The Essence Within Ch. 02

"Computer, what's the alarm for?" Jonathon asks.

"A ship is following us on the port side and powering weapons." replies the computer.

"SHIT! Power the shields and weapons." Jonathon yells.

Too late one shot makes it through before the shields are fully up. It hits the left side engine causing the ship to lurch and instantly slow down. Looking at the status panel, he notices engine efficiency is down to 50%, shields 25%, and weapons are offline. He looks at another monitor to see the class, name, and stats of the other ship. In the current condition of his ship, Jonathon realizes he's no match for the Bright Wing.

"Damn it, how careless could I be." Jonathon says, pissed at his own stupidity.

"Captain, we are being hailed by the 'Bright Wing'." announces the computer.

"Put it on the monitor." Jonathon replies.

The image that comes up on the screen is of a man with a patch over his right eye with a scar visible at the top right and bottom left of the patch. He has brown hair, blue eyes, and appears to be about 6 feet tall. He's wearing a flowing white linen shirt, think leather jerkin, dark pants, and heavy boots. He has an energy sword on his left hip and laser pistol on his right.

"Why have you attacked me?" Jonathon asks coolly.

"How could you let your guard down like that? I've been looking for you for a long time Brian." The man replies ignoring Jonathon's question.

"My name is not Brian. I come from Earth."

"No need to lie to me Brian, I wanted you to know who beat you today and who's going to be sending you to your grave."

"Seriously my name isn't Brian. It's Jonathon Hugh. Read your instruments, this ship is registered to Earth." Jonathon tried again to tell the man, getting more annoyed.

The man seems to ponder for a moment, flicks his hand, turns to the side and it looks like he says something to someone just off screen. He must have muted the audio, Jonathon thinks to himself. While the man is distracted he quickly types a couple commands into the computer just to be on the safe side. The first is to start repairing the engine; the second is to scan for a planet he can land on. Just as he finishes, the man flicks his wrist again.

"I'll play along with your game for the moment Brian. My name is Val, captain of the pirate ship Bright Wing."

Just then, Jonathon's computer displays a planet he can hide on to complete repairs, if he can only get away from Val.

"Obviously there's no way to prove to you I am who I say" Jonathon states as he has an idea and starts typing commands into the computer again. "How can I prove to you I'm not this Brian you're looking for?"

"Tell you what, lower your shields, power down your engines and we will bring you aboard as our prisoner and go from there." Val says.

"You're kidding me right?" Jonathon asks. Just as he finishes his comment he sees the ship is powering up its weapons again.

"Well, we could just blow you out of the sky now" Val states as if he doesn't care what happens.

"I'd prefer not. However, I'm on a mission and must complete it." Again, as he finishes his statement he engages the computer to complete the commands he typed in.

Val sits forwards looking at his scanners wondering what this fool was doing. The small ship has started accelerating towards his ship. He orders his gunner to fire at the ship. Just as the ship fires, the smaller ship moves just to the right but not quick enough and is grazed by the shot.

Jonathon curses under his breath. "Damn just a second too late" he notices he's leaking air into space now as well. "Damn, damn, damn."

Luckily for him though, Val doesn't get another shot off. He's now too close to the ship and they can't get a lock on him. Jonathon sees the cloak is still working, so he engages the cloak masking the ship from the Bright Wing. He then makes for the planet. As he approaches the computer makes an announcement.

"Captain, the ship doesn't have the power to maintain orbit, we will have to land on the surface. However, we don't have the power to control our decent once we hit the atmosphere and will crash into the surface."

"And why would my luck be any better?" Jonathon wonders out loud.

"Computer, try to make the landing as smooth as possible to avoid additional damage."

"Acknowledged, making course corrections, entering the planet's atmosphere in 15 seconds, impact with the surface in 60 seconds." The computer replies.

Watching the view screen he sees the glow from the remaining shields as the ship slams into the atmosphere. He then watches helplessly as the surface of the planet quickly approaches.

"Ah crap!" 10 seconds from crashing into the surface, Jonathon realizes that the surface of the planet is mainly forest.

"This is going to hurt." was the last thought Jonathon had as the ship slams into the trees and then into the ground tossing him around like a rag doll. At one point he hits his head on an overhead beam and passes out from the impact.