Sidian bolted out of his chair and hurriedly put his helmet back on until his environmental systems could push the atmosphere through to the other ship once the docking hatches are opened.
Sidian had to take a few breaths before opening his hatch. Partly from nerves, but mostly from trying to run in the starsuit with the deck being magnetized. After opening his hatch, he took another deep breath before stepping forward and opening the other.
He had expected to be pushed forward from his atmosphere rushing into the other starvessel, but, instead, he was slightly pushed back as though the other ship’s atmosphere was a bit thicker. It was very dark inside. Not even their emergency lights were running, but it seemed that their environmental systems were still active. He used his suit’s scanner just to be sure.
This sent a slight chill down his spine, though, he still pressed forward. The portage bay was empty, and the slightly larger starvessel had a ladder leading up to the cockpit. It wasn’t a tall ladder, but he groaned in displeasure at the thought of having to climb it in the starsuit.
When he reached the base of the ladder, he took off his helmet and set it down, then climbed up slowly. The boots of the starsuit were almost too large to fit in between the rungs. He felt as though it was designed for those of a smaller stature, or, at least, smaller feet.
Sidian stopped when he could see above the ladder. He wasn’t sure what to expect at that point, but he was relieved to see only one person passed out in the pilot’s seat. They looked to be female with a tall and slender form. She looked too tall for the seat as she was slumped in a funny way. From that point of view, he didn’t see anyone in the navigator’s seat.
He took a short breath before climbing the rest of the way. He was a bit more nervous, worried how the woman would react to seeing him after waking. Terrans tend to be quite a mixed bag compared to most other races, and so you never know what to expect from them.
Sidian sighed at the possible reactions running through his head before he stepped closer to get a better look at her. The cramped architecture of the cockpit forced him to turn sideways to get in between the pilot’s seat and the two large center consoles that jutted from the ceiling and the deck.
It forced him to shuffle his feet as he was trying to get to the front of the seat. With the starsuit on, however, he didn’t notice that he had bumped her elbow while moving by. He stopped and, just as he was turning his head to look in the other seat, he saw a flash of the woman stand up in the corner of his eye and he immediately turned his attention back to her.
Sidian’s lights blinded her, but she had already drawn her double-barreled laser pistol which she kept trained on his head as she shielded her eyes with the other. “Who are you, and what do you want?”
Sidian flinched his hands into the air, almost instinctively. He has lost count of how many times he’s been held at gunpoint. He was momentarily speechless, shocked by her agility, but also in awe of the metallic dye in her hair that glinted heavily from his spotlights.
Her eyes had acclimated to the light and so she repositioned slightly to put both hands on her pistol. “Well?”
Sidian was struck by her beauty. Such angular features that included several small metallic tattoos that also glinted, sometimes hiding portions of her face. He quickly snapped himself out of it and responded, “Don’t shoot. I was trying to rescue you.” he began, then noticing the pin on her collar of a winged boot. “My name is Sidian Rein, and I’m a fellow courier. There was a strange noise that knocked us all out, including our ships, although, it would seem yours has a good failsafe.”
Her hazel eyes glared at him for a moment before her expression softened a bit, though, her resting expression was not very different. “Well, you’re not an orkk. What happened to them?”
Since her ship was facing toward the way they had come, Sidian nodded his head in that direction and pointed a finger with his right hand while still raised to get her to look out of the window at the Kelvaran starvessel and shuttle now floating adrift.
She barely glanced at them before looking back at Sidian. “Hmh. Serves them right, but that still doesn’t mean that you’re not here to kidnap me or steal my ship. You say you’re a courier, but I don’t see your pin.”
“I, uh—“ Sidian then cleared his throat even though he didn’t need to, “I don’t always wear it, but I could show you my courier pass if we go over to my ship. I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.”
“Yeah? Cause that doesn’t sound like a trap.” She then turned her focus onto the main console and began to push buttons and flick switches while keeping the pistol trained on him. “If you’ll kindly leave, I’ll get my ship back up and running and we can forget this ever happened.”
Sidian stopped himself from rebutting, and resorted to watching her fail to get her systems back online. He had seen the data recorded by his magnetometer. It was over a million volts per meter. No purely digital system would be able to withstand that. He was lucky to have a ship from the Millennial War as targeted EMP weapons were the fad of that war. They have since been outlawed throughout all of Starbrood. “I seriously doubt your systems will come back online. I’m surprised that your environmentals are working. Are they failsafed through an analogue system?”
She gave him a momentary glance before trying more buttons and switches, now going along the overhead console. “Actually, no. So, let me guess? Your ship is still functioning, and you want me to believe that you’re not here to kill me?”
Sidian let out a long sigh out of frustration. He was starting to think that there was no way to convince her of his innocence. “Look, my ship is an old tender refurbished from the war, and so it was built to withstand EMPs. Please, just let me show you my pass, or maybe you can stop pointing your gun at me, and I’ll gladly take my leave. I’m in even more of a hurry now.”
“What? So you can tell your friends that I’m stuck here, and then they’ll raid and rape me?”
The situation was getting very heated on her end, and this made Sidian even more nervous. He rarely does well in these situations and he could feel his hands begin to tremble. He really had to think about what to say to that. Then he saw her put a hand to her head and grimace in pain. “Are you okay?” he asked lowering his hands some, wanting to put them forward to catch her if necessary, though, she quickly put both hands on the gun and refocused it, forcing him to put his hands up high again.
“I’m fine.” she demanded strongly, but then he saw her look to his left, and before he could turn his head to see, she had split her handgun into two, pointing one at him, and the other at a small blue-skinned humanoid that looked at both of them with large, soft eyes. It vaguely resembled a hoblyn, although, Sidian had never seen anything like it. His immediate thought was that it was a hoblyn-maren hybrid of some kind, but, the last he knew, those two species were not compatible in that way.
Then it spoke a language neither of them could understand in a very tiny child-like voice. “Rigu dekku tikoo.”
