Chương 49: Emergency Jump

Natalia went on to flip through several switches and buttons on the control panel. She found a tool box inside one corner of the battle craft and rummaged through it to search for tools to open the engine deck.

Then she recalled the exploded view of Raider 01 that Professor Tobias had shown them in the class in order to be able to locate the core engine as well as other components. She thoroughly checked the engine deck to look for the problem. But the technologies that this battle craft used were far too advanced for Natalia.

After tinkering around for a good half an hour, Natalia gave up and dusted her hands. Alexis who was watching every move of Natalia with her keen eyes finally broke the silence, "Well, did you find the problem? Why isn't it starting?"

Natalia now regretted for acting all high and mighty just a while ago and tried to brush off the question by beating around the bush. "Umm… I looked around at everything. The good news is everything is in its place, nothing is missing."

Alexis didn't still get the answer to her question so she shot a quizzical look at Natalia and asked again, "Er… okay, so what is the problem?"

Natalia laughed nervously and scratched her head, "That is the bad news. I…" Natalia struggled to say the next words but she finally blurted out, "…don't know."

But Alexis had hard time believing what Natalia had just said, "What do you mean you don't know? Didn't you say you were an expert regarding this battle craft?" She had a hard time believing it not just because Natalia had claimed to be an expert but also because she was actually very good at fixing crafts of several designs.

Natalia crossed her arms and defended herself. "Hey I never said I was an expert of this craft. I just said I was an expert… just not of this craft."

Alexis had high hopes from this little visit with her friend. She had thought that Natalia might have been able to fix the craft without having to involve anyone else.

She had great plans if they were able to fix the battle craft. Alexis was determined to sneak the battle craft out of the Dead Zone somehow and keep it for herself. But the news from Natalia made her day dreams go down the drain.

Alexis hummed for quite some time and asked, "So what do we do now?"

Natalia shrugged her shoulders and simply said, "Ask to the original expert, I guess."

"You mean Mr. Harper?" Alexis raised her brows and asked reluctantly.

"Yeah, let's ask him first." Natalia put her hand on her chin and thought for some time and then said, "If he is unable to fix this, then I know someone else who definitely will."

Alexis was not sure if it would be a right decision to let someone else know that they had found a battle craft in the Dead Zone. The decision to let other people know about their secret adventure into the restricted territory might be risky for both of their safety.

If words got out somehow and the government or the military knew about them or their secret path, then the outcome might be too dangerous for them to handle.

And it might be even more dangerous especially for Alexis because of her powers. She had thought of practicing to try to control her power, but she had not been able to do that yet. And during the process of giving punishment for trespassing, if the government was able to discover about the existence of Alexis's power, then one need not tell what they would do to her.

Seeing Alexis lost in her thoughts, Natalia nudged her and asked, "Hey, what are you thinking? You don't want to take help from others?"

Alexis nodded and replied, "Mhmm… I don't think letting others know about this craft would be a wise thing to do."

"Then we won't tell them that we actually found a craft. We will just make it sound like a hypothetical question. It should not be a problem then." Natalia looked at Alexis with expectant eyes.

"Well, if you can actually figure out the problem like that then, that's okay with me." Alexis smiled and sat down on the Captain's seat. Then she started to adore the seat.

Natalia glanced at her watch and exclaimed, "Lexi, it's already 6:45. We should get out of here before it gets dark."

Alexis's lips curled downwards because she was not ready to return back yet. "So what if it gets dark? We can spend some more time here; we don't have anything to do back at home anyway. And don't act like you are so scared of the dark, it does not suit you."

"I'm not scared of the dark but I am definitely scared of the dark plus forest. I don't want to encounter any creepy animals." Natalia started to tap her foot vigorously because of restlessness.

Alexis had never seen Natalia acting like this so she tried to calm her friend down. "I don't think there are any animals here. I didn't encounter any the last time I was here. And I'm still alive despite getting knocked out and spending the night in the middle of the forest. So I think it's safe to say that animals would not be a problem."

But seeing Natalia like that, Alexis didn't want to stay there for any longer. "But I think we better get out of here. There aren't any animals here but there are militaries around." She got up from the seat and dusted her uniform, "Let's go then."

Meanwhile, in one of the IGT Fed's base, an alarm was blaring. After about 10 seconds, a voice notified everyone in the base, "Voyager S-11 has just made an emergency jump into our base. I request all the firefighters and medical personnel to get to our hanger to assist them if necessary."

All the related staffs of that base were running here and there to make the necessary preparations. The firefighters were on standby out in the field and they were already inspecting the Voyager for any damages. Luckily, there was not a single scratch on the Voyager all because the crews were very quick to act and they were able to avoid a huge damage to their ship.

The Captain and the fighter squads were still inside the battle crafts when they had reached to the base. David let out a long sigh of relief and then finally got up from his seat.

Pilots of the battle crafts opened the door and the soldiers started to get out of the craft one by one with a sense of relief on their face. They were congratulating each other for successfully extracting the survivor and also for dodging the attack from unknown creatures.

The survivor from the Space Station X51 was however still shaken. She had lost all her crews, who were her colleagues as well as her good friends.

A while ago the survivor was glad to have been saved. But finally, the grief had started to set in and she could not control that overwhelming emotion. She finally broke down and began to cry her heart out inside the battle craft.

"All of my friends died. They killed all of them as if they were maggots. Those inhumane monsters…" She was cursing and wailing uncontrollably.

Sean was still sitting by her side and he felt very sorry for her. He couldn't think of a way to calm her down. If something similar had happened to all of his fellow soldiers then he was sure his condition would also have been the same.

The medical personnel rushed inside the battle craft to tend to the survivor. Captain David had informed them where she was and had asked them to take care of her. They immediately started to run preliminary tests on her.

Lieutenant Bowen had rushed out of the main cabin to check on the Captain. "Captain, I hope you didn't suffer any kind of injury."

Captain David walked outside of the Voyager to get some fresh air, followed closely by Bowen. "No, I am fine." He inhaled sharply and gave some details about what he witnessed in the rescue mission, "Whatever killed all those crews, they did not show any compassion. They butchered those poor souls mercilessly."

"They must have perceived the Station as a threat to their kind. I hope the Federation will be able to get through to them and make them understand that we mean no harm to them." Bowen was trying hard to suppress the urge to curse at those creatures and was trying to put himself in their shoes.

Colonel Amelia was the chief in-charge of that base. She came to see the situation outside and met with David and Bowen.

David and Bowen saluted the Colonel as soon as they saw her. David smiled and said, "I hope we didn't put much pressure on the base by dropping by."

Amelia smiled back and replied, "Oh, don't say that. It is our job to protect each other. It's nice to see you all safe and sound, except the crews of X51 of course."

"David, I need you to follow me to the briefing room." Amelia gestured with her head and said, "We need to prepare a report about the unfortunate incident and we need to ask a few questions to you as well."

"Of course" David nodded at Bowen in a 'look after everything here' sense and then followed the Colonel.

Colonel Amelia led David to the briefing room where a young man with emerald eyes was sitting in front of a huge desk. A holographic keyboard was glowing in front of that young man's face. As soon as Amelia entered the room with David, he got up from his seat and bowed his head slightly, "Colonel"

Amelia introduced David to the young man, "This is Captain David. I want you to take his detailed interview about the Space Station X51 rescue mission and prepare a report." She turned towards David and said, "David, I'll take a leave then. I will see you in a bit."

David nodded while the Colonel left the two of them in that room.

The young man extended his arm for a handshake and introduced himself, "Hello! Captain, I am Vorian Zadoc. Please have a seat."