章 2: Chapter 2: Slip-space
"Huuuuuff." Asus sighs to himself as he leans back and watches the white streaks of light zoom past him. His eyes drift down to the number that would occasionally briefly flash on. "99% engine stability on the slip-space drive huh? Let's based on our current speed, engine capacity, thermal regulation, fuel consumption..." He continues to mumble to himself while running various calculations through his onboard computer.
Every so often he would look back at his passenger who for the most part seemed to be in her own little world and minding her own business. He thought of trying to start a conversation, but every time the fact that she was the reason he had to flee combat was because of her, he would get upset. So, he decided only to speak when necessary.
GRUMBLE after about two hours a strange faint sound catches his ears.
"Hm? What was that?" He asks, looking over his dash. Nothing was being flagged, so it couldn't have come from the ship. After deeming nothing was wrong, he dismissed the sound and went back to running calculations.
GRUBBLE
GRUUMBLE
After hearing it a few more times he finally pinpoints the location and turns around to find crimson red face of the princess trying to look away. "I-I'm sorry. I tried to muffle it." She apologizes, doing her best not to look over at him.
"Huuh." He sighs deeply causing her to flinch slightly. He swivels his chair around to look at her and only puts his face in his hand and shakes his head. He then unbuckles his seatbelt and stands. Then he walks over and undoes hers. "Come on. If you're hungry eat."
She watches him walk towards a door that slides open, and then disappears heading towards the back of the small fighter ship. She hops down and follows fearing that he might get angry at her disobedience. It wasn't hard to find him. There was only two sections of the star fighter in which one could go besides the storage area.
The two areas were the common area which housed a small television, gaming console with two controllers, at least a hundred movies, a two-person couch, a small sink, microwave, and refrigerator; and the other was the housing area which had two one person beds, two very small closets and a shared bathroom which had a small tub/bath combo, and toilet.
Luckily once you left the cockpit the common area was immediately in front of you. She watched as he closed a cabinet and placed a small black box in the microwave. He looks over at her and motions for her to come over. "Come on, hurry up. I'm your escort not babysitter." He says frowning as she hesitated. After he tells her to come over, she timidly walks over. "Once the timer goes off wait about one more minute for it to vent and cool down." He tells her and she nods. "We have plenty of forms of entertainment so you shouldn't be bored anytime soon and if for some reason you are the beds are behind that door."
She looked over to where he was pointing and saw what looked like a small hallway.
"Understood." She says quietly and he just barely hears her. Not that he really cared. Based off of his current calculations he would be stuck with her for a year and a half and that included some worse case scenarios. The sooner he got her home the sooner he could return to the frontlines. He could care less what happened to her as long as she was healthy on arrival.
After confirming she understood he returns to the cockpit leaving her to her own devices. "He really does hate me." She mutters sitting on the couch and then pushing around the food in the container she had retrieved from the microwave. She was hoping that his anger would subside soon. She was terrified at the thought of him abandoning her somewhere. "I must be useful no matter what." She says to herself as she takes a small bite of her food. "Huh. This must be that dehydrated food the commoners eat. It's not that bad, I wouldn't complain about eating this." She mumbles taking another bite. She decides that currently the best she can do is let him work and try not to anger him anymore than he already is. So, she turned on the television and started flipping through all the channels.
A few days later nothing really changed. They were still in slip-space and unless it was important, he still made no effort to be friendly with her. She had been hoping that it was just because they weren't comfortable with each other but despite all of her efforts he still disregarded and ignored her. She spent most of her time in the common area watching movies or trying to game since she knew she wasn't welcome in the cockpit.
She basically had sleeping quarters to herself as well. The Major didn't trust her, being alone with the ship so he never really slept. However now that she thought about it, she never actually seen him sleep. According to her game logs they had been flying for five days and at no point could she recall him falling asleep. She would always enter the cockpit at random times and even then, he was always awake. She cups her chin in thought and sneaks over to the door. It hisses open and as expected he was running diagnostics on the ship and redirecting energy and fuel as needed.
"Um, excuse me Major. Would you like to take a nap or something? Even I can manage a ship for an hour or two." She offers tenderly but as expected she was immediately shot down.
"I'm fine. If I needed sleep, I would go to bed, wouldn't I?" He retorts looking over at her and she looks at the ground embarrassed of herself after hearing it worded that way. Of course he would sleep if he was tired. He was a living being after all. All living creatures slept eventually. He just hasn't felt exhausted yet.
"Ah, your right. You would do that huh?" She asks sadly and starts to turn around. Just as she opens the door, she's thrown off guard.
"Thank you for checking on me." He says. It was cold and dry but the gesture itself was more than enough to put a small smile on her face.
"Your welcome." She whispers walking out of the cockpit.
"Fuck. I'm tired as hell." He says rubbing his eyes after hearing the door close. He was surviving off of hour or so naps but now he was beginning to feel the effects of it. He looks down at the engine stats and frowns slightly. They were at 40% stability and 50% fuel which meant that soon they would have to leave slip-space and find either a planet, moon, or asteroid to land, so they could refuel and let the engines cool down.
It was three days later when Crystal felt the sudden lurch and drop in the pit of her stomach. She was lying on the couch reading a manga when she was suddenly pushed forward and backwards. It felt as though she was rapidly flung upwards and immediately downwards as she felt the high G's in her stomach. She had just gotten herself resituated and was getting ready to continue her manga when he came out of the cockpit and began telling her the current plan and his recommendation for her before it was executed.
"Princess, we'll be landing on the planet Bulla to refuel and give the engines a break. If you think you can handle the pressure and force of entering a planet surface, you're more than welcome to stay out there. If not, I highly recommend you buckling up. This will be a much bumpier ride than entering or exiting slip-space." He tells her and she nods. They still weren't on good terms, but she appreciated that he took out the time to care about her health.
"Understood. I am on my way." She says putting down her manga and following him back to the cockpit. She buckles herself in and once again puts in her mouthpiece. Once they get closer and get into view, she can only gasp in awe at the green and blue planet they were heading towards. She watches him input some commands and then the engine flares one more time and they lurch forward and at supersonic speeds begin racing towards the planet's surface.
Once they hit the atmosphere, she was so glad she had put in the mouthpiece. She might have really bitten off her tongue if she hadn't. The entire ship was shaking and violently rattling as they made the downwards approach. After roughly five minutes the rattling calms down and the engines cut off as they begin the now peaceful final descent. The princess was absolutely in awe as she was taking in all of the surroundings. The planet was breath taking. Luscious forests and mountains littered the surface. There was also various lakes, oceans, and rivers as well.
"I guess she is still a woman after all." Asus thinks to himself as he watches her in the mirror. A map of the planet populates on his HUD, and he decides to land in a clearing that was right next to a river. If he could use the planets water to cooldown the ship versus using their limited water supply while refilling it as well, he most definitely would. He once again fires up the engines and starts heading towards the landing zone.
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