Arynthe's Story

The Game

1 br.

I manouvred my shuttle into a nebula and carelessly swung my feet onto the desk. How often I had played this game... If the enemy were to follow me here I would use a heat ray to get this nebula exploded and leap out simultaneously. The explosion would blast my trail away, making me untraceable just in case the aliens survived the explosion. 

Years of being hunted had turned me into a near mindless survival machine. My optimized tactics automatically activated in exactly the right situation. Those situations usually came down to "me or them", and as you know by me still being alive to write this, the outcome was always the same. And why would it be different? All aliens were the same after all, the only exception being Wehjo. (Not Tijgh, because Wehjo told me that Tijgh had died a few years ago. He didn't want to tell me how, so I suspected him to have left Wehjo's business.) 

The enemy didn't follow. They had probably been here before. I'd just have to wait until they went away. 

Or not? The computer beeped. The aliens had sent me a message on audio. 

"Arynthe, we know this game of yours by now, but this time we win. We captured four Ashirian children. If you don't surrender, we will beam them over to your ship in a few minutes- all dead. You or them. What will it be?"

Children! I was frustrated at first, but within seconds I realized that it was just a bait. They wouldn't keep Ashirian kids alive just to force me into surrendering, and even if they did, those kids would die right after me.

I called them.
"You surrendering?" the same cold, female voice asked.
"Oh, no, girl," I laughed. "Not so easy."
"If you're planning to negotiate, we're not open to it."
I laughed again. "Lady, I just wanted to say I see through your petty little lies. Now you have two options: Stay right there until one of us starves- and that probably won't be me, for your information- or go home to your mommy and daddy and accept your defeat before you die. What will it be?"
"Neither," the lady said. "Activate your screen." 
"Why not, girl."

I activated the screen and saw right into the bridge of the enemy ship. In the center I saw a lady sitting in a black chair- the captain's chair. In front of that chair sat four Ashirian kids: a young boy that had gnarly cuts in his neck, two girls that were probably twins and an older boy that sat perfectly still and stared at something that wasn't there. They were sitting on a blue thing that seemed to be a forcefield emitter.

 The lady in the captain's chair spoke to me: "Now you see that I'm not lying. Ready to surrender?"
"You are lying, though," I said. "The moment you killed me, and you can't deny that's what you're planning to do, you can kill them just as easily. I'm not falling for this."

The older boy fixed his gaze at me. It was like he was trying to tell me something without speaking. His face was confident and his eyes burned, as if he had a plan. And all the sudden, I had a plan too.

"How about this," I said. "You teleport them to my ship, and then we'll talk."
My nails nervously ran over the soft surface of the chair. 
"Yeah, and then let you run. No way."
I sighed. "Fine then. Reversed order? I teleport to your ship, and then you teleport them to my ship?"
A smile crossed the captain's face for a moment. My face was an emotionless mask, but inside I cheered: Gotcha! 
"Alright," the captain said. "We await you."

A few seconds later I arrived at the enemy bridge. The captain stood up and aimed her weapon at me. 

"I sure didn't expect this to be this easy," she said. "I wonder why others had such a challenge in tricking you."
"You're not keeping your part of the deal, captain," I said. "I'm disappointed in you."
"As if you'd have kept it."
The younger boy now turned to me and screeched: "Save us, Arynthe! Save us!"

The captain kicked against the forcefield, causing the entire thing to fall over and roll over the bridge. I suppressed the violent tendencies. I needed to think clearly. The slightest mistake could get us all killed. 

"Captain," I said, "sorry to break your dreams, but I would have kept my promise. You see I'm here now to begin with. However, if we would've done it my way, I said we would talk- and I would, in fact, have spoken. I'm really not that low-down."
The captain narrowed her eyes. "Witch," she scolded. 
"Xaoni," I cursed back.

We stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like hours. We both knew this was the crucial moment. However, there was more at stake than she thought. 

The captain turned. "Teleport those kids to that scum's ship," she said. "I refuse to be more honourless than an Ashirian."

And while the teleporter sounded, I knew that my plan would succeed. Now I just had some time to have fun. I simply sat down and reached in my pocket. 

"Hands up!" the captain shouted. 

She was going nuts already. That was sooner than I expected. I glanced at her unimpressed, raised my hands and proceeded to bend my leg so that my foot could search my pocket instead. 

"Stop it," a young man in the pilot's chair said, also aiming his weapon at me.
"You afraid your captain can't deal with me on her own?" I challenged him.
"I said stop it." The pilot was strong-minded. "Stop driving the captain nuts. You should accept your defeat."
"Who said I'm defeated?"

The timing couldn't be more perfect as I felt the teleporter beam around me. Within seconds I found myself back in my chair, surrounded by cheering kids. I sat right beside the message I had scratched in my seat. 

"REVERSE TELEPORT"

I fired a heat ray into the nebula, activated the hyperengines and shields and leaped away, far into the void of space. The symphony of alarms notified me that yet another captain had failed to survive the game.