“Yeah, I hear you on that. Luckily, we’re surrounding ourselves with pretty decent folk.”
“Plus, I actually feel like I can learn now! That Mental Clarity shit was a real handicap.”
“Especially for you,” Ember nudged me. “We should probably do some inventory, Shaun. Every little counts.”
“I was thinking earlier, I wish I could put Acclo in my head to do my inventory. They'd have it done in a day, I reckon.”
“Nice theory, but they wouldn't have a Scooby Doo where to put anything, would they? They’re your memories, dumbass.”
“Ah, yeah! You make a good point. Shall we go somewhere more private then?”
“How about, fuck inventory, and practice levitating instead? Not really had a chance to try it out since we updated our vision,” she replied.
“You know what, that actually sounds fun.”
We both stood up. For some reason I found myself telling Acclo where we were going, then we popped out to train while we waited for the other ships.
Once in the gymnasium, Ember sprinted off as soon as we went through the doors. She leapt into the air and kept on rising and rising, moving upwards and forwards at an impressive rate. I followed her and did the same. It was exhilarating to say the least. She came to a halt and turned around, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “This is fucking sweet, Shaun,” she said, breathlessly.
“Yes, it is,” I said, gliding up alongside her. As soon as I spoke, I dropped altitude quickly, before I righted myself.
She dropped down towards me. “Nice loss of control, Shaun.”
“Yeah. It takes a lot to move forward and upward at the same time. Talking as well isn’t a good combo.”
“I know what you're saying. I don't know if it's a Clarity thing or a practice thing. Either way, give it another month and we’ll have it sorted out. We’ve promised a lot of people a lot of things. We’re going to have to be on our A game.”
“Oh wow, Ember. Way to fill someone with self-doubt.”
“Get over yourself, Shaun. You signed up for this with me. Don’t go start being a drama queen. We’re doing this. Now, come on motherfucker. Let’s fly.” She zoomed off, downwards and ahead, before levelling out and going in a slight arc to fly around in circles. I followed her and managed the same maneuver, just executed in a more ungainly fashion. We spent a few hours flying around. No other training at all, just whizzing around laughing and having fun. It distracted me from the knot in my stomach about Elyek and the two ships.
When the call came in saying that the ships had appeared, my relief was palpable.
C14
Shake it Up
The Thoth and Seshat had appeared close to where we were, and it felt good to be together again. There was a certain amount of comfort brought by the extra protection.
We wasted no time in setting up a video link once they were in range. Ember and I sat in anticipation in our quarters, waiting for the other two captains to pop up on the screen.
To my immense relief, Elyek was with Astrid, which kinda fucked my flow up a little, because my first question was going to be, ‘Did you get Elyek?’.
“Elyek! Thank god you’re okay!” Ember all but shouted, then said to Astrid, “Well done for getting them out. Was there much trouble?”
“No, none at all. I know you love your ship and all, but you might want to consider changing it. It seems to be becoming quite recognizable,” Astrid replied.
“Yeah. It's looking like it might be necessary,” Ember said.
Elyek cut in. “Perhaps it is not. I am sure we can rename her and change the registration number a little to throw our pursuers off.”
“You can do that?” I asked.
“Well, hacking systems just so happens to be a specialty of mine, in case you forgot.”
“No, I didn’t. And I'd much prefer to do what you're suggesting, rather than change the ship. I'm quite attached to the Uprising.”
“I'll get straight onto it when I come over,” Elyek assured me.
“I look forward to having you back,” I replied. “While we’re on the subject of transferring Elyek back, I wanted to talk to you all about mixing our crews up: spreading the Torax and Veiletians across the three ships and bringing some humans onto the Uprising. Only those who wish to come and go of course, we won’t be forcing anyone.”
Both Astrid and Rufus looked uncertain at what I was saying, which annoyed me a little. Especially since one of Acclo’s concerns was how they’d be treated on the other ships. Before either of them could respond, I continued talking. “I’m aware not everyone is as well-mannered as we all are on our ships,” I said pointedly, looking at each of them in turn. “So I’m asking you to keep an extra close eye on any xenophobia that floats to the surface.”
“Why do we need to spread people around?” Rufus asked, confusion clouding his face.
“Do you have a problem already, Rufus?” I asked, a little bit of anger touching my voice.
“No!” he replied quickly, “I just wanted to understand the thinking. We’ve built a pretty tight-knit team over here. Seems counter-productive to disrupt that.”
“We’re trying to expand our army, Rufus, and we’re heading into a war zone. As strong as you may think your crew is, do you have any members who are naturally resistant to laser-fire? Or shoot fireballs? Or even fucking explode, doing massive area of effect damage? Do you have any members who understand all of this Galactic Empire technology in depth and can hack their systems? Oh and let’s not forget, turn invisible? Now before you answer, don’t; those were rhetorical questions. You don’t have any of those skills, and though you can survive without them, you can thrive with them.”
Ember
