Beyond Sol Bk. 01 Pt. 02

Authors note.

I know this has been a long time coming for a lot of you, and it will be a letdown for others who have already read this. Apologies for not having more done soon, I've currently been going through a fair bit of drama with work and personal life lately. But I'm glad to be sharing more Beyond Sol (I really love this story) especially a far better edited version.

Big thanks to CockneyGeezer for the edits.

Chapter 6

I stared out of the front windshield of the starship at the blackness of space. There were no visual indicators of how quickly we were moving, and it almost felt like the ship was stationary. There was no pressure from the engines nor force of gravity holding me into my seat as it had when we blasted off from the surface of Earth. It was also eerily quiet. The only sounds in the cockpit were the beeps of computer terminals and the tap of Shara's fingers across her consoles.

"This is amazing," I said in awe as I leaned closer to the viewport.

"I guess it would be for someone who hadn't travelled the stars before," Shara replied.

"You have no idea," I muttered. "Space travel up until recently have only been a dream for many, and even with the advancements made in the last few years it's still very much out of reach for the majority of Earth's population."

Shara gave me a small smile, then returned to her displays. I couldn't see what she was looking at, and the data I saw scroll across the other screens was in a language I couldn't read. With everything that had happened today and the last few weeks, it only just occurred to me that Shara and I could understand each other. It hadn't seemed like something too important at the time—since we were fighting for our lives and freedom—but after the adrenaline of the moment had worn off, it seemed incredibly strange. I couldn't read the displays at all, which told me they were in an alien language. But how could Shara, an alien woman, understand and speak English perfectly?

I was about to ask her about it when I started feeling a little light-headed. The cockpit began spinning in slow circles, and I slumped into my chair. Exhaustion and possible dehydration were kicking in, and I could barely keep my chin off my chest.

Suddenly a pair of grey hands were on my harness, undoing the buckles. They were Shara's hands. The same white markings that ran up her legs and over her face marked her hands and forearms too. She unbuckled the harness holding me in the chair, and helped lift me to my feet. I knew she was strong, but she showed no discomfort at supporting my weight, even after her ordeal at the hands of our white-haired captor, Marcus Gibson. Shara looped my arm over her neck and wrapped her own around my waist as she guided me out of the cockpit.

"You'll be fine, Jason," she assured me. "You just need some rest. Your body still isn't fully recovered."

I tried to speak but couldn't find the words. I wanted to tell Shara that I'd be fine after a few minutes of rest. I wanted to ask her questions and explore the ship. I wanted to know where we were going and how long it would take. It was every sci-fi nerd's dream to travel the stars, especially with someone as gorgeous as Shara, and I wanted to experience everything. But I was really fucking tired. Before I knew it, I was laying on my back on a soft bed, and I gave up trying to keep my eyes open any longer.

I awoke with a much clearer head, but it took me a dozen seconds to realise where I was. I was so used to the small prison cell it was a shock to wake up somewhere else. I was lying on my back still, but I was naked except for the black cargo pants I'd taken from one of the soldiers in the facility. The room was small, but not cramped. sparsely furnished, with a small rectangular table set against one side of the room, facing two metal chairs and a large steel wardrobe opposite, surrounding a large double bed where I found myself currently. Everything was the same dull grey steel of the ship's hull.

I sat up with a groan and glanced around the room, looking for my clothes. A neatly folded pile rested on one of the chairs, next to my boots. Shara must have removed my equipment and undressed me after I passed out. I was momentarily embarrassed to know the gorgeous alien woman had seen me with my shirt off. I was still quite thin from my time in captivity and would have liked a few months of eating well and working out until I flashed my guns. But it was too late for that now, and there was no point being embarrassed about it.

I pulled on my socks, then boots, followed by the long sleeve shirt. It was a military shirt I'd seen in many movies and video games and felt quite comfortable, although a little loose. The men I'd knocked out had much more bulk on them than I did. I checked the cabinets and the wardrobe for my equipment but only found a few personal items. Women's clothing filled the wardrobe, and I guessed I was in Shara's room. I blushed when I pulled out a small lacey pair of panties. Images of the sexy, grey-skinned woman wearing this and only this flashed in my head, and I quickly stuffed the undergarment back where I'd found them.

Once I had everything back where I'd found it, I walked over to the door beside the bed. I was kind of hoping it would be automated and open with a satisfying 'whoosh,' like in Star Trek or Star Wars. I was still pleased when I pressed the flat, square button beside the door, and it opened quickly. It might not be automated, but it was still awesome.

The small adjacent room was a bathroom. It looked oddly like a human bathroom back home, only more polished surfaces. The shower cubicle rose from floor to ceiling and sat nestled in the corner. A plate of metal polished to a mirror sheen sat above what looked to be the washbasin, and even the toilet against the opposite wall looked human enough. I guessed any humanoid species would deposit their waste in a similar fashion, so the design of toilets and showers wasn't too unbelievable.

I left the bathroom alone even though I desperately needed a shower. I hadn't been allowed to bathe at all when I was locked up and add to that the nerve-racking escape we'd just made; I was well aware of how bad I must smell.

The other door led me into a small corridor with a doorway at either end. I had no idea where I was going, so I picked the right door. It opened to the cockpit we were in earlier. It was larger than a standard commercial cockpit, with three chairs and dozen or so terminals and consoles dotted around the room. But they weren't what caught my attention.

The view out of the ship's front windshield had changed from the black emptiness of space, to a swirl of so many colours they all blended into a vibrant white glow that seemed to part for the ship's bow. I was so wrapped up in the view of what I guessed was light speed or warp travel, that I didn't hear the door open behind me. I jumped when Shara stepped up to my side. She had changed out of the prisoner's clothes she had been wearing in the facility, and was now wearing a sleek black jumpsuit zipped up under her chin. The outfit hugged her lean curves like a second skin, and I had to force myself to look away from her ample assets so she wouldn't catch me gawking at her.

"It's quite a sight, isn't it?" she said with a knowing smile.

"Yeah. But what is it exactly?" I asked, ignoring the fact that she'd caught me checking her out.

"To break it down, it's a wormhole," she said.

"So, we're travelling through a wormhole to get somewhere faster than the speed of light?" I asked.

"Precisely that," she replied with an amused smile. "You understand the basics of warp travel."

"Space travel and the galaxy is kind of a dream to my people, myself included. There are hundreds of theories about how it would be possible, but no one has ever come up with the technology to do it," I explained.

"It's probably because your system is so far away from everything, that no one even knows it exists," Shara said.

"What do you mean?" I asked in confusion.

"There's a whole galaxy out there," Shara swept her hand across the cockpit as if performing an unveiling. "Alive and full of so many wondrous places, but unfortunately for your people, there are a lot of dead systems between you and the next inhabited system. So, no one had ever come out this far, or if they have, they haven't returned or recorded it."

"Surely explorers seeking adventure would have by now," I said.

"Space is vast and limitless, Jason. All it would take is for someone to alter their course by a fraction, and they would bypass your small system by a few hundred light-years," she said.

"Probably a good thing. My people aren't exactly welcoming to newcomers, as you know," I said with a sigh.

"They're afraid and curious. I would have offered knowledge and help if they'd only asked, but not now," she said.

"Then why did you help me?" I asked.

"Because the moment I saw you, I knew you were a good person, Jason. And when you tried to save me from your own people, I knew I had to return the favour," Shara explained.

"How did you know I was a nice person?" I asked, feeling a little flushed as she looked at me.

"You had an excited look on your face," she smirked. "Much like a child opening a present."

I felt my cheeks flush, but her words had brought back something I'd meant to ask her.

"How can we understand each other?" I asked. "And what was that link you spoke to me about? That was you, wasn't it?"

"Before you were shot, I knew there was no way for either of us to escape. In that moment, I formed a link between our minds. That is where we first met and conversed," she explained.

"I thought that was all a strange dream," I said. "I kept forgetting things, and I never heard from you after I woke up from my injuries."

"To begin with, your mind and body were as weak as newborn babies. It took quite some time for you to become lucid enough for us to have a conversation that you could remember. In that time, I studied your language and was able to learn it without too much trouble," she said.

"Just like that, you learned a new language?" I smirked.

"I'm a fast learner, Jason," she smiled.

"Why didn't you talk to me in my sleep after that?" I asked.

"I did, but you weren't sleeping deeply enough for you to retain the knowledge of our meetings. Or the things I taught you," Shara said, walking over to the pilot's chair. She tapped a button on the screen, and a monitor nearby displayed a series of symbols, like a countdown.

"Taught me?" I asked, a little puzzled.

"Yes. While I was a captive, I was able to access the surface thoughts relating to the dreams of a few of our captors. It is a limited ability my species possess that.

"Like the mine reading you did back on Earth?" I asked, referring to how she incapacitated Marcus.

"Similar, but less invasive and far less detailed," Shara replied, then continued with her explanation. "One of the men who came to me more often was a career soldier. He dreamt of his work nightly, and I was able to discover the passcode to the cellblocks and implant that knowledge into your mind."

"The glowing light was from you?" I asked.

"Yes. Along with some basic hand-to-hand fighting techniques I thought may aid you. You may have forgotten everything, but your subconscious and your body remembered," she said, finally looking back to me.

I was lost in her pure white eyes for a few seconds as I marvelled at how alien and beautiful she was. She could have easily passed as a supermodel wearing body paint with dyed hair.

"I wondered how I'd done those things. I wasn't exactly in peak condition or had any formal training," I laughed.

"You are a natural, Jason," Shara smiled, showing her beautiful white teeth. "I'll be glad to teach you more on our trip if you wish."

"Speaking of which, where are we going?" I asked, looking out the windshield of the cockpit as if I could see our destination on the horizon.

Shara motioned for me to follow her as she left the cockpit. We passed the door to Shara's room, where I'd woken up earlier, and through another door into a larger, circular room. The many doors leading out from this room gave me the opinion it was the ship's central hub. Holographic signs hung above each entry, but they too were in a language I couldn't read. Shara approached a round table in the centre of the room and accessed a control panel on it. The device lit up, and a projection showing billions of stars appeared above the table.

The projection was light cyan in colour and made it difficult to distinguish anything in-particular on the holographic galaxy. Shara tapped away for a few seconds before the image shifted to that of two large stars that seemed to be twins of one another. Orbital lines were clearly visible on the projection, and I saw planets and moons, as well as their estimated trajectory as they orbited each star.

"This is the Miladrian system. It is where we are going," Shara said.

"Why here?" I asked, studying the map.

"It is safe," she said.

"Safe from who? My people have no possible way of following us," I said.

There was something the beautiful woman wasn't telling me, and I guessed she would have a story of her own. There was a reason she was on earth, and if what she said about my planet being so far from the next inhabited galaxy was true, then she must have been running from someone.

"I would rather not talk about it right now, Jason," she said sternly.

"Okay, but if we're going to be travelling together, I'll want to know eventually," I said.

"Thank you," Shara offered me a smile. "I understand you must have a lot of questions, but for now, I need you to trust me. I won't put you in harm's way intentionally. Just know that this system will be safe."

"I trust you," I said without hesitation.

We hardly knew anything about one another, but we'd escaped life imprisonment and possible death together. I wasn't sure if it was the mystical link that she'd forged between us or something else, but I felt like I could trust Shara with my life.

"There are a lot of planets in this system," I said, indicating to the projection. "Which one are we going to?"

If it were anything like my own solar system, only one or two planets would be habitable. NASA scientists had struggled to find any planets in the galaxy that could sustain human life, and many people believed Earth was the only one in the entire universe. I thought that was silly since there were countless solar systems and planets in the galaxy. Just because a world couldn't sustain human life, it didn't mean another species hadn't evolved to survive in it.

"None of these planets are habitable to sentient species for long periods," Shara said.

"Then why are we going there?" I asked with confusion. I didn't mind being on a super awesome spaceship, but I figured we'd be going to another planet to get food and supplies.

"This planet here," Shara zoomed in on a planet closer to one of the system's suns. "It is a mining planet, but the surface is far too hot for people to live on. There is a station that orbits this world where the men and women live between their shifts planetside."

The image of the planet faded, only to be replaced with a disc-shaped space station. The station looked straight out of a sci-fi movie with its large spire shooting out of the centre and numerous antennas marking the slightly sloped surface. Giving it the look of a spinning top.

"That is so cool," I said.

"I thought you might appreciate it," Shara said with an amused smile. "This station is habitable for us, and we'll be able to re-supply the ship and rest there for some time."

"Are there more alien species than just you?" I asked, then realised I was now an alien in the vast galaxy.

"Oh yes, many more," she replied.

"What are the species who live here like?" I asked.

"There will be many different species on this station. It draws people from all over the neighbouring systems for work. Because the surface of the planet is so hazardous, the station pays incredibly well for those willing to mine the rare minerals and gases," she explained.

"And all these species survive on oxygen?" I asked.

"Yes, it is something that all sentient life requires," she said.

"And do they all look humanoid?" I asked.

"Most do yes. Some species I've come across have been much taller or much shorter. Some have extra limbs or eyes, but every species I've met has many characteristics common to yourself and me," Shara explained.

I wasn't sure what I was chasing with this line of thought, but it did seem odd that apart from her skin colour, eyes, and hair Shara was completely human-looking. Now that I knew most species out here would be similar to me, made me think of where we all came from. I filed that information away for later, once I knew a little more.

"You look thoughtful," Shara said after a dozen seconds passed.

"It's nothing, not yet anyway," I said. "How long will it take us to get to this system?"

"We are currently four-hundred and twenty-two light-years away from the Miladrian system," Shara said as if that was enough of an answer.

"Is that far?" I asked. I knew it was a long way from Earth in every sense. But I had no idea the capabilities of the ship we were in; a hundred light-years could be like traveling a hundred kilometres in this thing. I just had no concept of how these things worked.

"In a sense, it is. The drive in this ship isn't fantastic, meaning we have to jump between star systems, so it isn't a straight route," she replied.

"How many jumps do we have to make?" I asked.

"This ship has a maximum jump distance of 12.8 light-years," she tapped on the console again, and a large cluster of stars appeared. A red line like a GPS back home connected some of the stars, creating a zig-zagging line through the other star systems.

"The computer estimates forty-six jumps until we arrive at our destination, with stops in between."

"Stops?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The warp engines on this ship aren't very big and require frequent charging. The engines charge from solar radiation, so we'll stop half a dozen times and orbit one of the stars to recharge," she explained.

"Oh, that's cool," I said, wondering if it would get hot in the ship if we spent too long orbiting a star. "How long does each jump take?" We had been in this jump since I'd woken up, and nothing told me we had stopped.

"Ship specs say this model can cover ten light-years in under an hour. So, not very fast," she said.

"So, it'll take us about forty-eight hours or more to get to this system?" I asked, pointing to the holoprojection floating in front of me.

"That sounds about right, although it's hard to accurately say how long some trips will take when you have to take detours and recharge the warp engines," she replied.

The idea of moving ten light-years in less than an hour was amazing to my primitive, monkey brain, but I guessed to someone accustomed to space travel It would be as special and impressive as taking a shower back home.

Something else tickled my interest in Shara.

"You speak about this ship like it's new to you? How did you get it?" I asked.

"That's treading close to what I do not wish to speak about, Jason," she said with a less serious tone this time.

"Got it. Boundaries," I gave her a thumbs up.

Shara covered her mouth for a moment as she suppressed a laugh. Being the class clown in high school, I'd always been good at making people smile and laugh. I was glad to see my skills hadn't diminished over the years.

My stomach rumbled loudly, and I was suddenly reminded how hungry I was. The jerks who'd kept us imprisoned had failed to feed me the morning of our escape, and I hadn't been getting enough food before that. I wasn't sure how long I was out for when we returned to the ship, but I could probably eat the ship's entire stock of food in one sitting.