The Arcadian

Chapter 2

Year 2273
Space Station: Alpha 2

Jade Aracus

"What the hell is going on!?" I asked the people who were running away from the launchpad.
The whole station was unstable it's axis shifting because of the sudden loss of the weight of an entire ship.
"Intruders!" was the only answer Ivan and I got as we rushed towards the site.

It took us about an hour to navigate through the stampeding crowd.

The red lights were still glowing and the alarms were blaring loudly.
When we finally made it past the sea of disgruntled personnel, we found the door to the bay sealed shut with a few officers standing there, wearing masks.
I immediately recognized one of them.
"Mr. Lackey-", My brother approached him, breathing heavily, "-Wh-What?"

Mr Lackey was the second in command of the station. He was a tall , lean ,blonde haired man with a long beard. He always wore these posh suits and walked around with a cane in his hand.

"As per what we gather, two intruders, dressed exactly like our men came in and tripped a carbon monoxide cylinder. They took advantage of catching us off guard and as our people fled, they took the explorer.", he informed showing us the video footage on the tablet in his hand.It showed 2 people entering the bay.
"Wait. I know those two. Ivan and I bumped into them. They said that they were lost.", I blurted out before I could stop myself.My brother nudged me with his elbow.

Mr. Lackey narrowed his eyes at me as if I had stolen his most precious belonging but he chose not to question me further.
An officer handed Ivan and me masks for our protection.

"We've already started pumping the gas out. We should be able to enter in a minute or so", another officer stated, while putting on his mask.

"What about the Arcadian? Have you sent ships behind her?", I asked them.
"We have sent out our best. There is a tracking device aboard the explorer, but I fear it might take us a while to catch up to her. She is the fastest ship to ever be built, running at almost 0.93 times of the speed of light.", Mr. Lackey answered.

I was about to argue when a beeping noise came from the door and it started opening.
Lackey signalled his team to go in before turning towards us.
"You kids should know that your father was in there with Ms. Flair. We don't know what we'll find, are you sure you want to go in?" he asked,his chocolate brown eyes filled with sympathy.

I felt my heart stop for a second. It got hard to breathe, and not just because of the mask. I felt Ivan's hand take mine.
"We'll go in. I'm sure Dad's fine", he assured me.
But my mind was blank.I felt numb as we were led into the bay.
Focusing on one thing became too hard.

What if something happened to Dad and the last thing we did was fight.
No. It couldn't be. He had to be alright.
Just as I was mustering up enough courage and reassuring myself we came upon a body.

I gasped and hid my face in Ivan's chest.
I heard Lackey speak into his walkie,
"I have Captain Flair down. I need a medic team in the launchpad now!"

As the doctors came in we were ushered to the side.Ivan had his arms around me, comforting me.
Flair was a good person. She took care of us when Mom died.

"We've checked every corner of this place,there is no sign of your father" Lackey informed us after a while.
"What do you mean? You said he was here when the ship was stolen" Ivan argued.
"He was in here. We have a confirmation of that.The cameras here have been damaged because of the the sudden heat released by the explorer during its launch. Our best guess is that the Alpha Leader is aboard the ship."
"Your best guess is not good enough for us! That's our father you are talking about !" Ivan yelled.
"You two need to calm down. We have people out searching for the explorer and your father.That is all I can do right now." The lean man said and sauntered away.