's gone now. Never told any of her secrets, I'm not even sure if she wrote down a plan. If not this might be the end of our endeavours. No records, no instructions... The guards said they would do everything they could to open her room."

"It's locked?"

"Very securely. But hopefully they get in."

"Alright, now go shut that sound of." I said.

I stood with my back against the wall and slumped down. So close, yet so far away. My heart nearly skipped a beat as another alarm went off in the control room, this one whooping and wailing angrily.

"Oh god, it never ends." I put my head on my knees and shut my eyes.

The noise was almost unbearable.

"Althazar, make it stop!" I yelled over the sirens.  

Then all at once the noise fell away.

Althazar came walking out of the control room, a defeated look on his face.

"I shut it all off. We're not moving until I get this sorted out."

I felt a wave of anger bubbling up in my chest. On the tip of my tongue was an accusation; he wasn't really incapable of flying this ship, he was just holding us up to get more time with me. I almost said it too, only the guards walked in the room just then.

"We've found something that might be of interest. The room has been opened, she left some plans." One spoke.

"Excellent." Althazar replied.

He took my hand and I got up off the floor. We walked in procession through the halls, into the uppermost room of the UISA.

This was what we'd both been waiting for. I could see it now, not too far down the road; freedom.