Sigma/Star

Chapter 114: Chandana

The cruiser lurched through the air. When it flew, it was as if a stone were skipped across a pond, constantly dipping then soaring again for lengthy periods of time. People who frequently flew, like those in the military, were very much used to the pattern of the vessels, but someone like Ling Shi, who had never been in one, was quite disturbed by the constant slow drops.

It had become quickly apparent to the rebellious students why the Jade Fang's leader had been so reluctant to help them steal a craft to return to the island: a fear of flying. With each dip, Ling Shi shuddered a bit, holding onto the closest person he could find in Raul. "Do they always move like this?" he mumbled through his fingers as he covered his mouth.

"More or less. You don't notice after a while." Ardwen was quick to respond, proudly steering the ship. For him, any chance to show off his extensive knowledge of nearly everything had to be taken, and so he had hoped into the driver's seat before anyone could say anything. Since then it had been a relatively quiet flight towards the Enian Federation and Artisan Confederate. The deal had been arranged already for the Jade Fang to help supply forces and resources as needed, upon the conditions of meeting both Sigma, and Chandana. Ling Shi obviously had a desire to confirm the existence of his allies before committing to anything, but his willingness to make a deal at least gave Porter hope that they had a future ahead of them now.

"How do you know where you're going though?" Ling Shi had to stop his questioning for a moment to grab the edges of his seat, steadying himself as the cruiser shook. "I mean you said it's some secret island the android took you to."

"Oh, Sigma will do that for us," Porter answered, smiling in an effort to comfort Ling, to no avail. "As we get closer, he will take the system over on the ship and guide it in. He has to disable any tracking systems as well."

"Yeah, why aren't we being hunted down right now?" Nami bounced up in her usual way as she spoke, giant eyes taking in everything around her. "Where's the Eastern United States air force chasing us?"

"Don't worry about them." Ling Shi delivered one of his killer smiles, flashing his green tooth, before he promptly flopped forward, wrapping his arms around his knees for support. "I had men sent out to the main air bases to 'intervene' on our behalf and slow things down. We should be well outside their range before they're ready to even take off."

The screens within the shuttle flickered, shutting down briefly before white screens took over everywhere, bathing the interior in an eerie glow. Sigma's face slowly began to surface, as though he were coming up from underwater. Only his head appeared, created through coding and display, not because it was an actual feed of the cyborg. "I'm sorry that took so long," Sigma began, shaking his head a little. "The interface was different from what I was expecting, and was built using some portions that are not known in Enian or Artisan databases."

Sigma's analysis mirrored the feelings of the students when they had first seen the ship. Unlike the blocky design of the Enian Federation, or the smooth curves of the Artisan Confederate, the craft from the Eastern United States was more natural in its appearance, its tail tapering and its head bulbous, producing the image of a fish. Wings on the side came out looking more like fins, but it flew identically to any other vessel.

Upon seeing the android on the screen, Ling Shi sat up, suddenly caring about what was going on in the ship, rather than trying to imagine himself anywhere else. He peered at Sigma with great fascination, his eyes trying to absorb every detail of the cyborg's face, and he halted at the purple eyes, stuck on their colouration for a moment. "So you're the android."

"So I'm the android," Sigma parroted, staring down the rebel leader from the many monitors. The ship had begun to move in a different direction, slowly tilting to change its course gradually. Sigma had already begun taking control, and Ardwen's hands were away from the controls, leaving them all to simply sit in the shuttle and talk to each other to pass the remaining time.