Getaway

He could feel something slapping the cheeks of his face, shaking him awake. He wasn't quite sure what it was until he opened his eyes. That woman, the one who had saved him from the prison, Merin. "Wake up," she whispered.

"What? What is it?" Nero asked, wiping his cheek. He hadn't slept that well in years. This ship offered a lot more comfort than the cell he had been locked up in. "It can't be time to wake up already; I was so comfortable."

"Tough luck. We're making a getaway."

He lifted himself up, his back against the bunk wall. "A getaway? Why?"

"You ask a lot of questions," Merin sighed. "We're getting you away from Lagoras before he scrambles your brain with that contraption of his." She sat beside him and started to explain the plan: "Tiye is up and ready. If you know the Magellan, you know they don't need much rest. We break free from the docking tunnel and zip as far away, as fast as we can. We work out who you really are properly. We don't want to damage the valuables now, do we?" She pressed her index finger against his forehead playfully.

Nero wasn't sure if this was a good idea; with all these memory alterations, he didn't know much about spacecraft, especially escaping from another docked spacecraft. He thought for a moment, considering all the ways he could help. "What should I do? I'm not exactly much help."

"Well, all our weapons are disabled, so I can't have you man the guns. But I do need someone to manually trigger the airlock as we disembark from the other ship."

"Why can't you do that?"

"Because even with a Magellan in the cockpit, we are going to need to be fast to get away from them," Merin explained.

"Fine, I'll do it." Nero got out of the bunk, stretching both arms out in front of him. Merin walked him the airlock controls; conveniently enough, they were close to a bar that could be gripped onto in case of an emergency. "I'll hold on tight," he huffed. Merin smiled at him and went to join Tiye in the flight deck.

The two didn't say a word to each other, as if their minds were in sync, they both pushed forward the engine thrusters. Ripping the Pernach from the Cretan ship, the docking tunnel danced around zero gravity like some kind of mad snake. "Now!" Merin screamed from the cockpit. With as much strength as he could muster, Nero slammed down the airlock controls, and the doors swifly banged shut.

On the other ship, an emergency alarm started to whine; the crew awoke. Lagoras in his private cabin wiped away the sleep from his eyes. He quickly ran out to the rest of his crew and ordered, "Don't let them get away!"

The Pernach's interplanetary drive was still in flux. Particles fizzed, popped, and leaked from the engines. "This isn't what I wanted, Tiye." Tiye purred angrily back; he was doing all he could to clean the engines. Then a sequence of lights lit up in succession; it was the all-go signal. The Pernach darted forward just as the Cretan ship started to fire upon the unarmed craft. "Let's move it, boys!" Merin smiled.

Nero stumbled into the cockpit, shaken by the zero gravity. "How did I do?"

Merin and Tiye looked at each other for a moment, then straight back to the controls. "Not bad, Nero, not bad at all," Merin said with a smile. "Set coordinates for Jemdet; I know someone there who might be able to help us out with our friend here." Tiye nodded and started to set their destination in the ship's navigation computer.

"Jemdet, what's there?"

"Well, you're about to find out..." The Pernach zoomed out of view of the Cretan ship, towards space to the red pirate planet. Ready to uncover the secrets of the mysterious Nero.

To Be Continued...