Remnants

Chapter 4: Xander

"For the record, it wasn't entirely my fault," Xander said, although his heart wasn't in it. Xander was lying on the floor of Andrew's ship and looking up at the Captain's scolding face.

After the bombing and being chased by a number of bullets and lasers the two of them had made it to Xander's ship. Zaria convinced Xander that the best thing they could do was escape so that the attackers would leave Maratos alone and the two of them could regroup and figure out the threat. As they were fleeing, one of the cannons had taken out an engine. Of course, Xander's brother Andrew happened to place a tracker in the ship that he lent to Zaria and came to their aid as soon as he heard about the attacks on Maratos with Captain Hoffman. So there they were, inside the ship carrier,  Xander falling out of his damaged ship while Zaria landed gracefully.

As soon as Zaria saw Captain Hoffman, she stood up straighter and tried to look formal. Xander, on the other hand, was perfectly fine on the ground. That was until Zaria kicked him in the ribs. Xander stood up and faced the Captain who was as tall as him.

"Of course it wasn't," the Captain said, his words laced with poison.

"See," Xander said turning to Zaria. "He gets it."

The Captain's dark brown eyes stared at him with disgust He didn't care. In fact, if anything, Xander was trying to annoy him. This man had been a complete jerk to Zaria the past five years and Xander planned on making his life miserable in every way possible and he was clearly succeeding.

"We need to figure out what's going on," Zaria said, interrupting before Xander came up with another stupid idea.

"Agreed," a voice came from above them. At the top of the holding deck, was Xander's older brother, Andrew Edwards. He looked almost identical to Xander except for his hair, which was slightly more blond. 

"Hello, little brother. Long time, no see," Andrew said to Xander. He looked amused that Xander needed his help. Xander pushed down his sudden itch to punch his brother in his perfectly white teeth. 

"Anyhow...," Zaria said slowly, interrupting the sibling stare down. "We need to know who the enemy is, what they want, and how to take them down."

Andrew nodded as he made his way towards them. "I agree, especially because of this."

Andrew handed the three of them a tablet. Captain took it to see pictures of many dead people. Xander recognized most of their faces.

"Are those the members of the Council?" Zaria asked as she took the tablet out of her father's hands.

Andrew nodded. "Indeed. Every single one of them is dead along with many generals, captains, and high ranking officers. Well, except for Captain Hoffman here."

"Why not?" Xander asked, receiving a familiar glare from Zaria.

"There was a meeting for all captains and generals in Command but I did not attend as I had to discuss some very important things with Mr. Edwards."

"And what exactly was it that you two had to discuss?" Xander asked. This time Zaria narrowed her eyes at Captain Hoffman and Andrew.

"Well, if you must know, we were actually discussing you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. I wanted your brother's advice on whether he deemed you competent, compliant, and valuable. I was trying to see if he could sway my mind."

"Sway your mind on what?" Zaria asked. 

"On whether or not to discharge him."

Zaria looked like she was going to murder her father before Xander interrupted.

"So what you're saying is that I saved you guys by giving all of us a reason to not be in Command?"

The shocked faces said it all. "Cool," he told himself.

Andrew waved his hands to regain attention. "All of them look like they were killed by waves of energy."

"Wait," Zaria said. "Waves of energy? The only time we've seen that is..."

"...is with the Prism," Xander finished for her.

"But the Prism is lost. You said it was lost," Zaria pointed at her father.

"Not exactly," Captain Hoffman replied.

"What do you mean not exactly?" Xander asked.

"The prism was found and recovered shortly afterward."

"And you never told anyone?" Zaria asked her father, her voice filled with disbelief. 

"People would think that we were just like King Zeldan if they knew we had it," Andrew answered for him.

"We?" Xander asked his brother.

"I was the one who brought it in," Andrew replied.

"So, basically, someone walked into Command, stole the Prism, used it against the council and then walked out. Did I get that right?" Zaria asked Andrew and Captain.

"Not exactly," Andrew replied.

Xander, reading Andrew's expression, said, "It could've been a mole."

Zaria sighed and said, "There were only a few people who knew that the meeting was taking place and those were people part of the Council and high ranking military officials. But, if they were holding the prism then they had to have been alive and all of them are dead except..."

As she trailed off Xander, Zaria, and Andrew stared at the Captain. He shifted uncomfortably under their gaze before turning to Andrew.

"Aren't you a high ranking pilot? I mean you are head of your league right? You should've been invited."

All eyes turned to Andrew and he squirmed before quickly saying, "I wasn't invited this time. I think it was only for super high ranking officers."

Zaria and Xander looked at each other before Zaria continued, "Either way, we need to take back control and get rid of this enemy, whoever they are."

"We've got intel saying that the Prism Bearer took it to a mother ship on the outskirts of the galaxy," Andrew added.

"Okay. We go there first and get the Prism back and hopefully get rid of the Bearer in the process," Captain said.

"Yeah, but how? We can't just walk in there guns blazing," Zaria objected.

"We don't have a choice," Xander told her. "Besides, I'm the best walk-in-guns-blazing guy in the galaxy. We'll be fine."

All of them looked around at each other and nodded, signaling that they came to an understanding.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Andrew said. "Let's go."