Beyond Sol Bk. 01 Pt. 02

"Roger that," I replied.

I watched my console and kept an eye on the viewport at the front of the bridge as Shara manoeuvred the ship. Suddenly a bright, near blinding light appeared in my field of view. I gasped when I saw the star with my own eyes. It was far smaller than any star we'd crossed paths with before and glowed a bright white. We had come across yellow and red stars mostly, and occasionally we'd seen a large white star, and each one had filled me with a sense of awe. But this tiny neutron star was nothing like its brothers and sisters. Jets of blue light shot out from either end of the mini-sun and swirled in a tight spiral, creating a cone shape further away from the star's centre of mass.

Suddenly the ship started to lurch to the side, and the view of the star tilted as the vessel spun slowly on its axis, veering towards the violent, swirling jets of light.

"What's happening?' I asked, more than a little worried.

"The star is pulling us in. We came too close," Shara said through gritted teeth.

"Can you get us out?" I asked.

"I can try," she replied as she strained against the yoke to pull the ship around.

I lost my view of the star for a few seconds before it came back around, and it was clear we were spinning out of control, right towards the celestial object. Warning lights began to flash on my console, and I brought up the messages mostly to keep my mind off the looming threat. Heat levels were rapidly rising as we neared the star.

I hit the button for the heat sink and watched as the temperature levels dropped to freezing. A shiver shot down my spine as the temperature in the cockpit dropped, and my breath came out in small misty clouds. It wouldn't be a permanent solution, but I still had three more heat sinks. Shara had shown me how to use most of the ship's defensive and maintenance systems in-case of emergency. I couldn't fly very well, but I could help her if shit hit the fan, and right now, shit was being poured into an industrial air-conditioning unit with no off switch to save us a huge mess.

"What can I do?" I called out to Shara. The ship's warning lights filled the bridge with a red glow, and the alarms made it hard to speak without shouting.

"Use the heat sinks sparingly, keep the shields up and get ready to jump us to warp speed as soon as I say so," she called out, not once taking her eyes away from what she was doing.

I didn't have much to do as Shara wrestled against the neutron star's intense gravitational pull. The star spun past our viewport repeatedly as we careened out of control towards what I guessed would be an incredibly volatile death. I pulled up the navigation menu on my console to double-check everything was ready. The last thing we needed right now was to finally get out of the death spin, only to find out that we weren't locked onto our next location. I opened the route Shara had plotted for us and noticed that more of the locations were highlighted. As if the ship's systems detected them as being within range of our warp engines. I cycled through the list until I found one that was closest to our alignment.

"What are you doing?" Shara asked worriedly.

"Trying something stupid," I said.

We were rolling faster now as the neutron star filled the viewport more often than not. I hovered my finger over the button, ready to activate warp speed and waited for the perfect moment. Shara was still struggling with the ship's controls, trying to bring us out of the death-spiral, but she didn't have much luck. It would only be a matter of seconds before we were too close to the star to get out.

"Drop the thrusters to zero and try to get us aligned with the marked system," I said.

"We can't make that jump, and we can't jump so close to the star, or we'll overheat," she argued.

"Just trust me!" I growled.

Shara looked over her shoulder at me with a worried expression, then nodded. She throttled the ship's thrusters back to zero, and we began spinning a little more uncontrollably. I prepped the warp drive and watched the bar fill as the engines charged. Heat began to rise far quicker now, and I launched another heat sink to keep the levels under critical. The engines primed themselves, and a message flashed on my console; CHARGE COMPLETE. Heat levels were rapidly rising again, so I fired off another heat sink to buy us more time, we only had one left, so it was now or never.

"Pull us the opposite way," I called out.

Until now, Shara had been trying to drag us out of the gravity well that had grabbed the ship. If she were to shift the vessel's direction the opposite way, it would take us further into the star's orbit. Instead of arguing what was obviously a stupid idea, she complied without question and pulled the yoke to the opposite side. The ship levelled out for a second as the bow spun to face the opposite direction.

"Full throttle!" I yelled as I punched the flashing button for the warp engines to engage.

I didn't know much about space travel, but Shara had taught me that it was far too dangerous to engage a warp drive jump in close proximity to a star, that it was better to gain some distance before you even prepped the engines, but we didn't have any other choice. The timing was just right, and as soon as the alignment locked in, the thrusters powered up to maximum speed. I watched the stars elongate and began to swirl into the familiar warp tunnel I'd become accustomed to during my time on the ship.

"Holy shit," I let out a sigh of relief.

"You did it," Shara said, surprise plain in her voice.

"We did it," I corrected her.

"How did you know that would work?" she asked.

"I didn't," I admitted.

Shara looked at me for a long minute, then burst into laughter. We laughed together as only two people who narrowly escaped a gruesome yet highly spectacular death could, until my side hurt.

"Let's never do that again," I said when our laughter died down.

"I'll agree to that if you do," Shara said with an exhausted grin.

I had no idea how long this trip would take since I'd locked us onto a location much farther away than the ship's engines said was possible. So I decided it was time to get some shut-eye. I un-fastened myself from the navigator's chair and stood on shaky legs. I hadn't realised how much the ordeal had taken out of me, especially after the intense training session earlier. I contemplated sitting down again, but I wanted to be away from the chair where I'd nearly died only a dozen seconds earlier.

"How did you increase the range of the engines?" Shara asked as she got to her feet.

"I don't know. I just noticed the locations light up on my navigation panel when we were sucked into the star's gravity well," I explained.

"I've heard stories of people increasing the range of their jumps from stars. They call it a star jump. I just never knew how it was done," Shara mused.

"So, we effectively supercharged the warp engines?" I asked.

"Yeah, something like that," she answered.

I pondered on that information and wondered if there would be an effective and safe way to travel the galaxy utilizing these stars. It would be a while though until I willingly went to a system with a neutron star again, so I had plenty of time to think about it. I needed and wanted to learn more about space travel if I was going to be of any use on the ship.

"It looks like we'll be bypassing several jumps on the plotted route and be there within three more jumps," Shara said as she studied her console.

"Well, that's awesome," I said. "But how long are we in this jump for?"

"Looks like it increased our speed of travel too, so we'll be at the next location in about two hours," she said with surprise.

"That's handy. That cuts our trip down a lot," I replied.

"Yeah, it does," Shara said with a thoughtful expression. "I need some sleep, but you look about ready to fall over. How about you get some rest, and I'll wake you at the next jump. Then you can take over?"

"Sounds like a plan," I said.

"Use my room. It's closer to the bridge in case I need you," she added.

I gave the gorgeous alien woman a nod, then turned to leave the bridge. I wanted to know what she was about to tell me before all this happened, but it didn't seem like the right time. I also wasn't sure if I wanted to know what she was about to say.

I flopped onto the bed in Shara's room without even getting undressed. My body hurt all over from the pummelling I'd taken earlier, and while we had strong healing medicine in the ship's med bay that would have me feeling right as rain in no time, I couldn't be bothered going there right now.

I lay there for a few minutes as I thought about how much my life had changed in the last few weeks. I'd been a simple average joe with no aspirations in life and no one I could call family. I had a few friends, but most of them lived in different states or countries.

Now I was on a starship with a beautiful alien woman, and we'd just avoided being crushed into a fraction of a pebble by the super-powerful gravity of a neutron star. Shit was definitely different, but I was feeling better than I ever had. I was in better shape than I'd been in years, and had the company of someone who genuinely seemed to enjoy being around me. Even if she held no romantic feelings towards me, I still counted myself as lucky to have her as a friend. I drifted off, wondering how it might feel to sleep beside Shara.

The rest of the trip went relatively quickly. The engines had lost their super-charged power that allowed us to jump a longer distance, but we were still far closer to our destination than we had been. We were both exhausted, but I insisted Shara needed more sleep, so when I awoke from my slumber, I took over the last two jumps.

We were in the last legs of the trip to the Miladrian system, and Shara was still asleep. I decided to hone my skills with a gun and headed for the armoury after I locked in the final destination. The armoury wasn't very big since it only needed enough equipment for half a dozen crew members, but it had a small shooting range at the rear. Shara had placed the gear I'd brought with me from the facility in a locker for me, and I now laid it all out on the table to get a better idea of what I had.

There were two Glock 19's and five full magazines between them. Both guns had been used in the escape, so I consolidated the ammunition from each magazine into one before storing them securely. The chest rig I'd used as part of my disguise held various tools and gadgets that might prove to be useful, so I took inventory of each of them.

I found a flashlight, cable ties, Trail Master combat knife, Taser, compass, radio, and a smartphone. The radio, smartphone, and compass would be useless out here, so I put them aside. The Taser had a couple of extra battery packs, which I was thankful for, but I wasn't sure how I'd find a way to charge them when they ran out. There were a few other items in the harness that were mostly junk, so I put them in a pile along with the smartphone and radio. I added the shock baton and second knife I'd taken to the pile alongside the rifle I'd picked up near the end of my escape.

The rifle was by far the most important and exciting piece of equipment I had. I'd seen other weapons in the racks of the armoury, but I didn't know how any of them worked. I could probably just pull the trigger and see what they did, but after seeing what the weapon Shara had used did, I was reluctant to test drive any of them without her permission first.

The rifle was an M4 carbine variant, chambered for 5.56, and fitted with a telescopic ACOG sight, foregrip, and side-mounted tactical-light/red dot laser combo. It was an incredibly well cared for weapon, and I wondered if it was a standard-issue or a personal firearm of the man I'd taken it from. He was dead now, so I guess it didn't matter all too much.

I ejected the magazine from the weapon and placed it beside the others. I emptied each of the magazines, some of which still held a round or two from when I'd reloaded hastily, and did a count before loading them again. I had one full 30 round magazine and one two-thirds full, which wasn't a great deal. I thought it'd be highly unlikely I could purchase rounds that would work in any of my Earth weapons out here, so I'd have to either use them sparingly or replace them as soon as I was out of ammunition. Even though I was low on ammo for this gun, I decided I needed to practice my shooting.

I loaded up the partially empty magazine into the rifle, then retrieved one of the Glocks and loaded it before taking both weapons over to the table by the firing range. The lights along the range lit up as soon as I stepped up to the table and placed my guns down. A holographic target appeared about ten metres down the range, the distance of the target displayed above its head in red numbers. The digits were earth numbers, and I guessed the updates Shara had installed extended to the firing range system. The shooting zone wasn't very long, so I doubted I'd have to use the scope on the rifle, but I still wanted to practice with the weapon.

I limited myself to the ammunition I'd loaded into my weapons, so shot sparingly. I mostly wanted to get a feel for the weapons' recoil and get used to the weight of holding them. I practiced a few drills of un-loading and loading each gun, as well as dry firing. I'd never used a gun before escaping from the facility where I was held captive, but I'd always liked them and had spoken to a few friends overseas who were firearm enthusiasts. I'd also played a lot of first-person shooters in my days as a full-time gamer and liked to think that the hours upon hours wasted in my gaming chair was helping, even a little.

The targets weren't the usual paper silhouettes I'd seen used in movies and television shows. Instead, they appeared to be a holographic projection of a humanoid figure. The zone I hit would change colour depending on the lethality of the shot. Once I was done, it gave me a score, although I didn't know what a good or bad score was. But I only missed three or four times in total, so I was happy with myself.

"You're good with these, too," Shara said from the doorway.

I looked over to see the gorgeous, grey-skinned woman dressed in a white singlet and a black pair of shorts that looked closer to undergarments. My eyes trailed down her long legs, and I found myself tracing the white lines up shins and thighs and started to wonder if they continued over her hips and stomach.

"I'm better than I thought I'd be, but not great," I said, trying to keep my eyes from wandering.

"You seem to be quite good at everything you do, Jason," Shara smiled.

I couldn't tell if there was a flirtatious tone in her voice or an extra meaning behind what she said. I was always bad at picking up what girls were putting down, no matter how obvious they were.

"I'd like to practice more, but only have limited rounds," I said, motioning to the magazines on the equipment table.

"Let me take a look," Shara said before crossing to the table and picking up one of the rifle magazines.

She turned it around in her hands a few times before sliding the top bullet free and studied it intently for a few seconds. Once she was done, she picked up one of the pistol magazines and repeated the process.

"A decent weaponsmith could probably replicate these," she said with a nod.

"Really!?" I asked with barely contained excitement.

"Yeah. Most people use energy weapons, but there is still a market for ballistics, and any half-decent weaponsmith would be able to replicate what you have here given the time," she explained.

"That's awesome. I was worried I'd have to throw them away once I used up my supply," I said.

"Just make sure you save a dozen or so to show someone. They'll need to study the ammunition and possibly your weapon to make sure they have it right," she said, placing the magazine on the table.

"Yeah, that's not a problem. I highly doubt I'll get into much gunfire out here," I laughed.

"Nothing would surprise me with you, Jason," Shara smirked.

"Hey now, you started all this," I accused her jokingly.

We shared a smile before the ship's navigation system alerted us that we would be arriving at our destination shortly. I followed Shara to the bridge while trying my absolute hardest not to stare at her barely concealed behind and took my seat to prepare the ship.

A few seconds later, we were dropping out of warp speed, and the view from my seat was filled with two large stars floating side-by-side. I'd read about binary systems before but reading about something and seeing with your own eyes—especially this close—were two completely different things.

A beeping from my terminal drew me out of my trance as I stared at the twin stars, and I looked down to see a communications request coming through.

"Phone call," I called out to Shara.

"Put it through, and let me do the talking," she said.

I pressed the accept button on my console, and a voice came through the ship's console speakers on the bridge. The voice was rough, and the language was something I doubt I could ever learn. It sounded more like grunting and groaning than any understandable language. Shara replied in a language I couldn't understand, and the two conversed for a few seconds before the call ended.

"What was that all about?" I asked.

"Just the station hailing us. Asking what our purpose is and such, nothing too dramatic," she explained.

"And what was that language you spoke?" I asked.

"It's my own species' language, so he would know what I was saying," she said, now concentrating on flying the ship.

The being on the other end of the call had been speaking a different language to Shara, but they both understood one another. I hadn't really thought about language barriers since I'd only ever met the grey-skinned woman, and she spoke English. But she had learned my language so we could communicate, and I guessed she would have to be a translator for me.

"There you go," Shara said, motioning out the front viewport.

Ahead of us was the large disc-shaped space station I'd seen on the holo-map. However, it was a lot smaller since it was so far away.

"How long until we get there?" I asked. Distance in space was hard to determine just by looking at something. This station could still be another day's flight for all I knew.

"About thirty minutes or so," she said. "We have a docking bay put aside for us, and I'll have my friend meet us there."

"Your friend?" I asked with a little jealousy.

"Yes, he is the reason we are here. He will help hide us for the time being," Shara explained. "Just sit back and enjoy the ride. It's all manual controls from here, so I have to concentrate on flying."

I pushed aside the jealousy knowing we were here to see Shara's male friend and unclasped my harness. I wasn't needed for the landing of the ship, and I was a little tired still. I decided a short nap would be in order before we arrived at the station. I didn't know what we would be faced with once we arrived, but I wanted to be well-rested.

Chapter 8

Shara woke me up over the ship's intercom just as we were coming in for a landing. I hadn't really gotten any sleep, but it felt great to lay down and relax. I pulled my shirt and boots on before heading to the bridge and gasped when I saw what filled the viewport.

The station was now super close, and I could pick out the metal hull details as it spun slowly in the orbit of the nearest planet. Around the station's rim were dozens of small and large mail-slot-like openings that I assumed were docking bays by the number of ships coming and going. One of the slots ahead of us was encircled in green and lit up with a character I didn't recognize. I guessed it was a number or letter of some sort that told someone which bay they were assigned.